Hebrews 13, Paul sounds two solemn warnings here
in verse 9. The first one he says, be not
carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Do not be carried about, shaken,
led astray by diverse, different, manifold, many strange doctrines. Now Paul warned the church over
here in Acts 20 when Paul brought his final message to the elders
of Ephesus before going to Rome. to see their faces no more. They
would never hear Paul preach again. And he tells them in verse
28 of Acts 20, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. To feed the church of God, to
preach the gospel, to preach the word of God. The children's
bread is the word. You feed my sheep, Christ said
to Peter, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves, Christ
said they'll come to you, wolves in sheep's clothing, enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, false teachers, speaking strange things, perverse things,
to draw away disciples after themselves." That's just a few
years after our Lord rose again and ascended back to the Father,
the Apostle, warning the early churches. Here, over in 2 Peter,
The Apostle Peter warned the churches in his general epistle,
he says in 2 Peter 2, verse 1, 2 Peter 2, 1, but there
were false prophets also among the Israelites. Even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who bring in, who shall
privately bring in strange doctrines, damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And tragically, many will follow
their lascivious ways, by reason of whom the truth shall be evil
spoken of, and through covetousness. These false teachers are covetous
men. Self-glory, they covet material
things, they covet fame, they covet a lot of things. Shall they with feigned words,
hypocritical words, make merchandise of you, they'll use you. They'll
use you for their goals and their gain, their purposes. Whose judgment now of a long
time lingereth not, their damnation slumbereth not. The day is coming
when God will deal with them. So he warns us here in verse
9 of Hebrews 13, don't be led astray and shaken by strange
doctrines. Why are they called strange doctrines? Why are they called strange?
Well, the first reason is they're strange to the scriptures. These doctrines are not in the
scriptures. These folks make them up out
of their heads. They get them out of some kind
of super revelation. They hand it down old wise fables
from one to the other. They're strange doctrines. They're
strange to the word of God. They're not in the word of God.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 8. We're told, we're instructed
not to listen to people who do not teach the scriptures. We're
warned not to listen to people who tell what they think, what
their denomination believes, or what their old school teacher
told them, their old professor, or what some church denomination
believes. If you don't preach the Word,
don't listen to them. Look at Isaiah 8, verse 19. And when they shall say to you,
seek unto them that have familiar spirits, listen to that fellow
that It says God speaks to him, has divine revelations, he has
supernatural powers, he has powers to heal, and powers to discern
spirits, and powers to forecast the future, and powers to tell.
When they say, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and
to wizards that peep, and to mutter, should not a people seek
unto their God? For the living to the dead, why
would I go to hear about the living God to some dead preacher,
dead prophet, dead religiously? From the living to the dead? Where are we to go? Not to the
dead. We're to go to the law. What is the law? The word of
God. Go to the law, to the word, to the testimony, to the scriptures. If men speak not according to
this word, it's because there's no light in them. There's no
revelation, there's no light, there's no dawning, it's all
darkness. To the Word, to the testimony,
if anybody speaks not according to the Word of God, if he teaches
something, let him read it from the scriptures. And these divers
and strange doctrines are strange to the scriptures. They don't read them out of the
Word of God. Most of these fellas just roam around. They don't
teach the Word. They just run up and down and
holler and scream and carry on. They're cheerleaders, leading
folks in cheers. The second reason they're called
strange doctrines, they're strange to the Word of God, but they're
strange to the person and work of Christ. All things, in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. No man knows the Father, but
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal it. The gospel is
concerning his Son. The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding that we may know God, the true God. Christ is the revelation of God.
He said no man comes to the Father but by me. So what they're preaching
is is strange and contrary to the person of Christ. We preach
Christ, Paul said. We preach not ourselves, we preach
Christ and Him crucified. And then the third reason why
Paul calls these doctrines strange doctrines is they're strange
to the Scripture, they're not in the Word of God, they're contrary
to the person and work of Christ, and then they're contrary to
free grace. Salvation is by grace, not by works. We preach what
Christ did, what he accomplished, his work, his person, his work.
He redeemed us. We didn't redeem ourselves. We
didn't give ourselves life. Doctrines that are strange to
the scripture, to the personal work of Christ, and to free grace
are not to be followed. 500 years ago, 600 years ago, there
was an awesome reformation of religion. There was an awesome
reformation. Works and free realism and Catholicism
and dark ages just reigned over this earth. And God raised up
some men. He raised up a John Calvin. and a Martin Luther, and a man
called Zwingli, and then there were others that I can't name
all of them, but God raised up some men in Switzerland and Germany
and different places. And these men, their message
was justification by faith. And that Reformation just swept
those countries over there. God was pleased to send great
revival, refreshing from every a restoration of the truth and
a reformation of religion. And there was a three-fold foundation
of that reformation, a three-fold foundation. This was the foundation
of that reformation. Number one, the scriptures alone
put aside all traditions, all fables, all think so, and thought
so, and handed down, and doctrines that were contrary to the Scripture,
the Scriptures alone. That was the basis of that, their
preaching, their faith, and that Reformation, the Word of God.
Let's go back to the Word of God, back to the Word of God. And the second foundation was
Christ alone. Salvation by Christ alone, His
righteousness, not ours, His, His blood. Not the sacraments,
the communion, the baptism, the altars, the morality and duties and deeds
of men and holy days, but Christ. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. It's Christ alone. Christ alone. And the third foundation was
grace alone. Not by works. Not by works. Not by works before we're saved
or after we're saved. By Christ, by his blood, by grace. Grace alone. And that was the
Reformation that was such a blessing to us today. And the freedom
that people came over to this country to worship God on that
foundation, the scriptures alone, Christ alone, grace alone. And
that's what Paul's saying here. Don't you be carried about with
strange doctrines that are contrary to those three things. That's
the basis. The Word of God is the only foundation
of our faith, our practice, and our preaching. We preach to the
Word, to the Word of God. What does the Word say? If it's
not in the Word, we don't believe. And to Christ, we look to Christ.
Not to experience our profession, or our confession, or our confirmation,
or our baptism, or our goodness, or works, or... We look to Christ. His righteousness, His blood
alone and only, Christ saves us. He is our life, our hope,
and our salvation. And it's by free grace. Free
grace. And that brings me to the next
warning, verse 9. It's a good thing. Here's the
good thing. It's a good thing that the heart
be established with grace, not with means, not with works, not
with doings. The heart be established with
grace, not with works, means, which didn't profit those that
are occupied. Look at the Jews, they've been
occupied with meats and diets and works and days and ceremonies
and circumcisions and Sabbaths and all these things, didn't
profit them. But let's break this down a little
bit. It's a good thing. It's the best thing. It's the
only thing. That's the heart. Now, it's a heart work. That's the heart, our soul. our
minds, our innermost being. That's what we're talking about. Where the heart, man believes,
is under righteousness. Salvation is not a mouth thing,
not a flesh thing. It's a heart experience. It's
a heart work. Keep thy heart out of any of
the issues of life. My son, God said, give me your
heart. Out of the heart proceeds the things that defile. Out of
the heart proceeds the things that They'd glorify God, but
the heart wouldn't. Christ said, these people draw
nigh unto me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
me. There are preachers that preach with their lips, but their
hearts are not in the scripture, in Christ and in grace. Or they'd
continue it. Established. But the heart be
what? Established. Let's turn over
to 1 Peter 5, established. I want you to read that article
on the back of the book. God's trees grow slowly. God's trees grow slowly. Planning of the Lord. And through
His Word and His Spirit, and his teaching and his trials,
his chastening, his trees grow. Their roots reach deeper into
Christ the living stream. Their branches reach higher,
take hold of the throne. Their branches reach out to shade
and comfort men. And their fruits increase to
be a blessing to men. But it's slow. You don't plant
a tree that's worth a nickel and expect anything out of it
for five years. I'm always fearful of people
that learn too much too quick, pop off too much too quick, get
too excited too quick, too quickly. This grace is a experience. It's a hard experience. It's
a changing of the guard. It's under new management. It's
a reversal of the life, of the trends. It's a changing of the
habits. It's a growth in grace. It's
coming to know God. And it has to be established.
It takes time, years. It says here in verse 10 of 1
Peter 5, the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal
glory. That's his ultimate goal, glory. It's not to see how high you
can jump now. to see how high you can live
then. Called us to eternal glory by
Christ Jesus. After you've suffered a while,
after you've suffered a while, after you've made every mistake
you know how to make, after you've gone through trials and troubles
and tribulations, after you've been up and down a dozen times,
after you've suffered, He'll make you perfect, mature. He'll
establish you. You're not going to change. You
strengthen you. You saddle you up. And that's
what he's saying over here. This is the good thing, that
the heart of a man, a woman, the mind, the soul, be established
with grace. Grace. Now, what is grace? About everybody talks about grace,
but not many folks know what grace is. Turn to Romans 9 with me for
a moment, Romans chapter 9. This grace, the grace of God,
salvation by grace, the grace of God, our hearts established,
settled in grace, this grace. Well, first, it's provenient
grace. That's where it all begins, provenient,
P-R-E-V-E-N, I-E-N You write that down, provenient
grace. Look it up in a good dictionary. You don't have to look it up
in a theological book. Look it up in a dictionary, a
good one. And it'll tell you it's grace
before grace. It'll tell you that it's going
before in time. It'll tell you that this is grace
before any happening or any action on the part of any creature. That's right, Provenient Grace,
in Webster's Dictionary, look it up. Even the dictionary knows
more than most preachers. What's an example of Provenient
Grace? Christ died on the cross, but
he was a lamb slain before he died on that cross. He was a
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Grace before grace. Mercy before it was demonstrated. The promises of God were given
to the prophets in the Old Testament before they were ever fulfilled.
Convenient grace. And God had his hand on you,
and me, and his eye on you, and his heart on you, and his love
on you before you was ever born. Before you was ever thought about. Before your daddy was born, and
his daddy was born, and his daddy was born, and his daddy was born,
before Adam was born. Look at Romans 9, verse 11. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger." That's a fact. That's a promise. Jacob
had a love. When did he love him? Before
he was born. Before he was conceived in his
mother's womb. That's provenient grace. And
it's a good thing for the heart to be established in the provenient
grace of God. The eternal grace. Eternal grace. And then, keep the Bible open
there, Romans 9. And it's sovereign grace. In verse 14, it says, well, what
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair? God forbid. He said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion." Our Lord Jesus said that. He
said, Father, I thank you, Lord of heaven and earth. You've hid
these things from the wise and prudent. You've revealed them
to babes. Even so, Father, it seems good
in your sight. This is sovereign grace. It's
provenient grace, eternal. It's sovereign grace. If it's
not sovereign, it's not grace. If God owes us anything, it's
not grace. If God rewards us for what we
do, it's not grace. If God takes into consideration
that we're more worthy than somebody else, it's not grace. Grace is
free. Free. Grace is sovereign. If I give you something to gain
your support and your help, that's not a gift. I'm bribing you. I'm buying you. That's not free. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. It's a good thing for the heart
to be established in provenient grace, sovereign grace. Look
down here at verse 16. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, and it's not of him that runneth. It's of God that
shows mercy. It's not of the fellow that's
working. It's not of the human will. We're born, not of the
will of man, not of the will of the flesh. We're born of God.
The wind blows where it will. You can't control the wind. You
can't control the lightning. God says, I say to the lightning,
go and it goes and come and it comes. God says, I say to the
rain, fall. I say to the snow, fall. I say
to the wind, blow. Not anybody here can have any
control whatsoever over the wind, where it goes or what it does,
whom it affects. Even so are they that are born
of the Spirit. Even so are they that are born
of the Spirit. When Ezekiel stood on that mountain overlooking
the valley of dry bones, he said, Blow, O breath of God, upon these
slain that they may live. I can pray to the God to send
the wind, but I can't send it. Convenient grace. My heart's
established. I've been preaching that 49 years
now. Sovereign grace. God saves whom
He will. The Son quickeneth whom He will. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. I don't even think it. Don't
even consider it. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will. It's free. It's not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth. It's
of God that showeth mercy. And this is effectual grace.
Turn back to Romans 8. It's saving grace. None of the
elect will perish. I preached in Downey Island,
Kentucky one time under a tent. I don't give what's called altar
calls. Some people call it invitation, but it's an altar call is what
it is. I don't do that. I believe salvation is of the Lord.
I believe it in the air. And I preach the gospel and leave
men and women, boys and girls in the hands of God. He'll quicken
whom he will. He'll save whom he will. He'll
call his elect. None of them are going to be
lost. Well, after I finished preaching and had prayed and dismissed
the congregation, a man came up to me, a man whom I knew quite
well in the church down there that was supporting the meeting.
He was angry with me because I hadn't given that altar call,
and he said, I have a brother that's been
in hell ten years because a preacher didn't give an invitation after
a service one night. My brother was troubled and a
preacher didn't invite him to come to God. I said, well, I don't remember
exactly what I said, but something to this effect. I don't believe anybody's in
hell because a preacher did anything. If a man's in hell, if a man
perishes, it's because of his sins. He would not, you will
not come to me that you might have life. But my friend, it
says in Romans 8, listen, verse 29, I'm not worried about one
of the elect not being saved. If you belong to Him, He'll call
you. He'll make you willing to, He'll
give you a thirst that can't be quenched except by His Spirit.
He'll give you a hunger that can't be satisfied except by
His Word. He'll give you an aching that
cannot know peace except resting in His bosom. He'll give you
a desire for Christ that cannot be satisfied until you embrace
Him, and He embraces you. I guarantee you. Listen to verse
29. Whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom
He did predestinate, them He called. He called, He called
a heavenly calling, a holy calling, a high calling, an effectual
calling. And whom He called, He justified. And whom He justified, He'll
glorify. Now what shall we say to that?
I said, God be for me, who can be against me? It's a good thing
for our hearts to be stabbed. Don't run after Whatever comes along, strange
to the word, strange to the person of Christ, strange to grace,
may our hearts be established, settled. The longer it sits there, the
harder it gets established, the firmer. Hard is not a good word,
tender, but established. I shall not be moved, shall not
be moved. I tell you the main reason, I
found everything in Him. Everything I need. Everything
God requires. Everything beautiful. Everything
comforting, peace. I found it, I'm not looking for
it. Peace or rest or joy or salvation. He is my peace, joy. And then, this is persevering
grace. Preserving grace. 435 of Romans 8. Who will separate
us from the love of Christ? Name something, name anything
that can take a believer away from Christ. Tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, perils, sores. Why, it's written,
for thy sake we're killed all the day long. We're counted as
sheep for the slaughter. In these things we're conquerors. These things I've just named
that unsettle some people settle us in these things. We're conquerors through Him
that loved us. I'm persuaded neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature can
separate us from that love of God. Watch it now, which is in Christ
Jesus. That's where the love of God
is. Grace wrote my name. Prevenient grace wrote my name
in God's eternal book. Electing grace gave me to the
Son, the Lamb, who all my solace took. Calling grace taught my
soul to pray. Saving grace, I made my eyes
overflow. Keeping grace has kept me to
this day and will not let me go. And grace, eternal grace,
all his works shall crown through everlasting days. And grace will
lay in heaven the final stone. And well deserves the praise. Now, I'll tell you, my friends,
that's what it is, and that's where it is, and that's who it
is. And there'll be a lot of folks
come along, got some things to say that you never heard before,
because they sure like to come up with those things that nobody's
heard before. But everything I've got to say
has been said since the foundation of the world. It's just been
repeated by people who knew Him, that's all. If it's new, it's
not of God. If it's new, it's not of God.
Ask for the old paths. Don't be led astray. Let your
heart be established. It's more tomorrow than today,
more the next day than yesterday. We, look at verse 10, we have
an altar. We have an altar. These folks
come along, you know, with an altar and with a priest all dressed
up in colorful garments, and laws, and ceremonies, and sacrifices,
and altars. We have an altar. Big cathedrals,
they come along with these. God doesn't dwell in houses made
with hands, but we have a house. Let me tell you something. Number one, we have a tabernacle
where we meet God. It's Christ. He's tabernacled
among us. That's where we meet God in Christ.
That's right. He's our tabernacle. He's our
temple. Christ Jesus the Lord. We have
a mercy seat. That's right. God ordained him
to be a mercy seat. For all sins. We have a sacrifice. It's not a sacrament that's served,
it's a sacrifice that's been completed on the cross of Calvary. By one sacrifice, he perfected
us. We have a priest, a high priest. We're priests ourselves, I'll
tell you about that tonight. But we have a high priest. And
he doesn't minister in a secret place behind the pulpit somewhere
in some spooky Kind of cobwebs everywhere, you
know Darkness now he ministers in heaven the right hand of God
and we have an altar and That alters Christ That's right That
alters Christ He's the altar. He's the sacrifice and he's the
priest who offers the sacrifice And he says in verse 10 we have
an altar and Well, they have no right to eat who serve the
tabernacle. In other words, people who persist
in bringing their altars have no right to come to Him. Who
persist in bringing their tabernacles and their priests and their sacrifices
and their deeds, they have no right to come to Him. You can't have Him as your altar
and another one too. Him as your priest, and another
one says, can't be. Galatians tells us that. Let
me read that to you over in Galatians 5. Galatians tells us that. Galatians 5, listen. Verse 3, Galatians 5, I testify
again to every man circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever you
are justified by the law. You've fallen from grace. That's
not grace. You're justified by the law or
you're accepted of God by something you do. You can't have him. That's
what he means. We have an altar. We do, Christ.
But people who persist in bringing their works and their deeds and
their days, their doings, they don't have any right. To come
to Christ is just serving that old tabernacle. Read on. For
the bodies of those beasts, now watch this. The bodies of those
beasts, the bullock and the goat, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary where the high priest will burn without the camp. Let
me read that to you in Leviticus 16. Turn to Leviticus 16, verse
15 and 16. This is the bullock and the goat.
that was their sin offering, their atonement. Leviticus 16,
15, listen. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood
within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the
blood of the bullock, sprinkling on the mercy seat, before the
mercy seat, and make an atonement for the holy place. All right,
look at verse 27, same chapter, Leviticus 16, 27. And the bullock for the sin offering, and the
goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make
atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without
the camp, and burn it," burn this goat and bullet, in the
fire of their skins, their flesh, their dung. Take it outside the
camp and burn it, this sacrifice, this goat or bullet, and he that
Them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh, and afterwards
he'll come back into the camp." Now watch this, back to my text.
Hebrews 13, 12, "...Wherefore Jesus," verse 11, "...the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin, their bodies are burned without the
camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people,
our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified." without the gate. He suffered
without the gate. Those animals were unclean, and
they had to be burned without the camp. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was unclean before God. He was a sin offering. You see,
the high priest confessed the people's sins on the head of
that goat, and it was slain, its blood shed and burned outside
the gate. unclean before God, outside the
city. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
bore our sins in His body on the tree, and they crucified
Him outside the gate, outside the camp. His blood was taken
to heaven, but He suffered outside. And then verse 13 says, Let us
go forth therefore unto Him Unto him, the key word here is
unto him. Let's go to him. Wherever he is, let's go to him. He's without the camp. Let's
go unto him without the camp. Bearing his reproach, let's go
unto him. He's our altar. He's our priest.
He's our sacrifice. Where he is, there must we be.
We leave the camp of ceremony and legalism and work and whatever
to be with our Lord, and whatever reproach we incur from whomever
is welcome, because in Him we find all our needs, without the
camp, unto Christ. And look at verse 14, for here
we have no continuing city, no habitation. We have no habitation. That applies to several things.
That applies to this body. It won't continue too much longer. I have no contingent. I'm not
going to stay in this body too many more years. You're not going
to stay in yours. We're not here. We don't have
any contingent sitting. Nothing continues in this body
like it is in this world. In this world, we have no continuing
city. It will be destroyed. The fashion
of this world passes away. And we have no continuing city
like Jerusalem. We come here to this place to
worship. But someday this place is not going to be here. This preacher is not going to
be here. This place is not going to be here. Nothing is going
to... Here we have no continuing city. No habitation, no dwelling
place. No place to find rest for the
soul, not in this body, not in this world, not in this place.
But we seek one. We seek one. A habitation. A dwelling place. We have a dwelling
place. A house not made with hands.
Eternal in heaven. And I'll give you one scripture
over here, just two pages. Abraham looked for that city. Abraham looked for that city
in Hebrews 11 verse 9. By faith Abraham journeyed in
a land of promise, as in a strange country. He had plenty of promises,
but dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac
and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. He looked for
a city which hath foundations. It's
the city of the living God. It has foundations. It's builder
and maker's God. God purposed it, Christ purchased
it, and the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. And that's Abraham's
faith is our faith, and Abraham's hope is our hope. We're seeking
a city, a habitation, a dwelling place. Good news. All right, tonight the Lord willing,
we'll start our message right there in verse 15.