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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org
Follow the Right Lead
of your healing hand, those who have lost loved ones, we pray that you would continue to lift them up, to encourage them, to heal them, to be their very presence.
And for our missionaries around the world who spread your word, Lord, for the lamp here, we pray here at Cornerstone, at the
Rock, that your lamp would always remain lit true to the word, encouraging people towards you.
So, Lord, we pray that through the preaching of your word, through the teaching of your word, souls would be saved, brought into the kingdom.
Today, be with Pastor Jeff as he brings us back into Hebrews, and we learn the importance, the truth, of having and following true, true biblical teaching.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand together.
Come, just as you are to worship, come, just as you are.
Every time we'll confess, we walk out. Come, just as you are to worship, come, just as you are.
in hearts, Lord, and what you would have for each of us, Lord, and thank you, Lord, for your Word, Lord.
Thank you just for the rocks and the truth that are in your Word, Lord. Thank you for providing that for us,
Lord, and help us to continue to dig and glean into that every day, Lord, instilling us that discipline,
Lord. Thank you for who you are and for your goodness, thank you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Please be seated. Let's pray.
So, Father, we're gathered here this Sunday, the Lord's Day. It's also
Reformation Sunday, God, so we want to thank you that you brought forth a
Reformation when darkness began to descend upon the land and a great light burst forth.
Post -Tenebrous Lux. God, we thank you for Martin Luther nailing those 95 theses on the church door on October 31st, 1517.
We thank you, Lord, that the gospel began to shine like a bright light throughout Europe and then to the ends of the earth.
What a great work was done. But Lord, we remember that the reformer said, sola scriptura.
And so we pray that we would never depart from the scripture. The scripture alone is our foundation.
And so Lord, now as we come to open the word this morning, we pray that the scripture would conform us into the likeness of Christ.
We pray that your word would be powerful to us and in us and that we would be changed by it as we hear the preaching of the word.
We pray that your Holy Spirit would help us. And Lord, as a preacher, I ask that you would come take over, that you would fill me and use me to be faithful to your word.
To all who listen, Lord, we pray that they would hear and be doers of the word.
Thank you for the scripture. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen. Have you ever heard of the
Arian snare? The Arian snare, nobody? The Arian snare is when beautiful sounding music becomes very popular and it attracts lots of people to a movement.
However, the teacher behind that movement is a dangerous false teacher.
So the music becomes popular, so everybody really enjoys listening to it, but it weakens their discernment.
And therefore the teacher behind that can lead many people astray.
It's called the Arian snare because Arius was the founder of a false religion in the early centuries of the
Christian church. And he was very musical, very gifted in terms, not gifted from God, but I think satanically inspired to write these incredible sounding songs.
And there in Constantinople, which was kind of like the hub of commerce where the continents collide and all the ships would go through, the sailors would come to Constantinople and they'd go to the bars and they'd be in the streets and they would hear people singing these
Arian songs. And because the songs were so catchy and so good sounding that people began to sing them and take them aboard the ships and spread them across the empire.
And the church was threatened by this because the meaning of the lyrics and the teaching of Arius behind those lyrics was a heresy.
It was heretical, it was very dangerous. And so this Arianism began to spread on the wings of the music to the point where half of Christianity was following Arianism.
But others were saying, wait a minute, no. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the eternal
God, one essence, three persons, that's always been the teaching. What is this Arianism? So they called a council.
They called all the bishops together from Rome and Alexandria and Jerusalem and up in Turkey, Cappadocia.
All of these Christian leaders came together and you guys probably know what it was called, the
Council of Nicaea in 325. The first ecumenical council where all the
Christian pastors came together and they studied the scripture and they talked and debated and they condemned the heresy of Arianism.
But what many people don't know about that council, and this is legend, not 100 % sure it's true, but it does come to us through the tradition.
There was one bishop there whose name was Nicholas. Nicholas, otherwise known as Saint Nick.
And Nicholas saw Arius at the council. You wanna know what
Santa gave him for Christmas? Tradition says he gave him a knuckle sandwich.
He struck him in the face. Now, I don't condone violence against heretics, but I do condone theological violence against false teaching.
We saw Santa punching Arius. I think that's how the song goes, right?
What was so dangerous about Arianism, about the teaching that Arius began to propagate throughout the empire?
Well, for one, it would involve polytheism because Arius taught that Jesus was not
God from all eternity, he was a created being that God made.
Now, we understand that Jesus has always been God. When he incarnated in the Virgin Mary, he was taking on flesh, but he's always been
God. He added humanity to his deity, and so he's always been God, according to Micah 5 .2,
from everlasting to everlasting. Arius taught he was created. That would mean that there's more than one
God. Worse still, it would mean that we have no saving gospel because the gospel is that a holy
God condescended to sinful man and in the person of Christ is the bridge between God and man.
If Jesus is not God from all eternity, then he cannot stand as our substitute to die the death that we deserve.
It would be as if God just created something to kill that thing and punish it in the stead of humanity, but the gospel says that God himself in Christ took on flesh, and so he took the penalty himself.
He suffered the death that we deserve. He stood in for us, and so it is that the gospel depends on the incarnation of God, God in flesh dwelling among us.
Those who followed the lead of Arius followed him to destruction. I mean, those sailors, when they're singing these happy, clappy songs, riding around on their ships and spreading that around, they thought
Arius was a good guy. I mean, he was very pious, very charismatic. He wrote great songs, and they just followed him to the slaughter, but those who followed
Nicholas and Athanasius and the godly bishops who studied the word of God and handled it rightly followed them to eternal life, leading the way to Christ, the gospel of grace.
Who you follow matters immensely. Now, in this culture, postmodernism says that all roads essentially lead to the same place.
It doesn't matter who you follow, this teacher or that. As long as they're sincere and you're sincere, everything will work out well.
That, of course, is a lie. It does matter who you follow. I think that, and Pastor John Laskin has taught this a couple times, and I think he's right, that we may be moving even beyond that postmodern culture to something that, again, is authoritarian or totalitarian.
Meaning, postmodernists say, well, it's tolerance. You can have your view, somebody else has their view.
It doesn't matter. As long as it's sincere, it's good to go. But nowadays, we see not postmodernism, but some who are claiming absolute truth for themselves apart from the
Word. Did you hear what the prime minister of New Zealand said? In trying to enforce complete lockdowns and to keep the church from doing what
Hebrews 10 says to do, do not neglect the assembling of yourselves together, the secular leader of New Zealand said, unless you hear it from us, it is not truth.
That's a scary thing to hear a prime minister say. Unless you hear it from us, it is not truth.
Who do you follow? What lead are you following?
There are secular progressives in the culture that lead little boys and girls to destruction.
They lead babies to the slaughter through the abortion mills.
And they lead to a socialistic culture that can only result in death.
Who do you follow? Even in the church, there are leaders that ostensibly believe the
Bible and yet very often lead astray. Arius looked the part, as did
Pelagius after him and Sibelius and in the Reformation, so many popes and teachers would arise.
How do you know who to follow? How do you know what's true? Wouldn't it be great if the
Bible just told us? Oh, it does. So let's go and let's read it. We're in Hebrews 13 today.
It's verses seven through 19. And here will be the marks of a faithful pastor.
And the call to us as a congregation to follow the lead. We are to look for a fruit -bearing tree, a rod -bearing shepherd, a reproach -bearing exile, a cross -bearing missionary, and a soul -bearing watchman.
We'll break that down in five parts, beginning in verse seven. Let's read it.
Remember your leaders, those who spoke for you to you the word of God.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Memorize that, church. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
It goes on to say, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.
We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things.
I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
So what we have here in verses seven to 19 are very specific instructions.
This is the practical part of the book of Hebrews. So from chapter one, verse one, through 10, 19, we have the doctrinal section, and you'll see that in all of the epistles.
You have doctrine and then application. So in the doctrinal section of the book of Hebrews, you have
Jesus as greater than the prophets, greater than angels, greater than man. He's the great high priest, and he is the sacrifice.
He himself is the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. Then we move into the practical section, and we have the instructions and the exhortations to faith, hope, and love.
And we have motivation toward that in chapter 11, where the hall of faith shows us saints of old who have walked by faith, not by sight.
And we then can be like this cloud of witnesses. In chapter 12, we have discipline, the principle and practice of discipline.
And so we come into chapter 13, and he's rounding out the book with very specific instructions.
Love the brother, Philadelphia. Love the stranger. You might be entertaining an angel unawares.
Remember those who suffer. Remember those in prison as if you're in prison with them.
Those who are being mistreated for you also are in the body. Guys, I would encourage you on that note to spend a little time at persecution .org.
I popped those P's to get your attention. Persecution .org, it's Voice of the
Martyrs. And by reading stories of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world, we remember and we pray for them.
Practical exhortation. But then we see the exhortation to uphold the family and marriage.
Society is built on one man and one woman joined together in marriage and the family that arises from that.
This teaching that the marriage bed is undefiled is crucial, and we as Christians must uphold that biblical sexual ethic.
Then we saw that we must not be covetous. We should not love money, but money should be used to serve the kingdom, not the pursuit of our lives, the passion of our lives.
So when we get to seven to 19, it's kind of surprising, all these very practical exhortations. And then it moves into an area here that seems a little neglected.
Because when a person chooses a church, many people just do so based on what feels good.
I like the singing. I like the preaching. He's funny, he's not funny.
Many people choose churches for very superficial reasons. And yet I think the book of Hebrews ends with this exhortation because who you follow matters a lot.
I would prefer to drive an hour or two on a Sunday morning to hear the true exposition of the word of God than to conveniently go to the church around the corner.
It's worth it. It's that important. The book of Hebrews finishes with this subject for a reason.
So let's look at verse seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.
The first thing to see is the mark of a true preacher, and that is fruit. You'll know them by their fruit, says
Jesus in Matthew 7. Fruit, of course, refers to the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.
If you have a pastor who behind closed doors is flying off the handle all the time, fits of rage, impatient, lacking peace, never joyful, just constantly a stick in the mud, run.
No fruit of the Spirit. If you have a pastor that bears no fruit, no one's ever saved, no one's ever baptized.
We can't put too much stock in that particular criteria because Jeremiah was called to preach for 50 years and not one convert was one.
But generally what we're seeing in the church age is when you preach the word of God, some will come to saving faith.
Disciples will be made. You'll see fruit in ministry. That's a good mark. Remember those who spoke to you the word of God.
This is specifically not referring to civil leaders. It's referring to the preacher of the word.
Those who speak the word. Don't just consider what they say on Sunday morning.
Follow them home. See how they treat their wife, their wife, not wives.
Singular. See how they treat their wife and their children.
Children. Consider the outcome of their life.
That outcome there means the fruit. Then it says and imitate their faith. Now I know that Paul warns against those who follow
Paul, those who follow Cephas, those who follow Apollos. The problem there in 1
Corinthians is the making of a personality cult. Someone who is gathering around somebody and following them as their leader in the sense of over against other people.
I don't, it's like a cult kind of thing. They're following Paul and not Apollos and not
Peter. There's an unhealthy esteeming of the pastor in that case.
But does that warning really mean that we are not to imitate anybody on earth? I'll tell you, I've been influenced by many pastors.
All the pastors that I've sat under for many years. I only became a senior pastor in 2016. So for 36 years, 38 years,
I was sitting under pastors and I was learning from them and imitating them. Very much what you see in me is an imitation.
The word for imitate here is where we get mimic, mimizo in the
Greek. I'm imitating what I've seen, partly without knowing it. When I was in high school,
I had a buddy, he's still a friend, who was a golf player, great golfer, played for UF, went on to marry
Benny Hinn's daughter. When I watch him, he looks like Benny Hinn.
He's even picked up the accent and he knocks people over the way Benny Hinn does. I don't know how that works.
I don't see it in the Bible. And I'll be critical of things I disagree with. I think he's a genuine believer, this particular man.
But he looks like the person he imitates, his father -in -law, and that's problematic.
We become like those who lead us, and that's good.
Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Philippians 3 .17,
he says, join with others in following my example and take note of those who live according to the pattern we set for you.
We are to imitate that which is faithful. And God gives this in every generation, there will be preachers who faithfully handle
God's word. And you are to imitate those who have faith, who walk in faith, and who represent well.
We're just image bearers. We're not the ultimate example. And all of us preachers, we're prone to stumble, which brings us to verse eight, the transition to the next point.
In Christ, we have the perfect example, the word made flesh. He is the same yesterday and today and forever.
So as we go into verse nine, the word same is setting us up for a contrast.
It says in verse nine, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings.
Something that's divergent, something that's diverse is not the same.
Christ is always the same. And the Christ who was upheld at the
Council of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381 is the same
Jesus that we preach here every Sunday morning because he never changes. And Nicaea was only affirming what the
Bible taught us in the first century, the full revelation of the Trinity. He's the same, but there are diversions from that same teaching.
The word teaching in verse nine is didachai. It is the doctrine, the teachings.
We are not to be led away by diverse and strange teachings, meaning there are people who would lead us.
This is the picture of a false teacher. And we must be on guard against false teachers.
They're everywhere. They're in our culture today. And I would include
Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland and the word faith teachers as false teachers. They've strayed from the right and proper handling of God's word.
There are many who lead astray in diverse and strange teachings. Now, our culture says diversity is the thing to be celebrated, right?
But according to the word of God, there is a sense in which conformity is to be celebrated.
There is a perfect standard, and that is Christ himself, the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
And because we have a standard, there is something that's always true. The teaching doesn't change because he doesn't change.
He's the same, and the didachai, the teaching, is to be the same. It says, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by food.
So let's get into what was the false teaching that was coming into the church at this particular point. Well, of course, the book is called
Hebrews. So the false teaching to which they were susceptible and that they're being warned against again and again is a
Judaizing of the gospel or just a return to Judaism. Judaism taught, according to the law of Moses, that you have to eat certain kosher foods and avoid other.
And if you keep this dietary regulation, you're pleasing to God, you're clean.
And those who don't are unclean. And so the false teaching here is with reference to food.
It is the Jewish teaching of kosher diet. The Christians are not to be led astray by that because the sheet was lowered and Peter saw the vision from heaven declaring all food clean and Gentiles clean as well in that revelation.
This is strong language. You might not have caught it. Look at verse 10 more closely. We have an altar.
So the Judaizer who has the temple and the Christian who's outside of the temple and no longer part of that Jewish system, it looks like the
Christian's the outsider and they have the temple, but here's what the author is saying. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
The strong language to say there's, yes, they have the temple, but they're not welcome here unless they repent of that.
But notice that the language is even stronger. It says those who serve Yahweh, or the tent.
The author here is deriding with strong, polemical, rhetorical language those who serve the tent.
Implication, they serve the tent, not God. They've departed from the true revelation of God and now they're serving a man -made structure.
They serve the tent. How dare you say something so hard about another's religion?
John MacArthur is one of the heroes of mine in the sense that I follow his leadership.
I wouldn't think that he's perfect in everything, but I imitate him in that which is good. Before I preach on a
Sunday morning, usually the night before, I'll go back and listen to whatever MacArthur had preached on it, maybe Piper or Joe Foch or a few others.
Listen to a sermon just to get another perspective and hear how they taught it. Well, last night when
I clicked on the sermon, I noticed that MacArthur's teaching was given on this passage in 1973.
That aged well because what he said then could have been said yesterday.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. In 325, when
Nicaea fought off the Arian heresy, Nicholas had some strong rhetoric, perhaps a strong fist as well.
But the point is he dealt severely with heresy. In 1994,
MacArthur was faced with a similar challenge. J .I. Packer and Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, these two giants of the faith had gotten together with John Newhouse, who was a
Roman Catholic, and they drafted a statement called Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
And the idea was to minimize theological difference between Rome and evangelicals and say, look, we all preach the same gospel, let's not evangelize one another.
Let's stop doing mission work to Catholics. Sadly, J .I.
Packer, who wrote Knowing God, one of the greatest books ever written in the Christian faith, and Evangelism and the
Sovereignty of God, amazing works of biblical fidelity, even he was led astray by Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
But not all were. John MacArthur wrote in response to this,
Catholicism places undue stress on human works. Catholic doctrine denies that God justifies the ungodly,
Romans 4, 5, without first making them godly. Good works, therefore, become the ground of justification.
And scripture says that that relegates people to an eternal reward that is reckoned not of grace, but of debt.
See the problem? As thousands of former Catholics will testify, probably half this congregation is former
Catholics, by the way, will testify, Roman Catholic doctrine and liturgy obscure the essential truth that we are saved by grace through faith and not by our own works,
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. It has trapped millions of Catholics in a system of superstition and religious ritual that insulates them from the glorious liberty of the gospel of Christ.
Look back in Hebrews chapter 13. The problem of the
Judaizer is that he was adding work, eating certain foods to be justified, but the author says our hearts are strengthened by grace.
When Luther nailed the 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, he had an exchange between a guy named
Erasmus and himself. Erasmus wrote the freedom of the will, and Luther wrote in 1521, the bondage of the will.
And in that book, Luther points out, Erasmus, you of all people have put your finger on the crucial spot.
You see the hinge on which everything turns. And then he summarily refuted
Erasmus for being on the wrong side of that door. Point being, the entire reformation is built on the doctrines of grace, that salvation belongs to the
Lord, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, that we are slaves to sin and bring nothing to the table, but by grace you are saved through faith in that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. The reformation reclaimed that essential gospel truth.
The gospel itself is called the gospel of grace. It's the most crucial thing.
If you add work to it, that must be done, whether it be sacrament of baptism or indulgences or some kind of work of recitation, saying a certain number of Hail Marys, saying a certain number of Our Fathers, any work that you think you bring to the table loses the gospel because the gospel is of grace from first to last.
This was the reason for the reformation. Sola gratia, grace alone.
Through faith alone, that's the instrument by which God saves. And so when evangelicals began to compromise,
MacArthur stood strong against that, against the strange and diverse teachings of the
Roman Catholic Church. But he wasn't the Nicholas in the room.
That honor belonged to R .C. Sproul. And this, I think, is not tradition or legend.
I think this really happened. They say that when Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and J .I.
Packer were trying to get R .C. Sproul to sign the statement, he argued with them in a good debate kind of way and tried to convince them from the scriptures that it's a different gospel and refused to sign it.
And then as the debate went on and on for hours, finally, Sproul climbed up on the table on all fours, approached them, and said, you don't get it.
We are talking about who goes to heaven. He was the
Nicholas in the room. R .C. Sproul understood how crucial this point was.
The hinge upon which the entire reformation stood. He said, semper reformando.
We are always reforming. We are always being conformed by this book and this book alone.
We cannot compromise the word of God. Brothers and sisters, do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
Nowadays, many pastors are leading away from this book. Many unwittingly, they haven't spent the time in the text.
They don't handle it well. And there's itching ears that are clamoring to be told what they want to hear.
And so many pastors will compromise the word of God. Third, it says in verse 10, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
It goes on to say, verse 11, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned, where?
Outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
True preachers and the true preaching of God's word will lead us outside the camp.
The reference here, of course, is to Exodus 29, where the bull, the sin offering, was brought into the temple, the blood of the bull was spilled on the altar, and then the body of that sin offering was brought outside the camp to be burned and done away with.
This analogy, according to the author, is prophetic to Jesus, because when Jesus was made the sin offering, he was brought not into the temple to be sacrificed, but outside the gates, on a hill called
Golgotha, the skull, Calvary. He went there outside the gate to bear the reproach of the people, the sin of the people, discarded and despised, rejected among men, having no form or comeliness that we would desire him, he was put out of the camp and killed there at Golgotha.
This is very important, because what was considered unclean was sent outside of the camp.
Nadab and Abihu, when they offered strange fire, God said, take them outside of the camp to stone them.
The leper, when he was unclean, was sent where? Outside the camp. The tent of meeting, where Moses met with God, was not in the assembly, but outside the camp, because you must go out to meet with him.
In the same way, true preaching will tell you this, friendship with the world is enmity with God.
We are called to go outside of the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.
You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God, you must choose. This world will hate you to the degree that you hold to these words.
We cannot compromise with the world and water down what the scripture says to gain friends.
Nowadays, many preachers are more interested in being liked by CNN and MSNBC.
They'll bring them on and say, look, now this is a good evangelical. He's not like all those other bad evangelicals who hold to the scriptures so rigidly, those fundamentalists, that's the word.
But if you would be a friend of the world, you cannot be a friend of Christ. And true preaching calls us to so identify with Christ that we're willing to bear reproach.
Now, we don't stir it up, we're not just looking to stir up strife. But where need be, we go outside the gate.
I listened to a guy whose name is Jordan Hall and he's demonized by many because of his extreme views.
Recently, Canada is moving towards totalitarianism in this post postmodern world in which we live.
And children who refuse the vaccine are in danger of being confiscated by the government.
There are rumblings that if one would not accept the vaccine, that children would be taken away from parents because after all, in the view of the world, children belong to the state, not to parents.
So JD just made a video a couple of days ago telling what he's been doing.
And that is helping Christian families, Reformed Baptists in Canada, flee Canada and settle in Mexico outside the camp.
It's an extreme thing to do. But guess what? If anybody comes for our kids, there will be an extreme measure on our part.
It would be over our dead bodies that they take our children. And that's what every Christian parent in Canada should say, over my dead body.
And the Christians that help others escape that tyranny, even if it means living in Mexico for a period of time, it's worth it.
But JD Hall, according to the Gospel Coalition and even the mainstream of Christianity, sadly is the villain because he's so polemical and always criticizing.
I'll tell you this, I am willing to go outside the camp.
And I ask you to be as well. No matter what, we must stay faithful to this book.
Even if polite society considers us to be extremists, we're simply holding to what has been the teaching, the same for 2000 years in terms of sexual ethics, in terms of the family, in terms of gender roles, to say that feminism is villainy, is biblical truth.
God created gender differences between men and women and they're good. And so we uphold that.
Not to stir up strife, but because God says, and we must be willing to go outside the camp and bear the reproach that Christ endured.
True preaching will tell you that. It will also call us to sacrifice. Look at verses 14 and following.
For we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
We are not called to comfort brothers and sisters, we're called to sacrifice. One of the sacrifices that we're to offer is praise from lips that acknowledge his name.
Psalm 150 verse six, let everything that has breath praise the
Lord. We should gather on Sunday mornings and sing more passionately than we do. We should pray up before we come on Sunday and begin to sing from the heart.
Worship in spirit and truth. Lips that praise his name. But I think what's in view here in verse seven, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name refers to being willing to confess him even at cost.
In the Roman Empire, they were being thrown in jail. And that's why verse three refers to remembering those who are in prison.
Here we're not being thrown in jail yet. Although James Coates and Art Polowski and some others in Canada have been thrown in jail for preaching the word, it has not happened here in America.
Tell you what has already happened, the ruining of your reputation, the loss of your job.
No matter what, confess his name. It could be just tonight when the trick -or -treaters knock on your door.
I told first service I'll be a little disappointed if you're dressed up like a witch and you're trick -or -treating. But I would encourage you, you know, to just evangelize the people who come by.
When you do that, your neighborhood will mark you as the strange ones. Yeah, that's that house, they're weird.
They give out tracks with the candy. They consider it strange when we do not plunge with them in the same flood of dissipation and they malign your name, first Peter.
So we're strange to them, but they're strange to the word of God. Depends on what standard you uphold.
The sacrifice of confessing his name. Be willing to be marked on your block because you keep talking about Jesus.
You'll find that some of those who maligned you years later, this has happened, will come back to you and say, hey, will you pray for me?
Because they remember what you're about. The very people who malign you, their lives will fall apart and then they'll say, wait, maybe
I should have followed this lead instead of that, verse seven. Imitate their faith and the outcome of their life.
Be willing to endure reproach, be willing to make sacrifices, which is to acknowledge his name.
Lastly, I know it's a long sermon, but it's good, good word, isn't it? Lastly, obey your leaders and submit to them.
Somebody watching online is ready to turn off the TV right about now. Because the highest value in our culture is egalitarianism.
That there are no hierarchies. Children are equal to their parents. Police are to be maligned and disobeyed and resisted.
Because the egalitarian culture hates hierarchy. But God doesn't.
This here again is referring to those who preach the word of God to you, your leaders in the church, the elders, the pastors, the presbuteros, the shepherds of the church.
The Bible says, obey your leaders and submit to them. Now, I know also that 1
Peter 5 tells me and Pastor John and Rob and Drew and Michael, the elders of the church, not to lord it over the flock or not to be domineering.
And that's true too. We can be questioned. There's a way to do that properly.
But here it's saying, obey your leaders and submit to them. That is the charge.
For they are keeping watch over your souls. We tremble, don't we, brother, at that verse.
We know we're not just here to gather as many people as we can. Although we do want this church to continue to grow, amen?
Because every soul in the community matters. We want people to come to saving faith.
But we know as elder shepherds, we are accountable for those that God has put under our care that we have to give an account for your spiritual life.
So come to us if you're struggling with something. Come and ask for prayer. Ask for counseling if you need it.
We're here for that very reason and we tremble at the responsibility. Let them do this with joy.
A whole sermon could be preached here, but I won't. The Christian life should be marked by joy. Read Philippians.
But if there are people in the church who are constantly squabbling about stuff and quarreling, it leads to the groaning of the pastor.
And that is of no advantage to who? To you, to the church.
But a joyful relationship between the pastors and the congregation is the model we have for us.
Now, this last little point within my fifth and final point, verses 18 and 19, pray for us.
Guys, pray for your elders, please. For we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things.
Pray for us. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that, now in my
Bible, I've circled in order that, I may be restored to you the sooner. Prayer matters.
Praying for your leaders matters. It makes a difference. In fact, I circled in order that because it's causative.
The elder here is saying he's away from his congregation, probably in Rome, could be Jerusalem. In either case, he's away and he's saying,
I wanna get home to minister to you, and somehow your prayers are going to determine how soon
I get back. Your prayers affect where I am.
Your prayers affect how I preach, whether joyfully or overbearingly, whether truly or sometimes faltering.
Your prayers matter to that. That means if I fail to prepare for a
Sunday morning sermon, it's your fault. You didn't pray.
You didn't pray for me to prepare well. No, it's also mine. But we are together, we're knit together.
I bring this up because very often those of us who hold to a high doctrine of grace and we understand providence,
God's meticulous providence over everything, sometimes we fall into prayerlessness.
Very important point. We stop praying because, hey, God has it predestined anyway. Anybody here guilty of that?
I've fallen into that sometimes. Not intentionally, you just start thinking, well, God's already planned it anyway.
Think about what the Bible says about God's predestined plan. In Acts 2 .23,
he said he predestined the things to occur. Acts 4 .27 and 28, according to his predestined plan from before the world.
In Proverbs 16 .33, the Bible says even the casting of the lot, its very decision is from the
Lord. Think about that. When you're playing a board game and you roll the dice, even the most random thing imaginable has been determined by the
Lord. Isn't that mind -blowing? Read Romans 9, read
Ephesians 1, read John 6, John 10, John 17. Again and again, the predestined plan of God is taught.
But what did I just tell you to circle? Look at verse 19. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
From the perspective of God being the sovereign over all the universe, all things are determined.
From my perspective, as a human in the flesh, my prayer actually changes things.
Meaning if you forget to pray for me, brother, that will affect me. Our prayer matters because God ordains the means as well as the ends.
And God has ordained that prayer in the church, for the church, by the church would actually matter.
Those of us who gather for prayer, we don't do that just to check a box. It says in order that we pray and God changes things from our perspective.
Isn't that amazing? Both things are true. God has meticulous providence over the universe.
He is sovereign and compatible with that, human prayer changes things.
Somebody needed to be reminded of that today. Most of you are glazed over for this last point because I've been preaching for like an hour, but somebody needed to hear that.
So in closing, it matters greatly who you follow.
Not everybody here will be here next year, let alone 10 years from now.
Your job will move you off somewhere. You will need to pick a church. Remember this sermon when you do, go back to Hebrews 13.
I assume all of you are here because you wanna be here, amen, but all of you need to remember this teaching.
Who you follow matters. That also matters online too, who you're listening to.
You're not gonna find the best teaching on TBN and Daystar. I mentioned that John MacArthur sermon.
He preached this very passage almost 50 years ago, four years before I was born, and it's the same today.
And his kids, his four kids all walk with the Lord and his 15 grandkids know the Lord, so imitate that.
Nobody's listening to Jimmy Swaggart sermons today. Many of the prominent preachers around today will be disgraced in 10 years.
Don't look for the Aryan snare, the music that sounds the best, the preaching that's the funniest or the most compelling from a human perspective.
Hear the word of the Lord and recognize that this is the conclusion of the book of Hebrews.
It's essential. Imitate the faith of those who imitate
Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word to us today. We pray that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.
We confess with the author of Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, and I pray,
Lord, that you would keep us from false teaching, protect us. I picture in Psalm 23, the shepherd, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Shepherd, you have a rod and you have a staff. You lead us with the staff and you beat back the wolves with the rod.
And I pray for the elders of this church that we could stand with rod in hand to beat back any attack against the sheep.
Strengthen our hand to do that, Lord. We pray for the leaders. Help us to be faithful,
Lord. We must give an account for the souls that are under our teaching.
So, Lord, we pray for the flock. Lord, help this church to be submissive to biblical teaching and to the leadership of the elders.
Thank you for that grace thus far, and we pray that it continues. Thank you for the book of Hebrews and how it shapes our lives.
Help us to live out what we hear. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing. ♪
You choose the humble to raise them high ♪ ♪ You choose the weak to make them strong ♪ ♪
This is how you give us life ♪ ♪
Save love that set the captives free ♪ ♪ Save love that opened eyes to see ♪ ♪
Calling us all by name ♪ ♪
Save God and spread the heavens wide ♪ ♪
Save God that was crucified ♪ ♪ Calling us all by name ♪ ♪
You are calling us all by name ♪ ♪
You take the faithless one aside and speak the words ♪ ♪
All the sin and candor come to me now ♪ ♪
Calling us all by name ♪ ♪ Calling us all by name ♪ ♪
Save God and spread the heavens wide ♪ ♪ Save God that was crucified ♪ ♪
Calling us all by name ♪ ♪ You are calling us all by name ♪ ♪
Calling, you're calling us to the cross ♪ ♪
Calling, you're calling, you're calling us to the cross ♪
All right, for the benediction, I'll read the last couple of verses here, finishing out the book, which is an indication, next week, we finish the book of Hebrews.
Amen? Why are you so hearty with that amen? So let's hear these words, and next week, we'll expound on them.
Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.