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. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching today from the last chapter of
the book of Hebrews, which is Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And the title of the message
is taken from verse 13. Hebrews 13, 13. The title of
the message is Bearing Christ's Reproach. bearing his reproach. And let me just read that verse.
I'm going to go back and pick up some other verses here to
show you the context. But it's an encouragement of
faith. Those who believe in and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. to continue in the faith, persevere,
and of course we know that's by the grace of God. And he says
here, the Holy Spirit, using the writer of Hebrews, which
I've always said I believe is the Apostle Paul, not everyone
agrees with that. But I believe it's the Apostle
Paul was the human instrument. to write the book of Hebrews,
but it doesn't matter. Some say it was Apollos, others
go back to somebody else, but this is God's word, and understand
that. This is not just Paul's word,
or Peter's word, or John's, this is God's word. And he says in
verse 13, let us go forth therefore unto him, that is unto Christ,
let those who believe in him, Go forth therefore unto him. Again, that's an exhortation,
an encouragement, an admonition to stay focused on Christ. Back in Hebrews chapter 12, he
spoke of that. We run the race of grace looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And he
says, let us go therefore unto him without the camp. That is
outside, literally this would be outside of Jerusalem, but
figuratively what he's saying is we go outside of mainstream
religion, the popular religion of the day. We're not part of
that majority who are not looking to and resting in Christ. We're
outside that camp. We're in the camp of God's grace.
And that's figuratively what he means. We don't blend in with
false religion, not even false Christianity, the majority. And so he says, let us go forth
therefore unto him, unto Christ, without the camp, outside the
camp, bearing his reproach. Bearing, that is, under the burden
of the same reproach. Now what that means is the same
derision, criticism, ridicule, persecutions, that Christ suffered
for His message of God's grace. Now Christ suffered unto death
as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of God's elect,
His people. We don't suffer that way. We
who are believers, we don't suffer in the place of others. But as
we follow Christ, we bear his reproach." Christ spoke to His
disciples of this. In John 15, verse 18, He said,
Marvel not, if the world hate you, it hated Me before it hated
you. And He told them, He said, the
disciple, the follower, is no greater than the master. If the
master was persecuted, If the master had to bear reproach,
then those who follow him will have to bear that same reproach. They'll be persecuted too. Christ
spoke of this also in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter
five. He said, blessed are you when
men shall persecute you for righteousness sake. And that is for the gospel
sake, because the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness
of God, which is the entire merit, value, and worthiness of the
obedience unto death of Christ for the salvation of His people."
In other words, we preach that sinners can only be saved based
on a righteousness that they have absolutely no part in producing. It's not by works. Salvation
is not conditioned on sinners. It's conditioned on Christ and
He is the Lord my righteousness. I stand before God forgiven of
all my sins on one ground, the blood of Jesus Christ. Over in
verse 20, he calls it the blood of the everlasting covenant.
We'll get to that later in another message. I stand before God declared
righteous, not upon anything that I've done or decided to
do, but totally upon the work of Christ, the merits of Christ,
His righteousness imputed, charged to me. And any other way of salvation
that men devise is a false way. It's the broad road that leads
to destruction. And that's the light that sinners
by nature hate. And that's the message that brings
the reproach, brings the derision. So he says, let us go forth therefore
unto Christ, unto Him, without the camp. If you go to Him, if
you follow Christ, you're not gonna be part of the mainstream.
You're not gonna be part of the popularity religion. But you're
going to go to Him outside the camp, without the camp, bearing
His reproach. Now let me give you a few verses
leading up to this. This whole chapter is a series
of exhortations. It's a series of encouragements.
That's what an exhortation is, an encouragement to obedience. An encouragement to follow Christ. He starts off in verse one, he
says, let brotherly love continue. Brotherly love. Now, what he's
talking about there is not just a general love to all people,
as in love your neighbor as yourself, because your neighbor there would
even include your worst enemy. That's the requirement of the
law. We're to strive to love our neighbor as ourself. Now,
we don't do that. We all fall short of the standard
of perfection there. And Christ spoke of that in parables
such as the Good Samaritan, as we call it. In other words, if
you're going to claim that you're righteous because you love everybody,
then here's what's required. And he told the rich young man
that over in Matthew chapter 19. He said, go sell everything
you have, give it to the poor and follow me. Well, who does
that? You say, well, you're lying to
yourself. Righteousness cannot be attained
by our efforts to obey God, to love God, or to love our neighbor.
We'll always fall short. That's what Romans 3.23 means
when it says, for you've all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. We come short of the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in the person and work
of Christ, who did love his neighbor as himself. Christ fulfilled
that law. So, but here in Hebrews 13 one,
let brotherly love continue, that's talking about the special
love that only true believers have because, not because they
love God, but because God loved them and gave his, sent his son
to be the propitiation for their sins, as stated in first John
four. We love him because he first
loved us. This is a love that nobody has by nature. This is
a brotherly love that puts us in a new family. It's not connected
with our physical family. It's our spiritual family. This
is the kind of love that God sheds abroad in the hearts of
His people when He brings them to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Nobody loves like this until they're born again by the Spirit
and they come to believe in Christ. Christ spoke of this in Matthew
chapter 12 when He was preaching in a certain home. and there
was a crowd gathered and somebody came into the house and said,
told Jesus, he said, your mother's outside and your brothers here,
his half brothers, were outside and they want to talk to you.
And he said this, he said, well, who is my mother? Who is my brother? He says, those that do the will
of my father, which is in heaven. That means to believe on him.
That's the will of the father in heaven. That's the commandment
of the gospel, the calling of the gospel to believe on Jesus
Christ for all salvation, all forgiveness, all righteousness,
all eternal life and glory. And he's saying those who believe
that, that's my mother and my brother, that's my spiritual
family. And that's what he's talking about. Let brotherly
love continue. Stay with your spiritual family. Don't forsake that family. side
with that family, you see, side with the people of God. And he
says in verse two, be not forgetful to entertain strangers. That's
foreigners traveling in that day. If they were believers,
he said, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Be kind, be kind to those who are traveling. And he said in
verse three, remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.
There were some who were in jail because of their testimony of
Christ. and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves
also in the body." He gives exhortations. Sometimes these exhortations,
they don't build on each other, they're just different things.
He talks about the marriage here in verse 4. Marriage is honorable
and all in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers
God will judge. talking about the marriage of
a man and a woman and how that's honorable to God and their relationship
in every way, even sexually, is honoring to God because that's
a picture of Christ and His church. And he says in verse five, let
your conversation be without covetousness. and be content
with such things as you have." Boy, that's a hard one, isn't
it? One of the first books that I
got a hold of when I first was born again, when I first began
to believe in Christ, was called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. And it is a rare jewel, to be
content with what we have. And he says, with such things
as you have, in verse five, for he has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Christ is always with us, no
matter what we own or what we possess, where we live, all of
these things. Verse six, he says, so that we
may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. We don't depend on men and women
for our faith and our assurance, our encouragement. The Lord is
our helper. We read his word. That's where
he gives his help, in his word. We feed upon his word. Christ
told that on the Mount of Temptation when Satan was tempting. He said,
man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded
out of the mouth of the Father. And here it is. And then he says
in verse seven, 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. He's talking about
elders and pastors, those who are spiritual leaders in the
family of God in the church. When he says they have the rule
over you, he's not talking about how they are set up to be rulers
in some kind of a noble, kingly way. A lot of pastors, I think,
have this idea. Of course, now we have to understand
here that when he speaks, those who have the rule over you, who
have spoken unto you the word of God, many who claim to be
Christian pastors don't preach the word of God. They preach
other things. They preach their opinions, their visions, things
like that, their feelings. They entertain, but they don't
preach the word. And that's who he's talking about
here, those who preach the word. The rule, as I pastor a church,
the rule that I have is not that I'm lord over people's lives,
or that I'm the chief judge over everything, or a watchdog. It's not a clergy laity sort
of thing. See, that's a sinful, deadly,
proud attitude. Clergy laity. I hate when you
pull into a hospital and they've got that sign that says clergy.
You know, over in the book of Revelation, there's a group of
people who are called the Nicolaitans. And a lot of people, they don't
understand who those are. I think the problem is, in the
King James Version of the Bible, which is my favorite, in that
English translation, the word Nicolaitan is capitalized with
a capital N, so people think, well, it's a proper name, like
a denomination, and it's not. It should not be capitalized.
It comes from two Greek words, Nikos and Laity, and it means
to conquer the people. And what he's talking about is
preachers who come in and not just guide the people through
the word of God out of love, but try to rule over them, to
conquer them, separate me. You see, I'm just a sinner saved
by grace. My old pastor used to talk about
it. He said, I'm just one beggar telling other beggars where we
can find bread. and is not a clergy laity, but
there are offices in the church and there are men whom God has
gifted to preach and to teach the Word of God. And that's what
he's talking about. Remember them which have the
rule over you who preach the Word of God. Their rule, their
authority is the Word of God. Not their office, not their personality,
not their degrees. but the word of God. And he says
in verse eight, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today
and forever. Christ doesn't change. He's the
eternal, everlasting God-man, God in human flesh. In his deity,
he never changed at all. He's the alpha and the omega,
without beginning, without end. In his humanity, his humanity
had a beginning. But as that humanity is still
with him, he is God-man seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for his people. He exists and
will exist forever. And so here's where we get into
the reproach of Christ. Verse nine. He says, be not carried
about with divers, that word divers means different, various,
and strange, foreign doctrines, teachings, Now see, he spoke
of those who have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God, which never changes. It's the word of Christ,
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. But men and
women will come in with all kinds of different doctrines, especially
in the last days. This is gonna be worse. I think
about so many different ones that we could mention. Now the
doctrine, the false doctrine of salvation by works is not
new. It's foreign to the gospel, but
it's not new. That's been around ever since
Adam and Eve fell. Cain brought his works to God.
And people have claimed that salvation's by works or God helping
you do works or whatever. Salvation is by grace. But as
time went on and as we get through these last days, there'll be
more and more various and diverse strange doctrines that are foreign
to the gospel of salvation by the grace of God based upon the
blood, the righteousness of Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 1 16 and
17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
to the Greek also. It's the same gospel to the Jew
or the Gentile. Verse 17, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith, knowledge revealed,
to faith, knowledge received in the power of the Spirit, from
faith to faith, as it is written, the just, the justified. How
are we justified? By the blood of Christ. Justified
based upon His righteousness imputed. Those who are justified,
forgiven, righteous in God's sight, they live, spiritually
live, by faith, looking unto Christ. That's what they do. Now any doctrine that denies
or confuses or ignores that is a strange doctrine. And so he
says in verse nine, go back to it, Be not carried about with
diverse and strange foreign doctrines, for it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace." God's grace. What is God's grace? That's His free unmerited favor,
unearned favor. Romans 5.21 says it. as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Grace does not reign
in the life of a sinner who's trying to be righteous by his
works. There's no grace there. Grace
reigns in the life of a sinner saved by grace through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Living upon, living
out of the grace of God. Pleading the righteousness of
Christ imputed as our only ground of salvation. Now look back what
he says. He gives us a negative here too.
Verse nine, be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it's a good thing that the heart, the mind, the affections,
the will, the conscience, be established with grace, found
in Christ, not with meats, which have not profited them that have
been occupied therein. Now what is he talking about?
Meats. He's using that term, that term meats, to be indicative
of the old covenant sacrifices. How do you know that? Well, look
at verse 10. We, that is, we who are established with grace,
we who are saved by grace, we who believe in Christ, who are
resting in Christ, we have an altar. When you think of altar,
what do you think of? I know preachers today are, most
of them agree, we've got altar calls. My friend, those aren't
what they're calling altar calls today are not scriptural. The
altar back in the old covenant was a place of animal sacrifices
where they shed the blood of animals. In the tabernacle, there
was the brazen altar where they would take the blood of a ram
or a goat or a lamb and they'd slit that animal's throat and
the blood would pour out in a basin. and the fire of God would come
down and consume the sacrifice. They'd take the ashes off and
the blood out and the high priest would take it into the mercy
seat, sprinkle it on the mercy seat. That's the altar he's talking
about. That was indicative of the whole
old covenant system, which was a conditional covenant. Blessings
based upon national obedience, curses based upon national disobedience,
and Israel failed miserably under that conditional covenant. So
would I, so would you. If salvation is conditioned on
us in any way, it will fail. But if it's conditioned on Christ
and Him alone, it cannot fail. All the promises of God in Him
are yea, and in Him, amen, 2 Corinthians 1.20. So he says in verse 10,
our hearts are to be established with grace, not with meats, not
with ceremonies, not with law keeping. Verse 10, we have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Now he's talking about the unbelieving
Jews who wanted to keep that sacrificial system, that ceremonial
system. that earthly physical worship
through the blood of animals intact and alive and not recognize
that it had been abolished by way of fulfillment in Christ.
Why don't we sacrifice animals today? I asked a Jewish rabbi
that one time. And he said, well, the people
are not in obedience. Well, it doesn't matter. People
weren't in obedience back during the old covenant law, but they
still sacrificed. The reason we don't sacrifice
lambs today is because our trust, our rest, our faith is in the
blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled
all those types. Those things were just types,
pictures, shadows. Hebrews chapter 10 tells us the
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. Those things
could not remove sin, but they pictured Christ. who is the only
way of forgiveness of sins by His blood. And so what He's telling
us is this right here. Those who claim to be Christian
but want to keep that old system intact, in effect, they don't
come to our altar. Why? Because our altar is Christ. That's the altar. You know the
word propitiation. You've heard that word, read
that word maybe. What is propitiation? It's satisfaction to God's justice
through a blood sacrifice. Well Christ is our propitiation. And in order to have a proper
propitiation, three things were required. Number one, there had
to be a high priest who was appointed of God, who was equipped by God,
and who was willing to do the work. Secondly, you had to have
an altar. And thirdly, you had to have
a sacrifice. The altar separated the sacrifice. Well, Christ is the believer's
great high priest. We don't look to human high priests
anymore. That's done. He's a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ is our altar. And Christ
is our sacrifice. And if you don't see that and
you're trying to keep these old covenant elements in effect,
you don't have any right to eat at our altar. Now what does it
mean to eat? It means to have faith in. When
Christ spoke of drinking His blood in John chapter 6 and eating
His body, He wasn't talking about cannibalism or anything literally
physical. He's talking about having faith
in Him. We feed upon the Word of God, the bread of life. We
drink of the water of life. That's Christ. It's believing
in Him, resting in Him. So He says in verse 10, we have
an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. Verse 11. For the bodies of those beasts,
those beasts that were slain on the altar, whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are
burned without the camp. They took the entrails, the things
you would throw away, they took them outside the camp of Jerusalem,
and they burned them outside the camp. Now look at verse 12. For this reason, wherefore, For
this reason, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people,
not with the blood of animals, but with his own blood, suffered
without the gate." Now, where did Christ suffer under death? Outside the camp, outside of
Jerusalem, on a hill called Golgotha, the hill of the skull. They took
him outside to crucify him because they didn't count him worthy
of being in their city, in their religion. And he says in verse
13, he says, let us go therefore, go forth therefore unto him without
the camp bearing his reproach. Now I'm gonna come back to this
in the next message. But what's he talking about?
Don't cling to false religion. Repent of it and follow Christ. Go with Him outside the camp
bearing His reproach. 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
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you. you