Well, we come back to Hebrews,
possibly not for the last time, but we're getting close to the
end. We're in chapter 13 of this wonderful epistle. I mean, the
truth of God that is stored in here is just glorious to behold,
isn't it? The way in which the gospel of
Christ, the gospel of rightness with God in and through all that
he is in the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's in Christ that God
manifests himself to us. This epistle has shown us, it
was written to Jewish believers in the first century who were
hankering after going back to the Old Testament ways, the Mosaic
law, the Levitical priesthood, the temple worship, the animal
sacrifices, because they thought there was some value in that
towards their new Christian faith. But Hebrews has shown, Paul the
apostle has shown, the fulfillment of Sinai, that Sinai covenant,
is fulfilled by Christ. It's shown it clearly. It's shown
this is the best commentary on the Old Testament, this epistle
to the Hebrews. It's shown the fulfillment of
the Sinai covenant, the law of Moses given to Moses at Mount
Sinai on the exodus from Egypt. It's shown that Christ has fulfilled
it, that Christ is the end of that law for righteousness to
everyone that believes. Christ is the end. Read it, hear
it, hear it ring out. You'll hear religion tell you
that that's not true. The word of God says it is. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. You want to be righteous before
God. Christ is the end of the law as the means of being righteous
with God. What was the purpose of the law
then? Well, we're told in numerous places, we won't dig into them
now, but we're told its purpose was only because of transgressions. Abraham didn't live under that
Mosaic law. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, they didn't
live under that Mosaic law. Its purpose was given 400 odd
years after Abraham, and its purpose was to show sin as it
really is. Its purpose was only ever to
show us the hopelessness of trying to find righteousness by law
works, by keeping that law. It was to drive us to Christ.
Peter, the apostle in Acts 15, told them gathered at that council
of Jerusalem, be honest, he said, you know that we, we, the leaders
of the new church, the apostles, we couldn't keep that law of
Moses, neither could our fathers, neither could those that went
before us, so let's not lay it as a burden. on the shoulders
of Gentile believers. The purpose of it was to drive
us to Christ. And the end of the believer's
race of life, run, says chapter 12 verse 1, run that race with
patience that is set before us, which has an end, that course
of life, that race of life. It's not Sinai. Sinai isn't the
end of it. But Zion. You are not come to
Sinai, he says, later in chapter 12, but you're come to Zion.
The end of that race of life. Believer, do you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? How many years have you got left?
Some very few, some maybe a bit more, but all of us are mortal.
We're all limited. What's the end of that race of
life? It's the kingdom of God. It's
Zion. It's the heavenly Jerusalem.
It's the kingdom that, as we saw last week at the end of chapter
12, it's the kingdom that can't be shaken. Because everything
of this world, the kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of this
world, the kingdom of Satan, is going to be shaken to destruction. But there is a kingdom that cannot
be shaken. But then there's an issue. Whilst
we remain in this flesh, because Jesus prayed in John 17, don't
take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil. Well,
whilst we remain in this flesh, with the sinful nature of the
flesh battling away with the holy nature of the Spirit of
God, of the new man given at regeneration, How do we live
in this world? And the question is posed in
a way, not as a question, but it's posed in verse 28 of chapter
12. Let us have grace, it says, whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Serving
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. What's going
to make us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear?
The answer's in that verse. Let us have grace. It's only
by grace. It's only by God's grace. It's
only by the character of God, which is gracious. The character
of God is gracious. And why is he gracious? Because
he's a God of love. It's love that underpins that
grace of God. This is what God's Word teaches.
Unlike religion, especially nominal Christianity, teaches the opposite
of that. But God's Word teaches, throughout
it, God's grace. God's grace. Is the race of this
life, is the course of this life, until we arrive at its end, is
it to be constrained by law? Thou shalt not do this, thou
shalt not do that. Or is it to be constrained by
grace? Is the believer's rule of life,
as so many wrongly say, is the law of Moses the believer's rule
of life? I cannot say more clearly and
more distinctly, absolutely not. It is not. The law of Moses is
not the believers' rule of life. It is not. The works of the law
in no way justify us or sanctify us before God. The works of the
law By it, no flesh shall be justified or sanctified or made
any better in the sight and judgment of God. Are we believers, if
you're a believer, are we to live bound by legal bondage? I think not. Why do I think not? Well, for one thing, I read this
morning, Galatians chapter five and verse one, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Do you know,
Most nominal Orthodox Christianity in this country is horrified
at that state. If they could, they'd get their
scissors and cut that out of the Word of God because they
don't like it. They say, oh, if you set Christians free from
the constraint and the bounds of the law, oh, there'll be carnage,
there'll be terrible, they'll sin, it'll be dreadful. No, believers
are not to live bound by legal bondage. We're to stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. We're free
by grace to serve God acceptably. You know, there's the idea in
the Old Testament of slaves and bond servants. You know, slaves
have no choice in the matter. Slavery is a terrible thing.
a terrible, wicked, sinful thing and a slave has no choice he's
owned by somebody else and he has no liberty to do anything
but must do exactly what the one that owns him says he must
do but then there came a time in the Old Testament order when
the slaves were set free they'd served their time, they were
set free but provision was made that some would want to stay,
not as a slave, but as a bond-servant of a loving master, because they'd
grown to love that master. They were willing, they were
made willing in the day of the power of God, and they volunteered
to be bond-servants, and the ear was pierced to show that
this person, this man, is a willing bond-servant. He wants to, why
is he serving? The slave, because he's got no
choice, the bond-servant, because he willingly chose to. Before
we move on and look at some of these verses, just think for
a moment. There's a lot of talk about law
and grace. The law, do we live by law or
do we live by grace? There's so many that tell us
that we're under an obligation to keep the law of Moses. And
I am not saying in any way that we live in a fashion that contradicts
the intentions of the Law of Moses. But what's the New Testament
instruction on how to live? The answer is not the law of
Moses, is not the law of Sinai, it's gospel precepts. That's
what J.C. Philpott called them, gospel
precepts. Are we to live based on law,
thou shalt not, or on grace? If you look through the epistles
of the New Testament, I can't, you tell me if I'm wrong, but
I cannot find one solitary place where the epistles, which again
and again give us encouragements as to how we ought to live to
reflect the gospel grace that we claim to have believed, they
never appeal to the law. They never appealed to the Ten
Commandments, just as a simple example. The New Testament gospel
precepts are full of the idea that we should be liberal spirited
with the things that we've been given, that God's given to us.
We should give liberally for the help of others, for the support
of the work of the gospel. but it never ever appeals to
the Mosaic laws about tithing. Bring the 10th, bring the 10th
of what you've got. You tithe in mint and cumming
and all these other things. Those tithing laws are never
appealed to in the New Testament. There is a right use of the law. Look at 1 Timothy chapter one
and verse five. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
5. Now the end, the objective, the
summary purpose of the law, of the commandment, is charity,
and charity means love. When we read 1 Corinthians 13
at the start, charity is love, love to God, the love of God,
the love of God for his people and the love of his people for
their God. Charity out of a pure heart and
of a good conscience. That's the objective, and of
faith and feign. From which some, having swerved,
have turned aside into vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the
law. Oh, there are a lot of those
in religion, aren't there? They love to tell us what we ought
to be doing and what we ought not to be doing, but they understand
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, nor what they're
talking about. But we know that the law is good if a man use
it lawfully. Why? What's it for? Knowing this,
that the law is not made for a righteous man. It isn't made
for someone made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it's made for the lawless. and the disobedient, for the
ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine." This world in which we live is
contrary to sound doctrine. Those sins are all there in the
world around us. Not only are they there, there
is absolutely no attempt on the part of the society in which
we live in, the governments that rule us in these evil days, to
restrain those evil things. So that's the right use of the
law. A right use of the law is for
the lawless, but for God's elect, for the people of God, the multitude
that no man can number, it is but the schoolmaster. Galatians
3.24, it's the schoolmaster unto Christ. It says to bring us unto
Christ, but those words are in italics. It's our schoolmaster.
The thing, the Greek word was the paide gogos, And he was the
guy that the parents put in charge of the children and gave him
a cane to punish the children, to get them into line. The law
is our paedagogos, our schoolmaster, to Christ, to point us to Christ,
to compel us to flee to Christ, because he is the only, he is
the glorious hope of condemned sinners. You see, The aim of
the law is to restrain or constrain behaviour, and it does it by
fear of the penalty that's imposed for breaking that law. The weakness
of the flesh means that the law is weak. The law cannot be kept. Because why? Because the law
is wrong? No, Romans 7 says no, not at all. It's the weakness
of the flesh. This sinful flesh in which we
live, even as believers, cannot keep that law. Anybody that thinks
they're getting better and better, their sanctification's improving,
have such a dim, low, ignorant view of what sin really is. But
grace warms the heart. The love of Christ constrains
us, it says in 2 Corinthians 5.14. I was reminded the other
day, I used to use it as an illustration, but one of Aesop's fables is
about the wind, the cold north wind, and the lovely warm sun
having a battle to get the coat off a man's back. And the cold
north wind says, I'll blow harder and harder and I'll tear that
coat off his back. And the son just sits back and
smiles with warmth on that man, and he willingly, of his own
volition, takes the coat off his back. And that's what we're
talking about. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. My heart of flesh holds the seed
of every sin. It does, and yours does too,
of murder. of theft, of adultery. Put in
the right situation, put in the situation where the temptation
is such. Your flesh holds the seed of
every sin. And it's the threat of loss or
the promise of a reward in keeping or not keeping that commandment
which attempts to constrain our actions. But it can't, it cannot
constrain our actions. Because, you see, the prisons
in this country are full literally to overflowing. But love can. Love can. How do you constrain
adultery, unfaithfulness to the marriage union? Is it because
the seventh commandment says thou shalt not commit adultery?
And if you were, what was the penalty in the Old Testament
order? You were to be stoned to death.
The rest of the congregation were to pick up stones and throw
them at you until you died. That was that law. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. What's the constraint against
adultery? Is it not love for your spouse? Is it not love? Love your wives,
love your husband. Religion says that Christian
behavior must be ruled and constrained by law, or else Christians will
sin that grace may abound. But what does Paul say to that
prospect? God forbid. We don't sin that
grace may abound. No, it's not by legal constraint
that we run this race, this course that God has set us. We run it
looking unto Jesus. And we run it looking unto Jesus,
and thereby we serve God acceptably. Not by law constraint, but by
the possession of grace. Let us have grace that we might
serve God acceptably. Gospel grace. Gospel grace. Good news grace. Good news of
what? of the accomplishment of salvation
by our God in our Lord Jesus Christ. That doctrine of salvation
accomplished. That's the grace that we have,
possessing that, living in the light of it, knowing that whatever
I am and am not, I am everything that God needs in the Lord Jesus
Christ, for by faith he has accomplished all things, and by the faith
that he gives me I look to him, and am thereby counted righteous. I live in the light of it, in
the good of it, in the blessing of that truth that produces the
Holy Spirit's fruit. You know, the Holy Spirit makes
a dead sinner alive to the things of God, and plants in that dead
sinner a new person. Regeneration, it's called the
new birth. And that spirit within produces fruit, the fruit of
the Spirit, Galatians 5. So what is the basis of fruitful
service? What is the basis? Let us serve
God acceptably with reverence and fear. Well, it's verse 1
of chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue. Let brotherly love carry on. What are we to do whilst we're
still in this sinful flesh, waiting for the accomplishment of that
arrival at Mount Zion, that kingdom of God that cannot be shaken?
What are we to do? Let brotherly love continue,
to continue through the race, through the course of life in
flesh. Why? Because God is love. 1 John
4 verse 8. Well, how do you, how do you
condense into one word the essence of God. Well, John does it by
this, by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, God is love. Christ is love. Total Obsession with the good
of another, even at cost to self. Love. Total obsession with the
good of another, of its object, at the expense of itself. Christ
loved the church, says Ephesians 5.25. Christ loved the church. To what extent? He gave himself
for it. He went to the cross of shame.
He took the sins that would condemn his church, his beloved bride,
and he bore them in his own body on the cursed tree. And he bore
that curse and gave himself for it. He loved so much. If we have the Spirit of Christ,
and it says in Romans 8 and verse 9, it says this, you are not
in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. You see, he's using God and Christ
interchangeably there. Don't waste any time arguing
with people that tell you that, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses
and the like that tell you that Christ is not God. Of course
he is. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit
of God, he is not his. But if we belong to him, we will
bear the fruit of his Spirit. And when we get to that list
of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, Which is the first
one? The fruit of the Spirit is love,
love, charity, love, godly love, charity, self-sacrificing love. Without it, as we read in 1 Corinthians
at the start of the service, look, without it, my religion
is nothing, it's worthless. I can do all of these religious
things, speak with the tongues of men miraculously, of men and
angels, But if I haven't got this essence of the truth of
God in the love of Christ, I'm just a noisy symbol. And I can
have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and
knowledge. But if I haven't got that love of God, which is the
character of Christ, I'm nothing. You know, you may think you're
something, but if you haven't that, you're nothing. I can be
so generous with my goods, give all that I have to the poor.
Oh, he must be a good Christian, mustn't he? Oh, look what he's
done. I could give my body to be burned even, but if I haven't
got this love, it profits me nothing because it's... It suffers
long. This love of God portrayed in
the believer, it suffers long. It's patient. It's kind. It doesn't
envy. It doesn't puff itself up. It
doesn't behave itself unseemly. It isn't after its own interests.
It isn't easily provoked. It isn't easily provoked. It
isn't easily provoked. It thinks no evil. It doesn't
dwell upon evil. It rejoices not in the falls
and slips of others, but rejoices in the truth. That's why Jesus
said, judge not that you be not judged. It rejoices not in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth. It puts up with all sorts of
things. This love, which is Christian love in the gospel, Believeth
all things doesn't mean that it's got no discernment regarding
correct doctrine, but it means it hopes the best of all people,
hopes all things, endures all things, it never fails. All the
other gifts of the spirit of that first century were going
to stop, they were going to come to an end. Prophecies, tongues,
special knowledge, all of it was all going to come to an end,
and there'd only be three things left, faith, hope, and love. But love of those three is by
far the greatest. Why? Because who needs faith
and hope when we're in that eternal city of God and it's there in
our possession? We don't need faith to see it,
we look and we see it. We don't need hope to long for
it, because it's there, it's our possession. But love continues. If I don't have that love, my
religion is nothing, it's worthless. Love prays for its brethren,
helps them, comforts them, forgives them, just as Christ did for
us. And love fulfills the law. Look at these scriptures with
me, Romans chapter 13 and verses 8 and 10. Paul here again, these
are gospel precepts at the end of a very doctrinal epistle teaching
the truth of the gospel of grace. But in verse eight he says, owe
no man anything but to love one another. We owe one another love,
the love of God. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. The law is the believer's rule.
No, it's not. Love others. That's fulfilling
the law. Verse 10, love worketh no ill
to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. Galatians 5, 14. It's fulfilled
in one word. Galatians 5 and verse 14. The law is fulfilled in one word,
even this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself.
James chapter 2 and verse 8, if you're on the If you're on
the last page of Hebrews in your Cambridge authorised Bible, then
you don't need to turn a page to get to James chapter 2. James
chapter 2 and verse 8, if ye fulfil the royal law according
to the scripture, what's that James? Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. You'll do well, you'll do well
if you fulfil that. 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8, above
all things have fervent charity, love among yourselves. For charity
shall cover a multitude of sins. Love will cover a multitude of
sins. How do we put this right? Love,
love, love, love for one another. So how to practically work this
out in our lives, and I'm just going to spend a short while
skipping through the first few verses of Hebrews chapter 13.
Let us serve God acceptably, verse 2, in being hospitable. In being hospitable to strangers. It doesn't mean open your home
to any Tom, Dick or Harry that's passing by. We have an overriding
responsibility to protect our families, especially in these
days of evil when there is so much evil walking around. We
have a responsibility to protect our families and not to be careless,
but to entertain those that we haven't known before, strangers,
people who come to you in the knowledge of the gospel of grace
or ones that might be seeking, might be seeking the truth. In hospitality. Unless they're
peddling false doctrine. John gives this warning. He says,
don't open your home to those that are peddling false doctrine.
Verse 10 of his second epistle. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, this true doctrine of gospel grace,
don't receive him into your house. Don't let him in, don't be hospitable
to him, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. No, no, he doesn't mean that,
but he does mean Be hospitable, be generous-minded with the things
that God has put in your hand. Everything we possess is from
the providential hand of God to us. So use it with an open
hand, and don't grasp it and keep it because it's yours and
not theirs. Don't do it because the law forbids selfish covetousness,
but as he says, you might just be entertaining angels. Some
men visited Abraham and he didn't realize at first, but he was
hospitable. And it turned out that they were
angels come to do the bidding of God. Verse three, have care
and compassion and empathy. to others around us. Remember
them that are in bonds. Bonds for the gospel's sake.
And it doesn't necessarily mean in prison, but it might come
to mean that at some time. It is in certain parts of the
world. In bonds for the gospel's sake. Under a burden, under difficulties
of trials, in need, even in need of saving grace, you see someone
in difficulties. Have compassion, have empathy.
It's all springing from this fruit of love of the Spirit.
Why should we do it? to fellow believers, they're
your body. Romans chapter 12 and verse 15,
Romans 12 and verse 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice
and weep with them that weep. Be empathetic. They're your body. They're part of that same body
of Christ. Rejoice with those that rejoice
and weep with those that weep. Not because the law tells you
to do otherwise, but because the love of Christ constrains
us to do these things. And thus, we serve God acceptably. Let us have grace to serve God
acceptably. Why does he suddenly throw in
verse four this thing about marriage? Marriage is honorable in all
and the bed undefiled. but whoremongers and adulterers
God will judge. Why does he throw that? It seems
out of, you know, well, just a sideshoot. No, it's not. It's absolutely fundamental.
It's absolutely fundamental. Marriage is honourable. I'd just
put in an aside, what right does religion have to forbid to marry? That's what 1 Timothy chapter
4, verses 1 to 3 says about people that, in their religion, they
try and wield the rule over people, that people would depart from
the faith, speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry and commanding
to abstain from meat, all these religious rules. No, no. But
marriage is honorable in all. And here we have a clash between
the standards of the society that we live in, that have drifted
so far from what they were when I was a child in the 1950s, against
what the word of God says today. It says here that a sexual relationship
is for the state of marriage and for the state of marriage
only, for children. to bring up children, to bring
children into the world and to bring them up, to nurture and
admonish them in the knowledge of God. It's a state of mutual
commitment of husband and wife. It's a state of stability. I
know by sin, those without the grace of God, there is so much
breakup of relationships and such a terrible mess in society. You just have to look, the disaster
that it's created. But home love, And married love
is the foundation for wider brotherly love. Love your spouses. Tenderly care for them as your
own body. Be satisfied, it says. Proverbs
5 verse 18. You know, the message of this
world is so and so, such a, you know, pop music star has got
married to somebody and you go well let's just you know don't
hold your breath but within a couple of years they're going to have
decided that they've had enough even though they promised they
promised till death us do part through sickness and in health
in all sorts of circumstances no they're going to go off and
do their own thing but Proverbs 5 18 written a long time ago
says rejoice with the wife of your youth Rejoice with the wife
of your youth. Keep yourselves from sexual immorality. That's what it says in Revelation
2, the letter to one of the churches. One of the complaints that the
risen Lord had against that church was that they were falling into
sexual immorality. Be constrained by the love of
Christ, not fear of the seventh commandment and its penalty.
Let's just look at verses five and six. Let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye
have. For he has said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do to
me. Contentment. express this love
of God and love of Christ through contentment. The law says, thou
shalt not covet. And Paul says it was that that
told him that he was a sinner. He thought he was blameless as
a Pharisee until the law said thou shalt not covet. And then
it hit him, it cut him right to the heart that he was covetous
and he was a sinner. But why should we be content?
The gospel precept is telling us to let our conversation be
without covetousness. Don't speak like this covetous
world all around us. Don't set up as the objectives
of your desire the things that, you know, you've heard me say
it often, and if I'm going to offend some who believe with
saying this again, then so be it. I despise this notion of
the bucket list. that we've got a bucket list
of things we have to do before we get to such and such a state.
It is completely contrary to gospel precepts. We gladly accept
whatever God permits and sends our way, but to have a bucket
list of things that I think I must do before I leave this life,
where's your heart? Is it set on the things of heaven
or on the things of this world? I know there are some lovely
things in this world, but leave it all to God to order it for
you. So why should we be content?
Is it not because we fear breaking that commandment? No, it's because
God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. God has
said that. So what more can you want? Well,
we haven't been in such and such a place, but God has said, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. He is the good shepherd. I am
the good shepherd. He gives his life for his sheep.
He has given his life. Are you one of his sheep? The
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, I shall not
be in a state of not possessing anything that I need for my eternal
good. and learn that, as Paul says,
I have learned, in Philippians 4 verse 11, he says, he's been
through all sorts of things. Paul has, he's been in a state
of abundance, he's been in times with churches where he spent
a couple of years here and a couple of years there teaching them,
and no doubt in the bliss of lovely fellowship and him teaching
the word, but then he spent time as a shipwreck beaten with with
whips, he's been many, many times given the 40 lashes, in all those
situations. But he says, I have learned in
whatever state I'm in. Oh, yeah, well, Paul, come on.
Yes, we can understand that when you were having a good time teaching
the gospel at Ephesus, you were content with that. But you can't
have been very content when you were in the stocks with Silas
in the prison at Philippi, can you? You can't have been content
with that. No, he means it. in every condition therewith
to be content. Here's a good motto. It's not
in the scriptures, but it's a good motto, and it's consistent with
the scriptures. Let your riches consist, not in the largeness
of your possessions, but in the fewness of your wants. Can I
say that again? Let your riches consist, not
in the largeness of your possessions, but in the fewness of your wants,
and thus serve God acceptably. on life's race to the celestial
city, life's course to the celestial city. The rest of it is talking
about right doctrine, having right doctrine, about honoring
those that are raised up by God to lead you as undershepherds. It's not talking about these legalistic pastors who
crack the whip and keep their church in order and apply church
discipline as if that was the only thing that mattered. No,
it's not about that. But remember and honor those
that God has raised up and given the gift to teach you the word
of life. Right doctrine, right doctrine.
The law says, no other gods but me. You shall not have any graven
images. Revere the name of God. Respect God's Sabbath and all
threatened death if you disobeyed. But grace points to Christ who
fulfilled all the types, the pictures, all the altars. We
have an altar, he's gonna say somewhere, where is it? We have
an altar, there we are, verse 10. We have an altar, he fulfilled
that. The altars of the Old Testament
are all fulfilled in him. The animal sacrifices burned
on those altars, he was the fulfillment of those pictures. So verse 13,
let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, outside
the camp, outside which camp? Outside the camp of this world's
religion and its values. Let's go bearing his reproach,
whatever it costs us, as Moses, who he forsook the treasures
and the pleasures of sin for a season in Pharaoh's palace,
to bear the reproach of Christ with the children of Israel.
And don't let legalists knock you off course by trying to bring
you back under legal bondage. We haven't time now, but read
Galatians 3. Let your heart be established with grace, not law
and legal requirements. It says in Colossians chapter
two, I will read this, in verse 16, let no man therefore judge
you in meat or in drink or inspect of a holy day or the new moon
or Sabbath days. He did say Sabbath days, you
know, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body, the reality
is Christ. Let no man beguile you of your
reward, involuntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding
into those things which he hasn't seen, vainly puffed up by his
fleshly mind and not holding the head. from which all the
body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit
together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore, if
ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of this world, why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances
which tell you to touch not, to taste not, to handle not?
They're all going to perish with the using after the commandments
and doctrines of men. They give an outward show, they
give an outward show, but no more than that. to the satisfying
of the flesh. That isn't serving God acceptably. So then, conclusion. How to serve
God acceptably? In John chapter 6, verses 28
and 29, the Pharisees asked Jesus, what must we do that we do the
works of God? The works that God will be satisfied
with, and you know the answer he gave. This is the work of
God, and it is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he has sent. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. To be just with God, believe,
and live how? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Enabled? and empowered by the
Spirit of God, manifested by the fruit of love. For God, love
for God, love for strangers, love for brothers and sisters
in Christ, love for marriage partners, love for families.
The New Testament is full of it. Just do this. I did it just
before, just to see. You've probably all got online
Bibles on your computers or your phones, but put in the search,
love and one another. Love and one another, or just
love and another. And you'll find it comes up so
many times. That's the rule of life. That's
the rule of life whereby we serve God acceptably. Praise his name
for it. What a glorious gospel. Amen.