Hebrews & Morality (Part 3)

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. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

Doctrine, Practical Application, and the Book of Hebrews

My name is Mike Abendroth. It�s really Abendroth, the English version, but we had a family fight a couple, three generations ago. Do people talk that way? A couple, three? Three generations ago, a tree, my great-grandfather, or great-great-grandfather, was cutting a tree down, and it fell on him and killed him.

Then there was something omitted in an obituary, and therefore there was a big family fight. My side of the family said, from this day forth, we�re no longer the Abendroths, we�re the Abendroths. So, when you look at it, it looks like Abendroth.

I will answer to Abendroth, guten abend, evening, and then rot, R-O-T, in the German, in German language. It�s evening red, when the sun goes down, it�s kind of that red sky, evening red. That�s pretty cool.

How�d you like to have a last name that? It wasn�t so fun to have that last name when the teacher would say something like, you know what, I�d like you to give me your locker number so I can write it down, and I was always first, Michael, Abendroth, and then the one year I said, like, 24 -12 -16.

I came, you�re supposed to give your locker number, not combination. Crazy. We�re talking about doctrine and practical application. Sometimes to me, the scary churches, they�re talking about Jesus, and then they give three takeaways, three practical ways to apply this in your life.

When I hear that, I get scared. Now, some do it rightly, but when it�s done wrongly, it�s essentially extra laws, A, that don�t come from the text, and B, have nothing really to do with the text except the preacher�s imagination.

By the way, if you say to yourself, you know what, my pastor can get things out of these verses that I could never see. He�s great because he sees things in the Bible that, man, I could never get. That�s not a good sign.

You have to run from that kind of church. Here�s the way it should work. You pay the pastor�s bills all week, every week, and then that should free him up to try to study because it�s difficult to try to, like the book of Hebrews, it�s really, some weeks it�s been very, very taxing.

It�s Saturday night and I�m still trying to figure all this stuff out. Well, here�s what I want from you. I want you to come to the worship service, hear my sermon, go home, open your Bible, and go, I see exactly where it comes from now.

I see exactly that Hebrews chapter 13 has some kind of hook language. It�s put together. It�s coupled to chapter 12 because chapter 12 is talking about things that don�t remain. The earth doesn�t remain.

These heavens don�t remain. The ultimate heaven, of course, does, but there are certain things that don�t remain and certain things that do remain. By the way, even though you�re getting persecuted and even though things are difficult, I want brotherly love to remain, Hebrews chapter 13.

Then you go, oh yeah, I will always remember that. A lot of things are shaking. There�s a lot of shaking going on in chapter 12, but there�s something that shouldn�t be shaken and that is your love for other people.

You go, okay, now I get that. This whole idea of, you know what, let�s ask people, let�s ask pastors, what�s more important, doctrine or practical application? Obviously, if I was going to say what�s more important, law or gospel, we have to have both.

We have to have doctrine and practical application so we can understand that, but the basis for, the foundation of, the motivation that you have for these exhortations comes from doctrine. Doctrine just means truths about God and therefore, the book of Hebrews, if you were going to use it as a template, as a paradigm, as a cast, a die cast, you�d be thinking 13 chapters.

How many imperatives are really there? There are five warnings, chapter 2, chapter 3 that leaks into chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 10, chapter 12, you�ve got the imperatives. And then right around 1020, it starts to have this application side.

In other words, there are a lot of chapters that talk about Jesus, this great son who�s better than angels. Jesus, who is not ashamed to call you a brother. Jesus, who has taken on human nature, not angel nature, and he�s able to do that.

Now he understands your temptations. He understands your trials. He gets it, right? If you tell me all your troubles and trials, I probably am going to say, �I can�t believe you�re so dumb to do those things.

That�s the craziest thing I ever heard. Now I don�t say that, but I could be thinking it, right? You�re in counseling and people give you what they say and do, and I�m like, �I cannot believe I just heard that.

I thought I�d heard it all. The problem is, what about my own wicked heart, all the things that I�ve said and done? The good news is, I�m not the one telling the other person, but to think that the Lord Jesus, because of the incarnation, he understands.

He doesn�t condone sin, but he understands temptation. He understands weakness and frailty and being tired and being hungry. He understands it all, and so since then, Jesus is such a high priest, how do you want to live?

I don�t care what he�s done for me. I�ll live the way I please. Of course not. That�s a wrong answer. When people talk that way, then you say to yourself or to them, �I don�t know if you should be calling yourself a Christian, because that�s not the heart of a Christian.

That�s not a contrite heart. That�s not a thankful heart. That�s not a gracious, grateful heart. Remember, our God�s a consuming fire, it says at the end of chapter 12. So here on No Compromise Radio, these days I�ve been talking a lot about the book of Hebrews because it�s so compelling.

It�s so wonderful. It literally has changed my life. The Lord God, triune God, has changed my life because of the book of Hebrews. I read the Old Testament differently. How? Because chapter 1, these verses from the Old Testament that you think have nothing to do with Jesus, the writer of Hebrews says they do.

It�s made me think about the new covenant, and I�m not waiting for the new covenant to be inaugurated. We�re in the new covenant, and whether it�s Jesus and the disciples with the Lord�s Supper or Paul talking about the Lord�s Supper in 1 Corinthians to Gentiles, this is the new covenant.

We are in the new covenant. We are experiencing the new covenant. I will remember your sins no more. This book has really changed my life, and the biggest way it�s changed my life is to I�m sure talking fast.

I�d just better take a breath. Understanding that faith is different than faithfulness. Faith in Jesus is different than faithfully following Jesus. Faith, that is knowledge, assent, and trust, could be weak, frail, could be less than perfect because we know what it is, but if it has the right object, everything�s well with your soul.

You�re fine. He�s your Savior, and because of that, you want to respond with faithful living. If it�s the just shall live by faithfulness, how much faithfulness do I need in order to be saved? Answer, perfect faithfulness, but since Jesus was the only perfectly faithful one, I rest in his work, and so do you, dear Christian, and therefore, we want to respond with gratitude and or faithfulness, so that book, the book of Hebrews, has changed my life.

You know what I kept thinking about? I remember the Winchester house in California, I think it�s in San Jose, and the Winchester gun heir, I can�t remember her name, she said, �If I only keep adding on to my house, I will continue to live.

I�ve had some health problems in my life the last few years, and I thought, you know what? Dad died at 55, I�m 60, Mom died at 66. You know what? How far am I going to make it? Am I going to make it?

So I thought, you know what? I want to live past my preaching of Hebrews, but I have about three or four weeks to go with the book of Hebrews. I thought, �Lord, let me just stay alive to finish Hebrews, but now that I�m almost there, could I live another 10 years

Has anybody in the Bible said, �Could I have another 10 years Oops, I better not do that. He says in the Hebrews, and by the way, I�m not antinomian, I�ll show you right now why. �Because of who you are and because of the high priest and how he saved you, let the love of the brethren continue.

Is that your desire? Do you want to do that? I think you need to make sure that�s something that goes through your mind, because in times of persecution and difficulties, i .e., COVID -19, it�s hard to remember to do things for other people.

Hospitality to Strangers and Remembering the Prisoners

Secondly, show hospitality. This is kind of weird. The world�s going to end, Jesus is going to come back, there�s going to be no more earth and heaven. What do you do? That�s chapter 12. Be hospitable?

Yes. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Isn�t that interesting? Present imperative. Be hospitable. Now, he could just say be hospitable and that�d be fine, but he�s also said, and here�s how he essentially would do it.

This is Mike Ebendross� version of the message, if I was going to kind of just not transliterate, but kind of do my own little interpretive dance. What if the video on this NoCo closed group here was an interpretive dance of Hebrews chapter 13 and showing hospitality?

I wonder if anybody could do that. Do you think you could demonstrate, without using words, hospitality and how to show those strangers hospitality with some type of siren song, beckoning? Be hospitable.

He could just say that. He gives us kind of a little interesting thing here. Remember often and regularly, I shouldn�t say that, not quite often, not very regularly, but on occurrence, once in a while, angels look like humans, look like men, and they were treated with hospitality.

Here do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. By the way, if you tell me that�s happened to you, because I�ve met people before, especially back in the Los Angeles days, and they�ve told me they met certain angels, and then they were helping somebody with a tire, and then they did this, that, or the other, and then the next thing you know, they turned around on the freeway, and there�s nobody there, and poof, the angel is transported up, or somebody else could have been an angel, and he doesn�t have any address, and he didn�t leave a footprint, and he didn�t leave anything else.

I�m just going, okay. What�s the unawares part? What would that mean? It means you don�t know it, because often, well, regularly, often and regularly, occasionally, no, when the angels showed up on earth, and they took the, they took, you know, they looked like they had human nature, you wouldn�t know they were angels, unless they said something.

But anyway, persecution, difficulty, open your home, love strangers. What�s the knee-jerk with all this? I don�t know strangers. Why would I let them in my house? Xenophobia. Why would I, why would I do that?

Some people think, well, you know what, hospitality, you open up your home, and you invite a bunch of church people over. I think that�s pretty good. That�s hospitality in the general sense. Specific sense is, it�s people you don�t know, right?

There�s going to be a speaker that comes to town, you don�t know him, but you just, you host him. I�ve regularly had people host me, I�ve never even met them, and they�re trying to host, and there�s like a little basket there when I get into the room, it�s like an old Halloween basket for trick-or-treating, it�s filled with all kinds of candy.

I�m trying to think what I receive from people. You know, the good news is if you go to somebody�s house as a speaker, you get to know them. When we have speakers here, I like to have them stay in my home because I get to know them and my family does as well.

And you know, it�s the speakers that say, well, you�ve got to stay in a hotel. When they ask me, would you rather stay at a hotel or would you rather stay at somebody�s house? I just say, well, you know, whatever works out best for you.

You could certainly save money and there�d be, as long as the host family knows, I probably need a little bit of time to study, but I�d be glad to interact and talk and laugh. I remember when I went to New Zealand with Matthew Johnston there, the pastor at River Bend.

He said, well, we�re going to put you out at a hotel. And then he said, by the way, there�s an elder who could house you, and his children have moved out, so there�s plenty of room, and he likes bicycles.

So that was an easy one. Entertained angels unaware. You could look at Genesis chapter 18 with those three men and see an example of that very thing. Lot in Genesis 19, Gideon in Judges 6, Manoah in Judges 13, instead of being suspicious to strangers.

Yeah, Vicki, that is a hint. I like the dark chocolate Reese�s and Major Dickerson for the Peet�s. You know, some people have sent me Peet�s coffee, but I�m wondering, is it laced with anything? Don�t neglect hospitality.

Spurgeon, Abraham did so, and Lot did so. That is, be hospitable. They thought they were entertaining ordinary strangers, and they washed their feet, they prepared their food, but it turned out that they had entertained angels.

Some people will never entertain angels unaware because they never entertain anybody. May we be given to hospitality, for that should be part of the character of saints. Yeah, but if I have somebody over, that means I have to buy them food and clean a room, clean my house.

That actually was always a side benefit when we ever had visitors, that at least the house would be clean. Hospitality. Paul says elders should be hospitable. Paul says godly ladies, widows should be hospitable.

Loving strangers. Instead of being very suspicious of strangers, you ought to say, �I should love them. Of course, back in those days, hotels were awful. It�s like going to some kind of bordello or something.

That would be kind of the clientele at a hotel, and so you say, �Well, what kind of Christian is going to go there They�re going to have to say somebody else, and you think, �You know what, I�d love to have a guest.

That�s where, in Latin, we get the word hospice, h-o-s-p-e-s, hospital, hospitality. It comes from guests. Did you know the Greeks gave Zeus this title, Xenias, Zeus, the god of strangers. That�s kind of interesting.

I�d pay for that on No Compromise Radio for the five people who are watching. What else does he say? �Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body.

You can sense the idea here. Think incarnation. Think Jesus, high priest. Think Jesus, who has to be truly God and truly man, so he could be a true mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

What do you do? Here�s how Jesus is sympathetic. Here�s how Jesus stoops in condescending love in Hebrews chapter 4, and now it�s like you were in prison with him. God has compassion, and then he sends his son, and he�s on earth with us.

It�s the same kind of idea, since you�re also in the body. This is one of those things that is rare today, and maybe this is the main reason. I�m not trying to get anybody off the hook, because you can remember to send people things.

You can visit them in jail. With COVID -19, you can act like people are shut-ins and like they�re prisoners of their own house, and you can deal with that. But in these days, in the Bible days, the people, the prisoners, didn�t eat unless somebody brought them food.

That happened for many, many years in many cultures and countries. You don�t get to eat unless somebody brings you food. That actually happens across the world today. If you�re in prison, you get maybe a couple little things, but you don�t really get much.

To be sustained, you�re going to have to have other people who are going to come and take care of them. You say, �Well, I can�t really go into prison, but I guess I could pray for them. That�d be wonderful.

Wouldn�t that be good, like you�re in prison with them? If you were in prison, what would you want? How would you want people to treat you? Would you want them to forget you? Would you want people to disown you?

Would you want people to say, �You know what? If I�m too nice to them, maybe they�ll throw me into jail too. Maybe if I go give people food in prison, they�ll say, �Why are you giving this person food?

Are you a Christian too And they throw you in. But he says, �Remember the prisoners. And then he says, �Here�s the one I was trying to get to today, but it�s taking me quite a while. Let the marriage be held in honor.

It says in verse 4, �Be held in honor among all that is marriage, and let the marriage bed that�s the act literally in the Greek, �be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Now back in those days, these days, sexual temptation was everywhere. You say, �Well, they didn�t have pornography. Well, I�ve seen reliefs and stills that obviously aren�t as graphic, but are plenty of wrong images.

Maybe I could put it that way. But still, you�ve got sexual temptation back in those days. And what about the two problems, a licentious world that says, you know, �Take everything you can when it comes to sex.

It�s to be used, people are to be used, it�s a commodity, utilitarian, I�m hungry and I eat, nobody�s mad at me then, I have a sexual hunger and then I �eat why should anybody be mad then? But there�s also this asceticism.

When you come from something that�s so dirty and sinful and awful, i .e. sexual immorality, then you get saved, you could, and some people have and do now, think that sex is dirty and think that virginity or chastity or something like that is the ultimate form of godliness.

And so some people reel from that and they have a hard time if their past is gross to then entering into a marriage and then now having that particular act be undefiled, to be holy, to be righteous, to be good.

And so the writer here, the book of Hebrews, it�s Paul or somebody else, is saying, �You know what, marriage is at an all-time low. Sound familiar? The view of marriage is at an all-time low. People forbid marriage, did you know that?

Back in 1 Timothy chapter 4, God creates marriage as good and some people forbid it. Some people say that you don�t have to be a man and a woman in order to be married and it doesn�t have to be one person with another.

It can be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, polyamorous, polygamy, multi-partners. He says, �First, let marriage be held in honor among all. Prize marriage, prize this God-given institution, this institution, this wonderful thing that reflects the love of God in Christ Jesus, so be exclusive to one another as a couple.

Have it prized highly, one commentator said. Make it of exceptional value. And I could go into a big screed if you like me to about it would not be honoring marriage to attend a gay wedding because that would minimize your view of God�s ordained way of marriage.

He says, �Marriage should be honorable among all. Anytime, any place, it should be seen as something honorable. And I think we could probably backtrack to Ephesians chapter 5 about Christ loving the church.

Marriage is to be honored by all, husbands honor, wives honor, single people honor. This should be going all the way back to Genesis, ordained marriage, Jesus on earth, affirmed marriage, whether it�s Paul here and of Hebrews or someone else, he knows, Jesus knows, the Holy Spirit knows, and God the Father knows that it�s good for man not to be alone.

Jesus was born of a woman and he has ordained marriage. Was that born of a woman have anything to do with anything? I have no idea, but it�s true. If you think celibacy is more spiritual than marriage, you would be mistaken.

I want you to be celibate, of course, if you�re not married, but you�re thinking that states higher than people who are married. You would be not honoring marriage. If you say, you know what, polyamory and polygamy, I think that�s honorable.

You would not be honoring marriage. If you said, you know what, homosexual marriage, some kind of transgender deal. If you said, you know what, I don�t really care about what God says, I�m a Christian and I�ll marry an unbeliever.

That would not be honoring marriage. If you say, you know what, there�s just problems between me and my spouse and therefore, I have to go outside of the marriage for sexual gratification, that is not honoring marriage.

The Bible says fornicators and adulterers God will judge. There�s a point in time, right, with 1 Corinthians 6, you have to say, well, maybe I�m deceiving myself. If I�m a fornicator and an adulterer, I�m not saying Christians can never do that, but I�m saying if that�s your lifestyle, don�t be deceived.

Why does it say don�t be deceived in 1 Corinthians 6? Because it�s easy to be deceived and to trick yourself. We as married people should guard ourselves from sexual sin. Isn�t that one of the great commandments?

One of the ten commandments? Thou shall not commit adultery. The way you guard the relationship in marriage is you are very giving in that area and you say to yourself, you know what, this is something that God has ordained for our good and so we ought to keep this pure.

Well, there�s more to say, but the 24 minutes is up and I�m starting to get hot in here. I never thought I�d be on the radio talking about this kind of stuff, sex and marriage and all that stuff, but there�s a way to talk about it, and the way you talk about it is use God�s language.

It doesn�t have to be detail-oriented, it can just be generalities and then everybody understands, right? So, that�s a good way to do it. I do some premarital counseling, it�s the same thing. I�m thinking, wow, I didn�t know I was going to have to say those things as a pastor.

My name is Mike Abendroth, this is NoCompromiseRadio .com, God bless you.

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 6. 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.