a blessing. Let's go to the book of Hebrews,
chapter 13. As you are quite aware, I'm sure,
the book of Hebrews sets forth the fact that our Lord Jesus
is infinitely superior to everyone and everything. And it is a book written to those
who profess faith in the Lord Jesus, originally to the Hebrew
believers, in order to set before them the
fact that the covenant of grace is much better than that old
covenant and the sacrifice of Christ much better than those
Old Testament sacrifices. The priesthood of our Lord Jesus
is much better than the priesthood of Aaron. His was a temporary priesthood. Our Lord has a priesthood after
the order of Melchizedek, the scripture says. He's set forth
in the book of Hebrews as that one who is the prophet, who is
infinitely greater than Moses. And over and over, the writer
of the Hebrews, whoever it was, and it doesn't really matter
who the author was, he sets before us the fact that the Lord Jesus
is, he is most wonderful. And as he gets to the last chapter,
And he continues writing to those who see that the Lord Jesus Christ
is, he is our prophet, he is our priest, and he is our king. And these are instructions that
he gives, final words to the Hebrews. And these are given
to people who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is not a legalistic
portion of scripture. The Lord, by His Spirit, He works
within us and He gives us new desires. He gives us new wants. He gives us a new attitude. He
gives us the Spirit of Grace who is our comforter. The Spirit
teaches us in our journey through this life. And as he gives these
words to the Hebrew people, he also gives them to us. Those
of us who believe the Lord Jesus Christ. But this must be established
first. Are you a believer? Are you one who's resting all
of your soul's salvation in Christ and him crucified? We're not
among those who believe that you work for your salvation or
that you must be baptized to wash your sins away. We're not
among those who insist that we must make some contribution to
God for our salvation. We must draw near to Him and
then He will, in response, draw near to us in salvation. We're
not among those who believe that. We believe that salvation is
all of grace. And the book of God is written
to people who believe that salvation is all of grace. And it's all
in Christ Jesus. Susanna just sang for us, I should
have been crucified. But the Lord Jesus, He died in
our stead. In our stead. This is the beautiful,
wonderful doctrine of the gospel of God's grace. Substitution
and satisfaction. I ought to have died. You ought
to have died. We all ought to have died forever
for the wages of sin is death. But the Lord Jesus, He came and
He took our place. He died our death. He answered
to God for every offense that we'd committed against the Lord.
And they were all laid on him as one great big mass. And our Lord Jesus bore them
away. And for those who believe this glorious gospel of substitution
and satisfaction in this last chapter of Hebrews, especially
the first portion of the chapter, we have some final words of instruction. He begins, and I started on this
last Lord's Day morning, and so permit me to review just a
little bit. He says in verse one, let brotherly
love continue. Now, indeed, we're to love all
men. We're to love our enemies. It's easy to love those who are
who like us, who say nice things to us, but we're instructed to
love those who are our enemies. But we're also instructed to
love to let brotherly love continue. What is brotherly love? It's
a love of the family. We're the family of God. We're
born of the same Spirit. We're born of the same incorruptible
incorruptible seed, that is the word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. We have the same Father. Those
of us who have been birthed into the kingdom of God, and you must
be born again, it's what the Savior said, we've been born
again by the same Father, by the same word, and we have the
same interest, we have the same Lord, We love the same Savior. We adore the same gospel. We stand for the same beliefs,
for the very same truth. We're brethren in the Lord Jesus. And he says, let brotherly love
continue. It doesn't just begin now, it
continues. And as it continues, it is to
grow and it is to mature. After all, we've been loved of
the Lord. He shed his love abroad in our
hearts. And if we can't love the brethren,
brethren that we can see, the scripture says, then how can
you say you love God whom you haven't seen? This is an evidence
of the work of the Spirit of God in us. It's a work evidence
of the fruit of the Spirit because the very first one listed in
Galatians chapter five is Love. Let brotherly love continue. And then he says in the second
verse, he gives us a call to be a hospitable people. When he says here, be not forgetful
to entertain strangers, let's understand this. I got to thinking
about this this week, and I think this needs to be said. He's still
speaking about the brotherhood. He is not saying, now, whenever
somebody you don't know knocks on your door and they need a
place to stay, then you're obligated to open up your house and let
them stay there. That's not what he's saying at all. He's talking
about the love of the brotherhood, and really he's still emphasizing
the fact of love. Our love for the brotherhood
would lead us, it ought to lead us, whenever somebody comes along
who is also a brother or sister in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
should show hospitality to them. Because they're the family of
God. Our Lord Jesus has done the same
work for them that he did for us. And so when they come by
to see us or we see them here, we have visitors with us who
love the same gospel, we're to embrace them, we're to pray for
them, we're to welcome them. And we're to do those things
that enable people to have an easier
life if we can. That's what it means to show
hospitality. And it says here that, don't
be forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares. Abraham did. Abraham entertained
strangers and he found out there were angels. One of them was
the angel of the covenant. One of them was the Lord Jesus
himself. Lot did. And I'll tell you a
couple of other guys who did, and you might not think about
this when I was looking over these notes again this morning.
In Luke chapter 24, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, there
was someone who to them was a stranger. Asked them what had happened.
Are you new in this area? Don't you know what's happened?
And of course, the Savior said to them, O fools and slow of
heart, to believe all things that are written in the prophets
concerning Messiah, concerning Christ, ought not he to have
suffered these things and then enter into his glory? And then
he made out like he was gonna leave. They said, don't leave,
abide with us. And we sing that song, 75. Abide
with us, that's what they said, abide with us. And they put food
before him. And he broke the bread and thanked
God for it. And the scripture then says,
the eyes of their understanding were open. That's when they knew
who he was. Even when he instructed them
out of the scriptures, they didn't know who he was. It wasn't until
he broke the bread and he thanked God for the bread, then the eyes
of their understanding was open. And you know what they realize
then? We're entertaining a stranger. An angel unaware, a man who we
thought was a stranger. And he's the angel, he's the
messenger of the covenant. He's the very son of God. So
here in this last chapter, he says, show hospitality. You don't
know who you might be entertaining. You don't know who might be welcomed
in your house. You don't know who it might be
that you're embracing in love and in fellowship. And then he
says in the third verse, he gives a call to us to be concerned
about those who suffer. Remember those that are in bonds
as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being
yourselves also in the body. Remember those who have afflictions,
Remember those who are in bonds. And I'm sure back in those days,
he's talking about those who are in bonds, in prison for preaching
the gospel, in prison for loving Christ and loving the message
of redemption. But you know, this goes beyond
that. Love those who are in the bonds
of affliction today. Love them, remember them, remember
them in prayer. Be mindful of them. There are
people tonight, there are people in the kingdom of God, people
who are our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, who are suffering. Remember them. They're in the
bonds of illness. They're in the bonds of affliction.
There are those who are in the bonds of old age. There are those who are in the
bonds of bodily weakness. And so he says, remember these,
remember these. As though you were bound with
them. And them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body. And then he speaks about
marriage. And this is a call to purity. To purity. May God enable us
to Be a folks who are moral. And you know, I said last Lord's
Day and I'll say it again. I know the world has their idea,
anything goes. But in the kingdom of God, we're
respectful of the relationships that God has ordained. And the
oldest one revealed in the book of Genesis is the relationship,
the union of a man and a woman in marriage. And this is a beautiful
picture of Christ Jesus and his church. In fact, several times
in the scriptures, we see this likeness of a man and a woman
united in the bonds of marriage being typical of Christ and his
people. So we read in Ephesians chapter
four, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it. This is a union that God has
ordained. And so this is what he's speaking
about. Marriage is honorable in all. In the world, it's dishonorable
now. And in the world, the marriage
bonds can be broken for any reason, and a good many people don't
even acknowledge the need of marriage. But God's people do. God's people do. Because we know
that, as it says here, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. And then he says this in verse
five. He tells us to avoid covetousness and to learn contentment. He says, let your conversation,
what does that mean? Let your manner of living, let
your behavior, your everyday living behavior, Let it be without
covetousness because covetousness is idolatry. Do you know that?
That's why our Lord Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount says
a man can't serve two masters. He serve God or serve mammon,
serve the things of the world. Man can't serve both of them.
And to serve the things of the world is idolatry because it's
to put them above God. So it says, let your conversation,
let your behavior, as the people of God, as people who love Christ,
as those who look like Abraham for a better country, as those
who, just like Abraham, we seek a city that hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God, as the very people of God, let's
let our behavior be without covetousness, and rather, Be content. Be content with such things as
you have. Here's both a negative and a
very positive admonition. Let your conversation be without
covetousness, and here's the positive, and be content with
such things as you have. Avoid the vice of covetousness
And may God help us to cultivate the virtue of contentment. Now, what is contentment? Well, it's more than a fatalistic
attitude toward the Lord, as in, well, this is my lot in life. I can't do anything about it.
So I just gotta live with it. That's just a fatalistic indifference. That's not real contentment. I think contentment is this,
a God-honoring, peaceful composure of the mind and of the heart
as to the circumstances and as to the things that we have in
this life. It is a resting in Christ Jesus,
recognizing that He does all things well. That's contentment. And if we're truly content, we'll
be satisfied with whatever portion He allots us. We're content with
His providence. It's absolutely evil to murmur
against the providence of God. Let's don't be dissatisfied with
our lot. Let's submit our wills to the
good pleasure of God. Say whatever God brings to pass
in our lives, say it is the Lord who loves me. It is the Lord
who chose me. It is the Lord who redeemed me. I'll rejoice in His will and
we seek to rejoice in His will. Solomon said, trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. But discontentment is to lean
on your own understanding. You and I don't have the understanding
of the real issues of life to know what's best for us. We just
don't have that knowledge. We don't have that kind of wisdom.
Only our gracious Heavenly Father does. And real contentment is
to bow to His will and say, Lord, I know You love me with an everlasting
love. And though this, whatever it
is, may be a thorn in my side, yet I bow to Your will. And maybe
I don't have all the things that I feel like I ought to have,
but I've got all the things that you deem necessary for me. And
let's learn contentment then. I read, Benjamin Franklin said
this. I got a book, got a bunch of
quotes in it on various subjects. And I read a bunch of them, but
this one stood out to me about Benjamin Franklin. He said, contentment
makes poor men rich. Discontentment makes rich men
poor. That's a pretty good statement. Pretty good statement. In one
of his sermons, Charles Spurgeon spoke of an older woman who lived
alone in her little cottage. She had nothing to eat but a
piece of bread and a little bit of water. And Mr. Spurgeon said she lifted
up her hands in a blessing to God before she ate. And she said,
Lord, what? All of this and Christ Jesus
too. I tell you, we're blessed, folks.
We're blessed with so many mercies. You think of all the infinite
spiritual mercies and blessings that God has given us in forgiveness
and righteousness, acceptance and divine guidance and leadership,
the presence of the Holy Spirit. And then he's given us some physical
things too. Isn't that wonderful? Let's don't be guilty of grumbling. I came across this passage. Look
at 1 Timothy chapter 6. You know, back when the New Testament
was written especially, but this is true in the Old Testament
as well, they did have slavery. men and women were owned by others. Maybe they'd gotten into debt
for whatever reason, and so they became legally owned by a master. And here in 1 Timothy chapter
6, the apostle Paul writes to Timothy, And he says to this
young preacher, in giving instructions to him, and he was to give instructions
to the people of God in his congregation, he says in 1 Timothy chapter
six and verse one, let as many servants as are under the yoke
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine
be not blasphemed. You know what he's saying to
servants? Be content. Be content. That would be a difficult situation
in which to find contentment. But He says, He says, let those
who are in this kind of situation, let them count their own masters
worthy of all honor. And here's the reason. And here's
the reason, the reason why discontentment is bad. Because when you're discontented,
usually you speak about it. You see, it's one thing if you're
discontented in your mind, and you think it, it's still wrong,
but doesn't hurt anybody else. But here's our problem. When
we're discontented and speak about it, here's what happens. The name of God is blasphemed,
and the doctrine of God is blasphemed. And this is why Paul writes,
he tells Timothy, listen, you tell the servants in your congregation. They have masters and they're
never taught to overthrow their masters. They're never taught
to go marching somewhere, march against this kind of servitude. They're never taught to do that.
What they are taught to do is this, honor your master. For this reason, and this is
a reason to be contented in all things, certainly be contented
in your heart and in your mind, but also show contentment before
others that the doctrine of God, the name of God and His doctrine
be not blasphemed. If we speak about the sufficiency
of the grace of God, God is sovereign in all things, and then He brings
us into a trial, into some tribulation, and then we bad mouth God's providence,
we blaspheme His name, and we blaspheme His doctrine. And people
will say of us, they talk about grace over there. But I tell
you what, when they have a real trial, Where is that grace? And so, here in the book of Hebrews
chapter 13, we're taught contentment. Contentment. And then he says,
here's the reason. Go back to Hebrews 13 verse five. For he hath said, for God hath
said, and he says this to his little ones. He says this to his children. For he hath said, what has he
said? He has said, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. That's why we should be contented.
And do you remember Paul wrote to the church at Philippi? And
he said, I have learned in whatsoever state I'm in, whatever the circumstances
that I'm in, I've learned to be content. How could he say
that? What was the basis of him saying
that? He had absolute confidence. God
put him where he was. Well, where was he? In prison. Because the book of Philippians
is one of the prison epistles. And I know he had some liberty
to receive guests and visitors and that sort of thing. He had
the liberty to preach, but he wasn't at liberty to leave. He
was in prison. And we should be contented remembering
that the Lord will never leave us because he says in verse six,
so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. And I will
not fear what man shall do unto me. And then in verse seven,
quickly says, remember them that have the rule over you. He's
talking about preachers who have spoken unto you the word of God. Follow their faith. considering
the end of their conversation, considering the end of their
ministry. What is the goal of a man's ministry? What is my goal for you? I want
you to know God. I had a call several years ago. I was pastoring in Rocky Mountain,
and this person on the other end of the line said, I just
wanted to ask you, what are you doing for your young people at
the church? I was just about fed up here with all the programs
that all the local churches had for the kids and keep them busy
doing this, that, and something else. And I said, I'll tell you
what we're trying to do over here at Central Baptist Church.
We're trying to keep them out of hell. Is that okay? Oh! Hung up the phone. What are your
programs? What kind of entertainment do
you have? We're preaching the gospel to the kids. Our kids
in Sunday school, they're hearing the truth. They're hearing the
Word of God. We have dedicated, committed
teachers who take the kids at a very early age and set before
them the Word of God. The gospel of the grace of God.
They don't water it down. They give it out to them, and
as they go along through the Sunday school classes, we're
all teaching the same truth. That's what we're doing for our
children. That's what we're doing for all of our people. And remember
those who do teach the Word of God. Remember them in prayer. Whose faith followed, considering
the end of their conversation. The goal of our teachers here,
the goal of this elder, the goal of this preacher, is that you
know God. That's what I want. That's what
we want. We want you to know God. We want you to know Jesus
Christ. And you can't know God except
through Christ. God reveals Himself in, through
and by His Son. This is our goal that you know
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what we want. Because
if you don't know Him, whatever else you know counts for nothing. You die in your sins without
Christ Jesus. That's our goal. So remember
those who are teaching the Word of God. Remember their goal. He wants you to be saved. That's
what I want. I want you to be saved. That's
why our message is in verse 8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today and forever. The word is the immutability
of Jesus Christ. Immutability, which just means
He doesn't change. He doesn't change. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He was our Savior yesterday.
He's our Savior today. He'll be our Savior forever.
He's our Shepherd yesterday. He's our Shepherd now. He'll
be our Shepherd forever. He is our surety of the covenant
of grace. Back yonder yesterday. He's the
surety today. He's the surety forever. He's
the same. He's the same. And then he says
in verse 9, don't be carried about by different kinds of doctrines,
strange doctrines he calls them. But it's a good thing, he says,
that the heart be established with grace. Grace. Those of you who believe the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, be firm in your commitment to
this message. It's the only way of truth. It
is the only gospel. And don't be carried away by
these other things that you hear. And the only way not to be carried
away by divers and unusual, strange doctrines is to be established
in the grace of God. He said it's a good thing that
the heart be established with grace. Because as you're established,
every little wind of doctrine that blows won't blow you around. Be diligent about the things
of God. I know that God's people will
be preserved, preserved by the Lord, And the evidence of that
is that we persevere. What does that mean, Jim? We just keep on believing. As
it says in Job, the righteous shall hold on their way. You see, we're warned about leaving
the gospel of Christ. We're warned about that. Solomon
said in Proverbs 26, 11, as a dog returneth to his vomit, so a
fool returneth to his folly. And I'll tell you something,
unless the Lord preserves us, unless He keeps us, we will return
to our foolishness. We will return. We'll go back.
Do you love singing the song, Come Thou Fount? It's a great
hymn. The last verse says, prone to
wonder. Lord, I feel it. I feel it. And then it goes on,
prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart. Take my heart. Take it and seal it. And what
the songwriter is saying is, Lord, if you don't keep me, I'll
just wander away. It would be like Demas. The Apostle
Paul, he's spoken about Demas before, and then he says in 2
Timothy chapter 4, he said, Demas hath forsaken me. Man, I thought
he was a preacher with you. He was. But he's forsaken me. He's forsaken me for this evil
world. The Lord's got to keep us. He's
got to keep us. He's got to preserve us. Turn
to 2 Peter, and I'll give you this, and it's about as far as
I'm going to get tonight. But look at 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter
2. And look at verse 15. Remember, the instruction is,
be established in grace. Don't be blown around by every
wind of doctrine, every kind of strange doctrine. Don't let
them unsettle you. And don't be, you know, over
here and then over there. Be established in grace. Be established
in the gospel. The way of life. See, there's
one gospel, many false gospels, but just one true gospel. Notice
what it says here. Peter's talking about those who
made some kind of profession, then they left. He says in chapter
2 and verse 15, which have forsaken the right way and gone astray.
You know anybody who's done that? I know some people who've forsaken
the right way and they've gone astray. How come I haven't forsaken
the right way and gone astray? There's one reason. And there's
one reason why you haven't forsaken the right way and gone astray.
He's kept you. He's kept you. Don't you ever
take credit for anything pertaining to your salvation. Not the election,
not the redemption, and not the keeping either. You say, oh,
I'm keeping on for Jesus. The Lord Jesus is keeping you.
He's keeping you. If he took his hand off you,
you'd be just like Demas, and so would I. Or we'd be like a
Judas. We'd actually betray him. The scripture says there's one
way to God, and Christ is the way. Of fools it says there's a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. That's such an important statement
that Solomon makes it twice in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs
14.12 and Proverbs 16.25. Drop down verse 20. Still talking about these people
who've made professions. For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world, that is through outward reformation,
They've escaped the devices, the pollutions of the world through
the knowledge or the acknowledgement. They have acknowledged verbally
and in their minds the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then
they become tangled, entangled therein again and overcome. The latter ending is worse than
it was from the beginning. It says, for if after they have
escaped, And I'll tell you who I think about on this. And I'll
give you this and I'll quit. I think about Lot's wife. You remember the story in the
book of Genesis, how the Lord was gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah
and the cities of the plains for their perversions and their
immorality. And actually the book of Ezekiel
says their number one sin was pride. But there was one of God's people
in Sodom and Gomorrah. His name was Lot. The scripture
says, in fact, it's here in 2 Peter, he was a righteous man. He was
a just man. He is a justified man, justified
by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And God wouldn't let
him perish with the wicked. And angels went to him and said,
escape, escape. And the scripture says, while
he lingered, while he lingered, the angels took hold of Lot,
took hold of his hand, took hold the hand of his wife, and took
hold the hands of his daughters. And then they went. They went
out of the cities. And the scripture says, listen
to this, it came to pass, When they had brought them forth,
these angels had brought Lot, Mrs. Lot, and the two Lot girls. It came to pass when they had
brought them forth abroad that he said, the messenger said,
escape for your life. And don't look behind you, neither
stay thou here in the plains. That's kind of a key word there.
Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And you know what? They got out
of Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plains, and the scripture
says God was destroying all that. And I'll tell you, if we'd have
been watching, we'd have said, they've escaped. Yeah, there's
a lot. There's his wife. There's his
girls. They've escaped. Because the
judgment of God is back behind them. It just looked like she escaped.
But the Lord had said, don't you look back. Don't you look
back. And they was out of harm's way,
so it seemed. and all the fine brimstones back
behind them. And she turned around and looked
back. Because where your treasure is,
that's where your heart is. Her heart's back in Sodom. And
just like that, God turned her into a pillar of salt. And she
stands as a beacon to this very day, don't you turn around and
look back what's behind. Where is safety? Escape, listen,
to the mountain. Escape to the mountain. That's
what the messenger of God said. Escape to the mountain. And the
only place of escape is a mountain called Calvary. There isn't any
safety anywhere else except in the place of substitution, except
in that place where Jesus Christ gave His life a ransom for sinners. Don't go back. Don't look back.
Don't look back with a longing heart. Well, I kind of wish Isaiah's
a bigger church, there's more excitement, more things going
on. Don't you look back. Don't you
look back. Let me read the rest of this.
Look at verse 21. For it had been better for those
who go back, it had been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness. That's what this way is. This
one way is the way of righteousness. Righteousness freely imputed. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. It had been
better for them not to have even known the way of righteousness,
than after they had known, to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. To turn from the word of the
gospel. But it happened unto them, according to the true proverb,
the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that
was washed to her wallowing in the mire. God help us be established
in grace. Lord, just keep me in the Word,
keep me in the Gospel, keep me ever looking to Jesus Christ,
and don't let me stray. Like the psalmist said, keep
me as the apple of your eye. Keep me.