Christ to me, Christ to me, Christ
to me, Christ to me. Gave me a life eternal, may I
live forever with thee. Death certainly does put things
in perspective, doesn't it? Or it ought to. Death certainly
does make what we're doing right now of the utmost importance,
doesn't it? Consideration of death ought
to cause us to exhort one another so much more as we see the day
approaching. day of Christ's return, either to this earth or when
he comes to get us personally. Brother Bill Clark is not an
old man, younger than some here tonight, and near the same age
as others. It is an unexpected thing, but a thing we should expect. Well, Hebrews 13, now another
passage full of warnings and promises, warnings and promises,
warnings and promises. Do you see that if you read this,
if you've read this? Do you see how many warnings
and promises and warnings and promises? Chapter 13 is like a collection
of proverbs. Each verse really could stand
by itself. Things to consider here. He says
two or three times, we need to remember, be not forgetful. Remember
this, remember that, be not forgetful. Things to consider things to
put into practice, and be not forgetful. May the Lord keep
us from being forgetful hearers. Well, let's begin back up in
chapter 12, because God didn't write this with a chapter division
here. This was not written in chapters
and verses. So we need to begin with verse
8 to 28. Chapter 12, verse 28 says, Let
us, wherefore we receive in a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly Let us have
the grace. And we ought to pray that way,
shouldn't we? Lord, let us have grace. Give
us grace. Give us more grace that we may
serve God acceptably. That is, from the heart. Worship
God in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. Lord, let us have the grace to
really worship. Lord, let us worship. Let us
worship from the heart, and not be as
so many others who draw near with their lips. The heart is
far from us. Give us the grace to serve God
acceptably. And this is acceptable. From
the heart and truth in Christ. The Spirit that is from the heart
and truth in Christ. And we noted this morning how
that serving God acceptably and pleasingly is serving others. Isn't that what Christ said?
He said, you've done it to one of these, you've done it to me.
You want to serve me? He says, serve them. And he showed us
the example. That's what he did. He came down. How did he serve God? By being
a servant. He took upon himself the form
of a servant to his brethren. He said, if I have done this,
the master, what about you slaves? So that's how we serve acceptably.
He says in verse twenty-nine, Our God is a consuming fire.
Our God is a consuming fire. Everything, listen, what a sobering
verse of Scripture this year. And this is not just written
to Armenians, but it's not written at all to Armenians. It's written
to us. It says, Our God is a consuming
fire. Everything and everyone that
is of no service to God, he's going to burn them. Everything and everyone who is
of no service to him, to his glory, to his cause, to his son,
to his church, will burn it up like dross, away with that dross,
and will retain the gold. So you see here how he started
that way, and we continue that way in verse 1 of chapter 13,
so he says, Let brotherly love continue. Let brotherly love continue. Why does he place so much emphasis? Why do the scriptures place so
much emphasis on love? Our Lord does, doesn't he? The
Lord Jesus Christ spoke of it often to his disciples. John, you know, the beloved disciple
John, who was closer to Christ than anyone else, perhaps. He
spoke often of it, didn't he? The whole first epistle is concerning
him. Why? Because love, Christ said,
is the fulfillment of the law. All the law is fulfilled in this
one word. Love to God takes in the first four commandments.
Love to our neighbor, the next city, and all else and all others. Because why does he put so much
emphasis on love? Because it's the royal law of
Christ. Christ said, A new commandment
I give unto you. Here's a new one. It's really not a new one
at all. It's the same which you heard
from the beginning. Love your brother. Love. It's the royal
law of Christ. Why so much emphasis? Because
whatever he says unto us, we better do it. We better do it.
It's not an option. And he said, this is the one
who loves me, is the one that keeps my commandment. And so
he said, this is my commandment. And he loved one another. It's the evidence, the evidence
of a true child of God. He said, by this shall all men
know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
You see how important it is? The fulfillment of the law. It's
the royal law of Christ, the commandment of Christ. It's the
greatest evidence of a true disciple, and on and on we go. And I tell
you this, it's so pleasant. Let brotherly love continue.
Oh, it will. It's going to. Through all eternity, and nothing's
going to stop it. Nothing's going to dampen it. That's right, God says in Proverbs
16, that the one he hates so much is he that soweth discord
among the brethren. He says, Let brotherly love continue. Listen to this, Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. How
good and pleasant it is. It's like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts of his garment." And what a verse of Scripture
that speaks of Christ there in his church, and the love that
flowed down from God upon the head down to the skirts of his
garment, his body. You know, love, true love, real
love now, the love of Christ is what's going to make heaven
such a lovely place. That's going to dwell righteousness
there, and love, real love. None of this fake stuff, real
love. That's what makes the Church
a lovely place now, true love, unfeigned love. He says, let
it continue. Why does he say that? Why does he say, let it continue? Because we can certainly prevent. Can't we? Each of us. Talking
to myself. We can certainly, by in many
ways, we try our best to stop it. Our unlovely and selfish
natures, we try to stop it. It's very easy to prevent it. It's very easy to throw a wrench
in it. Isn't it? Huh? This is what he
means by quench, not spirit. It's to come in, it's to be in
any attitude that dampens this, which God has ordained, this
love and this fellowship, which makes it all so sweet. And if
we come in sour, we've been a fly in the ointment. Right? God hates it. He hates
it. So what he says is, let it continue.
You remember us reading? Let's provoke one another unto
love. Let it continue. Provoke to love. Nurture love. Love has to be
nurtured. It has to be worked on, doesn't
it? It's not a natural thing. It's
a very unnatural affection to us, this love of God. It's a
gift, and it's a thing we have to grow
in, doesn't it? and grow, you have to feed it. Anything that
grows, you have to feed it. Nurture it with love. Let it continue,
fervently, Peter said. Look at the next proverb. Now,
that's just four words there. We could sure carry on with that,
couldn't we? Let brotherly love continue.
Don't stop it. Nurture it. Further it along. Do what you can to provoke it. or God will be ripped apart. Next time, be not forgetful to
entertain strangers. For thereby some have entertained
angels unaware. Be not forgetful. Don't forget now, he said, don't
forget. You remember this, entertain
strangers. The word is Hospitality, given
to hospitality. Be hospitable. Remember to be
hospitable. Now, some, I dare say, need to
learn this from the very first. You can't forget what you haven't
learned to begin with. Right? Be not forgetful. Well, some need to learn this
right now. They haven't learned it. And
the rest of us, or whoever, we need to remember. We need to
remember. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers. A stranger. Now, we don't see
many strangers in this little town. They just don't pass by
our way. They just don't come out at the
ridge, just not very often do. Several
of us live out dead-end roads, you know. They just don't stop
in. They don't come in here. We don't
have very many visitors. But a stranger now is somebody
you really don't know, isn't it? Isn't that a stranger, somebody
you don't know? Well, you know I venture to say
that there's some in this very room that you really don't know. Huh? Isn't that so? You don't
really know somebody until you really get to know them, until
you get around them, entertain them. Uh-huh. He says here, some have entertained
angels in the way. So he says, be not forgetful
to entertain strangers. Now, this ought not to be, you
know, that there are any strangers in our midst. My, my. It ought not to be. We're family.
There's no way that we should be strange to one another, strange
to one another's doors, strange to one another's table. It should
not be. These things ought not to be
named once among them as it becometh saints. My, my. Give unto hospitality. Be not
forgetful. If he tells us to entertain strangers, what about the family? What about
the brethren? We need this. Just be not forgetful. Remember this. Some, he says,
have entertained angels unawares. Now, he's alluding to Abraham,
I believe. The angels came. He didn't know
they were angels when he first saw them. Do you remember three
men came walking up, and he went out to meet them and said, Hey,
come on in. Let me fix you something. It
was the Lord himself. He was talking about entertaining
an angel. The angel of the Lord was who
it was. Lot did the same thing. Locke apparently lived in a pretty
poor place, pretty poor circumstances, but he sure didn't forget to
entertain the fellows that he met, and he was saved by them. Well, I've said this before, we've
entertained angels and we're fully aware of it. We've had
many an angel, fully aware of it. I'm so glad that the family
in here tonight were able to entertain that angel from Ireland
and his lovely Scottish wife. I'm just so sorry that the rest
of you missed out. You know, I hesitate to say this,
but the scriptures does, down in verse 7. He says, Remember
them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God, who have told you this. Now, don't listen to
a man who doesn't practice what he tells you to do. Don't listen
to him. But if he does, then you do it. There's not anybody in this room
who hasn't been in our home more than a few times. And if you
haven't, it's not our fault because we've invited you and you didn't
show up. I'm not bragging and I don't
do it because I'm supposed to because I love you. You're my
family and I want to have you over. But do you know that to some,
I've been here ten years, and to some I've never been in their
house. It's unbelievable isn't it? And if the pastor hasn't
been, I know good and well others haven't been. And that's a, it's
a crying shame. Be not forgetful. To entertain. That's why we have these homages. That's the only reason we have
these homages. Well, look at verse 3. It says,
and I'll just say it, these are warnings, warnings, warnings.
Our God is a consuming fire. So let us serve God acceptably
with reverence and Godly fear. Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Oh, you'll entertain
an angel. Try it. You'll entertain an angel. You'll
be the blessed one, guaranteed. Verse 3. It says, Remember them
that are in bonds has bound with them. Think of them that are
in bonds. Now, this was written at a time
when there were many persecuted and actually literally bound
in prison for the gospel sake. The apostle Paul himself wrote
it. And like I said, there were many
at this time who were in prison. You remember Samuel one time
said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease
him to pray for my brethren. How could I forget? And Paul
here admonishes us in saying, remember them that are bound.
I mean, are we free? Are we living in Are we living
in relative ease? Are we living in relative happiness
and prosperity? Well, remember, we better remember
in prayer, we better think upon, we better remember with our gifts
and our helps and our support, them that are suffering for the
gospel sake. Well, at least we did, didn't we? You say, are there anyone
like that now? man we just spoke of, he literally
gave his life in the service of the gospel. He was a sick
man, attribute his ill health to how he treated and punished
his body for the sake of the gospel. He contracted malaria years and
years and years ago and went right back into those places
where he got it. He got it again. When he was in Ashland the last
time, he was laid in a bed for seven days with malaria again. It flared up on him. He couldn't move. He was laid
there trembling in a cold sweat all week. But as soon as he got well, he
went to Africa. And there are others, Walter
Gruber, Cody Gruber, there are others, those men in Mexico,
the men in Africa that Bill was so concerned about himself, even
in his time of affliction. Those men, men and women, these
Indian men, I remember them that are in bonds. He said, Remember,
we're not in bonds. We're not in trouble. We're at ease. Let us not be
totally at ease in Zion. Look at this, as long as there
are some who suffer, He says, Remember them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also. That's it, the body. One member
of the body suffers, so does the rest, right? Whenever this hand suffers, the
whole body suffers, right? If my thumb even, a little member,
suffers, the rest of my body dopes on it, thinks on it, works
on it. I need this. Remember, remember,
remember. Well, as one suffers, the rest
suffer. Let's remember that. Let's not
be so selfish. Warning, warning, warning. Now
look at verse 4. And you wonder why this is there. Why is this in the middle of
it? Seems out of place, doesn't it?
It's not out of place. It's not out of place. Any remembrance
of this is not out of place. Any more than verse 8 is out
of place. Why was that there? Oh, my! You have to ask. Why is this
here? Well, look at it. Verse 4. Marriage
is honorable in all. Marriage is honorable Well, he's just spoken of love, service, entertaining, thinking
on or remembering others. What better place to start than in your own marriage, huh? If it's not there, it sure won't
be nowhere else. Somebody once said, and rightfully
so, if you want to know if a man is a believer or not, ask his
wife. So having spoke of love and service
and entertainment and thinking of others, ask yourself, what
about my marriage? Clean the inside of the cup. clean the inside of the cup,
and the outside take care of itself. And he's not just referring
to washing dishes, although that would be a good place to start.
I hear an amen, ladies. You know what I'm saying. Take
care of the inside where it starts, in the home, and the outside
will spill over. loving, caring husband, believing
husband, that is, will be a hospitable, caring member of the Church and
vice versa. He says it's an honorable thing.
Marriage is an honorable thing. I remember writing this in my
wife's Bible that I bought her when we first got married. I still feel the same way. In
Proverbs 18, it says this, verse 22, "...whoso findeth a wife," and I mean wife, "...findeth a good thing, and
obtaineth favor of the Lord." I mean a wife, right, Henry?
I hear an amen, Henry. John, Job, who so fine as a wife
obtained the favor of the Lord, highly favored, honored, been
highly honored. You know, I don't know of one
believing woman, one woman that I truly have confidence in, and
she's a believer who doesn't give every evidence of being
a good wife. You just think about the ladies
in this very congregation. I can't think of a woman, I really
can't, whom I have some confidence in, that they know and love Christ,
who's not a good wife. Now, you women, you're not agreeing
with me, I know that, and you shouldn't agree with me. You
should think yourselves to be less than the least of wives.
But really, men, can you think of one? And why I'm talking about wives
is because I'm not going to talk about husbands. Why do we have problems in marriage
when it's such an honorable thing? I'm talking about those who are
married in the Lord. Now, there are those who are married to
unbelievers, and it's a difficult, difficult, terrible trial. It's just tough. I'm talking
about those who are married in the Lord. All right? Believers.
All right? Remember that. Why do we have
problems? And we do. Huh? Don't we? Sure we do. Why? Sin. Sin. Not in them, but in us. That woman you gave me, she's
the problem, all right? No. When I say sin, I mean self,
my sinful self. That's the problem. Things not
going smoothly, we ought to look no further than ourselves. Look over at Ephesians 5 with
me. You probably knew I was going
to turn there. Ephesians 5. Why does he place so much emphasis
on marriage? Why in the middle of this do
you say marriage is honorable? Huh? Why? I asked you the question,
why does he place so much emphasis on love? Well, why does he place so much
emphasis on marriage? I'm going to show you. Because it's such a type of the
union of Christ and the believer. It's the greatest of types. I'm
going to show you that from the scripture. And this union requires faithfulness,
love, communion, service. And isn't it significant? Isn't it significant? And isn't
it indicative of modern religion and modern society that marriage
is So failing. Did you understand what I just
said? Isn't it indicative of modern religion? Since marriage
is such a type of Christ in the union, then it goes without saying
that all these marriages are failing to that. Because there's
not much true religion. Right? But let it not be so with
us. Look at Ephesians 5, and again
I'm just addressing the men. Addressing myself, verse 25,
"'Husband, love your wife.' How? Even as Christ also loved the
Church and gave himself for it.'" Not his paycheck, but himself. Verse 28, "'Men ought to love
their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but he nourishes
and cherishes it, dotes on it, tends to it, spends a lot of
time on it. even as the Lord and the Church. We are members
of his body, of his flesh, of his bones, and for this cause,
now here it is, here is the mystery, for this cause shall a man, this
is the cause, this is the cause of Christ, this is what makes
marriage so honorable, and a man leave his father and mother and
shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, and I speak concerning Christ and
the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of
you in particular so love his wife even as himself." Why? See that she referenced her husband.
Why the men more than the women? Because does not Christ have
the greater responsibility of faithfulness to us? He sure
does. Is he? He sure is. But we are to be faithful to
him. Arthur Pink. You've got to hear this, okay?
This is wonderful. Brother Pink was so gifted. This is straight from his commentary
on Hebrews 13, here in verse 4. Marriage is honorable. He said marriage is honorable
because God has placed special honor upon it. All other ordinances
were appointed of God by the medium or the means of men and
angels. But marriage, God did it. God appointed it in the Garden. Marriage was ordained immediately
by the Lord himself for the first wife and her husband. Divine
honor was put upon it more so than all the other divine institutions. God solemnized it himself. It
was the first ordinance God instituted. Yes, the first thing he did after
man and woman were created, the first thing he did was marry
them, join them together. And the place, he said, think
about the place where he instituted it, the Garden of Eden itself, And isn't there going to be another
marriage in paradise between the second Adam and his
bride? It was God's crowning creative
act when he made the woman and presented her to the man. Listen
to this. I never thought about this. He
said, at the close of every creative day, God said it was good. But when Adam was made, he explicitly
said It's not good that man should be alone. And so he said the creative work
was not complete. Even the animals and the plants
had their mates. And so a helpmate, a mate, should be found for Adam.
And he presented her to him. And God said, That's very good. It's all very good. That's a
picture of Christ in the church. God the Father honored the institution
of marriage, and as also he did, God the Son did. God the Son
put great honor upon it. First, he was born of a woman, a married woman. He wasn't an illegitimate child.
She was a married woman. He was born of a married woman
under the institution of holy matrimony. Secondly, his first
miracle was performed where? Where did Christ choose to perform
his first miracle? A wedding. What he did was turn
the water into wine, and Pink said that he did that in proving
that if you marry in the Lord, it will be a joyous occasion. he'll turn water into wine. Thirdly, by his parables he placed
great honor upon marriage. He compared the kingdom of God
to marriage. And he compared holiness or righteousness
to a wedding garment. And his The Pharisees tried to
ensnare him on the subject of divorce. That's typical, isn't
it? They brought up divorce. He said,
what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. There
ain't no divorce in God's marriage he ordained. And the institution
of marriage is further honored by the Holy Spirit. It's a figure
of the union between Christ and his Church. So the relationship
that exists between the Redeemer and all of his redeemed is likened
again and again unto a wedded man and a woman. Christ is the
husband, the Church is the wife. And he says, he even says this,
"'I am turn, O backsliding children,' saith the Lord, for I am married
to you.'" Marriage is honorable. He that hath a wife, a believing
wife, he or she, she that hath a believing husband, is highly
honored by God. Now, don't take it for granted
that some who wish they had, some who wish they had a believing
husband and wife. He that hath hath obtained faith,
it's honorable. Don't take her for granted. The
grass is not greener. And this is the next thing. Look
at it here. He says in chapter 13, verse
7, marriage is honorable but be it undefiled. The marriage
act itself is undefiled. It's holy in God's sight. And
it is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful picture
of the new birth. I wish we had time to look into
it. And the whole song of Solomon is about Christ making love to
his wife. A new birth. Well, but he says
this now, he warns this, poor mongers and adulterers God will
judge. Poor mongers and adulterers God
will judge. You know, a man doesn't need
to look any further to prove his own depravity than right
here. If he can't be loved and be faithful to the one woman
God has given him and highly honored him, if he can't be faithful in that
which is least, how in the world is he going to be faithful in
faith? Young people, you remember this.
Whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Our God is a
consuming fire. Remember that. Warnings, warnings,
warnings. All right, verse 5. He says,
Now let your conversation be without covetousness. Let your
conversation be without covetousness. Who needs this? Anybody in here
need this, or do we just go on? He says, let your life, which
is your conversation, don't be a covetous person, and let your
conversation or your very communication or your very talk be without covetousness. He says
over in Colossians, he says, set your affection on things
above, not on things on If we truly, as he said, those in Hebrews
11 that desired a better country, if they had been mindful of Egypt,
they would have gone back. But they weren't. They desired
a better country. If we do, too, if we desire a better country,
we're not always talking about Egypt. Are we? I don't know. Thinking on things above. And
look at this. He says, So be content. with
such things as you have. My goodness, I guess we could
use a little more stuff. I don't know. You need more stuff? We got a lot of stuff. How, why
would we want more? Well, let's be content with such
things as you have. Be content. Why should we be
content? For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee." If Christ is all of us, and we have all things,
don't we? If Christ is all we need, if
Christ is all we desire, then we certainly ought to be content
with such things as we have. And he said, I'll never leave
you, I'm your portion. Abraham, it's the lot of every believer that they get
in this state every now and then. Look at Lot. He's got the well-watered
plant. Well, look at Lot. He's got Sodom. What do I get? Well, you're not going to dwell
in Sodom. Is that where you want to dwell, Abraham? Sodom? Let
me tell you about Sodom. I'm going to burn up Sodom. You're
going to live in the mountain with me, you ain't going to burn."
Abraham, I tell you what, you're getting me. He wants Sodom? He has Sodom. And what Sodom
gets. You see the irony in that? Lord,
he gave Lot Sodom. We don't see it far off, do we?
Look what he got. Oh, look what he just about got.
Well, look what I get. Yes, look what you get. Look
what you get. I am thy exceeding great reward. We'll see someday. When we know
as we've been known, we'll see. We'll know we got it all. When
we got Christ, we got it all. The rest of it's just gravy. Look at this, let me go on, I've
got to hurry. He says, that's the promise, isn't it?
He said, I'll never leave thee. He's been warning us, now he
gives us the blessed promise. You have all you need, you have
Christ who's all things to you, and he says, I'll never leave
you. You'll never lose Christ. It's certain you're going to
lose something. You're going to lose everything. It's certain.
You're going to lose your health. That's absolutely certain. That's
just absolutely certain, isn't it? It's certain. It's not, if
I get sick, it's when. That car, that house, decay and
change and decay and all around, I see. Oh, thou who changest
not, abide with me. You're going to lose your life,
will you? This life, yes. You're going
to lose your husband. It's a sad time. It's not something
easy at all. It's a certain fact. If you don't
go before him, Roberta, if you all don't go together, you're
going to lose that man. It's going to be tough. But have
you lost your husband? No. No. Well, he has said, I'll
never leave. Your maker is your husband, he
said. And since he's his husband too,
you're going to see him again. Because to him again, you're
going to be out of God forever. And you'll not even remember
the time that you were separated. As sad as it will be, you're
not even going to remember it. It's not even going to come to
mind. What a promise. What a promise. All right, look at this next
promise here. He says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is
my helper. Now, I will not fear. what man
shall do to me, whatever comes, I will not fear, and may boldly
say, The Lord is my helper, if indeed we know this, that all
things work together for good to them that love God."
That's how it starts, doesn't it, Jeanette? It says, And we
know. Well, if we do know this, then this verse will work together
for our good. If we know that all things work
together. Even evil. God said in Isaiah 45, verse
7, He said, I create peace, I make evil, I the Lord do all these
things. I kill, I make alive, I the Lord do all these things.
If we know that, that all things work together for good, and if
we know it's the Lord, we'll bless His name and He'll bless
us. Just like Job. The Lord gave
it to him, bless the Lord. The Lord took it away, bless
the Lord. He could boldly say, well, the
Lord's my helper. He said he'll never leave me.
I'll not fear what man shall do unto me. David could say that. Although it be not so with my
house, yet God hath made with me. I can boldly say, God is
my helper. I'll not fear what man can do
unto me." Think about this. All things
work together for good. We know this. We believe this.
We'll not fear what man can do unto us. Well, he'll break in
your house and steal your stuff. Well, the insurance will probably
pay for it, but you lose a little stuff. And we'll miss it probably until
a while. Well, they'll break in and steal your stuff, but
that would just show us the vanity of it, wouldn't it? Wouldn't
that just show us, didn't Christ tell us that? Thieves will break
in and steal, moths, that's corrupt, rust. Destruction just shows
us the brevity of things. Illness, sickness shows us the
weakness of the flesh. Death shows us, well, it issues
us into glory. That sure can't hurt us. Death can't hurt us. Oh, death,
where is thy sting? It's victory. It's not defeat, it's absolute
final victory. Death, don't fear it. Fear not
him that killeth the body. Deprivation make us cling to