Another Perseverance

If you would, take your Bibles this morning, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 13. You follow as I read this chapter. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to god that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to god obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account let them do this do this with joy and not groaning for that would be of no advantage to you pray for us for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things i urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that i may be restored to you the sooner now may the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you.

Let's pray. Lord God, we come now to your word where your voice is heard. We pray now that you would open our hearts to the voice of our Father, that we might live rightly before men and before you. Please open the text of Scripture to us now, that we may understand it and that we may obey it. God help us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. what is this?

What is this? After these soaring truths about Jesus as a superior being, even to the angels, as a superior revelation, as superior to all the high priests that ever existed, as the guarantor of a new and better covenant, after hard-hitting warnings shouting at us that there's no hope if we abandon Jesus, after an eloquent exposition of the faith that powers perseverance, you find a series of what appears to be trivial trifling admonitions. Love one another.

Be hospitable. Be careful of illicit sex. Don't get greedy. Listen to your pastors. Be generous in your giving and sing on Sunday. What is this?

So you may be tempted to think, here's our Hebrew pastor just adding a collection of rules so you'll be good church members. Is that what's going on here? Well, that's really not the case at all. This epilogue to the book of Hebrews fits with the rest of the letter and is a vital part of it. Pursuing and holding fast to Jesus should make us a distinct community of all the communities in the world.

And that ought to be reflected in what we see here in these verses. A community that exemplifies love and purity, worship and allegiance to the messengers who bring you the word of God. A community that showcases people who love Jesus so much that they're willing to suffer for him. And as the community of Jesus' disciples submits to these directives, they actually strengthen one another to persevere in the faith.

To strengthen one another so they don't give up and they don't give in and they don't abandon Jesus. All these are intended to produce the very perseverance that this book is all about. So I want to begin exploring these distinctives, and we'll start with the first six verses. Let's look at them again. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear What can man do to me So here what he tells us in these six verses. First of all, persevere in love. Second of all, persevere in purity.

Persevere in love. Persevere in purity. All right. The first three verses. Persevere in love. Persevering in love means letting brotherly love continue.

Those who follow Jesus love one another like brothers and sisters. They have a deep affection for one another. Those who follow Jesus have a deep affection for one another like brothers and sisters. And he says don't let anything interfere with that, not even persecution, not even hardship. Don't let any of that interfere with your brotherly love. Let that continue.

Let that deep affection continue and grow. Now we know how that works. I hope you know how that works. When I was a kid, we loved one another. I have a younger brother and an older sister, right? And we loved one another because our bonds grew as we lived life together.

We experienced our tonsils taken out together. My brother and I both had them taken out together. mine were bad, his wasn't, they said let's take them both those were back in the days when tonsils were all going to come out anyway they took mine out and they said might as well take Andy's out while we're at it we went to the hospital together we were in beds together, we had our tonsils taken out together we walked to school together we stood against the world together hey listen, you make fun of my sister, you've got her brothers to deal with Right? We were concerned about each other.

If my brother was down, I wanted to know what his problem was. What's wrong? Right? I see that in my own children, especially. I see that in my own children, especially when someone from the outside wants to become part of our family. Right?

I'm just the door to what I call the court of the siblings. Okay? If you want to marry someone in our family, you've got to go through the court of the siblings. It's a grueling trial, trying to get the approval of brothers and sisters. But that grows out of a love they have for one another, and they're concerned that whoever gets married in our family is going to have a good and a happy and a joyful marriage.

They're concerned about that. And by the way, once the in-laws come in, which is no easy task, once they're in, they have the same allegiance. and the same loyalty and the same love as all the others in the family do. That's what he's talking about here. He's talking about this kind of affection and loyalty that belongs to us as brothers and sisters in Christ.

By the way, that is the way we got the habit of calling one another brothers and sisters because of passages like this. Let brotherly love continue. now this is the kind of love that ought to distinguish this community from all the other communities of the world we ought to be known for our deep affection and loyalty to one another that we will stand by one another that we will never give up on one another we belong to each other as family that ought to distinguish us up distinguish us and by the way as you cultivate that brotherly love, you will strengthen one another's resolve to persevere in the faith. You see that?

You will not give up. You will not give in. You will not abandon Jesus because you follow him together. We are together as we follow Jesus. We don't follow Jesus alone. We follow Jesus together.

And because you love one another, when one weakens, when one of the family weakens you're going to come alongside and like a brother help and strengthen and encourage him you're going to put your arm around your brother and you're going to say come on we can do this together that is going to strengthen our resolve to persevere in our faith he goes on in verse 2 persevere in love you persevere in love by practicing hospitality now the term hospitality literally means love of strangers and it was used primarily about the care you would show traveling christians and traveling christian leaders as they would move about see the ends of that day in that time period were disreputable and dangerous that you didn't want to stay in a public inn and so christians became known as those who would take people in take in other brothers and sisters in Christ who were traveling and take them in and be hospitable and that was really important for believers then it's important today hospitality is important for caring for brothers and sisters in your home in your home it means sharing meals with them or just regular times together you know what I can tell you that because of regular times of young people being in our home I have spiritual children in this congregation that actually are almost like my own kids in some fashion. But I have spiritual children, children in the faith because of that. It may mean offering temporary housing to someone who's in need and sometimes over an extended period of time.

Paul Savage comes to mind when I say this. I remember at one point as we were trying to help someone who was struggling with addiction, Paul took the brunt of that and had that person stay in his house as he detoxed and everything else that went with it and kept guard on him and said, give me your wallet give me your phone we going to help you here Right I can remember that clearly And that wasn the only person he did that with It means simply such things as housing the Bible conference speaker that we have here every year Which is hard for you because I usually get the jump on that. But anyway, just things simply like that.

We have hospitality. He says, you have no idea what your hospitality is going to involve. Now he talks here about entertaining. for some have entertained angels unawares. Now, that does not necessarily mean that you will house an angel who suddenly disappears after you fed him breakfast and he walks out the door. Okay, like, oh, we had an angel here tonight.

That's not what he's driving at. He's making reference to Abraham in Genesis 18. If you want to look back there, he's making a reference to this story from the Old Testament. Genesis 18. let's just look at verses the first eight verses and the you want to follow Michael's practice and Yahuwah, that's his name appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, him is Abraham here, to the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing in front of him, when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said oh lord if i have found favor in your sight do not pass by your servant let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while i bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant so they said do as you said and abraham went quickly into the tent to sarah and said quick three seas of fine flour knead it and make cakes.

And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. And you go on and one of those what happens is simply this that Moses, Abraham, Abraham actually showed hospitality to two angels and the Lord himself, who's the third.

And what were they going to do? These three men then left him and went to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. Here's the point. You don't know who you might help and what they might accomplish. You don't know who you might help and what they might accomplish. When I was a youngster, a man by the name of Dr.

Viggo Olson came and stayed with us for a while. he was a medical doctor and he went to Bangladesh which is a Muslim country and he established there a hospital which became the center of of Christian missionary movement in that country he ate at our table we sat with him we talked with him and as he founded that hospital and served there he got a good foothold for the gospel ministry among Muslim people and by the way Phil partial one of our former missionaries who is worldwide known for missions to muslims was connected with dr olson when he first came there see you never know what's going to happen as you show hospitality you must and so he says cultivate the sacrificial caring for others because that's going to distinguish us from all other communities we ought to be known as people who will just bring in others to care for them, to help them, to feed them, to at least do something for them in our own home. Some of you say, boy, that's really uncomfortable. Tell me about that, right?

I know what that's like. It is hard. It is hard, but you don't know what's going to happen as a result, and that ought to distinguish us. We're willing to take in people. We're willing to feed them. We're willing to do those things in our homes.

And by the way, when you cultivate hospitality, you encourage others to finish the race, to persevere in the faith. Hospitality is going to encourage others to persevere. You say, how? Well, I think of those who might sit around your table. I think of Dr. Olson, for one.

You know what? He faced trials and tribulations that I'll never face. And yet, Here's an example. I know his life. He can do it. I can do it.

You end up, listen, I know this as a kid growing up in the household I had. You end up having heroes sitting at your table. People who've gone before and show you how to persevere. That's what comes from hospitality. And you sit there, by sitting with and providing for another brother or sister, you also encourage them to stay faithful to Christ. You know what?

When someone's in trouble and they need a place to stay and no one steps up, do you think they're going to be more likely or less likely to continue in their walk with Jesus? What do you think? It's important for our perseverance. Here's the last thing he says about persevering in love. Persevering in love means identifying with the persecuted. Now you should identify with them since you also are in the body.

You might think this is a reference to the body of Christ. I don't believe it is because he just doesn't use that terminology anywhere in this epistle. He's talking about you're also in your own physical body. This is rather you can identify with and sympathize with those so cruelly treated because you also live in a body. You also know what physical hardships are like.

You know what pain is like. You know what others are going through. And you want to alleviate that pain. And that means also you're equally vulnerable to the same kind of treatment. You're equally vulnerable. And so what he says is you got to remember those who are in prison and remember those who are mistreated because of their faith as though you were in prison with them Remember them that are in prison and remember those who have been mistreated as if you're in prison, as if you're mistreated. now what he's trying to bring across here is to understand there's always personal risk involved when you so identify with people who are suffering you'll be identified with those unhinged lunatics who have this hard line bigoted belief system which is how we're characterized today aren't we that's how we're characterized right you Christians boy you're a bunch of lunatics today if you identify with people who espouse biblical viewpoints you'll be ostracized you'll be marginalized you'll be labeled a bigot an unscientific ninny who is dangerous and divisive that's how we're characterized count on that now how do we identify with people like that?

Well, okay. You know, none of us are being thrown in prison because of our faith in Christ. None of us are yet in prison for that. So what does he mean? Well, let me give you an example. The new Speaker of the House of Representatives is Mike Johnson, right?

Now, I don't know Mike Johnson personally, and I doubt that I would agree with all that he says politically all that aside i'm not talking politics here talking about a man who's been elected speaker of the house who is a forthright verbal bold evangelical who says the bible is my worldview who says the bible influences all i do who says i am a believer in the lord jesus christ who says i believe god created the heaven and the earth and i believe that men and women are the only ones who should be united in marriage. No news to us. So what's the big deal?

I don't know. Read the article in Rolling Stone about him. He's a dangerous man. He's a dangerous man. What kind of a man like this, a man who's faithful to his wife, who believes in the Bible, this guy is dangerous. Or one commentator calls him, he's less divine and more divisive. now politics aside I'm saying here's a guy a public official who is one person played a clip in which he says I believe in the Bible and I read it just played that clip and the audience is supposed to go oh no what a lunatic now look are you willing to be called a lunatic are you willing to be called more divisive than divine Are you willing to carry the same labels?

That's what he's talking about here. Because when all that's going on, we tend to fade into the background. Like, ooh, I don't want to be called that. I don't want to be ostracized. I don't want to be marginalized and everyone think I'm a Looney Tunes. We don't want that.

He says, that's what you've got to do. You've got to be willing. You have to be willing to be identified with those kind of people. Now here it's people who are in prison. What's the problem? There's a risk involved.

If you go and visit, if you go be a part of that person in prison, you'll be counted as one of them. And you may end up there with him. Are you willing to do that? That's what our writer is saying. You have to be willing to do that. This has to distinguish us as Christians.

Willing to be marginalized, ostracized, to be called lunatics, to be called divisive. We've got to be willing to carry those labels. You know, there was a Roman writer by the name of Lucian who tried to ridicule the Christians when he wrote this treatise called The Death of Peregrinus. And he's almost writing sarcastically when he says this. The Christians, he says, left no stone unturned in their endeavor to procure Peregrinus' release. when this proved impossible they looked after his wants and all other matters with untiring solicitude and devotion from earliest dawn old women, widows they are called and orphaned children might be seen waiting about the prison doors while the officers of the church by bribing the jailers were able to spend the night inside with him meals were brought in and they went through their sacred formulas I hope we can carry that label someday I hope we'll be known for the same thing even though Lucian holds it up to ridicule oh that we'd be ridiculed that way and can you see last of all can you see how this would encourage the perseverance of those facing imprisonment, ridicule and sometimes even death the fact that you're willing to be identified with them Do you think they'll be strengthened in their resolve to stay true to Jesus?

I think they would. I think they would. So persevere in love. Now he goes on to say persevere in purity. Persevere in purity. Verses 4 through 6.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me.

First of all, keep yourself pure from sexual immorality. He says marriage should be honored in the marriage bed undefiled. Now listen, marriage is a wonderful, beautiful, precious institution, and you should always view it that way. In our culture, many avoid marriage. They don't want to lose their so-called freedom. I'll lose my freedom if I get married.

And so we have a whole generation of people growing up into their mid-30s with no thought of getting married. Right? Why? Because it's something to be avoided. It's something to be avoided. They're single not because of anything happening with them providentially.

They're single because they don't want to get married. They don't want it. Who would want to get married? many denigrated as an instrument of oppression and needs to be eliminated altogether i remember my father this is one of the things i remember the most about my dad he would get furious about marriage jokes he would get mad when and i'll tell you when anybody would ever refer to a wife as a ball and chain right that gives you a view of marriage right there doesn't it i'm married to him it was my ball and chain that would just make him mad and some of you are old enough to remember some of you never heard the name of johnny carson who was a really really famous and entertainer okay he's a real famous entertainer who was married like three times and he'd always be making jokes about his ex-wives and alimony and all this kind of stuff making jokes of it and i'll tell you that that would just infuriate my father why because he had the attitude that marriage is really special and a good thing and you never ever want to denigrate it in any way marriage is an incredible gift from god that's what he's saying here and he says keep the marriage bed undefiled what he's saying is sexual union within the covenant relationship of marriage is undefiled.

Our Hebrew writer here, as one put it, our writer focuses on the priceless gem of sexual intimacy to be protected by the covenant of exclusive fidelity between a man and a woman. The world looks at us and says when Christians talk about sex, what they do is they draw a big frowny face and write no underneath it and our writer is saying just the opposite sexual intimacy within marriage is something that's wonderful and good it's it's undefiled so he says don't defile it with sexual immorality and sexual immorality is a constant and a serious threat, a serious temptation. Notice what he says here.

Sex experienced outside the covenant of marriage, any sexual relationship outside the covenant of marriage, invites God's fury. Invites God's fury. Consistently through the New Testament. You can look at Ephesians 5, you can look at Galatians 5, look at 1 Corinthians 6, a number of places. It talks about God's unmitigating judgment on those who are sexually immoral.

So don't make any mistake. This is serious business. This is really serious. Why Listen Sexual immorality does indeed cause you to fall away from the faith to give up on Jesus Listen, the pleasure of sex is so intense, it can convince you of the lies of Satan. sexual pleasure is so intense that it can cause you to start believing the lies of satan there's nothing wrong with this how can anything this great be that wrong and we're talking about sexual immorality outside of marriage all right how can this be wrong exercise self-control that is way too big a price to pay And what happens is you begin to believe you're free when you actually are enslaved to sexual immorality.

That's the problem. And so as you dive deeper into illicit sexual pleasure, you walk further away from Jesus until you finally abandon him. It's serious. keep yourself pure from sexual immorality if you would walk with jesus to the end if you'd walk with him to the end now let me just say something here all right as i've talked about marriage and sexual morality right divorce sexual immorality are not unforgivable sins, are they?

There's complete cleansing in Jesus so that none of that is on your record. None of that will ever count because in Jesus, you're forgiven. When you trust in Jesus, He's paid the penalty that you owe and He gives you a clean slate and He gives you a perfect record that God looks at. And so I want to not just hammer you with this, but to say there is still hope in Christ.

The point is, the point simply is this. Be very careful, Christian. This is serious. Marriage should be held in honor and the marriage bed undefiled. This is important for our perseverance in the faith. Now he goes on.

What's the second pure thing he talks about? Keep yourself pure from greed. Now our Hebrew pastor turns our attention to financial pressures. Why? because they're suffering financial pressures because of Jesus. Remember? Look back at Hebrews 10.

Remember what's going on in the lives of these folks. Hebrews 10, verse 32. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened and endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated, for you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Remember, they're under financial pressures because of their faith. They're losing their jobs. They're being thrown in jail. Their property is being confiscated. They are under severe financial pressure.

And when that happens, what's the temptation? To seek your security in giving in rather than in the promises of God And by the way right it may come that we will start losing our jobs for being Christians That is, that can be on the horizon unless things change. It will be possible, it is already possible, I think, to lose your job for being a Christian.

And that's when you'll be tempted to say, is it worth it? so what does he say he says learn contentment and learn freedom from the love of money let me ask you is it possible that some of you here this morning are not content with what you have i mean right now in these days of freedom before you actually do lose your job or before your property is confiscated do you now even even in the freedom that we have are you finding it hard to be content? Are you content with the house that you dwell in? Are you content with the job that you have, with the vehicle that you drive, with the little lawn that you have to mow?

Or are you saying to yourself, if only I had a little bit more, I would be fine. Are you content? Are you even happy with what God's given you at this point? He says you've got to learn contentment. is it possible that some of you love money or you think maybe you'd be happy with just a little bit more or man you've got to have that money you're going to hang on to it you're going to get as much as you can and it's so important to you i mean right now when you won't lose your property because you love jesus what do you think of money if you do love money if you're not content what do you think will happen when your allegiance to Jesus costs you your livelihood?

If you're not content now, if you're, if you are loving money, what do you think will happen when you lose your job or your property for the faith? What do you think will happen when your allegiance costs you your livelihood? You'll begin to tell yourself, we need money or we won't survive. You start to panic and you say, what are we going to do? Right?

And the temptation will be, Jesus isn't worth it. I don't want to starve. Right? But if you have not learned contentment, and you struggle loving money, you'll have a hard time remaining faithful to Jesus when your means of support evaporate. Now is the time to learn these things. Now is the time to learn contentment.

How do you learn contentment? How can you prepare for the loss of jobs and property because of Jesus? Well, what does he say? He says, your father makes you a promise. Never will I leave you and never will I forsake you. Right?

I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you. You lose your job. You lose your property. Guess what? You won't lose me.

You'll always have me. You will never lose me. I'm reminded of what Asaph says in Psalm 73. You remember? Asaph in Psalm 73 is looking around and he says, Hey, what good does it do to follow God? What good does it do to obey God?

I look at all these people who care nothing for God. What do I see? They're wealthy. They have everything they want. Look at me. What do I have?

What do I have? Look at all of them. They've got everything you could dream of, and I don't have any of it. Remember how he ends that psalm? Psalm 73, 25 and 26, he says this. Heaven and earth have nothing I desire besides you.

Right? There's nothing in heaven or earth that I want besides you. Speaking of God. Whom have I in heaven but you And I desire nothing else For God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever my treasure You may lose everything, but you'll always have God. And you know what? He'll never leave you or forsake you.

He's quoting here, and I hope you recognize it. It's Deuteronomy 31. You heard it this morning. As they're about ready to cross the Jordan and conquer the people of Canaan, what does God say? I'm never going to leave you or forsake you. I'll protect you.

You've got to believe that promise. God will protect you. God will provide. And so it is with you. As you face what appears to be destitution, have no fear. God will not abandon you.

He'll walk you through it. He'll provide for you. He will love you. And you need to believe that your Father is your helper. He quotes here from Psalm 118. The Lord is my helper.

I will not fear. What can man do to me? The psalmist in Psalm 118 is saying, I look around, I've got all these enemies. They're out for my destruction. But guess what? God is my helper.

What can man do to me? Listen, they can't do anything to you. It's got to come from God's hand before it ever comes to you. The Lord will be your helper when your foes seek to destroy you by robbing you of your possessions. If you believe that your Father will never leave you, if you believe your Father will help you against your foes, you will not turn away from Jesus to gain security and to be spared from difficulties.

Persevere in purity. So then, if you would not abandon Jesus, then persevere in love, persevere in purity. but again this kind of perseverance can only happen as you look to jesus what has he told us already hebrews chapter 12 fix your eyes on jesus who for the joy set before him endured the scorn and the shame of the cross and withstood the opposition of evil men look at jesus for the joy that was set before him he went through all of that and so what is the what is the writer told us for the joy that as yet will be ours. Just like Jesus, there's joy on the other side of it.

What are you going to do? Settle for this temporary joy or are you going to wait for the greater joy that comes as you do not abandon Him? Look to Jesus. Remember. Remember this. God abandoned Jesus on the cross so that you will never be abandoned.

Jesus was abandoned so that God will never abandon you. You know what? You need to consider what Jesus promises, lasting and better possessions than what you now possess. So what does God call us to do? Persevere in love, persevere in purity, so that we are a distinguishable community from the rest of the world, and we will strengthen one another. Thank you, Father, again for your word.

Help us now, Lord, not to just intellectually accept it, but start orienting our lives around this truth. Lord, help us to be a loving congregation. Help us to be a pure one, that we might serve Christ until the very end. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.