Exhortations - Part 2 | Hebrews 13:5-8, 17 | August 2, 2026
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[00:00:00] Turn in your bibles to Hebrews chapter thirteen. For those of you that are visiting or it's your first Sunday here, we, uh, have been going through the book of Hebrews. We've made it to the last chapter
Hebrews 13:5-8 and verse 17. So if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word, Hebrews 13:5-8 and verse 17. And as I am wont to remind you, hear this for what it is, the living words of God, the true words of God, the infallible God-breathed word of our triune God. Hebrews chapter five, beginning in verse eight.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away..." I'm gonna back up. I'm actually reading the wrong part. Let me start at verse one, uh, 'cause I forgot we didn't finish last week, and I didn't change my notes. So Hebrews [00:01:00] 13:1, "Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?' Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and consider the result of their conduct, imitate it." And now if you would jump to verse 17, [00:02:00] "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you."
May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word. Please be seated.
So there are a number of things in your bulletin, but there is, I believe it's a half sheet, and on one side there's a fill in the blank for the, for sermon notes. It's just something, uh, to take notes on. And on the other side, uh, there's some additional notes. There's a, uh, outline of Hebrews chapter 13.
And hopefully you'll notice in the outline that, uh, some of the segments are bolded, and I try to do that, um, because it corresponds to where we're at on any given Sunday. Uh, but that's in your bulletin, and you can look at that. Uh, number one on your sermon outline is [00:03:00] money and real value. Money and real value.
And one of the things that I attempted to do last week that I will continue to try today is give you the theological grounding for the application. As I've said in the past, the majority of the book of Hebrews is theology. It is an amazing, well-written, incredible, deep theological tome. And it's not until he gets to the very end that he starts applying the theology that he has laid out for us.
And so now he's gonna talk about, a little bit about money and what I've, uh, labeled real value. And what's the theological grounding for that? Well, I can submit to you it's the warning passages, because the warning passages are all about who you trust. Who will you cling to? Will you walk away from Jesus because life gets tough?
Will you walk away from Jesus because you don't understand what's going on in your life? And I [00:04:00] imagine everyone here could tell a story of something that's taken place in our lives, and we haven't necessarily put it together. I don't know why Christ allowed that to happen. I don't know why God brought that into my life.
Sadly, I'm not even sure what He was trying to teach me. I venture to guess every one of us has a story like that. And so the author of Hebrews gives us these warnings. Are you gonna walk away from Christ? Are you gonna walk away from Christ when things get difficult, or are you going to continue to trust in Him?
And this is what it's all about. This is what this passage is about. Don't trust in money, trust in Jesus. So look at verses five and six. In Kids, uh, chapter, chapter 13 verse five is in your handout. It's, uh, it's the first fill-in-the-blank verse. And the author says, "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money."
And this, this word for character, it has to do with your disposition, your way of life. What are you [00:05:00] characterized by? Is money more important than God? Well, the author of Hebrews is warning you against that. Make sure that your character, your way of life, your disposition, your desires, your behavior, make sure that all of that is free from the love of money.
Being content, literally being satisfied with what you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." So that we can confidently say, "Yahweh is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?" If Yahweh is my helper, if Yahweh is my God, if the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in me through His Spirit, what can man do to me?
What could possibly happen in this life, as Paul says in Romans chapter 8, that could separate me from that? And what possible thing is there in this [00:06:00] world that I could desire more than Christ Jesus
The author in verse one quotes the Old Testament. Uh, I've been calling them hyperlinks because again, he's not proof texting, but when he quotes a passage, we need to go back and we need to read the entirety of the passage. And most Bible commentators think he's quoting from Joshua 1:5. And Joshua 1:5 says this, and the people are just about to enter the land, and you can only imagine how Joshua felt.
He took over for Moses. Moses was not allowed to enter the land, and now Joshua's gonna lead the people into the land. And one can only imagine how afraid he was. You see Everyone gets scared. Kids, boys, you boys that are gonna grow up to be men and leaders of your home and go out there and work for a living and maybe have a dangerous job, everyone gets scared.
Okay? It's how you [00:07:00] deal with your fear. And I can only imagine that Joshua was afraid. Remember the report that came back, and he was one of the spies. These guys are like giants. And I believe that literally some of them were when you study the biblical text. It was a scary world that Joshua lived in, and Canaan was a scary place.
And it's important that you understand the context of it because I believe that's why the author is quoting this, because the, the Hebrew Christians who were thinking about turning their back on Christ were doing so because they were afraid, because they were experiencing persecution Their land was being taken.
They were being maligned. Many of them were being thrown in prison, and it would've been so easy to go back to the old system. But the author says, "Hold out." Anyway, Joshua 1:5, "No man, no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you, and I will [00:08:00] not fail nor will I forsake you."
And I mentioned that most scholars think it's Joshua 1:5, and that's based on the grammar and the text and all that. But God says this in multiple places. He says it to Moses and to the congregation prior to this event, at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 31:6 and 8. "You're about to enter this land.
Don't be afraid like the first generation was afraid, for I will be with you. I will never forsake. I will never leave you." God says it to Jacob when Jacob is sent off to find a wife, and he knows that his brother Esau is angry with him and wants to kill him. And now he's going, he's gonna find a wife, and he's going into a foreign land.
And God says, "I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised." That's in Genesis 28. And in 1 Chronicles 28, David says the same thing to his son Solomon. Solomon is about to take the king- the kingdom, and he's about to rule and reign, and he's a [00:09:00] young man. And David says, "He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work of the service of the house of Yahweh is finished."
And so we need to remember those contexts because I believe that what the author of Hebrews is trying to get across is faithfulness in fear. It's not the absence of fear. We will fear most of our lives. Things will scare us. And it's not about getting to a place where you're not afraid. It's about getting to the place where you trust Jesus more than your fears, that you trust Jesus more than life's circumstances, and that's why he cites this passage.
And so then he says, "So we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?'" And he cites Psalm 118:6. That's why we've read it the last several Sundays. So if you would, turn back to Psalm 118, because I find Psalm 118 to be a fascinating Psalm, and we need to take a little bit of time and look at it [00:10:00] We've read it for, for the last couple of weeks, and I just wanna make some, some observations.
And this first observation may or may not mean anything. I just find it interesting. Psalm 118 is in a very memorable, memorable position in the Book of Psalms. Psalm 118 follows the shortest psalm in the book, Psalm 117. There's only two verses. And it comes right before the longest psalm in the book, Psalm 119, with 176 verses.
So it's an easy psalm to remember. And if you remember from last week at my conclusion, I, I, I challenged you, as I'm challenging myself, memorize this psalm. This psalm will help in times of trouble. And I just wanna point out some interesting things about this psalm, and the first thing I wanna point out is repetition.
This psalm repeats itself over and over again. The first four verses and [00:11:00] the very last verse says that God's loving kindness is everlasting. That God's hesed, that's that word we've talked about in the past, his covenant love, his covenant faithfulness, his covenant mercy, his covenant grace. That is a beautiful word, but it's very hard to translate because it is so rich in meaning.
Every and anything that God has promised you in his covenant, this word encompasses. And his faithfulness is everlasting, over and over again. If that was the only line we memorized, and if we really, really believed it, it would transform our lives
Yahweh is for me. That's repeated two times throughout the Psalm. And it's a very simple grammatical construction, but the idea there is He, He, He's got your back. He loves you. He's there with you. He's, He's with you every [00:12:00] day. He's not gonna leave you. He's not gonna forsake you. He walks with you. He doesn't bring a trial into your life and then stand back and go, "I wonder how you're gonna handle that one."
He carries you through the trial, and we all have these trials. We all have these things in our life that there are times we fall to our knees in the privacy of our own room, and we cry out to God, "Why? Why am I still struggling with this? Why don't you take this away? Why don't you transform me?"
But he is for you. Do you believe that? Again, twice in the Psalm, better to take refuge in Yahweh than in man or princes
This is a fascinating saying, and we're gonna come back to it, but I'll state it right now. "The nations surround me, I will cut them off." Four times in the Psalms, "The nations surround me." Three times, "I will cut them [00:13:00] off." And if you're not thinking of Jesus, you ought to be, because Jesus is the King of Kings, and He is the Lord of Lords.
And this psalm is all about Jesus. In fact, I'll demonstrate in just a minute that this is a Messianic Psalm. This is a prediction of Jesus. This psalm is quoted multiple times in the New Testament to talk about Jesus. "The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly." The idea there is it is mighty, it is strong, it is powerful.
You have nothing to worry about. Three times the psalmist repeats that. Four times, "I will give thanks." Is that the desire of your heart? When you read these words, when you start to comprehend these words, do you want to fall on your knees and give thanks? Three times Yahweh is God. Either Yahweh is God or you are my God.
And I've pointed this out multiple times. That preposition [00:14:00] is important. The psalmist is not just saying, it's not just a bare acknowledgement that Yahweh is God. He is my God. He is your God. He is for you. And He is more powerful than you can wrap your head around The concept of salvation is repeated three times, the concept of righteousness another three times.
You see, as Protestants, and we're gonna do something at the end of the service, we're gonna sing a song that we don't normally sing, but as Protestants, we have this aversion to repetition, and yet we find it throughout the Psalms. And there are certain things that we ought to repeat. One day, uh, in this service, it was years ago, but we sang the song Open the Eyes of My Heart.
And I got some feedback 'cause it's a very repetitive song. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I wanna see you. I wanna see you. And it repeats, and it repeats, and then you get to the verse, holy, holy, holy, and it repeats, and it repeats. But the fascinating thing is it comes right from [00:15:00] Ephesians chapter 1 So it's good repetition, and this song is repetitive.
And the passage that the author of Hebrew cites is verse six, "Yahweh is for me." And notice, it's not a conditional. It's not if Yahweh is for me. No, it is a statement. It is a statement of faith, and can you say this and mean it? Because I know you can mouth the words, but do you mean it? Do you, you embrace the full impact?
Yahweh is for me. He's mine, and I am His. Yahweh is for me. What can man do to me? When I was in high school, the, the guy that shared the gospel with me, and, and I, I turned to Christ Jesus, and he discipled me through years, and this guy was incredible. He didn't care about his job. He would sh- he was a schoolteacher, and he would share Christ in the middle of a [00:16:00] chemistry class.
That's what he taught, and he never once worried about getting fired and losing his job. And I once asked him one day, "How are you so bold? How can you do this?" And he didn't exactly quote this verse, but here's what he said, "If I'm serving God, and if I'm doing the will of God, what can man do to me?" Can anything really happen in this life that's gonna be of concern if God is for me?
Look at verse 22. I, I told you that this is a Messianic Psalm. In Psalm 118 verse 22, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." It's quoted in all the Gospels. It's quoted in Acts. It's quoted in Ephesians. It's quoted in 1 Peter, and it speaks of Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone.
He, as we've talked about, He is the new temple. He is the temple that Ezekiel talked about. He is the rebuilt temple, and He is the cornerstone, and we are additional stones in that temple [00:17:00] because we're part of one body. This is a Messianic Psalm. Look at verse 24, "This is the day which Yahweh has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
And if you're tracking with the Book of Hebrews, automatically you should jump back to chapter three because in chapter three the author quotes Psalm 95. Different psalm, but I believe same topic. Today is the day. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Is God speaking to you? Today is the day, and I think when you look at this in, in context, it's the day of salvation.
And God has made that day. And today is the day for you. Psalm 118:26, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord." And again, this is cited in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John when Jesus is entering Jerusalem, [00:18:00] when Jesus resolutely goes to Jerusalem knowing He's going to be crucified, and the people are gonna flip-flop only a few days later.
But when Jesus is coming, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." They identified Jesus with the words of this psalm. And this is the psalm that our author, that our author, author, writer quotes
There's another aspect of this Psalm that I think fits perfectly with this idea of don't love money, but trust in God
Again, four times the psalmist speaks of the covenant faithfulness of God. The author also speaks of salvation, righteousness, and cutting off the nations. So he's talking about the covenant. He's talking about God's covenant faithfulness, and I believe that when you study this psalm and when you, you really delve in and read the words, it's all about salvation.
[00:19:00] It's all about righteousness. That's why he uses those words. And what I find fascinating, and we'll look at one verse that you might think I'm wrong, but what I find fascinating is the author says nothing about material gain, nothing about material wealth, nothing necessarily about earthly good. It is all about salvation.
It is about a transformed life. It's about being declared righteous so that we stand righteous before God. It is about having salvation. And then there's this odd verse And one example, because it happens three times, but look at verse 10, "All nations surround me. In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off."
And my first thought is to jump to Psalm 2 and the promises in Psalm 2, that when Jesus was baptized, when Jesus died and He rose from the dead, dead, and He ascended into heaven, because we see this throughout the New Testament, He-- That's when He became king. That's when He was anointed. And all the [00:20:00] promises of Psalm 2 apply to Jesus Christ.
And so I think of Jesus ruling the nations with a rod of iron. I think of Jesus punishing the, the wicked kings who won't submit to Him. But then I started to dig deeper, and this blew me away. And again, I don't think there are coincidences in Scripture. When the author says, "In the name of Yahweh, I will surely cut them off," he could have used any number of words for, to cut off.
He could have used words that would have signified, you know, war or conquering or something. But believe it or not, here's the word he used, and I think this is a better translation, and this is the word: "All nations surround me. In the name of Yahweh, I will surely circumcise them." Definitely he's talking about salvation.
Jesus is going to rule the nations. Yes, he will punish wicked kings. Yes, he will destroy wicked nations But he's gonna rule [00:21:00] the world by transforming nations, by transforming people. And it is a fascinating choice of words. In the name of Yahweh, I will circumcise them. And if you understand the meaning of circumcision, and we've talked about it many times from this pulpit, it is a transformation.
It refers to even the death of Christ. Paul uses it that way in the book of Colossians. It is a transformation. It is dying to the old man. It is dying to the flesh and raising to new life. And that's how the Old Testament uses it, and that's how the New Testament uses it. Look at verse 15. And we're spending time here on purpose because the author of Hebrews is encouraging his readers using this passage.
And I want to encourage you, and I want you to go home this week, and I want you to read this Psalm in context, and I want you to start to memorize it. Because if you [00:22:00] truly believe the words of this Psalm, oh, how our lives will be transformed. I wish I could stand up and tell you that in my heart of hearts, in my mind, I wanna believe this, but do I live that way?
Do I live in a way where I consistently believe this? No, I have work to do, and so do you. Verse 15, "The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly." There's only one verse that you might be able to take it as some kind of earthly prosperity.
I believe the entire Psalm is talking about spiritual prosperity, salvation, righteousness. But look at verse 25
O Lord, do save, we beseech you. O Lord, we beseech you, do send prosperity. And some would read that, and some might think that, you know, the old covenant is mostly [00:23:00] earthly stuff, the new covenant. This is a new covenant Psalm. And this word for prosperity, it literally means success at what's intended. It doesn't automatically refer to earthly gain or worldly value.
It is success in what's intended, and the entire Psalm is spiritual. The entire Psalm is salvific. The entire Psalm is Messianic. And so that is what the psalmist is praying for, success in salvation, success in circumcising the nations, success in trusting in Yahweh, success in loving Him for what He has done.
And that's what he's, I believe, what he's praying for there. Back to the book of Hebrews. This is why the author of Hebrews cites this Psalm So that we would remember that God is faithful. That his covenant love, his covenant [00:24:00] mercy, his covenant kindness, that's what we need to rely on. And the author of Hebrews has spent a tremendous amount of time rehearsing the Old Testament truths.
And so these Hebrew Christians that were toying with leaving the faith should understand that all of this has been promised. And it comes to a head in Psalm 118. So in verse 6 again, so that we confidently say, the Lord is my helper, not if, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. I'm paraphrasing. Instead, rely on Jesus. But I do want to take a step back like we did in weeks past, and I want to talk about money. I want to talk about how we should view money. And kids, there's a list on your handout. I'm just trying to be practical, but I'm allowing the Bible to be practical for me.
So the first thing we need to do, moms and dads, and kids, you have this in [00:25:00] your fill in the blank, is we need to understand riches. What are riches? Where do they come from? In Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 18, Yahweh says, but you shall remember the Yahweh your God, for it is he who is giving you power to make wealth.
You may be a hard worker. You may work really hard, but it is Yahweh who blesses. Don't forget the words of 1 Corinthians 3. So then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the word of life or death or things present or things to come. All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
It is God who gives. In Proverbs chapter ten verse twenty-two, "It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it." And it should create a question in your mind, why do some people get rich? Why [00:26:00] do some people seem to have it easy, and I'm working so hard and I can barely get by?
And I wish I had an easy answer to that question. It's the mystery of God's sovereignty. But that's why Psalm 118 is so important. Are you going to trust him? God gives, God takes away. Job makes it very clear. We referred to this, I think it was a week ago, but right after Job lost everything, his family, his wealth, everything, what did he do?
He rips his clothes and he falls on his face and he worships God. I don't know that that's the first thing I'd do. I know that that's where I wanna get. I know that that's the response I would like to do
And we need to understand riches. Riches come from Yahweh. Riches, riches are a blessing. Yes, we work hard, but we can take no credit. The second thing we need to know about money is we need to earn it honestly. [00:27:00] Kids, that's on your outline. We need to earn it honestly. In Proverbs chapter 15 verse 27, "He who profits illicitly troubles his own house."
Dads, if you're out there and you're not working honestly, you bring, you bring trouble to your own house. "That he who hates a bribe will live." And let me just say something really quick about this word bribe, uh, that you'll find in, uh, uh, Proverbs. Because depending on your translation, you will see some verses that actually instruct you to give a bribe.
Okay, literally this word simply means gift. It just means a gift, but you have to read it in context to know if it's a good gift or a bad gift. And in the context here about working honestly, it's a bad gift. We're not to take bribes. Proverbs 16 verse 11, "A just balance and scales belong to Yahweh. All the weights of the bag are His concern."
Do we deal honestly? If you own your own business, if you work for your boss, do you steal time from him? Do you steal equipment from him? [00:28:00] Or do you work honestly? Because God is not going to bless dishonest gain. Little boys, listen to this, and I don't mean to exclude you girls because this applies to you too, but little boys, someday you're gonna become men.
And little boys, you're welcome here. And little boys, we want you to grow up to be manly. We want you to grow up to be masculine, a biblical masculinity But work hard. That's the next principle. Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but one who gathers by labor increases it. Do you see a man skilled in his work?
He will stand before kings. Are you skilled in your work? I'll never forget it. As a young firefighter, I had an older guy take me to the side, and one of the things he taught me was, make yourself useful. Learn to do something that nobody else does for this department, 'cause they won't [00:29:00] wanna get rid of you.
Little boys, learn to make yourself useful. Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure men. And a word to moms, and dads, but especially to moms, because Dad goes to work, we have to bolt through this. Make sure your sons are working. Make sure your son gets the door for you.
Make sure that he learns that at a young age. Make sure it is your son who brings in the bags. Moms should not be carrying in groceries unless your, your, your kids are too little. You go to the store, you park the car, and it is your son who carries those in. This is the practicality of scripture. It is your son who is to be taught to defer to his sister, because he's a man, and he will grow up to be a man.
He's a little boy, but he will grow up to be a man, and these are the things that God calls him to, to sacrificial [00:30:00] service
Boys, you better be going to bed tired You better be serving your sisters. You better be loving your mom. I will never forget, this lesson has never left me. There was one day that my mom asked me to do something, and I didn't know my dad was in the room. And I got mad, and she turned her back on me, and I stuck my tongue out at her.
Blah. My dad grabbed me by the back of my neck. He marched me to my mom, and he said, "Get on your knees." And he helped me to my knees, and he said, "Don't you ever do that to my wife again." And all of a sudden, I realized she's not just my mom She's the wife of my father Never stuck my mom, my, my tongue out at my mom Never again [00:31:00] Boys, you need to work hard.
We need to understand riches. We need to go about them honestly. We need to work hard. And dads, you need to provide for your children. And I know you know this. This is, this is review. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, not just your children. We need to start a legacy. We had our first Theologue last night, and a, a group of men came, and we talked about some of these things.
But we shouldn't just be looking at one generation. Men, we need to be thinking about work and money and labor generationally. What will you leave your child? What will you encourage your child to do? Will you leave an inheritance for your grandchildren? How rich would the church be? We wouldn't be paupers if men thought this way Give to those in need.
That's the fifth principle. Give to those in need. "The generous man will prosper," Proverbs 11:25, "And he who waters will himself be wal- watered." Proverbs 19:17, "One who is gracious to [00:32:00] a poor man," listen to this, "One who is gracious to a poor man lends to Yah." Isn't that Jesus's application in the New Testament?
"I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was in prison, you visited me. I was-" Have any of us really done that for Jesus? Or do we do it to those created in His image? Do we do it to those in the church? And in doing it to those in the church, in helping the needy, we give to Christ.
Proverbs 19:17, "One who is gracious to a poor man lends to Yahweh, and He, Yahweh, will repay him for his good deeds." We are to understand riches. We're to go out and honestly work hard, provide for our family, give to the poor. And then the last principle, trust me, there are more, but you give back to God. You give to God.
We're called to give. We're called to give of our time. We're called to give of our services, but we're also called to give [00:33:00] of our finances The book of Proverbs says this, "Honor Yahweh from your wealth and from the first of your produce." Proverbs chapter three verse ten, "So your barns will be filled with plenty."
That was verse nine, now verse ten, "So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." And this is not a name it and claim it. This is not a prosperity gospel, because God is gonna bless us in, in innumerable ways, and they may not be physical. We just read that in Psalm 118.
But do you give to God? Do you tithe? Do you give? Do you give above and beyond? These are just some of the things that scripture says about money. Number two on your outline, leadership. Number two on your outline, leadership. And I'm gonna go through this fairly quickly because I want, I wanna get to something here, but in, back to the book of Proverbs chapter 13 verse 7[00:34:00]
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Now, it is most likely, and I'm not gonna read the passage, but you can go back later and read Hebrews 2:3-4. It is most likely that the author is referring to those that actually brought the gospel to these people.
These are people in the past. These were their past leaders. That's why he begins with remember, and this is a command. This probably refers to an apostle or two. Remember your past leaders is the idea here, and that's why who led you, uh, who spoke is in the past tense. Now, here's something interesting, and we'll see it again in some other passages, but every time the writer of Hebrews refers to the leaders, it's never a noun.
It's always a verb, and it's always a continuous action verb. Leaders work hard. [00:35:00] Leaders lead all the time. Leading is a 24/7, I think I said that right, job.
And we're to remember them, those who brought the Word of God to you. And in my notes, I don't have time to do it, but I had a couple different pages of notes. I wanted to rehearse Sola Scriptura. I've talked about Sola Scriptura. You can go back, you can listen to a sermon on Sola Scriptura. But he's emphasizing the Word of God, and we have the Word of God in this book.
Remember those who brought you the Word of the Lord and considering the result of their conduct. And the idea here is think about it What are your leaders characterized by? Because if you go to a church and you're, you don't wanna imitate your leaders, you're probably at the wrong church. And I'm not saying you're gonna find perfect leaders.
I'll never forget Josh McDowell said one day, "If you find a perfect [00:36:00] church, don't go. You'll ruin it." You're not gonna find a perfect church. You're not gonna find perfect elders. You're gonna find men who fail But what is their life characterized by? Is it worthy of imitation? I dare say the apostles' lives were worthy of imitation, but the author says, "Use your brain.
Think it through. Not everyone is worthy of imitation just because they hold a title, but think about it, examine it, consider it, consider it in the light of Scripture. Is it worthy of imitation? If so, then imitate their faith." And he's using the word faith here in an objective sense. And then he goes to the ultimate leader in verse eight, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."
And it speaks of the faithfulness of Christ. It's a reminder of what he's already written. "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He [00:37:00] Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I forsake you.'" And so we're to imitate our leaders, but our ultimate leader is Jesus Christ and His faithfulness, and we are to imitate Him.
And this is kind of a transitional verse because it goes from leadership to Jesus, and then the next several verses that we'll get to next week, he's gonna talk about truth and false doctrine and true doctrine and what we're supposed to believe and not quibble over it. So Jesus is our ultimate example.
Jump to verse seventeen. I wanted to group these together. He's talking about leaders. He says, "Remember your former leaders. Imitate them." And then in verse seventeen, he begins to talk about their current leaders
He says this in verse 17, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account." And [00:38:00] I think we need to break this down and we need to understand it because it actually uses some, uh, odd words. When he says, "Obey your leaders," it is not the typical word that is translated obey throughout the New Testament.
But it's a word that brings conviction, and the idea here is be convicted about your leaders. Be convicted that they're the kind of men, because we're talking about church leadership, be convicted- can actually trust. And if you're convicted of that and you trust them, then you're going to be willing to obey them.
And that is how God has organized His church. They are to have a plurality of elders, and the elders are to rule the church in humility, in service And the author says, think about it, be convinced, be convicted. And if you are, then you ought to be able to obey them. Again, obey your leaders, [00:39:00] ongoing present tense.
Leaders serve, they never stop. And submit to them. And this is, this is another word that is not your typical word for submission. Um, and it means to give way. It means to yield to somebody's authority. And in that sense, you submit to them. It doesn't mean you can't come alongside them. It doesn't mean you can't come up after a sermon and say, "Help me understand this because I really wasn't following it," or, "I've always heard it this way," or, "Why are we doing this?"
It's, it's in your attitude It's in your demeanor. But listen to what he says, "Obey these men. Submit to these men, for they keep watch over your souls." And this word literally means they are vigilant. Are your leaders vigilant? That's why he earlier said think this through. Are they vigilant? Could you call your leaders any, any time of day?[00:40:00]
And this word that keep watch over your soul, it means vigilance, it means they're concerned, it means they care. But literally, the word means they lose sleep. A good elder will lose sleep over the sheep because they care. Obey your leaders. Submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, as those who will pay out, as those who will have a price to pay if they don't do a good job.
Remember the words of James chapter three, "Let not many of you become teachers." And he's speaking, I believe, of the elders of the church. "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such you will incur a stricter judgment." A greater judgment is literally what the text says. You will stand before God and answer for what is said And so I want to take a slight detour and I want to talk about elders.
So if you would, turn in your [00:41:00] Bibles to, uh, 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. But let me give you the principles that I want to cover, and just so you know, they're in your bulletin. They're, they're behind the fill in the blank. They're, they're under the, uh, outline for Hebrews chapter 13. But I've given you five principles in terms of what to look for, what is required of an elder.
And I'm just gonna rehearse them, and then I'm gonna go over them hopefully rapidly. The man himself must aspire to this position. The man is to be a man of Christian character. If he is married, he must be a family man. He must be a mature Christian, not new or untested, and finally, he must have an overall good reputation.
And I'm not gonna go into a ton of detail. I've preached on this passage. I just, I just want to review. So in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, Paul starts, "It is a trustworthy statement." This is a statement to be believed. "If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." And this [00:42:00] overseer, this word can be translated bishop, and scripture uses this word overseer, it uses the word elder, and it uses the word shepherd, all of the same position.
So he's an overseer. He watches over your souls. He watches over the church. And the man must first desire it. And it doesn't mean that he's got to come up and say, "Hey, I want to be an elder." One of you may see somebody in this congregation that you think would make a good elder. Go to them. Tell them, "Have you ever thought about being an elder?"
Come to the elders, "Have you ever considered so-and-so?" But ultimately, the man has to desire it, okay? And that desire may wane. We have a process here, and I think it's important for you to understand. It is no less than a year process, where the, the, the elder candidate will join us for the elder meetings.
They'll actually vote and make decisions, and can we work with this person? And during that time, we'll be testing him. We'll be looking at these qualifications, [00:43:00] okay? We meet with the man's wife in private without the man. If she so desires, one of our wives will be present. But we ask her, "Is your husband qualified?
Is, what is this doing to your family? This is gonna take him a- away from the family for a period of time, depending on what situation we face. What does the wife think about it?" Before he's ordained, there's an examination. Hopefully, some of you remember Matt's examination. We do it publicly, we do it at the church.
We typically invite one or two elders from another church, and we ask him questions. Does he know his theology? Look at verse two, "An overseer, they must be above reproach," literally above criticism, "the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach." So just a couple of things real fast.
This text is not saying that an elder must be married. Literally, the words of this text, it says, "He must be a one-woman man." [00:44:00] In other words, he has God's view of marriage. He has God's view of sexuality. He has God's view of women. That's the test for an elder. And believe me, there's a whole lot more I could say, but I wanna do this rapidly.
It also says he must be able to teach, and literally the word means apt to teach, qualified to teach. He must know his Bible. He must know doctrine. It doesn't mean he's required to stand up and preach. You see, in the Reformed faith, we have typically made a distinction, it's a, a working, a practical distinction, and we distinguish between what we call teaching elders and ruling elders.
All elders rule, not all elders teach. However, all elders must be able to teach. So just because a man is an elder doesn't mean he's gonna take a turn up here. He may grow into that.
But he's not required. The Bible doesn't require it. It requires an activeness for teaching [00:45:00] Not addicted to wine, verse three, or pugnacious. He's not a violent man. He's not a brawler. He doesn't start arguments. Gentle, peaceful, free from the love of money. Same word that we just looked at in the book of Hebrews.
And again, just for clarity, this word not addicted to wine literally says not beside wine. He doesn't linger beside wine, and we need to be biblical here. It doesn't mean an elder can't drink. Nowhere does the Bible condemn drinking. It condemns drunkenness. And if an elder in the church wants to have a glass of wine, a beer, a glass of scotch, there's no sin in that if he's under control, if he doesn't get drunk Another note that I just want to make is, uh, notice free from the love of money, uh, he practices hospitality.
We read that in the verse above. All these requirements are required of you. Now, these are not super Christian requirements. [00:46:00] Okay? It's what, what Paul is saying is if a man's gonna be an elder, make sure he lives up to the task. But these are the same requirements required of everyone sitting here today
Principle number three, if he's married, he must be a family man. He must be one who manages his household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. So obviously an elder can have children at home. Now, I've made the distinction between young husbands and young kids and older husbands and a variety of kids, and, and it's not necessarily a hard and fast biblical, uh, distinction.
But if a young man were to come to me with a young family and say, "I would desire to be an elder," I would do my best to talk him out of it, because your primary role right now is raising your children. But that doesn't mean an elder can't have children at home. You look at each situation a bit [00:47:00] differently, but he must be able to manage his home.
He must be a good leader. He must be a good head. And Paul goes on to say, "But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?" If he can't manage his home, how is he gonna manage the church? And there's this question that lingers among theologians and, and authors and stuff, but Paul here says, "Keeping his children under control with all dignity."
In the book of Titus, in Titus 1:6, it says, "Having children who believe." And there's a debate on that word. Does it mean that they, they must, his children must all be Christians, or does it mean they're faithful, obedient while they're living at home? And Theologians will argue back and forth, but I think it, that it refers to while they're under his roof
They must be faithful to him. They must be obedient. I think when you bring those two things together, they're under [00:48:00] control. They don't dishonor him Principle four, he must be a mature Christian, not a new or untested. Verse six, "And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into condemnation incurred by the devil."
Principle five, he must have an overall good reputation. He must have a good reputation, and what's fascinating about this verse is he must have a good witness, and it, it's the exact same word used throughout Hebrews chapter 11 of that throng of witnesses. This elder must have a good witness, a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall under reproach and the snare of the devil.
I know of some churches that in the process of making a man an elder will actually, if they're willing, interview the man's boss and find out what kind of an employee he is, and that would be a biblical thing to do. Not everyone's willing to do that, but-- and I mean the boss, not, I mean, not [00:49:00] even all churches, but back to Hebrews 13 verse 17, and we're gonna wrap it up with this Obey your leaders.
Submit to them. They keep watch over your souls as those who will give account. Let them do this with joy, literally gladness, and not with grief. And that, that word grief can literally be translated groaning. For this would be unprofitable for you. Now, this may have been a weird sermon for you. I may have-- It may seem like I jumped, uh, around to a number of different places.
Um, it's interesting, I always review my sermon on a Sunday morning, and when I came in this morning, so many things that I had not written down were popping off the page at me. But I wanna leave you with this. I challenge you to memorize Psalm 118. I challenge you to memorize it because you need to believe it.
And I assure you, it will comfort you if you memorize it and you [00:50:00] work at believing it. Do you trust, do you trust God more than riches? Do you trust God more than comfort? Do you trust God more than health? And the last thing that I want to leave you with is currently this church has two elders. Well, there's a third man that's gonna come into the process, and I wanna share that with the congregation.
Okay, Neil Dyer, and you all know Neil. Neil, you wanna wave at us? Okay. Uh, has approached the elders, and we've sat down and we've talked to him. We haven't talked with Denisa yet, but we will. Um, but we did grill him on what Denisa has said. Okay, and he's gonna enter the process of being an elder. So we all have church responsibility.
For Matt and I, we're gonna be with Neil for a year. We're gonna examine him. He's gonna have some assignments. He's gonna have to do some stuff. Okay, if he makes it through the year and he can still stomach Matt and I, then there's gonna be a public examination. We will interview Denisa I say this because of what happened the last time.
You have a year [00:51:00] to go to Neil if you have any concerns. If you have any concerns about Neil being an elder, don't come to me, don't go to Matt, go to Neil and ask him about that and get answers. Okay? Don't wait for the week of his examination, okay? You have a year, and I will remind you occasionally throughout the year that if you have questions, go to him.
But this is a joyful thing for the life of our church. Amen. We need the help. And as we grow, we need more elders. So this is a good thing. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your Word. Thank you that, Lord, your Word does cover all these various areas. Your Word does jump from money to trusting you.
Thank you that the authors of the New Testament have taught us how to use the Old Testament. May we be diligent, Lord, from this day forward as we read the New Testament [00:52:00] and as we study it, whenever a passage is cited, may we be diligent to go back and read the entire context, maybe the entire book, so that we can understand exactly how the author is using these things.
Father, right now I pray for Neil, I pray for Denisa, I pray for their children. This is no small task So Father, I pray that you will confirm this calling in his heart, in the hearts of both of them That Neil will apply himself diligently. That those in our congregation, if they have questions, they will go to him in a humble spirit and ask him questions.
But Father, bring glory to yourself. It is a noble task. So Father, lift him, strengthen him, bring him to the task. And Father, thank you that as we grow and as we mature, that you will add to the leadership here Father, [00:53:00] thank you for your word. Thank you for everything you've taught us this morning. May we go home this week and work the will of the other second coming.
And all of God's people said
