Well let's open to the final chapter of this word of exhortation to Jewish Christians. Chapter 13 of Hebrews. And I'm going to begin actually reading back two verses in verse 28 of chapter 12. Because I believe it's certainly fair to read this whole section as beginning there. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. You notice what he's doing here. He gives an instruction and then he makes a comment or a reason. Gives a reason for that instruction. Chapter 13, let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Make sure that your character or conversation is free from the love of money. being content with what you have. For He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we confidently say, The Lord is my Helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. Oh Lord, we thank You for this Word. We thank You for the gospel, the good news. We thank You, Lord, that our sin was not the end. That You sent Christ and that our sins have been forgiven by His blood through faith in Him. And Lord, we pray that You will stir our hearts by this passage. These teachings here, Lord, that encourage us to live and show us how to live in the way that You require. So let us hear You, Lord, in Christ's name. Over twelve chapters, the writer of Hebrews has demonstrated what we know to be true. that no one has ever been saved or can be saved by his compliance with the law of God or by any good works of his own. Can't save yourself by your own goodness. Forgiveness of sins. Justification before God can only be one way, can't it? Through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. the eternal Son of God come in human flesh. Hebrews, we recall, was written to first-century Jewish Christians who the writer saw as being in danger of falling back into the practice of Judaism. A system that was ordained by God, but which could not make the worshiper perfect. It was merely a foreshadowing of the perfect Lamb to come. And the writers illustrated the contrast between the shadows of the old law and the old covenant made at Mount Sinai, given to Moses, and the gospel of grace between the earthly nation of Israel and the true Israel, between earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem. The old covenant of Mount Sinai was really fairly simple in its terms, though it was fairly lengthy in Moses' writing. Down of it. Obey me, and I will bless you. Obey me perfectly, and I will bless you. Disobey me, and I will curse you. You will come under judgment. Now the problem, of course, is that every man, except in Christ, has sinned against God. So no one can be justified. No one can be reconciled unto God by His keeping of the law. And the offering of the animal sacrifices could only provide a temporary covering for sins. They could never take away sins. In the law we find is the knowledge of sin. In the law, man sees his need for a deliverer. He sees he's a sinner. He sees his need for a deliverer from his sin, from the penalty of his sin. And so we saw last Lord's Day at Mount Sinai, God presented Himself to the sons of Jacob as a sovereign, as a judge. In the gospel, God reveals Himself as a gracious and merciful Father. This is the great blessing we've received. They had blood of animals covered their sins for a time, but there was no promise of deliverance in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, God showed us the woeful condition of every one of us, of every convicted sinner under the law and its curse. And in the New Covenant, He displays His mercy and grace. The contrast could not be greater. Christ won these blessings for us, these blessings of grace. for all who truly believe in Him by shedding His blood. That's how it was accomplished. So all the people of faith now have been united to Christ and to one another by His Spirit. We can now draw near to God through Christ. We're invited to draw near to God, whereas at Mount Sinai the people were told to stay away, don't even touch this mountain or you will die. Our names enrolled in heaven right now. A heavenly inheritance awaiting every true believer. So the writer, in view of this, in view of these people who had some interest in turning back to that old way that couldn't provide those blessings, he tells them over, and he pleads with them, persevere in the faith. Run the race with endurance. Run the race to glory. Fix your eyes on Christ. so you won't grow weary, so you won't lose heart. He warned in our passage last Lord's Day, see to it that you don't refuse Him who is speaking and offering His grace. Because judgment will come to all who are not united to Christ through faith. Remember what the writer said at the end of chapter 10, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. He ended chapter 12 by saying, our God is a consuming fire. So for the first readers of this word of exhortation, the message was don't go back to Judaism. Well, we're not in danger of that. We Gentiles of the 21st century, And so in chapter 13, the writer broadens his message. He teaches all Christians regarding what is the right response to the grace and blessings of God. He shows us how God desires that we live while we remain in the world. This is very similar to what Paul did in Romans chapters 12, 13, 14, and most of 15. gives us the doctrine, and then shows us, in light of that truth, how we should live. And so now, in this chapter 13, God will speak to us through the writer here about our relationship to Him, which we've already seen. Let love to respond in gratitude to one another, to our neighbors, to our spouse, and to strangers. So last Lord's Day, and that's why I began reading chapter 12, verse 28. Knowing these things, what shall we then do? The question that Francis Schaeffer asked and answered in ten wonderful sermons. What shall we then do? Let us show gratitude to Him. And how do we do that? We do that by obedience to Him with a grateful heart. That's how you show that you're grateful. You obey Him. Well what about our relations to one another? Well he's very succinct here in his statement in verse 1. Let love of the brethren continue. He speaks of it as though it's something that's already present. That's a wonderful thing. We cannot be Christians, Calvin says, without being brothers. If you're not a brother, You have some real work to do. God desires that we whom He has mutually put together, united together through our union in Christ, love one another. He's bound us together in one body. All believers are part of one mystical, spiritual body. We're not free to not love one another in this body. The Lord has bound us together. How? By His adoption of us. It's within this brotherhood, the true church, those of genuine faith. Within that brotherhood, God dwells. All believers have one father. We have one elder brother, Romans 8, 29. And he's not ashamed to call us brethren, we read here in Hebrews. We've all been united in one spirit, called in the hope of one calling. Our Lord has adopted us into one and the same family. We cannot separate ourselves from others in the family. We've become joint heirs in this family with Christ. And so this brotherhood that God has created among us is the foundation and the basis of why we must love one another. Scripture says that this love is marked by several things. Here's a little test for us all. How are we doing? Compassion. Sympathy for one another. Joy in the prosperity of one another. Prayer for one another. Forbearance for the offenses that we perceive coming from one another. Delight in one another. Readiness to suffer for one another. John talks about it in his epistle. Readiness to lay down our lives for one another. 1 John 4, 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. I want to look at one other passage here from 1 John that I couldn't get everything I wanted on this subject into the Scripture sheet. 1 John 3, 15. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? This is how Scripture speaks of this brotherly love for one another. John Owen, 400 years ago, said that next to genuine faith in Christ Jesus, the life and beauty of the Christian religion consists of the mutual love of them who are partakers of the same heavenly calling. On the other hand, nothing can dissipate so quickly and so easily as love. And the things that cause love to disappear are when we think more of ourselves than we should. Because when we do that, we'll think less of others than we should. And this leads to offenses. And that leads to conflict. Envy, wrath, selfishness, self-indulgence, love of the world. All of these Let me say them again. Envy, wrath, selfishness, self-indulgence, love of the world, all of these drive out even the possibility of a loving heart. So when we wrangle and contend with one another, our love for one another can and does grow cold. Love, we're told, is the fulfillment of the law. William Plummer, 150 years ago, said this, No true profession of Christ's name in His gospel is ever made only in words. So I say, as our lives are the expression of what we truly believe, our lives also reveal what's truly in our hearts. Whether it's love of the brethren or love of self. Plummer again, what an affront it is to Christ to have contentions in conflict among one another. We are bound to love our brethren even as Christ has loved us. Now I resisted the temptation to do an entire sermon on each verse here in chapter 13. I should tell you Alistair Begg did precisely that. And certainly an entire sermon on this single verse would be very challenging for us. The Word of God challenges us in this verse. Let love of the brethren continue. And when we go through Scripture and see how the Word of God defines this, what this love of the brethren looks like, we realize we've probably got quite a bit of work to do. Well, love is the foundation. It's the fountain from which other aspects There's two branches of brotherly love. Hospitality to strangers and compassion to those who are imprisoned or suffering. And the writer addresses those in verses 2 and 3. But these flow from love of the brethren. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing. Notice the little nudge he gives us with that sum of entertained angels. You don't know who it is that's seeking comfort from you. So it might be an angel. It might be someone sent by God. Would you turn away someone sent by God? And this matter of hospitality was a much more important thing in the first century when persecution of Christians often left them homeless. Back in chapter 10 in verse 34, we saw that some of these initial readers of this word of exhortation had already lost their homes, had already had their own property seized. So this really mattered. I mean, today, We have hotels. People stay at hotels. You can travel from city to city quite comfortably in air-conditioned comfort. Arrive at a hotel with more air-conditioned comfort. Not in those days. Plummer again. Hospitality, he says, doesn't prove one's a Christian. But an inhospitable church is no church of Christ, he says. absence of hospitality, he calls a dark, dark sign in the character of anyone who professes to be a friend of God. So he's writing 2,000 years ago, to people 2,000 years ago. And it isn't just in our day that hospitality seems to have waned. In 1540, John Calvin wrote this, Hospitality among men has nearly ceased to be properly observed among men. That's 500 years ago. The ancient hospitality, he says, celebrated in history is unknown to us. Unknown to those even in the 16th century. See how prone we are to wander from what God wants. So people stayed at hotels even in the 16th century. But in those days when the apostles were going into the world, they didn't have hotels. There was an inn here and an inn there. Many of those people were fugitives who left their homes because of the persecution. So here the writer commands hospitality toward those in need. Psalm, he says, have entertained angels without knowing it. And you know, it's a good thing if we stopped and thought every time somebody encroached on our space as we see it. If we thought, you know what? God might have sent this one. We might look at it differently. Matthew 25. Look how Jesus looks at it. Here He's got the sheep and the goats gathered in front of Him. And he says the righteous are going to answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry, feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? Everybody in this room knows the answer, don't we? The king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them. You did it to me. And then there are the prisoners. And likely he's speaking here of prisoners because of the persecution. Not because they're murderers and rapists and whatever. He's talking about prisoners for the name of Christ. But also those who are ill-treated. Christianity wasn't popular among all in the first century, just as it is not in the 21st century. The first century, though, was a time of imprisonment for Christianity. As it is in Iraq and China, Iran today, North Korea, some places in Africa. Imprisonment if you're a Christian. We see once a year, and I really believe maybe we need to see this more than once a year. The videos they send us of people suffering in cold, dark cells made of stone and dirt. It still happens. And they're part of the same body. They've been adopted into the same body that we've been adopted into. And so it's mandatory. I hope our conscience doesn't allow us to not be supportive of those brothers and sisters who are suffering for the sake of Christ. What can we do? Well, we can't visit them in all places, but we can pray for them. We can minister to them. We can try to send things to them. write to them, encourage them. We're in their circumstance with them whether we see it clearly or not. Remember the prisoners, he says, as though in prison with them. 1st Corinthians 12, 26, If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. It's an interesting statement here in Psalm 102, verse 19. For he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner. We should do as our Lord does. Hear the groaning of the prisoner for Christ. John Owen suggests when God allows a brother in Christ to suffer, what happens? A door is opened to us to show a Christlike tenderness and a brotherly kindness to Him. Now verse 4, he deals with marriage. He sets forth a contrast here between the divine institution of marriage and the sins of sexual immorality, fornication, and adultery. God Himself instituted and blessed the institution of marriage. I know that's not news to anybody in this room. It's news to many though, particularly in our culture today. He assured the multiplication of humans, animals, and plants by the way He made all of us. all of them. But for humanity, He created an institution and ordained this institution in which this multiplication is to take place, to occur. Marriage is designed by God to preserve a godly seed on the earth. So He mentions two things here. Marriage to be held in honor and the marriage bed to be undefiled. And then he mentions two types of sinners. Fornicators and adulterers. The first disregards marriage and engages in sexual immorality. The other engages in sexual immorality despite the fact that he or the one with whom he's involved is also married. He defiles the marriage bed. One ignores it. One defiles it. Marriage, we're told, is honorable. It's dishonored by fornicators. It's dishonored by adulterers. Now the fornicators are unmarried and engage in illicit sexual relations. The adulterers defile the marriage bed. And you know what God says about such? God will judge fornicators and adulterers. I don't know if, well there are many passages in Scripture that are ignored in our culture today. Some are ignored even in our churches today. 1st Corinthians 6, 9. Here's what the Word of God says about these things. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Well who's he talking about? Well he says neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And it doesn't matter how woke the world gets. This will never change. This is what God has said to humanity. Galatians 519. Again, the deeds of the flesh are evident. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorceries, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing. Things like these of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You see, no court on earth and no legislative body can enact a law that overrules what God has said. And regardless of what the children of perdition say, God has blessed one union and only one union. Out of husband and wife, one man and one woman. And here, as we just read, He expressly condemns all fornicators, adulterers, and those who engage in homosexual conduct. All these, along with thieves, liars, murderers, and such, violate the law of God. And all these God will judge. There's something else here. God never declares that His ministers should abstain from marriage. That's an invention of men. It's a teaching and it's a practice, this celibacy among clergy that is in conflict with the Word of God. It isn't as though the Word of God is silent on the matter. It's not. He declares, 1st Timothy 3, 2, that those who oversee his flock must be the husband of one wife. And in 1 Timothy 4.1, Paul speaks of those who forbid marriage as hypocrites and liars. 1 Timothy 4.1, but the Spirit explicitly says, Paul writes to Timothy, that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. Well we know there are religions who follow those forbidden practices. Verse 5, make sure that your character, or King James uses conversation, meaning your way of life, is free from the love of money. Being content with what you have. Let your conversation be without covetousness. For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. What wonderful words. Now he said them to Moses to relate to the people. He spoke them to Joshua. But those who are of faith partake of these promises. First Timothy 6, 10 and following. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Verse Timothy 3.3, an overseer must not only be the husband of one wife, he must be free of the love of money. What'd Jesus say about this? No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and wealth. You're either going to love one and hate the other. Or hate one and love the other. Luke 12, 15, our Lord said, Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. Now I wrote this down, and it doesn't seem all that profound, but it may be contrary to the way of thinking of the world. We don't need worldly wealth. We need Christ. We need forgiveness of our sins. That's what we really need. But you realize how many more people there are pursuing worldly wealth than are pursuing Christ. That are seeking forgiveness so they can stand on the Day of Judgment. We are commanded to be good stewards of the earthly gifts God has provided us, but we must never allow those gifts or our need to provide for ourselves and our families to turn into a sinful desire to accumulate wealth and property, just to have wealth and property. Proverbs 30, verse 7. And you know, these first six verses strike me. And I almost, and may call this the Proverbs in Hebrews 13. Because that's sort of what we have here. But this one, Agur in Proverbs 30, verse 7, said this. This is a great expression of a godly attitude toward money. Two things I ask of you. Do not refuse me before I die. Keep deception and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? Or that I not be in want and steal and profane the name of my God. Pretty good. Colossians 3, 5, Paul declares that greed or covetousness amounts to what? Idolatry. Idolatry. The love of money is like the love of any other imaginary or false god. He tells us, provide for yourselves, support your churches, help out the poor, Help those in need? Calvin says, it rarely happens that anything satisfies a greedy or covetous man. And that's true. You can't pursue wealth without wanting more wealth once you get some wealth. It's not a thing where you stop at a certain point. Your goal is here and okay, I'm good. It never happens. They who are not content with a moderate portion, he says, always seek more, no matter how much they have. Paul declared that he had learned how to abound with much and how to suffer need. Look at Philippians 4.11. Here's Paul's commentary on the subject. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Read verse 7 about imitating those who guided you. And what an example Paul sets here. I know, he says, how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstances I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry. both of having abundance and suffering need. And what's the secret? I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. That's the secret, is knowing you have Christ. Your need is not for money. Your need is for Christ and forgiveness. So we must be content with those earthly blessings that God has chosen to give us. And they're not the same for all of us. We all have far more, however, in the way of earthly blessings than even kings did in ancient times. Even the wealthy of 150 years ago didn't have anywhere near what we have in the way of earthly things. And you know what else? We have Christ. We have God. We have our great reward already. And sort of as a vaccine for the disease of covetousness or greed, the writer calls our attention to God's promises, His testimony in verse 6, that He will never desert or forsake His people. See, if you have Christ, you have Him for all eternity. If you're united to Christ, nothing can ever break that. We can trust God. He hasn't promised us earthly riches. But our salvation lies in trusting Him. And He has promised eternal life to all who believe in Him. Faith sets every believer in the place of Him to whom each of these promises was made. He will never desert or forsake you. Owen says the most effective means to be comforted in times of sufferings and want is to be mindful of the power of God in contrast to the weakness or limitations of any man or anything that opposes us. Well, this last three verses that we'll cover this morning, 7, 8, and 9, in one sense they comprise a unit, and yet each verse stands alone. Remember those who led you. Remember your guides who spoke the Word of God to you, considering the result of their conduct. Not just their conduct. Consider that, but also consider the result. And what was the result of their conduct? The spread of the gospel. And he says, imitate their faith. The early church was led by men of great faith and great courage. Many of them gave their lives. And not shot by a firing squad, but painful, torturous deaths. As they went about doing what? Laying the foundation of the church of which we are a part. We should remember what they did. We should let their conduct and their work and the result of their work, the spread of the gospel into the world, stand as a testimony to that gospel. The men that he's talking about in verse 7, this is a personal statement to those first readers. He's talking to his readers about the very men who had learned from the apostles and had taught them. That's who he's talking about. They knew these people. They'd seen them. They'd heard them. And they watched as they stood firm in the midst of their own persecution. And he says, imitate their faith. For us, what would the parallel be today? You know, it's those martyrs that we see. They've taken it off the air now, what ISIS people were doing to Christians, beheading children, beheading the parents of children, the slaughter that's gone on in Rwanda and other places. It isn't as though there are not such people today. They're not our teachers, perhaps. But they are standing firm in the midst of persecution. Standing firm for the gospel, no matter what. And so, while the instruction here is to remember those leaders and to imitate their faith, the writer's also directing us to what they taught and to the result of what they taught. I mean, what is it that the Gospel teaches us? Well, one thing is what we see in verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever in His person and in His work. What do I mean by that? Well, in His being, in His person, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. And He always will be. In His being, He will always remain the eternal Son of God. Now in human nature as well. Now He'd come though and done some work in human flesh. He atoned for all our sins. And He rose from death back to life. He conquered death. Death that came into the world through our sins. And the writer is pointing to the work of Christ here. And he shows that Christ is Himself unchangeable. But as He is unchangeable, so too is the gospel message. That message is also unchangeable. That message that was spoken by those men we saw in verse 7. And that message will continue on. Those leaders of verse 7 who had led the first readers of this epistle to Christ had died. But Christ and the gospel message lives on. And the way by which we persevere in the faith is to hold on to that foundation. How firm a foundation we have to hold on to in Christ. He who doesn't hold on to Christ knows only vanity. In Christ alone are included all the treasures of heavenly wisdom. There is no other way of wisdom than to fix our eyes and our thoughts on Christ. Well, verse 8 we see looks back to verse 7, but it also looks forward to verse 9. Where the faith of those leaders we saw in verse 7 is contrasted with the false teachers we see in verse 9. Don't be carried away by varied and strange teachings. Talk about a biblical precept that has always had application. Don't be carried away by varied and strange teachings. They've always been with us. For, he says, it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Well, we heard about grace in contrast to the law last Lord's Day. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited, did not profit. So the writer's message remains to them. Don't go back to Judaism. Don't turn back from Christ. And he illustrates this one more time. Again, by comparing the weakness of the old covenant shadows, the old covenant dietary regulations, with the salvation that is found only in the grace of God. In the new covenant of grace. And every teaching that is not from God is strange and is foreign. The teaching that seems to have been the writer's mind here was the belief that the observing of food regulations could strengthen the heart. Could draw one nearer to God. Make one more acceptable to God. And you could see how they might get that idea, being Jewish people. Psalm 104, 14. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth. and wine, which makes a man's heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food, here it is, which sustains man's heart." Now this kind of blessing was part of every Jewish meal throughout the old ancient days of Israel. But there were limits to those kind of observances. food observances. There were limits to what they could accomplish in a sinner. Couldn't make the sinner perfect in conscience. And not only that, but in addition to the dietary laws that God had given them, the Jews themselves had developed many superstitions regarding foods and meats of their own over the 15 centuries. And here, when you look at this, you can see what the writer is reminding them is this. It's the grace of God, not the observance of dietary rules that will truly nourish us. If we are to be truly nourished by God, it's got to be His gracious acts. Jesus himself said, Matthew 4, 4, ...Man shall not live on bread alone, but on... What? ...but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Now some religions today still hold to man-made rules and superstitions regarding meats, other foods. But folks, there are no food laws in Christ's church. None. First Corinthians 8.8. Food will not commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. Some of us were raised in a religion that had food laws like that. Romans 14.17. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. It's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And then Hebrews 9.8. The Holy Spirit, he says, is signifying this. That the way into the holy place, the heavenly Mount Zion, was not yet disclosed while that old first tabernacle was still standing. It was a symbol. of the heavenly Mount Zion, of the heavenly tabernacle. Accordingly, the writer says, both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. Why? Because they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of Reformation. And that's why those old covenant regulations and ceremonies have now been rendered obsolete by Christ. Verses 7, 8, and 9 brought together show us that the truth of Christ remains fixed and unchangeable. So we must stand firm and not be carried away by every wind of doctrine. And when men do not abide in Christ alone, they become susceptible to every kind of superstition and error and corruption of the truth. These things can enter our minds and deceive us. It's not a great practice to become a student of the false religions of the world. Because all they can do is bring falsehood into your mind. Now there are those who have to teach these things and have to be learned about them. And we should be aware of what's around us. But the more false teaching we hear, the greater danger we present to ourselves. The wisdom of God is what? Foolishness to the world. You know what else? The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. And Paul teaches us that Christ is given to us by God to be our wisdom. So if we're to remain firm in the truth, we must learn from the Word of God alone. He who does not take a course directly to Christ is prone to be swayed by strange doctrines. And the only fortification against strange doctrines, false doctrines, is the pure knowledge of Christ. And that's found only in Scripture. Everything else is merely the false imaginings of men. So the writer concludes this thought by reminding his readers of what he had written back in chapter 9, which we just read in verses 8, 9, and 10. Those food regulations and superstitions did not profit them. They didn't. They gained no lasting benefit through them. And here we are, of all people, most blessed. Our minds opened to the knowledge of the truth, which we've believed, the only truth that can bring forgiveness of sins and justification before God. Only truth that can cleanse our conscience and bring us the assurance of eternal life and glory. So let's take a moment and let's go to our Lord quietly. Each one give thanks for the grace and mercy and love He's bestowed on us. And then we will come to the table of our Lord.