Now if you have your Bibles open
to the book of Hebrews chapter 13, I'd like to read beginning
with verse 7 and read down through verse 17. 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. Be not
carried about with different or diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,
not with meats, which have not profited them that have been
occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they
have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priests for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp bearing his reproach. For here have we
no continuing city but we seek one to come. By him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that
is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do
good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves, 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." Now
what I would like to do this morning is I would like to share
with you another translation on the verses that I've read
to you and I believe it might open up the verses to us and
I would like for you to listen very carefully comparing what
we read now with what you have in your King James Bible. Would
you listen carefully? Remember your leaders beginning
with verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 13. Remember your leaders who
have taught you the Word of God and think of all the good that
has come from their lives and try to trust the Lord as they
do. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, so do not be attracted by strange new ideas. Your spiritual strength comes
as a gift from God, not from ceremonial rules about eating
certain foods, a method which, by the way, hasn't helped those
who have tried it. We have an altar, the cross,
where Christ was sacrificed, where those who continue to seek
salvation by obeying Jewish laws can never be helped. Under the
system of Jewish laws, the high priest brought the blood of the
slain animals into the sanctuary as a sacrifice for sin, and then
the bodies of the animals were burned outside the city. That
is why Jesus suffered and died outside the city where his blood
washed our sins away. So let us go out to him beyond
the city walls that is outside the interest of this world, being
willing to be despised, to suffer with him there, bearing his shame. For this world is not our home.
We are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven. With
Jesus' help, we continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God
by telling others of the glory of His name. Don't forget to
do good and to share what you have with those in need, for
such sacrifices are very pleasing to Him. Obey your spiritual leaders
and be willing to do what they say, for their work is to watch
over your souls, and God will judge them on how well they do
this. Give them reason to report joyfully
about you to the Lord, and not with sorrow, for then you will
suffer for it too. So that's the reading in the
living New Testament of these verses. My text this morning
is verse 9. where the scripture says, Be
not curious about what diverse and strange doctrines, for it
is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not
with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. I like the way the apostle opens
up these things, these truths, to our hearts. He tells us in
verse 8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. He has just mentioned how that
we ought to remember those who have the spiritual rule over
us, which have spoken unto us the Word of God, whose faith
follow, considering the end of their behavior or the end of
their lives. Now, beloved, if Jesus Christ
is the same today as He was yesterday, If he supported those who loved
his name, if he supported those and stood by and assisted and
was the helper of those who have stood fast and been steadfast
in the gospel and the work of the ministry in the past, he'll
do it in the present. He's the same. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you found Him yesterday to be your all-sufficient Savior,
then, beloved, you shall find Him to be your all-sufficient
Savior today. And not only will He be that
to you today, He will be that also to you tomorrow, because
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's a glorious,
glorious truth. Now beloved, where do we need
to go? Do we need to go somewhere else
apart from the Son of God? Do we need to look somewhere
else? Do we need to look for other teaching? The Word of God
says that the truth is in Jesus. That's where it is. Should we
look away from Him? Now the Apostle talks about in
verse 10, I just wanted to talk about these verses that were
before and also right after our text. He says, we have an altar
whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle.
Now he mentions here the fact that there are those that were
in his day that were still serving the tabernacle in hopes of gaining
salvation by their obedience to the Jewish law, hoping to
still gain favor with God through the keeping of the law. And so he said, this altar that
we have, they have no right to eat from that altar. And what
that means is the fact that those that eat of this altar, and we
do eat of the very flesh and the drink of the very blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and this is the altar that the
people of God eat at. They eat at that altar. Jesus
Christ is an altar, and He's also the sacrifice on that altar,
and we look to Him, and our confidence is in Him, and we don't need
to go back to the old tabernacle and to partake of those things
in order to establish our souls in the truth. Because, as we'll
show you a little bit later, it's a good thing that the heart
be established with grace and not with meats, not with a diet
according to the old ceremonial law. Now he goes on to point
out here about these bodies of those beasts whose blood was
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, how
they're burned without the camp. And then he tells us that the
Lord Jesus Christ, that He might sanctify or set apart His people
with His own blood. And the Bible does say that by
one sacrifice, this is Hebrews, I believe it is 10, 14. By one
sacrifice He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ has sanctified the people, that is
His people, that are those people that trust Him, believe in Him,
that is those that God has chosen and revealed His Son to, that
they have been sanctified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
and that they are complete in Him Needing not that anything
be added to, no meat, no eating of certain things, not eating
of certain things, nothing is to be added to the Lord Jesus
Christ and His work. Because He has completely sanctified
and set apart His people unto Himself. He owns them and has
provided eternal redemption for them. They're a purchased possession. Do you feel it in your soul?
You've been bought with a price and you belong to God Almighty
by the virtue of the fact that Jesus Christ has set you apart
unto the Lord. Okay, and then he goes on to
say, that he suffered without the gate. He suffered on Golgotha's
brow. He suffered there on that hill
of Calvary. He suffered there outside the
city of Jerusalem. Now, he says, seeing that we
have been sanctified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
His own blood, it means that He is all of our hope and that
our Our very eyes of our soul are focused upon Him and upon
none other. We've gotten our eyes off of
Judaism and all the Jewish laws, and our eyes are fixed on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Seeing that that's true, then
let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Let us be willing to suffer for
the gospel of the grace of God. Men do not suffer when they preach
a gospel of works. Nobody persecutes men and women
for preaching a law or gospel. They're not going to do that.
They're not going to do that. But listen, let me say this to
you this morning. If we truly know the grace of
God, If we have been begotten by the Spirit of God, if the
life, the very life of Jesus Christ is in us by the Holy Spirit,
then my friend, let us go outside the camp. Let us be willing to
go out and tell men and women that salvation is entirely from
A to Z by the grace of God. that salvation is truly all of
the grace of God, and that it's not of works in any way, shape,
or form. It's very clear, as our brother
read the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, that, my friend,
we actually separate ourselves. Christ is of no effect to us. He means nothing to us. We cannot, if we seek to be justified
by the law and the works, then Christ is of no effect whatever
unto us. We've fallen from grace when
we go outside the Lord Jesus Christ to seek favor with God. Now my friend, if that be the
case, let us be willing to suffer. Let us be willing to suffer for
His sake. Let us be willing to be deprived
of the things of this world, even with those that might favor
us. Otherwise, if we preach and mix
work and grace, then, my friend, let us be willing to suffer reproach. Let us be willing to suffer as
Paul did. You know, Paul made it very clear
that if he preached like men did, he wouldn't be suffering.
the way he suffered when he was here in his ministry. Because
if he preached that salvation was through the works of the
flesh and through the deeds of the law, then he wouldn't have
suffered reproach for Christ's sake. And so let us be willing,
brethren, to pay the price. Let us get the message of the
grace of God well fixed in our heart and be willing to pay whatever
price that we must pay to bear that message to the world. It's
the only salvation there is, is by the free favor and mercy
of our sovereign God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, beloved,
our text is verse 9, as we said, and this text begins with a warning,
a caution against False doctrine. It warns us about being carried
away with different and strange doctrines, new teachings, about
how that the law is coupled with grace, and how that you mix law
and grace. And there's so much of it in
the world. Now, beloved, we must be aware
of the fact that Paul here is addressing this warning to these
Hebrew Christians. He's addressing this warning
to those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
is a warning just as much needed now as it was eighteen or nineteen
hundred years ago. Never do I think that there was
a time when it's so important for God called preachers to cry
aloud, be not carried about with different and strange ideas or
different and strange doctrines. Now the old enemy, the devil,
has no more subtle device for damning and ruining souls than
that of spreading false doctrine. That spreading of something that
is heretical that would lead men and women down the path to
destruction as they get involved and as they abide these truths
or these damning lies as they imbibe them, as they receive
them into their soul and simulate them into their system, then,
my friend, they're ruined. And some people have been ruined
for life listening to somebody muddy up, as it were, the truth
of the gospel by adding works to grace. He is a murderer and
a liar from the beginning, that is the devil. He never ceases
going to and fro in the earth, seeking whomever he may devour. Outside the church, men and women
are in his grasp, taken captive by him, and they're unable to
escape his chains. And inside the church, he sows
heresies, propagates errors, fostering departures from the
faith, and he cannot stop the flow of the water of life, so
he tries to poison the water, to adulterate and to corrupt
the waters of the gospel. We thank God that Jesus Christ
is the water of life. He's the water of life, and he
is the pure water of life. Now the devil is called Napoleon,
the destroyer. And well, the Holy Spirit has
raised up a standard against him. He's raised up a standard
against the devil. And that is the Word of God itself. The Word of God itself. Now the
Word expounded. The Word unfolded. The Word explained. The Word opened up. The Word
preached. The Word made clear to the head
and applied to the heart. This is the chosen weapon by
which the devil must be confronted and confounded. Now this Word
was the sword which the Lord Jesus Christ used when being
tempted by the devil in the wilderness. In every assault of the devil,
he replied, It is written. It is written. Now the Word is
the sword of the Spirit. The Bible faithfully and freely
expounded is the safeguard of the Lord's Church. Paul said
to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4, in verse 2, and then 3 and 4, he
said, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching
ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
they shall be turned unto fables." Old Brother Barnard said one
time, it's high time that we preachers quit bragging about
not being theologians and find out what the Bible has to say
and get to saying it. Now, beloved, I believe that
with all my heart. It's time that preachers quit
apologizing for not being theologians and begin to study the Bible
and to say what it says. We're living in a day when a
preacher or anybody else cannot say that one doctrine is true
and another is false because he'll be branded as a narrow-minded,
uncharitable bigot. The Scriptures was not written
in vain, brother, sister. Man shall not, the Bible says,
live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the
mouth of God. Job chapter 23 and verse 12 says,
I have esteemed the words of his mouth. more than my necessary
food, and brother, sister, my admonition to you this morning
would be let us do likewise. Let us esteem the word of God
more important than our necessary food. Read it. Assimilate it
into your system. Pray the blessing of God upon
it as you read it. Now we have in our text three
things. First of all, this warning. be not carried about with different
and strange doctrine. Secondly, Paul's prescription
for an established heart. It is good that the heart be
established with grace and not with meats. And thirdly, we have
an instructive fact here that meats have not profited them
that have been occupied therein. Everybody that's attempted to
profit by adding different and certain meats to their diet in
order to gain favor with God have never profited by it at
all. First then the warning, be not
carried about with different and strange doctrines. These
words of Paul are not hard to be understood. Be not tossed
to and fro, but every false doctrine ye hear, like ships without compass
or rudder, are blowin' in the wind. False and strange doctrine
will arise as long as the world stands. In number many, in details
varying in one point, Always the same, a departure from the
gospel, the pure gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And these
exist now. Remember this, and be not carried
away, Paul is saying. Paul's warning is not the only
one we find in the scriptures. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
said in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15, Beware of false prophets
which come unto you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. In Paul's last address to the
Ephesian elders, he warns them in Acts chapter 20 and verse
30, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things to draw away disciples after them. In 2 Corinthians
11 and 3, he says, I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. In Galatians 1 and verse
6, Paul said, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And in Galatians 3 and 1, O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? How turn you again to weak and
beggarly elements? Ye observe days and months and
times and years. And Paul said, I am afraid of
you. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Galatians 5 and verse 1. Ephesians 4 and 14. Be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine. Colossians 2 and verse 8. Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the traditions of men. The Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
1 Timothy 4 and 1. There shall be false teachers
among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1. 1 John 4 and 1. Believe not every spirit. Many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Jude 1 verse 3 and
4. contend earnestly for the faith
once delivered to the saints, for there are certain men crept
in unawares." Mark well, my brother and sister, these texts of scriptures,
these things were written for our learning. What shall we say
to these texts? I know what they say to me. Now
these texts say two things to me. The first is, these texts
show me that the early churches were not models of perfection
and purity. To think otherwise, I think,
is absurd. That early churches, even in
the days of the apostles, they had abundant error, both in doctrine
and practice in the churches. And so, these warnings were given. And then I believe also that
there are no superfluous warnings in the Word of God. I mean by
that, that there are no warnings given in the Scriptures that
are useless and to no end. That they were designed purposely
by the Spirit of God for the perfection of the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Their perfection and their protection
in this world. Now, to tell me that there is
no need to warm the churches in our day of different and strange
doctrines is very senseless and unreasonable. Surely the dumb
dog and the sleeping shepherd are not the best allies of the
wolf, the thief, and the robber. Paul said in 1 Timothy 4 and
5, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things,
thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. So rise up,
and wake thou that sleepest. Wake up, and let's listen to
the Word of God. In our day, by the pen, and by
the tongue, and by the press, and by the pulpit, we are constantly
and incessantly being seduced to leave the truth. for error
and heresy. Now, if we pretend to be just
ignorant and stick our head in the sand, no, my friend, we cannot
do that. The danger is real. The danger
is great. It's unmistakable. Never was
it more timely to say, be not carried about. Be not carried
about. Now, hear me out. There is undeniable
zeal in some of the teachers of error. Their earnestness alone
makes many think they must be right. Their earnestness alone
makes many think they must be right because they're just eloquent
and they're zealous in propagating what they believe. But zeal is
fit for wise men, someone well said years ago, but it's mostly
found in fools. Now there's also a great appearance
of learning and theological knowledge in some of these people that
are propagating error even in our time. We must not forget
that Satan is often transformed into an angel of light. The only safeguard we have, beloved,
is the Word of God. Read and pray over it, study
it, and may it forever be preached in this place. Jesus said, John
5 and 39, search the scriptures. Ignorance of the Bible is the
root and the road to all error. Let me say that again. Ignorance
of the Bible, ignorance of the Word of God is the root and road
to all error. Knowledge of the Bible is the
best antidote against ancient or modern heresies. And that
sums up what I have to say about the first point about this warning
about being carried about by different and strange doctrines. My second point is Paul's prescription
for spiritual health. I like this. I like to talk about
this. There are two words in this prescription
which requires, I think, a little explanation, and that is grace.
and meats, these two words. Now a right understanding of
them, these two words, is absolutely essential to a proper use of
the Apostle's prescription, his advice. We will take them backward
as to the way they appear in the text. First of all, we talk
about meats. Now in the Old Testament some
meats were called clean and others were called unclean. to eat certain
kinds of flesh under Jewish law made a Jew ceremonially unholy
before God, and no strict Jew would touch or eat such food
on any account, pork being an example. But let me ask some
questions. Now were these distinctions still
to be kept up after Christ ascended into heaven, or were they done
away by the gospel? Were Gentile converts under any
obligation to the Levitical law about food? Were Jewish Christians
obliged to be as strict about the meats that they ate as they
were before Christ died and the veil of the temple was red and
twain? Was the ceremonial law about meats entirely done away
or was it not? was the conscience of a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ to be troubled with fear, lest his
food should defile him. Well, what did Paul, enlightened
Paul, have to say about this? Romans 14 and verse 14, I know
and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean
of itself. Meat, he says, in 1 Corinthians
8 and 8, commends us not to God. For neither if we eat are we
the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. The kingdom
of God, Romans 14 and 17, is not meat and drink, but righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Let no man judge you in meat
and drink, Colossians 2 and 16. or in respect of the holy day
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, saith Paul. Now nothing
shows the fallen nature of a man so clearly as the readiness of
morbid and scrupulous consciences to turn trifles into serious
things, Bishop Ryle said. Now follow with me, meets denotes
anything, hear me now carefully, it denotes anything added to
the gospel as a thing of primary, primary importance. By meets,
Paul means ceremonial observances. observances either wholly invented
by man or else built on mosaic precepts which have been abrogated,
meaning done away with, and superseded by the gospel. It was an expression
that was well understood in the days of the apostles' meats. Now then we hurry on. Now the
word grace, we said there was two words, meats and grace. And we took them backward as
they appeared in our text. We talked about meats first,
now grace. Grace, on the other hand, denotes
or is a comprehensive description of the whole gospel of Christ. It is a picture of the whole
gospel of Christ. Grace is the main feature of
the gospel. Is that alright? It's the main
feature of the gospel. Grace is the fountain of life
from which our salvation flows. Grace is the agency through which
our spiritual life is not only given, but is also kept up. Are we justified? It is by grace. Are we called? It is by effectual
grace. Have we forgiveness? It's through
the riches of His grace, Ephesians 1 and 7. Now, do we have a good
hope? Then it is through the grace
of God that we have a good hope. No man has a good hope that is
not based and bottomed on the grace of God. Remember that.
And so if you have a good hope, it's by grace. Do we believe?
If we do, it's through grace. You believe by the grace of God.
Grace is the gift of God, and we know that faith is also the
gift of God. Are we the elect? It is by the
election of grace. Now then, Paul said in Romans
6 and 14b, he says we're not under the law, but under grace.
And then the verse in Hebrews, I want to give it to you one
more time, verse 14. For by one offering, and don't
ever forget this, it would be well if you'd memorize it. For
by one offering hath He, Christ, perfected forever, them that
are sanctified. Those that have been set apart
in the eternal covenant of grace, they have by one offering been
perfected forever. Don't talk about adding anything
to that. Don't talk about adding anything to it. Don't say you're
going to have to eat this or eat that or don't eat this or
don't eat that. Don't tell me anything about
being circumcised or non-circumcised. Don't tell me all of that. You're
going to un-Christian yourself. You'll un-Christ yourself. You're
going to fall from grace if you add anything to what the Word
of God teaches about being sanctified by the one offering of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul lays down in our text this
great principle that it is by grace not means that the heart
of the believer must be established. That the heart of the believer
must be established. Now what I want to do is to establish
the hearts of the people to whom I preach. That's what I want
to do. I'd like to see your heart established. I'd like for you
to have some peace in your soul and your heart. I'd like to see
you on a foundation wherein you'd be able to rejoice, where you'd
have a clear view of the Lord Jesus Christ and where you'd
be able to grasp Him with a heart of faith and confidence and never
turn loose. Now this is the need of the hour.
We have much indwelling sin in us. Mitch just sung about that
a while ago. Our faith is most of the time
feeble. Our hope is dim. and our consolations
are small, and we're not at ease. We're very restless. Most of
us are restless in dealing with our circumstances, dealing with
our old flesh, dealing with trying to obtain enough assurance to
be able to lay our head down on a pillow at night without
all hell popping around us. We want some rest and some assurance. If you do, listen to Paul's prescription. Now, listen, we're not at ease,
I said. It seems that we're never going
to attain the joy and peace that is ours in believing the gospel. It's just not to be found hardly
among believers. You don't find joy and peace
as it ought to be in the hearts of believers, and I believe that
this is the reason. Well, where are we going to turn?
Where are we going to turn? Well, the enemy says some shortcut
road to establishment is what you need. You need some quack
medicine. It's what you need. He shows us some additions to
the gospel, some man-made device, some exaggeration of a truth,
some flesh-satisfying invention, some improvement on the old path
of free grace, as the false religionists would say. He says, do this and
you'll be better established. Wear a hat. Wear drab clothes. Wear longer sleeves. Don't cut
your hair. Cut your hair. Wear your hair
in a bun. Stop this. Stop that. Beloved,
if you attach that to the gospel of the grace of God, now that's
quack medicine. Now if you want to wear long
sleeves, wonderful, your perfect liberty. If you want to wear
drab clothes, that's your right, absolutely. If you want to cut
your hair or if you don't want to cut your hair, I'm not going
to fall out with you. If you want to wear a hat, if
you want to wear your hair in a bun, that's your perfect liberty
to do that, and I'll stand up for your liberty to do it. But
don't you dare say, don't you dare say that that's going to
give you more favor with God than a person that don't do it.
Because that's not the way it is. Our foundation is the perfect
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're perfect through that
sacrifice, and that's exactly what Paul's talking about here.
The devil and his instruments often beguile unstable souls
and lead them into misery and to bondage for years. Hard establishment
does not come by joining this or that, or doing this or that,
naught meets grace. Grace. Other things have a show
of wisdom perhaps and give a temporary satisfaction to the flesh. Caution
2 and 23. But they leave you an unhappy
soul. Nothing bettered rather worse
off than before if you're trusting in them to gain favor with God. But what we need is a clear knowledge
of the divine scheme of grace and its eternal purpose in Christ
Jesus, its application to the elect by the redeeming work of
our Lord Jesus. Yes, we need a firmer grasp of
the doctrines of grace, the grace of God, the free love of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to understand more fully
Christ's full and complete satisfaction for our sin of justification
by simple faith, in the Lord Jesus. Romans 5 and verse 1 tells
us, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 4 and 5, But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. To know Christ, beloved, is to
know the fountain of grace. and to know his offices and his
sympathy and his power and his high priestly work, his intercessory
work will establish our hearts and this is the secret, this,
this, this I say is the secret of heart establishment. This
is the old path of peace. This is the true panacea for
a restless soul. This, my friend, may seem too
simple for you. It may seem too simple, too easy,
too cheap, too commonplace, too plain for you. But all the wisdom
of man or of this world can never show a poor sinner a better road
to rest and peace than this. There is no other road to rest
and peace for a sinner's heart than to focus one's attention
upon the grace of God and the free love and mercy of God in
the person of God's dear Son. All the wisdom and manner of
this world can never produce a way which will establish the
heart. There are so many unestablished
and unsettled, professing believers, wondering about, tossed to and
fro for want of the pure truth of the gospel and the prescription
that Paul gave us this morning in our text. Grace, grace not
meets, establishes the heart of the believer. There have been
some who have turned away from us in the past because the grace
of God was not enough for them. They said we're not ready yet
to turn loose of the law. If they're God's children, well
the day will come if they get hungry enough for some rest and
peace, they'll begin to look. Hopefully they will. They'll
begin to trace out. They'll begin to look to the
Word of God and light we trust will be given and they'll be
rescued and they will come, my friend, to where that they can
rest in the Lord and have some peace. We may be amused or excited
or kept quiet for a time. Our self-righteousness and pride
may be fed by a religion of meats for a while, but mark my words. Unless our religion be one in
which grace is all, we shall never be established and you
will never be able to find that rest that enables you at night
when you lay your head down just to completely abandon yourself
into the hands of the Lord. and to rest with sweet peace
and rest until you get away from the meats and focus on the grace
of God. Notice briefly the third thing.
I said we have an instructive fact here set forth by Paul. Meats have not profited them
that have been occupied therein. Now that's very simple language,
isn't it? Meats have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. I believe that Paul had some
people in view, people on his heart when he said this. What
he means is, simple old down home hillbilly language, they
got no good out of their religion. They got no good out of their
religion. How many people do you know that got no good out
of their religion? Well, if you follow them, if
you talk to them, if you really boil it down and run it through
the sieve, what they believe, you'll find out their religion
is not grace, that it's works. It's a mixture. And grace and
works will not mix. Now, they have got no good from
their notions. They've not been more inwardly
happy, more outwardly holy, or more generally useful. Man-made additions to the gospel
of Christ, however ably defended and supported, do no good to
those that adopt them. It matters not how much money
they have or what kind of buildings they have. It don't matter. Man-made,
let me say it again, additions to the gospel of Christ, however
ably defended or supported, do no good to those that adopt them.
Don't do any good. They confer no increased inward
comfort They bring no growth of real holiness. They give no
enlarged usefulness to the church. None whatsoever. Calmly, quietly,
but firmly, decidedly, unflinchingly, the assertion is made, meats
have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Now that's
plainly what the text says. Never leave grace for a religion
of meats. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Can you say that? I'm what I
am by the grace of God. My friend, we're not what we
are by our do's and don'ts. We're what we are by the grace
of God. I trust this morning that the
Lord will be pleased to establish our hearts by what we've heard
here out of this text. Now I wanted to make