Faith And Faithfulness - [Hebrews 13]

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Pastor Mike preaches Faith And Faithfulness - [Hebrews 13].

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We all would agree as Christians that obedience is good. To be faithful to the
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Lord. We realize that disobedience is wrong. Unfaithfulness is a sin.
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But my question this morning is a simple one. What motivates the Christian to obey? What motivates you to obey
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God? Some of the commands in scripture seem easy. Some of them are harder. But how can we year in and year out obey?
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How many people have been saved for more than 50 years? Can you raise your hand? Several have been.
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How do you keep obeying? I mean, when you're first saved you're excited and six months, a year, and all of a sudden the trials come, the issues come in your life.
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How can you keep obeying 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? How could Methuselah obey for how many years was he alive?
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969 years. I always think, would I want to live to be 969? What if you hurt your back when you were 20?
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What motivates obedience? From the heart, I'd like to honor God. I'd like to give my heart, soul, mind, and strength when there's difficulties and when year after year come along.
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What motivates faithfulness? Is there a key? Is there a secret? There are a bunch of passages in the scriptures we should look at to see why we should obey and really how.
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There's commands to athletes, there are commands to soldiers, commands to farmers.
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They work hard, we're to obey just like they work hard. Certainly God's law is holy and good and just and right.
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It reflects who He is. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 13 and I want to answer this question this morning.
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What motivates a Christian's obedience? How can I sustain obedient holy living under the
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Lord? Not just a one -off, not just at the beginning of the year, but what motivates obedience?
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And lots of times we forget this, and so it's the good time of year that we talk about this, early in 2023, what motivates obedience?
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I know you'd like to obey God, I know as Christians that's a heart that you have, to be faithful, but what should we do?
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How should we go about it? I really think the what is easy, we'd like to obey. The why is easy, to glorify the
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Lord, but how do we do it? And here we have in the book of Hebrews chapter 13 lots of commands to be holy and to be obedient.
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And we're just going to walk through some of these. There's a whole barrage of them, a bunch of commands from the book of Hebrews that tell its listeners, and then tell us, to obey.
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These are important for every Christian to obey. And He just opens with verse 1, let brotherly love continue.
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The first thing He tells these dear Christians is you ought to have Philadelphia kind of love, brotherly love.
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This isn't the kind of exotic love, erotic love, it's not even agape love. He's saying,
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I want you to have a brotherly love for other Christians. And we're called of course in the Bible, brothers and sisters in Christ, and even though we're not related to one another, we're like brothers, we're like sisters, and things get in the way, and there's bitterness and sin, and He says
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I just want that love to keep going. Don't stop now. He gives another command.
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Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
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Of course you know the culture back in those days, and there's no Motel 6s, and no Sheratons, and no, what's nicer than a
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Hotel 6? Ritz Carlton. And so, you'd get to town, you're a
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Christian, there's no place to stay. If you stayed in one of those kind of hotels, it was more like a brothel, and so Christians would open their door.
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And so, we're to do that. These recipients of this letter were to do it, and so too were we.
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I went to California for a conference last week, that I wasn't teaching at, but just receiving a conference, and sitting there underneath the
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Word, and I stayed with a couple. I've stayed with them once before, I don't even know who they were,
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I knew they were members of the church, they said please come and stay, and they lived on an avocado farm, overlooking the ocean, and I thought, maybe they do think
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I'm an angel, all the trick, I'm not, but they just opened their home, and serve.
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Remember, these listeners, the recipients of this letter, there's persecution, there's issues going on, and you might not even want to open your house, because what if somebody was trying to infiltrate your house, because they were a
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Judaizer, they were a Pharisee, and he says, open your homes. He keeps going, do you notice all these commands?
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These are good, and right, and holy. Verse 3, remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body.
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If you say to yourself, how would I treat prisoners? Well, what would I like to have done for me, if I was a prisoner, because I opened my mouth and said,
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Jesus is the Savior, He's the only way to heaven, and He's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, and they throw me in jail.
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And when we're on the run, Hebrews 10 says, some of these people who get this letter are losing their houses, it might be hard to remember people in prison.
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He goes on with another command, that's good, and right, and holy. Let marriage be held in honor among all.
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Of course, our society doesn't do that at all, do they? The society might not do it, the media might not do it, the newspapers might not do it, but we in the local church are going to do that.
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We want to have it be held in honor among all, that is between a man and a woman, who are born both a man and a woman, and let the marriage bed, intimacy, be undefiled.
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Outside of a marriage, the bed is defiled, for God will judge sexually immoral and adulterous.
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And so he's writing, and Christians even sin, they don't fall into sin, they sin, and so he's writing to them, saying it's good to obey
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God, in light of who you are in Christ, and therefore, if we here today need to deal with things like brotherly love continuing, and showing hospitality, and remembering those in prison, and also if there are people here today who deal with sexual sin, they need to repent.
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It shouldn't even be named among us. He goes on, verse 5, do you see all these commands here?
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Tons of commands that are good and right, we want to be faithful, we want to honor God. Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.
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He could have just left it there, but he gives us a wonderful reason why. For he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
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Bitcoin might leave you, stock market might forsake you, but he says,
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I'll 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.
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Here's more commands, we want to obey these commands. Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
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Consider the outcome of their way of life. Imitate their faith. You want the ultimate leader, he goes on to say in verse 8,
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. While human leaders fail and falter, and they're not perfect by a long shot, the ultimate leader, the
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Lord never wavers. He gives more commands, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart, we're not talking about food here, we're not talking about dietary issues and nutrition, gut health.
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I talked to my wife yesterday, we never had gut health until like the last 10 years of our lives, now everything's gut health.
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Can you pick a different name please? For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by right proportions of carbs, fats, proteins, no, by grace.
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That's what we need to be strengthened by, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. And he keeps going on, command after command after command.
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Don't go outside the camp, excuse me, therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach, don't worry about persecution.
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Offer a sacrifice of praise, verse 15. Keep doing good, verse 16, and share.
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Obey your leaders and submit to them, verse 17. And pray for us, verse 18. Are those commands good and right and holy?
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The answer is yes, yes and yes, because they reflect God and his nature and his character. But my question again today is, what motivates you to do them?
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What's your motivation to obey the law? We talk about it here regularly at Bethlehem Bible Church because it's so important.
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The law itself doesn't motivate. These laws, if you just had
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Romans 13, 1 -15ish, and you were given those laws with nothing else, how long do you think you'll obey them?
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How long do you think you can have sustained obedience? Because remember, the law doesn't motivate.
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The law doesn't animate. It's like a steering wheel, the law is, and it steers us to godliness and to holiness and away from ungodliness and away from trespasses and sins, but it only steers us.
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If you buy a car without an engine and it has a really nice steering wheel. I remember when
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I was 16 and my first car was a 1967 Chevy Nova II. We had a deal back in those days,
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Chevy buyers were right and all the Ford people were wrong. We didn't know what a Hyundai was back in those days, or anything else.
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And I had this Chevy, and you know sometimes a steering wheel, you can drive it for so long, hands at 10 and 2.
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I didn't have one of those little knobs down there like the farmers had on their tractors. But you kind of wear out your steering wheel after a while, and so you put a nice little handle, what do they call the steering wheel covers?
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Steering wheel covers, and you put it on there, it's so nice. But you have no engine, you can steer, and without power steering, and my
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Chevy II did not have power steering, you really have to crank it. And here's how you'd have to steer those cars, one hand, one hand, one hand, one hand, but you can do that in the parking lot all you want, and unless you have an engine, unless you have something to get you there, some kind of propulsion, you're not going to do it.
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And so think about the law, dear Christian friends. God's law is good, it reflects His nature.
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It's right for us to say we ought to be content, we all struggle with contentment. It's right for us to say we ought to be sexually pure, and we ought to avoid pornography, and anything outside the marriage bed.
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It's right for us to say, we've had leaders in the past that taught us the Bible, they were not perfect, but they were telling us about the perfect one.
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And we ought to do these things, we ought to have gratitude. But just law alone doesn't motivate.
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It's like a steering wheel, we need the engine. What's the engine to get you to obey?
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What's your motivation? How can you have sustained obedience? I mean, we got commands in the
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Bible like, husbands love your wives. I mean, for a day, fine, a month, fine, a year, fine, 30 years, fine.
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How many people have been married for over 50 years? Fifty is the magic number today. Several. How do you love your wife for 50 years?
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Like Christ loved the church. Don't answer that. He's laughing. She's laughing, that's worse.
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Submit to your husbands. I mean, that is such an awful word these days in our society, how do
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I submit to my husband? I don't even want to, I don't want that in the Bible. Can you find me a Bible translation that doesn't have that so I can use it?
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And we know at this church that the motivation for obedience is Jesus. That He loved you, that He gave
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His life for you. And He knew every sin you'd ever commit and He said,
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I'll die for you anyway. Charles Spurgeon said, when I thought God was hard,
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I found it easy to sin. But when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion,
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I smote upon my breast to think I could have ever rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good.
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The motivation, the long -term motivation for every Christian isn't law.
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It isn't fear of God as some kind of taskmaster.
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It isn't guilt. It isn't peer pressure. It's that God loved me.
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Listen to Paul. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as I preached in my gospel, which
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I'm suffering. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect. Knowing who
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Jesus is, and Scott prayed about it in his prayer even, knowing what we deserve and what we get, and we're so motivated, we think,
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I deserve hell and I get heaven. I deserve to pay for my sins and I get heaven.
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I would like to obey God, not out of keeping my salvation. If I obey,
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I stay a child of God. Not to earn my salvation. I'm not really one, so if I obey enough,
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God might adopt me. But since we're Christians, we want to obey.
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Of course, you know the paradigm. There are paradigms in the Bible all over. Here's one. We were guilty in Christ, Romans, early chapters.
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We've been graced by the triune God. Guilt, grace, and what's the final G? Gratitude.
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Who taught you that? Guilt, grace, gratitude. It's in the book of Romans. Heidelberg Catechism picks it up.
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So how do we obey long term? How do we obey short term? And the answer isn't try harder, do more.
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How could you? Look at your failures in the past. It's gratitude for what
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God has done. I just want you to think about it just for a second. Is there anything you wouldn't do in response to God's grace?
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What if He called you to love your wife? Knowing what God has done for you in Christ, wouldn't you say, it'd be my pleasure, it'd be my honor.
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If you would do that for me, I would gladly respond. The motivation for the
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Christian is who Jesus is, and our response of thanksgiving and gratitude.
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I mentioned Heidelberg Catechism earlier. What's your only comfort in life and death? When we're on our deathbed, what's our comfort?
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I'll tell you, you need comfort on your deathbed. What about in our life? Yes. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own.
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You Christian, you're not your own. But belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Did you know,
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Christian, that's who you belong to? He owns you. Who with His precious blood has fully satisfied all my sins.
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You know, every sin you've ever committed, Christian, it's paid for. Jesus said, it is finished, paid in full. And redeem me from the power of the devil.
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Do you know the devil is real and he's after you and he's prowling and he wants people like you, but God has not let him?
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That without the will of my Father in Heaven, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.
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Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
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You want to live for Him? That's because in light of who Jesus is and gratitude and thanks for what
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He's done. Jerry Bridges said, have you ever thought about the wonderful truth that Christ lived
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His perfect life in your place and on your behalf?
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Bethlehem Bible Church, has it gripped you yet that God looks at you today and sees you clothed in the perfect, sinless obedience of His Son?
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And when He says, this is my Son whom I love, with Him I'm well pleased, He includes you in that warm embrace.
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And so when you hear that and when you think about it, then you say, here I am, send me.
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Right? Like Isaiah. He wasn't a terrorist. He wasn't a bad guy. He was probably the most holy man in all of Israel.
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And maybe the whole world. And when he sees God's holiness, he sees his own sin. And then here comes the death angel to kill him.
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But no, it was not coming to kill him, unlike what Isaiah knew he deserved. The angel comes and what does he do?
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He cauterizes his lips and he cleanses him. And Isaiah said,
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I'll go anywhere. Is there anything you wouldn't do for the Lord Jesus? Who not only has done this for you, but also empowers you.
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Because you don't get Jesus just to be saved, you get Him also for sanctification. The Christian life is not, oh,
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Jesus got me into heaven, now just give me the rules. Yeah, there are rules, but they're guides and they're steering wheels.
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It's like a GPS. So this morning,
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I'd like you to turn to Hebrews 13 verse 22 for a moment, and then we're going to go back to Hebrews 1.
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I want you to realize what the book of Hebrews is. You notice I kind of, I didn't trick you, but I didn't say, when
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I said turn to Hebrews 13, this is what Hebrews is all about. Because I wanted you to see those commands first, then
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I want you to understand what kind of letter this is, then we're going to look at some of the book. And you say, why are we in Hebrews again?
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Because it'll change your life. Because you need to keep reading it over and over. People say, what's happened to you in the last 15 years that's kind of rocked your world?
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Well, many wonderful things, positive things, but here are two at the top, I guess, Hebrews and cancer.
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That'll change your life. But 10 times more than cancer, it's Hebrews. And Hebrews is what kind of letter?
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It's a unique letter. Philemon's unique, that's true. Titus is unique. Romans, they're all unique in certain ways, but especially unique in this way, verse 22.
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I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
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Boy, that's that pastor's heart right there. 13 chapters, I've just written to you briefly. By the way, it's a brief sermon today, don't be concerned.
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Did you know Hebrews was a sermon? I think you remember that. It's a sermon.
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That's what the word of exhortation means in verse 22. Yeah, it's written down like an epistle, but it was a sermon.
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You know what kind of sermon it was? An expository sermon. Exposing you to the truths of God found in the
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Old Testament. D .J.
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Harrington called it, arguably, the greatest Christian sermon ever written down. Do you know it's the only
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Christian sermon written in all the Bible? If there's one sermon in all the
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Bible that was a Christian sermon, I think it'd probably be good to study that to figure out, how should you preach to Christians?
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You say, well, Paul preached to Areopagus. Yes, he was talking to pagans, right? Talking about God as creator, judge, and savior.
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Peter preached to the men in Acts 2, that's true. But how about people that were listening to a sermon at an established local church?
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Say, Paul wrote to churches? Yes, in the letter style. Paul wrote to Ephesus and Colossae and these other places?
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Yes, in a letter style. But where's the one sermon in the New Testament that proclaims the truth of God, that you could, by the way, get up and read
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Hebrews from this pulpit and it would take how many minutes, do you think? The perfect sermon time, 45 minutes.
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There's somebody here in the congregation, often he comes up to me and says, that was 47 minutes today. So why
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I have this, I have no idea. Out of all the passages in the
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Bible, this is the Christian sermon. Is there law in the
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Christian sermon? Of course there is, because God wants to guide us. What kind of dad never gives rules to his children?
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Do this, don't do that. Stay here, don't do that. Let me give you wisdom. Every father guides his children.
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Every father gives law to his children. Every father with the mother right there gives rules and directions.
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Of course we're not rudderless in this world. You're Christians, now figure it out. No. But what's the dominating theme of the only sermon in the
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New Testament given to local Christians? That's the question of the hour. And guess what the answer is?
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The answer is, it's about the one who motivates you to obey those laws. We joke about it all the time.
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If you like to hear about Jesus, this is a good church for you. But I mean it, because that's all
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I have to offer, is the Lord Jesus. If you have a friend and you say, oh please come to Bethlehem Bible Church.
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And let's say they're from Tibet. They've never been to a Christian service. They don't know anything about Christianity.
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They live far away, and they sat and listened to a sermon. And you said to them afterwards, what do you think
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Christianity is about? Do you know what I want them to say? Here's what I want them to say.
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It was about Jesus. I don't know about this man.
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They think he's alive somehow. Two thousand years ago he died, but he's alive. It's not about bare law.
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Only law. Law is included. Obviously I just read all those. I believe those.
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I like to obey those. I repent when I don't. What I want you to see today, going back to chapter 1 please, is that Jesus is the theme for all gospel ministry, because gospel means good news about Jesus.
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That when you want people to obey, as counterintuitive as it is, you tell them about who
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Jesus is. This is also going to serve as a template for dads and moms who teach their children the
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Bible. I'm glad when you sit down for family time and open up the Bible. But dear parents, if you only give them law, by the way we're good at that, aren't we?
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I mean, I could be such a great drill instructor, a drill sergeant.
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I'd be great at it. And I was so great at it being a dad for many years. Sit down.
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Don't chew with your mouth full. After dinner, say may
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I please be excused. Push the chair in after dinner. Say to mommy, thank you for dinner, mommy.
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Take the plate over. Rinse it off. Then put it over here. Ask, can you help?
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I mean, over and over and over. Are those wrong to say, by the way? No elbows on the table is wrong, because my father said it to me, so I would never say it to children.
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Those things aren't wrong. But what's the context? How do you teach your children? If God motivates by saying,
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I'm such a gracious God by sending the Son, and He's a gracious Son by dying for you, and the Spirit is gracious by applying salvation to you, and therefore in light of who
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God is, out of thankfulness and gratitude and love, I will obey.
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If that's how God parents, how do we parent? And left to ourselves, it won't be this way, because law is from the heart in the conscience given by God and gospel, and Jesus is outside of us.
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Jesus doesn't dwell in us in the sense that He's just there when you're born and you know all about Jesus.
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Oh, He dwells in us by the Spirit of God when we're saved. I understand that, but that's not my point. So here's what we're going to do.
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Twelve points for the outline today. Super simple. You said you've already gone 23 minutes.
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Remember, there's a guy here that keeps track of my introduction probably 25 minutes now. It's not really an introduction, it's this.
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There are 12 reminders for you in the book of Hebrews to make sure when you're having a hard time dealing with sin, you're struggling, you're fighting.
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Let's say you think, you know what, I struggle with anxiousness. If you only read verses that say don't be anxious, don't do that.
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Philippians has a whole chapters one, two, and three before it even gets to anxiousness. If you're having a hard time serving in a local body,
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Romans 12, you should have a ministry if you're a Christian member here. You're like, well, I don't really have one, I'm new. Okay, fine, but if you're not new, you should be thinking to yourself,
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I should do that. Remember, it's Romans 1 -11 before we get to 12 to serve. There's no secret for the
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Christianity, for Christian life technically, but it's so not talked about these days, it seems like it is a secret.
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You say, well, you gave me 12 points, what are the 12 points? I'm going to show you Jesus in chapters 1 -12.
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Every chapter, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And therefore when your children come back from Sunday school, and you say, what was
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Sunday school about today? And they look at you kind of cross -eyed and say, Jesus? You'll say,
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Amen. By the way, where's Corey? What was Sunday school about today?
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Pardon me? Psalms. Okay, it was about Jesus then, right? Alright, good. You stay hired.
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By the way, I walked into the secretary's office today, Patty's.
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I had my discipleship group, and I gave them a little five -minute assignment, so I slipped out. Whenever you want a coffee, as the teacher, alright guys, here's your five -minute assignment,
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I just slip out, have a coffee, talk. And I walked in there, and I heard a preacher preaching in the secretary's office.
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And Tim Holm was there listening to Corey during Sunday school. Good job, preacher.
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We're going to just look at every chapter in Hebrews, and I want to remind you that your motivation to obey is
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Jesus. I want to remind you that when you need comfort in life and death, it's the
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Lord Jesus. I want to remind you that every time you turn on the TV, or the YouTube, or somewhere else, a podcast, and all they do is
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TED Talk, you think, I need Jesus. I've been to pulpits across the world, and some of them have up here, we would see
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Jesus. If you don't want to talk about Jesus, it's time to sit down. I know you all know this, but the reason why
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I'm preaching it again is because I need it, and we need it, because we are built as law people only.
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Obey. But I want to remind you why to obey. And outline point number one is chapter number one.
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It is about Jesus. And in chapter number one, he starts off with a Genesis 1 -1 kind of bang, and he then tells us about Jesus, the
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Divine Son. Long ago, at many times, in many ways,
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God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he spoke unto us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom, you know who created this world?
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Jesus created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
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After making purification for sins, no more work to be done, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
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Look at verse eight. All these Old Testament Psalms quoted here showing the deity of Jesus.
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But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
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The Father calls the Son God. I thought there was only one God. That's true. One God, three persons,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Verse thirteen, to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?
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And so this preacher starts off with chapter one saying, Jesus is God. He doesn't even really address them, and here you are, and here's what you're doing.
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You say, I think I can find some commands in chapter ten. I think I can find five warnings laced throughout here.
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Of course you can. But you can also find Jesus Christ in every one of these twelve chapters. Jesus is divine, chapter one.
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Any guesses what chapter two would be? Jesus is truly human.
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Verse ten, every chapter I want you to see, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And what is the paradigm in your life for leading your wife, for leading your children, for teaching
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Sunday school, for preaching at the rest home, for your own personal Bible study?
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It was fitting, verse ten of chapter two, that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory.
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That fits him. That's right. And he should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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Verse fourteen, since therefore the children share flesh and blood, I mean, we're not angels.
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We don't have angelic nature. We have flesh and blood, and if you're going to redeem those in flesh and blood, what do you have to do?
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He himself likewise partook of the same things that through death, his death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, loaned sovereignly by God for a short time, that is the devil.
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Ever been afraid of death and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery?
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He had, verse seventeen, to be made like his brothers in every respect that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation or assuagement, satisfaction for the sins of the people.
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For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he's able to help those who are being tempted.
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Do you see what the writer's doing? Do you see what the preacher's doing? Let me tell you more about Jesus. And you say, well,
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I kind of know these things. Well, maybe intellectually, but now in the middle of it, you're thinking, okay,
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I have to go to work tomorrow and obey my boss like he's God. He's not God, but as if he were
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God, until he tells me to do something that's wrong. Why would I ever do that? Who wants to do that?
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Chapter three. Is this point three or point two? Chapter three. Supposed to be funny.
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Oh, it's almost like we've come to the center of a sermon. Chapter three. Guess what it's about?
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It's about Lord Jesus and fixing your attention on him. Yes, but I have troubles. I have circumstances.
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I have trials. I have issues. What does he say? Therefore, holy brothers who share in a heavenly calling, consider
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Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. What's the remedy for all spiritual ills?
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What's the remedy for lackluster? I don't really feel like obeying. I've kind of obeyed a lot.
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Nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. I work behind the scenes. I never get any kudos. Here is the remedy.
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The meditation. Carefully looking at the Lord Jesus. This word means to fix, to think, to stare.
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When we were children, we used to say things like what? I don't know if kids say this anymore or not. Take a picture at what?
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There you go. All the children in unison. Thank you. That's what it means to stare at.
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No, no, but you don't understand. I've got this issue going on with family and friends. I know. He's getting you to try to stop looking at your problems and look to the
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Lord Jesus. Consider attentively. And since this is a sermon, I ask you the question.
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When's the last time you attentively thought about who Jesus is and what
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He's done? If I've got a problem, I attentively Google.
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If I've got a medical problem, I'm looking at WebMD. I'm fixing my mind on all these issues and what could go wrong.
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Looking for the worst thing. Who am I? You do it too, though.
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Instead of, okay, I need to reflect on those things. Fine. I have to live my life.
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But I'm supposed to fix my eyes on the Lord Jesus and consider Him. I mean, all the
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Bible talks about Him. That's true. Specifically, you've got 89 chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You've got 13 chapters about Jesus in Hebrews called the fifth gospel by some.
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And what is He trying to do? Look down at verse 6. He's driving you to be faithful. Hear it from this pulpit. We want you to be faithful.
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We want you to obey. Lawlessness is a sin. But what's the motivation to obey?
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But Christ is faithful over God's house, His Son. And we're His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
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For people that are less than faithful, look at the faithful one so that you can hold on by faith to the
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Lord Jesus. It means to put your head down and think about Him.
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To examine. He doesn't say, you know what, if you're struggling,
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I want you to think about the temple. I want you to think about the tabernacle. I want you to think about the sacrifices in the
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Old Testament. I want you to think about the Feast of Booths. I want you to think about the land of Israel and its nation.
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Know, know, know, and know. You put your head down and you study. When's the last time you read a book about Jesus?
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See, if we have an anxiety problem, we get the book about no anxiety. If we have a contentment problem, we work on that.
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But thankfully, the books that are written well, like Jeremiah Burroughs on the rare jewel of Christian contentment, it doesn't just talk about be content.
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It talks about whom? Him. Jesus. To examine.
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To ponder. Like Paul said, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. It's the word that Jesus used, consider the ravens.
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It's the word that Jesus used. Why do you look at the speck that's in your brother eye and not consider or notice or examine the log that's in your own eye?
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Do you know that the immaturity of these listeners, the ones that were immature, it's because they had a preoccupation, an unhealthy preoccupation with themselves and their problems.
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And they weren't considering who Jesus was. Because problems consume us. And so since God knows we're consumed by these problems, and we just get spiraled down like some kind of vortex, we now are reminded, oh,
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I shouldn't be doing that. There's a reason why we live by faith and not by sight. It's thinking.
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It's considering. I love the song. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent
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Him to die, I take it in. That on that cross, my burden gladly bearing,
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He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great
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I am. How great I am. Of course not. How great
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Thou art. The response to God's love in Christ Jesus is gratitude, is praise.
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What does He call in chapter 3 verse 1? The Apostle. Only time called here the Apostle. It just means sent one.
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God the Father in eternity past agrees with the Son while the Spirit's there to be sent. The Son is sent to go rescue us.
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And then to be the High Priest. To pray for us. To offer sacrifice of Himself for us.
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Well, that leads me to my fourth point, which would be chapter 4. I'm simply walking through the passage saying, with warning passages in the
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Bible certainly here, but most of the commands in 13, this is a book about Jesus.
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Excuse me, this book, this book of Hebrews. Chapter 4. If you had a zero in something great, it could be really anywhere in this chapter.
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How about verse 14? Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens.
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Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confessions. We don't have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
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Do you know Jesus sympathizes with your troubles? He knows. Jesus knows all about your troubles.
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But one in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then draw with confidence to the throne of grace.
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That's what we need, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Everything here is about Jesus because that motivates you to run in the warning passages and that motivates you to obey in the imperatives.
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Chapter 5. Verse 5. Did Jesus just saunter in and make
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Himself a High Priest? No. So also Christ did not exalt Himself to be made a High Priest, but was appointed by Him who said to Him, You are
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My Son, today I have begotten You. And by the way, He says in verse 6, as He says also in another place,
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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. To make sure all the Jewish people who would say,
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I thought Jewish priests had to have the last name Cohen. I thought they had to be
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Levites. You can't be a priest unless you're a Levite. Remember there's another priest and he's after the order of what?
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Melchizedek. Jesus was not a Levitical priest. He was from Judah. But He's after the line of Melchizedek.
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Chapter 6. Everything in this book is about Jesus. The only sermon in the New Testament we have, and the theme is
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Jesus, that ought to be our theme. By the way, if you're teaching through Ephesians and you're with all the commands in chapter 4, with don't steal, don't lie, tell the truth, don't be bitter, forgive, what do you think would be a good idea to remind our listeners of, and you can be reminded of, if you even read it?
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Chapters 1, 2, and 3, right? Just don't jump into 4. Chapter 6.
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We have this verse 19 as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. For when our hearts are running around and we're afraid and we're hither and thither and pell -mell, we just don't know what to do, we're anxious, we're nervous, we're getting persecuted, as these people were,
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I need an anchor of my soul. A hope that enters into the place behind the curtain, where we could never go, by the way, on our own, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.
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Everything in this book is about Jesus. Chapter 7. What's Jesus doing now?
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I mean, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us what he did on the earth. What does Jesus do in heaven? Don't you love it?
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Verse 25, consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since Jesus always lives to make intercession for them.
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What a prayer partner. Chapter 8. Verse 1.
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Now the point in what we're saying is this, very direct. I've been told by people like J .C.
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Ryle, preaching needs to be plain and simple and clear. What's the guy talking about today?
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Well, here's what he's talking about. We have present tense such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.
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You, you have a high priest. You have a go -between. Chapter 9. Everything in this book drives to the exaltation of the
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Lord Jesus, because a preoccupation with self is damaging to us all.
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Verse 13, for if the blood of bulls and goats, the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Jesus, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living
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God. What a great Trinitarian verse. The blood of Christ, the eternal spirit, God himself the
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Father. Chapter 10 is point 10. Verses 5, 6 and 7.
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What did you say when you were born? What did you say when you came into the world? What did
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Jesus say when he came into the world, the God -man? Verse 5. Here's what he said. Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
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In burnt offerings and sin offerings you take no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will,
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O God, that's the Father, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Why does
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Jesus come? Because Adam didn't obey. If Adam would have obeyed, there would be no sacrifices.
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So what's at the top of the list for God? I want a sacrifice? No, I want obedience. I want a man to totally obey.
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And there is a man, the eternal Son, who assumes human nature, and he perfectly obeys. I know what you're saying.
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Mike chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Chapter 11. It's about faithfulness.
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Remember how faithful Samson was? I got you, Mike. Remember how faithful Jephthah was?
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I've got you. Remember how faithful Abraham was? She's not my sister, she's not my wife, she's my sister. I got you.
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Chapter 11 is called what? The Hall of... We say that, but you know what we think about?
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We think it's the Hall of Faithfulness. It's the Hall of Faith. Why? Because these all had their minds set on an object,
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Jesus. When I say the just shall live by faith, what am
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I talking about? I'm talking about the eternal Son, who assumes human nature, who is sent by the Father, empowered by the Spirit, to live a perfect life, to die, and be raised.
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The Hall of Faith. What makes these people somehow allowed to be in this chapter?
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I mean, Sarah, the laugher? Moses, the murderer? Rahab, the prostitute? How do you get in the
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Hall of Faith? Answer, it's the Hall of Faith. Because it was the Hall of Faithfulness who would make it.
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Would you make it? Would you make it in this? In the last year, five years, ten years?
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No wonder Samson, the womanizer, and Jephthah, and his daughter, and David, the adulterer, make it in, because they're thinking about the object of their faith.
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Verse 6, and without faith in God, it's impossible to please Him. It's all by faith.
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And sadly, we as evangelicals say faith and we mean faithfulness. If I were to ask you the question, are you a person of faith?
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You'd say, yes, I'm here on Sunday. I read my Bible. I'd like to evangelize.
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I'd like to obey God. I'd say, you didn't quite hear my question. I said, are you a person of faith?
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You'd say, well, you're just the ornery New England pastor. And I would say, after 26 years of living here, finally you welcome me with open arms.
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Just in California for that conference last week, and I thought, I've said this before, people are too nice.
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They're shallow. Everybody's happy to see me and stuff, but no, I know what's going on underneath them.
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Romans 3 is true. And here in New England, it only took me, what, 22 years to win over Bruce Bolivar, but now that I won him over,
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I think he might give me a McDonald's franchise afterward. This isn't about faithfulness.
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You're not going to heaven because of faithfulness, because God requires perfection. Why talk about Jesus all the time?
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Because Jesus was faithful. And the preacher's going to talk about faithful living somehow, and he's either going to talk about your faithful living, which is good as a consequence of God's faithfulness, or he's going to talk about Jesus.
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And the writer here is talking about Jesus and His faithfulness, Jesus and His divinity, Jesus and His humanity,
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Jesus as Apostle, as High Priest from Melchizedek. You say, I got all that down, but my life is still a wreck.
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Well, then might I just nicely say, you don't have all that down. That's why we need to be reminded.
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That's why Paul says on his deathbed, remember Jesus Christ. Remember Him. We're not people of faith because we read our
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Bible. We're people of faith because we believe in the risen Savior. And then chapter 12, my last point.
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He said what I'm saying, because I'm trying to be faithful to Hebrews. Hebrews 12, 1,
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Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, of course we want to obey.
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Let us lay aside every weight. Ever try to run with a 45 pound weight from the gold's gym?
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It's hard to do. And the sin which clings so closely, let us run with endurance.
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The race that's set before us. Run, obey. That's true. How do you do it? Answer verse 2. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne on God.
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Verse 3, Consider Him. Similar language in the English to chapter 3.
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Hebrews is clear. The motivation for Christian obedience is
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Jesus Himself. Hebrews is clear. Law is important, but it doesn't drive you anywhere.
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It only steers you. Faith in Jesus, the high priest, spurs on faithfulness.
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Not guilt trips from the pastor. Not peer pressure. Not measuring yourself to other people.
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Friends, we're not Roman Catholics. Where did that come from?
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We're Protestants. And we protest several things, many things that Rome did.
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We protest that your standing before God is based on your holy living.
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We protest that you just need law to guide you and motivate you to live the
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Christian life. We protest that our obedience makes us acceptable to God through the grace of God.
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We protest that. But lurking in every man and woman's heart is this idea that if I do this,
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God will do that. We live in transactional Christianity. Why is
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Rome so big? That's one of the reasons, because it's following the heart of man. It's wrong.
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It's backward. We stand before God justified based on the work of the triune God. Full stop.
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We are sanctified by the work of the triune God. Full stop. We will be glorified by the work of the
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Godhead. Full stop. We are Protestants and we believe that talk about Jesus, talk about Jesus, talk about Jesus doesn't lead to lawlessness.
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It never be. It leads to obedience by gratitude and thankfulness. And we have these things to guide us and to steer us.
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This week when you struggle with obedience, may I be so kind and nice and gentle to say, don't forget about Jesus.
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Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this day. What a sermon. Maybe there's a reason why,
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Father, we ought not know who preached Hebrews because he was pointing to the
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Son anyway. Father, may we be like one Bible character,
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John the Baptist. May we decrease this week so that Jesus might increase by the power of the