Alright, with that being said, I'll ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews this morning. And we're going to read a section of two chapters that adjoin one another. From chapter 12, verse 28, to chapter 13, verse 9, I'm going to read to you this morning. everyone can find it I will begin reading from verse 28 where the writer of Hebrews has this to say therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are also in the body. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that this word has been preserved for our instruction all these many centuries after it was written. We thank you for the sacrifice it took to bring it to us. And we ask, Lord, that we would treat it with the commensurate honor as those who wrote it and read it in their presence and believed it to your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Someone asked me this morning if this was the second in a series because of the title of the sermon, which is Let Brotherly Love Continue. Well, the fact is, it is in a series where we've been talking about the body of Christ and the commensurate love between the members that is essential for the body of Christ to give glory to God in this world, and that that is present mostly in the local church. And it's interesting as you go to the epistles, because the epistles are written to local churches for the most part. And what the epistles are doing is trying to promote unity and love and evangelism and all the things God commands us to do as Christians. What the writers of the epistles are doing is trying to build up the body of Christ in its local form. in accordance with the problems that would arise in a particular locality for instance you can read the epistles to the Corinthians and they will have a different set of problems than these Jewish Christians that we are reading about today or you might read from the book of Romans and they would have a very different need for understanding. The Book of Romans deals with some doctrinal issues that some of the other epistles don't deal with because Paul, who was trying to build the local church throughout the world, on three continents in fact at the time was very sensitive to the particular needs of the particular local churches that he was writing to. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to us that we come here and what we find is a doctrinal treatise. The book of Hebrews is serious doctrine about Christ. All the way through the book of Hebrews what we find exalted is the supremacy of Christ in all things. The Old Testament were but shadows of things that were to come, symbols of things that Christ would fulfill, but Christ is supreme and that is celebrated and taught all the way throughout this book until we come to this place where the writer says, therefore, now that we know these things, now that we are immersed in an understanding of the nature of God and of His purpose for the body of Christ, He gives us these specific commands and so from my last sermon of 2008 I think it might be good to end this year punctuating some of these things just as the writer did here for these early Christians and so he begins with we'll begin with this verse from Hebrews chapter 13 verse 1 where the writer simply says let brotherly love continue and there is a presupposition there that brotherly love was already going on Or he would say, let brotherly love begin among you. But he says, let it continue. And so he's presuming that when Christians come together in the local form, that brotherly love is certainly evident between them and visible and able to be seen. And so all of Christian doctrine and all of Christian moral instruction are so that we will honor God with our bodies and all our efforts and so that brotherly love will continue between the people of God. Especially as we relate to one another in the local church. The local churches are very important to God. He wrote epistles to them, as we've already noted. The book of Revelation speaks to seven of the local churches in a special revelation of Jesus Christ. God is very interested in building up the local church in the world. It is His institution. It is endowed with the spiritual gifts. It is given the authority to speak for God in the earth, and it is the only agency in the earth with the authority to speak for God. we see in the New Testament. It's wonderful that we have so many para-church affiliations and movements and things that we certainly have liberty in Christ to support and to take some teaching from. However, we must never let para-church organizations take the place of church organizations. In fact, I see that happening somewhat in this information society we have today. It's so easy to just sit home in front of a television or a computer screen and take our instructions from afar. And we're going to see from the teachings of at least one other great preacher of the past that that's something that doesn't really test our Christianity for us at all and we ought not to have too much confidence in Christianity at a distance. We ought to live close as Christians. And so The churches today have become very missions-minded in the last century, so much so that the interest in cultivating strong ties to the local body have diminished. You know, I remember when I attended one church early in my Christian life, and we were a very strong local evangelical group. and we had a strong membership policy, and we had some people who had attended a long time without ever really covenanting to that body, and then were called out to go into the mission field. It was always a desire, of course, to be out. And they had sort of a scant view of the local body, as though the local body was this stagnant sort of, you know, necessary evil, but the real call of the Christian was to be this single individual out there, you know, battling the demons of Satan for the for the heathen in faraway lands. And it was interesting because this one man came to the church one day and suddenly wanted to become a member, like real quick. Now this was a gentleman who would attend services at whatever church suited him that morning. In fact, truth be told, even the Catholic church was included in his little repertoire of visitations that he might make on a Sunday morning. So there was certainly no understanding of the doctrine of the New Testament because you just couldn't share your affections in that way. But what had happened was, the missionary society that he was trying to join would not join anyone up that wasn't a member of a local church. Because you're supposed to be grounded, you're supposed to have grown up with an understanding of what you're trying to do in the rest of the world. Are we to go out and save the world as a bunch of disparate particles, individuals, that never come together and rejoice in their experience with God or they come together of the glorious body of Christ joined and knit together by what every joint supplies that it may grow up in all things and edify itself in love isn't that what the church is called to do and so the writer of Hebrews puts this whole puzzle together for us here and it's a really a very glorious book and it's something that we all want to take to heart and recognize God's mission is first in a strong local church And our God, of course, is an orderly God. And so this missions-minded tendency is a good thing if we have other fundamentals in place as well. The tendency we see to change churches to suit our latest perceived needs and desires is evidence of this fact. And there's a marvelous depiction of this from a Presbyterian pastor, in fact, in Pennsylvania. back in the late 1800s. His name is J.R. Miller, and I came across a sermon by him recently, and he had this to write in it. And it just seemed so appropriate for our time as it was for his time, which was, again, a very missions-minded outreach time. Nothing wrong with that. It's very good. We're called to that, but not at the expense of our submission to a local body. and our covenant, our giving of ourselves and our gifts to one another who are close at hand. And so, Pastor Miller has this to say. He writes, the true test of Christian love is in life's closer relations. There's a great difference between loving people we never saw and never shall see and those with whom we mingle continually in actual contact. There are some persons whose souls glow with love for the benighted heathen far away who fail utterly in loving their nearest neighbors or those who jostle against them every day in business and society. No doubt, it is easier to love some people at a distance. I don't know if he intended to be funny there, but I laughed out loud when I read that. I think I might even be one of those people. Easier to love me over the phone, perhaps, than on your couch. I don't know. But distance lends enchantment to many lives, just as a faraway rugged landscape may seem charmingly picturesque. We cannot see their false emblemishes. We're not required to endure their uncongenial or disagreeable qualities. And so he makes the point, I think, that Christians are first to love their closer relations, those people whom God in his sovereignty has joined them with in a covenant community in the local church. So the preacher speaks of life's closer relationships as being a true test of the extent of our Christian love between us and the measure of Christ's grace in us. And so the writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths to discuss and clarify the great doctrines of our faith and then ends his treatise with an emphatic call to brotherly love. He goes through 13 chapters teaching us about Christ and about the Old Testament references and how we are to apply them today in our New Testament sense and then he teaches us the practical living together outworking of our faith which is nothing more than loving one another in Christ in the local community. Though his call to love is emphatic and simple it does not come without also emphatic warnings Note the juxtaposition of the last verse from chapter 12 and the first verse of chapter 13, which reads like this, For our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Interesting. It's almost as if he intended a chapter break there, but he didn't. The chapter breaks are artificial. You know that. They were added afterwards. They're not infallible chapter breaks. We can mess around with those if we want. We have liberty in Christ to say, that chapter shouldn't have ended there. But I found that interesting. Our God is a consuming fire. Because I was tempted to just begin with chapter 13 and I always go back and make sure I'm getting the full perspective of what the writer is trying to give me in context. And the last thing I see is our God is a consuming fire and the next verse is, let brotherly love continue. Okay? Just exactly what is he trying to teach? So the writer has just taught of the need of God's chastening For he is, as any loving father is, concerned with directing his children in the right way. He is taught on the supremacy of Christ and given the great example of the faithful witnesses of the past, all through chapter 11 of Hebrews, which they call the Hall of Fame of Faith, where he goes through and names all the great faithful patriarchs of old. And he now teaches his people in these last times to be strengthened toward love by the teaching, the examples, the sacrifices of all those faithful witnesses, that so-called cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. And the writer uses them to instruct us and teaches us to look to their lives to see their commitment. to God. And so he writes in chapter 12, Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed. Pursue peace with all peoples and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled, he writes. And so we come to today's reading, where we are commanded to confirm essential truths, which he's just told us there, confirm essential truths, pursue peace, pursue holiness always, put away any bitterness or grudges that are in our hearts, and follow some simple instructions. And so I've isolated here seven simple instructions that I think we'll all see are really very simple. I don't think this is going to be earth-shattering new news to you, but here it is in a very cogent list from this inspired writer. And so this is where chapter 13 begins with some simple instructions for building the local church and cultivating peace and holiness within it. And so we may state these seven points as follows. And I've written them this way. Number one, love one another. Let brotherly love continue, right? Be hospitable. You know, being hospitable is a command of God. And we're going to see that. Uplift those who suffer for their faith. Keep marriage pure. Be content with what you have. Respect elders and parents, those who rule over you, the Bible says. and do not become enamored with other or strange teachings. You know, we are in America, I have to say, the new and improved society. We always want less fat, no sugar, no caffeine, and then we find out there's 10 other chemicals there that'll kill you much faster than the things they took out. We just like it because it's new and improved, and in our current state of knowledge, we feel much better eating the new and improved version of something, even though it might kill you faster. It's funny, I was watching a commercial for a drug recently. the warnings about what this drug can do to you that are bad was so much longer than the commercial. My children and I were laughing at this. Joseph was picking up and he says, Dad, why would anyone take that drug if it'll do all these things to you? And you know, probably some of us are on drugs like that right now. In fact, I don't really want to read the side effects. I took a drug one time with the side effects. It took an hour to read. You know one of the side effects of one of those drugs was homicide? And another was suicide? I am not kidding. This is actually written down as a possible side effect. And I remember saying to my doctor at one time, can this drug make you go blind? And he said, no. And I said, because I really feel it affected my vision. And I said, so how does a side effect get into the list? And he said, well somebody has it. And I said, I feel very honored. And then, you know, about a year later, they told me I should never take that drug again because it actually has caused blindness in some people. Now, you know I've had trouble with my eyes since I've gotten out of the hospital. A very fearful thing, but with sort of this new and improved society. Well, it's the same with doctrine, friends. I'm going to tell you, and I quote from Tozer, and I've done this forever, but I'll paraphrase for today because I didn't look this up. But Tozer says, if you find anything new in the scriptures of God, you are bound by faith to reject it. Our gospel is old. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. It's old. If you've been coming to church all your life, you might never be astounded again by the great truths that you're going to hear. You've heard all the essential ones. There's nothing new. And so, these old things come to us with newness of understanding and with revelation and with great power sometimes. And we can read something and say, I've read that my whole life and today I got the revelation of what it means and that will happen. But there's nothing new, nothing that can be added to the Book of Life, nothing that can be said to be newly inspirational. God closed the canon and ceased and we have to be careful of being this new and improved society always hungering for something else. You know, there's so many types of ministries and parachurch ministries, but really I think all of us know how we're supposed to act. Fathers are supposed to be holy heads of household, women are supposed to be holy submissive to their husbands and mothers to their children. I mean, there isn't a lot, there isn't many many steps to this procedure, there's just commitment at the outset. And so that's why you see in the scriptures, the writers of the scriptures are very comfortable with just laying out little commands like this gentleman does. And the reason I keep referring to him anonymously is we don't know who the writer of Hebrews is. Some think it was Paul. I personally don't. You can do a study on that yourself and maybe you'll come up with something new. And we can all preach that next week. So let's take these commands one at a time. Like most things we're taught in the Christian faith, we take the whole first. Isn't that interesting about the way Christianity is? You take the whole first. You get the whole ball of wax first. You get salvation and eternal life first, and then you're taught how to live for God. You know, in every other religion on earth, you're taught how to live for God, and maybe if you pass the final test, you get eternal life, or some other benefit, or, you know, some great resurrection of some kind, and some honor in the next world. But not here. You get the whole thing first. Okay? You take the whole first and then consider the parts which contribute to the whole. It's like salvation itself. We receive it first, all of it, once for all, upon our faithful surrender to God through Christ, right? And by the way, there's only one way of salvation, friends, and there's only one people of God. There's not two. There's not the Jews and the Christians. There's not the Old Testament way of salvation and the New Testament way. The way of salvation is to trust Christ. It always has been. It always will be. And all those who are saved all throughout history trusted Christ in the form of revelation that was given to them in their time. Alright? So, we receive it first. We receive all of it. That's salvation. We receive it once for all. We never have to receive it again. As soon as we surrender to God through Christ. And only after we're saved do we begin to act like the people of God and to pursue holiness in the way that honors God and is in keeping with biblical demands. So it's here as well. First, we love the brethren. We do that first. Then we find out how that's done, you see. First we love the brethren, then we consider the components of specific actions that bespeak and cultivate that love. Love is first among us. Love is the whole of our Christian lives, yet there are specific behaviors that we must cultivate in order that we may successfully fulfill the whole, you see. And so how do we love first? How do we witness our love as being first and foremost apart from the performance of those specific acts which seem to come later? You know, if I don't know how God expects me to act in love, and remember, love is not a feeling. Love is a powerful force that always, always prompts an action. Love without works is dead, which is a paraphrase from the famous faith without works is dead, from the book of James, but love is also dead without works. It is only known by what it prompts in the individual. It is not a feeling, it's not a sentiment, it's not a gushy romantic sensation that we have. Love is a powerful force. The Bible teaches it is the substance of God. So it can be given to you in the whole and then you can be inspired as to how you should now submit to your new understanding. So how do we love first? How do we witness our love as being first and foremost, apart from the performance of those specific acts which seem to come later? Again, it is like salvation. It begins by being declared. It begins by a declaration. Declaring your love for those who Christ loved. It begins that way always. You're not holy, friends. You won't be holy in reality before you see Christ and are made like Him. You will always be flawed in this life. We all will. Alright? Yet God declares us holy And so we are in his sight positionally holy because what God declares is in eternity a fact. So God declares us holy. And then we begin to walk in incrementally holier ways as we go through life. Isn't that the way progressive sanctification works? I mean we're sanctified the moment we surrender our hearts to Christ. The moment we recognize his supremacy. The moment we hear the way of salvation and believe it. We are attended by God, the Holy Spirit, in a powerful way, in the same way that any one of these writers of the New Testament had to be attended by the Holy Spirit in order to write under His inspiration. It takes the same kind of inspiration to let you see the truth of what the writer writes as it did for the writer to write it in the first place. It takes an act of God. And so, God comes upon us immediately when we surrender to Him. And only then are we prepared to learn how to surrender to Him more and more as time goes on. So we are technically, positionally sanctified the moment we believe. We're sanctified, which means set apart for holy use. If a vessel in the tabernacle was sanctified, it was set apart for holy use. You couldn't use it in a common way. You couldn't just take a drink out of a chalice or wash your hands in the bowl. That was for special, holy use. You say, well, that's the people of God. We are for God's special, holy use. So the moment we believe, we're set apart to God. And then we have this progression in our sanctification. In our sanctified life, we become more and more actually sanctified as we put away sinful actions and thoughts and take on holy actions and thoughts. Okay? So it's the same here. First, you declare your love for those for whom Christ died, for those who declare a love for Christ, and then you begin to incrementally walk as one who is openly displaying the love of Christ for the people of Christ. So it begins like salvation with a declaration. I love those Father whom you love. And that's why it's a wonderful time in our worship service when Mr. Pretentious comes up and we give him the needs of the church and so many people express needs of people who aren't here. Because we're loving those people. We're bringing them up for consideration before God for some very serious needs in many cases. Alright, so what we're doing is declaring that we love those whom God loves. Alright? And then we begin to incrementally walk in a way that openly displays the love of Christ in us. So, such things always begin with a covenant bond to a local church. As the preacher states in the above quotation, it is a simple thing to declare our love for those who are far off, to hypothetical persons, if you will, and to withhold love to those who are near. This is not the way of Christ. Christ lived close to his disciples. His first followers had to leave all and to follow him. And when he was taken from among them, he ascended into heaven. He commanded his disciples to love one another as he had loved them and to continue this type of close relation, you see. And so we have our first command from Hebrews 13. which is to love one another and so the writer here repeats this simple reminder saying let brotherly love continue now note he speaks of brotherly love or love between the brethren there are different kinds of love in the New Testament brotherly love is the love between brothers brethren in the church. There's a love that's offered to all people, but it's a special fellowship that exists between the people of the covenant. And I think you feel it when you meet up with someone who shares your faith. Or I think you feel it when you're when you are in fellowship with someone in the local body. I think you have this bond and it's a spiritual thing. It comes from God. It's a gift. It's something we need to cultivate and to protect within ourselves. Paul writes of this special love to the Galatians and he says, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all. but especially to those who are of the household of faith. So we owe one another and a special love. Something that is special between us. And we must get used to the fact that the Bible often speaks of a lack of love as being hate. Have you noticed that? The Bible writers tend to speak of hate and they don't necessarily mean this sort of disdain of another person that we think of as hate. The Bible doesn't always require that kind of a feeling in a person in order to label of them is hateful. We tend to believe that a lack of love is a morally neutral indifference. The scriptures speak in more stark contrasts where such things as love and faith are concerned. Where we're with them and possess love and truth or we're without them and remain in darkness and deception. Listen how John writes of these concepts. He says, he who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness. Now that's interesting, isn't it? Do not allow yourself to be indifferent to one another, because in a biblical sense, that is the opposite of love, you see. Do not allow yourself to be there. Because what happens when you get there, it is a darkness. Now remember something about darkness. When you're in it, you don't know it. And you certainly can't find your way out of it. It has to begin within you. You come into the light by loving, always, in the Christian sense. Hate thrusts you into complete darkness. Be very careful of that. Alright? John repeats this and emphatically delivers us this message over and over in this passage. He says, He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light. So if you want to be in the light of Christ, and light refers to truth. Remember, light always refers to truth and understanding. And people who are hateful have little understanding and remain in darkness. The light of truth has not been shown to them. And so there's no, he who loves his brother abides in the light and there's no cause for stumbling in him. Friends, love will keep you learning and hate will stifle everything you ever wanted to know more deeply about Christ. Be very careful of these things. He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Hate and darkness go together. Love and light go together. We will not enter into the kingdom of God because we have nothing against God. Will we? We can't just be indifferent. You know, and I've said this before, you've heard people say when you deliver the gospel, say to a beloved relative who's becoming less beloved with every word you speak, and you try to teach them about the way of salvation, and they say something like, I haven't killed anyone. I don't steal. Now, I pay all my bills, I'm good, I give to charity, and they stop mentioning the things they do or haven't done. And I've always said, can you imagine standing at the gate of heaven and trying to get in by the long list of things that you haven't done? You know, heaven's kind of a proactive place, really. You get into heaven because of something that somebody did. That person is Christ, by the way, not us. But you get in there because of an action he took. Not because of a bunch of evil actions he decided not to take. You don't get to heaven by not doing something. So, um... Yeah, we'll not enter into the kingdom of God because we have nothing against God. Oh God, I don't, you know, I don't hate you. I don't hate God. You know, God speaks of people in the scriptures who have no knowledge of Him as God-haters. as adulterers, as somebody who's shared that essential thing within them that only God can rightly share with us, and we've shared it with someone else, most generally ourselves. Really, it seems to me, most of us that are not really God-worshippers are really self-worshippers. And so, we tend to get in the way of our own sanctification. But we'll not enter the kingdom of God because we have nothing against God, or because we do not hate and persecute His people, or because we're tolerant of Christian teaching and Christian people. Well, no, I'm not a Christian, but I'm okay with the Christians. I'm okay with the fact that they teach that stuff. I think it's a little one-sided, but I don't hate them, and I certainly don't persecute them. I just don't need them giving that message to me. I mean, you don't get in heaven with that kind of attitude, right? We're known to God only if His love is made known to us. Love is always known to us and to the recipients of our love by the actions that it prompts. Love is a proactive thing. It will act. It will pour out when it's genuine. And this is why John could also write, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed or in truth. Okay? And he doesn't mean don't declare your love, because that will lessen it. He's just saying not in word or in tongue only, because it's a false love. A real love acts. And then he goes on to talk about and James talks about loving a person who's in need or is naked and you say go and be warmed or do you actually give him something to warm himself with? Love gives him something to warm himself with, you say. Alright, so let brotherly love continue. Love one another is the command of the writer of Hebrews to the body of Christ. Number two, be hospitable. And as he writes here, do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. I am dying for that day to come when some stranger comes into the church, I invite him to my house and find out he was an angel. I'm really hoping that that comes. I hope he's a real friendly angel. You know, on Christmas Day we had a couple of the families from the church here that we got together with and we fellowshiped all day. I know that the parents were there and the Frizes and loved them very much. I don't think they're angels though. I'm pretty sure I haven't stumbled upon this blessing yet, you know. I could be wrong, but even if I'm wrong, so what? I followed the command. And if you're an angel, you know it and I've served you. And that ought to count for something somewhere. But no, this is what he actually says. I mean, I'm poking a little fun at the idea, but do not forget to entertain strangers, because they might be angels. And what's he talking about here? Well, there are actually three very good scriptural references that talk about this. And I won't get to them, but... So love begins between the brethren and then goes out to others. Alright? In case they might be holy emissaries of God or in case they might be the elect of God who have yet to hear the gospel. You see? And it goes out to others by inviting them into Christian love. Now they may reject that Christian love, but it's incumbent upon us as a command to be hospitable to one another and to strangers. What the writer refers to here is those few instances in the Bible where the Lord appears, or rather, appears by sending emissaries, right? And we read of Abraham, you probably remember these references. In Genesis 18, we read, And the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him. And it's interesting what Abraham says to the men. Listen to what Abraham says to the three men. He says, My Lord. That's what we find that interesting. Three men are standing there. Abraham recognizes that the Lord is speaking to him through these men. And so he addresses the men as, My Lord, I have found favor in your sight. Do not pass on by your servant. Please, let a little water be brought. Wash your feet. Rest yourselves under the tree. And I'll bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts. And so he serves them. and he refreshes them in his home, even though they're strangers, you see. And so this is where the writer of Hebrews is reminding us that it's important to show hospitality. It's a sign of the people of God that we're hospitable. A similar event happens to Lot in the very next chapter, in chapter 19. We read this, Now two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting on the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face toward the ground and he said, Here now, my lords, please turn into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. Now they protested, but he wins. He wins. He's so insistent on being hospitable. He insisted strongly, the writer says, and so they turned into him and entered his house and he made them a feast and baked on leavened bread and they ate. He really spared no expense in entertaining complete strangers. Alright? And in this instance, not really knowing they were angelic beings. Another instance is the father of Samson. His name is Manoah. And the so-called angel of the Lord comes to him, and this is sometimes thought of as being an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. And so we read, please let us detain you, we'll prepare a young goat for you. And so he's inviting him to eat at really great expense to himself. And it's been our practice to first show hospitality to the brethren, but also if there is someone new among us, to invite them to our home before they go on their way. It's really a good custom and it is a sign of who the people of God are. And it is a sign that there's a local church here. You can be served here. You can have your needs met and be refreshed here because God's people are here. It's really a wonderful thing, hospitality. It really shouldn't be considered a burden to us at all. It's polite. It's just plain manners. It's considerate. And it's also a biblical custom that we're here commanded to imitate. Now this is an Eastern custom. This does not even necessarily originate with Christianity, but like other things that are customs, cultural customs of the time, the church incorporated them in, and God has put his blessing on it to the point of a commandment here. Alright? It has even occurred to me that perhaps we too would someday entertain angels. Who knows? Rule number three, commandment number three from Hebrews 13. Uplift those who suffer for the faith. Actually what he writes is remember the prisoners. Notice he doesn't say prisoners, he says the prisoners. Definite article, he's referring to definite people that may have been known to them to whom he's writing. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them. Now I want to draw your attention to that phrase, chained with them. and then he says those who are mistreated since you yourselves are also in the body you're chained with them as if you're chained with them because in the body we are chained together whether some are with us whether some are in prison we are still responsible we are still part of them their needs are still to be uplifted by us you see so he's talking about people in the local church who are known to them, who have been persecuted, mistreated, and actually chained, or imprisoned, or tortured as we've seen many times in the New Testament for those who brought the Gospel of Christ. So, remember the prisoners as if chained with them. Because you're also in the body of Christ with them. And we are indeed chained and attached together by the grace of God. There are those who have been singled out to make extraordinary commitments, aren't there? And they must not go without our notice or our reverence. We ought to pray for those who have given it all for Christ. just as Paul asked for prayer in his time when he was chained and imprisoned for Christ. Paul was actually in that place and asked that they would remember me in my chains, he said, for I am a prisoner of the Lord. He meant that literally and metaphorically. It's good for us to see that the gospel is still, in our time, a thing worth dying for. The gospel is still worth dying for It's a thing worth giving up our freedom to declare. These people gave up their freedom to do what I'm doing right now. To do what you're doing right now. There are people today in China who are giving up their freedom just because they're gathering as you're gathering. I read about them all the time. So it's a thing worth giving up our freedom for. It's a thing more precious than all our accumulated wealth. That's difficult for us, but it's true. The gospel is still a greater thing than all the temporal blessings of this life, and there have been many who've gone before us who chose it above all these things, in the face of losing all the things that we cherish and have worked to have. Now this is not speaking of evangelistic ministry per se, but rather visiting and encouraging those whom we know have been imprisoned for the gospel. He's not saying start a prison ministry, necessarily. Although that could easily be part of this. But that's not what he's saying. He's talking about visiting and encouraging those whom we know have been imprisoned for the gospel, and praying for and supporting the families of those who are far off and themselves are imprisoned for the gospel's sake. Now you see how each of these commandments contributes to the body's conception of itself as being tied together and members of our local body are tied together with us in a specific way and members of other local churches are tied to us in some specific ways as well. but at the time this book was written there were perhaps many believers separated from their local body who were mistreated or punished for their faith and they are not to be forgotten or neglected nor their families neglected in their absence you see Number four, I just simply said keep marriage pure. What the writer said is marriage is honorable among all. And the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. You know, we have to recognize that it is a commandment here and an implicit warning. Alright? Because what he's talking about here is talking about the human need for sexual intimacy and expression. And he's talking about the only outlet for that which is acceptable before God is the covenant bond of marriage between a man and a woman. One man and one woman. You have to get very specific today about this, as you know. That's what he's talking about. Marriage is honorable among all. He's talking about monogamous marriage. Alright? And the bed undefiled. But those who are fornicators or adulterers, they are still in sin and God will judge those acts, you see. So we do want to be careful about, you know, there's a number of things in scripture that are sinful when we don't keep them in moderation or when we're not expressing them with self-control. First of all, speaking. Speaking can be a very good and blessed thing, or it can be a sinful thing. And there's many ways to make it sinful. So with self-control, we try to make our speech honorable to God. Even taking food, or wine, or whatever we take to great excess is evil in God's sight, but in right proportions is acceptable, even a blessing of God, you see. And sexual intimacy is the same way. It's not evil in and of itself between married partners. And that's the only acceptable way in God's sight. Because all others are fornicators and adulterers, you see. And that's the implication the writer is giving us. So we need to clean ourselves up as a society of Christians sexually, friends. Alright? But, you know, we don't want to go off into a lot of superstitions about this, as some other groups have over the centuries. There are certain fundamental cultural mandates for Christians which honor Christ and contribute to an orderly home life. Heterosexual, monogamous, intra-faith marriages, that means marriages between people of the same faith, right? are essential to cultivating and building societies that are holy in God's sight. Friends, we will never be a holy church, we will never be a holy society without cultivating and teaching and striving to be holy in our family life and in our marriage unions. Alright? And it's an amazing place where it seems to me the devil has really attacked us in our society. He attacks marriage from every way, and I really believe we're so fooled as the church today. I really do. I mean, obviously, this whole emphasis of homosexual marriage today is a terrible thing. It's from the pit of hell. But so is rampant divorce. And in my 25 or so years as a Christian, I haven't heard any real great emphasis on that. You know, it seems to me we've sort of lost our moral authority to speak on marriage, where divorce is such a great percentage among our people. And that's people claiming to be for Christ, you see. So we have to look at all these implications when marriage is concerned. And so the command declares that marriage is honorable, that sexual intimacy is a gift, so long as they are in keeping with certain godly considerations. Sexual intimacy is not merely for procreative purposes. There's not anything in the Bible that should teach us that it is. And it is an ancient excess and a modern superstition among some professed Christians who would teach such a thing. Sexual intimacy is to guard against unholy sexual intimacy. Sexual intimacy within the marriage is to contain lust, to bring a proper expression and outlet for something that is very powerful within man. There's no long list of do's and don'ts, so long as what is shared is kept between the two marriage partners. The marriage bed, he says, is undefiled. Alright? If marriage is a type of the relationship between God and the church, which it most certainly is, then to give oneself totally to the other and to receive the other to oneself is in keeping with our sanctification and may actually contribute to it. I suggest to you that I shouldn't have said may contribute to it. It definitely will contribute to your sanctification. And there are many other places we can go, not the least of which 1 Corinthians where Paul writes, If they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. In this context, he's talking specifically about widows. But we can certainly understand that people have certain passions, alright, that need expression. And so long as those passions are contained in God's sight, in the marriage bed, those passions are right and sanctified before God. Number five is simply be content. Be content with what you have. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? And of course he's quoting from at least two Psalms that I know of in that passage. I think Psalm 27 and Psalm 118. When he says, what can man do to me? Friends, a little warning about contentment. If you're waiting to be content, you'll never be content. Contentment is never achieved by finally getting what you always wanted. If that were the case, a few days after Christmas we would all be very content. because we would have gotten all the presents that we want and Santa would have of course done what Christ could not do apparently but apparently it seems it's not the case right? not the case by the way children hate to ruin your childhood but there is no Santa how's that? you heard it here first and if you thought there was then you can come talk to me later about That unnecessary warning. But contentment is never achieved by finally getting what you always wanted. You know, now I can finally be content. I can be at rest. Now I gotta tell you, I struggle just as much as anybody. I'm preaching not to the choir today, but to the preacher. Contentment is a difficult thing. Because there are so many things we want put in order in our lives. Even things that are godly and right and that God wants in order in our lives that we can't seem to do. maybe don't have the power that we wish we had to put things in order, but you've got to remember something, we're not God, and whatever position we are in right now, God is in it with us, that's why the same verse says, I'll never leave you or forsake you, in other words, don't worry so much, you're with God, you have everything you'll ever need eternally, So don't fear all these earthly things that man can take away, because he can't take away what really matters. Contentment is something that you cultivate in the moment, in the presence of God, and build it into your spirit. Contentment is an elusive dream for most Americans, and I dare speculate for most everyone else as well. My problem is not desiring more, my personal problem I'm talking about. but the fear of losing what I have, especially in these economic times. Who knows how deeply these things can go, but no matter how deep they go, Christ will never leave us, nor forsake us, and we must not fear for what man can do to us. Do not fear him who can kill the body, but fear him who kills body and soul in hell, Luke wrote. So what the passage is teaching is that we can never lose Christ and that if our desires are properly prioritized in Christ, we should recognize that He is all we can take with us beyond this life. All those things we strive for, all those monetary, physical things, those pleasures, those experiences we wanted, the things we wanted for our children, all those things that keep us up nights and even staying up nights. We can't take any of this stuff with us. And guess what? Praise the Lord. We can't take our anxieties and our worries with us into heaven. They're not there. They're not allowed in. We've got to check those at the door. You know? Imagine that outside the door of heaven, there's this big pile of anxieties and worries and, you know, pills and, you know, Prozac and everything's all piled up there outside the door. They may not take the only thing that we finally intend to keep, and that is our love of Christ and the promise of an afterlife with Him. Remember, there are no hearses pulling U-Hauls. You've heard that before, right? If you haven't heard it, I made it up. Alright, number six. I expect people to have bad memories. Number six, respect elders and parents. Really the context here is about elders. But I think it's easily extrapolated to any authority in our lives that teach us godliness. Remember those who rule over you, he writes, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. The body of Christ cannot function without God's order for it. The local church has an order. It's an explicit order. God gives us order to the local body. Our God is an orderly head of household and there is a hierarchy of rule in the body of Christ. But please, let's not stumble over the word rule. We don't really have rulers in terms of magistrates who can legislate to us. But what our rulers do, and we're going to see from a couple of sources here, what our rulers do are those who are empowered with spiritual gifts to tell us what God requires of us. And so because they have that office, there is a special place in the hierarchy of the local body for those who teach the word. John Gill, famous Baptist commentator, wrote this about this verse. He said, Christ's church is the kingdom and he is the king in it. You know, we have to remember that. Christ's church is not a democracy. We're so used to the idea that if everybody gets a vote, something good will break out. That's not the way God looks at life. Alright, God doesn't think that. A vote is good because it checks and balances of our sin nature. Alright? And we're all sinful in different ways. So there's checks and balances and that's good. But in the Kingdom of God there really is a hierarchy. And what John Gill says is Christ's Church is a kingdom and he's king in it. Pastors of churches are subordinate governors who rule well when they rule not in an arbitrary way according to their own wills, but according to the laws of Christ with all faithfulness, prudence, and diligence. And I should tell you, I very much strive not to add rules that are not given. Some things, I would say it is my opinion that that will lead to something bad given your particular situation or something and if you were to counsel with me and you say, well, can I do this? I would say, well, there's no law against that, but I think you and I both know that's probably not a good thing for you to be doing given your specific set of weaknesses. And it would be wise for you probably to take that advice, although I would not be able to say God has made this a law for all of us to abide by. So we do want to respect the faith of those who have ordered their lives in a way that we can respect. And say, well, their lives are ordered. There's certain fruit in their lives. I would like that fruit in my life. And what God is saying is to follow examples. And that goes along with what Peter writes about elders, when Peter writes, shepherd the flock of God, he's talking to elders here, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. extend my remarks to parents in as much as they also labor in the word with their children and rule over them and certainly we have other places where children are commanded to honor their parents. The writer goes on to say in verse 17 in this regard, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls. as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you. And so he gives a very holistic picture of the body here, where there are those who are gifted and commissioned by God to teach us the things that God has commanded, to teach us the things that Christ has taught, and to implore us to imply those to our lives. And when those things become burdensome to us, we're not to take it out on the leader. Now, I've got to tell you, I have no motive for this today. This is not happening. This isn't a plea for, please give me a rest. It just is part of this teaching, and I want to add it at a time when there is no fervor or need at this moment for me to make that kind of a plea. But it's interesting because pastors are the ones who teach, so pastors are the ones who teach how you're supposed to deal with pastors, and that's the way it works. It just shows us how the body of Christ is an orderly place. I think a lot of problems in society and of course in the church and even in our personal lives are solved by properly prioritizing according to the priorities of God. And so, number seven, do not be enamored with other or strange teachings. Friends, I have to tell you with warning, there is way too much information in this world. There's just way too much information. and there are way too many places who come across as being, you know you see a store and it says bookstore and then you see another one that says Christian bookstore, in my opinion those stores are equal. They're not different. They really aren't. Well, the Christian one is a little better. No, listen, you can go to Walmart and buy a Bible, friends. And no one's saying it's a Christian bookstore. So just be very careful. There's just too much information. And some of the information you get is just at a time in your life where that's not really what you need. You know, I have to tell you as a counselor, when someone comes for counseling, the first thing you have to recognize is the person If the person is a mature Christian, they already know what the counsel has to be. Alright? It's a matter of outlaying the facts properly. I mean, counselors are very easily manipulated people. You know, so what we tend to do today is be, you know, with the whole breakdown really of the local churches is kind of widespread. We tend to receive our counseling from books. or from other people's ministries who aren't really there to really know us and see us and hold us accountable, you see, or really know the facts of our lives or our weaknesses or our strengths, or actually love us. You know, that pastor you see on television or that you download something from the internet, he doesn't love you. All right? So this is something that the local body can provide for us. All right? So what we tend to do is take our counsel from written materials that, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, no, preaching is where we get most of our counsel. Because it's sort of a social maxim now that we all sit through the whole sermon. I mean, every now and then someone will walk out. But really, we kind of expose ourselves. We don't say, whoop, I don't like that, and walk out. Most of us will endure what's being said. And that's a good custom. Because the thing we're ready to walk out over is probably the very thing we needed to hear. And so we want to be very careful about self-medicating all the time when we have a body of Christ with the gifts. You see, it would be different if we didn't have the body of Christ with the gifts, but you should find the body of Christ that has the gifts and will stay with the teaching. Where people are hospitable and will love you as they love themselves, you see. And so, it's really a very good system God has devised. So I warn you, don't become enamored with other or strange teachings. It's probably not what you need. to hear. You know, there's some group of Christian friends that, when I see it, I get together with them, and the only thing we always talk about is eschatology. My least favorite subject, because I know there's no one there who needs to be talking about it. And I know that we're going to all walk away with no agreement on the subject. Alright? Now, I'm not saying it's off limits, or that it isn't a biblical discussion, but it's kind of like writing Christian on the bookstore. You know, when really what you needed was maybe some marriage counsel. Not some counsel about when you're going to be raptured. Because I tend to talk more on if you're going to be raptured than when. So don't become enamored with other or strange teachings, or as the writer said, do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. And there's a lot of those, and so I'm ending where I began, talking about the new and improved sort of Christianity. For it is good that the heart be established by grace. Feed yourselves first with those sections of scripture that are very clear. Understand them, apply them to your life, walk in them for many years, and then dabble in the things that aren't so clear. Once you're grounded in the things that are obvious and clear, there is no one who is a cranky wife or a mean husband who needs to know about the end times right now. They need to go back to Ephesians 6 and understand their roles, you see. Very basic things and walk those and be established in those. Teach them to their children and be qualified to teach in the church. And then go to the things that aren't so clear and aren't so easily understood. So do not be carried about by various and strange doctrines. Be carried about by the fundamental teachings of the scriptures, you see. For it is good that the heart be established by grace. See, strange doctrines will never establish you. You'll just always be in search of something, you see. Not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. So friends, there is a thirst for deeper truths that is legitimate. And there is a thirst which is illegitimate. And the writer warns against desiring what's not offered. And here it is in the context of doctrines. Variety may be the spice of life, friends, but it is not the spice of truth. Alright? I'll say it again. Variety may be the spice of life. I tend to doubt even that. I do. But variety is not the spice of truth. There are not many ways to truth. There are not many fundamental truths. There is one way to truth, and that is through Christ. And there are several, not many, fundamental truths about Him and about the way we should walk in Him. And the word here translated strange is the Greek word xenos meaning foreign or alien. Generally speaking, something that is strange and strikes the Christian as strange is alien to Christ's intentions for us. Usually it is. Alright? Certain foods are nutritious and certain ones, though they may be filling or pleasing, are not profitable to eat. Aren't you glad we're not really talking about food right now? It's much the same with doctrine. There's certain doctrines that are nice to know, you know, sort of trivia. We're sort of like a trivial pursuit nation, too, you know. But strange doctrines are not only hazardous to the spiritual life of an individual, but they affect the whole body, just as good doctrine affects the body for good. Good doctrine affects the body for good. And consider Paul who writes, no longer be children. See, Paul considers it immature. to be tossed to and fro and not established by grace. He considers it immature. So he's saying, he could say no longer be children or he could say grow up in Christ, right? No longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Friends, don't be carried about by strange doctrines. Carry about the fundamental doctrines in your person. You be the carrier. You carry the doctrine. Don't let the strange doctrines carry you somewhere. by the trickery of men. See, sometimes these things are intentional, alright? In the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, evil intentions, people trying to lead the people of God astray, it happens. But speaking the truth in love, grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in what? In love, again. We edify ourselves in love when we're joined together and knit together and giving our gifts into the local body. Bad teaching is seen in that it produces instability. Good teaching grounds a person, causes him to stand. His growth produces growth in the entire body and always ends in producing love between the members. Our Father, we praise you for this word today, Lord, and for this teaching. And we praise you, Father, for the Holy Spirit and ask that you would apply this teaching to our hearts, that we would grow by it, Lord. That we would indeed be the local body of Christ you intend for us to be, Lord. Joined and knit together by the gifts you've given each of us, by the measure of grace you've given to us, Father, let us be loving and hospitable, well taught, humble before you to apply these teachings to our hearts. and let us edify this body together in the love of Christ, Lord. We pray in His name. Amen.