And let's continue to walk through
it. There is instruction here, but
let us not forget that this instruction comes because of the gospel,
because of our justification, because of redemption, because
of the grace of God. Therefore, let us learn. Let us love. So as we look at this text tonight,
let's just go through and pick up where we left off last week
and talk about some of these things in context. Paul is saying now because of
grace, and there's a reason that Paul does this, this is something
that Paul does in all of his writings, he makes much of grace,
he makes much of the gospel to such a degree that when he gets
to the instruction, It's almost like an afterthought. Have you
noticed that? You know, Paul gets the end of his letters,
he goes, oh yeah, well I've got you on the phone, let me tell you a
few things I need you to deal with, I need you to work on, I need you to
understand, I need you to correct. Because he doesn't want to write
these letters in such a place that especially Jewish people
would confuse the idea of instruction with a means to justification. So we've had 12 long chapters
explaining and recapitulating and expounding and expanding
the gospel of free and sovereign grace. We've seen the finished
work of Jesus as our sufficient hope and we've learned that faith
alone which is resting, resting, resting in the promises of God
through Christ is a work of God. He has been gracious to show
us this and to cause us to believe it. And we are not coming to a place
where we are condemned. We are not coming to a place
where we are going to be judged by our Father. So therefore,
because we are coming to the place of celebration, let us
celebrate now. Let us live a life according
to the gospel this day. Let's not wait to enjoy the riches
of grace and glorification. Let's live amongst the people
of God together now. So in verse 13 when he says,
let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality
to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.
Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them
and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body.
Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage
bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and
adulterous. Keep your life free from the
love of money and be content with what you have for He has
said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently
say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man
do to me. Remember your leaders, those
who spoke to you the word of God. consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be led away by
diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart
to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited
those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those
who serve the tent have no right to eat, for the bodies of those
Animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high
priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
So also Jesus suffered outside the camp, outside the gate, in
order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore
let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he
endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the
city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually
offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of
lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and
to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit
to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those
who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and
not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray
for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring
to act honorably in all things, and I urge you the more earnestly
to do this in order that I may be restored to you sooner. Now may the God of peace who
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd
of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you
with everything good that you may do his will working in us
that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then there's a final
appeal there. To bear with my word of exhortation
for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother
Timothy has been released with whom I shall see you if he comes
soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints, those who
come from Italy, send greetings as well. Grace be with you all.
So here is how Paul closes this phenomenal teaching. For the
occasion of this frustrated people, fearful people, people who were
being socially condemned and neglected and ostracized because
of their solid faith, granted to them as a gift from the Lord
himself, so that they may rest in the sufficiency of Christ.
And if you notice that Paul sandwiches in between this, I mean you think
about verses chapter 12 up through the end of chapter 12 and then
the first six verses of chapter 13, and then we see over in verse
17 and 18 talking about being submissive to the leadership
and do it with a good heart, don't groan and complain, pray
for us, and so on and so forth. We look forward to seeing you.
We long to be with you. We can't wait to be face to face,
but until then, the God of peace is with us all. You notice that
there's very little instruction. Yet, when you think about the
letter to the Hebrews, and you hear people talk about it, like
if you just come up in casual conversation with a cultural
Christian, and you mention Hebrews, there's always three or four
things that come out of their mouth. Oh yes, the warning passages,
Hebrews 6, oh yes, very dangerous. Oh, Hebrews 10, watch out, watch
out. He's talking about two sentences. And then, they'll get to Hebrews
13. Obey your leaders. Chip, chop,
chip. Obey your leaders. There's always something to do.
There's always someone focusing on what obedience looks like
without the 80% of this text being in the context of that
request, of those commandments. And so Paul, even in the closing
of this letter, he sandwiches these little teachings in the
midst of great pictures. And I'll stab a few places and
then we'll go back and we'll pick it up in order. But in verse
7 it says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word
of God. So now all of a sudden he puts
an emphasis on brotherly love, being hospitable, being kind,
being gentle, being patient, giving of oneself, understanding
the gospel, understanding the purity of marriage, understanding
purity of the marriage bed, understanding, greed, and all of this, and being
content, and he says all these things in just a few words, and
then he says, remember your leaders, who spoke to you the word of
God. So he then very quickly moves the emphasis back on the
teaching of Christ. Back on the teaching of Christ.
But yet we love, why? Because it is what our flesh
does. We love to emphasize and burrow into these instructions. The same thing with the book
of James. A lot of people like to burrow into the instruction.
They like to take the pretext, paint it on the wall, frame it,
and say, oh yeah, look here, you know, you don't have work,
so you have no real faith. You're lost, but that's not the
sense there. We're not looking at lost and
saved. We're looking at saved people receiving a letter to
learn to hold fast to that which they have been taught Not that
which they do not know, but that which they have been taught so
that they can endure the persecution, the suffering, the shame, the
isolation, the cost of resting in the gospel. Of resting in
the gospel. And while we rest together, beloved,
it's just human nature, we rest together, there's always gonna
be something that can set off a mess, right? Why? Because we're
together. That's the whole problem with
humanity. When we get together, even under a banner of some type
of unity, no matter what it is, there's always a high probability,
if not an impossibility, that it won't happen. There's a high
probability that somebody's gonna be upset with somebody else.
Somebody's not gonna like something that's going on with or about
someone else and vice versa. So we have to learn to live together. We have to learn to listen. We
have to learn to speak. We have to learn to be patient.
We have to learn. I can deal with almost any problem
in the world that I've already been given the wisdom to deal
with and that's not saying much. I'm just saying there's very
few things that shock me anymore. Somebody comes up and says, hey,
did you hear about this? No, it doesn't surprise me. There's
nothing new under the sun, but I'll tell you what, I've never
been given the grace to be able to mitigate. And that is when
people refuse to rest in the gospel and listen to one another. If they refuse to listen and
they refuse to have intimate conversations with long suffering,
With the gospel being the foundation of their hope, I don't know what
to do. Do we plead? Do we argue? Do
we debate? Do we pay them? Would you just
please be quiet? Here's $100. Could I get 10 minutes? I mean, you know, everybody's
like, yeah, I'll be quiet for 10 minutes. But it doesn't work. Nothing works. I don't know how
to deal with people who cannot listen. And I don't think the scripture
teaches us how to deal with it. I think the scripture tells us
to quit throwing pearls and dust off our sandals. Because the
scripture is replete with this instruction in many different
ways and in many different contexts. Contexts, what did I just say? Anyway, in many different contexts
that if people won't listen to the apostles, They're not going
to listen to us. If people aren't going to listen
to the prophets, they're not going to listen to us. You see that? Jesus tells that,
right? In that parable. If you just send my brother back
from the dead. If you just send this man back
from the dead to my brother, you know. No. Peter even said,
it was a few weeks ago, we were talking about some intimacy with
the body of Christ. Peter said in his second epistle
that we do well to pay attention to the prophets. that they were
not creating new ways of thinking and new stories and myths and
legends and all of this thing but they were just by the Spirit
professing that which God had shown them directly as witnesses
to His glory that perfectly attests to the testimony of the prophets
through whom God spoke. So this is the instruction. If
someone doesn't want to listen to the scripture There is nothing
that we can give them. Nothing. Nothing. If, the warning passages we see
there, if someone has stepped away from what the scripture
teaches concerning the witness of God the Father about His Son
Jesus Christ and they refused to hear this testimony, there
is nothing left for them. There is no, what does he say?
There is no sacrifice for their sins. It's not inference, logic,
philosophy, debate, argue. We can't get into the court of
law of God and argue our case and he goes, you know what? You're
wrong, but I see your point. I give you a pass. No, it's either
in Christ or it's not. So that we who are in Christ
have a high calling to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.
And that starts and ends with our intimacy together. How we
treat, relate, speak, deal with, and prepare our lives to be given
to each other. And that's what he's saying.
Let brotherly love continue. But he doesn't harp on it, does
he? Even John in his first epistle that we've gone through over
the year, over about a year, we see that he teaches about
love and love and love, but he sandwiches it so, he sprinkles
it ever so lightly into the gospel because it is the gospel, the
love of God for his elect, through the Son that keeps us at attention. that keeps our focus on that
which is pure and righteous and good and holy. So that when we
relate to one another, we're looking through the glass of
grace. Rather, through our own hearts,
minds, feelings, and ideas. And he does the same thing here.
Remember those who spoke the word of God to you. Think about
what they've taught. Think about how they live. And
most of all, think about how they hold fast to Christ, and
what they've taught you, and what they're teaching you. Brotherly love. We approached
some of these last week. Verse 2, do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers. Now, I have to talk about this,
and we're going to be in this in some weeks, not anytime soon,
but in some weeks coming in 2 John on Sunday morning. We're going
to deal with hospitality. Now, when we think of hospitality
in our day, we think of putting out the dishes and putting out
the ice cubes and opening up the doors, and, hey, let's sit
a while and talk a while and have something to drink and have
something to snack on, or let's have a meal, or let's go do something. Let's engage and entertain. Well,
hospitality is not entertaining. That's sort of like a bougie
type issue that we've dealt with since the 1930s and 40s, 50s,
and it's not a biblical hospitality. Hospitality is not how we can
showcase our talents in entertaining our guests. Hospitality simply
is this, taking care of the physical and financial needs of those
in need. Taking care of the physical needs,
financial needs of those who need it. Taking care of it. Show
hospitality. But there's a difference. It's
easy to be hospitable to those in our own household, isn't it?
It's easy to be hospitable for those in our family of faith.
Oh, we love you. Oh, okay, here, hey, here you
go. Let's help each other. We help each other, right? But
what about strangers? See, that's a difficult one.
Because we have in my brain, and I've been working through
this my entire life, and I come to one conclusion, then I flip
the next day, and I flop the next day, and I flip the next
day, and I have conceded many times over that I'm not responsible
for those who aren't in the household of faith, and I am responsible
for those who are in the household of faith, and I'm not responsible
for those, you see what I mean? It's a case by case thing. But those who come, Those who
are new, those who are unknowns, if they have a need, meet it.
Now there's an exception to this and we're going to learn it in
a couple of weeks in 1 John, I mean 2 John. What's the exception?
False teachers, charlatans. There's an exception. But hospitality
then looks something like this. I mean, imagine a first century
home, if you can. And for those of you who have
the means and the interest, you can look up archaeological drawings
and pictures. I mean, you think in a dirt floor
and a dirt hut, stone structures made out of thatch and all sorts
of different things. And you walk into a room that
is multipurpose, and then you walk into another room that is
multipurpose. And you sleep, eat, dress, bathe, wash off,
and everything else right there. All of it right there. There's
no sitting room and dining room and playroom and lounge room
and TV room. I mean we live for leisure, right? Hospitality is not about leisure.
Hospitality is about meeting needs. So when someone's come
to town and someone is our brother and sister in the faith, of course,
as they are confessing the truth, we open our doors to them so
that they don't starve. That's the point. Because you're
talking about a time where when you set out to leave your area,
it was either by the edict of a ruler, king, monarch, or warlord,
And you had to show up to either be counted or to pay taxes. Or
you left your home area to go to a festival that if you didn't
make you were ostracized and you feared God. Especially in
the Jewish community. So when we see hospitality, imagine
first century Jerusalem when many people would come in for
the feasts and then the worst thing that you could ever do
was stay in an inn. An inn. You think, is it like
a cheap hotel? No, it's not like a cheap hotel.
An inn was a place of ill repute. It was no place for families.
It wasn't a place for you to stop off when you went through
town. You stayed with your animals in the wilderness and your family
or your people in the wilderness or you stayed with somebody.
That's why Paul's writing often. alludes to the fact like the
Church of Philippi, the Church of Colossae, the Jerusalem Church
and others supported him as he traveled but without which he
would not even be able to eat. So hospitality is helping people. Helping those
who you're not quite sure of, who you don't quite know, as
they come along the way. Now, we have teaching to the
Thessalonians, where Paul's very clear, if a man doesn't work,
don't feed him. This isn't about benevolence,
this isn't about stewardship, this is just about the passersby. A lot of people coming in and
out of this community, in and out of this culture, in and around
these Christians, And as they are continually lambasted by
others who were supposedly their brothers, it gave them a real
bad taste in their mouth toward people that they didn't know,
right? So this is the simple instruction. We're not supposed
to spend three days worrying about, are we hospitable? It's
more of a, I'm gonna say this, a spiritually guided common sense. Have a neat, send you on your
way. I'm gonna help you, I'm not gonna judge you based on
my past experience. I'm not gonna shut my door to
everybody just because somebody has taken advantage of me. Does
that make sense? That's what brotherly love does. But isn't
that the way, and you might think, well, I don't really get it,
but have you ever been amongst a people, especially people claiming
to be in the gospel, claiming to be a people of faith, and
you were always an outsider? You were always looked at, you
were always suspect? This is the point. Just be careful. Remember those in prison. We
talked about this some last week. Those as though in prison with
them and those who are mistreated since you are also in the body.
We're just repeating ourselves over and over again. We are the
body and these people were suffering just as we read. I think we,
yeah, we went there last week earlier in this letter where
it talked about helping those, and visiting those, and remembering
those who have been imprisoned, as some of you have been mistreated
and imprisoned. Let's not neglect them. What
would that be? Well, when the first century
prisons were filled, if people who loved those prisoners did
not take care of them, they perished. There weren't constitutional
rights and laws to protect this person or persons. So don't forget
about it. Don't neglect these people. Don't
neglect brotherly love. Don't neglect being hospitable.
Just care for people. Don't think too hard about it.
Don't be suspicious. Don't be superstitious. And don't
forget about those people who have been mistreated. Don't forget
you've been mistreated. Don't forget about them. What
is he doing? He's putting the emphasis of
focus. Where are we doing with our time?
What do we do with our time today, beloved? This is something that's
not supposed to convict us and make us throw ourselves on a
pyre, but it should make us really pay attention to how blessed
we are in some sense and how cursed we are in another in our
culture. Of course, we're not cursed as the elect of God. We
are always blessed. But think about it. What do we
spend our time worrying over and fretting over? Are we concerned
about the sisters and the brothers who don't have food and don't
have warm clothes and don't have a place to go or a place to stay?
Are we concerned about those who are being mistreated in the
body? Or are we just, I gotta get my weed control out next
weekend? You see, we've got so much margin in our lives that
we're not really focusing on one another the way the first
century church was forced to focus on one another. It's not
that we should go, oh, we better get... No, it was necessary.
Why? Because they were running for
their lives. They were hiding. They were underground, if you
will. They were persecuted, they were arrested, they were ostracized,
they were hated. They were hated. But because we're one body, let's
not forget one another. No matter our circumstances,
no matter our relationship, let brotherly love continue. Yes,
we're talking about those in the faith that are strangers,
that we don't know that well. Sometimes in a larger congregation,
we can be strangers to some people. Let's not neglect being hospitable
to them. In verse four, he goes on to
say, let marriage be held in high honor among all. There's
a respectfulness that just culturally fits this thing, right? There's
just something about respecting marriage. What does it mean to
respect marriage? Respect that marriage relationship.
So that means that's my wife and that's my husband and that,
you know, here's the pair. And if you're not the wife or
the husband of that person, stay away from them. Don't be flirting,
don't be tempting, don't go around thinking, you know, I think I'd
like to have Sally's husband. I think John's wife would be
a good match for me. No, hold it in high honor. Why?
Because marriage is a temporary picture of the eternal gospel. And the assembly of the saints
is an eternal relationship that is built upon the foundation
of the intimacy and the purity of marriage. So we are to live our lives with
that understanding. We are to walk amongst the brethren
with that understanding. We hold marriage in high honor.
And I could preach an entire sermon now on each one of these.
I could preach three or four sermons on this contextually
by going around and looking at the picture of marriage. We could
go to Colossians 3. We could go to Ephesians 5. We could go to Genesis
1. We could go to all sorts of places. We could go to Revelation.
We could see the imagery. of the bride and the bridegroom. The marriage must be held in
high honor. See, culturally it's not held in high honor at all.
And even Christianly, if I can use that term that way, it's
not held in high honor at all, even amongst the evangelical
cults of our day. It's not held in high honor.
You're married. It doesn't matter. What is it? It's just a relationship.
It's just a temporary contract. Do what makes you feel good.
Do what makes you happy. Is Paul saying, do what makes
us happy? Does it make me happy to feed strangers? I hope somebody
knocks on my door at four o'clock in the morning asking for water.
That'd just be a dandy, dandy vacation. No. Oh, who is it now? Let's be honest. Or, oh gosh, do I really have
to go to prison right now to visit that guy? Do I really have
to be concerned with that? You see, let marriage be held
in honor and let the marriage bed be undefiled. So here, Paul,
very quickly, in almost everything he writes, he deals with sexuality very quickly. He doesn't expound
on it. There's no theology of sorts. There's no extended doctrine.
There's no mass exposition that's necessary. It's a very simple
thing. He put Adam to sleep. From Adam
He made Eve. She was called woman because
she came from man. And He gave the woman to the
man, and the two became one flesh. What God has put together, let
no man separate. What is that a picture of? God
has given His bride to His Son, and His Son has given His body
for His bride. They have become one flesh in
His burial, and they become one flesh in His resurrection. So
the core reality of marital intimacy is a small, tiny, teensy, weak,
sad representation of gospel intimacy with Christ. Boom! Our minds are blown. And sexual
defilement is blasphemous. And of course, what does it say?
For God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. God has
judged them. And some people will take that
out of context. Oh, see there? If you do these things, God's
going to judge you. Of course He's going to judge
you in a temporal sense. Because we see in Corinth where
Paul makes it very clear. You kick that guy on out of your
church because he's not willing to be submissive to the teaching
that he needs to stop that and come clean. But more importantly,
there's a contrast there. sexually immoral in the adulterous
we are not counted as even if we fall into that sin because
Christ has paid for it. Therefore we hold the gospel
picture of marriage to the highest place of honor because in it
are the small building blocks of the eternal relationship of
Christ and his body of which we are a part. So see how it
always goes back to the gospel? And you know what? It's also
one of the things, there are two things that I've always been
taught since my youth that'll get a man in trouble, and they
are a lustful eye and a greedy heart. Isn't John's say the same
thing? And now Paul's repeating it.
Hold the marriage bed in high honor, and keep your life free
from the love of money. It's crazy, isn't it? Why? What is it about the love of
money? It's the love of money that destroys nations. It's the
love of money that corrupts governments. It's the love of money that brings
down great people. And it's the love of money that
is antithetical to true worship. And it's the love of money that
keeps us from having brotherly love. And it's the love of money
that bars us from being hospitable. It's the love of stuff. So what
does he say? Be content with what you have.
And then it points right back to the sovereignty of God in
salvation. For the scripture says, I will
never leave you nor forsake you, therefore we can confidently
say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.
What can man? I will not fear, what can man
do to me? That's the question rhetorically
asked. What can man do to me? What can be done to me if God
is my God? Have you ever heard that before?
Yes, you've heard it. You've heard it over there. In
Romans chapter eight, what then shall we say to these things?
What things? And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good. For those, plurally,
who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order
that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those
whom He predestined, He also called. And those He called,
He also justified. And those whom He justified,
He also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare
His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also
with Him give us graciously all things? Who shall bring a charge
against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who
is going to condemn? Jesus Christ is the one who died,
more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who is indeed interceding for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine? Shall nakedness, danger, or the
sword? For as written, for your sake
we're all being killed all the day long and regarded as sheep
to be slaughtered. No, verse 37 of Romans 8, Paul says in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us for I am certain that neither death nor life nor angels
nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor any power,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation shall be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Nothing. Why then do we think
that the promises of the world are sufficient for our joy? What's
the next thing out of his mouth? Remember your leaders who spoke
to you the word of God. That's why the qualifying essentials
of overseers maintain this type of focus. And it is not simple
and it is not easy. That's one of the greatest misconceptions
that most people have about Pastor Shepherds is that we've just
got it easy. You know why we're always sifted
and ready to preach? Because we're preparing to teach
and preach. You can't get into this all week and stand up here
and act like it's not preached to you all week. So by the mercy
of God, His discipline carries us through so we remember what
we've been taught. We remember the way of life of
those who teach us. What does that mean? Perfection?
No. Repentance, graciousness, kindness,
long-suffering, forgiveness, being willing to be wrong. Asking for help Not being confident
in their own flesh Folks it's tough. We live in a we live in
an idolatrous world of which the greatest idols I believe
in the church are pastors and teachers Because I think sometimes we
forget that God's the teacher and he can use anything and anyone
he wants to imitate their faith. Where do I get that kind of stuff?
Look at what he says in verse 8 and then we're finished. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday and today and forever. See the teacher,
and I'm going to massage this into the way I want to close
it and then we'll pick it up contextually next week, but the teacher always
teaches grace, always teaches Christ in the cross, always is
a proclaimer of Christ. that proclamation, that teaching,
is the very means through which God equips the church to do the
work of the ministry so that brotherly love can continue and
we're hospitable and we're careful and we hold marriage in high
honor and we're not covetousness and we're not adulterous and
we are walking in a manner worthy of the gospel and we are not
greedy but we are content and we praise God together. This
is a mutual working of God the Holy Spirit through the teaching
of his word, through the careful oversight of the Plurality of
overseers, not one. Plurality. Who point to the same truth that
never changes, and the same purpose that never changes, and the same
power that never changes, and the same person that never changes,
and his name is Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus Christ. And the very next thing he says,
we'll just open up your eyes a little bit, but we'll pick
that up next week. Let's pray. Father, we are so
thankful for you, for everything. Lord, yes, we are thankful for
the temporary necessities of life, for the temporal joys of
life, for the temporal health. But Father, we are so grateful
for the eternal promises. We're so grateful for the eternal
hope. We're so grateful for your constant
power in our lives to keep us from falling away. You will never
leave us, nor will you ever forsake us, for you have purchased us
through the blood of your Son. And He will never change. His
work will never fail. To the praise of your glorious
grace, Father, we worship you and we love you and we thank
you and we pray by Christ and through Christ and for the sake
of Christ that you will continue that which you have started and
that you bring to fruition that which you began. And until we
are all with you face to face, Lord, we are glad to be together
as your church. In Christ's name, amen.