13 Hebrews chapter 13 read the
first 15 verses let brotherly love continue Be not forgetful
to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares. Remember them that are in bonds,
as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being
yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Be content with such things as
you have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation,
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Be not
carried about with divers or divers in strange doctrines,
different doctrines, For it is a good thing that the heart be
established with grace, not with meats which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the
bodies of those beasts, those sacrifices that they brought
in, whose blood was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin, those beasts, their bodies were burned without the
Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify, make holy the
people of God, with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let
us, therefore, go forth, therefore, unto him, without the camp, bearing
his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise. to God continually, that is,
the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. All right,
let's look back here in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And I want to get my subject
down here out of verse 19. I mean, excuse me, 9, not 19,
9. be not carried about with divers
or diverse or different and strange doctrines. Here it is, for it
is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not
with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. The heart being a good thing
that the heart be established with grace. The apostle here
is exhorting these believers, these Hebrew Christians here
in chapter 13 to many, many wonderful and needful truths. All truth
is needful. But the first thing he exhorts
them to do is in verse one. He said, let brotherly love continue. Now, ain't that a good thing?
Ain't that a blessed thing? Let brotherly love continue.
Can we love too much? The scripture says, oh no man,
anything but to love. And when we get that debt paid,
you know when we'll get it paid? When we leave this world. We'll
never get that debt paid. We cannot love too much. We cannot
manifest love too much. It's impossible. It's impossible.
But he says, let it continue. You let brotherly love continue.
Don't let strife and envy and confusion and things like that
get in the way. Let brotherly love continue.
And then in verse three, look what else he says.
Remember them that are in bonds, people that are bound, bound
by troubles and heartaches and sorrows. And with them, we suffer
adversity, people that's got things against them, adverse
conditions, adverse health and all the things that could happen
to a person said remember them with suffer adversities as being
yourself also in the body like it's happening to you that you're
going through this thing so remember them because you have done it
you suffered in your body and you suffered in your mind so
you said he said you remember these people remember them that
when he says remember them have compassion be sympathetic because
we're all one in christ Then look what he says in down verse
5. Here's another thing he exhorts them to do. Good things, wonderful
things. So, let your conversation be
without covetousness. Don't talk about all that you
want all the time. I want this, I want that, I want
something else. And the covetousness is when
you have something that you covet set up inside of your mind and
desire more than other things and anything, the scripture says
that covetousness is idolatry. When you set something up in
the place of Christ that you got to have that thing, then
he says it's idolatry. So let your conversation, your
manner of life, that's what conversation means, be without covetousness
and be content with such things as you have. Let your character,
let your conduct be without covetousness. That's a good thing. And here's
the reason why, because no matter what happens in this life, whatever
you may have, He has said, I'll never leave you. If He said,
I'll never leave you, everything you've ever had in this world
leaves you. Everything's temporary, but He said, I'll never leave
you. I'm not temporary. I'll never leave you and I'll
never forsake you. And it tells that in five times,
it says it five times over. I'll never, no never, no never,
no never, Leave thee nor forsake thee. That's what that means.
He means us to understand that I ain't never gonna let you go.
I'm never gonna leave you. That's in here I said. But the
thing that I want to look at particularly, the good thing,
is to see and us to understand and believe it is this. In verse
nine, it's a good thing that the heart be established with
grace. The heart be established with
grace. You know God is the God of peace. He's the God of grace, He's the
God of peace, He's the God of decency, He's the God of order.
And here He instructs us to have our heart established with grace. And He tells us how it's accomplished.
How in the world can our hearts be established with grace? How
does it happen? How does our hearts become established? Made strong, where it won't be
moved. Established. Established in grace. Established in Christ. established
in truth. How does that happen? How does
God bring us to that place where our hearts are established with
grace? And all how many times are we exhorted to believe? How
many times are we exhorted to trust Christ and know that our
salvation is by grace? Well, here's how the first thing
that he does to bring us and teach us and instruct us that
our hearts be established with grace. He says in verse 7, Remember
them, which have the rule over you, have spoken unto you the
word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their
conversation. He said, this is how your heart's
established, remember. Remember them, and that word
rule means to guide, guide. It don't mean to rule over like
you have, that you have absolute authority or anything like that.
Those, remember them, and he says, remember them, that have
the rule over you, that are your guides. Remember they're calling. They're called of God. A man
doesn't take this office unto himself. Remember their office. It's an office it to have their
sinner saved by grace like anybody else, but they have been called
to a particular office and remember their responsibility or the responsibility
of Caring for a flock of God a sheep the sheep of God and
and seeing that they're taught seeing the instructor seeing
their prayed over seeing that you Their burdens and help them
with their troubles and help them with their heartaches and
help them with the things that goes on in their lives And remember
this, that they're pastors and teachers. That's what they're
called, pastors and teachers in Ephesians 4. And it says here,
rule over. Remember them that rule over
you. Now you all know this as well as I do, that in any society,
any group, in America, in Crossfield, in Cumberland County, any place
you go, there has to be rule. If you don't have rule, if you
don't have God, if you don't have government, you know what
you have? You have anarchy. You have every
man doing that which is right in his own eyes. if you don't
have rules and guides and government there's confusion and every man
does that which is right in his own eyes and that's why we have
government that's why we have rules that's why we have guides
that's why we have instructions you can't go get a driver's license
unless you do it the way they tell you to you can't do that
and that's what it says here said there's got to be somebody
to guide the church of God got to be somebody to guide and rule
the church of God that those who have uh that's that's gathered
here in this society this group of believers then look what else
he goes on to say who have spoken unto you the word of God remember
them and then remember this that they're the ones that spoken
unto you the word of God Now this is the way, now you listen
to me now, this is the way that they rule and guide. We don't
rule and guide and say now this is my way or the highway, that's
not the way it's done at all, never has been done that way.
But this is the way they rule and guide, by declaring, by teaching,
by instructing men and women from God's word. That's how we
rule, that's how we got, and listen, so if the preacher's
telling you what God said, then there's no argument, is there?
There's no debate about it, there's no dispute about it, and it's
not, and you know, it's the, and they instruct from God's
Word, and they're the ones that by God's blessed grace, they
reveal the will of God as it's made manifest in the scriptures.
They make plain the meaning of the scriptures. They take the
scriptures. I was talking to a man last night, and I told
him he wanted to come over today, and I said, well, I said, I go
to church. I said, I pastor a church, and
I won't be home till later this afternoon. He said, oh, I go
to church, too. He said, I went to this church for a while, and
that church for a while, and this church, and now I go to this
church. He said, you know, I learned in all the years I done. I started
learning something when I settled down. He says the man actually
takes the Bible and uses the Bible and shows me from the Bible.
And that's what men are supposed to do. That's what has blessed
my heart so much. When I started getting around
men who actually used the scriptures, didn't get up and read a verse
of scripture and go to hacking like a... going on like that, they started
using the Bible and instructed men from the Bible. They take
a blank canvas and when they got through, you saw what they
were teaching, what they were saying, and you saw clearly what
was going on. And that's why he says that's
how we guide the church, that's how the church is ruled. Oh my,
making known the meaning of the scriptures and this is the great
business that they have. Now, you keep Hebrews here and
go over here to 2 Timothy. Go to your left till you get
to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Chapter 3. Here's an illustration
of what I'm talking about. How that God uses the Scriptures.
That's how we rule. That's how we guide. Remember
Bruce Crabtree here is preaching one time and he says, you know,
somebody want to know if he'd counsel them. He said, only counsel
I'm going to do is from the Scriptures. I'm going to do it from the pulpit.
That don't mean that you don't sit down and talk with somebody.
That's not what it means. But if you won't take what God
says, and most people, when they want counseling, what they want
to do is to tell you their side of the story and not tell you
the other side of the story. But here we go. Here we go. Here,
look at what he says in verse 15, excuse me, 14, 2 Timothy
3, 14. Now this is Paul talking to Timothy. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou
hast learned them. Now he's talking about, listen
to this, that from a child, you learn some things. You've been
assured of whom you learned them from. That from a child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures. which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith that is in Christ." Now that's
what we're preaching. How to make men wise unto salvation
through faith that's in Christ Jesus. Now watch this. In all
Scripture, this is how you learn, Timothy. This is what you know,
Timothy. God taught you this, Timothy.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable first
for doctrine, profitable for reproof. If man don't have to
reprove another man, God will do it. If there's something wrong
in a person's life, God will reprove them. He'll reprove them
from the Word. And it's for correction. If a
man's wrong about something, he don't understand something,
he'll be corrected by the Scriptures. An instruction in righteousness,
what true righteousness is. And here's the reason being,
that the man of God, not the woman of God, not the woman of
God, that the man of God may be perfect, mature, throughly,
throughly furnished unto all good works. And that's what he
says. He said over in Ephesians 11,
he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers. What for? For the perfecting
of the saints, to make the saints grow up. that till we all come
in the unity of the faith, till every one of us believes exactly
the same thing. Well, God like that fellow, they
asked him, said, what do you believe? I believe what my preacher
believes. What does your preacher believe? He believes what I believe.
Well, what does you believe? He said, we both believe the
same thing. That's not the way we
are. But you all say that, well, I
believe what my preacher says. What does he say? What I believe,
what you both believe, we believe the same thing. Oh my, and look
what he goes on to say back over here in Hebrews 13. Oh my, that's
our great business is of studying the word and preaching this word
and giving the meaning of the scriptures. And then look what
else he says there in verse 13. Whose faith follow. Now what
does he mean by whose faith follow? This is how God establishes a
heart, whose faith follow. Well, faith means the act of
believing. We call on men to believe. Paul
told the Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. There's an act in believing.
There's a time you don't believe and then you believe. The act
of believing on Christ. And also it means not only follow
their faith, but the object of their faith, the object of their
mind, the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ is the object of our
mind, Christ is the object of our hearts, then that's what
we preach. And so he says, you follow their
faith, not only their act of believing, but also to follow
the fact that the object of their faith, which is the Lord Jesus
Christ, whom they talk about and set before their mind and
heart. And sometimes it also means follow their faith or follow
their faithfulness. How faithful are they in declaring
the Scriptures? How faithful are they in preaching
Christ? How faithful are they to the
Word of God? And here we could say all three,
whose faith follow? Whose faith follow? Oh, follow
them that were and are strong in faith. Follow them who give
all the glory to God. These people that are unshaken
in the doctrine of Christ. That's what he says, whose faith
follow. And here's the reason why, because he says down in
verse 9, be not carried about, don't be carried about by divers
in strange doctrines. Don't be carried about, follow
their faith. Don't change your creed, don't
change your faith, don't change your belief. And that's what
he's saying. That's why he says, remember
them that has to follow you. And what he's telling us is here,
beloved, is hold to the faith of your pastors and teachers
if they're preaching If they're telling you the truth, then you
know you follow them. You follow them. Follow their
faith. You know, I preached, was it last week or week before
last, I talked about Abraham being the father of us all. Romans
4.12 says this, we walk in the footsteps of that faith of our
father Abraham. Now we you know when you when
you say a big snow zone you see where somebody's walking you
see where they walk and you can follow in their footsteps well
what he's saying here is beloved you follow and we walk in the
footsteps of that faith of Abraham what Abraham do he believed God
What'd God do? He said, you're a righteous man.
So we're walking in those steps. And if a man's preaching the
gospel, you follow in the steps of the faith that they preach.
Not them, but the faith that they preach. And he said, oh
my, they continue steadfast in the truth of Christ. Steadfast
in the gospel. And look what it says. Whose
faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. What
does that mean? That means you consider how their
life's going to end. Is their life going to end like
it started in Christ? You follow their faith to the
end of their life or to the end of their doctrine and you wait
and see beloved one of these days the end of my life and that's
what conversation the end of my life is going to be just like
it started at in Christ and it's going to end well you follow
him to the very end and that's what he's talking about. Oh my,
let's go here again in 2nd Timothy 4.6. Here's what Timothy said
about it or Paul said to Timothy. Oh, remember the end of their
conversation, the manner of life. The end, the result. The end
of their life looks beyond this life. The end of their life looks
beyond this life. It looks into eternity. Do you
think for a minute that I've preached something to you that
I don't believe myself? That I'd tell you to trust Christ
if I don't trust Him myself? That I'd tell you to look to
the end of your life and trust Christ there? That's what He
says. You follow them to the end of their life into eternity
because that's what they're preaching. Eternal things. Not things of
time and sense. Eternal things. We're dealing
with eternal issues. A soul's an eternal soul. Life
is a long... Eternity's a long, long time. Eternity's a long time. And if
you don't trust Christ here, you won't trust Him there. If
you don't know Christ here, you won't know Him there. If you
don't believe Him here, you won't believe Him there. And if you
don't trust Him here, you won't be able to trust Him when life
is over. And eternity's too long for us not to know the truth
about these things. Eternity's too long for us not to believe
the gospel. Eternity's too long for us not
to hang our souls on the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Some
of you have lived a long time And now you look back on it,
it's just been like that. If you got to your age when it's
just a snap of a finger, just imagine what eternity is going
to be like. And I don't want to go into eternity. I'm remembering
the end of their conversation, remembering the fact that they're
going to trust their eternal souls to a living Savior, a Lord,
a God in heaven who saved them by grace. Huh? Oh my. And they continue steadfast
in their faith. I was thinking of the other day,
I started talking about the people that the Lord's, Maurice Montgomery.
Oh my, what a blessed man. Follow his life to the end of
it. You could follow his faith. You could believe what he said.
Scott Richardson, right to the end. Jack Shanks, right to the
end. Oh my, bless the Lord. Huh? Look what Paul said here in verse
six of 2 Timothy four. He said, I'm now ready to be
offered and the time of my departure is at hand. Oh my. I gotta, I
gotta, listen, I gotta get there. I'm fixing to leave here. I fought a good fight. I finished
my course and listen to this. I kept the faith. I kept the
faith. And that's what he's saying.
That's how God establishes our heart in grace. So back over
here in Hebrews 13, look what he goes on to say here. You know,
he says, now remember them, that which have the rule over you,
that guide you. They'd use the word of God. Remember your pastors,
remember your teachers, the teachers who've spoken the word of God
to you, follow their faith, considering the end, the manner of life.
This is one of the means God uses to establish our hearts
in grace. Here's another means that he
uses. Look in verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and
today and forever. Now that'll stab you in the heart. When you know that, you know,
Jesus Christ does not change. The Lord Jesus Christ never changes. His mind never changes. His will
never changes. His word never changes. His purpose
never changes. Nothing about Him ever changes.
Oh my, His mind is made known in His will, made known in His
word. He's the same. Now I'll tell you something,
beloved man, man will change. Man will change. If you get,
if some strong personality was to come along and convince you
of something, and you believe that man's opinion and he come
along with a strong personality and changed your mind about something,
then somebody with a stronger personality and more logic could
come along and change your mind again. But that's one thing about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Man's opinion changes, his ideas
change, his conviction change. They're always changing, but
Jesus Christ is always the same. You know, let me tell you something. You know, these Mennonites and
Amish and them, you know, they were so strict. And you can watch
them change as the years go by. You know, everything was all
dark brown and dark gray. Now they're a little bright colored.
You had to have a car that everything was black on it. Now they drive
big trucks with bumpers on them and, you know, they change. You know, not supposed to. Now
they got cell phones. They go on vacations to the beach. But they trusted their holiness
is in how they dress but everybody moves their peg Your pegs over
here, and if you say this is it right here your pegs gonna
move but one thing you cannot move your peg from and Drive
it down just as hard as you can get it Jesus Christ is the same
today yesterday and forever We're going to change, but he don't Oh my oh Yesterday the same truth
that we believe now was the same truth We believe yesterday and
if God lets us live we believe that truth today We believe Christ
today and if God lets us live we'll trust Christ tomorrow because
he is ever the same We can go up we can go down we can be up
high and we can be depressed We can have a we feel wonderful
physically one day and the next day. We just can't hardly move
But Jesus Christ is always the same no matter what goes on in
our hearts and lives. Right? The same truth, the same
doctrines. And that's why he says today
it's the same truth. The same salvation. You know
salvation never changes. It never has changed. We have
the same salvation that Abel had. He had a blood shedding. He had a lamb. We have a lamb. We have the same salvation that
Abraham has. God called him out of darkness
into his marvelous light. God gave him a promise. God gave
us a promise. We have the same salvation as
every Old Testament saint had. And then look what all is today.
Is it the same truth? But he says in forever. You know
how long forever is? That's a long time. You said,
I ain't never, ever gonna do that again. No, wait a minute.
Don't say that, but one thing you can say, he's forever the
same. Oh my, his doctrine, his truth
is never variable, never variable, never changes. He ever lives,
and His love for His people, His care for His people never
changes. Men live and they die, and we
love so many people that lived, and we loved them dearly, and
we love them even that they're gone, and we love them, and we
think of them, and we care for them, and we highly regard them,
and men come and men go. But our Lord Jesus Christ always
is forever the same. And that's why when we go into
eternity, He's going to be just exactly what we thought He was
while we was here. Huh? That's why we go, if we
enjoy Him that much here, imagine how much we're going to enjoy
Him when we get there. You know, when we get there,
He's going to be just exactly what we said He was. Huh? Oh, look what He says, Jesus
Christ the same. And that's what establishes our
hearts in grace. This is what we preach. Let Christ
be the same to you yesterday, today, and forever. Because He
never changes. He's the same in Himself. He
is the same in Himself. He is both God and man. He never
changes. He's both God and man. And I
tell you what else doesn't it? His doctrine is always true.
Always true. His promises are sure. All the
promises of God in Him are yea and amen. His promises are sure. And you know what? His laws,
you know the law that He gave us more than any other law He
gave us? By this shall all men know you're
my disciples because you love one another. A new commandment
I give unto you that you love one another even as I've loved
you. That's a wonderful law, ain't it? That's wise and that's
good, and oh, they never change. And beloved, we've embraced him
as our savior, we've embraced him as our teacher, we've embraced
him as our lord, and why should we ever abandon him? And then
look what he says in verse 9. So this is how God establishes
us in grace, by the guides and people preaching the word of
God. preaching Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and
forever. And then he says, be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines. Now, there's lots of different
doctrines out there, lots of different doctrines. And he says,
now, when you come, carried about means, as you know, like, it
means to be moved about, moved here, moved yonder. Well, is
this right, or is that right, or is this other thing right?
that's why he says don't be carried about with divers and strange
doctrines and you know it's the strange doctrines that's plural
that's plural the lord jesus christ is the same nothing different
about him so anything that's different concerning christ anything
that's foreign concerning christ Anything like that is against
the gospel. So if you hear anything other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, it's strange. Strange doctrines. And
what makes it strange? It's strange to the scriptures.
It's strange to the doctrines that we've been taught. It's
strange to the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. It's
strange to the glory and honor of God. I'm going to give you
a history lesson if you all don't mind. Now, anything goes. You take Pentecostals, Unitarians,
Jehovah's Witnesses, Nazarenes, Kemalites, you can go back to
specific points in history, specific times when every one of those
people began to exist, when their doctrine started. You can go
back and find out when Kemalites started. You can go back and
find out when Pentecostalism started. You can go back and
find out who started Jehovah's Witnesses. You can go back and
find out who started the Nazarenes, who started the Method. You go
back in history and find out just when these people, who was
it that started it, who started preaching, and who started teaching.
But I'll tell you what, the one thing you go in the Bible and
you won't, you'll find where the gospel started, where Christ
started. Now you say, you listen to me,
I'll tell you, that's why people say, well Calvinism started back
in such a The Bible's always taught the free grace of God.
Call it whatever you want to. I call it the gospel's always
been the same. That's why Jesus Christ is always
the same. And that's why it says don't
be carried about by this. Don't be carried about by speaking
in tongues and washing your sins away with water. Don't be carried
about with you know that I've got to live this kind of life
and that kind of life. Don't be carried about here and
there and unsettled in your mind, unsettled in your character.
He says try the spirits whether they be of God and he says you
know strange doctrines. Now let me tell you something,
truth is a perfect unit. You know and let me ask you all
this, You've been listening to me preach for a long time. Do
you see the whole of the scriptures now? Do you see how that the
whole Bible goes together? It don't, it's not a, it's not
Genesis stands by itself and Exodus, all these things, the
whole Bible, you see it from Genesis to Revelation and you
see the message of the whole Bible and how it's just one unit,
that it's one set of truth all the way through. Y'all know that's
so. And truth is a perfect unit.
Error, when you find error, there's lots and lots of errors. But
we believe in one faith, one Lord, one baptism. And when the
scriptures preach and speak of truth, it's always doctrine. Not doctrines, doctrine. Singular. He that is of God, heareth God's
doctrine. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
is. The doctrine of Christ is what he talks about. And whenever
error is referred to, whenever errors are referred to, it's
always plural. It's called the doctrines of
devils. It's called the doctrines of men. It's called the strange
doctrines. It's always plural. Truth is
always singular. It stands by itself. Truth begins
and ends with God. All right, now look down verse
9. Be not carried about now. Oh, don't be tossed here and
yonder and unsettled in your mind. And there's been times,
you know, there's been times that I remember when I was learning
the gospel. And there's times when some of
you always learned the gospel, you'd be unsettled. Is that the
truth? Because I know I've believed this all these years, and I've
done that all these years, and I've trusted in this all these
years. So when you hear these things, it kind of unsettles
you. But when God brings you to see truth and sets by itself,
That's it! That's it! I see it! How could
I ever be way out there? Listen, it's easy to believe
we're way out yonder. And if God in grace hadn't went
out there and got us and brought us over here, we'd still be way
out yonder. Wouldn't we? All right, he said
it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace. Oh
my, established with grace, not with meats. What does he mean
with meats? That means whatever you eat or drink or do anything
like that, don't let your life be governed by your flesh and
what you do. He said, your heart be established
with grace. Oh, be established in the truth
of grace, truth of grace. Oh my, you've heard me say this
so many times when people say, I believe in grace, but they
don't believe in grace. You do not put a butt on grace,
you just don't do it. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. What is it? It's the gift of
God, not earned. And oh my, be heart established
in the truth of grace. And let me tell you what else,
start established in sovereign grace. That grace reigns, that
God is sovereign. He gives grace to whom he will.
He saves whom He will. He gave Christ for a particular
people and sovereign grace. That means, beloved, God gives
it to whom He will. He's the one who has the grace.
We don't have it. He's got it. If we get it, He's
got to give it to us. If we possess it, he's got to
give it to us. If we have it in our hearts,
he's got to put it. If we know it in our minds, he's
got to teach us. If we believe it, he's the one
that teaches it. If we're saved by it, he's the
one who saved us by it, huh? And oh my, here's another way,
free, free grace, free grace. That's my favorite word for it,
free grace. That tells you that everything
we have is free. How do you get grace? He gives
it to you. Why does he give it to you? Because
you ain't got none. What do you give for it? Nothing.
He gives it to you free. And you know what? You get up
in the morning, he's going to give you some more. You go to bed at night,
he's going to give you some more. He ain't going to give it to
you every day. Free, free, free, free, free. Oh, my. And all established here
with grace is the opposite of being carried about. And all,
he says, the grace of Christ. Let me tell you something. He
said, let your heart be established with eternal grace. Grace is
eternal. It was given to us in Christ
before the world began. And once we got it, we ain't
never going to lose it. Electing grace. God chose us
in Christ before the foundation arose. Establishing grace. Grace that makes you stand. and
makes you firm and makes you believe and makes you a man and
makes you a woman that brings your life and everything to the
glory of God. Oh my. Enabling grace. Oh, how we need enabling grace.
Enable us to live to the glory, enable us to keep our flesh. We need grace to enable us to
live day in and day out. Enable us. Enable us to go through
trials. Oh, grace undeserved, grace unsought,
grace born in the heart of God. A covenant of grace. Look in
verse 20 here of Hebrews 13. Oh, born in the heart of God,
grace was. And it's a covenant of grace.
This is what he says now. Hebrews 13, 20. Now the God of
peace. Oh, what a wonderful God. God
of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. that great shepherd of the sheep. How did he do it? Brought him
from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
You shed your blood, you as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, you're slain in time and you took your blood
and entered once into the holy place and you obtained that eternal
redemption for us. And then look what he says here
now. This is what the heart established in grace. Make you perfect in
every good work. Oh my, make you perfect in every
good work. And listen to this, to do his
will. Oh my, I said, I want to do the will of God. He said,
you're going to do my will. I'm going to work in you both
the will and the do. And working in you, that's well
pleasing in his sight. How does he do it? Through Jesus
Christ, who's the same today, yesterday, and forever. Oh my,
what a gospel. Heart be established with grace.
And oh listen, he says, established with grace. The gospel is grace.
It's called the gospel of grace. And what is the gospel of grace?
It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And not only that,
but not only is the gospel of grace, but He puts grace in us
because He chose us in grace. I want you to turn over to your
right and look here in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 10. Look
here. Look here at this. You see, we're not under law,
but we're under grace. Look what he said here about
God, the God of all grace. But the God of all grace, but
the God of all grace, all graces of God comes from God who hath
called us by His grace, called us. And listen to this, unto
what? His eternal glory. Oh my, we're
going beyond this. First Peter 5.10, called us unto
His eternal glory, the glory of God. The glory we're gonna
share with Christ. By Christ Jesus. Now listen to
this. We're gonna go into eternal glory.
God called us to this and the God of grace did it. But this
is what you gotta go through before you get there. And that's
why our hearts must be established with grace. After that, you've
suffered a while. Oh, we're gonna suffer. Make
you perfect. Now listen to this. Establish
you, strengthen you, and make you settle down in the grace
of God. Listen to this, to Him be glory
and all dominion forever and ever. Oh, you see, God not only
gives grace for us, but gives grace in us. And I tell you what
grace does, when our heart is established with grace, it affects
what we say. It affects our speech. It affects
our speech. It affects our walk, how we live
in this world. It affects our life. It affects
our life every single day. It affects our relationships.
Grace affects our relationships, don't it? Oh, how it affects
our relationships. It affects our relationships
with our... brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our
children and our grandchildren, and it especially affects our
relationship with one another. How in the world could so many
people with so many different personalities, with so many likes
and dislikes, so many different natures and so many different
opinions about so many things, ever be got together in one place
like this and all believe the same thing? It affects our relationships. oh my it affects our heart and
oh my and then he goes on to say oh we have an altar we have
an altar we can go to Christ our altar Christ our altar and
I tell you men that want to be occupied with meats and men that
want to be occupied with the sanctuary and it'll never profit
them it'll never profit we have an altar And if anybody's got
any works, anybody got any law, anybody got anything but grace,
they got no right to that altar. Because whatever they do ain't
gonna profit them. May our hearts be established with grace. That's
a good thing, ain't it? That's a good thing. Oh, blessed
Father, gracious Father in heaven, God of all grace, Lord, your
word so instructs me, helps me. I pray that it helps those who've
gathered out here today. Lord, that's what we desire,
to grow in grace, have our hearts established in grace, to be strong
in the grace of God, to be strong in the faith, what we believe,
not wavering, never wavering, never back up. God help us please
to bring glory to you. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for your precious, precious, amazing grace. Thank you for
the precious blood of Christ who suffered without the camp,
who suffered on that cross. Thank you Lord that you raised
him again and you work in us. You work in us and continue to
work in us. Oh God, we want you to work in
us. We want you to work in us. And
Lord, bless these dear saints as they go their ways to their
homes, whatever they do. Preserve them and keep them going
in and going out. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name.