Bible Study

We'll be moving fast.

Testing, testing. I'll put it in my pocket. Sometimes happen. Is that better? Now you hear me? All right. Good. All right. We'll start over again for editing purposes and everything here. All right. Let's go ahead and get started. If you'll just bow your heads, I'll ask God's blessing upon the study here this evening. Our Father in heaven, great God, we bow before Your holy throne of grace, grateful for the opportunity to be together as brethren, as friends and family, called Father by Your grace to understand Your truths, the truths of the Bible, to have a very important and very unique view of You and Christ and Your plan of salvation that You are bringing to pass. We ask that as we study here tonight, continue our study into the book of Hebrews, that You would be with us to help us to pull from the Scriptures, each of us, what we need to understand, and collectively what can be beneficial to us as a church and as a part of the body of Christ, to be effective tools in Your hands. So guide our study. Father bless this effort here tonight. And may those who hear now and at a later date be encouraged and taught, edified by what we do here. We thank You, and we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

We have been going for a long time into the book of Hebrews, which is a very, very important book of the Scriptures. And we were about to wrap it up. And as I said, if we can do so here tonight, we will finish this up. But when I was getting into preparation for this, going into the latter part of chapter 12 and into chapter 13, the last chapter of the book, it doesn't just kind of end with a whimper. It ends with some pretty profound thoughts and matters that really cap off the message of the book. So we will try to bring that out tonight and cap this off if we can with the material that is here as we move through this. It almost seems so long since we started. I was thinking about taking this tonight, trying to hang it on certain concepts to remind us of what we have talked about as we move to this conclusion.

And I thought about doing it in a kind of a three-point approach that we have been talking about in the United Church of God lately in our media department, some of our discussions about how God works with us, how the Church preaches the gospel, and how we interact with people that hear our message, and making sure that we are expressing the gospel in a right way, and helping people to be moved along a ladder of involvement and participation and involvement with the Church as God calls and brings that people along.

But as we are continually trying to refine our efforts, we have centered on three concepts. And I thought about doing the recap of the book of Hebrews along those here tonight by sharing this with you. The first is engagement. Engagement is how we interact with people and where we find people in their lives, in their knowledge of God, in their life story, whatever chapter of their life story they may be in. We engage people at a certain place, in a certain time, and even at certain levels.

We engage people who are Bible believers. We engage people who are Bible skeptics. We engage people who are agnostic or perhaps even atheist. And those people come into contact with us at various levels. How we come across to them is very important. And in time, as people continue to listen to us and work with us, there are going to be expected, and hopefully at some level, a measure of conviction by what they are hearing. That could lead to a commitment. We hope and we pray, again, as God leads and as a person makes the decisions and the choices with what they have.

And then however they move along in their work with us, they come as they respond to God, to the truth of God, as God's Spirit leads them. And if that conviction and commitment leads to a repentance and a baptism, in time then that will bring about a transformation in one's life. All right? And this is a biblical terminology. Romans 12 and verse 1 talks about this. I'll kind of put that up there. But Paul talks about being transformed in our lives as living sacrifices. And transformation is a very key thought in the New Testament. As God's truth, the Spirit of God, the Word of God acts upon us to transform our lives as we yield to God and to His Spirit, that takes place.

And that's an ongoing, lifelong project. As this relates to the book of Hebrews, as I was looking back over what we have covered in this series, we have been involved with a lot of information that Paul engages the audience on in the book of Hebrews. There is obviously the information about Jesus Christ and the Father. God, who at sundry times has spoken to us by His Son, as the opening words of the book talk about. There are a number of topics that the book of Hebrews moves through and engages us with. A lot of information that we have.

You just start putting it into a list. Paul talks about the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest is discussed. And there's quite a bit in chapter 4 of Hebrews that talks about that. Tithing is discussed. The Melchizedek roll. Please don't run your spellchecker on me tonight. You might come up wrong here. I trust you know what I'm talking about. The role of the high priest is discussed quite a bit. Covenants, both old and new, are discussed at length. Along with this role of the high priest and the covenants. The new covenant is quoted.

The terms of the new covenant where God is going to write His laws upon our hearts. All of these, and this is not an exhaustive list, but it covers quite a bit right here, are information-heavy topics. And as Paul moves us through these, we learn a great deal. That at some point then begins to convict us and to change us. And perhaps one of the most convicting parts of the book is the faith chapter, chapter 11, where he begins then to bring this into a practical application of faith being the evidence of things hoped for and things not seen.

And I had the opportunity to go through that with you there. But through those examples of faith, of Abraham, Noah, Moses, and the others that are listed there, a convicting mode is moved to where we begin to realize we need to take this information and what has been changed under the terms of the new covenant. And from a high priesthood of the old with a tabernacle that was made on the shadow of that which is in heaven, and now is eternal and we understand the meaning there.

And all of this and the continuing of the Sabbath and the rest of that means and a deepened understanding of the Father and of Christ and His role, a lot of information, but it begins to convict us that we must do something about it and we are convicted to faith, to works of faith, to actions. And the evidence, the actions and the examples that Paul gives us, are the lives of those individuals where Abraham left his home, where Moses decided not to spend the rest of his life with the Egyptians and decided to throw in his lot with the people of God.

And Noah was moved to build a boat upon God's word and instruction and so on. These people moved and acted, they were convicted and then they were committed and so should we through a study of the examples of these individuals. And so it begins to move toward that and now in the material that we begin to move toward here, we begin to be transformed.

And in chapter 13, there is this element of transformation that all of this should move us to that we will find out about. Steve Myers ended the last discussion here in chapter 12. And just to look at it by way of review, there are some pretty convicting scenes that begin in chapter 12 in verse 18 where he writes, "...we have not come to the mountain that may be touched, that burned with fire, the blackness, the darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the words should not be spoken to them anymore." But he says, we've come before Mount Zion in verse 22, the city of the living God, to the General Assembly of the Church of the First Born, to Jesus in verse 24, "...the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things." And this is kind of where we have come at this point.

And again, those are convicting scenes there in chapter 12. Those are convicting images that this is who we stand before. And we need to follow in their example. We need to do something. We need to act on all of this information where we have been engaged. And this is the challenge. The connection to how we present the Gospel is to always be factual, informative, but speak to the heart through stories, through examples, through convicting messaging that helps people to realize that, hey, this is not just to be put into a book and into the margins of your Bible.

This is to be acted upon. This is to be lived out in living faith today. And when we do, as God helps us, our lives are transformed. And so, I was thinking, again, with this three-fold approach that we're kind of analyzing and looking at at one level in the work of the church right now, it kind of helped me to put this book of Hebrews into perspective here to begin to understand something that is being done. So let's jump into chapter 12 and let's pick up where we left off last time with verse 25 and begin to move through this and look to see how, I think, as we move through the remainder of 12 and end in 13, we'll pick up some of the transformative teachings that come from here.

Verse 25 of chapter 12. Paul writes, See that you do not refuse him who speaks, God, obviously. For they did not escape, who refused him, who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven. And so he begins to, again, talk about those who may have heard in the past God speak.

And in this connection with the earth moving and shaking with a voice from heaven, there is one example from the Bible that stands out loud and clear, obviously, and that is the Israelites at Mount Sinai. And when they came before God, they received the Ten Commandments. They entered into that covenant relationship with God. Verse 26, Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

Now this in verse 27, Yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, those of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Now, in these two verses, we're reminded of a voice that shook the earth in the past. Again, Mount Sinai comes to mind. Psalm 68 and verse 8, it says of that event, The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Of course, back in Exodus, the account there in chapters 18 and 19 and 20 of that mountain shaking, the fire and the thunder is very, very graphically told there.

That happened at one time. But the indication in verse 26 is He is promised saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Also heaven. A physical as well as an earthly or a spiritual or divine transformation or shaking that occurs that is bigger than what took place at Sinai. Has something like that happened? I don't think so. I think that that speaks to something that is yet in the future. If you look at Haggai in the Minor Prophets, chapter 2 and verse 6, Haggai spoke similar words here.

Haggai 2 and verse 6 says, For thus says the Lord of hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. That's quite a strong statement there as well. That speaks in the same context of what we have here in the book of Hebrews and something that is to come in the future of a shaking of the heavens and the earth.

Certainly with the appearance of Jesus Christ at His second coming and what that will mean for the earth. And even you could apply beyond that at the time of the new heavens and the new earth that Revelation 20 speaks of at the end of chapter 20 in Revelation there, which will literally shake even the heavens to the degree that all that is physical seems to be burned up and only that which is spiritual or of the heavens will remain at that time. And so this is a very strong heavenly voice that speaks and indicates, as verse 27 back in Hebrews mentions, that indicates that once more it indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, the physical, the earthly.

And even the things that perhaps are physical that we might rely upon and cling to as our security. Anything physical. How many of you have ever been in an earthquake? You know what happens in an earthquake. The very ground under you begins to shake. And until you've been in an earthquake, a windstorm is one thing. Tornadoes can be frightening too. Hail and all of that. But when your earth begins to shake, your very foundation, you begin to think all kinds of thoughts.

I've been in a very strong one out in Southern California a number of years ago, and it's scary. It causes trauma days afterwards of insecurity. And when those events take place, all you've got to rely on is what's inside you in one sense. If the building starts coming down, the walls and the bricks start flying, and the earth begins to open up, all you've got within you to get through is something a bit more beyond the physical.

And that's what verse 27 is talking about. The things that will remain are the things that cannot be shaken. That which cannot be shaken. What is it that cannot be shaken that could remain through an earthquake and the shaking of earth and heavens? But what has he been talking about in chapter 11? Chapter 11 is the faith chapter. Faith, a relationship with God. That is what will remain when these things begin to be removed, when that takes place, when that heavenly voice.

I've never heard a heavenly voice. I've been in an earthquake, but I've never heard a heavenly voice. I would think that that would be pretty frightening, too. And it would bring me up short, would probably bring you up short, to realize, whoa, I've been caught. There are certain voices. Have you ever heard the voice of your parent? Your mom and dad when you were small and you were, you know, Joseph? Certain voice inflections let you know, uh-oh, they're serious.

Or you hear the voice of the school principal. And then you know, uh-oh, this is serious. This is real. Well, to hear a heavenly voice, that's real, too. And the only thing that's going to remain is our faith, a relationship with God and a confidence in that. And if we have that, then we can have assurance. This is what is being brought out here. Because as you move on, verse 28, therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, the kingdom of God, a common theme here in the book of Hebrews, we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

And to the degree we repent and believe the gospel of the kingdom of God, that Christ talked about in Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, to the degree in our lives we continue to repent and live under and come under, submit our lives to the rule of that kingdom in our lives today, and live by its laws, live by its teachings, and develop a relationship with its king. To the degree we do that, we are receiving that kingdom.

It is becoming a part of our life. We've not fully entered into it, as we will at the resurrection, but it is our life. We recognize ourselves as citizens of that kingdom, and we're receiving it, and we cannot be shaken as it becomes a part of our life.

He said, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Verse 29 kind of puts the period on it right there at the end of this thought. It concludes the chapter as it's been divided. This is serious. Grace is serious. The grace of God, the free gift that He has given to us of forgiveness and justification, and a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

That's real serious. And it is that grace that helps us. We have received this by grace. And He says, let us have that grace. Let's continue with that. And let's remain in that relationship with God in His favor as a result of a life that, as we serve Him acceptably with reverence and a godly fear. And then He says in verse 29, it's almost like period.

And when God says period, that's a whole lot more emphatic than the President of the United States when He says period. He said period recently. He said, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan.

Period. And then the fine print came out and people found out they can't do that. Unperiod. Well, when God says period, He means period. And this is what verse 29 says to me, for our God is a consuming fire. Period. And that should have us stand back with a bit of reverence and godly fear as we understand our relationship with God. Now, let's move on to chapter 13. This is where I think that we begin to get into this transformative aspect of it here.

In verse 1, He says, let brotherly love continue. Brotherly love. Can anyone think of the Greek word that this would be talking about? Philadelphia. Yeah, Philadelphia. That filial love. That brotherly love. That affection, one for another. Believe me, it takes some information. It takes some engagement and then conviction. And then with God's Spirit, and by God's Word, we come to the point of really having an affection that lives up to the brotherly love that He's talking about. He says, let it continue. Let it continue. In one sense, this is an important virtue.

And among the people of God, among the brethren of the church, perhaps the most important. A brotherly love. A gopilove is important, too, in this. And that's a whole other level, but let's just focus because this is the meaning of this particular phrase here. Let this brotherly filial love that we have as brethren, let it continue. That is so important, and it is mentioned so many times throughout the New Testament as the common bond of those who have been saved by the death of Jesus Christ. Those who have entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ. As we've received God's Spirit, as we are working toward salvation, as we are moving toward that, among each other, we are told time and time again to think kindly, be tender-hearted toward one another, to have affection for one another, to forgive, to forbear one another.

On and on and on it goes. Romans 12.10, 1 Thessalonians 4.9, 1 Peter 1, verse 22, 2 Peter 1, verse 7, and then of course Psalm 133, verse 1, that says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. This is what is a common bond among God's people. What did Jesus say in John 13, verse 35? By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love, one for another.

That's what He said. It would be a sign, a very important sign. To get to that point, we have to be transformed. And we will be transformed as we endeavor to keep the bonds of unity and work at that because at times it has to happen.

It will take work for it to happen, is what I mean. Believe me. It takes more work to make peace, to wage peace than to wage war. It's easy to wage war. It's easy to get mad, have anger. It's easy to hate. It's easy not to forgive. It's human to not forgive. It takes a lot of work to wage peace and to work at peace. And there are moments and times in our lives and certainly in our own history where we've not been successful at that.

And yet it is one thing that God keeps bringing us back to. In one sense, if we're going to be Christians, then we have to be brothers. Perhaps we have to be brothers first to be a Christian, to be a true Christian in the sense that we demonstrate the fruits of a life that's transformed by the Spirit to the point where we want to continue in that brotherly love. And this is where Paul begins right here in verse 1.

He goes to step further in verse 2 to show how this can be developed in a practical way. He says, do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Wow. That's a pretty interesting verse.

How many of you have unwittingly entertained angels? Anyone in this room here? Looking here, out here? You're raising your hands. If you unwittingly entertain an angel, how do you know you entertained an angel? It's a trick question. I may have. I don't know. I've heard a lot of stories of people through the years. I remember a sermon years ago a minister gave, and his whole sermon was based on stories that he had either first-hand knew of or had accumulated from others of people who had come across angels unawares. In strange and interesting situations. It was an interesting sermon, and I've not heard anything else like that particular sermon since.

And I've at times wondered if certain people I may have been in contact with, as they have either called or walked through the doors of the church, where I've pastored through the years or I've encountered in other places. Sometimes you wonder if you didn't see them again or they never reappeared in your life or in a scene.

They were there at a particular moment. Was that an angel? Maybe. I don't know. I personally believe that in my own life I've had angelic protection in innumerable times that I did not know about. And I think all of us have had that experience. Paul says, unwittingly entertain angels. There are examples in the Bible of men entertaining angels. Abraham entertained angels. And Lot. And they both knew what they, actually unwittingly is probably the wrong word, they knew who they were talking to.

And they brought them in. Killed the fatted calf, brought them into their house. Perhaps what's important for us to focus on is the first part of verse 2 where it says, Don't forget to entertain strangers. Entertain. What's another word for entertain? Anybody? If you entertain somebody, you're being... There you go. Now we're awake out there. We're cooking. Hospitable. Or hospitality. And entertaining strangers. How many of you are given to hospitality? Which Paul says at another occasion is one of the qualities for an elder in the church.

Someone who is given to hospitality. How many of you are given to entertaining strangers with whatever abundance you have, whatever meager abundance you have? I say meager abundance because the poorest among us in this land are pretty wealthy by world standards. It's a marvelous, wonderful quality to cultivate. To be able to open your home. To be able to open yourself. To be able to want to be with someone whom you don't know and to get acquainted with them. Whether it's over a cup of coffee at Starbucks or another restaurant or a potluck at church in the aisles where we stand and talk and we move and filter among people that we don't know.

One of the things at church that we always are all guilty of at times, we tend to move toward our own little flocks and the people we know. And that's great and that's fine too.

We always want to maintain those relationships. But we also want to extend ourselves to others that we don't know. And certainly to new people, strangers that would come in our doors. One of the things I always try to encourage our members to do is to be right there.

When a new person would come into the church, greet them, welcome them, stay with them and talk to them. Take them to the coffee pot. And don't leave them until you pass them off to someone else.

One of the qualities of entertaining a stranger, certainly a new person who might come to a church, to our services, is to welcome them, get acquainted. But don't leave them standing because you've got to go do this or you've got to go see it so and so or whatever. Take them to someone else and introduce them to someone else and make sure that they are with someone.

It's just a little tip, but it's also a tip that helps to build a warm church and a reputation for warmth within a congregation where people do not feel alone. One of my greatest concerns was to look out. At times I would always be the last one coming to church from the other circuit in the morning. And if I came in in the afternoon and saw a stranger sitting there by themselves, I would just begin to introduce myself quickly.

And I'd wonder, why didn't somebody else do that? Why are they sitting there alone if they're a stranger? I tell you, sometimes we forget just how difficult it is to go to a new church of people you don't know. That can be a frightening thing for people. We may forget that. We should not. But even among ourselves, it's good to move beyond our comfort zones and to develop this hospitality, this brotherly love, and to entertain strangers. Now, in verse 3, he says, Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also.

And so, prisoners, remember them. We're chained to them. He's talking here about an empathetic approach towards someone who is a prisoner. And today we obviously think about this. In the church, we have people in prison all the time who are writing us. We have one employee whose job is basically to handle just the prisoner mail that comes into the organization. And I know some congregations have prison ministries, where the men go into a prison on a regular basis, hold Bible studies, with certain ones who desire to have contact with us with whom we've made contact.

And from time to time, we've actually had members in prison. I've done a lot of visiting in prisons of members who have been incarcerated for a length of time. I've done one baptism of a person who was in prison, and that was a hoot. I don't have time to tell you about that tonight. But to do a prison baptism in this particular scene was the most unique baptism I've ever been involved with.

But Paul is saying to recognize that we're chained with them. We are chained with them. If they suffer, we suffer. And it is a horrible matter to be incarcerated in today's penal systems. I'll tell you, for me to go into the prison every time I would go in, it was always just going through the security, being treated by the guards, was one of the hardest things. Once you're sitting there with the individual, that's easy. It's getting to them. I always felt, one prison that I used to go into quite frequently, I always felt that those who were the guards, they needed to be locked up.

I worried about them more than I did the prisoners. But that's the way the system is. And we could go on and on about that. So those who are sincere, the sincere prisoners who are reaching out for God, wanting some type of encouragement, wanting some type of hope, they do need our prayers.

And to the degree they respond and they are convicted in sincerity and not a phony sincerity, they can be transformed too. I've seen that. I've seen both sides of it. I know where we have some of our prison ministries, they recognize the pitfalls of those who are in prison because you can be taken advantage of. And one should always be careful. I've had people write from prison to our members once they get hold of an address and they will sometimes ask for money.

If one of the first things they do is ask for money, let that always be a red flag of warning, not to do that without a little bit more information. But if they want what money can't buy, that is the truth, and a relationship ultimately with God, then we can go to whatever lengths to provide that. But that is part of this transformational process whereby we recognize that we are chained together, in that sense, with people. Now, verse 4, he moves on to another topic.

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Now, here we come back to this thought that we were left with in chapter 12, verse 29, where God is a consuming fire, that God will judge. And he's talking in verse 4 about morality. First of all, he says marriage is honorable. That's another transformative experience. You enter into a marriage agreement and a covenant with another person before God, and a lifelong commitment to one person. That will transform your life. Believe me, it will transform your life as you yield and submit to one another. And a husband loves the wife, and the wife submits to the husband, and they mutually submit to one another to Christ.

Ephesians 5 goes through that admirably well. But marriage will transform you, your whole life for the good, if it's based always upon God's law. But Paul says it's honorable among all. It is a holy state. It represents the relationship between Christ and the church as He brings out into Ephesians 5. It is a mystery that is revealed through that relationship. And that is honorable. That's holy. That is a God-plain relationship, as we called that for decades in the church.

It is at that level because it represents the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. And Paul here is making sure that everyone understands that. It is holy, honorable. And he uses the phrase, The bed undefiled. One commentator says this is really a euphemism for sexual relations. The bed is undefiled, and that is a part of marriage. Sexual relations are good as well. They are honorable. It does not defile a man or a woman to engage in sexual relationship within marriage. That's what the point is made here, is it connects back to marriage.

And it is reinforced by the use of the two words, fornicators and adulterers. The two Greek words that are used here, porneia, for fornication, which is referring to a sexual relationship outside of marriage in an immoral way. And adultery, the word for adultery is moikeia. And that is referring to sexual immorality within marriage, where that contract, that covenant is broken by one mate committing sex, having sex with someone else other than their wife or their husband.

So in this, he encompasses really the whole realm of immorality, both prior to marriage and after marriage, and with certainly the sense that it is all wrong and God will judge. Again, this is a concept to a modern mind today that flies in the face of our world today. There's nothing to prevent sexual relations between people who have not entered into the marriage relationship, who have not made a covenant to each other before God. It's a part and parcel of life. It's like, will you name it? I don't think I need to go there and spell it out for any of us today.

We understand how common it is and how it is approached by the world and standards of our society around us today. The idea that sex should be withheld until marriage between a man and a woman, and that once within marriage, people should be faithful to their mate, to their wife, to their husband, and not commit adultery.

That is, to some people's minds, unheard of. In some cultures, adultery is accepted as a part. To have a mistress or to step out is an accepted part of the culture in certain countries. It's just a part of everything. But it says right here that God will judge it. God will judge that. And so, believe me, to enter into an honorable marriage relationship and to be faithful completely, both before and during that marriage, is a transformative action that is based upon the conviction of God's Word and God's Law and God's teaching and everything that is there. And this is what is being brought out here.

Verse 5 moves on to covetousness. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Avoiding covetousness. To be content, I guess, would be to be transformed. How are you doing at being contented? Are you like the cows in the commercial? Are you a contented cow?

At peace with what you have, with who you are, with your lot in life. Not that you would not work to improve yourself through education, and through that, perhaps earn more money. And be able to afford more or do more with it for yourself, your family, for others, perhaps. That's not what is being discussed here. It is to avoid covetousness. Taking that which is not ours. Taking something that we have not earned. Living beyond our means. It doesn't address, and it's not prohibiting, as we live within our means, buying what we can't afford and buying what we feel we need or should have, and would even desire in a right way.

Things that perhaps are not actual necessities of life. Some of the toys and the trinkets that all of us have. But it doesn't bankrupt us. It doesn't push us beyond our monthly limits of income. Because of an attitude that we have that we've got to have things that we should know better if we really can't afford it. This is what he's getting at.

And it's rooted in a relationship based on faith in God. Because that's what the latter part of verse 5 is addressing. He Himself says, I will never leave you or forsake you. I will not forsake you. We have a relationship with God, and we understand what we have. And if you will, the information about tithing transforms us ultimately as we're convicted that I should tithe.

I should give God what is His. And that in itself transforms us in our life because as we obey a living law of God and principle and teaching of God, it not only can teach us to live within our means, but it also develops a relationship based on faith with God, where we truly do understand He will not forsake us. He will not leave us. And that we know He is our helper, as verse 6 says, and we will not fear what man can do to me. Fear works against faith. And of course, the whole chapter 11 has been about faith. And so here He brings this back to living without fear and apart from fear.

I will not fear. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can do to me. We're not afraid of any human being. We fear God, but we don't fear man. We remove fear, and we live by faith.

When you look at fear in the Bible, fear is a real natural part of life. Faith isn't. Adam and Eve hid from God because they were afraid after they sinned, it says. God says, why are you hiding? Well, we were afraid. Fear is a natural part of our human condition. Faith isn't. We have to develop faith. We have to be transformed through the things that we do to have faith and obey God in that way. In verse 7, He says, Remember those who rule over you who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct, those who rule over you.

Now, this is the first of three occasions in the remainder of this chapter where Paul talks about those who rule over us. In verse 17, it says, Obey those who rule over you. And then in verse 24, He says, Greet all those who rule over you and all the saints.

So three times in verse 7, 17, and 24, remember, obey, and greet those who rule over you. I'll just put up remember here and obey.

And it's referring to those who are spiritual leaders within the midst of the body, within the church. Remember those who rule over you. And the rest, you know, other passages will describe exactly what that rule is. It's a spiritual shepherding guidance role that Paul gave Timothy instructions as to how to select individuals to fill those roles of a bishop, of a minister, and what qualities they would have and how Timothy and Titus would need to as elders conduct themselves within the church. And so it's very clear that there is that role of stewardship, shepherding, pastoring, teaching, leading, that Paul in other places shows our gifts and our administrations within the church of people who teach, who preach in these ways.

And as he puts it here, they rule. Remember them, obey them, and then thirdly he says, greet them who have rule over you, whose faith follow.

First of all, it says, who has spoken the Word of God to you.

A teacher, an effective teacher, is going to be speaking the Word of God, not His own Word.

And at times it's easy for a minister to cross a line and start preaching his own ideas, perhaps his own peculiarities.

And every teacher has to be careful that when they give advice, counsel, when they render a judgment in a situation, that they do so according to the Word of God, that we teach sound doctrine, that we teach according to the Word of God.

And if one does that, there's going to be safety because you can hide behind the Word of God. One of the best pieces I ever received as a young minister was this. Teach and hide behind the Word of God.

If you hide behind the Word of God when you teach, and that's your authority, and that is your basis, then if someone disagrees with what you say, they're disagreeing with the Bible, the Word of God.

But if you step out from behind that Word and you preach your opinion, what you think should be done, or you preach something contrary to that Word, you're on your own.

Any teacher is on their own.

That's the best piece of advice I ever got.

Now, I've not always been perfect. At times I've made my mistakes on that, but I generally have hewn to that line that, preach the Word, because that's what Paul says here. You should remember those with a respect and a love who rule over you and have spoken the Word of God to you.

The phrase, whose faith follow, is an interesting phrase as some try to understand what this means, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct.

You know, at times you cannot understand and know the full outcome of someone's conduct, perhaps until their life is over.

Or there have been, let's say, ample number of years of fruits and experience to know that you should look up to that individual and follow them accordingly by their example.

We have had enough years of experience in the Church, in this time and our age, to be able to look around and see examples of people whose faith we should follow, whose outcome we have considered their conduct, and it's worthy of following.

You come into the building these days, you start down the hallway on your left, you may or may not have noticed there's some new plaques up there with the names of elders who have served for upwards of 40 and 50 years.

Several names are deceased, and it's a plaque meant to honor years of service in the ministry of the Church.

There's a number of names up there of individuals whose faith and whose conduct we should follow.

If we know of them and know them, and we can look at them and we can remember. Several of them we've had personal experience with. Others we may have heard of by reputation.

But to have endured for 40 or 50 years of service, or near 50 years of service, says something.

Those are examples we should look to and never forget. And for those living within our midst, elders, members who have endured week after week, year after year, who still come to church, who are still faithful in the faith, we should note those. We should remember them. We should respect them. Because they teach as well.

They teach. And in a sense, they rule over us and can speak the word by example, just as eloquently, as anyone standing behind a lectern in any congregation.

This is what he's saying to you. Look to them. And look at that longevity and honor that, and do not forget that. Whose rule and life of faith and example need to be held up. We need to do that more and more. And we are making every sincere effort we can in the United Church of God to do that. And we have for a long time in other ways, through stories in the United News, profiling people on some of the films that we've done, and just recognizing people here and there in various locations as congregations have done that with 50-year anniversaries, 70-year anniversaries, or years of service and dedication plaques that people might have received. Those are good things and they need to be done, and we need to note them. And all of us, no matter how many years we've been around, no matter how old we are, need to recognize what that stands for. Someone who has stood in week after week, year after year, for God.

For it's this way of life, and who believed it, who've endured suffering and trials, setbacks, personal, collective, and they're still here. Those are good things. And we need to encourage and cultivate that. It kind of ties in with verse 8 because He said, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now that is a verse that is a mouthful.

You could write a book on this one. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's unchanging. He was one way as the Word before His incarnate life. When He was with God, and He was God, He was one way, the same way that He manifested to us when He became God and walked among us, and revealed to us and showed us the Father. He was the same. And He was the same through His suffering, to His death, and when He was resurrected and accepted by the Father, and by His sacrifice entered into the Holy Place once, one sacrifice for all time, it is the same forever.

Christ reentered eternity with one sacrifice for all time. He is. And that is, is in eternity, and it will not change. And when we are changed at the resurrection ourselves, when we're changed from mortal to immortality, we will be locked in as well, and we will not change. We will not change. We will be the same then forever. It won't be able to be applied in the same way to us, because we weren't the same yesterday.

But when we become glorified beings, we will be the same then forever. And that's a marvelous thing. In verse 9, He says, Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. It's good not to be, He said, Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. Interesting statement. Various and strange. The word for various here means many colors. Many colors.

Multicolored. The only other thing you read about multicolored in the Bible is Joseph's coat of many colors. And that has nothing to do with this, so you can't make a connection to this. But multicolored ideas and strange and various doctrines, don't be carried about with them. I serve on the Doctrine Committee of the Church, the Council of Elders, and there are six others on the Doctrine Committee right now.

We have a lot of things that come across to the Doctrine Committee. People send us papers and questions and things that we have to weigh in, weigh on, and think about, compare to Scripture. And there are all kinds of ideas. Since the beginning of the United, we had a doctrinal process that we started to maintain our doctrine, the integrity of our doctrine, not to change doctrine.

We haven't changed any doctrines since the beginning of the United. The Doctrine Committee's job is to preserve the integrity of doctrine, not to change it. But you would not believe, in my short time on the committee, some of the ideas that come across that people have. And it's always an education to sort through them all. But I understand what verse 9 says. And throughout my years of experience in the Church, there are recurring patterns of various and strange doctrines that come up continually. One of them is the calendar.

I've heard of calendar issues since I was in the Church as a young teenager, the people who had differing ideas about the calendar. I heard about differing ideas when I was in Ambassador College. In the early days of my ministry, I heard about people who had differing ideas about the calendar. And today, after 40 years in the ministry, I still hear about people who have differing ideas about the calendar. Brethren, don't have differing ideas about the calendar. I've always told my story. I tell this to the class every year when I'm teaching doctrines.

I studied the calendar when I was in Ambassador College. For weeks on end, we had a notebook, we had history, we had documents. We studied the sacred calendar, God's calendar, the Jewish calendar, the calendar by which we based the Holy Days. I studied it. I could calculate the molad of Tishri. Clay Thornton could too. We were in the same class. I can calculate the molad of Tishri, and most of you don't even know what the molad of Tishri is.

How many of you know what the molad of Tishri is? That's what I thought. You keep the molad of Tishri every year, one person. You shouldn't be raising your hand back there. The molad of Tishri is the Feast of Trumpets. But the technical name for it within the calendar speak is molad of Tishri. You can calculate it, and you calculate that, and you base all the Holy Days, according to the calendar.

I learned how to do that, and I hate math. I was afraid I was going to flunk that test that we were going to have on it, because the teacher that was teaching it was making it kind of unclear and muddled.

Well, we switched teachers in midstream, and the new instructor that came in took about a week, got us all straightened out. Bingo! The lights went on. I could do all the homework, figured it, understood it all, and I passed the test on the calendar. You know what I did? After that, I took my calendar notebook, and I put it in a box. I put tape around the box, and I lost that box. And I took this little piece of cardboard calendar, wallet-sized calendar, that the church gave me. It gives you the same calendar every year.

And I put that in my wallet or in my desk, and that's all I need to know about the calendar, from that day forward. When's the last day of Unleavened Bread? When's Pentecost? When's the feast start? When's the eighth day, last great day? The little calendar tells me. I don't worry about what someone else comes up with ideas about on the calendar, and if they think we're off or whatever. Because I've got my little wallet-sized calendar. And brethren, that's all you need.

Because if we're wrong, they're wrong. And if they're wrong, then there's a lot of things that are wrong. But I don't think they're wrong, and I don't think there's a lot of things that are wrong, and I don't think we're wrong. So move on with your life. And obey God. Keep the commandments. There's enough doctrinal material for us to spend the rest of our lifetime digging, digging, digging deeper and deeper into.

Who is God? What is man? The nature of God, the nature of man. I teach doctrines every year, and I learn something new every time I teach these fundamentals of belief. I don't have to go off after various and strange doctrines. And you don't either. You don't either. We have 20 fundamentals within the United Church of God, and there's a lifetime of study right there. That's my take on doctrines and various and strange doctrines. Don't get caught up in it. It's not going to help.

I could go on and on and on, but then I'd probably go into executive material, and I'd have to lock you all in this room all night. And I'd let you go out, and we'd have to destroy the tape. So I better stop right there. And I see that I'm not going to finish Hebrews 13. So I will leave this to Mr. Myers to decide what to do. We will finish it probably next time. Maybe he'll let me do it. Maybe he'll take a verse or two himself and move along with it. But I don't want to go much further than what our allotted time is. We're going to finish Hebrews in these Bible studies, and then we're going to move into some individual topics afterwards. So it won't be next time, but probably within a month or a couple of studies, we will start going through certain topics that we're developing a list and take a break from going through a book for a particular time. But we'll finish Hebrews next time and maybe even go into another topic if time will allow. We'll figure that out. But thanks for coming out tonight, and wish everyone a good rest of your week. And we will see you next time. Be safe going home and see everybody tomorrow and beyond. And goodbye to everyone out there.