Hebrews chapter 13. We've come to this 13th and final chapter of this letter to the Hebrew saints, and as I have mentioned, and as we actually in the last two messages have seen for ourselves, this final chapter is one of application. This book, this letter, the book of Hebrews, being a very doctrinal book, a book of great teaching, There has to be application to that. There has to be application and experience. Application and experience to all doctrine or else it will just serve to intellectualize us and that will serve to build up our pride and that will serve to ruin us. So there must be application and God certainly knows this in every book that He's given us there is always application. And that is what we have for us, that is what He has given us in this last chapter of the book of Hebrews. So we began in the first verse, verse 1 of this chapter, with point number 1 of the application, let brotherly love continue, and then we saw in the following several verses several sub-points laid out here by the writer, by the Lord Holy Spirit for us, things that can and will war against this love. This love that all of the children of God, if indeed you are a child of God, you must have and you must use this love. And He has given us some things here that war against that love. So we have to pay attention to that. We have to be mindful of that, that we may guard against those things. And we saw the things that the writer listed here were in essence Selfishness, selfishness will war against our love. Sin, sin will war against our love. And dissatisfaction, discontentment will war against our love. Well, today we come to point number two in the writer's outline in verse nine. And we have it before us, let's read. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. So this would be like us sitting down and teaching our children and saying, listen, number one, this is the truth, and number two, this is the truth, so therefore, this is what you must do. Therefore, because this is the truth, this is how you must behave in light of what you know, this is how you must behave in light of these truths. And we have been blessed as no other age, saints of God, We have been blessed with the superiority, with the revelation of the superiority, the far superior glory and person and salvation of Jesus Christ. We have a greater revelation of that, of Him, and of those things today than any other age has had. We do. We know exactly who the Christ, who God's Messiah of the Old Testament is. We know exactly how He fulfilled the types and the shadows and the prophecies and the pictures. We know exactly who He is. We know exactly what He has done. We know exactly how He far excels anyone and anything. You and I, we have been shown more today, more about His better and new covenant than any other age. We, you and I, saying of God, have been made partakers of His faith and of the faith that is in Him. You and I, He has given us eternal life. And what do we do? How do we behave ourselves in light of these glorious truths? How does that apply? The truths, the glory, the superiority of Jesus Christ, that's in a nutshell what this whole letter has been about. How do those apply to our lives? Well, number one, we love. We love God supremely, and we love others, and especially one another, as the children of God. We know the love of God and the God of love to be so glorious and such a blessing that we not only value it and Him supremely in our own lives, but we value it supremely in the lives of others as well. So we live to demonstrate His love and we love others who do the same. we love. And that being the case, we watch, we guard against anything that will distract, will dampen, anything that will destroy this delight and this love, which is Christ's love in us. That's point one from verse one and the following seven verses. And then also, point number two, again, be not carried away, about with divers and strange For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. I want us this morning to kind of dissect this verse. so that we might expose and get a clear look at what the writer, especially the Holy Spirit, intends for us here. So to do so, first we need to see the antithesis, or the contrast, the two opposites that are set before us in this verse. So let's divide them so that we can clearly see them. One side of the antithesis is to be avoided. The other is to be admired. So, number one, that which is to be avoided. That side of the contrast in this verse, there's a contrast here, that side which is to be avoided. And we see here in this verse that it is identified by the negative in the passage, be not. Be not. Be not carried away. We should know We should understand we can feel it as we read that there, but it is in the Greek language, it is an imperative, it is a commandment. So this is a commandment of God, a commandment of God the Spirit as it is given to us here. Be not carried away. Now this carried away, it draws us a picture. And the picture is that of a boat or a ship on a stormy sea. And that boat is being tossed one way and then the other, isn't it? Picture it in your mind. That boat out on the stormy sea with the waves raging, that boat is being tossed about one way and then the other. That boat is going back and forth and up and down. Literally, the boat is being driven and even consumed by the waves. That's what this phrase is describing. That is the picture that the language draws for us. We are not to be carried away. We are not to be tossed this way and then tossed that way. We are not to be consumed and driven by what? What does the verse say? By divers and strange doctrines. Divers, that means various, many. The word literally means many different colors. Many different colors. of strange, now we might say new, but I warn us, new to you, new to us, may not mean that it's really new. Especially living in an apostate age, when people have been for many years now, desirous of fables, loving to have their ears tickled, over the Word of God, so new, new to us, new to you, may not be new at all in this age that we live in. But also, when we, you know, I've heard, and I'm guilty of it too, sometimes I'll say it was new, it's not true. Most of the writers that I read from have been long dead, there's a couple contemporary writers that I read from, but we've got to be careful with that because you remember, just think about this, the very writer of this letter, the Apostle Paul, he sure learned some new things, didn't he? Yes, he learned a lot of new things. How about the first century saints? You read the epistles that were delivered to those churches. They were dealing with all sorts of new things to them. It was new to them. It wasn't new to God. It wasn't new to His Word. But it was new to them. As a matter of fact, one of the key doctrines of this letter is about the New Covenant. So, just because it's new to you and to us does not mean it is actually new, and just because it is new does not necessarily make it wrong, no more than something being old makes it true. If we get in that idea, well, if it's new, it's not true, that implies that everything old is true, and that's not true. That's not true. I've already read some old stuff that was just like, wow, what were you guys thinking? So that's not true. This word means strange, it means foreign, but specifically it's strange and foreign to the Word of God. It's strange and foreign to the whole council or the complete revelation of the Word of God. We're not to be carried about with various and strange and foreign. Notice here in this verse that word doctrine. Doctrines, that means teachings. But notice it's in plural here, it's significant. We're not to be carried about with various and strange foreign doctrines. Teachings that are alien and foreign to the whole revelation of God's Word. The same apostle in Ephesians 4 verse 14, this verse probably came up in your mind, He says again, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro like that boat on the waves and carried about with every wind of doctrine like a sailboat by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So he's saying the same thing in that passage in Ephesians to the church of Ephesus as well. And notice here in this verse, We are actually told in this verse what these various and strange doctrines have to do with. Look at the end of the verse. It says, not with meats. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established with grace. Not with meats. That word meats means foods. not with food, so these various and strange doctrines that we are being told here not to be tossed back and forth by, deceived and consumed by, they have to do with the Levitical law. What this is referring to specifically here is the dietary restrictions of the Levitical law. Now that one thing in itself is dealt with over and over and over You're talking about something new, a new revelation. It was a new revelation to the people. But it's dealt with all throughout the New Testament. If you'll remember, the Apostle Peter, speaking of new, he even argued with God over this. In Acts 10, verse 14, Peter said, Not so, Lord. No, Lord. Well, that's a contradiction in terms, isn't it? No, and then Lord, right behind it. No, Lord, not so, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' And the voice spake unto him again the second time, This is what it said, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. In one of several letters that the Apostle Paul dealt with this, and he does in several of his letters, in Colossians 2.16, listen to what he says. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. Notice this phrase, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Those things, they had a shadow, they had a fulfillment, and that fulfillment of them is Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward and of voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ, this is what he calls all of those things, from the rudiments of the world. If you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. So realize what we're seeing here. You know what the writer's doing? He's made a full circle. He's made a full circle back again to one of the main focuses of the whole letter. He is once again focusing in on the corruption of religion. Because all through the letter, he has sent before us and proved the superiority of Jesus Christ over religion. And now in the last chapter, in this chapter of application, once again he brings it all back around full circle. And he is focusing in on this corruption of religion. He is telling these Hebrew saints who were so easily distracted, who are just like us, he is telling them and he was telling us through them, beware. Beware. In light of what you have been given, in light of what you have been taught, in light of what you have been brought to know, don't be carried away again. into the vanity of religion. Don't be carried away again and put back into bondage and into captivity by the doctrines of men's religion. That which is foreign to the whole counsel of the Word of God. Because notice the last phrase of verse 9. It is unprofitable. It is unprofitable. These Hebrew saints, we know, they're fellow countrymen. their families, much of their families, they were still living in the Jews' religion. And yes, they were keeping with great strength and energy of the flesh and great anxiety and even great superficial success, they were keeping the Levitical law. But he's saying here, it is of no avail. It will not profit them. because it was all just the strivings of the flesh. Just as the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5.24, I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So here we see the side of this antithesis, this contrast, this side that we are commanded to beware of, this side that we are commanded to avoid, these various doctrines, strange, many, and growing doctrines of many religions that are foreign and opposite to the whole counsel of the Word of God, they are and will be entirely unprofitable for our lives, and they will be are entirely unprofitable even for our eternity. That's the truth that he is telling us here. But now, number two, let's see the opposite side. Let's see the other side of the antithesis, that which is to be admired. That which is to be admired. So we saw that the various and strange religious doctrines of men are unprofitable and to be avoided, but notice the antithesis, that which is to be admired and sought after, it is, what? It is good. It is, look what it says, it is a good thing. It is a good thing. It is an excellent thing. It is a beautiful thing. We could even say it is a blessed thing. We saw that which is to be avoided, it is unprofitable, but that which is to be admired, it is a good thing. Now, we have here the command of God the Spirit to avoid allowing our hearts and our minds to be carried about, tossed to and fro, back and forth by these strange foreign doctrines of men's religion. But now we learn that which is good, that which is beautiful, that which we are to admire, it doesn't unsettle our mind. It doesn't cause it to reel back and forth. It doesn't cause us to wonder, is this right, or is this wrong, or is this enough, or is this too much, or what about today's religious trend? We don't have to keep up with that. What about tomorrow's religious trend? Touch not, taste not, handle not. No, this here, the opposite, This that is good, look, it establishes. You see it? For it is a good thing that the heart be established. That's the opposite of being tossed back and forth, to and fro. It is a good thing that it be established. It establishes the heart. It establishes the mind. That word established means it makes it firm. It confirms it. It makes it sure. It strengthens it. It's trusty. So this which is good to be admired, it inspires confidence. That's what this does. It doesn't leave us wondering and reeling back and forth. This which is to be admired, this which is good, it inspires and gives a real steadfast hope. It wasn't on my purpose this morning, it was on God's purpose that I read that psalm to you. It talks about how the Lord blesses those that have a steadfast hope in Him. That's the kind of people the Lord blesses. It's those with a steadfast hope. And that's what this does. It's that which is good, the opposite, the other side of this antithesis, the one that is to be admired, it gives real steadfast hope and then it evokes God's blessings. on our life. It gives absolute expectation. And now, what is this which is good and the opposite of unprofitable? What is this that is sure and steadfast and establishes and calms the heart of man instead of making it real back and forth to and fro? What is this that God the Spirit reveals here that is the antithesis of vain religion? What is it? For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. That's what it is. Grace. And look at this, you have to see this. You see the word doctrines here as I mentioned when we read it, it is plural. Every time in the New Testament that this plural is used, it is always negative. It is always negative. Like Matthew 15, 9, the Lord Jesus says, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandment of men. Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devil. Every time that word doctrine is used in its plural sense, it is always, always negative. These doctrines are various and strange and many upon many upon many and they're unending and they're growing, but grace, the doctrine of grace is singular. That's on purpose. It's singular. And actually, you know, we often, and me too, we use the term the doctrines of grace. We shouldn't do that because it really is not many, several doctrines. It's one doctrine. It is the doctrine of God's amazing grace. And let's make sure we understand what he means, what the writer means, what the Holy Spirit means here. These Hebrew saints, we know they were weak and wavering. Yes, that was the intent of the letter. That was the reason the writer wrote to them. And they were weak and wavering because they had been afflicted and assaulted. And one of the many means of this attack upon them was by their family and by their fellow countrymen, the very epitome of religionists. And they came to them preaching. and assaulting and attacking them, no, you must do these things. Plural. Or, you must not do these things. Taste not, touch not, handle not. They were all involved and evolved in the rudiments of the world. But the reality is, and it was so hard for these saints to grasp, and it is still so hard for us to grasp, because it's almost like it is almost too good to be true. The reality is, you and me, we need grace. Not religion. Religion can't save us because we are too lost for that. Grace. We must have grace. And grace, I wish I could hold it in my mind like I want to hold it, as I've studied what grace is and pondered what grace is, and I know we have a problem with that. Sometimes we think of grace as something like this. You know, it just comes into our life here or there, and we ask for grace on these certain things, and we don't even really think about what we're thinking, what we're saying. Grace is not something that comes and goes. Grace is something that is because it is the free, unmerited favor of God. Now it has many gifts, manifold gifts, the manifold riches of Christ. But all of those gifts are the plurals of the one which is grace, the favor of God. I want to really encourage you when you think about grace and talk about grace and when you're hearing about grace, due to what the discernment of God's Word, it is the favor of God. It is the free favor of God. And we must have grace, and that's all the grace is, the totally free, unmerited favor of the one true God of heaven and earth. Because here's the thing, saints, we can't have what we deserve. We can't have what is fair or else we will all surely suffer forever. If God gives us what we deserve, if God gives us what is fair, there is no hope not for one single one of us. No, we need, we must have, what we must have is for God, He Himself, because of He Himself, not to give us what we deserve and not to give us what is fair, but instead in immeasurable mercy to give us His free favor. that comes from Himself. It can't lean on us. You understand? Because there's nothing in us that can draw it. Because we have nothing to merit it with. We've all sinned against God, become worthy of His wrath. If He gives us what we deserve, we will suffer under His wrath forever. We must have His grace that comes only from Him. Only because of Him. He must give us His free favor. He must sovereignly set His favor upon us. Saint of God, if you are saved today, you are so because God sovereignly set His favor. And when I say that, that's the same thing as God's Word talking about Him giving grace. He sovereignly sets His favor on us. That is our only hope. But if he would choose to do so, if he would choose to set his love upon If He, the God of heaven and earth, would choose to set us apart as His own and call us His children, if God would choose to put us in His Son and to put our sins and judge our sins upon Him, if He would choose to then put His righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus upon us and justify us with His righteousness, make us as if we've never sinned with His righteousness, if God would choose to cleanse us with the blood of the Lord Jesus. If He would choose to give us life and indwell us and call us to His Son by His Spirit, if He would choose to illuminate and enlighten our minds through the things in the Kingdom of God, if He would choose to sanctify our lives and fill our hearts with His love and glorify us with and in eternal life, if He would choose to do this, if we could choose to do that, saints, is there anything that we would lack? Is there anything that we would fear? Is there anything that we would doubt? If God would choose to do that for us unworthy human beings, if God would choose to set His grace, His favor upon us, should not our hearts and our minds be established and be strengthened and be filled with steadfast hope in God, if God would choose to do that? Because if He would choose to do that, if He would choose to be for us, who could be against us? You see what grace does? That's the reason that verse, what I just quoted to you, if God before you, who would be against you, comes as the logical conclusion to the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, which is some of the most concise and wonderful teaching on God's grace in God's Word. Because that's what grace is. That's what God's grace is. God would choose to love you and save you by sending his son to be your savior and give you all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What would we lack if God would choose to do that? Well, saints, let me ask us, how many here today have been saved by the grace of God? How many here, have you been saved by the grace of God? Well, do you know why? Do you know how? Do you know how and why all and every one of us that are saved by God, and you know how we are saved? Grace. Because there's no other way to be for a wretched sinner like you and me to be saved. But grace. If God does not give us grace, he will most certainly give us wrath. There's two guarantees. It's either grace or wrath. So if you are a saved child of God, you have been saved by grace. Because God, only God, God Himself, only because of God Himself, He chose to do that. He chose to do that. God has to do it all. He has to do it all, apart from any and all religion, because we see it right here, we just read it, religion is unprofitable. It will not profit you. Not here and not in eternity. Only grace can save sinners like us. Pure grace. Sovereign grace. By the way, that's a redundant statement. That's a redundant statement. All grace is sovereign because God chose to do it. He chose to give it. All grace It's sovereign. I know a lot of people get bent out of shape by that word. That's what grace is. It's sovereign. It's all of God. God had to choose to give it to whom He would. Remember, He told Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And you know what? That's not a negative statement. You go back to Exodus and then again in Romans 9, that's not a negative statement. No, that's a glorious statement. God chose to give mercy. In the book of Exodus, God was about to wipe out the whole bunch of Israelites. As a matter of fact, He told Moses, He said, y'all go ahead. I'm going to stay back here because if I go with these people, I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses said, Lord, I don't want to go if You're not with me. He begged the Lord. He said, have mercy upon us. Go with us. We don't want to go. And he reminded the Lord Himself of His own glory Egyptians, if he let the people go, and the Lord said, OK, I'll go with you and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That's not a negative statement, that's a positive statement. God would have mercy and grace upon sinners like us. Sovereign grace. He would choose. God would choose. to save and give us love and give us mercy. We must have sovereign grace. We must have free grace again. That's a redundant statement. The only kind of grace there is is free because it's all of God. So you understand the implications of our text this morning, don't you? Anything that is not of the doctrine of grace is just religion. It's of the doctrines of men. Now we might take that and run with it. We might say, well, we're the only ones that know what salvation is. Well, it's not about us knowing. Who knows? It's about God's grace. It's about God's grace. By the Lord's grace, his free favor, because he's shown me in his word, and if you give me strength in his grace to stand forth his word, I will stand steadfastly in the doctrine of grace. You know why? Not because I'm hard-headed. Not because I want to be different than somebody else. Because I can back up against the word of God. I can stand there and you can beat me to death, but I can stand on and lean upon the Word of God that says the only grace, the only salvation that God has is grace salvation. That's the only, even logic tells us, the holy and righteous God that must punish sin. If He does not give us something that we cannot acquire ourselves, He will punish our sins. But what the book of God reveals is that He gives us grace through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us love through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us His favor. For by grace are you saved. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. God gave it to you. God chose to give it to you. Why? God saves sinners. He has, He will save you. Only one way. Grace salvation. If we will be saved, it will be by grace salvation. God's grace salvation. Yes, it's sovereign. Yes, it's free. Because it's grace. It can't be anything else. It can't be anything else. How we should admire this great the great truth that God chose to love me. Do we understand that didn't just happen? No. Do you think that just happened? You read the Gospels and look at what Christ had to endure for your sins to be put upon Him and then the wrath of God poured out upon Him. That had to happen for God to love you, for God to love me. He couldn't love us any other way. We were defiled. He couldn't love the defiled. He says, what union have God with unrighteousness? None. It's a rhetorical question. None. None. Our defilement offends Him, but God sent His Son and put our defilement over on Him. and poured His wrath out upon Him, turned His anger away, turned His anger that was directly and justly aimed at us and averted it onto His only Son so that He might give you love, He might give you favor, grace. God chose to love us. He chose us. He chose us in His love. He chose to save you. He chose to labor in and by His own Son to save you. God, He will, He must save us because He has chosen to. If He set His favor upon you and eternity passed, and Scripture is very plain about when He did this, If He set His favor upon you then, He set His love upon you then, then He will, He must save you. He must. The glory of His Son depends on it. Surely He didn't put His Son to death for those He could not save. No, He will. He must save us because He's chosen to. And He, He is such a God that He does what He pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay His hand or say, what doest thou? How we should admire Him. One more thing here just briefly. We're going to see much more of this in the sub points to the second point. But notice the anchor of God's grace. He's on both sides here. In verse 8, He is Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He was worthy of the lives of the saints of old, and He is yet worthy of our lives today. But it is because the reason He is worthy of your life today is because He is the anchor of God's grace. He always has been forever. He always will be forever. of God's grace. God chose you. What does the scripture tell us? In Christ. It's absolutely inseparable. Something had to be done with our sin. The idea, the humanistic idea that God will put up with our sin and He'll just tolerate it. That is very humanistic is all that is. That is not God. Something had to be done with our sin. God is righteous. He is holy in righteousness. Well, His Son was the something that had to be done with our sin. Our sin had to be put to Him. And for God to give us grace, for God to give us favor, His anger had to be turned away and averted upon His Son. Jesus Christ has always been forever and will always be forever God's anchor of grace. And then in verse 10, right after our verse today, Jesus Christ is the altar, and as we will learn, what this is referring to is that Jesus Christ is the anchor of God's grace to this end. If any of us are indeed the recipients of God's free and sovereign grace, we can only be so, and we are only so, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the Lord Jesus Christ. I've said this. God's love is not just out here hovering in the air. Scripture's revealed to us where God's love is in Christ Jesus. That's where God's love is. To suppose that you can know God's salvation or God's love any other way or even in any other mixture apart from Christ alone is fatal supposition. It's fatal error. True grace, the true grace of God, true saving grace, true salvation cannot be known except through Jesus Christ, but also at the same time in our experience. In our experience cannot be known without Christ. If I'm over here in my seat in this world, and I just think, well, God loves, I'll just be fine. That is as anti-Christ as the most belligerent atheist. It is. The love of God has a channel, and that is in Jesus Christ. That person sitting over here in his seat thinking, well, God loves, you know, everybody says, see that license plate? Jesus loves you. He loves me. God loves me. Without Christ? I'm gonna tell you, without Christ, no, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He may love you in Christ, and he will save you with Christ. And you will be saved in your own experience with Christ. Do not suppose upon the love of God, apart from Jesus Christ, it's not there. Nothing shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. The love of God, the grace of God, the manifold blessings of God are in and by and through Godward to man through Jesus Christ, but us Godward. As we receive them, we receive them with Christ. If you have in your mind, and you and the Lord alone Do you think you have God's salvation? And it is apart from Jesus Christ. You do not have God's salvation. You do not have God's grace apart from Jesus Christ. Yes, the love of God, the grace of God, the manifold blessings of God are in and by and through Christ Jesus to us, but us to God, it is with Christ. With Christ. So, is the salvation that you have as the saints of God. Is the salvation that you possess, salvation from the great sin, your great sin, your personal great sin against your God and Creator? Is the salvation that you have from your sin and His eternal and just wrath against that sin, is it through the real and perfect person and perfect work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Is it through Him? And is it in Him alone? If so, then it is true. If so, then it is glorious. That is the heart medicine. That is the heart-strengthening, mind-stabilizing grace of God. That is God's free favor. But anything and anyone else, including yourself, is this doctrines, plural, of religion. Doctrines of religious men, and it must be avoided, as the passage clearly tells us, it cannot profit you. It cannot profit us. We're too lost for that. We must have grace. We must have God's grace. We must have His free favor. May the Lord help us to clearly see the antithesis of this verse. May the Lord help us to see what is to be avoided and then may help us to see that which is to be admired. May the Lord help us to cast ourselves on the anchor of his grace and that is his one, one of a kind, precious son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless the preaching of his word this morning. We are thankful for your presence.