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[Hebrews 13:1-6]
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
I looked up online how to live a holy life. If someone came to you and said, well, how do you live a holy life, a life that's set apart, a pure life? What do I do? What's that look like? I looked on the internet and there's five different things that I found.
Number one, example one, how do you live a holy life? Seek wisdom, live what you know that you may know more. That was the first example. Second example I found in how to live a holy life, get deep insight, do not cling to anything in this world.
Example three, disconnect from the world, flee from temptation, obey the word of God. How do you live a holy life? Example four, be mindful of time, see every problem as an opportunity, don't give in to gossip, be kind to others, choose your best words when you speak, use your anger to create, not destroy, and think for yourself.
How do you live a holy life? And example five, embrace the reality that God wants this for you, believe you can live a holy life, consecrate your life, follow continually, and participate. Maybe some good bits of information in there, certainly some truth, some moral truths in there.
I found those examples online, and the first example I read to you was from a Mormon website. The second example I read to you was from a Buddhist website. The third example I read to you was from Kenneth Copeland's Word of Faith website.
The fourth one was gleanings from Muslim faith, and the last one was evangelical. Fascinating. What's missing in those lists, anything? Or why are they the same? It's one thing to say, I'd like to live a holy life.
It's another thing to untether that holy life from the person and work of the Lord Jesus. There are lots of morals out there, be good, do better, try harder. Is that really the Christian life? How hard do I have to try?
What if I don't feel like trying? What if I'm not motivated to try? What is a Christian ethic? How does a Christian say they wanna live a holy life? And if you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13, we'll find the answer there.
If I were to say it theologically, I would say this. The way you live your Christian life is Christologically. That is, you understand who Jesus is, that he's your creator, that he's your judge, but now he's turned into your savior because of his own beneficent love where he paid for your sins, he took care of all your law-breaking, and then also positively kept the law where we couldn't keep it, and then God exalted him to this place that's the seat of majesty and honor, the right hand of the throne of God, and that no longer do you have to go to hell.
We all deserve hell, but we don't have to go to hell because of the grace of God. And anybody could rescue you. If anybody did rescue you, since Christian, you have been rescued by the father through the son's work applied by the Holy Spirit.
How do you wanna live? What's your reason to live a holy life? Answer, because God has so blessed me, I will devote my entire life to you. You can have my body, soul, mind, spirit, everything I have, I want to worship you.
If you'd say, I'd like to persevere, and I'd like to be holy to get God's pleasure and to be in his kingdom, you'll never make it. If you say, I'd like to be holy and do the right thing so that I stay in the kingdom, you'll never make it.
But if you say, I'd like to live a holy life because I'm in the kingdom, God has graced me, God has granted me forgiveness, God has granted me eternal life, and I wanna live a life of gratitude and perseverance and obedience, you will understand Christianity.
Walter Marshall said, you cannot truly live a holy life unless you're totally assured of your justification and reconciliation with God, totally apart from the works of the law. If you think you're not going to get into heaven and you're not sure that God loves you, then everything you're gonna do is to try to earn that right standing.
It can never be done because you have to perfectly obey to get into heaven. We know we can't do that. We've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we need to be trusting in who Jesus is since he, in fact, did perfectly obey.
He's the one that Hebrews says is your great high priest. It's one thing to be a prophet, proclaim the word of God, Jesus did that. It's another thing to be a king and he rules and reigns, and he is that.
He's both prophet and king, but he's also, the Hebrews tells us, the book of Hebrews, he's a priest, and priests make sacrifices, he's the ultimate sacrifice in your place and mine, and that he prays, and he prays for us.
So when we come to this section here in Hebrews 13, there's all kinds of commands, one after another, after another. It's like this kind of gatling gun of commands, and if you're not careful, and you just go to these commands, and you're like, I don't know if I could ever do these.
I don't know if I'd even want to do these things. Remember to see chapter 13 in light of all of the book of Hebrews so you don't fall into what I call the B-I-B-L-E. Kids, some of you that are here, some of you are knitting, crocheting.
Are you making that for Pastor Mike? They all shook their head no. Some people say the B-I-B-L-E, the Bible, it's basic instructions before leaving earth. I guess there are some basic instructions, but that's not what this book is about.
It's not some kind of handbook for living. It's a book about who the triune God is, and of course, in light of our great sins, and his greater grace, we want to live a life of honoring him. And again, not to stay in, but because we're in.
And that makes all the focus of these turn into a Christ-centered focus and not just deeds versus creeds. William Willimon, the old chaplain at Duke University used to say, unable to preach Christ and him crucified, we preach humanity and it improved.
In other words, if Jesus is just an example, how you doing? Jesus was a great example of love. How's your love? Jesus is a great example of laying down his life for others. How's that working out for you?
Matter of fact, I haven't done those very well at all, so I need Jesus as more than an example, I need him as substitute for when I don't do those things and when I haven't done those things. The book of Hebrews just shouts, Jesus is great.
Whatever you can think of in terms of religion or covenants, our Old Testament, our Moses, there's nobody like Jesus. There's nobody that can conquer death and be raised from the dead and say, you know what, I am the King of kings and Lord of lords and have it be actually true.
So today we're gonna look at what this God, the Lord Jesus Christ, calls you to do in light of what he's done for you. Since he is the author, the apostle, the captain, the finisher, the firstborn, the high priest, the Lord, the mediator, the shepherd, the son, the surety, all titles of Jesus found in Hebrews.
Since he is so great, how do I respond? And we find a bunch of commands in chapter 13. I think we can get through, how many did I get through last time? See, five. That's my goal, by the way, is to get through five first service and five second service.
In the old days, we had Sunday morning service and Sunday night service. I do Old Testament night, New Testament in the morning. And if I felt I did a good job on Sunday morning kind of homiletically, I always dreaded Sunday night because I thought that's when the Lord is gonna humble me because I'm gonna just strike out.
It'll be biblical, but homiletically, it'll be awful. And then if I kind of bombed Sunday morning, I couldn't wait for Sunday night because I thought the Lord will give me an opportunity to redeem myself.
Well, you can ask Pastor Steve if I homiletically bombed Sunday morning first service or not. But for me, I'm just glad to know these truths again because it's good for my soul. Theologically, when God justifies you, counts you as righteous and perfect because of what Jesus did for you, sanctification begins.
They're not the same. Surrender, sincerity, submission, yielding, that is sanctification terms, aren't the same as trusting in what Jesus did. But it does always follow and the same thing with the book of Hebrews.
For 12 chapters, Jesus is great. So what? We come to that so what right here in chapter 13. It's almost as if the end of chapter 12, and you can look at it with me, this should be the chapter break. This should be technically chapter 13, Hebrews 12, 28.
Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. It's like at the end of chapter 12, here's how we address God, with thankfulness, with gratefulness and a worshipful heart.
Well, how should we address other people? That's chapter 13 verses one through six. So we're gonna look at five responses to Jesus's great high priestly work in chapter 13 verses one through six. Five responses, five commands, five laws for the Christian in light of Jesus's work.
Now, maybe I could put it this way before we dive into chapter 13. Remember there's that old REM song years ago, it's the end of the world as we know it and I what? You pagans. You didn't even have to pause before you knew that.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. So chapter 12, the end of it has said, you know what, Jesus is gonna come back. Everything you see is gonna be gone. It's like walking over to the blind and pulling it down a little bit and letting it go and the heavens are just gonna get rolled up, it's over.
Knowing that everything's gonna be over, why bother to live? Why bother to do any of this stuff? If Jesus is coming back, let's just sit up on top of the roof and like watch the stars. It's like first Peter chapter four, the end of all things is at hand.
Therefore, what? Coast. The end of all things is at hand and Peter said, be self-controlled, sober minded, above all love one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins, show hospitality and use your spiritual gift.
Here, Jesus is coming back, what should I do in light of that? And he gives these five commands in verses one through six. Command number one, since Jesus is your great high priest, love other Christians.
Verse one, let brotherly love continue. Now there could be people here that aren't Christians and basically when you see these commands, God is going to require you to perfectly obey them in order to get to heaven and this law that you see in scripture should try to undo your self-confidence that you can stand before God.
You're gonna say, you know what? I haven't been perfect, God is perfect. I need a perfect one in my place but for the Christian, these are commands from a heavenly father, not the judge. If you're an unbeliever, these are judge verses.
If you're a believer, these verses are from a father and the first thing he says is, I know the world's gonna dissolve but love other people. In the ESV it says, let brotherly love what? Continue or literally the word is to remain.
That sound familiar in chapter 12? Some things are gonna remain and some things aren't going to remain with this world but let love continue or to remain. Now you know there's lots of different kinds of love in the Bible.
ESV makes it simple here. It's one Greek word but it gives us two English word, brotherly love, Philadelphia love. There's erotic love, there's family love, there's agape, sacrificial love and here this is brotherly love.
The word brother by the way is a really neat word. It means from the same womb and so I have a brother and sister and I'm especially close to them because we've all been in our mother's womb and so here in a spiritual sense, we have God as our father.
It's like we've all been in the same womb as it were so how do you treat your brothers and sisters? Let brotherly love continue and I don't know about you but when you're in a trial, they were getting persecuted and we're going through this virus thing.
Your first reaction probably isn't other people. Maybe it is and to God be the glory but lots of times we are bent in ourselves. As Luther said, we're curved in on ourselves and therefore it's hard to remember, oh, I need to take care of other people.
I need to love other people because that's what God has commanded me to do. When I look at the Lord Jesus Christ and how he loved his apostles and he loved other people, there's no wonder he asked us to love other people too.
Dear people, friendly people and might I say, weird people. It's hard to love other Christians and by the way, I just want you to know for the sake of record, I didn't choose any of you well until I guess 23 years ago when I got here but you chose to come to this church.
I just have to inherit all of you when you come. I just have to accept you as you are, right? In one sense, I'm kidding. The other sense is we all accept one another. What holds us together? Our skin color, our background, our parenting, our this, our that.
We are all so different but we've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and one day we'll all be in heaven together and so as weird as Christians are, we're just supposed to love them. S. Lewis Johnson said, you've heard people say, I love all the saints but some I love better at a distance.
It's kind of like, you know, I love everybody. Well, with masks, I can't tell who said what and I'll never forget that voice. I love everybody but I just don't like them. So we get the command. We're supposed to love people that are so different than we are because this is the body of Christ and we realize, do you know what?
That's the least I could do. You saved me from eternal hell. You saved me from sin, from your own wrath and now what do I do? So love other people. You think about God loves his enemies. God justifies the wicked.
Can't we love our brothers and sisters? Now some people think this is just so abrupt. There's not even kind of a lead in. Maybe this is an appendix. Maybe it's not even original. But it perfectly fits.
The world's not going to remain but your love for other people should remain. Even though the world says get everything for yourself, even though we as a church body, I mean, think about all the different things we could disagree on.
How to school your kids, birth control, vax, anti-vax, you know, mask, anti-mask. I mean, the list could go on and on and on. What to do with free time. Is dancing wrong? Is smoking wrong? What about alcohol?
There could be a thousand things we could talk about but what is not negotiable is love for other Christians. You love them. Now, by the way, dear church, I have heard so many stories in the last two months about how you've served other Christians in this body.
Good job. Way to go. I think some can attest. We've had drive-bys for children's birthdays with 50-some cars, amen? We've had people who have delivered food to the shut-ins. We've had people just show up with chalk evangelism at wrong people's houses regularly.
But seriously, way to go. That shows you really get, here's who Jesus is as high priest and I wanna respond with loving the brethren and let that continue. Number two, how do I respond to Jesus rescuing me, being my savior, being my high priest?
How do I respond knowing he's praying for me even now? How do I respond knowing that I'm never gonna be separated from him? Number two, don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers. And the text says in verse two, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
So if you're like me, my default is I meet a stranger and by the way, showing hospitality is meaning to be kind to strangers. Some people think, well, we open up our house to church people all the time before the virus and we're hospitable.
That's good, but the real word for hospitality means to entertain strangers. You don't even know them. When I meet a stranger, I don't immediately think, come on over. You know what I think of? I'm suspicious of them.
My natural heart is street smarts, Los Angeles, what's your deal? But the background really is pretty simple. There were no hotels that you would wanna go to if you were a Christian. There were no motels that you would wanna go to.
There was no Airbnb, obviously. People had inns and their names were people like Rahab. So now missionaries come to town, pastors come to town, Christians have to travel someplace and they need a place to stay.
And you say, well, you know what? I don't know if I have enough food. I don't think I have enough room. I don't think I have to have my house clean. All these other things. But the text is, you know what?
God loves the alien. Look at how he treated the aliens in the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, the book of Deuteronomy. So you love them too. You don't have to be suspicious of everyone. And if someone needs someplace to stay, you have them stay.
It's a present imperative, meaning ongoing show hospitality to strangers. Put up that guest overnight. I remember I was once in Rome with Kim and there's a family that had a small little flat and they would not let us take anything except the master bedroom.
And then the couple slept on their kids' old bunk beds. And I think the kids slept on the floor, just overdoing it in their love for the stranger. Jesus said in Matthew 25, for I was hungry and gave you food.
I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers to show love, to show hospitality, you did it to me.
That's what the Lord Jesus said. The first one might be love brothers and then here it's to love others. What's the counterpart to brotherly love? Loving somebody who's close to you, loving people that you don't know.
Traveling missionaries are somebody that needs a place. And by the way, there's kind of a fun little catch here. For thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember Lot? Remember Abraham? Abraham has three men there.
They look like men. They were really angels, two angels and one, the angel of the Lord, the second person of the Trinity. Sometimes wonderful things happen when you do that. Now I have met people that tell me they try to change a tire on the road and some guy showed up and then he was gone and it's my angel.
I don't think he's saying that. He's saying, do you know what? Make sure you're hospitable to people. And there have been times, not many times, but a few times you've actually had angels that you have ministered to, hence Lot and Abraham.
Well, what else do we have? Number three, love brethren, show hospitality, remember the prisoners. And again, what he's doing here is he's saying, listen, this is the law for the Christian and you have the Holy Spirit so you can obey.
This is not law to stay in the kingdom. This is not law to get in the kingdom, but because God is no longer your judge, he's your father, this is how you honor your father. And so he says, how do you honor the father?
By loving brethren, by showing hospitality and by remembering the prisoner. What does verse three say? Now remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body.
Now, some people would say that that love of the brethren is an overarching theme to this section. Love other people, love strangers, love prisoners, love the marriage bed, don't love money. That could be true, but I think they're just this succinct way of, it's a succinct way of saying, love other people, don't forget those who are in prison.
Now here's the catch. Some of these people were in prison because they're Christians and their houses had been taken. Now, if you go remember the prisoners by taking food because in our day, prisoners get three squares a day and probably cable TV and get to work out or whatever they get.
In those days, if you were a prisoner, you had nothing to eat unless friends brought the food. So now you know of a friend who's, let's just say I'm in jail because I'm preaching the gospel and I can't eat unless you bring me food.
Guess what everybody's going to be thinking when you bring me the Christian pastor food, that you're a what? You're a Christian, you're next. But that doesn't stop a Christian from loving other people.
And listen, we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. And here it says, remember those as though in prison with them. And those who are mistreated since you are also in the body.
Don't forget the prisoners. Don't forget to take care of people who have been mistreated by society. And I know it's only an application, it's not real prison. But many of you have done this kind of thing with this application involved when we have older people at our church who are shut in and they go, you go and visit them and give them masks and give them food and give them other things showing Christian sympathy.
The martyrdom of Perpetua in the second century, two deacons were appointed to visit this lady in jail and to relieve the severity of her imprisonment. Number four, let marriage be held in honor. Number four, since Jesus is your high priest, how do you respond?
Love the brethren, show hospitality, remember the prisoners and let the marriage bed be held in honor and honor marriage itself. Let me read the verse, verse four. Most of you are familiar with it. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
So like now, back in those days, it was a slutty, smutty, awful culture when it comes to sexual sin. And you could try to think of any weird sexual sin and every aberration known to mankind and it was there and it's here now.
So how do we respond? What do we tell people who are Christians who are trying to live a holy life that have come out of that lifestyle or never want to get into that lifestyle? One thing could happen is you might be influenced by these people and they might say, well, sex is recreational, sex has this pleasure.
If I eat food, if I get hungry and eat, that's not a moral issue. So if I'm sexually hungry and then eat, that can't be a problem. So just don't run my life and by the way, it's free grace and Jesus is my high priest and so I can sin all I want to and don't tell me about pornography or anything else.
I'll do what I please. That's one extreme when it comes to sexual sin. The other side is just as difficult when you come to this verse and that is, you know what, I've lived such a life, you might say, of sexual sinfulness that now I'm thinking celibacy is more spiritual than anything else.
Now I don't want to have sex even in my marriage because all the connotations that it brings up and everything in my past and so for both the licentious and those who think asceticism is the way, the text is clear, God has spoken, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed, that's literally the word we would use for intercourse, be undefiled.
Now there are issues with judgment that I'll talk about in a moment but for now in our culture, I could ask you the question, I know the answers but I'll ask them anyway. Do you honor marriage? Do you value marriage?
Do you highly esteem marriage? Did you know 1 Peter 1, the blood of Jesus is called something that we sang about today, it's called the what kind of blood? The precious blood, that's that word here, precious, where you say marriage is to be precious, that's how I honor, that's how I think of marriage as some kind of precious stone, Revelation 18 it's used of.
I think about it rightly, I want to say, do you know what, as a Christian, I remember what Ephesians says, Jesus loves the church, here's a sacrificial giver, the Lord Jesus and here's how the church comes under him and submits to him and wants to follow him and all this picture of a church, the Lord Jesus and it's a reflective in marriage and I want to honor that.
There are people today, Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 but the spirit explicitly says that in the later times, here's what happens, men forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created, by the way, both food and marriage, to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth, for everything created by God is good, including marriage and nothing is to be rejected if it is to be received with gratitude for it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer.
Highly praise, I highly value and highly prize marriage. So don't fall for this, you know what? Asceticism, no sex is more spiritual, there are some people who have the gift of celibacy, obviously, but that's not the point here.
Married couples are to honor marriage by keeping themselves exclusively for one another. You, dear congregation, married or not, ought to say, you know what? A way not to value and prize marriage between a man and a woman ordained by God is to say that gay marriage, quote unquote, homosexual marriage is actually marriage, that is dishonoring to the Lord.
Jesus, if you think about Jesus, did he honor marriage? Well, I think he did. By the way, remember his first miracle in John chapter two, Cana, near Galilee, that you're invited to go with us in February, if you want to go to Israel with us, we're still planning to go.
He, remember Jesus, at the wedding, wanted to make sure everybody was having a great time, so he turned the water into welches, you remember that? I don't know if you remember Matthew chapter 22, the teaching of Jesus about parables and marriage, wedding garments.
He honors this topic because he invented it. He's the one, I think, that brought Eve to Adam for the first marriage. Well, you could also say, you know what? I'm gonna dishonor marriage and dishonor the marriage bed by pornography.
People struggle with pornography. They give themselves to it freely. It's no longer even a struggle. That's a way to dishonor marriage. Marrying an unbeliever is a way to dishonor marriage. Premarital sex, extramarital sex, are ways to dishonor marriage.
The text says very clearly, hold marriage in high honor. By the way, it's either a statement or an imperative. There's no real verb there, but your text in the ESV probably takes it as a command. And I think so too, because it's in a section of commands.
Honor marriage and let the marriage bed be undefiled. Why? Because God is going to judge the defiled married bed. Say, well, you know what? Fornication, sex before marriage. Adultery, sex while I'm married with somebody else.
Those issues aren't that big a deal. I mean, turn on Jerry Springer. There are bigger deals than that. For the Lord, you ought not to defile yourself with those things under the Lord. And by the way, even if you turn back to Hebrews 7, talking about the Lord, I'm thinking about the marriage bed is undefiled.
That word undefiled is used about Jesus as well. Not in any kind of sexual connotation, but just his person, his nature. He's undefiled, so be holy as I am holy, including in the sexual arena. 726, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.
Say, well, I've committed sexual sins. Well, what does 1 Corinthians 6 say? You've been washed, Christian. You've been sanctified and you've been justified. The point is not if you've ever committed sexual sin, you're not a Christian.
Here's the point with this judgment part. God is going to judge immoral and adulterous. What do you mean by that? Well, people say, I'm just gonna go ahead and do what I wanna do because I'm covered by the blood anyway.
And you live a lifestyle of unrighteousness. The text says, don't be deceived. It's those kinds of people that aren't really Christians because the lifestyle of unrighteousness sexually shows that you say, you know what?
I have no fruit of holy living. I should ask if I have any root. He's not saying Christians can't sin or if they do sin, they're out. He's saying Christians shouldn't sin. And by the way, if you wanna be characterized by pornography, by immorality, by fornication, by homosexuality, by adultery, whatever it is outside of that, you ought to ask yourself the question, am I a Christian?
There's nothing wrong with asking that question. The marriage bed is to be undefiled, integrity. Now, one of the ways it happens is, and I think the root reason why he writes it this way, let the marriage bed be undefiled, is because there are people who've said, you know what?
Like Augustine, Augustine Augustine, he would say things like, you know what? He was so sleazy before he got saved. He said, you know what? We're only gonna have sex in marriage for children. That's not a way to keep the marriage bed undefiled.
First Corinthians chapter seven, verses one through five is very clear. If you are able as a married couple to be in the marriage bed, you ought to be in there regularly and often. That is the word of God.
We live in a crooked and perverse generation, Philippians says, and we are to appear as lights in the world. By the way, there in Ephesians chapter, I mean, excuse me, in Hebrews chapter 13, God will judge, God is emphatic.
It's the last word. It's to make sure you realize, do you know what? This is not about venereal disease. This is not about this, that, or the other, unwanted pregnancies. This is about God judges. And by the way, the first judgment in all the Bible, Satan said, God isn't going to judge.
People run around saying all the time, I can be illicit as much as I want to sexually, and God will not judge. I don't care about purity. It's a trifling thing to me. God will judge. Did you know first Thessalonians four says, the Lord will punish men for sexual immorality.
Quote, as I have told you already and warned you that he is the avenger of sexual sins. There's a threat of judgment. You say, yes, but I'm a Christian and I have thoughts in my mind. Did I lose my salvation?
Dear friends, you know that's not what I'm saying. But somebody that says, you know what? I don't care about how I live with my body. There's no struggle. There's no repentance. There's no anything else.
Then you want to go back to the first 12 chapters and say, am I really even trusting in the Savior? God will judge. That's not a message we hear. We hear sex is our right and recreational sex is good.
The Bible says, flee immorality. J .C. Ryle, sexual sin is a sin that leaves the deepest scars upon the soul of any other sin that a man can commit. It is a sin that destroys thousands of young men in every age and has even overthrown a few of saints of God in the past.
Samson and David are fearful proofs. It's the sin that man dares to smile at and smoothed over using the terms, thrills, loves, passions, desires. But it is the sin that the devil rejoices over for he is the unclean spirit and it is the sin that God abhors.
And so if you are Christian, dabbling with these things, today's the day you stop. Today's the day you repent. The text is clear in 1 Corinthians 6, but you are washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our God.
I looked up the American dictionary of the English language, Noah Webster, 1828 marriage. What do you think I found? Well, I found this. What did pastors do before the internet? They looked at books. When I was younger, I wanted to have all kinds of illustrations in my sermons.
And so you have to buy illustration books. Then after about 10 years, you know what you do with those illustration books? It's called kindling because you don't need them anymore because you just look around and there's all kinds of illustrations everywhere.
American dictionary of English language, that big green thick one. Marriage, the act of uniting a man and a woman for life. Wedlock. Marriage was instituted by God himself for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and education of children.
More recently, Miriam Webster said, the mutual relation of husband and wife, wedlock, the institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family.
Well, is there anything else that God would like us to do in light of who Jesus is? Well, for today, one last thing in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13, verses five and six, somewhat related to the sexual arena when it comes to gratification of self.
Here, it's trusting in money. Number five, love the brethren, show hospitality, remember the prisoners, honor marriage, all because of who Jesus is, and in light of that, honoring him by our thankful, grateful lives.
Number five, be content with what you have. Verses five to six. By the way, there's a couple of quotes here from the Old Testament, and that's been par for the course for our author, who's writing to the Hebrews.
Of course, he would sprinkle in verses all the time. Hebrews 13, five and six. Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?
Now, sex isn't wrong, it's what the human heart does with it. Money's not wrong, it's what the human heart does with it. It's not money is the root of all evil, but it's what? The love of money. And so here, this writer is saying, if God takes care of every spiritual need that you have, chapters one through 12, you can still trust him.
If you can trust God with your soul, can you trust him, even if you've lost your job, to have your family fed? Or whatever it might be. So you don't have to love money. Of course, work hard, but don't love money, and be content with what you have.
And then there's five negatives in verse five. And it's, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And the negatives line up in a Spurgeon sermon entitled, never, never, never, never, never. Five nevers.
You're a five-point never, is what I call you. Yeah, I never am gonna have to worry, because God's never going to leave me or forsake me. What's he gonna do, save you from your sins, and then, hey, you're on your own?
He will never leave you or forsake you. This would be good advice to Christians who are getting persecuted, and they've taken your home. Chapter 10, they have had some of their homes taken. This is good for people that have a lot of money, because they tend to trust in money.
This is good for people that don't have enough money, because they need money, and they've got to supply their family's needs. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Now, this comes from a lot of different verses, and I could read you a few.
The first one is from Joshua 1. I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you, God said to Joshua. Moses said to the Israelites, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, for the Lord your God goes with you.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. And David to Solomon, do not be afraid or discouraged. The Lord God, my God, is with you. And so, the writer is saying, you can trust the Lord. He's never going to leave you.
Think about the incarnation. Think about His high priestly duty. Think about how He's even now in heaven praying for you. Think about He's alive. Think about He's seated at the right hand of the Father.
You can still trust Him. As the songwriter says, the soul that on Jesus had leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to His foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll what?
Never, no, never, no, never forsake. That's the truth. Paul said, you know what? I've learned to have little. I've learned to have a lot. I'm going to try to be content with what I have. This goes right back to the commandments, the 10 commandments where you talk about coveting.
I don't need to covet. I like to have my life free from loving money. The Lord Jesus talked about this a lot, did He not? You can't serve God and money, so don't serve money. The choice is simple. Keep trusting the Lord.
The just shall live by faith, not the just shall live by portfolios and everything else in the future. So lots of people have lost a lot of money here for their stock accounts. Well, I can give you some advice, and that is God will never leave you nor forsake you.
Man can't do anything to you because of the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, no servant can serve two masters, for he either will hate the one and love the other, or he'll hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him. The psalmist said in Psalm 73, whom have I in heaven but thee, and besides thee, I desire nothing on earth.
So be careful of thinking that somehow God is gonna just forget about you, has forgotten about you, or doesn't care. Psalm 118 is quoted in verse six. Do you see it? The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me.
Will God stop upholding you? Will God stop caring for you? He can't. He is by definition a helper. He's told us in His word regularly in the Psalms that He's our helper. Psalm 27, you have been my help.
Psalm 33, He is our help and shield. Psalm 54, God is my helper. Psalm 63, you have been my help. Psalm 94, if the Lord had not been my help, my soul would have soon dwelt in the abode of silence. And since God helps you, you don't have to be afraid.
I've said this before, and I wanna make this more of an encouraging sermon than kind of getting after you. But lots of people I know, I don't think I know anyone here who's doing that, but they are so afraid of virus issues that they've forgotten to think that God has said, we don't need to be afraid.
It's the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, not anything else. So the writer is simply going through the right response to who you are in Christ Jesus. The law doesn't motivate. If I just told you, go do these things, I actually could have added these five things to those lists that I gave you at the beginning of the sermon.
What would have been the difference? I could have had example number six. Example number six, love other people, be hospitable, remember those in need, have no sexual promiscuity, enjoy the marriage bed, and don't be a lover of money.
What makes those commands different than all the other commands? Well, these come in light of who we are in Christ Jesus. I love Isaac Watts, the songwriter. The law commands and makes us know what duties to our God we owe.
But tis the gospel must reveal where lies our strength to do His will. What curses does the law denounce against the man but fails but once? But in the gospel, Christ appears, pardoning the guilt of numerous years.
That's good news. That's good news that even though we might have broken the law, Christ is our great Savior. So when I come to a passage like this, if you're not careful, you say, you know what? I'm rummaging the Bible for basic information before I leave the earth.
How do I be this? How do I be that? How do I do this? How do I do that? And so I'll just find a Bible promise book or Bible to-do book, and I want practical application. If that's you, be careful. If you're the one that says, if you had to choose between doctrine and daily living, what do you choose?
Well, of course, I need to know how to live my life. That's the wrong choice. I don't want you to have to choose either, but one is the foundation, and then this helps us with the fruit. And if the Lord Jesus has saved you, and dear Christian, he has, why wouldn't we want to respond like this?
If Jesus walked into this room today, hypothetically, I think we'd want to serve him. But since he's not going to walk in through those doors, I feel like somebody, who said that? Larry Bird's not gonna walk through those doors.
Jonathan, do you know? Oh, Rick Pitino, okay. But since he's not gonna physically walk through, then what do we do? We serve other people and love them. Spurgeon said, you will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters.
But if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. Jesus is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was one like him among the choicest of princes.
He's always found to be in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold, he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also.
If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, tender, lavish, super abundant in love, you'll always find it in Jesus. Spurgeon, these 40 years and more have I served him, blessed be his name, and I have nothing but love from him.
I would be glad to continue yet another 40 years in the same dear service here if it so pleased him. His service is life, peace, and joy. Oh, that you would enter it at once. God help you to a list under the banner of Jesus even this day as you love the brethren, be hospitable others, remember the prisoners, may the marriage bed be undefiled and be content with money.
Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for these dear people. I'm just thankful that you change people through preaching. You even change preachers, and I want to be changed. Father, I would like to love people more.
I would like to be more hospitable, to remember those in need. I'd like to have proper thoughts at all times when it comes to marriage and sex, and I'd also like to not love money. Father, would you help me, and would you help these dear people?
That's our desire. You gave us that desire, and we're thankful that in the middle of all this, you'll never leave us nor forsake us. Because you are our helper. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.