FOUR INDISPENSABLE THINGS
#753 FOUR INDISPENSABLE THINGS
Scripture Hebrews 13:1-22, NIV Orig. 8/26/1979
Rewr. 5/24/1989
Passage: 1Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”[a]
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”[b]
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. 18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
Benediction and Final Greetings
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.
Purpose: To share with my people the call of the gospel for believers to know and live by the indispensable mandates of God’s message.
Keywords: Blood of Christ Christ as Saviour Faith Forgiveness Sin Works Revival
Timeline/Series: None
Introduction
It never has been easy to convince others, or ourselves, to get involved. There are times when, after it is all over, we hear someone of lesser heart say, “Well, it is your own fault for getting involved.” I wonder how many people have said as much about the family fishing at the D’Arbonne spillway last week (5/20). Going to the assistance of two stranded fishermen, all three drowned. Too many come away from such as this even more firmly resolved to mind their own business.
When we enter the electrified air of the New Testament, however, we stumble over a totally different concept. The chronological accounting of Jesus’ ministry began when He became “involved” at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. He went from there to Jerusalem for Passover. In the temple, He found money-changers polluting not only the temple, but the spiritual tone of the people as well. He drove these men away with a scourge. He made enemies that day who would dog His trail until they saw Him die on a cross.
There is no greater sign of His involvement than that cross. He came not only to touch the world, but to involve Himself in your life and mine. Had He chosen not to do so, things would be considerable different for all of us today.
Getting involved means taking a chance. There is the possibility of being misunderstood, of getting hurt, even of losing one’s life. We are told quite candidly “the disciple is not above his master” (Matthew 10:24). For Jesus, involvement was costly. What does your involvement cost you?
I. Without the Shedding of Blood There Is No Forgiveness. Hebrews 13:12f, “Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him . . . .”
It was not God’s view of man that had to be changed. He had no interest in divesting Himself of His holiness. He had no intention of compromising His position relative to man’s sin.
The attitude that must be changed is that of man, himself. You see, the cross was not to the point of changing God’s mind about us. Rather, it was to the point of changing man’s view of himself before God. Man, with his potential to reason, would her be motivated spiritually.
News articles told of the need of true spiritual experience: Eddie Tuinman abandoned at rest stop on I-84 near Boise, Idaho (1989/1-11); Pennsylvania teenager who starved to death—Father had $3,700 in tithe money; Steven Stayner—stolen at seven.
Old Testament law confirms sin’s hold on man, and the issue of blood forgiveness. Leviticus 16:27, “And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place . . . carry forth without the camp; and . . . burn.”
The New Testament removes bulls and goats and substitutes the blood of Jesus. God accomplishes man’s pardoning. The agent of pardoning is Himself man. When such a price as this has been paid, who would dare to voice reservations? Sanctification, then, is not an attainment, it is the state into which God calls us in grace through the blood.
The place where Jesus suffered was outside prescribed religious ritual. We still do not find Him by human directive. It is the blood drawing us outside the camo drawing us to Himself alone.
II. Without Faith it is Impossible to Please God. Hebrews 13:15. “By him (Jesus) therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
It is more directly said earlier, Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he rewards those who seek him.” “Diligently” (KJV), “earnestly” (NIV) is not found. Verb is present participle teaching repeated action, “those who keep on seeking.”
We are taught that there are two parts to this act of faith. To believe that God is: childhood teaching, reading, fear/uncertainty, little more than mental combustion. Agnostic concludes that there may be a God; atheist will sometimes doubt [his] doubt. I can count the atheists on one hand. To believe that He is rewarder of those who seek Him: First, He communicates His presence; He is able to bless in personal encounter.
There is a necessary result of such faith. Offering the sacrifice of praise. Nothing changes disorder to order like praise. Nothing answers enigmas like praise; see Psalm 73 for answers: V17 “Until I went into the sanctuary of God.” Nothing adds vitality to life like praise. Understand that such praise is not a passive thing: Hebrews 13:15, “the fruit of our lips giving praise”; Hebrews 1:16, “doing good for others”; Hebrews 13:22, “suffer the word of exhortation.”
III. Without Works Faith Is Dead, (James 2:17). Hebrews 13:20f, “. . . The God . . . that brought Jesus from the dead . . . through the blood of the . . . covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will.”
Faith is born in the heart of the believer at the initiation of God. It is not accomplished apart from will. But the initiation is God. The mark of such faith is confirmed through one’s labors. It attests to sufficiency of faith; it affirms the satisfaction of faith. Matthew 7:16, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Titus 3:8, “This is a faithful saying, . . . these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works.”
IV. Without Jesus We Can Do Nothing. Hebrews 13:20f “Now the God of peace . . . working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever.”
I call you to the One who died outside. Outside the camp of Israel. Outside understood religious systems. Separated from human compromise.
He is not hiding, but we are too reluctant to seek Him where He is known to be. The Old Testament goat (scapegoat) was turned loose to be stilled by the hand of Providence. So the God-anointed substitute in the wilderness away from Jerusalem. Raised to life again, he transports the believer from sin-death to spirit-life. Jesus Himself attests to this sufficiency. John 15:5, “Without me ye can do nothing.” If nothing significant happens without Him, every sufficient thing happens in Him. John Newton, the great song writer (Amazing Grace, etc.) late in life memory almost gone, “Two things I remember: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.”
Conclusion
Charles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities1: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything behind us, we had nothing before us, we were all going straight to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
Dickens lived long before the oldest of us. The time he described was long before his own time. But how well it describes this late 20th Century. The one way out of the inharmonious times that he described, then and now, is Jesus.
He who calls us to Himself, calls us to commitment. He reminds us that it is to “total” and not “token” commitment.
1 Dickens, C. (2013). A Tale of Two Cities. (Reprint). Collins Classics.