Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
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for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. I pray the Lord will
bless you through the message of the Gospel from His Word.
Today I'm going to be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter
13. I started this message last week and I want to finish it
today. The title of the message is taken from verse 13 of Hebrews
13. And the title is Bearing Christ's Reproach. This is part
two, and this will be the finishing of that message. But the verse
reads this way in Hebrews 13, 13. Let us, the us there refers
to believers, sinners saved by the grace of God through the
blood of Christ. who are justified. That's what
a believer is. A believer is a person who's
been justified by God in God's sight based upon the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed to him or her. And having been justified,
the Holy Spirit brings them through in the new birth to faith in
Christ. So the evidence of being justified before God, being forgiven
of all of our sins through the blood of Christ, being declared
righteous before God, based upon his righteousness imputed, reckoned,
credited to our account. The evidence of that is when
we come to believe in Christ, when we're brought by God to
believe in him and to repent of our dead works. Now he speaks
here of bearing the reproach. The word reproach means derision,
ridicule, persecution, every negative thing that the religious
world brought against Christ. that led to his crucifixion.
And because of their insistence, upon their works for salvation
and the ceremonial law, the unbelieving Jews under the old covenant,
they wanted to keep the animal sacrifices, the earthly priesthood,
the earthly temple intact and going on. And Christ said that
all those things were gone now. All those things were abolished.
He fulfilled them. All the lambs that were slaughtered
on Jewish altars All right, those were types and pictures of the
one and only, the greatest Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
John the Baptist, be it said, behold the Lamb of God, which
bears away the sins of the world. That's God's chosen people all
over this world, Jew and Gentile. The animal sacrifices, the earthly
priesthood, that physical altar could never take away sins. And
Christ alone, they pictured Christ. Christ, our high priest, Christ,
our altar, Christ, our lamb, our sacrifice. That's why he
says in verse 10, he says, we have an altar, whereof they have
no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. If you're clinging
to your works or you're clinging to that physical altar and high
priest and that ceremonial law and that The law of works, if
you're clinging to that, then you have no right to eat at the
true altar, which is Christ. And to eat there, it means to
have faith in him. I brought this out last week
when Christ spoke in John chapter six of drinking his blood and
eating his body. He wasn't talking about physical
cannibalism or anything like that. He wasn't talking about
taking the Lord's supper there. He was talking about faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, believe in Him. We feed
upon God's Word. We read it, we study it, and
we believe it by the grace of God. And so, faith in Christ,
true God-given faith, which is the gift of God, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. True
God-given faith in Christ excludes all of that. Puts it on the dung
heap of false religion. That's what Paul called it in
Philippians chapter three. I do count it all but loss, even
but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him. Not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which
is by faith. And so in verse 12, it says,
Hebrews 13, 12. Wherefore, or for this reason,
Jesus also, that he might sanctify, set apart, in salvation, in redemption,
the people with his own blood. What people? The people that
God gave him before the foundation of the world. He said that all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out, John 6, 37. So that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, not with the blood
of lambs and goats and rams. He suffered without the gate,
that is outside the city of Jerusalem. And the spiritual application
of that is not just geography, physical geography, but there's
a spiritual application of that. Christ went outside the confines
of human works, false religion, in order to do the job that He
was sent to do. And that is to die for the sins
of His people. And so in following Him, If we
follow Christ, he says in verse 13, let us go forth therefore
unto him. Let's follow him outside the
camp, without the camp. In other words, if we're gonna
follow Christ, we cannot remain within the populace and the majority
of false religion. We're in a different place spiritually.
We're in a different family spiritually. We can't worship with those who
still serve that physical altar. And it's like this today. We
who believe in Christ, we can't worship with them, those who
believe that salvation is conditioned on sinners, the works or the
wells of sinners. They don't believe what we believe.
We're not in the same spiritual family. We have to go outside
of that. And going outside of that, what
do we do? We bear his reproach. In other words, when we come
out of false religion and believing in Christ, what do we do? We
repent of that which we used to think saved us or meant something. And Paul spoke of that in Philippians
chapter three. He said, in verse three, he said,
we are the circumcision. Speaking of spiritual circumcision,
which worship God in spirit, who rejoice or boast in or have
confidence in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And the flesh that he speaks
of was his former religion. He talks about being circumcised
the eighth day, being a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law
of Pharisee, as touching the righteousness of the law, blameless.
All of those things that Paul used to think recommended him
unto God. But he says in the light of the
righteousness of God in Christ, I count all those things now
but loss and even dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him. So in other words, we go outside
the camp, we follow Christ, when we believe in Him and we reject
and repent of all that men and women by nature hold dear in
religion, in making themselves righteous, in evidencing their
salvation. And that brings forth His reproach
because that's why Christ suffered. You remember He told the Pharisees
early on in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 in verse 20,
I believe it is, He said, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, can you imagine
hearing that from him and the scribes and the Pharisees standing
there hearing it? What kind of reproach it would
bring out of them towards him? Well, when we say the same thing,
it'll bring the reproach of false religionists. The Bible says,
that in John chapter 3 that light has come into the world and men
hate the light and love darkness because their deeds were evil.
Now the deeds that they're talking about there are their religious
deeds aimed at recommending themselves unto God. Aimed at making themselves
righteous in God's sight. When we preach Christ crucified
and risen from the dead as our only righteousness before God,
it exposes that which false religion, even false Christianity, depends
upon, rests in for their salvation, and calls it evil deeds. Because
anything a sinner does by way of seeking to obey God in order
to earn his or her way into God's favor, that's an evil deed. Now,
why is it evil? Is it because they're not sincere?
No, they may be as sincere as they can be. Is it because they're
not dedicated? No, they may be as dedicated
as they can be. It's because, number one, those
kinds of efforts, even though they appear moral or generous
or sincere to men and women, those kinds of efforts deny the
glory of God. Where is the glory of God? In
the face of Jesus Christ. God's glory, His attributes,
His honor, His reputation is found only in salvation totally
by grace through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And so when sinners seek salvation by their works, like Cain did,
it dishonors God. Secondly, it's evil because it
denies the necessity of Christ. Paul wrote this in Galatians
chapter two. He said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. I think that's Galatians
2, 21. And what he means, what did Christ
come to do? He came to do what we cannot
do. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot wash away our sins. Nothing we do, no reformation
of life, not even our repentance can wash away our sins. We can
cry all night over our sins, but we can never wash away our
sins. What can wash away our sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see that? That's what he
came to do. He came to work out a perfect
righteousness by His obedience unto death so that God could
be just and justify the ungodly. Now, if we're trying to make
ourselves righteous in order to attain or maintain salvation,
we're saying that He didn't have to come. His death was useless,
worthless. So that's why those efforts are
evil. Thirdly, they're evil because they're acts of unbelief. That's
what they are. If you don't believe in Christ,
it's all sin, the scripture says. And fourthly, they're evil because
they're a sign of pride and self-righteousness. So understand that, see. Now
when the gospel is preached clearly so as to expose all of that religious
evil and dungs, people's false refuges, we bear the reproach
of Christ. Now it may not be physical persecution,
it could be just a mental persecution, could be just social derision,
whatever it is, but we bear his reproach. But look at verse 14
now of Hebrews 13. Here's what encourages God's
people to bear the reproach of Christ. For here, that is on
this earth, have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. This earth is doomed. And I know there are people,
I was watching an atheist debate with a so-called Christian. And the atheist said that one
reason that he hates the Bible and hates Christianity is because
it accepts the inevitable doomsday. that Christ is coming back again
and he's going to destroy this world and make it over. He's
going to make a new heavens and a new earth. Well, that's what
the Bible says. And the Bible's God's word. And
I can understand why an atheist would hate that because this
earth is all he knows. This worldliness is his goal. It's what he values. You know,
whenever the Bible speaks of worldlings or that way, that's
what it's talking about. But believers, we recognize that
this earth is not gonna last forever. I talk about people
who are environmentalist or really these alarmist. And here's what
I say to people, you know, I believe that we should be diligent to
take care of this earth as much as we can. Keep clean water and
clean air, things like that. I don't want to breathe dirty
air, and I don't want to drink dirty water, and I don't want
my children and my grandchildren to do so. So we should be conservationists. But here's the point. Man cannot
save this earth. and man cannot destroy this earth. God made it, God's gonna destroy
it. It's not gonna last forever.
I know, I don't know exactly how the Lord's gonna burn this
earth up. It may be through the use of
atomic weapons, nuclear weapons, I don't know. I just know he's
gonna do it. And this earth is not our home.
We don't have a, if we're believers now, If we're saved by the grace
of God, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness,
we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come. And
what is that one to come? That's the heavenly Jerusalem,
the city of the living God. Hebrews 12 calls it Zion. That's
the church. We're gonna live forever and
ever and ever in the new heavens and the new earth. I don't know
a whole lot about all of that other than what the scripture
says. but we're to live our lives in light of eternity. And to
do so, if God has brought us to be aware of our sins, really
aware of them, convicted of them, and brought us to Christ, living
in the light of eternity is living by faith, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And so that enables us
to bear the reproach of Christ. Verse 15. It says, by Him, that
is by Christ, therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name. Live our lives always praising
God, the sacrifice of praise, that's an offering. Peter spoke
of our spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable unto God by Jesus
Christ. And that's what he says. He says,
we bear his reproach, but we live in light of eternity, looking
to Christ and giving thanks, praising his name, giving glory
to God, worshiping God. Not trying to make a name for
ourselves, but giving thanks to his name. Thank you, Lord.
for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation so
rich and free. And understand this, thanksgiving
is more than just looking up into the sky or bowing down to
the ground and saying, thank you, Lord. We do that. But thanksgiving
is shown in obedience, obeying God, not in order to be saved,
not in order to earn our rewards, and our blessings from God, but
because we already are saved by the grace of God through the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
Thanksgiving is. And so he says in verse 16, but
to do good and communicate, forget not doing good, we're seeking
to do good. There's none good, no not one,
the scripture says. But when God saves us, he enables
us, working through us, the Bible says in Ephesians 2.10, we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because
of good works, understand that now. We're not saved, we're not
His workmanship, we're not the new creation because of good
works, but it's unto good works. Good works are the fruit, not
the cause. The fruit of God's grace, the
fruit of faith, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. And so we are to be people of
good works. And we know that the source of
good works is not in us, it's in Christ. Christ who dwelleth
in us, the scripture says. That's what Paul said, the life
that I now live, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God,
who dwells within me. And then he says, and communicate
means to share. That's what that word means.
Sometimes it means different things, but here it means to
share. share of our blessings, certainly
share the gospel. That's what I'm trying to do
on this program every Sunday. For with such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. Now, how is God well pleased?
You know, not even the good works of believers are perfect. And
God can only accept perfection, because he's God. You say, well,
that doesn't seem right. Well, it is to God, because God
is holy. So how can these be pleasing
to God? Only as they are covered, washed
in the blood of Christ and redound to His glory. Matthew 5 verse
16 says, let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The
light there is not our good works, the light there is the light
of Christ. It's the gospel. that shines on those works to
show that they are accepted by God through the blood of Christ,
and those are to glorify God. If you see me doing anything
that you call good, I don't want it to draw attention to me. I
want to point to Christ, point to the glory of God, because
that's a sinner saved by grace. And so he says in verse 17, obey
them that have the rule over you. That's the pastors, the
elders who preach the word of God. I dealt with that last week,
so I won't go into that. But he says submit yourself.
That doesn't mean that they're lords over your lives and that
you're to believe anything they say. It means you're to follow
them as they follow God's word. And that he said, this is how
you prove that. Look at verse 17, for they watch
for your souls, as they that must give an account, that they
may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable
for you. That's what a true preacher,
a true elder, a true evangelist is, preaching God's word. Not trying to gain attention
for himself, But like John the Baptist, who said, I'm not even
worthy to untie his shoes, talking about Christ. He must increase,
I must decrease. My old pastor, you say, preach
Christ and then get out of the way. Point sinners to Christ. In verse 18, he says, pray for
us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing
to live honestly. Verse 19, but I beseech you,
the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
In my conscience, I intend to come to you. I intend to be with
you. Pray for that. And listen to how he concludes
this in verses 20 and 21. Now listen to this. Now the God
of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. You
see Christ's blood on the cross. His obedience unto death is the
ground of peace between God and sinners. brought again from the
dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. His pastors,
his preachers, his elders, they're under shepherds. He's the shepherd. And he says, the shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. That's
the everlasting covenant of grace that is founded upon the blood
of Christ. It's not founded upon the works of believers. It's
not founded upon their decisions or their work, it's founded upon
the blood of Christ. And he says in verse 20, make
you perfect in every good work, complete is what he's talking
about, to do his will. And listen to this now. So I
want to do God's will. Well, it says, working in you
that which is well pleasing in his sight. That's how it happens.
It's not us. We're not the source of good
works. We're not the source of acceptable obedience. It's God
working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight. And
how is it well-pleasing? Through Jesus Christ. And that's the only way. Without
Christ, nothing we do is acceptable before God. And He says, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, forever. That focus, that intense looking
to Christ, and counting everything else as worthless, pleading His
blood, the precious blood of Christ, pleading His righteousness
as the only ground. If you see me doing something
you call good work, I want you to know this. The only righteousness
that I have before God is the imputed righteousness of Christ.
That's it. That's His righteousness, the
merit of His obedience unto death, charged, accounted, credited
to me by God. In Romans 8.33 it says, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. How does He justify me? He doesn't
charge me with sin. And I'm a sinner. He doesn't
charge me with any of my sins. He charged them to Christ. Christ
was made sin, the scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5.21. For us,
Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made or become the
righteousness of God in Him. So He doesn't charge me with
my sin. He charged them to Christ. And
Christ took them to the cross and satisfied justice, paid my
debt in full. That's what redemption is. That's
the blood of Christ. That's the value of it. And in
turn, He gave me His righteousness that is credited to my account. Romans 4, 6 describes the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth, credits, accounts righteousness
without works. That's how it all happens. And
that Christ, that Jesus Christ, that person, God in human flesh,
who is the Lord my righteousness, verse 8 of Hebrews 13, He's the
same yesterday, He's the same today, He's the same forever. And I live by God-given faith
in Him. And that's what brings His reproach. We bear His reproach. As the
world hated Him, the world despised Him, the world rejected Him,
it will hate, despise, and reject His followers. So let us go forth
therefore unto Him, verse 13, without the camp. bearing his
reproach. Why? Verse 14, we have no continuing
city here on this earth, but we seek one to come. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you. you