Hebrews 13:1-25 | A Word of Exhortation Pt. 2

If you will turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13.

Lord Jesus, we come to you and we ask you this day to lead us and to guide us as we close this book.

Prepare our hearts for what's next. Speak through me,

I pray, by your Holy Spirit. Amen. So we're looking at considering Hebrews chapter 13, verses one through 25.

Our theme has been a word of exhortation. This is part two. And I mentioned last week how the book of Hebrews was mostly doctrine.

So the book of Hebrews, the writer is laying out doctrine and his exhortation that he's bringing to us, that he's been bringing to us, and that we'll look again today.

It says, the doctrine is true, therefore live like this.

So why should you live the way that he's commanding us to live? Well, it's because the doctrine is true.

If the doctrine's not true, then his exhortation means nothing. But if the doctrine that he has laid forth is true, then we should listen to his exhortation and we should live the way that the writer, who is an apostle, has set forth for us to live.

In his exhortation, he urges the listeners, as well as you and I, to live our lives by faith.

To live a life looking to Jesus. Remember the analogy of the greyhounds, right?

The way those dogs were following that rabbit, that's what our lives should emulate. We should be looking to Christ, not paying attention to everything that's going around.

We need to be focused on Christ. That's what a life of faith looks like.

And why should we do this? Because he is the founder and the perfecter of our faith. He lived his life focused on the

Father. Right? He lived his life focused on the

Father. We should live our life focused on Christ. The only way to the Father is through Christ.

He lived a life of exemplary faith as an example for us, you and I, and we should look to him as the highest example.

Also last week, we looked at the first six verses in this chapter. The first six verses gave us five exhortations and one application.

The first one was to let brotherly love continue. The second one was to show hospitality.

The third was to remember those in prison. The fourth was to honor marriage.

And the fifth was to keep your life free from the love of money.

And his application was for us to trust God in all these things. So they were to love the brother and speak to him and speaking of their

Jewish brothers, Jews by ethnicity, they were to love those, even though they were persecuting them, they were to love those.

And I said last week that in Jerusalem, they have feast days and that Jews from all over the known world at that time, the oikomene, would travel into Jerusalem and the writers tell them to show brotherly love to them was that they would invite them into their house, hospitality, to show hospitality, right?

They would invite them into their house as a way to witness to them in word,

Jesus is the Christ, and indeed by being friendly to them, being hospitable.

And they were to remember those who were in prison because these Jews that they were to love, that they were welcoming into their house, they were going back and reporting to the

Pharisees and then they were getting put into prison. And so they were to remember those who were in prison, but still they were supposed to be hospitable to the

Jews even though it was a good chance that they will be thrown into prison.

And that they were to honor marriage, as you're taking care of your brother and sister who is in prison, you're not to go and pursue their husband or pursue their wife.

You're to provide for them clothing and food because prisons at this time did not provide food and clothing, and you're also to take care of their family.

If they had a wife and kids and he was in jail for preaching and witnessing the gospel, you were to take care of their family, that meant that you didn't go over there and try to do funny business with their family.

You didn't try to go over there as the husband's in prison, you didn't go over there and try to pursue the wife.

You were to honor the marriage, and we also looked at what marriage is last week. And he's told to keep our life free from the love of money because if your brother who was put into prison for witnessing the gospel by the

Jews that they were to be hospitable to, were in prison and if you love money, you are not going to provide food and clothing, you are not going to provide for the family.

The whole time he's telling them to trust God, trust God. And so our first point of the last main exhortation today is to remember your leaders.

This is taken from verses 17 and 19. Now there seems to be contention when it comes to the congregation that the apostle was writing to.

It seems that he's having to write this letter because of this contention. They were not listening to their leaders, so an apostle sends a letter.

And in this letter he's preaching to them. This is actually a sermon style of a letter.

And he's preaching to them, proclaiming to them truth. They're not listening to their leader, so the apostle taking the initiative to write a letter.

And as he's closing it, he's reminding them the authority of the leader. Yeah, there's disagreements, but he's a leader.

So let's look at verse seven. Verse seven says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

The Greek word here for leaders is hagomai. Hagomai, which means overseer or leader of churches.

Overseers in the text, along with elders, can be interchangeable. So an overseer is an elder in scripture.

So this is speaking about pastors. Your leaders here in our text is speaking about pastors.

And you can actually translate this as middle voice.

Hagomai, middle voice. Remember your middle voice. The pastor elder is an under shepherd, right?

Jesus is the shepherd. The leader, the pastor is the under shepherd, the middle voice, who has been given charge to watch over the flock of God.

Speaking of biblical teaching. He has been given charge to open the book and to explain what the message of the book is.

And the writer is telling the flock to remember their under shepherds. He does so in two ways.

Like he gives two things here that the under shepherd must do. And if he's doing these things, you need to listen to this word of exhortation.

A pastor is someone who brings forth the word of God. So if your leader is opening the book and he is bringing forth the word of God, this apostle that's writing this letter is saying remember him.

Remember your leader. He's doing something for your good. Also, the second one would be he is someone, the pastor is someone who has given his life over to the study of scripture.

That study in this book is something that he has given his life to. He has dedicated himself to studying the book, studying the word of God so that he can rightly divide the word of truth.

And the writer is telling his listeners to consider the outcome of his faith. If he's someone that's bringing forth the word of God, he is someone that has given his life over to the study of the book, then you need to consider the outcome of his way of life and to imitate his face despite disagreement.

It doesn't matter if you, there's little points that you disagree with him about. Put that behind you.

Remember your leader. He's telling them to be someone that is compelled by the word of God to live in faith like a leader.

So he's speaking to the congregation, those that are not listening. Imagine this pastor has been telling them, stop going to the temple, stop making animal sacrifices, and they would not stop.

So an apostle has to step in and write the letter warning them. At this time, people thought it was, special to receive a message from the apostles.

They didn't really consider it much to receive a message from the leader that the apostle has appointed over the church.

So the apostles were planting churches and appointing leaders. And the congregations were not listening to the leaders that were appointed by the apostles, so the apostles would have to step in.

This is what most of the New Testament letters are about. We see this in Corinthians.

The so -called super apostles, because they were not listening to their leaders. The man that the apostles has appointed over them, and he is telling them, you yourself need to be compelled by the word of God and live in faith like a leader, like your leader.

In verses eight through 15, he gives them the message by which the under -shepherd should speak. And I would add that if he is not speaking this, he is no middle voice.

So if you see it, whether it's now, you know, charge me with it, or in the future, the message he is about to show, if he's not teaching this way, he is no middle voice.

He is not hearing from God. He is not rightly dividing the word of truth.

The first portion of this is verse eight. He writes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So this leader needs to be proclaiming that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Meaning that he is eternal. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

That he had to pre -exist eternally. Did not come into existence, but he pre -existed with the

Father in eternity. Micah chapter three, verse six says, for I the

Lord, this is God speaking, for I the Lord do not change.

And if Jesus is the alpha and the omega, he is the beginning and the end. He is not to change.

He's the same. He does not change. A pastor is someone who should be proclaiming the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is

God in and of himself. Now I'm not gonna go too deep into that right now because we are about to start the gospel of John, right?

In the first chapter of the gospel of John, we're gonna get so deep into that, I feel like if I let the cat out the bag now,

I'm just revealing my hand for what's to come. But just know that a leader is someone that proclaims the deity of Christ, that there's one

God and three persons and each one of the persons of the Godhead are God in and of themselves.

They're not relying on the other one to be God, they are God in and of themselves. And if your leader, your pastor is not proclaiming that, he is no middle voice.

He's not hearing from God, he's not rightly dividing the word of truth. Verse nine here, the writer makes a clear distinction between the teaching of grace and the teaching of the old covenant, which is law.

Look at verse nine. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those who were devoted to them.

The teaching of grace is trusting in Jesus Christ as God.

Trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord, as your God, He has kept the law.

He has done what you cannot do. And by faith in Him, you have redemption.

That's grace. That it's not in dietary laws of the old covenant that did not benefit the

Jews. That you had to eat a certain way in order to please God.

No, pleasing God now in the new covenant is faith in Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the book of Galatians was talking about when

Paul told the church of Galatia that they have fallen from grace. It was not that they have fallen from salvation, it was that they have fallen from the teachings of grace.

Look with me, if you will, at Galatians chapter five. We'll look at verses one and four, and then we'll go to chapter one and look at verse six and seven.

Galatians chapter five, verse one.

Paul the apostle writes, for freedom Christ has set us free.

Why did He set us free? For freedom. For freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Talking about the old covenant. Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision,

Christ will be no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

If you accept circumcision as a way of becoming a Christian, you are obligated to keep the whole law.

Verse four, you have, you who are, I mean you who serve from Christ, you are severed from Christ, excuse me, you are severed from Christ, you who will be justified by the law.

Right here, you have fallen from grace. Now if you go to chapter one, verse six and verse seven.

Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who would trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

So you had people coming, the Judaizers proclaiming in order to be a Christian, you had to first become a

Jew and keep this law. What's the same thing with these dietary laws under the old covenant, right?

It's not about keeping the old covenant, it's about faith in Christ. They, this, the church of Galatian had begun to put their faith, put their trust in the old covenant circumcision.

And guess what they're not, guess what they had fallen from putting their faith in? The finished work of Christ, grace.

They have fallen from the teaching of grace. That salvation, that being a

Christian was looking to Jesus Christ, not obeying dietary laws or the law about circumcision.

They had been led away by diverse and strange teachings. Now I would say that it was strange not to the old covenant, right?

Because that's what this teaching was, but it was strange to the new covenant. Not strange that they didn't know about it, but it was foreign because it did not belong in the new covenant.

That was old covenant. New covenant is grace. I say it all the time, the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Verse 10 begins to walk us through the grace of God that is separated from the old covenant and what an under shepherd should be proclaiming.

So let's read verses 10 through 15 and I'll kind of give some commentary as we do so on certain points.

But the idea to take away from this is that the Old Testament worship done inside the old covenant.

New Testament worship is done outside of the old covenant. You cannot mix the two.

So beginning in verse 10, we'll read to 15. The writer says, we have an altar.

And this is speaking about the Lord's table. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent, with the tabernacle, serve at the temple.

This is what that's speaking of. We have an altar which those who serve at the temple have no right to eat.

Again, this is speaking of the Lord's supper. The body and blood of Jesus. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sins are burnt outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

This is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you.

And we're to do these things in remembrance of him. And this is not inside the old covenant, it's outside.

It's outside that gate. Verse 13 says, therefore, because that is true, let us go to him outside the camp, outside of that old covenant system, and bear the reproach he endured.

This is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. As you're doing this, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes, the

Bible tells us. And we do this outside of the old covenant. Verse 14 tells us, it says, for here we have no lasting city.

So they're speaking of Jerusalem, right? This old covenant,

Jerusalem, heaven and earth has met. He says, we have no lasting city because they were told that this city is going to be destroyed.

Jesus prophesied it in Matthew 24. The city would be destroyed. He says, but we seek a city that is to come.

And we spoke about this in chapter 11, verse 16. Even the old covenant saints knew about this.

Verse 16, but as it is, they desired a better country that is a heavenly one.

Therefore, the Lord is not ashamed to be called their God. For he has prepared for them a city.

What kind of a city? A heavenly city. A heavenly city. This would be the eternal state.

This will be when the kingdom of God is fully consummated, right? I said it in my prayer earlier that, you know, his kingdom was at hand.

We're living in this invisible kingdom that is in your midst, it's at hand. The church is the visible representation of this invisible kingdom, but it's not fully here.

But one day it will be when the Lord Jesus himself returns and he will make the things that are invisible visible to us.

Right now, we're living our life by faith. We're unable to see this kingdom. We're unable to enter unless we're born again.

But one day when Jesus returns and the eternal state takes place, we will see the city that was to come, the ones that were promised to Abraham, but we seek a city that is to come.

Verse 15, through him, Jesus, then let us continue to offer a sacrifice of praise.

Well, how do we praise him? It tells you, to God that is the fruit of our lips that acknowledges his name.

Well, what's his name? Yohei Vahe, right?

He appeared to Moses in the burning bush. I am who I am. Jesus said, before Abraham was,

I am. The Greek word, ego, I me. Jesus proclaimed himself to be the one who visited

Moses in the bush. I am the great I am. Then when we're worshiping

God with the fruit of our lips, proclaiming Jesus as the eternal son of God, who is

God, who is the great I am, Yohei Vahe, do you believe that this is our sacrifice of praise to God, that our saying these words are the fruit of our lips?

No longer are we to sacrifice animals. We're to worship God in the name of Jesus Christ.

Listen, if your undershepherd is not preaching that, he is no middle voice.

And that's not what I'm saying. That's what the writer is saying. The message is clear.

The new covenant grace is not to be mixed with the old covenant law.

And we've done a series similar to this where I was talking about, you're mixing the two words and you come up with glossable, right?

There's a couple of YouTubers that I listen to that talk about it, but I can't remember the guy who coined the name of it.

He's a famous Presbyterian. But Michael Horton, yeah.

So Michael Horton came up with the name glossable where you take the law and the gospel, you mix it together.

And you're preaching it as if it's the same thing and it's not. There has to be a distinction between law and gospel.

Law means do this, gospel means it's been done. So the old covenant, the sacrifice of animals, the new covenant, the sacrifice of Jesus.

The old covenant was a repeatable process. It took place daily, year after year, daily.

It had to be done over and over and over. The new covenant was a sacrifice that was once and for all.

No more day after day, year after year of slaughtering animals, but the eternal Son of God being sent by the

Father took upon Himself the punishment that we deserve by dying for our sins.

That's what the book of Hebrews has been telling us. And we also see this in Romans chapter five, verse eight.

Romans chapter five, verse eight. And listen to me,

Romans chapter five, verse eight should be one of the most precious verses to you. Listen to these words.

But God shows His love for us and that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. Now this would have been even before we were born, right?

Christ laid down His life for the sheep. Those old covenant saints and the saints that have not even been born yet,

Christ died for. Even the old covenant saints, like whenever Christ died, they were still sinners in their sin.

The old covenant system never was a way to remove sin, it was only a way to cover sins.

It never really got rid of them. That's only done through the blood of Jesus.

He died for our sins and as a leader, a leader is someone who should be proclaiming that Jesus is the great

I am who died for our sins. That the Creator entered creation, took on flesh, lived a life we could not live in, took upon Himself the death that we should die.

And in the context of verse 16, so in the context of remember your leaders in verse 16, the writer tells them to share with their leaders what they have.

Look at verse 16. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifice.

Sacrifices are pleasing to God. Let me read that again. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

We read up here that we're supposed to take care of those that are in prison.

So he's already told us that for those that are in prison, we need to clothe them, we need to feed them, we need to provide for their family if need be.

And so right here in the context of leaders, he is telling them not to neglect to do good but to share what you have for such sacrifices.

Sacrifices are pleasing to God. So not only remember your leaders but also to share.

If your leader is preaching Christ crucified then he is a labor worthy of his wage.

This is what's called general equity when it comes to the Levitical tithe. So the

Levitical tithe was not, well so the Levites, excuse me, the Levites, whenever you read in Joshua that they're coming into the land, the

Levites were not given a portion of the land. So every tribe was given a portion of the land where they could have a bartering system if you will.

So they had a way to earn a living for themselves through what they was able to raise up and as a way of having trade.

So the Levites were not giving a land but they were giving over to the temple and for the duties of the people.

And a part of that tithe that was given to the temple was for the

Levite so he could live, right? So he could eat, so he could survive. And so the people around, the tribes around were to take a portion of what they have, give it to the temple so that the

Levites who were given over to the temple duties and were given over to minister to them were to survive.

And so the writer is saying in that way of general equity that the church was to share what they had with their leaders.

Again this is something that the church was not doing because of this, them not agreeing with everything, right?

There was contention, there was disagreement. Paul even has to address this.

Paul even makes it clear that a worker is worthy of his wage.

And so over and over through the letters at this time apostles had to come and address this issue that the one that was serving them the table, the one that was ministering to them the word was a worker worthy of his wage.

And in verse 17 the writer tells them to obey their leaders. Look at verse 17.

Now before I read this I want to say that this verse has been mishandled and mistaught and it's abused in so many cultish religions and I hope to do justice today with it.

Verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who would have to give an account let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be no advantage to you.

And I would say outside of that, outside of what's taking place here. So if you're under shepherd, well let me first say this.

The obedience here is only speaking of what's revealed in the word of God, right?

So as I stand up here and I say that we need to take care of those that are in prison.

So if someone was to come here they'd get locked up for street preaching, right? We need to put some money on his books, right?

He's been street preaching, he's been doing what the Lord's taught him to do. So if I tell you, I use this verse to say this verse tells us that we need to take care of him and if he had a job now he's gonna provide for his family we need to take care of his family, right?

That's me telling you what the Bible says, all right? That's not me saying jump, right?

If you're under a leader that says jump, leave. That's not what this is saying.

That's not what the Bible teaches. But a leader is someone that looks in the word of God and he's reminding you what the word of God has called us to do.

Like if I tell you, hey, you need to live in faith. You should obey that, why? Because that's what the

Bible says. Sometimes we need reminding, right?

The leader is someone who has devoted himself to the word of God and sometimes as we're living our life we need a middle voice to tell us what the word of God says.

But anytime someone tries to say, hey, you know, you need, you know, starts barking commands that's not in this book, man, leave.

For if your owner shepherd is truly a middle voice he has given over to the word of God and all he's doing is explaining what the word of God has revealed.

So outside of that he has no authority. He cannot come into your house and say, you really should clean up, get on it.

Like come on. But yet this verse is used in that way in many cultic religions.

James chapter one verse, no, excuse me, James chapter three. I think the last time I went to quote this verse

I wrote it down as one three instead of three one. James chapter three verse one.

He says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with a greater strictness.

So the pastor is to, like I said earlier, rightly divide the word of truth. So in order to do that he needs to be devoted to the

Bible, he needs to be given over to the study and his explanation of the doctrine he is to, so as he's explaining the doctrine, as his explanation, as he's walking through it, what is he doing?

He is watching over your soul. And depending on how he teaches, he can tip the scale, if you will.

When he has to give an account for your soul. If he's not preaching the gospel, then he is in fact mistreating the flock.

So if you have a pastor that stands up here and he's not teaching the gospel, maybe he's teaching glossable, guess what he's doing?

He is mistreating the flock, he is smacking you around spiritually. And the

Bible says that he will be judged with a strictness, a strict judgment. So despite the disagreement, this is what a leader should be doing, or you should be doing for the leader.

A leader, so I'm just laying it down, this is what the

Bible's saying to this flock and we can take application. So this is what he's saying. You should remember your leaders, you should share with them, and you should submit to them.

Remember them, share what you have, and submit. And I would add, when it comes to the word of God, if he's committed to the word, he's rightly divided in the word of truth, you should submit.

And what else should you do in order to know that's true? You should be a Berean. You should not take my word for it.

If I say something, you need to go and study, you need to check these things for yourself. If you think that I said something that sounds strange, study it.

And in verse 18, he says, pray for us. So the writer here is including himself as a leader.

So he's this big apostle, and for the sake of this congregation, he brings himself down to the level of the pastorate as a leader.

Because that Greek word does not mean apostle. You see what he's doing here?

Y 'all want to get this letter from me, but you should have been listening to your leaders. And so he brings himself down to the level of the leaders as a middle voice.

He says, pray for us, your leaders. Look at it, 18 and 19. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

I urge you all the more earnestly to do this, do what? Pray, in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

He's wanting to come and visit. He's wanting to share with them in fellowship. Now in our second point, we enter into his benediction.

So this is verses 20 and 21. Let's read that in a ho, and we'll talk about it.

Verses 20 and 21. He says, now may the great, no, no. Now may the

God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever, amen.

So the writer speaks of God as the God of peace. He is the

God of peace because we were at enmity with God and God set the term for peace.

So what is the terms of peace? Faith, right? It's believing, it's living your life looking to Christ.

That's the terms of agreement that God has set. So let's look at Romans 5, 1, and then we'll look at why it is that God had to set this term.

Now this is something that we've already walked through briefly, and again we'll just do it again briefly. So Romans 5, 1, therefore since we have been justified, so this is to be, the doctrine of justification to be legally declared righteous, therefore since we have been justified, how is it that we're legally declared righteous?

By faith, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. So if we have peace with Christ, I'm sorry, if we have faith in Christ, we have what?

Peace with God. So if you have faith in Christ, you have peace with God. If you do not have faith in Christ, you do not have peace with God.

Like it, right, it should go without saying. Faith in Christ, peace with God. No faith in Christ, no peace with God.

If you do not have peace with God, that makes you an enemy of God. And his terms for peace is faith in Jesus Christ, right?

It's really that simple. This is one of my favorite verses to preach while I'm street preaching.

The only way to be justified, to be declared righteous before God is to have faith in Jesus Christ.

And the only way to have peace is to have faith in Jesus Christ.

And so let's focus our attention again to verse eight, we'll read through 11, and I'll give some, a little commentary here on why it is that we need to have peace with God.

Again, verse eight, we read it earlier. This should be that verse that's so precious to you.

But God shows his love for us and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us being past saints and saints that have not been born yet.

Christ died for us while we were in our sins. Verse nine, since therefore, since that is true, we have been justified.

Again, remember, verse one tells us we're justified by faith, but this is how that faith comes about, right?

So verse one tells us our response, verse two tells us how it happens in the eternal existence of Christ.

And verse nine tells us how it came about in the eternal existence of God. Therefore, since that is true, we have been justified by his blood.

Much more shall we be saved from him from the wrath of God. So imagine the wrath of God is coming toward you, right?

And it is, 10 out of 10 people die, 150 ,000 a day, 100,

I think it's 100 per minute, almost two per second. It's 54 million a year, like we're dying, right?

The wrath of God is coming, we're dying. Well, we'll have to die and face judgment. The wrath of God is coming, but Jesus Christ died on that cross to please the wrath of God.

And so if we do not have faith in God, when we die, we will have to face the wrath of God.

Faith equals peace. Verse 10, for while we were enemies, going back to verse eight, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

Much more now that we have been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Again, going back to justification. Justification means that you have been legally declared righteous.

Christ lived the life that we could not live to secure righteousness. Died the death that we should die to secure forgiveness.

The life that he lives is how we are positionally righteous. Second Corinthians 5 .21

says this, for our sake he made him, speaking of Christ, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So it's imputation, right? So our sins were imputed to him.

When he died, he took our punishment. He took upon himself the wrath that we deserve. When we put our faith in him, we take upon the imputation of righteousness.

So we are, just as much as he died for sins, just as much as the sins of the world were laid upon him, his righteousness in turn is laid upon us.

So if you say that, well, we don't really have his righteousness by faith, then you can say, well, he didn't really take upon himself our sins.

It has to go hand in hand. In order for him to really took upon himself our sins, then we really take upon his righteousness through imputation.

That's why verse 11 says more than that. More than that? Yes, more than that.

We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation, peace.

It goes back to verse one. We believe we have peace. If you have faith in Christ, you have peace with God.

If you do not have faith in Christ, you do not have peace with God. The only way to have peace is by faith.

In verse 20, let's read that again. Verse 20 of Hebrews 13.

Now may the God of peace, now it should bring more light to you, the

God of peace who slaughtered his son in our place, but then it says who brought again from the dead our

Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd, not the under shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant.

So we have the death, burial, and resurrection. He died for our sins. He was buried on the third day. He rose again.

That he is the great shepherd, that the leader that he is telling them to remember, to share, to submit to under the authority of the word, to pray for, that he is only a middle voice proclaiming what the voice

Jesus Christ has proclaimed. And that the new covenant is the covenant of grace, which is the blood of the eternal covenant.

And whenever we read verse 21, we find out what the blood of the eternal covenant does.

So let's read verse 21, but I want to take it back just a little bit into verse 20. Verse 20 at the very end says, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing, what pleases him, faith, in the sight of our

Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. So the blood of the eternal covenant grants to us peace by faith in him.

This is justification by faith. The blood of Jesus equips us to do his will, which is the obedience of faith, living by faith that the righteous, who we're supposed to be if we're covered in his righteousness, we shall live by faith.

And our third and last point is his final greeting. And as we read this, we should be approaching, we are approaching our final greetings to this letter.

Right, this is it. Next week, we're moving on. And I hope

I can say for us all that this has been a very impactful journey. I know it has been for me.

I have learned so much just about the nature of Christ and his high priesthood, him becoming a man through the hypostatic union.

We have been walking through this now a little over a year. And so as I read this,

I pray that you read this with me with tears in your heart, but also with joy for what's coming next.

So this will go quick. Verses 22 through 25. He says,

I appeal to you brothers. He's speaking to the ones that he is writing about, you know, who have been disobedient.

He says, I appeal to you. Bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom

I shall see if he comes soon. Greet your leaders and all the saints, those who come from Italy, send you greetings.

Grace be with you all. The writer recognizes that this word of exhortation is hard to hear, but he calls them to bear with his word of exhortation.

He's saying that these things are important, that they're important because the doctrine's important and that the doctrine is true.

That the doctrine that was presented before them is true and because the doctrine is true, we are to bear with his word of exhortation.

It doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter if you agree with me 100 % or if they agree 100%.

We are to obey this. Verse 23, he speaks about Timothy's imprisonment and how he's being released.

In this verse, in verse three, he called them to remember those who were in prison. Look at verse three again.

Remember those who were in prison as though in prison with them. Timothy here was the spiritual son of Paul and Timothy would have been someone that they were providing food and clothing for.

And so he encourages them to, letting them know that Timothy is about to be released.

And as he ends this letter, he reminds them to greet their leaders and the saints.

And now he's putting the leaders with the saints, right? Like we're all in this together.

There is no them and us, it's just us. We're in this together.

That we should always be a people greeting one another, happy to see each other, whether it's a leader or it's not a leader.

No favoritism should be shown. The writer has sent this letter from Italy and he adds that the church in Italy sends greetings to the

Hebrew church. Now what is he doing here? He is saying that this Gentile church sends their greetings to the

Hebrew church. Again, why? Because we're one in Christ. Now what's the big dividing line in the scriptures of the

New Testament? It's the separation of Jew and Gentile. Christ has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility.

But yet the people were not living as if it was destroyed.

There was always a separation. We see that now. Maybe not Jew and Gentile, but denominationally in most point.

And not that there shouldn't be a reason that we have separate churches, but we don't fellowship, right?

There's contention. My doctrine's better than yours and so because of that, we can't hang out.

And his last words that he was writing was an expression of love, verse 25.

He says, grace be with you all. He says, may the unmerited favor of God be with you all.

May, this is my translation. May you get what you don't deserve.

You deserve punishment, but may you get what

Christ died to give you, peace with God. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk.

Pastor Cal, Josh, if you have something you wanna discuss after the service, please reach out to us.

Let's pray. Father, Lord, we thank you and love you. Lord, thank you for this wonderful book that we've got to walk through and study together.

It has enriched my soul. It has enriched my life. Lord, I pray that my words have not fallen on deaf ears, for they are your words.

I pray that I accurately articulated this book. I pray that you use it in the time to come and that you are preparing us for what's next as we venture through the gospel of John.

I pray right now for the supper, Lord. I pray that your people are preparing themselves to partake.

Lord, give us grace and mercy and give us wisdom. In the name of your beloved