Reflecting Superiority in Service

Please turn in your Bible, if you would, to Hebrews 13. Wrapping up the— not today, but a couple more messages in the book of Hebrews. We've handled the whole book in my sort of 40,000-foot handling of it, survey of it. As we wind down to the last chapter and various lessons, there's quite a bit of The reason that I did this series the way I did it— there are many of the reasons why I did the series the way I did it in these last couple of chapters, because they're— the book of Hebrews gets quoted regularly sort of out of context. And the reason I chose to do a survey of it rather than every line or doing a sentence or two a week like we typically do when we do expository preaching is because I want to I want us to have a big overview, to be able to summarize the book of Hebrews in our head so that when we enter into a chapter, we're already in some sense in the book of Hebrews in our head. Because there are— I've said this before, I'm sorry if it's repetitive— many books in the Bible where not knowing the big picture, not knowing the overall teaching of the book has a greater or lesser effect on how you quote it with individual parts. Timothy is a book that suffers a lot when you don't know the big picture of Timothy. The book of Timothy is the Apostle Paul writing to Pastor Timothy about pastor things. So when you go to a passage that God wants all men to be saved and you think that's evangelistic, you're missing the point of the point of 1 Timothy 2, that Paul is writing to Timothy that there would be prayer in the church "Tell the churches this is what I want in the church," right? That's different than pray in general for people's salvation. It's different. Context changes things. And Hebrews is a book that very much suffers from a lack of context. And so it's why I've tried, maybe a little too forcefully, to shove the word "superior" in every single title. Because what we're talking about in the book of Hebrews, the overall book, from the beginning of the book to the end is that Jesus is superior. And I mean specifically to the Hebrew believers, to the Jewish believers. Jesus is superior in the Hebrew's life over anything a Hebrew might think is superior.

So the Jewish people had a very long history of things being important to them. Their identity in Abraham, their identity in the Law of Moses, their identity with the prophets, their identity associated with King David. Those were things that were very important to the people of Israel. And now Jesus has come. Jesus— up to the point of the book of Hebrews is after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. These are Jewish Christians. So the Jews who might find their identity and their religious history and everything most important in the past, the author of Hebrews is telling them, no, we in the present have Jesus, and he is superior to anything in the past and the future, incidentally. And that's what the whole book is about. So when you open the book of Hebrews, you should be thinking, Jesus is superior to everything. So you open to chapter 11, and you find out there's a guy there named Abel. What does that have to do with anything? Well, whatever Abel thought was most superior, Jesus is most superior. What about Moses? Well, it says Moses was related to Christ. Christ is superior. So that's the whole book, the entire book.

Now, today, we get into some very practical things. Practical things in our life on how we can live in a way— we as Christians learning from the Hebrew believers and what they were supposed to learn— how are we supposed to live if in our lives, like the Hebrews, Jesus is superior? What would my life look like if I believed Jesus was superior to anything? And we're going to find that out in the book of Hebrews today. There has always been an argument, a divide. Tension in the subjects of law and grace. There has always been a tension, always been a struggle there where, for example, like earlier joking about the tie situation, why does the preacher have to wear a tie? Well, he doesn't have to wear a tie, but why do we wear a tie? Why do we do it this way and kind of— we're a little bit formal. You all noticed we didn't applaud after the song. Why don't we applaud? Why are we the way we are? Why are these things so important to us? Well, you know what some people would say, that means if you're conservative and you're strict, then what you are, what's the word that starts with L? You're legalistic, right? Well, the reason they say that is they see form, they see ritual, they see formalities and these kind of things as against the free love and grace of God. So what I'm trying to tell you is for centuries this has been the case that there's this tension, this line to walk of Do I believe in grace, the free gift of mercy and grace and God's love unconditionally to me, or do I believe in rigid, ritualistic law keeping and ceremony? Well, you're going to find out today, if you haven't already, those two things are not enemies. They're not opposites. They're not opposed to each other.

Let me read a couple passages to you that might shock you if you have it in your head that it is one or the other. Hugs, teddy bears, rainbows, bubble gum, and rigid religion, you know, hard-nosed. If you have a— if that's happening in your head, oh, I'll do it this way. New Testament, Old Testament, right? If you're that person that sees a division between the two, listen to a couple of passages. Paul will tell the Thessalonians, because they're being troubled, right? They're being persecuted. Paul will tell them that they're being persecuted, so it is a righteous thing with God to repay 'With tribulation those who trouble you.' So the Thessalonians are being troubled. Paul says God is going to repay them for that. 'And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,' listen, 'taking vengeance on those who do not know God.' This all makes sense to us. You don't know God, God is unhappy with you. We got that. But watch this. 'And on those who do not,' here's the crazy phrase of the morning, 'obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Wait, how can that be in the Bible? How can the word obey be right next to the word gospel? Because I thought gospel was free, loving, open, merciful, no judgment. Why is the word obey there?

Well, if that— if it was unique, we might think there was a problem, but it's not unique. Peter says it too. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. No way, I thought judgment was for the bad guys. We're the good guys. Why would there be judgment for us? The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? So if you have it in your mind that the word obedience is a bad word, stop it. We are called to obedience. And it's so easy to understand how to marry the two instead of divorce the two that I, I'm frustrated by it after all these years. 30 years plus of being a Christian, 20 years plus of being a pastor, I'm always amazed that people have trouble seeing this, what I'm about to tell you.

We must obey God, but we are given the grace to obey God. Why is that so hard? That obedience is not opposed to grace, that's antinomianism. If you want to put the word in your pocket, to be against God's law thinking that it's opposed to God's grace, that's wrong. God always wants his people and all people to obey Him. He's always expected obedience, even from Christians. But the difference between the unbeliever and the believer is that God gives the Christian the grace to obey. Grace-fueled obedience.

Now, go back to Hebrews 12. I said to turn to chapter 13, but you might not have to turn a page. Hebrews 12:28, look what it says. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, 'Let us have grace.' Remember I said that probably means to own, to take ownership of grace. So God has given you the grace of the whole kingdom. It's not by law of Moses. It's not by angels. It's not by Melchizedek. It's not by the former priesthood. It's not by the tabernacle. It's not by the blood of bulls and goats. It's by grace in Jesus Christ. If God has given you grace, let me tell you something. If God gives you grace, have it. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. Own it. You've been given the grace. And then he says, 'By which we may serve.' God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. That song was perfect.

If God has given you grace where before you were under law and you couldn't serve Him, you couldn't obey Him, you couldn't fulfill the commandments, you couldn't live them, you were apart from Him as an enemy, He made you a friend. So what do you do next? Well, you know what our world says you do next? Whatever you want. That's what our world says. Modern Christianity says that once you're saved, You're saved to do whatever you want. That's not the Bible. The Bible is, now that you can obey Him, now that He loved you and sacrificed for you, now that He saved you and redeemed you, now that you have a new nature and a new heart, you can obey Him. So do. That's the gospel.

The gospel isn't an unchanged people who just now get to get into heaven free. The gospel is that a people who are against God can now be for God. Instead of being enemies, they're now friends. Instead of sons of the devil, they're sons of the Lord. Instead of children of wrath, they're children of grace. And if you're graced by God, you know what you should do? Obey the gospel. So don't see those two as divided. Don't think now when we start talking, everything I'm going to say next from the book of Hebrews is for Christians. It is not for humans who are trying to act like Christians. You can't act like a Christian to be a Christian. No such thing.

Some of you haven't been here, so you— the rest of you suffer from the same dumb analogy I've used for 100 years. The new people, you don't make lemon trees by taping lemons to trees. You have to be a lemon tree at the root to grow lemons. You don't make a Christian by acting Christian and adding Christian things to your life. You're a Christian when God changes your heart, you see your need for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that you're a sinner and you can't save yourself, and you trust in Jesus and say, Jesus, please cover me in your blood so that your Father, when he looks at me, he sees your righteousness. 'cause I don't have any. I'm a sinner and I need help. I need forgiveness. And you get saved. That's what we call that. Old school getting saved.

That's who this book is for. This next section is for Christians. So the rest of you, if you're not a believer, the things that are said here don't apply to you. If you're not a believer, go back to the beginning of the book and believe in Jesus. And then as a Christian, the rest of us obey the gospel. Meaning we believed the gospel first and obeyed the call of the gospel, and now we live the gospel through obedience to commandments.

Let's pray. Father, now as we look at the book of Hebrews and things that are told to us to do, we recognize, or at least we should, that these are things Christians do. These are not things we do to be a Christian, they're because we are. And I would ask, Father, if anybody's uncertain about that who can hear my voice, that maybe they thought that Christianity was acting or behaving like Christians, that you would Remind them or show them from your word that Christians are changed from the inside out, not the outside in. Help us now, Father, that we have the— those in the room who have trusted Christ as Savior and who are hearing this, that we who are new creatures in Christ, we who have been given the Holy Spirit and now want to obey the word, would you help us see what we are to do to obey? In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, after that having grace and serving commandment or imperative in the previous chapter, we get an imperative. And in the New Testament, in the Greek language, every verb has tense, voice, and mood. And each one of those things means something different about the verb. So the tense is when it's happening, the voice is who and how it's happening, and the mood is— I don't know how to explain mood. But if a verb is indicative, it's just stating a fact. If it's subjunctive, it's stating a might or a maybe. If it's imperative, it's a command. We use the word in modern English differently. For us, imperative means really important. That's not what it means in the Bible. In Bible language, when you say imperative, it means it's a command, a thou shalt. Okay?

So this first thing that's in verse 1 of chapter 13, short verse, by the way, I didn't have to chop it up. It's just a couple of words. Let brotherly love continue. That is an imperative. Now, it may seem obvious to you, but in order for something to continue, It has to have already been started. Okay? So before we jump ahead, the author of Hebrews is being very nice to the people suggesting they already started to love each other. Okay, but for the record, if you're in this room and you are a Christian, if you didn't know this, you are required to love other Christians. You have to.

Now, in this case, this is the word Philadelphia. It is quite literally Philadelphia. Which I find odd because it says brotherly love, but it's a feminine noun. I don't know. I struggle with those things. Those are the kind of things that if you have OCD, you'll just get hung up on. Why is that— why is it Philadelphia, ah, a, with feminine on the end? Anyway, I don't know the answer to it, by the way, but cities and formal things are often feminine, like the church, ecclesia. Let brothers— let the love of brothers continue. You who are brothers, you who are brothers and sisters in Christ should already be loving each other. That's assumed. And since it's already happening and you already started, continue it.

Now, the difference with brotherly love and agape love, sacrificial charity love, some people draw a real hard distinction between those two. They're not as far apart as you think. Even sometimes they can be used interchangeably and as synonyms. So if you ever hear anybody preaching that agape is this and phileo is this. It is true they're different words, and it is true based on their context that they might have a very specific meaning in that context. But it's also true that there's overlap. So they're not direct synonyms. They're not the same word, and they don't have the same meaning in every context. But it is true, make sure— don't— like if you do a word study and you look up a Strong's Concordance word and you see, oh, Philadelphia, that's that brotherly love. Adelphos is the word for brother, and phileo is the word for love. And it's the familial love, the friendly love, the affectionate love, not the charitable sacrificial love. Oh, okay, now I know. Well, be careful because there's overlap. They sometimes— like even when Jesus is restoring Peter, that word gets used back and forth. Peter, do you love me? Agape. Peter says, you know I love you. Phileo. And there's something to that. There's a distinction there.

But here it's brotherly love, which means affection, kindness, just being nice. You hear people say, I love my wife, but I don't always like her. You ever hear anybody say that? Well, that's sinful. You have to like her. You have to. You have to like other Christians. Can I say it as frankly as possible? Because it's a command and it's an imperative. If you don't like other Christians, you're sinning. I can't be more blunt than that. If there is a command in Scripture to have brotherly love, affection, be kindly affectionate to one another, Paul says in another place, if the Bible says to do that, to not do that is only defined as one thing. Sin.

So right now, if you don't have love for the brethren, be careful the next time the communion plate comes around. Get it right. I appreciate that after all these years, my mentor said to me just a few weeks ago how this is pretty much a lost art, that people don't go to somebody to fix a relationship anymore. It's a problem, he said to me. And I'm like, I know, I'm still hearing it every day that people aren't loving each each other. So without any question, to the Hebrew believers who in theory had started, because it says continue, it's remain, the word meno, remain here. Let brotherly love remain, continue in love. And make sure we, sovereign grace Christians, modern Christians, know it's not okay not to like Christians. You don't get to say, well, I don't get along with them, but that's okay. It's not okay. We have to get along. Unity is a requirement of the Christian faith. So if you're not getting along, get along, fix it. Love. Do what the, the text says.

And then the next text— this one's fun because I get to stop all of the speculation. In verse 2: Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels. Now here's the part where we spend 40 minutes trying to figure out what it means to entertain angels and then go home and don't love strangers. Whatever we figure out about angels here You're supposed to be loving strangers. Got it? So if we all don't agree on what angels are in this text, we all must agree that we have to entertain them, whatever they are. Entertain means show hospitality. So do not forget to entertain strangers.

Let me handle the hermeneutical part first, the interpretive part about angels, because it looks like it says angels. And the reason it looks like it says angels is because it might mean angels. We definitely see, don't we, in the Old Testament Angels coming on the scene like with Abraham and others, the captain of the Lord's host. But we find out later that's the Lord Himself, isn't it, before He's born, the preincarnate Christ. But we definitely see angels come on the scene talking to human beings and those angels be seen like human beings. And maybe the people don't know that they're actual heavenly hosts. So it's very possible that this means for the Hebrew believers, somebody could be in your home and you not know them well, and you find out later they were an angel from heaven like Gabriel or Michael. Very much, it could be that, absolutely could be that. Because that's a possibility. And I'm not saying it is or it isn't. I'm just giving you the options.

The other option is angel means angel. And that word doesn't mean first heavenly hosts. The word is messenger. Angelos is the word. When we say evangelism, angel on the end of that means message. So it's very possible. I lean this way a little bit more than actual heavenly host angels. I lean this way that it is because of the commonality in the first century and the spread of the church at the time of itinerant preachers, people who are going around spreading the message of the gospel. And they would go from town to town, and they would be taken in by people and fed and taken care of like missionaries, right? And those people would feed them. And they might know that they're in the ministry or whatever, but they might not know that they are in the gospel ministry and spreading the word of the gospel.

So it could be human messengers. Both are true— possible, I mean, not both are true. Put it in your pocket that this is either angels from heaven that we don't know are angels because they take on the form of humans like we see in New and Old Testament passages, other people, Gabriel, others, or it's human beings who are messengers and you don't happen to know when you're feeding them and housing them and taking care of them with hospitality that they are gospel preachers or in the spread of the gospel kind of ministry. But that's not the important— I mean, it's important. I don't want to say it's less important. That's not the lesson. The lesson we're supposed to take away from this is you need to love people that aren't like you. That's the lesson.

The lesson is that we are— can we all admit it? Can we all just admit it that we are really just looking to have fellowship and friendship with people that are just like us? Why don't we admit that? I crack up. I'm sorry, you young guys with all the broccoli haircuts. I'm so sorry. That you think you're being an individual and you have the same tattoos everybody else does and the same piercings and you think you're an individual, I feel so bad for you. I'm sorry to be condescending, but people are trying to be unique. There's a famous silly poster that says, "Remember, you're unique like everyone else." So this whole idea of individuality, but really we just want to be with people like us. Really, we're— really we're looking for friends and fellowship with mirrors is what we're like. Tell me you like what I like. You like to listen to what I listen to. You like to eat what I eat. You laugh at what I laugh at. So that when I have you around, I just get a little more of myself.

I'm saying all that to you because it's absolutely human nature, even, even down to the family level, that when you're growing up, if people aren't like your family, you think they're weird. Like, why do they put that thing in their house at Christmas? That's weird. What are you talking about? They, they drink milk with their meals. Do you know not everybody drinks milk with their meals? And maybe on the other side, do you know there are people who drink milk with every meal? Like, we're all different. Everybody's different. This word, phileo xenos, is very literally love strangers, people who are strange. Now, I don't mean go pick the strangest people you can and be friends with them. That's not what it means. It means people who are different than you. Because if we only ever love people who are like us, who is going to love the strangers?

Now, the real core meaning for a Hebrew believer is Jews would have it in their DNA to love people like themselves. It was absolutely cultural. It's still that way now. I remember that's why Serge and I became friends, because that weirdo would come to my house unannounced. Do you know in my family, you would never go to somebody's house unannounced. You might as well break into their house if you're going to do that. It was completely foreign to me when Serge would come and knock on my door just to say hi. We're not like that. By the way, I'm still not like that. None of you have ever had me just pop by your house. We're different. But now we're friends. You see how that works?

I don't know if you can tell by looking at me, but I'm not Mexican. That might surprise you to hear that. But I grew up and my closest friends were Mexican. I live in Northern California and in Riverbank there's a large Hispanic community. So all my closest friends growing up, my best buddy was Santos. And so we were different. And frankly, I couldn't be friends with a lot of people like me because there wasn't a lot of people like me. So maybe I have an unfair advantage growing up like that and having that be my environment. But I do want you to see that this love of strangers is right after saying love the brothers. Do you see that, that those two are next to each other? So that means you don't get to pick one or the other. They both have to happen.

You are supposed to love the brethren and people you are close to and people you have fellowship with and people you relate to, people who share your interests. People who like the things you like. That's okay. It's okay to love people that love the same things you do. That's all right. But make sure you know, as a Christian, the Hebrew believers are being told, make sure you're loving people who aren't like you also. Make sure you show that there are the dividing walls between people, races, ethnicities, cultures, families, backgrounds, and God has torn that down. We're all people. I love that it's that way. The only cure for racism is Christianity. Did you know that? Because if you hold to the evolutionary worldview, you do hold that we are different genetically. But if you hold to Scripture, it says every tribe, tongue, and nation, we're all one.

You might not remember this story. Years ago, Pastor and I would go out here and there and visit people who had visited the church. And one time we were visiting this family, and hey, they were islanders, come to think of it. And as we were leaving, Pastor did the craziest thing. I was squirming because I thought, oh, this That almost sounded racial what he did, and I was worried, right? So we're leaving that. The girl had visited our church. She was up on her stairs, and pastor turns around and goes, hey, what's your racial background? I'm like, oh no. Like, I thought we were in trouble right there. And she said, Samoan. And he said, well, then you have to come to our church. And she's looking at him like, what? And he says, because I want our church to look like heaven, and heaven has all kinds of people in it. Now, I learned a valuable lesson that day. Valuable lesson that day.

So love strangers. Love people who aren't like you. Ask me about the butter knives sometime and why rednecks use butter knives like they do. Oh man, I had a new use this week, by the way. I dug— I replanted a plant with a butter knife today, or this week. I'd never used that. As I was using it to move a plant from one pot to another, hey, I have another use for a butter knife. I've never done that one before. The church knows what that means. Ask somebody next to you.

Verse 3, now this one gets a little— those are sweet things to talk about, loving Christians, that because you have to, loving strangers because you have to, and you might not know that they might be a messenger of God, and you might be doing something for the kingdom when you entertain strangers, or maybe a future messenger of God, right? You share the gospel with somebody and they get saved and maybe become a missionary or something. Now verse 3 gets a little more serious, but it's still in the same vein. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also.

Now, I'll handle the last part first. The last part is, "You're in the body also," might indicate to us that the Hebrews were not persecuted yet. Remember he said earlier, "You have not resisted to bloodshed." So this might be a reiteration of that where he's saying, "You as Jews, because you're still in a Jewish culture, might not have felt the full effect of the opposition to Christianity yet. You might still be having the benefits as a Jew, an ethnic Jew, in a primarily Jewish culture to where The persecution hasn't hit you hard yet or affected you yet. So you have not yet resisted to bloodshed.

Also, by the way, side note, commentary note, resisted to bloodshed might be directly related to chapter 11 that just happened before it. Probably is, actually, that the people who were persecuted and killed even in the past. Remember, people sawn in two and everybody else. So those people are there in chapter 11 who did actually die for following the Lord and His command. And it might be that chapter 1 when it says resist to bloodshed is comparing directly to them. You haven't gone through what they went through yet. But I still think it's a persecution idea too, that you right now, the Hebrew believers, are not experiencing the full weight and heat of persecution yet, but there are people who are. And here comes the command now. That's the sidebar.

The command is, remember those who are suffering for the faith. Because in the first century, people were suffering for the faith. Even pagans were suffering for the faith. People who were turning to Christ from Artemis or Diana, right? People who were turning to Christ from their pagan backgrounds and the temple prostitution of 1 Corinthians, and people who were leaving a lifestyle in a world where there were high profits to be made in those areas and those philosophies, and they were turning away from that. And to turn away from it was costing them even their lives in martyrdom. So though the Hebrews might have not had the full weight yet turned up on their persecution, the author is telling us you're still in this with all of them.

And we as Christians are not supposed to be seeking comfort and, dare I say, our best life now. We are supposed to be seeking the furtherance of the gospel. And while we might be comfortable worshiping here in Modesto in safety and security, we might be okay, we might be not being persecuted, we are supposed to remember those who are. We're supposed to think of the persecuted church around the world. We're supposed to think of our brothers, even if they're not persecuted, but our brothers who are doing without.

Think of our African brothers. Think of our Romanian brothers and sisters. It's easy when you're comfortable to think of your comfort. It's easy to get stuck thinking that your life should be comfortable and good. Did you know it's only— I said this recently, I think on Wednesday night or something, maybe it was Sunday night— that having the ability to go into your bathroom and take a hot shower is only about 60 years old. That has to be shocking to people in their 30s and below to hear that. That having the ability to walk into your bathroom at your house and choose if you want to take a hot shower where there's a water heater and the water comes out and it's not freezing to you and it's not a bathtub— and by the way, it's not a reused bathtub where you recycle the water for all the siblings— that's relatively new. The only thing worse than poverty is affluence. We have it so good, and we don't often think of the people who don't. We don't often think of people who are suffering. And in this case, it's people who are in chains, people who are suffering, people who are literally being imprisoned for the gospel. And so the author tells the Hebrews and us, remember them, they're part of you. They're part of you.

Don't think of that as, oh, poor them, I got to get back to, oh, Super Bowl. Right? That's the most important thing today, isn't it? The Super Bowl? If it is, I'm in trouble. I told you, I didn't even know it was happening. I need— I've been looking at that next model of iPhone. That's really important, isn't it? I've been thinking, you know, that I got to renew my Starbucks app on my phone so that the next time I go through, I don't have to dig for money in my wallet. Like the things that we think are important. Remember your brethren around the world. Remember right now there are Clothes— people hidden in caves and hiding in North Korea trying to serve the Lord. In the Middle East right now, with all that going on, there are Christians there suffering. You heard about the Nigerian Christians, but it's not just Nigeria and Africa. It's in all places of the world there's Christians, and we're supposed to remember them. I have a note to say, "Your best life now," but I'm not going to pick on him right now. Martyrs are not likely complaining that they can't drink coffee in their sanctuary. Martyrs are likely not complaining that the service is going too long. People who are suffering are thinking about suffering for the Lord and they're committed to him. And then we can honor them by caring about the most important things in the gospel and remembering them, praying for them.

If you've never read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, I encourage you to do it. I've never— I don't recommend books very much from the pulpit. It's F-O-X-E, Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It is known to be mostly historical. There are some things in it that are from oral traditions that might not be accurate, but overall the book is worth reading. You'll read about the persecuted church early. It is a helpful thing at the very least to see the nature of persecution.

Now, this next part might look like a left turn or a strange turn after what I've said, where he just says, remember the prisoners. But no, this is just an instruction to the church, to the Christian church that are Jewish people, but the church at large were to learn these lessons where he now says, kind of like Paul does, I might say, that he talks about the subject of marriage after encouraging them. If this is Paul, this would make sense. He says in verse 4, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers God will judge." This is one of those verses that when I mentioned earlier at the top of our time together that suffers from a lack of context.

This is a verse that almost exclusively gets used apart from the overall picture of Hebrews. That's not a problem because when people use it, they use it mainly to say that marriage is something that God honors, not anything else. And that's actually true. So that is a use of the text. It is proper to see this text as saying it's not okay not to be married and to be a fornicator and adulterer. It's okay to use the text like that. But in its context, its purpose is to say The Church of Jesus Christ needs to have its home affairs in order. In order for you to do the thing a Christian is supposed to do by building the kingdom and spreading the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission and seeing people saved and having them brought into the kingdom of God, your marriages need to be in order. Got it? That's the idea.

So your marriage isn't just about your happiness or your marriage. Your marriage is a reflection of the gospel or it isn't, right? That's the idea. It's either a reflection of the gospel or it isn't. But remember, its purpose is to reflect the gospel. Paul makes that so clear that the relationship between a husband and a wife is absolutely— I call it a gospel tract. You may not be handing out gospel tracts out there to show people the gospel, but how you do your family and love your wife and how she honors her husband and how the children honor their parents absolutely is a snapshot, or should be, of the gospel. That's the purpose of marriage is to show the gospel.

So when the author of Hebrews now takes us into marriage, remember, Marriage has to be consistent with the gospel, especially in a church that's going to be persecuted and going through trouble and going to need to stand in times of difficulty. So when he says marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, he is indeed saying the way we always say, there's only one right way to have intimate relationships, and that is in the marriage bed. It is okay only— sexual interaction is only okay in marriage. That's what he's saying. It's the only approved-of place for sexual conduct is the marriage bed. It's the only place where those things are undefiled. It's the only place where you can experience those things with a clear conscience.

And I think everybody here knows that, but I am going to reiterate that. That means no other kind of sexual interaction is acceptable to God. It doesn't just mean this kind really is, but there are other options. So I don't want to get too graphic. I'll do that another time, maybe in an evening service. But if you thought that maybe certain kinds of touching, certain kinds of satisfaction, alone or otherwise, are okay because they're not this, wrong. There's only one proper place for sexual interaction, the marriage bed. It's the only allowable place. I think we all know that, but I'm saying that. Anything else is impure, including mentally, by the way.

Because I will be talking, I mentioned it in Sunday school, sometime very soon in the next weeks actually, in the evenings, I'm going to be talking about issues facing the church in our day. And one of the things that's happening literally right now— I have a meeting this week on it, actually— is the idea that sexual attraction, same-sex attraction, is all right as long as it's not acted upon. That is permeating the church, and churches are being divided over it. My good friend's church just got divided over it. Now, that may sound obvious to you, but it's not obvious. It is obvious, by the way. The doctrine is obvious that it is sinful to be same-sex attracted. It is sinful. It's a heart issue, and the Bible's clear about that.

But you need to know that those things are out there to where the language in our culture is trying to normalize things that God clearly is against. And if there is any question what the author means about marriage being the only acceptable place— and I'm adding— and not adding, I'm actually getting to the core meaning of the text— is the place or the thing in the church that actually displays the gospel. So it is a church full of broken Brothers and sisters, of course, individual Christians, but the marriages in that church and the relationships in that church and the anniversaries in that church all reflect the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're all consistent with the gospel. If I say I love you as a pastor and you find out I don't love my wife as the church, I am a hypocrite.

So these relationships show the gospel. They show that we not only take the gospel to the world for their spiritual salvation, We say the gospel affects their physical and emotional lives, that the gospel permeates the whole being and it's found in our lives. So if your marriages are hurting, make sure you know that that's a reflection of the gospel and that's something to spend time on and work on. But it is honorable, and I'm now amplifying if I can, it's the only thing that's honorable. There's no other honorable.

And then he qualifies it. Where he says, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. There is a whole aside that I could take here that relates to the subject of divorce. And I could, and I am in the minority position on that subject. There's very few pastors out there that hold the position that I do. Now, it's not a weird fringe position. John Piper holds it. Voddie Baucham held it before he passed away. Good men that you know hold the position I do. I hold a strictly non-divorce and remarriage position. It's called the permanence view. I'm saying that these verses, these words have to do with that. I'm not going to teach that right now, but the thing I'm going to say to you is when you see these two words, this is the emphatic thing I want to say to you, they are two words.

Remember what I said about love earlier? That there is an agape love and a phileo love, and that they are two different words, but sometimes there's some overlap? But the one thing they're not is synonyms. That is the same with the word fornication and adultery. Because it is taught that sexual immorality that's mentioned in the divorce exception clause is adultery, but I'm trying to show you right here those two words are next to each other and they're distinct. And simply put, they are distinct.

The meaning of fornication, sexual immorality, especially to a Jewish believer, would be probably those things listed in Leviticus 18. A Jew would know that immediately. Bestiality and those kind of things listed there, sleeping with a near relative and all those things that are listed. A Jew would understand those to be on their list of sexually immoral behavior, right? And then adultery is the obvious thing that we know of adultery. Maybe it's not obvious, but to, to be unfaithful to a marriage partner where vows have been made and then you violate those marriage vows with adultery. So that's the distinction between the two. That's all I'm going to go into about that now.

Feel free, by the way, feel Feel free to ask me about that. You— I guarantee you, you will have charity from me. I guarantee you. Do not dare try to accuse me of being harsh or judgmental on this subject. I've said it 1,000 times. I am a child of divorce, but that doesn't mean I hate divorcees. There are 8 marriages in my biological parents. 8. 3 in dad and 5 in mom. It is something I care a lot about. So please, if you have questions, ask. Email, call, whatever..

But for now, I do want to just really zero in on the idea that those two things are two things. But I also want you to see the idea that those two things here are both things that are against the honorable marriage bid. Okay? They're against honorable marriage. And fornication, sexual immorality, it's the Greek word porneia. Does that sound familiar? Everybody knows that word, don't they? Pornia. That's where we get the word fornication. So anything pornographic, anything sexual outside of the confines of the honorable marriage bed for people who aren't married. And then to make sure we're clear, the author of Hebrews tells us anything for married people that would constitute adultery. And what did Jesus tell us constitutes adultery? Is it only the physical act? No, we know that it's in the heart.

So why does God care about sexual purity so much? Why does he care so much about it? Why does he so emphatic about sexual purity? Why, young men, would God tell you to get your mind right in the area of sexual purity? Why? Why does He care so much? He— it's clear He doesn't want us to have fun, right? No. It's clear because He invented that thing called sex and it's His. He owns it. There's only one right way to do it, the way He blesses.

And if I can have your heart for a minute, I say men— I know women have the problem too, but I counsel a lot of men with the area of lust. Can I just assume the best of you? Can I right now on your behalf say, I know you want to love God more than you have. And so when you hear these challenges, don't just hear it as white-knuckle, God trying to take away something that I might enjoy. Hear what it is. Imagine if you were free and all you did was love God. And you weren't carrying it around and you weren't struggling with it and you weren't always having to stop your eyes from going those directions. But what you really did was like, why would I look at her? I have my wife and I have the Lord. And yet victory— that's what I want for you. That's what the author of Hebrews wants for you. He's not sitting here telling you, stop it, don't, God's going to kill you. That's not what he's saying.

There are two kinds of people, and in this case, honorable married people and the others. Don't be the others. Love God. Can I say it this way? We're a church. Love your husband. I mean Jesus. He's our husband.

Verse 5, let your conduct be without covetousness. Uh-oh. Be content with such things as you have. I wonder what the author would think if he was alive today and saw marketing. Today's the Super Bowl. Super Bowl commercials. What is it, $10 million for 30 seconds? To get you to covet whatever they're going to try to get you to covet. Coveting is a science in our culture. Advertisements, billions are spent to help us with our coveting. I'm going to give you a simple definition of coveting. It's wanting— it's being satisfied with anything other than the Lord. That's the simplest definition. If you say, "I need the Lord plus," that's coveting over there. Got it? So if you say, "I have the Lord and I don't need," your priorities are right. You're saying, "I have Him, that's all I need."

This is why He tells us, "Thou shalt not covet." He doesn't say, "Thou shalt not covet because cars are bad or computers are bad or video games are bad." That's not why He says, "Don't covet." He's saying, "Don't have anything that would rival your love for Me. Don't think you need something other than Me." So make sure you are without covetousness and be content with the things you have. God has given you what you need. And the need word here is He has given you what you need to obey Him. That's the idea. Your biggest need is not a bigger house or fancier clothes. Your biggest need is whatever God gives me so that I would honor Him and obey Him, right? He gives you what He gives you so that He will be the central focus of your life.

And if you thought I'm making that up, that the understanding of covetousness is not God doesn't want me to have what I want. He wants me miserable. He doesn't want me to have things. That's not it. Look at the very next part of the verse. "Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have." And then look at verse 5b. "For He Himself has said, 'I will give you all the things that will make you happy. Don't worry about it.'" No, he says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," which is powerful, by the way, because he's quoting Jesus there. This is the author of Hebrews quoting Jesus.

So what should we have instead of covetousness? Satisfaction that He's with us. We have Him. That's it. So I'm not making that up when I say that, that covetousness is the opposite of satisfaction or contentment in the Lord and having Him. This is literally saying it's not the things. You have the things you need and you have the most important things, which is Him. So that's the opposite of covetous, isn't it? Well, I guess I have to hate stuff now.

Most of you have seen my wall of guitars, right? Most of you have seen that I have a wall full of guitars at my house. And people will always ask, why do you have so many? And the answer to that is because you always need one more. But that's for a different time. No, they all do— I'm not kidding when I say they all do something different. They all really do. They have different sounds, different tones, different feel. That isn't why I have a lot of them. I have a lot of them because I like them. They're all different on purpose though so that I will have different sounds.

But I am telling you. My guitars are all affordable guitars too. They're not expensive ones. But maybe I could ask some of you. Some of you know this already. What if I have two tunics? What am I supposed to do if I have two tunics and my brother is cold? And I've given away a lot of guitars, but that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make here is I have what I need to serve the Lord. And I'd like to think— I'm saying this carefully because I know I'm not asking God to test me here. I'd like to think that if I said, Lord, if you take it away from me, I'll be all right. I don't need it. I have it. I praise the Lord for it.

If you have a nice set of golf clubs, praise the Lord for those. Don't feel guilty because you have those. If you, if you enjoy your home, if you have decorations and things you love, don't sit around and feel guilty because a missionary somewhere else doesn't have that. That's not the right response. The right response is just to ask, do I worship these things, or do I recognize them as gifts from God? And God, if God gave me them, I'm going to worship him for them, not them.. And that's okay to do that. I don't want you to feel guilty. Just make sure that you recognize that the thing that is most important is Him and to not think, "I need those other things with Him." That's the idea of covetousness. Just watch out for that.

I almost want to mention that story of the kids, but I'm running out of time where they— I see it all the time. At the end of the Awana year when the kids get the Awana store. And I watch the kids earn all year their points for memorizing verses and stuff. And then it comes down to a "Want a Store Day" and they buy the things. And then I watch them with my own eyes hand those things to their siblings and stuff. They worked all year and then they earned something and they just hand it to their little brother or sister. Ah, or cousin. I saw that too. Hand it to their cousin. It's so special that where people recognize, "Yes, this is fun. It's exciting. I like it." It's— I like this.

We say this all the time at our house. That is a big TV. Our TV is 65 inches. And we got it on a Black Friday deal. It was dirt cheap. But that's beside the point. I know I'm not making excuses. But we say that. Look how big it is. And we recognize that it's big. We recognize it's absolutely a luxury, that we don't need it. But I'm telling you, we recognize it's a good thing that we have from the Lord. And if he told me to get rid of it, I would get rid of it.

Then lastly, why do we do all this? He says he'll never leave us or forsake us. Be content with what we have. Have your marriages in order. Love the brothers. Love strangers. This is the way Christians act. Why? And then he says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? It almost sounds like living that Christian life that was just described is like armor in this world. It's like making you impervious to the trouble of the world. It's like What, what could the devil do to me if my marriage is strong as a rock? What could the devil do to me if things don't own me? What could the devil do to me if I was loving to my brother and I didn't have problems with the Christians in my life? What could the devil do to me if he knew my heart was for the lost and for strangers and for people who aren't like me and I didn't look down my nose at somebody who was a different class than me or different color than me? What could the devil do to me? What can man do to me? If I'm solid in all those areas of my life.

And likewise, I guess I could give you the other side. It doesn't say it here, but I could give it to the other side. What if you have a constant nagging complaint against people not being like you or not thinking like you or not wanting what you want? What if your marriage isn't in order and you're divided in your home? What if you don't love people the way God loves people? What if you think you're going to be content with the things of this world? Seems to me like that is an open door for destruction. Seems to me when you hear that Demas loved this present world, he abandoned the faith. So hey, Christians, let's not do that.

This is a mini version of how to be a Christian. When we get into 1 John, we're going to get into some details on how to be a Christian. We're going to get right down to the core things of of what it means to be a Christian. But here the author of Hebrews gives us a nice summary. You have everything. You've been given the kingdom. You've been given the perfect sacrifice, the superior one. You've been given all that was promised to those Old Testament saints. You have it. Now the lesson, live like it. Live like Jesus is superior to you in your marriage, with your neighbors, with your brothers and sisters, with things. And then the devil and men cannot do anything to you.

Let's pray. Oh Father, Thank you for the lessons from the book of Hebrews. Thank you for the— even the challenges. I'd like to think, Father, that sometimes when we're reading Scripture, it hurts. It's convicting. We're honest and we look in the mirror and realize that we're struggling in areas that are mentioned, and sometimes it can hurt. But just the way you said earlier in chapter 12, that's good for us because you love us, and you might actually be chastening us and correcting us and getting us back in line with your will.

Father, if there is someone here in our church, first maybe an unbeliever who's never put faith in Christ, that they can't obey these things and be right with you, would you help them? But specifically, I would ask, Father, for the folks in these areas. These things really get into our living rooms, and boy, I don't want anybody discouraged. Would you please, please, please help people who might be struggling in their marriages and with work and just having the balance that shows that you're first in their life and close to them. Would you help us all do that so that we would live for you and show that Jesus is indeed the most important thing to us? In his name, amen.