Now we ended our lesson last
week in verse 7. I'd like to begin reading there
or begin our comments in verse 8. Verse 7 of Hebrews 13. 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. We said last
week, we are to remember and obey pastors who have a rule
in the church. And Paul's talking here about
true, faithful pastors, men who are our spiritual guides, who
their job is to speak unto us the Word of God. And this is
an important matter. Somebody might wonder, well,
how can I tell? Do I have a true, faithful pastor? Well, Paul gives
us the answer. Here's how you tell. Consider
the end of their ministry, of their conversation. Be like the
Bereans. Search the Scriptures and see
if these things be so. Consider the end of their ministry
as the end, the goal, the subject of their ministry, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's the
gospel that they preach, the eternal, unchanging gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not something new, but just the
eternal gospel. And you know, people inherently
don't like change. People have made a lot of money
writing books to help businesses cope with change in their business
environment. And that's one of the things
about the Gospel that I love. It never changes. It's eternal. It never changes
because the Lord Jesus Christ never changes. He is the eternal
I Am. Not I was and I will be. I am,
the great I am. He's the same yesterday. And
that doesn't mean just yesterday. It means in ancient times and
all the times of the Old Testament, the sacrifices and the ceremonies
and the law and the types and the promises were all given to
point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the same even before then,
before the foundation of the world. He's the same. He's the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He's the same yesterday. He's the same today. Today, under the gospel dispensation,
he's the same God. Like we said this a couple of
weeks ago, the same God that revealed himself at Sinai is
the same God with whom we have to do. But we come to him through
our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he changes not. And that's why the gospel never
changes. There's just one gospel because there's just one Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, because I change not,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And He's the same forever. Throughout
all of eternity, we'll see Him as never changed. Everything
about Him, all His attributes have never wavered. In glory
we'll see more fully than we do now the love of Christ. The
love for His people that never changed. We'll see His grace
that never changed. We'll see the power of His blood.
That blood that we sing about, we'll sing about there, will
never change. The righteousness that He's imputed
to His people has never changed even one degree. He is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And that's so different from
us. We are so weak. Men are so weak. The phase of
the moon affects us. You know, there's a full moon
and all the crazies come out. It seems like the phase of the
moon affects us. I mean, it's just insane. The
time of the month can cause a person's personality to be diametrically
opposed to what they are at other times. But He never changes. The Word never changes. The truth
never changes. I told Jan this morning, I looked
over some notes yesterday, where I taught this class, or this
lesson, the Bob Coffey's class, two different times, years ago. It's the same. I prepared my
notes, I looked over and I was surprised. It's the same. It's
just the truth never changes. And that's why we remember and
obey them that have the rule over us, who's spoken unto us
the Word of God. And it's not that we're following
a man exclusively. You know, we've been accused
of that. I don't think that's true. God, deliver us from that. Because listen to me now. The
pastor won't always be here. But Christ will. He will always
be here. He'll never change. We'd be in
awful big trouble if we're following a man. Because if we are, what
are you going to do when he dies? Because he's gone. So what are
you going to do when he dies? If the Lord calls John home first,
I'm going to miss him. I'll talk fondly about him, about
our friendship, about his preaching, how I was blessed through his
preaching. But our faith won't fail if it's in Christ. Now, if it's in a man, we're
going to be in trouble. It'll fail. But if it's in Christ,
we remember the gospel that's been preached more than the messenger.
Our faith won't fail. There are so many preachers of
the past. Nobody remembers their names. But they remember the
Gospel that was preached. They remember the Savior that
they preached. Janet told me yesterday, our
girls, we talked about some of the Bible stories and things
that Janet teaches her class now. She taught them to our girls
when they were little. And she said, they don't remember
that I taught them to them. They know the stories. They know
those types and pictures and what they mean. But they don't
remember where they first heard them from their mama. But that's
all right. It's not who you first heard
them from. It's the Word that you remember. Isn't that right? It's the Word.
So you remember the message that's been preached. And here's why
in verse 9. Look here. Be not carried about
with divers and strange doctrines. For it's a good thing that the
heart be established with grace. Not with means which has not
profited them that have been occupied therein. This is such
a good reason to remember them, to have the rule over us. Remember
the Gospel that's been preached to us. So we won't be easily
fooled by these strange doctrines. Paul calls them strange doctrines
because they're strange to God's Word. You don't find them in
God's Word. They're something some man made
up. They're strange because they don't agree with the person and
the work of Christ. They're contrary to who He is
and His work of redemption. They're contrary to grace. And
they're diverse. There are many, many different
strange doctrines. Some of them close to the truth.
Some of them far away from the truth. But there are many of
them. But there's just one gospel. There's just one truth. And if
you remember the gospel that's been preached, you won't be like
wheat. You see wheat just blowing in
the wind. Just the slightest breeze causes it to wave. You
won't be like those light clouds that you see in the sky that
are just empty. They don't have any rain in them. They're empty.
And the slightest breeze just blows them across the sky. Don't
be like that. Don't be easily moved. Scripture
says it's a good thing that your heart be established with grace. Let your heart be established.
Not just mental agreement to some facts. Not just mental agreement
to some logical argument that a preacher can make. True repentance,
true faith comes from the heart, from a new heart, from the innermost
being. Look over Romans chapter 10. Romans 10 verse 9. That thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe, where? In thine
heart. that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." The mouth will confess what's in the heart.
It will. Salvation is a heart work. Let your heart, your innermost
being be established. Established. Unmovable. Unchangeable. Just convinced
regarding salvation. Regarding the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, we don't know everything. I'm not saying when I say that
we'll be established that we'll say we know everything. We won't
move off any little thing we know. Because we don't know everything. But the Lord doesn't leave His
children to themselves. He teaches His children. He doesn't
leave us in the dark about salvation. He doesn't leave us in the dark
about how man is made righteous. Is there any question in your
mind how you're made righteous before God? Hope not, ought not
be. God doesn't leave us in the dark
about how sin is forgiven. You know how sin is forgiven.
If God forgave your sin, you know how sin is forgiven in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that should be solid. We
should be unshakable and unmovable from that belief in Him. You
know, I don't know a lot about the millennium. Really, I don't
know anything about it. I don't know anything about prophecy
or, you know, so many things different people talk about that
are such peripheral issues to me. But here's what I know. How God saves sinners. I know
the Lord Jesus Christ and He's enough. So let your heart be
established. And let it be established, this
is important, with grace. with grace. Not in doctrine. Don't let your heart be established
in Calvinism because that ain't going to do you any good. Let
your heart be established with grace. Because salvation is by
God's grace alone. That's one of those things we
know. Look over in Titus chapter 3. That's one of those things
we know. That salvation is by grace. In Titus chapter 3 verse 5. not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to His mercy, His grace, He saved
us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. So let your heart be established
with grace. And if your heart's established
with grace, You'll be a gracious person. What's in the heart will
come out of the mouth and come out in our conduct and our attitude.
But now don't let your heart be established, Paul says, with
these meats which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. When he's talking about these meats, he's talking about
the Levitical law that prohibited certain things you could and
couldn't eat. And all that comes down to under the heading of
outward religion, outward religious acts and ceremonies. And that
kind of religion, the ceremony and the traditions of men, might
make a person feel better about themselves, might make them look
more holy or more pious to other men. But it won't do our souls
any good. Scripture describes those things
as unprofitable. Those motions of religion, bodily
movements are unprofitable. They're unprofitable because
they don't teach you any more of Christ. They don't point you
to Christ. They don't give you a more clear
view of Christ. They don't affect your conduct.
They don't make you more humble. They don't make you more thankful.
They certainly can't make you holy. Because outward religion
can't touch the soul. Can't cleanse the impurity of
the soul. All it can do is reach the exterior. Cleansing of the
soul, of the heart, takes the blood of Christ. It takes the
act of God in the new birth. That's where that comes from.
So let your heart be established with grace. Not this outward
religion. Now verse 10. We have an altar
whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
Now under those Old Testament Levitical laws and ceremonies,
the people of Israel, they had the priesthood They had the sacrifices. They had the tabernacle or the
temple that the worship of God took place in. They had these
altars that the sacrifices were offered upon. You know, believers
today have every one of those things. We have all those things. And they're all the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're not things that we have
or see tangible, earthly, temporary things. They're a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is all. He is the sacrifice that was
offered. He's the priest that offered
that sacrifice to God. Christ is the tabernacle that
that sacrifice was offered in. He came, descended, and tabernacled
among us. He's the Sabbath day that those
sacrifices were offered on. He is our rest. And He's the
altar that that sacrifice was offered on. Now we don't have
an altar down here. We don't have even a modern day
altar, what people call a mourner's bench or whatever. Something
Cecil could build out of wood. It'd look good, but it won't
do us any good. Because that's not the altar
that we have. God's people have something a
whole lot better than just that ceremony. Just some thing we
can look at. We have the person. The person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to a person and find
in him everything we'll ever need. Completely satisfied in
him. And we have in him everything
that the law demands. We have an altar. Now altars
under the Levitical ceremonies were used. They had to be used. They were given by the law. But
they were all pictures of Christ. Every one of them was a picture
of Christ. The brazen altar and the tabernacle
that sat in the courtyard, they used it to offer burnt offerings
on. That altar was made of incorruptible wood, which pictured the sinless
humanity of Christ. It was covered with brass that
pictured the strength, the eternality of Christ, His deity. And on
that brazen altar, the priests offered the burnt offerings.
They took that sacrifice, they killed it, they shed its blood,
and they put that sacrifice on the altar and roasted its body
with fire. Well, that's Christ our sacrifice.
He was slain for our sins. His blood was shed and offered
before God, and His body was roasted under the fire of God's
wrath for our sins. He's our altar. And that altar
had four horns, one on all four corners. They used it to tie
the sacrifice down. And anyone that justice was chasing,
if they could get to that altar and lay hold on those horns,
they were safe. Well, that's Christ our altar.
God's elect come from all four corners of the globe and they
lay hold on Him. And we find safety and security
from God's justice in Him. He's our altar. Then inside,
right outside, inside the tabernacle, right outside the Holy of Holies,
was that altar of incense. It was made of incorruptible
wood, too, the sinless humanity of Christ. This altar, though,
was covered with gold, which pictures the pure deity of Christ,
the value of who He is. And those priests took hot coals
from off that brazen altar, put on the altar of incense, and
they took handfuls of sweet-smelling incense, grind up, and put on
those coals, and sweet smoke filled the holy place, which
is a picture of the intercession of Christ, the prayers of Christ
for His people, which is a sweet-smelling smell, savory, to the Father. Now look over in Exodus chapter
20. There were other altars given to Moses in the law. Every one
of those altars is a picture of Christ. In Exodus chapter
20, verse 22, And the Lord said unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen
that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with
me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and thou shalt
sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy
sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record
my name will I come unto thee, and I will bless thee." The Lord
told the people, told Moses, don't let people make idols out
of gold or silver or something. Because an idol gives people
an idea of what their God looks like. But you can't make an idol,
a representation of a true living God. He's Spirit. So God says,
but you make an altar that you offer these sacrifices on. And
that altar is going to be a picture of God's great work of salvation.
How God's going to save sinners. And he told him, you can make
it out of earth, which pictures the humanity of Christ our altar.
He was made of a body just like what we have, made that was made
just like Adam's body, made out of the dirt, out of the red clay.
He became a man so he could offer a sacrifice for men. And we offer
sacrifices on that altar. That altar is not going to do
us any good without a sacrifice. Sacrifice has to be offered on
that altar because without the shedding of blood, there can
be no remission. Christ became a man, but he must suffer. He must die. He must shed his
blood. And this altar, God said, is
where I'll meet with men. I'll bless you when I meet you
at this altar. Well, that can't be anybody,
anything but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the place, the person in
which a sinner can meet with God and be blessed in him. Now
look at verse 25 next to this 20. And if thou wilt make me
an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, of
cut stone. For if thou lift thy tool upon
it, thou hast polluted it. Altars could also be built out
of stone, which were clear pictures of Christ. He's the rock of ages,
isn't he? The chief cornerstone, the stone
of stumbling, the rock of offense. But if you build an altar out
of stone, the Lord told Moses, don't you cut those stones. You
use them just like you find them. Don't you try to shape them and
make them look good to you. Because if you do that, you've
polluted the altar. And any sacrifice on that altar
is not going to do anything but pollute you. He's telling us,
don't take the edge off the gospel. Don't try to shape it to make
it look good to you or make it how you think it'll look good
to other people. This is God's altar. We need to remember that
this is God's altar. When the sacrifice is offered
on, it's offered to God. He says in verse 26 in Exodus
20, Neither shall I go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy
nakedness be not discovered thereon. Just make your altar low to the
ground. Don't think you'll be closer to God if you build a
big, impressive altar that goes up towards the sky or something.
Christ, our altar. He didn't come as somebody did.
He didn't come as a king or somebody that all men respected and revered. He came as a nobody, just a carpenter. They said, we're not going to
have this man to reign over us. Who's he? There's no beauty about
him that we should desire. But he came as God's altar, didn't
he? And he became, by God's grace, our altar. And Paul says now,
Christ is our altar. Whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. Now what he's referring to here
is the priests and their family. They ate the meat that was offered,
of the animals that were offered on that altar. But now only the
priests, only the Levites could eat of that sacrifice. And people
who insist on having these ceremonies, on having something else, other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, people who try to mix something along
with Christ for salvation, whatever it may be, if it's their works,
if it's their repentance, if it's their baptism, if it's their
knowledge, whatever it is, they have no right to eat of the sacrifice
of Christ, because to them, Christ isn't enough. He's not all. The
only people who have the right to eat of this sacrifice are
those to whom Christ is all. And that's God's people. And
He's made us kings and priests unto our God. Priests who have
the right to eat of this sacrifice. To eat of His flesh and drink
His blood. And to eat Him, this is not some
mysterious thing. It means simply to believe Him.
To receive Him. To receive Him. To have Christ
as your everything. And that's done in faith and
joy and thanksgiving. Now verse 11, For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. Now Christ our Savior completely
fulfilled the picture of this sin offering that they offered
on the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, both
a bullock and a goat were slain as sin offerings. And their blood
was brought by the high priest into Holy of Holies and sprinkled
on the mercy seat. And when everything was said
and done on that day, the appointed men took the bodies of that bullet
and that goat outside the camp. And they burned it to dispose
of it. Now why were they taken outside
the camp? Why couldn't they just burn them like that? Because
they were unclean. The sins of the people had been
symbolically transferred to those animals, symbolically laid on
them. That's why they had to die. They were a sacrifice for
the sin that was laid on them. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
that picture. Why was our Lord crucified? Was
it because the Jews finally trapped Him? Was He crucified because
the Roman soldiers had a hold of Him and He couldn't escape
from that Roman rule? No, sir. He was crucified because
he was made sin by God. And he wasn't made sin symbolically,
like when the priest put his head on that goat. He was made
sin literally, and he had to die. Justice wasn't to kill the
man. He was innocent. Justice demanded
he died because he was made sin for us. Now, where did he suffer? He didn't suffer in the tabernacle,
did he? In the temple, he suffered outside the city. Outside those
city walls. He became unclean. And he had
to suffer outside the camp. And that shows us not just the
physical sufferings of our Lord, but the shame, the humiliation
he suffered at being made unclean. The shame he suffered that we
deserve. He took that shame. Awful, the
shame and humiliation He bore being made sin for us. Now what
was the result of Christ's suffering outside the camp for sin? Here's
the result. The people that He died for were
sanctified. Made holy in Him. Were washed
in the blood that He shed. Clothed in His righteousness.
And that's the unspeakable completely baffling love that the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Son, has for sinful wretches like you and me, that
He'd suffer that humiliation and that awful shame for. Now, what's our reaction to that?
That's the Gospel. Now, what's our reaction to that?
Well, Paul tells us in verse 13, Let us go forth therefore
unto Him without the camp bearing his reproach. Believers, every
one of God's elect that Christ died for is going to go to Him. I don't care what obstacles,
what it costs, I'm going to Him. Sink or swim, I'm going to Him.
Where Christ is found, that's where you're going to find His
people. They're never going to be far away because He's the
vine and we're the branches. We're inseparable from Him. And it just stands to reason,
if we come to Christ, we're going to have to quit doing what we're
doing, aren't we? Doesn't that make sense? If we're going to
come to Christ, we're going to have to leave where we're at.
We're going to have to quit trusting what we're trusting in. We're
going to have to quit doing what we're trusting in. Leave that
and go to Him. We're going to have to leave
the camp, whatever camp it is we're in. If it's religious ceremony,
if it's legalism, if it's the camp of the world, if it's the
camp of our works and our religious traditions. Whatever it is, we're
going to have to quit it and come to Him. Come to Him completely. Completely rely on Him for everything. It's to believe Him so completely
that we're willing to leave everything else behind and have Him and
Him alone. To publicly follow Him. To publicly identify with my
Savior and His people. And whatever the cost. It's alright. And the cost you and me pay is
quite minimal, isn't it? There's been people in the past
that pay great costs for following Him. We pay a very, very minimal
cost. But now Scripture says there's
going to be a cost. You count the cost, is what Scripture
says. Because we'll bear His reproach. That's the way Paul phrases this
here. His reproach. It's called the reproach of Christ
because it's for His sake. It's the same reproach that our
Lord Jesus bore as a man here on earth. It's His reproach.
But whatever the cost, I don't care what it is, we find more
in Him than we ever give up in this world. Everyone who comes
to Christ finds in Him all we need. Everything we need is in
Him. So, verse 14, He says, for here
we have no continuing city. But we seek One to come. Whatever
we leave in this world to come to Christ is a good trail. Because
everything in this world is temporary. Everything. Whether it's riches
or fame or glory or people or places. Whatever it is. It's
all temporary. One day it's all going to pass
away. The Lord's going to do away with it all. And believers
understand that. We're like Abraham of old. Our
father Abraham. We're not looking for a city
here. I never expect to find satisfaction, real, lasting satisfaction
in anything here on this earth. Just don't expect to find it.
I'm not looking for it. What we're looking for is an eternal
city where Christ is. That's where I want to be. That's
where I'm interested in. That's where my everything is,
is where He is. And we have to be in this world
for a while. Believers are in this world.
But we're not of this world. This isn't the place the Lord
prepared for us. He's prepared a better place
for His people. And that's what we're interested in. And you
know it's the Lord's mercies that we don't have to continue
here for long. I'm so glad for that. To His
mercies. I'm glad man's days aren't more
than 70 years. I mean, I'm just glad. Somebody
said something to me at work one day about living to your
80 or 90s. Somebody's father lived to 91.
I don't want to live that long. I mean, honestly, I don't. There's nothing here for the
believer. Just nothing. I don't want to
continue here for long. I'm anxious to be done with sin
in me. And sin in the world around me.
All the troubles. and heartaches, sin causes. I'm ready to leave here and go
to Him, aren't you? But until that day that He calls
me home to be with Him right now, I'm going to keep coming
to Him. Keep looking to Him. Keep clinging
to Him. Keep loving Him. Every time the
Lord gives me the opportunity to preach Him and declare Him,
that's what I'm going to do because I'm taking up with Him, aren't
you? Let's go to him. All right. Well,
I hope I have blessed you.