We're gonna go over to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17 tonight. And we're looking at this from the context of where we started this morning in 2 Timothy 2.15. where Paul tells Timothy to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And we saw there that the main responsibility of the pastor, his central obligation, is to rightly divide the word of truth. We take that and took that into Ephesians chapter four and verse 12, and we saw that The second obligation of the pastor is to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry. The saints are believers in the church, otherwise discipling believers for the work of the ministry. That's a priesthood of all believers. And all of these things now are drawn together tonight in this particular text. Hebrews chapter 13, seven. He's already said in chapter 13, 17, in chapter 13, seven, he says, remember them that have the rule over you. And that word remember means keep them constantly in your mind to keep the focus of those who God has appointed rule over you. Now, what is the context? Remember the book of Hebrews is written to primarily Jewish believers. who now about 30 years after the crucifixion of Christ, the vast majority of early Christianity were Jewish believers. They'd gotten saved, they trusted in Christ. But there had been an intermixing now going on. Some of these people who came out of the Mosaic Covenant were saved out of Paul's ministry in the synagogues, wherever he went in the cities to preach, The first place he went to preach was the synagogue, because he was a Jew. And so he won a lot of Jews to Christ. But the Jews, many of them had been struggling because of the Judaizers who came into church. And they said, well, yeah, you got to be saved by faith in Christ, but you have to keep the Mosaic Covenant in order to keep your salvation. And so that nonsense was going on. And then, of course, they taught that you had to keep the holy days in order for you to keep your salvation. That, by the way, is the liturgical calendar in Christianity today. We don't hold to a liturgical calendar, but many churches do. So if you understand what liturgy is or the liturgical calendar, that all comes out of an intermixing, a replacement of various things from Judaism into Christianity. And if I could take just one book of the Bible and go in and teach it into the churches of our community, it would radically change what they believe would be the book of Hebrews. Because it is one book that deals with every one of the false doctrines to which they hold, and of course are so dear. But the great warning of the book of Hebrews is that, of course, that you should go forward unto faith in Christ unless you could come short of it. And that come shorting of it is coming short of true salvation, which is a gift of God. And the point is that if they, anything they're hanging on to the Mosaic Covenant, for their salvation, the keeping of the law, the keeping of the sacrifices, all of those things which were all incomplete, pointing forward to Christ. And the moment Jesus Christ said it is finished, all of the old Mosaic covenant was done with. It was set aside and is no longer in place. So today we have a new covenant. And part of the new covenant is a new governance. The new covenant and the new covenants is the church, with gifted men that God has given to the church. Now, remember I said this morning, we don't want you blindly following your pastor. Paul said, be followers together with me as I'm a follower of Christ. So Paul says, as long as I'm following Christ, you follow me. But if I start drifting off and taking you down another pathway, you go and keep following Christ, find another pastor. And that is, of course, the substance of that. But now after Paul has line upon line, precept upon precept, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, laid down all the foundations, he closes the epistle of Hebrews with these words. First of all, remember those who have rule over you. They're guarding for your souls, remember them. Obey them that have rule over you. There are people that are trying to take you out of true biblical Christianity into something that's false, something that's been corrupted. So how much falsity does it take for you to say, I don't want that anymore? And say, let me ask you this. How much strychnine would you drink in a glass of water? How much poison will you tolerate? See, Jesus doesn't want any, and so he says now here in this text. Now let's stand together, we'll read it together in chapter 13, verse 17. He says, obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls. Literally, they shepherd your souls. as they that must give account. Otherwise, I just don't make this stuff up. I'm gonna have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an answer for what I've taught, when I've taught it, and even how I've taught it. So they're gonna give account, how well they shepherded you. Then it says, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy. and not with grief. Now, if they do it with grief, it says, for that is unprofitable for you at the judgment seat accountability. So how I pastor you, I'm gonna stand and be accountable for that. And for everything I teach you, I'm gonna be accountable for that. The second thing is how you respond to what I teach, you're gonna be accountable for that. So a pretty serious warning here to this. Father God, as we bow before you tonight, we thank you, Lord, for what you've done, what you've given us in your word, both the warnings and the promises. And tonight, as we look at this issue, Father, as we seek to rightly divide the word of truth, We seek Father for your instruction, your direction, for the illumination of your Spirit to the truth before us. We know, Lord, we'll learn nothing of you and of what you expect apart from your Spirit. We pray for each person here tonight and ask, Lord, that you'd intercede in our hearts and lives. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Now, if you look at the context of Hebrews 13, verse 17, You'll see that it is the last admonition in the epistle to the Hebrews before the concluding salutations. This is the last thing Paul's got to say to these Hebrew believers. And it's an important admonition in that the believing Jews had already been admonished to abandon the temple order of Judaism and to abandon the leadership of the old covenant priesthood of Israel. Don't go back there. Hebrews 13, 17 directs them now to their new responsibilities and allegiance to their new God appointed leadership. And God does not leave believers without God ordained and appointed shepherds of their soul. Remember that one of the things that God had said about the Old Testament priesthood and the prophets had spoken of God's word to the children of Israel is that they were sheep without a shepherd. They were like sheep without a shepherd. They had no leadership. Did they have priests? Well, sure, but their leadership was leading them down the wrong way. What was he saying? Their leadership, their shepherds had become wolves. And Paul, of course, regularly, Peter warns, James warns of wolves. So, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they what? Watch for your souls, as they must give account that they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you. Now Hebrews 13, 17 leads us into four areas of individual responsibility of new covenant believers regarding their own spiritual growth. Now remember the vast majority of Christianity today is still old covenant. Replacement theology is still old covenant. They've taken the nation of Israel, which was a theonomic institution through which God ruled, was gonna rule the world through it, one day he will, that's kingdom age. And they replace that theonomic institution called the nation of Israel with something they believe called the church. That's this universal thing. And of course it doesn't exist. The church today is local in scope, not a universal in scope. They took all the sacrifices of the Old Testament and they replaced them with sacraments. That was an issue. They took circumcision, replaced it with infant baptism, even though infant baptism not taught in the Bible at all, never mentioned once, and totally foreign to the scriptures. And so many other things we could go on and on and on about replacement theology or covenant theology. So let's look at these four individual responsibilities of new covenant believers. Now, as God has changed how the believers of the new covenant are to be governed. Now, covenants, remember, are the governance, the governances of how God wants something governed regulated in every different dispensation. Today we are in the dispensation of the Church Age and one of the dispensations of the Last Days. The Last Days begins with the Church Age and goes through the Kingdom Age. So we're coming to the end of the church age right now. The next event that's gonna happen is the trump shall sound, the dead in Christ shall be rise, and then we who are dead shall be caught up together with the Lord and meet him in the air. Then as we are in heaven celebrating the seven year marriage supper of the Lamb for seven years, God will be pouring out his wrath by degrees upon the earth, at which at the end time, Jesus Christ will return to the earth at Armageddon and he will establish his kingdom on earth coming back with the church age believers who now will rule and reign with Christ in glorified bodies over the kingdom age. So the first area of responsibility of Christians in the New Testament, the New Covenant is obedience to pastoral leadership and discipleship. Hebrews 13, 17. Now there is no doubt that the word obey, otherwise it is absolutely clear that the word obey in Hebrews 13, 17 is used to signify the authority given to pastors over the formal members of a local church. If you're not a member of our church, I have no authority over you. If you have become a member of the church, you have agreed to submit to the authority of that local church. And although the Greek word, pytho, translated obey, can have a number of meanings, a context along with the use of the word submit and rule would give us the meaning of ascending to authority. Otherwise you're coming up and you're recognizing the authority God appointed authority of someone that God has put into that position. So of course, the intent is to obey and to submit to their leadership regarding what? The authority of correct doctrine. You only have to follow correct doctrine. Now, a couple of things that you can do. If the pastor teaching a false doctrine, you should have him removed as your pastor. That's a congregational responsibility. Secondly, otherwise he's no longer qualified to be your pastor, so remove him. Now that's congregational vote. We have something in our constitution which allows for that to take place. Secondly, if it's an issue, you can vote with your feet. You can leave the church. I think, of course, the correct doctrine should be discussed. Now that doesn't mean every little nuance. We have a defining doctrinal statement. We're dealing with general principles of scripture. There are a lot of variations we give individual soul liberty to you on in regarding various beliefs. So these correct doctrines, of course, then there's disciplines of the faith. Now the word rule here, Haggai Ahomihi refers to authoritative leadership and it can mean to command with authority. Pastors both govern and lead with the authority of the Word of God as they apply the interpretations of the Word of God to the issues and practices of life. The Word of God does not speak to every cultural nuance of worldliness or carnality. So for instance, the Word of God does not say thou shall not smoke marijuana. I'm saying, you won't find anywhere. However, the word of God gives us a governing principle for these kinds of issues. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12, it says, all things are lawful unto me, otherwise they can't hurt my salvation, but all things are not expedient. They don't expedite spiritual things. All things are lawful for me, otherwise they can't hurt my salvation, but I will not be brought under the power or the control of any. That's addictions. I won't be brought under the power or the addictive power of anything. So that implies a lot of different things that come under that issue. And the church has to make applications. So there are some of those things that we have to deal with every time. For instance, you can be a member of our church and smoke cigarettes. Will we recommend that you do that? No. That's a worldly practice. And we're going to talk to you about it being a worldly practice. You can be a member of our church and smoke snuff. or chew snuff, I guess. That's a worldly practice. You can smoke it if you want to, too. Whatever you want to do with it. But we're going to talk to you about that being worldly. But we do have some tests of fellowship in our doctrinal statement. You can't use alcohol. You can't sell alcohol. None of that. You can't do that and be a Christian, because the Bible forbids it. So every local church. requires at least one spiritual leader. And Paul said to Titus, go and ordain elders or pastors in every city. So it requires at least one spiritual leader as one of the first definitions of what constitutes a church is that it has spiritual leadership. And that spiritual leadership has to have a deep understanding of the word of God and who can interpret cultural nuances according to the general principles revealed in the word of God. I have to do that. So when a new wave of foolishness comes along, like sniffing paint fumes or any one of a hundred other things that come along, the pastor has to say, hey, no, we don't let that. You can't be a member of Shepherds Pole Baptist Church and do that. You know, you wanna chew, you wanna eat Paiute root and go into the sweat lodge and find your spirit guide? We don't allow that here. And there's some things you just can't do and be a member here. You can do it, all right? And I would die for your right to do it. That's individual soul liberty. And, but you can't do that, be a member here. So these kinds of decisions should not be left in the hands of consensus or majority rule. That's why we have a doctrinal statement that governs us. And therefore, a local church must be extremely careful in their examination of the man of God and whether or not he meets the qualifications to be their pastor. It's an important thing to be God called to be their pastor, but they, when they are looking for a pastor, and I'm an old man, you may be doing that here shortly, you're gonna have to determine, you're gonna have to know what questions to ask, and you're gonna have to know if you're getting the right answer. And, you know, because you're choosing a shepherd who's gonna watch over your souls. So on the acknowledgement that he is their God called pastor, They're recognizing that, they're acknowledging their responsibilities then to obey his doctrinal leadership and submit to the authority of his divinely appointed position in the local church. I get asked to come and preach at ordination services a lot, or when a pastor is instilled for the first time, he comes and they usually have three speakers. And I'm the one that usually is asked to come and give the charge to the congregation. And this is very much a part of what I'm going to go and preach to that congregation of people. And you'd be amazed at how many churches I've preached this very message in, where the churches have said, we've never heard anything like that in our lives. Why? because pastors don't preach it because people think they're self-serving or they're trying to come in and somehow rule over them. Well, that matter should have been taken care of long before when they are first instilled in the pastors. And I've had pastors come back after preaching this message in those churches to say, thank you, you've made our transition so much easier. They're good men. They love their people and they wanna help them. But they spend the first three years, four years sometimes, by the way, the average pastor, it's three years long. They spend the first three years trying to gain the trust of people. So they let them lead. And so one of the first things I've always asked the church is when they say to me, we want you to come and be our pastor. I say, okay, if God calls me to be your pastor, will you follow my leadership? And there's silence in the congregation, because they don't know what that is. They really don't in many cases, but leadership is gonna be according to the word of God. So all of these things are important. Number two is found in Hebrews 13, verse 18, praying for your pastors and their ministers. The bigger the church, the more pastors are required. And sometimes a church, a small church can have more than one pastor. So we have a man that, for instance, comes into our congregation and he comes forward on a Sunday morning, he says, pastor, I believe God's calling me to be a pastor. I said, well, okay, we gotta get you out of here then and send you off to a Bible college someplace and seminary. Or should we say, okay, We're going to start training you and teach you how to be a pastor, teach you how to rightly divide the word of truth, how to teach the word of God. And when that time comes after a short period of trial, then we'll put you on staff as one of the pastors of our church. Do you have to have a 100 people or 200 people to have more than one pastor? Where do you find that in the Bible? just not there. We don't have pastors according to what size the church is, we have pastors according to, of course, whom God has called out of our congregation. So we're supposed to pray for pastors. It says in chapter 13 verse 18, pray for us, for we trust, we are convinced, We have a good, a correct, proper conscience, otherwise moral consciousness, a perception of what's right and wrong. In all things willing to live honestly, we're morally honorable. Otherwise, we're not telling you one thing and we're living another way. But I beseech you rather to do this that I may be restored, otherwise reconstituted in hell, home organization, to come to you sooner." Now, this was a tough time for the apostles. I remember working in a church, and the pastor of that church was really looked up to by the other construction workers. And the reason why is that he would sit down at the coffee break in the afternoon. He'd bring a six pack of beer for everybody to drink. And he'd sit there and smoke cigarettes with them and tell dirty stories. And he says, that's the kind of pastor I want. But that's the kind of guy they wanted. See, is that what this kind of text talks about? No, Hebrews 13, 19 takes a statement of Hebrews 13, 18 beyond the request of plea to a full obligation to pray. Otherwise that's a commandment, pray for us. I believe this refers to the apostle Paul specifically, especially due to the context of Hebrews 13, 23 in reference to our brother Timothy is set at liberty. Spiritual leaders face the onslaught of both satanic opposition and extensive temptations. If you're going to destroy a church, where do you want to attack it? At its head. Spiritual leaders struggle with the issues of discouragement, defeat, all that accompanies trying to minister to people who often rebel against their leadership and resist the teaching of the Word of God. And, you know, I've said tough love is often tough because you have to love the people that are hitting you. And that's a tough thing to do sometimes. You can't hit them back. You come at them with the loving grace of God. Some people are untrusting. Others simply refuse to submit to God's appointed authorities over their lives. They can't even be obedient to their moms and dads. They're rebellious there, let alone to a pastor in a church who's often a stranger to them. There are those who mistrust spiritual leaders because a spiritual leader has abused them in the past. A lot of that going on today. How would you like someone to mistrust you because of someone else's failure? Happens all the time. Number three, people working with diligence towards their own spiritual maturity. That's a responsibility of the new covenant. Otherwise, toward perfection. Now, when the Bible uses the word perfection, it's not talking about sinlessness. It's talking about maturity. To the place where it's like a child growing up under a parent's care. And eventually, mom and dad want to be able to say, Pat, that 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-old, 30-year-old kid on the bottom, and say, here you go now. You can make it on your own. And you want to be able to do that. And that's maturity. Otherwise, you can trust them and go out there in the world and make your own choices. Make good choices that aren't going to hurt them, aren't going to damage other people. So he says that in verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work. Otherwise, make you perfect, make you equipped in every good work to do his will. Working in you, that's the indwelling spirit of Christ, that which is well-pleasing in his sight, Through Jesus Christ who will be glory forever and ever, amen. So just like the resurrection and glorification of Jesus, spiritual growth is a supernatural work. You can't do it on your own. You need, first of all, to be saved. When you get saved, you receive the indwelling spirit of God. And once you receive the indwelling spirit of God, he forms a partnership with you in doing what God wants you to do. He will enable you from within. So spiritual growth requires individual participation, individual cooperation in the operations of God. The big word for it is synergism, synergism. So the word perfect here, Hebrews 13.21, katatidzo is a Greek word. Although the word means to make complete or thoroughly complete, there is a background intent regarding restoring to wholeness something previously broken. So the statement that follows in every good work to do is well working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight implies this perfection is a thorough spiritual equipping of believers for the purposes God's intends in doing the work of the ministry of Ephesians 4.12. Therefore the implication of the admonition is that the believer ought to be making his own concerted effort to involve himself in the supernatural work of discipleship. God has ordained for his life through the operations of the local church and God's ordained leadership. That's why God ordained the local church. That's why God ordained pastors to equip you, to mature you, to perfect you, to do the work of the believer priest. You see, that is one doctrine, the doctrine of Nicolaitanism or the clergy lady division. that came into the church already within the first 40 or 50 years began to enter into the church. Christ rebukes it in his epistles, seven epistles of the book of Revelation. He says, it's a doctrine that I hate. The reason why he hates it, because on the new covenant, there's a priesthood of all believers. We're all supposed to be doing the work of the ministry. And there is no clergy laity division. I'm not a clergy man. You call me a clergy man, I'm gonna get upset with you. And if I call you a laity, you ought to get upset with me. Because neither one of those are biblical terms. Nicolaity means overlords of the people or conquerors of the people. And that's not the way it is. The pastor is a servant leader of the church to train servant leaders. but he has to do it dogmatically. Welcome to my world. So a believer can only bring glory to God through a life that's been thoroughly equipped to minister in doctrinal soundness and a walk that is pure from worldliness. And the word amen there in that text is a concluding admonition to a hypothetical response from those admonished, meaning so let it be. And so he's concluding the whole of the epistle with, so let it be. What I have said is the word of God, so let it be done. And when you, for instance, hear something that you think, well, that's good, and you shout out amen, you're saying, so let it be. But particularly you're saying, let it be in my life. Let it be to me. And then number four. That's from Hebrews 13, 22. Suffer, or hold yourself against, or to. Be accountable for living. Suffer the word of exhortation. So sometimes listening to preaching is suffering. I know it is. I know I'm a hard guy to listen to because sometimes I give you more than what you can handle, more than what you want, and you'd rather have just a little bit. But you'd have to suffer, you have to hold yourself against, accountable for the living or the teaching of the word of God. And so when it gets to be hard to listen to, that's when you got to perk up. I always tell people, sometimes the best way to stay alert, keep a pencil in your hand and a piece of paper on your lap. and you'll be able to stay alert. You'll be writing things down and you'll stay alert. So Paul says in Hebrews 13 verse 22, he says, and now in the concluding thing, I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. Put up with it, stay under it, work hard at it. That's the whole concept. For I have written a letter unto you in a few words. Oh yeah? Hebrews is one of the most difficult epistles in the Bible. He says this in a few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, and whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. So doeth all them have the rule over you, and all the saints. Otherwise you have a lot of pastors. Salute them. And all the saints, they of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all, amen. Written to Hebrews from Italy by Timothy. What was Paul doing in Italy? He was imprisoned. And he was trying to fix a mess. Now, although the epistle to the Hebrews is a lengthy admonition, its message is simple. The new covenant believer has a superior position than the old covenant believer. The old covenant believer were merely servants. New covenant believers are children. They have adult children. They were like little children under a child keeper or a babysitter. That was the priesthood of Israel. The new covenant believer, although they have pastors and direction, they are all believer priests. So they have a superior position. And to this superior position is attached a more extensive responsibility. In other words, a new covenant believer has a higher level of accountability and their culpability, otherwise you're gonna answer for it, for all the commandments given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. You don't have to know the Bible well enough to live it. You have to know the Bible well enough to live it and be able to teach it to others also. You have to be weighed through all those 25 things I gave you this morning. You have to be able to diagnose them and be able to move through them and help people. We are to preserve the Word of God by translating it into the language of living, as James 1.22 says, be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. Now that very verse, James 1.22, is a definition of biblical faith. That is a Hebrew definition of what faith really is. If you believe it, you'll do it. If you believe it, you'll live it. If you believe like there is a God, that you know that there is no secret place from him, you can hide. He sees everything you do. He knows it before you do it. And yet he's right there. This is central obligation of every local church, holding one another accountable to learn and live the word of God. To what? To learn it and to live it. to learn it and to live it. When Christians get together, they ought to be preoccupied with talking about the things of God. I mean, that ought to be what it's all about.