Hebrews chapter 10, let's begin again in verse 1 this morning. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, remember them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Last week we dealt in some depth with the command of verse 1. This command that was given as we talked about, this command in this chapter is given in application to the doctrines of this letter, of this book of Hebrews. The glorious doctrine of an all-superior Savior and an all-superior salvation. A Savior and a salvation that is so superior that in actuality nothing else at all can save you from your sin. Nothing else at all can save you from God's wrath against your sin except this all-glorious salvation given to sinful men by God through this all-superior Savior, Jesus Christ. That's how far superior He is. It is Him or it's nothing. It is Him or the eternal wrath of God. It is either He that saves us or we will not be saved but will live an eternity of forevers in the torments of a fiery hell. And this command to love each other and others is given to us as an application or we could say the logical end to these truths. The logical end to the central truth of the letter to the Hebrews. And this command is given to us and is reinforced on the coattails of our God is a consuming fire. So this command, this truth, we should understand is a very important truth. Isn't that right? It's very important. This is the application. This is the right reaction to the doctrines of the rest of the book. This is the application of the knowledge of knowing how important this is to God and the fact that He is the consuming fire. It is a very important truth. Let brotherly love continue. It is so important, this truth, that it is absolutely and inseparably connected by God to His salvation. That's how important it is. That's how important it is to Him. It may not be very important to us, but that's how important it is to Him. He, Himself, God connects it to the first and greatest command, which is loving Him. And He says, He actually says this, He says, the second is like unto the first. That's how important it is to God to love your neighbor as yourself. As a matter of fact, He in essence connects it to us loving Him, our love for Him. Since if we break one law, we break them all. In actuality, you cannot do one without the other. You cannot love God. You hear that? We cannot love God. We can say we love God, but we cannot love God. without loving one another, as we have been instructed in this verse. God commands, connects it, this command in verse 1, He connects it to those that own His salvation in such a way that He says, don't even think, don't even think you own, you have My salvation unless you love like this, because this is what My disciples do. He goes so far in His Word to tell us in 1 Corinthians 13 that without this love as our motive, this love as our motive, all else, all is of no profit to us at all. Everything, even the extremes, to the extreme of giving our lives to be burnt, is what it says. It is of no profit to us at all. Unless it is given for the love of God and the love of others. Think about that. So listen, this is serious stuff. It's serious stuff. And the reason it is so serious is because God is a God of righteousness. And here's the reality, it is only right. If He has demonstrated His love, this love to us, it is only right if He has loved us sinners as He has and as He does. Do you know, child of God, how much God, the kind of love that He has shed upon you, do you understand what it is for God to love filthy, wretched, vile sinners like us? The righteous God, the holy God, what it is for Him to love us. And if He loved us as He does, It's only right. It's only the right reaction then that we love others. Especially others that He loves, His children. Isn't that what He says in 1 John 4, 11? Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. That's the right reaction. That's the reaction of truth. That's the reason God's a God of righteousness. And everything He does and everything He commands is in righteousness. This is why this is so serious with God. It is all reflective upon His love. You see? So, Brother Tom, you're saying, how I love others is reflective upon how I love God. Saints, I didn't say it. Your God says it. He says it. This is why this is so serious. This is why we should heed His Word and heed the warning of His Word here that He is a consuming fire. This is why loving like verse 1 commands should get our attention and get our energy, our sincerity. Can we understand this morning that loving like this, and God connecting it to Him as He does, this must become and must be becoming our pursuit. The very pursuit, the very height of our life. And everything that gets in the way of this pursuit, listen, everything that gets in the way of this pursuit must be put aside. It must be put down. Well, you ask then, what can get in the way? What must we put aside for the sake of this love? I mean, you know, you might be saying, I realize I've got to get serious about this. This is reflective upon how I love God, how I love others. I've got to get serious about this because I love God. I want to be His faithful child, His faithful discipline. I want to show others how God loves me. And besides, and besides, He's a consuming fire. So what? How? What is it? What can get in the way? What must I put aside?" Well, I'm glad you asked, because the Lord is about to tell us here in this passage. In verse 1, He instructs us, He instructs these Hebrew saints first, of course, and us, to let brotherly love, and we looked at that, love for even those that hatefully despise and abuse you, let alone love for those that love you, Let this love continue. Let it endure. And then in these next few verses, he's going to give us some practical ways that this happens and that it is expressed. So first, I want us to see these things this morning on the surface, and then each one as we progress, also the broader implications of what is being expressed here. Here in verses 2 through 6, He gives us three things and then He sums it up with verse 7 and verse 8. So first, look at verse 1 again. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. And that's not the motivation. These angels, that's not the motivation for this love, but it's an actuality. It's really what happened. We know at least in two cases, it happened to Abraham and it happened to Lot. We know that this was the case for them. So that's not the motivation, but that can happen. Verse 3, Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. So here in verse 2, He's calling us to hospitality. The phrase, to entertain strangers, is translated in the New Testament as hospitality and also as lover of strangers. So that's what He's calling us to here, is hospitality. To these Hebrew saints, this would mean taking strangers as well as fellow believers into their homes to lodge them, to open their homes and their resources and provide for those in need. And just so we understand the scope of this, just think, do we know another word that sounds like hospitality? Well, yes, of course, hospital. Right? So what happens when you go to the hospital? Well, you're unable to do a whole lot of anything and someone else does it for you. Someone else tends to you. Someone else cares for you. Someone else provides for you. That's the reality of hospitality. But again, We have to understand this to really understand, to really understand what's being spoken here, we have to understand this in context. Because these Hebrew saints, we know a little something about them, and we know that they themselves were being afflicted, weren't they? They themselves were being run here and there and everywhere in fear of their very lives. And in many cases, probably most cases, they had lost their jobs, they had lost their possessions, they had lost their homes, they had lost their families. I mean, their lives were such and their times were such that for them to be hospitable, their situation would have been the hardest place to be hospitable, wouldn't it? But yet, even still, even in the difficulties of circumstances, is what is being expressed here by God in this, that's the intention, even still this love must endure and be expressed in hospitality. I know that this has become pretty much a lost art in the day that we live and I wrestle with it myself. We like our space, don't we? We like our routines and anything that upsets that routine and upsets that space. We get kind of bent out of shape and we might even dread it a little bit. But we shouldn't. Because the reality is probably the reason that we feel like that. is that it is a fulfillment of Matthew 24, 12, which says, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And then notice verse 3. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity. And so you understand that suffer adversity is not something that just comes on like a disease. No, them that are being mistreated. Them that are being mistreated as being yourselves also in the body. Consider, that's what the word remember means, be mindful of those in prison. So that bond is those in prison. And the context is those in prison for the cause of Christ. Your fellow brothers and sisters who are suffering being in prison because of their faith that is in Christ. But it certainly doesn't exclude other prisoners. And he tells us exactly how we are to remember them, exactly the motive behind our remembering, and how we're supposed to remember is, this is important, like you were there with them. Like you were there with them. That's how you're supposed to be mindful of them. That's how you're supposed to remember them. And be mindful of those that are suffering, of those that are being persecuted. One, like you are suffering with them, like you, are suffering with them, and two, realizing it may indeed soon be you suffering with them. That's what that phrase, it really has a double application, that phrase, in the body. So treat them, think of them, pray for them like you would have them do for you if you were in prison or if you were being persecuted. So thanks to what this is really saying, if we are indeed to love, and that love is to endure, we must be a sympathizing people. We must be a people of sympathy. We must consider things from others' perspective, from someone else's. We must care about someone else. Again, this is only right, if we indeed are the disciples of Christ, who love like the disciples of Christ, if we indeed are followers of Christ, we will love like Him, and we will have His mind. And what was His mind? That He would esteem others over Himself. You realize, He went to the cross of Calvary, child of God, because He esteemed you. over Himself. And this is the God of all glory we're talking about. But in this love that He tells us that is absolutely inseparable from our love to Him, and being a child of God, this very most important love of loves, it is an imitation of His own love, but not nearly the height of it. Or we love someone else more than we do ourselves. Or we esteem them. Imagine the God-man esteeming wretched, vile sinners like us over his own pure, righteous being. That's what he did. That's the mind that took. That's the mind he took. You might remember Brother Sullivan, when he was here, he preached on this love and he was actually talking expressly about this phileo love, which is the first part of that word in verse 1, brotherly love. It's the phileo love and it is a love, not that just happens, but that you choose. You choose to perform. And that's what Christ did. He chose to esteem us over Himself. And that's what the disciples and the followers, the Christ-like ones, that's what they do. I read some things, I didn't have time to put it in here this morning, but even the pagans of old marveled at the hospitality of Christians. how they would give of themselves. I read one account, I'll just give you this one, where the Christians would see someone hungering and they would literally fast themselves so that they could give that food to those that were in need. That's the kind of things, that's the kind of hospitality, that's the kind of mind, the mind of Christ that has portrayed and been a part of Our brothers and sisters, our ancestors in Christ throughout the ages, those kind of things. Is it still a part of us? Or has iniquity abound and our love wax cold? So we see the very practical teaching here, very practical. I mean, it's nuts and bolts, isn't it? You might say, well, Brother Tom, I don't know about that. This is not thus saith brother Tom. It's thus saith the Lord. It's very clear. It's very clear. So we see the practicality of this teaching, but what is the implication of the teaching? Here it is. In light of the context, here it is. If we are to truly love as commanded in verse 1, we must put away selfishness. Selfishness will war against our love. And saints, we must love. We must love. So we must put away selfishness. In your mind this morning, I would ask you to lay out before you all the things that you possess. All the material possessions you possess. Lay it all out there. before you this morning. You got it in your mind? First, you know, you know don't you, that the Lord has given those to you. Whatever it is, whatever they are, the Lord has given that to you. Look around there. Look around there as it's laid out before you and ask yourself the question, is there, is there any of those things that you would not freely give or share with another? I mean, really, you don't have to answer to me. But in your mind and in your heart before God, is there anything there that you would not give or share with someone else? If there is, if there is, you are holding that thing too tightly. You were holding those things too tightly, too selfishly. I was reminded of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, and he came to the Lord asking about eternal life. How can I have eternal life? And at the end of all of it, the Lord says, give it all away and come follow me. Give it all away. and come follow me." He's still saying the same thing to us, brothers and sisters. Now, I'm not saying that God will require your possessions, but I am saying that we must be willing to give it if He does require it. Give it all away and come follow Christ. What did he have that he would not give for us? Child of God, was there anything? Was there anything? And he had the most valuable possession that the universes have ever known. But he laid it down for you and me. And just to be clear, understand, if there's those possessions that you want to do this with, Saint of God, that will not be a blessing to you. It will not be a blessing to your life. It will be a curse to you. And it will keep you from loving as you ought. By the way, we should all realize that soon we will give all of it away to someone else anyway. Soon someone else is going to own everything we own. Why not release your grip on it today? Release your grip so that it will be a blessing to your life instead of a curse. The Lord makes it clear in his word that possessions will not fulfill us, and they won't. If you know anything about your own heart and your own life, and I know some of these young people have a long, hard road to learn that lesson like some of us have, those possessions will not fulfill your life. They will not. They'll come up empty every time. But I want to tell you something. Giving those possessions will. That will fulfill your life. giving them away. I myself need to learn more about that. We must release our grip, our selfish grip, because selfishness will war against your love. And saints, you must love. You must love. The Lord may not require all of our possessions, but He does require According to the passage here, He does require from us our thoughts, our prayers, our care, and our love for others. He does require that. Then look at verse 4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. We should all understand that marriage and the things concerning marriage, they are of God. They are of God. And being of God, it is, as the text says, they are honorable. And the word honorable here means of great price. Precious. They are precious. They are to be held in honor. They are to be esteemed. They are to be to us especially And this means whether you are entered into a marriage or not, whether you are married or not, still, these things, it is of God, so we all, that word in all at the end of that phrase there where it says that marriage is honorable in all, it means that we all, we all should think highly of God's blessing and God's institution of marriage. It is to be honored. in our minds and honored in our lives. Now, we might think that today marriage is under attack as never before because of the gay, that's not the right word, but I'll use that word, gay rights movement. But I'm going to tell you that's not the case. Marriage has always been under attack. from many, many different angles and many different directions. As a matter of fact, in the time of this letter, when it was written, one of the ways that it was under attack was that there were some promoting and going to great lengths to say, not only say, but to demonstrate that a devout Christian should not marry. Listen to the instructions to the young pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.1. It says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, and listen to the first thing that's on the list, forbidding to marry. forbidding to marry. That's what was going on in the time of this letter, the time this letter was written to these Hebrew saints. And 2,000 years later, today, marriage is still under attack, but that shouldn't surprise us. Everything that is of God It has always and will always be under attack until the Lord sets it all straight and removes all of His attackers. And He'll do that. But today, even today, marriage, yes, marriage is being attacked by the homosexuals. But I'm going to tell you, that is not the greatest attack. That's just the latest. But that's not the greatest attack. The greatest attacks are actually mentioned right here in our text. The first, The word whoremonger, fornicator, the Greek word, you'll recognize it, pornos. The fact is, what this is talking about is any sexual, physical relation outside of the marriage bed. And the fact is that any, any, any sexual relation outside of the marriage bed is an attack against God's marriage and an attack against the God of marriage and it is dishonorable. Because God has made a place for this. God has made a place, if I could say this, for the blessing of sex. And it is a blessing. He made one place, one very special place for it, and it is in the marriage bed. Matter of fact, it itself is one of the purposes of marriage. As a matter of fact, the researchers have now proven, as if we needed researchers to prove this, but they've now proven that children are best served in a home where both a mother and father are present. But God already knew this. He already knew this and this is why he created marriage between one man and one woman, which would be a mom and a dad or a dad and a mom, and then the marriage bed within that marriage relationship through which that man and that woman might have children and then those children grow up in that home of that man and that woman that had that relationship within that marriage And those children would grow up in that home. It's just that simple. It really is just that simple. The Lord, you know, He reveals these things to us and He just makes it very simple. This is why this is like it is. This is why, this is why, this is why. And it's just boom, boom, boom. And that's logical. Anything else, anything else is an attack against God and an attack against His marriage. The second word here, adulterers, you know, it's quite amazing that there is so much outrage, at least among some in our society, about this gay thing. And I'm not saying there shouldn't be outrage. Don't misunderstand me. But there's so much outrage about that and hardly a word about these other attacks. As a matter of fact, it's just become normal. People don't even see it as an attack, but it most certainly is. This attack that is seen here in this word adulterers, this attack is an extramarital sexual relationship, a breaking of the marriage covenant, and it too is an attack against God's institution of marriage, and it too is dishonoring to God. There ought to be an outrage that we have a website devoted to this attack with millions of members and participants. devoted to breaking the marriage covenant, devoted because life's too short, have an affair. I mean, that ought to outrage us as a nation. That's a whole lot more than the homosexual movement that millions upon millions of people are involved with this website that is encouraging and facilitating this attack on marriage. Well, in both of these cases, God is quite clear once again. What is God's reaction? Very plainly, He will judge. Not He might judge, but He will judge. He will judge. We will not escape judgment for these crimes. He will judge our bodies. He tells us that this is a sin not only against Him and not only against others, but the only sin that He says is against our own self, our own bodies. It is a sin against our bodies. It is a sin against our homes. It is a sin against our families. It is a sin against children. It is a sin against a nation. And the only hope, praise the Lord, there is hope though, is forgiveness in Christ through repentance, through repentance before God. So again, we see this very practical teaching. Marriage and all that it entails is honorable, it's good, it's precious, it's wonderful. But when we take those things designed by God to be the blessings of marriage and separate them from the marriage relationship, then we bring them out of God's order. And we defile them. And it becomes sin. And it will bring God's judgment upon us. Again, this is not... You see it, don't you? This is not, let's say, Brother Tom. This is very clear, very practical teaching by our own God. Very important. So then what is the implication here in the context of the passage? This. If we are to truly love like verse 1 commands, we must put away sin. Sin. Sin will war against your love. This love that we all must possess, this love that we all must operate in, if indeed we are the children of God, we must love saints. So therefore, we must. Put away sin. Sin separates. Sin separates us from God. Sin separates us from loving Him as we ought to. And sin separates us from one another and loving one another as we ought to. As a matter of fact, just let me say it like this. I have seen it so many times. If you feel yourself becoming distant from the Lord's people, if you feel yourself becoming distant from the Lord's church, if you look back and say, well, last year I sure was closer to everyone else, and last year I sure was more involved in the things of God, there's a reason for that. I'm going to be very blunt with you. There's a reason and it's sin. It's sin. Maybe you haven't forgiven someone for offending you. That's sin. Maybe you haven't gone to them and taken care of that issue. That's sin. Maybe you just don't care about the things of the Lord as you used to. I wish I had that movie up here where she gave that lady that lukewarm coffee. You know, we give God a cup of lukewarm coffee every time we sin against Him. Lukewarmness is sin. Lukewarmness is sin. It's sin. It all equals sin, whether it's open sin, maybe it's open sin. You're running. Running from God and running away from the things of the Lord, the people of the Lord. Maybe it's secret sin and there's guilt and you're running. Maybe it's sins of omission, things that you should have done that you haven't, or commission, things that you have done and you're not. But it's sin, and sin separates, and sin wars against love. It, sin, may even put love to death. It may put your love to death, and if it does that, then it proves you never were a child of God in the first place. You see, let us war against sin, not against God. Let us war against sin, not against one another. Let us war against this flesh, not quench and grieve the Spirit by our sin. Let us draw near and put down and put away everything that separates for love's sakes. Let brotherly love endure. Well, it will not if there's sin. And I'm not preaching to you. I'm here right with you. There's sin in me. It will war against my love for you. It will war against my love for God. That's the reason God tells us over and over. In how many ways does He tell us? Get rid of that sin. Repent from that sin. Turn from that sin. Turn to Me. If you want My blessings upon your life, turn to Me. Turn away from that sin. Put away that sin. Run from that sin. Flee from that sin. Resist that sin. Sin. Sin wars against love. We must love sin, so therefore we must put away sin. Then the third here, verse 5, let your conversation Be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." The language here is literally, We probably need to write this down because it's not that clear here in this verse, but the language is literally, let your character be free from the love of money and be content with the present. Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with the presence. Now, let me make this clear. There is nothing wrong with money. There is nothing wrong with possessions. They are indeed a blessing from God. And there are many, many multiple examples in Scripture of people who own great possessions, who were great godly peoples. People like Abraham, people like Job. But here's the thing. They did not love and crave those things more than they loved and craved God and His people. Now, I know we just need more, don't we? We just need more. And we make all kinds of scenarios and justifications in our mind to why we need more. We just need more. Well, these two verses put all of those things to bed. Watch here. We think we need more today. We look around us and we need, we need, we need. I could probably go around the room and ask, what do you need? And most everybody, if we're honest, there would be something that you think you need today that you don't have. But notice what it says at the end of verse 5. He has said, who is He? God. God out of Deuteronomy 31 verse 6, actually. He has said, God has said, I will never leave you or forsake you, or that word means desert you. So first, I will never leave. That means, if He will never leave, that He's present. Right? He's present right now. That's today. We think we need. We think that we just have to have. But the reality is, we don't need anything but what we have. And as the children of God, we have the promises of that being the case and being sure. We know that that is true. We don't need. There is nothing that we need. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not need. I shall not lack. We don't need anything but what we have, and here's the reason why. Because the Lord knows, and He is present. If He's not going to leave, that means He's present. He's presently with us, and He knows precisely, presently, what you have. Right now, this moment, and presently, above all else, you have Him. And because you have Him, you have everything you presently need because of Him. Maybe it's present sorrow, maybe it's present pain, maybe it's present affliction, maybe it's present fear. There's nothing that you need that you do not presently have. So that covers today. Well, and then we become, we think, we become so terrified, oh no, oh no, you know, we got away from that present mercy. Tomorrow, what about tomorrow? We build these things up in our mind, all these things are going to happen. What about next week? What about next month? What about next year? What about when I retire? Well, what does God say here? I will never forsake you or desert you. Literally, nor will I ever forsake you, desert you. So that's down the road. He covered today with, I'll never leave you. But now, I'll never desert you either. That's down the road, right? God says to His children, I am with you. I am with you. now and I will not forsake you, I will not desert you. You do not nor will you ever have a need, you may have a want, there's a difference. You do not or will ever have a need that I will not supply because I promise you have me. I understand that the actual language here in this verse, there's a triple negative. Okay? A triple negative. It literally says, I will not, I will not, I will not leave you or forsake you. You can't say it much clearer than that. Now watch this. So therefore, because of this reality, because we have God for the present and God for the future, because we have Him and He knows and He has promised to provide our every need, not every want, But every need, because of that, so therefore, verse 6, we may boldly say, that word boldly means confidently, it means with good cheer, happily, contently, we may contently say, what does he say? Well, it's out of Psalm 118 verse 6, what is it? The Lord. Class, what is that word? What is that word? You see it? Can you figure it out? Yahweh. That's the word. You see it in all caps there. Yahweh. Yahweh, the existing One. The God that really exists. The Almighty Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth. He, Yahweh, is my Helper. Yahweh is my helper. I may confidently, boldly, cheerfully, jumping with joy, if I could do one of those things where you click your heels together this morning, I would do it. We can confidently say, He, Yahweh, that One, the One that exists, He is my helper. And that word helper comes from the word cry. When I cry for help, Yahweh hears me. Yahweh is present. Yahweh is my help. So what can puny man do to me? The answer is nothing. Now, you may be wondering, and should, what verse 6 has to do with verse 5? What does Yahweh being our help against what men can do to us have to do with the love of money? Well, again, remember, you've got to get to the root of God's Word. What is God intending in the passage? It's so important. These Hebrew saints were being persecuted. These Hebrew saints were being tortured. These Hebrew saints were being killed. And much of the time, their persecutors, their enemies, in their inquisition, they would tempt these saints to recant their faith. They would tempt these saints to deny their Savior, Jesus Christ, with the promise of money. with the promise of possession, with the promise of houses, with the promise of land. And here the Apostle is teaching them and encouraging them to love God more than money. Love God more than these things. Be true to the faith. Be true to Christ. Don't fear the terror of men. Don't fear the needs of the day and the needs of tomorrow and the needs of next year. Because you have Him. You have Christ. They owned the faith and the salvation of the true God and therefore He was with them. But is He enough? Is He, is Yahweh enough for you? So again, it's very practical teaching. But what's the implication? Well, selfishness and sin will war against our love, but here we go. So will dissatisfaction. So will covetousness. Someone has written, discontentment is one of our greatest sins, and contentment is one of God's greatest blessings. And there are so many warnings about this in Scripture. Surely, this must be a great sin, and surely, not only that, surely it must be a great sin we are all apt to fall into. Listen to just a few of them. Ecclesiastes 5.10, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance, he will not be satisfied with increase. This is also vanity. Proverbs 23.5, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? That which is nothing? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. 1 Timothy 6.5 Listen to this warning. I'm jumping in here. "...perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth." And listen to the description of those men that he's talking about. "...supposing, thinking that gain is godliness." That having a lot of money means you're godly. "...from such withdraw thyself." Get away from them. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich, or they that love money and possessions, listen, listen, they will fall into temptation and snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. That's double destruction. That word perdition is destruction too. Destruction, destruction. For the love of money, the love of money, not money, the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith. They've just thrown eternal life away and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Saints, this dissatisfaction, this loving and craving money and possessions and riches will war against your love, because frankly, you won't have time to love the Lord. You won't have time to love the things of the Lord. You won't have time to love the people of the world, because this pursuit of riches will consume you. I asked the young people this question last week at our meeting. Can it be said that the true measure of a life, the success, the true measure of the success of a life, the measure of a life well lived, can it be said, is this the truth, that it is measured in how our lives affect others? And I gave them a list. of the richest people in America in the last 65 years. And I didn't know most of them. I'd heard of a couple of them. But those I had heard, and I don't think anybody else did either, those that they had heard of, we don't know anything about them. We don't know what their life entailed. But on the opposite extreme of that, but we knew a little boy. from 2600 years ago in a faraway land because his life affected others for the Lord. God blessed Daniel with great prestige and I would assume great riches as well. But it was because you can see it so clearly in that book. You can see it was because His greatest desire, His highest delight was in the Lord Himself. He loved the Lord and He loved others. And man, did God use His life. Oh boy, that's a life well lived. Then the writer brings it to summation here in verses 7 and 8. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. We have to know what is really intended here. You know, a lot of times we apply this to churches and their pastors and there's an element to where this is the case. But first, we have to know what is truly, really intended here because it's much greater than that. The apostle is calling them here in this letter to remember, to consider those who have taught to them the Word of God and then lived its faith before them. And He's calling them to consider their conduct and how it proceeded and the true riches that it produced unto and into their death. That's what He's telling them to look at. What did their faith, what did it look like, what did it do, what did it produce as it led them through life and then in those horrific deaths that they experienced? Literally saying, consider, remember, behold the life well lived, the life of the faith of Jesus Christ and these men who died and gave everything for Christ. Someone has said it much better than I ever could. Let me read it to you. Speaking of verse 7 and 8, he says, Let them imitate the truthfulness or faithfulness of their great leaders in the past, who had not given their time and thoughts to heaping up riches, but had devoted themselves to the work of witnessing and of speaking the Word of God. Let them review with critical eye their manner of life and observe how it ended. They all died in faith. Some of them suffered martyrdom so complete and entirely unworldly was their self-surrender to Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ, listen, here's the inks. But Jesus Christ is still the same One. If He was worthy that Stephen and James should die for His sake, He is worthy of our allegiance too. Yea, and He will be the same forever. When the world has passed away with its fashion and its lust, when the earth and the works that are thereto are burned up and dissolved, Jesus Christ abides. What He was yesterday to His martyr Stephen, that He is to all that follow Him in earth today. And that He will forever be when He shall have appeared unto them who expect Him unto salvation. The antithesis that will be seen is not between the departing saints and the abiding Christ, but between the world, which the Hebrew Christians loved too well, and the Christ, whom the saints of their church had loved better than the world and served by faith unto death. You see, He's saying to these saints here, look at them, look at the faith, look what it produced, even in their death, as they held true to Jesus Christ, as their lives were taken for Him, from them, for His sake. Think of them, consider them. Let me read to you Romans 12 beginning in verse 9. I'm going to read it to you out of the New American Standard. It's very clear. It says, Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Persevering in tribulation. Devoted to prayer. Contributing to the needs of the saints. Practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." Church, Jesus Christ was worthy of the lives of these saints. He was worthy. He was worthy, and he is still worthy of our lives. He is still worthy. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh, that we would give our lives to Him. That we would give our lives for Him. That would be the highest of honors. To give our lives to Christ, to give our lives even for Him. But we cannot, we cannot give it to Him, we cannot give it for Him without love. Without this love that we are commanded in verse 1. So with all that we are, let us put down and war against with all vigor and faithfulness that which will dampen and that which will destroy our love. Let us put away selfishness. Let us put down sin. Let us leave dissatisfaction. For love's sake. For love's sake. May the Lord help us for Christ's sake. Let's pray.