General Session 10: Triumph through Pastoring - Austin Duncan
00:00:00.000 | Will you open your Bible to Hebrews chapter 13?
00:00:08.400 | Continue to explore the theme of truth and triumph in Hebrews 13 verses 7 through 17
00:00:18.840 | is my chosen text.
00:00:23.440 | Begin by reading it to you.
00:00:29.080 | Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result
00:00:41.060 | of their conduct, imitate their faith.
00:00:46.660 | Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
00:00:55.560 | Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to
00:01:02.180 | be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not
00:01:09.940 | benefited.
00:01:12.380 | We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
00:01:20.660 | For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high
00:01:27.420 | priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
00:01:34.740 | Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered
00:01:45.340 | outside the gate.
00:01:48.020 | So let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
00:01:58.140 | For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
00:02:08.860 | Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the
00:02:15.820 | fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.
00:02:20.680 | And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
00:02:28.980 | Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who
00:02:36.860 | will give an account.
00:02:39.420 | Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
00:02:47.820 | This is the word of the living God.
00:02:51.620 | Father, would you instruct your servants by word and spirit to accomplish all your purposes
00:02:59.100 | in the hearts of these brothers?
00:03:02.020 | May they be encouraged to follow Jesus more faithfully as a result of your word, even
00:03:09.340 | in this hour.
00:03:10.940 | In the matchless name of Christ, amen.
00:03:17.980 | The Roman Empire made the church look like a tiny speck.
00:03:24.500 | In the first century, it had to be the least of Rome's concerns.
00:03:31.900 | Visigoths, sustaining a high Greek-centered culture, competitors for Caesar's authority,
00:03:42.140 | squabbling within the Senate.
00:03:43.540 | Those are things that Rome was concerned about in the first century, and Christianity may
00:03:49.140 | be one of the things that the Roman Empire would deal with on their agenda and some of
00:03:53.420 | the threats it may have posed in some out-of-the-way places in the Roman Empire.
00:03:58.700 | The church was, though, in perspective, tiny.
00:04:03.540 | A tiny little ship on a massive sea that was Rome, and every Christian knew it.
00:04:12.740 | Judaism was big, propertied, historic, ancient.
00:04:21.580 | The Roman Empire was powerful, massive, and global.
00:04:26.900 | The church was infinitesimally small.
00:04:30.500 | And to this group of former Jewish members of followers of a cult that was perceived
00:04:37.520 | to be this new upspring form of Judaism that was kind of monotheistic by outside perspectives,
00:04:44.780 | that was confusing to outsiders, people who followed after a crucified Messiah, claiming
00:04:51.220 | He was resurrected, and now trying to incorporate Gentiles into their mix, monotheists in a
00:04:57.900 | world of polytheism, sort of Jews, sort of not, hard to understand.
00:05:04.620 | It would seem quite easy to stomp out.
00:05:09.620 | The church knew its place in this massive world as far as politics went.
00:05:16.260 | They had nothing as far as influence went.
00:05:21.100 | They had nothing as far as resources went.
00:05:23.560 | The church was quite poor.
00:05:26.640 | And for the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews, these believers were becoming poorer.
00:05:33.060 | They were being thrown into prison, being threatened with death.
00:05:35.820 | Some of their leaders had already gone from their midst to heaven.
00:05:42.420 | Increasing persecution, increasing societal ostracization, the little tiny church floating
00:05:49.060 | on the sea of the Roman Empire receives a letter from a pastor knowing that their greatest
00:05:57.740 | struggle is not being squished by Rome, but that they were on a real place of spiritual
00:06:06.860 | danger.
00:06:07.860 | They were on the brink of recapitulation.
00:06:10.380 | They were thinking about going back to their former manner of life.
00:06:14.440 | They felt their smallness, and he concludes his letter by telling them that the greatest
00:06:19.660 | threat to their existence is not Rome, and it is not the machinations of the Jewish political
00:06:24.520 | powers.
00:06:25.520 | The greatest threat to their existence is within their own community.
00:06:30.300 | And so after presenting a picture, a portrait of the greatness and beauty and matchlessness
00:06:35.360 | and superiority and supremacy of Jesus Christ for 12 chapters, and showing them that God's
00:06:41.480 | plan from the very start was to bring through His people Israel glory to His Son, Messiah,
00:06:48.680 | and to have His Son be the substance of all the shadows that the Old Testament had within
00:06:54.380 | it, that Jesus is the culmination, the final word from God, the ultimate mediator, the
00:06:59.960 | ultimate prophet, the ultimate priest, the high priest of all that the high priest represented
00:07:05.480 | before, that Jesus is God, a very God, and His revelation is the final one and that His
00:07:11.020 | city is the one that will stand and all that was left for these people was to follow Him.
00:07:19.680 | He tells them if they're going to receive the salvation that they had tasted, the final
00:07:27.480 | perseverance into glory, if they were going to be perfected in the end, they must not
00:07:33.440 | give up.
00:07:35.640 | That the threat of apostasy was real.
00:07:38.720 | They should not quit.
00:07:39.720 | They should not walk away.
00:07:40.720 | They should finish the Christian race.
00:07:43.720 | And the great threat was not the juggernaut that was Rome and persecution, though it was
00:07:49.600 | on the increase.
00:07:53.440 | The danger was within their own hearts.
00:07:57.040 | And so the epistle to the Hebrews is a call for perseverant faith, and it finds great
00:08:02.200 | focus at the end of this letter in chapter 13.
00:08:06.520 | And when anyone's writing a letter to someone they love, they cram in so many important
00:08:11.920 | things they want to mention at the end, and this author, this pastor is no different.
00:08:18.400 | He's spoken to them in the opening of chapter 13 about the necessity of love continuing
00:08:23.960 | and to continue to pour out their lives in hospitality to strangers and to remember those
00:08:30.020 | believers who were locked up and imprisoned and ill-treated and to sympathize with them
00:08:35.900 | and to not abandon God's plan of marriage, even in a society where their very lives were
00:08:43.920 | in danger.
00:08:44.920 | But this was indeed the way God perpetuated the human race and preserved the truth and
00:08:52.200 | the family.
00:08:53.200 | And he talks to them about marriage and what most people take to be assorted commands.
00:08:58.840 | He continues all the way through the end of the chapter with various things that sound
00:09:03.520 | like the epistle to Hebrews but are maybe unclear with how they're linked.
00:09:11.160 | But I think that this final section, as the author brings his epistolary homily to a close,
00:09:19.840 | is right in tune with exactly what we've been talking about all week long, the triumph of
00:09:27.280 | truth.
00:09:29.440 | The triumph of truth is certain, and what truth is triumphing through in Hebrews 13:7-17
00:09:38.800 | is it triumphs through something seemingly unremarkable.
00:09:45.860 | Truth triumphs through pastoring.
00:09:50.960 | Pastoring.
00:09:55.160 | That's what's being described in verse 7 and verse 17.
00:10:01.600 | Pastoring is the antidote to final apostasy, and pastoring is what will bring these people
00:10:09.440 | to final salvation.
00:10:11.740 | The fruit of their worship of Christ will be evident in their lives in all the categories
00:10:17.080 | listed in verses 1 through 6 as they receive this final portrait of their leaders and the
00:10:25.080 | importance of their leaders, especially as their leaders follow Jesus faithfully.
00:10:36.160 | That seems to be what links together what William Lane sees as a chiasm in Hebrews 13
00:10:43.040 | or multiple chiasms as there's a verse about spiritual leaders in verse 7 and a word, a
00:10:51.320 | command, an imperative about spiritual leaders in verse 17, and then seemingly very epistle
00:10:59.080 | of Hebrews kind of language about the sacrifice of Christ, about legalistic teachings about
00:11:04.640 | food in verse 9, the familiar verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,
00:11:11.720 | in treaty for them to go outside of the camp in verses 12 and 13, and then a word about
00:11:18.080 | a city that is to come and sacrifice of praise.
00:11:22.240 | What is it that links all of this together?
00:11:27.320 | I think it's a portrait of triumph through pastoring, a passage that shows us what is
00:11:38.400 | our work summarized, that we teach and obey the Word of God.
00:11:48.480 | We provide for God's flock in our teaching and with our lives a careful example of what
00:11:58.200 | it looks like to follow Jesus no matter what the cost.
00:12:06.200 | It's an incredible passage that challenges us and reminds us that being a pastor is not
00:12:17.400 | being a visionary, innovative, entrepreneurial leader, but being a pastor is someone who
00:12:26.680 | has the conviction and the desire and the will to follow Jesus faithfully no matter
00:12:35.080 | where he leads.
00:12:38.160 | It's an incredible passage for us as men who want to humbly follow Jesus and whose role
00:12:45.920 | is to teach the people the Word of Christ and invite the people to walk with us as we
00:12:51.920 | follow Him.
00:12:54.200 | And so this tiny boat on that massive sea of opposition is so similar to where we find
00:13:00.640 | ourselves today, a world moving away from anything resembling Christian ethics, a worldview
00:13:06.500 | contrary to our own with lightning speed, it seems to be unraveling.
00:13:14.120 | And here we are with our singular insistence that Jesus is the only way of salvation and
00:13:20.720 | that Christian ethics are non-negotiable in the face of a world that has moved on.
00:13:32.480 | It also serves as a reminder that the greatest danger we face is not an unbelieving world
00:13:41.160 | or un-Christian ethics.
00:13:44.560 | The greatest danger we face is a neglect of one another, of neglecting our soul's closeness
00:13:51.360 | to Jesus.
00:13:53.240 | The message here is simple, beginning with reminding them in verse 7 to remember their
00:13:56.620 | leaders who first told them the gospel and then concluding the thought in verse 17, a
00:14:01.320 | final word, not just about the leaders who first heard them, some of whom were gone and
00:14:05.660 | died and gone to heaven, some of whom were the apostolic witness.
00:14:09.980 | Some of them knew Jesus personally, those earliest leaders had passed away, but he's
00:14:14.200 | reminding them they're still leaders they needed to follow, they're still a part of
00:14:18.180 | this Christian community, they need this accountability, they need these leaders, they need this discipleship,
00:14:23.460 | their souls need to be clinging to other souls so that they can never give up meeting together,
00:14:29.740 | that they would not turn back to their former manner of life, that they would not estimate
00:14:33.980 | the cost of following Jesus to be too high for them.
00:14:39.300 | And so his final words for them are to follow leaders who follow Jesus and to find his grace
00:14:46.480 | satisfying and to be willing to bear the reproach that Jesus bore and to further follow not
00:14:52.920 | just the leaders that are gone, but to follow leaders today, leaders like us who are imperfect,
00:15:01.220 | but we need each other and we need to stay close to Jesus if our witness and our perseverance
00:15:07.060 | is to remain intact.
00:15:09.220 | It's his grace that will motivate and sustain and uphold every faithful pastor.
00:15:22.300 | The best way to look at this is in five points because Steve Lawson requires all of us to
00:15:29.420 | use only five points, never more, never less.
00:15:39.940 | And so how do we triumph through pastoring of all things?
00:15:44.920 | On verses 7 through 8, first thing we see is that we must be steadfast in faith, steadfast
00:15:52.780 | in faith.
00:15:53.780 | Look at verse 7, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering
00:16:04.820 | the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
00:16:11.100 | Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."
00:16:21.420 | We all understand that pastors are a result of other pastors, right?
00:16:27.940 | The reason that you're a spiritual leader in your church today is because other spiritual
00:16:32.580 | leaders taught you, discipled you, invested in you, and that is exactly what the author
00:16:39.460 | of Hebrews has in mind as he instructs these struggling Christians on the brink of considering
00:16:46.960 | a return to their former manner of life, that they need to remember the faithful witness
00:16:52.540 | of those Christians who led them, who spoke the word of God to them, and to consider the
00:16:59.580 | result of their conduct and to imitate their faith.
00:17:04.220 | And so the recollection is to those leaders, and the tense of the verbs makes us think
00:17:10.900 | these are the leaders who are no longer with them.
00:17:14.020 | They would be the immediate leaders who shared the gospel, who planted these churches, who
00:17:20.420 | ministered directly to these people, those closest to the apostles and to those who followed
00:17:26.580 | the apostles.
00:17:27.580 | That's who's being brought to mind.
00:17:30.380 | In the context of the epistle to Hebrews, it's undoubtedly inclusive of the triumphant
00:17:35.460 | faith on display in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of witnesses.
00:17:40.780 | And so the Christian being spurred towards steadfastness in their faith is taught first
00:17:48.140 | to look at good examples that have gone before them, those who have taught the word of God
00:17:54.060 | to them and, as importantly, modeled what they taught, and to remind them that those
00:18:00.620 | are the people who are worth remembering and worth imitating, especially due to the reality
00:18:06.260 | that many of them have finished the race.
00:18:11.180 | And so my mind goes to pastors, famous and not famous, who poured into my life when I
00:18:19.060 | was an 18-year-old youth pastor.
00:18:23.140 | There's nothing worse than having an 18-year-old youth pastor.
00:18:30.020 | But the glory of a young man is his strength, so we lock in 30-hour famine, whole deal.
00:18:37.580 | And patient pastors poured into my life.
00:18:42.300 | And that's continued through the years, and every one of us can think of the name of our
00:18:46.660 | pastors who loved us and corrected us and taught us and showed us how to live and gave
00:18:53.860 | us that faithful example of perseverant faith.
00:18:58.100 | It's a beautiful reminder that is in accordance with everything we read in the Bible about
00:19:06.420 | the relationship of our teaching and our living.
00:19:11.020 | Paul tells Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine, for by it he'll save himself and
00:19:18.500 | those who hear him.
00:19:20.860 | And so this is another reminder that steadfastness in faith needs to be dependent on the example
00:19:28.680 | of others who are steadfast in their faith, right?
00:19:32.460 | And so I'm grateful to brothers that I can see with my eyes right now and that I can't
00:19:37.020 | see with my eyes right now, who have gone to heaven, who invested in me when I was at
00:19:42.080 | my dumbest.
00:19:47.940 | You think back to the Sunday school teacher who shared the gospel with you or to faithful
00:19:53.100 | grandparents or a mom and dad who kept dragging you to church.
00:20:01.120 | They taught the Word of God to you, they led you, and they showed you what it meant to
00:20:06.440 | live out the faith.
00:20:09.600 | Faith being one of the great themes of the book of Hebrews, it's faith, truly faith that's
00:20:16.940 | on display throughout this entire book.
00:20:21.940 | It begins in Hebrews 4, and he says it was faith that caused the first generation who
00:20:29.780 | rebelled against God in the wilderness, it was their lack of faith that caused them to
00:20:36.340 | have hard hearts.
00:20:38.480 | In Hebrews 6, it's a reminder that the foundation of repentance is faith towards God, it's the
00:20:46.180 | starting point of the Christian religion.
00:20:49.460 | Hebrews 6 tells us that they ought not to be sluggish, but imitators of those who through
00:20:54.940 | faith and patience inherit the promises.
00:20:58.100 | Hebrews 10 says draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.
00:21:02.780 | And then Hebrews 11 says faith dozens of times.
00:21:07.500 | A reminder to our ears of the centrality of faith that is believed and entrusted and passed
00:21:13.780 | on from generation to generation, and just as important as being taught, being lived.
00:21:24.660 | And so to remember those faithful examples that went before them in steadfastness.
00:21:31.880 | And then we hit verse 8.
00:21:34.500 | And verse 8 is great.
00:21:37.460 | People love verse 8.
00:21:39.620 | They pull it right out of here, and it never gets to see this spot again.
00:21:45.860 | It lives on a magnet on your fridge.
00:21:50.620 | Grandma going to crochet that.
00:21:53.760 | Crochet is not the right word, but you know what I'm talking about.
00:21:57.100 | Maybe she's really good at crocheting.
00:22:00.500 | That verse lives in systematic theology as the doctrine of immutability, and we're grateful
00:22:07.220 | for that reality.
00:22:10.020 | But in this context, it has an even greater significance.
00:22:15.740 | You see, the people in verse 7 are not around anymore.
00:22:21.420 | The earlier disciples, the earlier evangelists, some of them have passed away, or they're
00:22:26.260 | no longer in this community, and they need an ongoing example.
00:22:30.260 | They need someone with constancy, someone who will be there for them, someone who they
00:22:35.220 | can't hang on to for only a moment when they were converted, and then that person moves
00:22:39.820 | on, a missionary to a different place, whatever.
00:22:43.580 | They need something ongoing that's going to give them that, and in verse 17, they'll be
00:22:48.220 | reminded of their present leaders, not to be simply and purely nostalgic about leaders
00:22:53.780 | in the past, but to look to their current spiritual leaders and follow them as they
00:22:58.060 | follow Jesus.
00:22:59.260 | But there's a greater constancy behind every spiritual leader that's drawn out in Hebrews
00:23:04.860 | 13, verse 8, and it isn't - the argument of Hebrews 13, 8 isn't, "Well, they spoke in
00:23:11.460 | tongues in the book of Acts, that's why we speak in tongues today.
00:23:13.820 | Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
00:23:16.580 | That's a wonky argument.
00:23:18.620 | It's out of the context.
00:23:20.660 | The context is saying that the constancy of Jesus Christ is not first and foremost the
00:23:29.140 | doctrine of immutability, or just a verse that brings comfort, that Jesus is the same
00:23:34.340 | as Jesus always was.
00:23:36.700 | It's a reminder that the constancy of Jesus today and yesterday and forever has everything
00:23:42.600 | to do with us being sustained in our pursuit of sanctification and glorification, our following
00:23:49.580 | of leaders who follow Jesus.
00:23:52.340 | And so we remember that the person who invested in us and discipled us and evangelized us
00:23:58.060 | represented someone who will never change and never falter and never drift and always
00:24:04.880 | provide leaders as a gift to His church.
00:24:08.360 | What is behind every true God-honoring, Bible-preaching, faith-exhibiting, and holiness-pursuing pastor
00:24:18.340 | is the chief shepherd himself.
00:24:20.660 | It's Jesus Christ, the one who's the same yesterday and today and forever.
00:24:27.900 | And that's helpful because we all have leaders in our life who have failed us in this age
00:24:35.620 | of apostasy and deconstruction.
00:24:39.260 | Some of the finest and most effective disciples in some of your lives that brought you to
00:24:45.100 | places of greater maturity and introduced you to ministry or baptized you or confronted
00:24:50.900 | your sin no longer walk with Jesus, and that is a heartbreaking experience.
00:24:58.180 | So what are we supposed to do?
00:25:00.740 | Quit like they did?
00:25:03.460 | Or remember that for a time they helped us because though they could not remain constant
00:25:09.740 | and though they were fallen and frail and imperfect, and some of them maybe not even
00:25:13.540 | genuine followers of Jesus, they pointed us to the one who would always be there for us,
00:25:20.460 | who would always teach us, who would always model for us, always provide for us ongoing
00:25:25.080 | leadership in our lives through real people who are shepherding us on behalf of the chief
00:25:29.980 | shepherd.
00:25:31.800 | This isn't some abstract theological concept coming out in verse 8.
00:25:36.820 | This is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday.
00:25:42.940 | Chapter 5, verse 7, "In the days of His flesh, when Jesus was on earth, He offered up prayers
00:25:47.940 | and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was to save Him from death.
00:25:54.620 | He was heard because of His piety."
00:25:57.300 | What's that a description of?
00:25:58.740 | Jesus' earthly life.
00:25:59.980 | What He's done in the past is of significance by way of imitation and by way of faithfulness.
00:26:05.860 | Jesus' present ministry has already been featured extensively in this book.
00:26:11.260 | What about today?
00:26:12.260 | Hebrews 4, verse 15, "We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
00:26:22.660 | but one who's been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.
00:26:25.980 | Therefore let us currently, right now, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace
00:26:32.900 | so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need."
00:26:39.240 | That's what I need today.
00:26:40.240 | Isn't that what you need?
00:26:42.780 | Help from Jesus?
00:26:43.780 | Well, He's the same Jesus as yesterday.
00:26:47.840 | And today He provides help, and His throne of grace is available and accessible.
00:26:52.960 | What about tomorrow, Jesus?
00:26:55.100 | Well, He's not just a historical figure, and He's not just elevated to the place of
00:27:01.380 | current help, but we can be confident that currently He is our mediator and our sympathetic
00:27:07.520 | high priest, but we can be ensured that forever, Hebrews 7, 25, He is able to save forever
00:27:15.580 | those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for us.
00:27:21.980 | Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:27:26.460 | And so what does that have in common with verse 7?
00:27:29.140 | The imitation and influence of those who are faithful are always reflecting the constancy
00:27:33.500 | of Jesus in your life.
00:27:35.260 | You see, Jesus in your life is never going to be the only leadership that's seen in your
00:27:40.360 | life.
00:27:41.360 | He's never going to be just you and Jesus because Jesus is the constant one, but because
00:27:45.520 | Jesus is the one who is only and truly faithful, He will always have other imperfect leaders
00:27:51.560 | in your life who are faithfully trying to follow Jesus, the chief shepherd, under shepherds
00:27:57.600 | who serve you and feed you and lead you.
00:28:00.840 | That's who we, brothers, are called to be, faithful leaders who follow Jesus so that
00:28:06.080 | we can, like Paul, say, "Follow me as I follow Christ."
00:28:10.680 | Faithful, influential, imitatable.
00:28:22.320 | All of us under King Jesus is a perfect example of steadfastness as He remains the same and
00:28:27.760 | is always available for His people.
00:28:29.880 | He always has been and He always will be.
00:28:33.520 | Remember your leaders, their words, verbal, exemplary, the consequences of their lives
00:28:37.960 | before all of us following.
00:28:41.360 | These leaders worship Jesus and when they're dead and gone, Christians will still worship
00:28:45.640 | Jesus and He tells them because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:28:53.080 | There's a second way that pastor triumph occurs, that triumph exists in pastoral ministry and
00:29:03.520 | it's in verses 9 and 10.
00:29:06.040 | Not only are we to be steadfast in faith, but we're to be strengthened by grace.
00:29:11.320 | So 7 and 8 are steadfast in faith, 9 and 10 are strengthened by grace.
00:29:14.880 | He calls them to be strengthened by grace.
00:29:17.920 | Look at what it says, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is
00:29:22.880 | good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were
00:29:28.200 | so occupied were not benefited.
00:29:32.680 | We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat."
00:29:39.360 | Now that is some very epistles to the Hebrew language.
00:29:44.680 | And no wonder many commentators find this to be assorted commands.
00:29:49.540 | And though it is dangerous to talk about food at 1146, "You've been overfed, you'll be fine."
00:29:59.120 | I'm sorry, we've been overfed.
00:30:10.980 | This mention of food is helping us see what it means to be strengthened, an important
00:30:19.300 | concept in this book, by grace.
00:30:25.960 | This original audience was currently struggling with understanding the superiority of the
00:30:33.220 | New Covenant over the old, whether it was rituals or temple worship or holy days or
00:30:40.680 | regulations about food, kosher kind of stuff.
00:30:45.040 | They had, like so many of their contemporaries, confused the relationship between the dietary
00:30:50.620 | laws and the grace of God.
00:30:54.680 | And I know this doesn't sound very relevant to you unless you came out of first century
00:30:59.400 | Judaism.
00:31:00.400 | There are some of you that are old, but not that old.
00:31:05.480 | But it's a reminder that false teaching about grace is still as prevalent today as ever.
00:31:12.080 | We've been warned about it repeatedly in this conference.
00:31:15.600 | Dr. MacArthur spoke of the dangers of antinomianism.
00:31:21.440 | We've been warned about the threat of legalism and externalism if we don't guard our hearts
00:31:28.960 | rightly, and we're aware of all the false religions that surround and threaten our people.
00:31:34.800 | And so verse 9 and 10 reads a lot like the book of Galatians.
00:31:38.420 | It reminds us not to fall back into the kind of legalism that their contemporaries knew
00:31:43.760 | all too well, and to keep at the forefront of our mind the advantage of grace.
00:31:50.400 | Because there is a greater advantage of grace over ceremonial foods.
00:31:53.760 | You see, it was a big deal for them about what they ate and what they couldn't eat
00:31:57.980 | and what day of the week it was and what rituals and what matters of religion were happening.
00:32:04.240 | Ten thousand ordinances and dietary restrictions and laws and weights and measures and tithes
00:32:11.080 | and Sabbaths and festivals and everything else.
00:32:14.640 | And none of those things in the old covenant were ever intended to be the focus.
00:32:23.560 | They were intended to point to the God who gave them to them to cause His people to be
00:32:30.220 | aware of their sinfulness, dependent on Him, and aware of His grace as they were to be
00:32:36.480 | separate from the world.
00:32:38.680 | Every single law and regulation not only served to condemn the people to show and highlight
00:32:44.800 | their sinfulness, it sought to show and highlight to the people that they belonged to God and
00:32:52.360 | that He was a God who operated on the basis of grace.
00:32:57.320 | That's the message of the Old Testament.
00:32:59.620 | It is not exclusively - grace is not exclusively the message of the new covenant.
00:33:05.880 | And so, this pastor wants these believers to understand something that we need to understand
00:33:13.040 | in our own battle against antinomianism or legalism, and it is that the nutritional value
00:33:20.240 | of legalism is zero.
00:33:23.840 | He wants them to know that those who try to make Christianity externally focused are doing
00:33:29.440 | it completely wrong.
00:33:31.800 | And I think that's what we face today.
00:33:35.280 | Not dietary restrictions, but just a million made-up rules that can come under the cover
00:33:44.440 | of a cult or under the cover of someone who thinks that you earn Jesus' favor by something
00:33:50.900 | that you do.
00:33:53.440 | The word here is the word that means kidnapped, stolen, robbed.
00:33:58.000 | Don't be carried away by various and strange teachings.
00:34:01.820 | This is anything that takes out of God's plan of salvation and the gospel of the Lord Jesus
00:34:08.580 | Christ - the centrality of grace.
00:34:11.520 | That salvation is only and solely and exclusively the result of God's mercy.
00:34:21.280 | Not good parenting.
00:34:26.840 | Not fastidiousness.
00:34:31.000 | You don't have God's favor because you have separated from the world.
00:34:36.640 | You don't have God's favor because you vote right.
00:34:39.980 | You don't have God's favor because you're such a good pastor.
00:34:44.840 | You have God's favor because you don't deserve God's favor.
00:34:49.960 | That's how grace works.
00:34:52.440 | And so he reminds them of that in their context, saying it's good for the heart to be strengthened
00:34:58.840 | not by foods, but by grace, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
00:35:08.920 | The only benefit we'll find in our obedience to God is the obedience that flows from a
00:35:17.960 | heart that's been captured by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, His undeserved mercy
00:35:24.320 | that He took our sins on Himself and died in our place, and we have right standing with
00:35:29.920 | God and access to that throne of grace because of what Jesus has done.
00:35:36.440 | Grace flows and grows from the fountain of grace.
00:35:40.740 | It wasn't their diet that ever made them God's people.
00:35:44.460 | It was God who made them God's people.
00:35:48.120 | Everything else was conforming in signs and symbols and shadows of something greater to
00:35:53.640 | come.
00:35:54.640 | Their sanctification had now become holistic.
00:35:57.040 | It was accomplished by the blood of Jesus in making them holy.
00:36:00.880 | And so he introduces to them this idea of two altars, verse 10.
00:36:04.720 | We have an altar.
00:36:07.160 | And that had to be mind-blowing words to these Hebrew listeners because they weren't allowed
00:36:12.400 | to go to the altar anymore.
00:36:15.060 | It was obviously blasphemous for them to go back to the temple and offer an offering of
00:36:20.120 | any kind in light of what Jesus had done.
00:36:24.440 | And so for him to say, "We have an altar," now they very well didn't have an altar.
00:36:31.440 | They knew that.
00:36:32.440 | I mean, bronze lever, altar, sprinkled blood, ephod, priests, veils, walls, temple, Herod
00:36:40.240 | court, that's where the altar was.
00:36:43.920 | And these Christians, like these Christians, rent a middle school gym.
00:36:50.920 | Context, right?
00:36:57.680 | Where's the pomp?
00:36:58.680 | I mean, this is a beautiful building, but it's just a bunch of bricks and stuff.
00:37:06.840 | This doesn't look like the temple.
00:37:10.440 | Where's the altar that this author is speaking of, and what does it have to do with being
00:37:16.400 | strengthened by grace?
00:37:21.000 | Well moving them away from these external regulations and these dietary laws that were
00:37:25.120 | never effectual, he's showing them that Jesus accomplished something, and he's been teaching
00:37:30.720 | them through this entire letter, that he appeared as the high priest of good things to come.
00:37:35.880 | He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with his hands, not of
00:37:40.040 | his creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood.
00:37:45.800 | He entered the holy place once and for all, having established eternal redemption.
00:37:50.560 | And so he's teaching them, do not choose external regulations over the internal and eternal
00:37:57.520 | realities that Jesus has accomplished.
00:38:00.000 | Look, brother pastors, we obey Jesus with our bodies.
00:38:04.240 | We still follow many commands that God has given to us.
00:38:08.460 | We want to, with all our hearts, avoid sexual immorality like the Bible tells us to do.
00:38:15.240 | But that prohibition and every other prohibition is based and rooted and grounded in the reality
00:38:21.640 | that is internally motivated, and has very little to do with what's on the outside of
00:38:26.560 | you.
00:38:27.560 | It has everything to do with what God is doing by grace on the inside of you.
00:38:32.120 | That's the direction that he's reorienting their obedience towards.
00:38:36.660 | He's pointing them towards an altar, not one that the priest had to hose off after every
00:38:42.600 | Yom Kippur and have to reload and every atonement and every offering, he's pointing towards
00:38:49.280 | an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle, that's the priestly class, have no right to
00:38:57.520 | eat.
00:38:59.560 | Do you understand what incredible access we have to the very presence of God?
00:39:05.480 | Because the Holy of Holies, I mean, that was just like a tented room.
00:39:11.000 | It was sacred, but it was only symbolic.
00:39:15.160 | What Jesus accomplished on this altar is what takes you, a sinner by nature and choice,
00:39:24.040 | and transforms you to a trophy of God's grace.
00:39:28.960 | The cross of Christ, that's the altar he's referring to, that altar on that cursed hill,
00:39:35.520 | Gethsemane, where Jesus shed his blood, we have an altar that they cannot access, and
00:39:41.800 | the reason they cannot access that altar is because they do not have faith, and the reason
00:39:46.920 | they do not have faith is they have not become the recipients of the grace of God.
00:39:52.360 | Ultimately, it all comes down to that.
00:39:56.920 | And so, he's showing them that the way they'll be strengthened for final perseverance is
00:40:03.840 | by the grace of God.
00:40:09.080 | And he continues his thought on the two altars and teaches us a third reality for triumph
00:40:13.920 | in pastoral ministry, and it's this, they must be separated unto Jesus, verses 11-14.
00:40:21.560 | It says, "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place
00:40:25.060 | by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
00:40:30.040 | Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered
00:40:34.880 | outside the gate.
00:40:36.800 | So let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
00:40:42.900 | For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city of God which is to
00:40:47.480 | come."
00:40:49.880 | No more physical altar because Jesus died on the cross, and this had to be a struggle
00:40:56.140 | for them to overcome.
00:40:59.200 | The rituals were now replaced by reality, but they're taking part of Christ himself.
00:41:09.280 | And the author's trying to contrast two altars, and he's showing them by interweaving in this
00:41:16.960 | example of steadfastness of their former leaders and the strength that God's grace provides
00:41:22.280 | to his people, the necessity of them being separated with Jesus, and they knew exactly
00:41:28.320 | what separation looked like.
00:41:32.040 | Separation to them looked like every aspect of their life being devoted to God in a thousand
00:41:37.680 | particular ways.
00:41:41.320 | And now, it wasn't going to be their clothing and their diet and their festivals.
00:41:47.500 | It was to be association with the sacrifice and communion and table of the Lord.
00:41:57.040 | That's how they were going to be separated with Jesus.
00:42:01.040 | For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high
00:42:04.240 | priest, this is one of the reasons I think the temple was still standing at the time
00:42:08.640 | of the writing of the book of Hebrews.
00:42:11.200 | He's talking about it as something happening right now, probably in Jerusalem, not far
00:42:14.440 | from where they are.
00:42:15.920 | He's referring to it, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy
00:42:19.800 | place by the high priest as a sacrifice for sins are burned outside the camp.
00:42:24.720 | What's he talking about?
00:42:25.720 | Well, he's contrasting the sacrifice of two altars, the first in offering from Leviticus
00:42:30.600 | 16.
00:42:31.960 | The people would bring their animals.
00:42:33.320 | The priest would take the perfect animal to the altar, kill the animal on the altar just
00:42:36.920 | outside the holy place, and then enter into the holy place.
00:42:39.680 | It would sprinkle blood from the offering unto the holy of holies, all part of the atonement
00:42:43.840 | ritual involving the blood of spotless animals.
00:42:47.280 | For centuries, God's people did it to remind themselves of the consequences of their sin.
00:42:51.960 | Hebrews 9 describes it, but look at what he says beyond verse 11.
00:42:55.960 | After saying that they would dispose of those offerings, the animals' corpses would be taken
00:43:00.840 | outside of the temple grounds and actually outside of all the camp of Israel, and the
00:43:06.000 | regulation was they needed to be consumed with fire, burned completely.
00:43:11.360 | All that was left over from the sacrificial offering was to be burned outside the camp
00:43:16.520 | because it was no longer clean.
00:43:19.360 | The blood had been offered, the animal had been dealt with, now it needs to be burned
00:43:22.920 | outside of the presence of the people, otherwise the people would be defiled.
00:43:29.240 | But then he gives us another altar to compare and contrast in verse 12.
00:43:36.280 | The altar where Jesus sanctified the people through his own blood and suffered outside
00:43:40.200 | the gate.
00:43:41.200 | "Therefore, let us go outside the camp and bear reproach that he endured no lasting city."
00:43:47.560 | There's a lot going on here.
00:43:48.620 | What do we do with it?
00:43:49.880 | Well, the contrast that follows verse 11, he says there's something similar about these
00:43:53.920 | two sacrifices.
00:43:55.780 | The old sacrificial system and the sacrifice that Jesus made of his own body on the cross.
00:44:01.220 | So what was similar?
00:44:03.560 | Well he says in verses 11 and 12, they were both destroyed outside the camp.
00:44:08.560 | In what way was Jesus' body drug outside the camp?
00:44:11.320 | Well in a very literal way, according to John 19 verses 17 through 20, Jesus suffered outside
00:44:17.320 | the city walls, no longer in the temple complex, no longer in the confines of the holy city
00:44:22.760 | because that's what Jews did.
00:44:24.680 | Jews crucified their blasphemous criminals on a hill outside of Jerusalem.
00:44:29.880 | It's where Jesus walked at spear point, forced by the Roman soldier to carry his cross until
00:44:36.840 | Simon intervened to assist, but to walk and be scorned and whipped and to suffer alongside
00:44:44.260 | of other criminals, and they did it out there because it was the right way to do that kind
00:44:50.200 | of dirty work outside.
00:44:52.320 | It was defiling.
00:44:53.320 | It was unacceptable.
00:44:54.820 | And so to put the criminals out there is where they sent Jesus out of our holy city, Jesus.
00:45:02.800 | This is our city, Jesus, not your city.
00:45:06.200 | You go and die outside of these walls on that forsaken hill outside of the holy city because
00:45:13.040 | that's what they were saying, He deserves to die.
00:45:15.920 | Jesus is unclean, Jesus is accursed is what the religious leaders of the day were saying.
00:45:21.160 | And so suddenly Jesus had something in common with the corpse of a bull or goat that their
00:45:27.760 | forefathers had sacrificed uncountable times as they drug those bodies of those animals
00:45:34.000 | outside of the city and burned them completely because they wouldn't dare be defiled by that
00:45:40.120 | deadness.
00:45:42.840 | And Jesus suffered out there.
00:45:47.880 | That's what was similar.
00:45:51.400 | They were both destroyed outside the camp.
00:45:55.360 | But what was different?
00:45:57.480 | Look again at verse 12.
00:45:59.560 | So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, here's the difference, in order to sanctify the people,
00:46:05.920 | to make the people holy through His own blood.
00:46:09.320 | The difference between that sacrifice and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is that
00:46:13.480 | Jesus' sacrifice was once for all, that it accomplished something that all those other
00:46:18.760 | sacrifices merely prefigured, merely foreshadowed.
00:46:22.860 | No sin was truly atoned for by the blood of bulls and goats.
00:46:26.360 | That was only a cry to God for mercy.
00:46:28.720 | And God heard that cry fully and finally when His own Son shed His own blood on that cross,
00:46:35.820 | you see the difference between the old sacrifice and the old system, and these people were
00:46:41.680 | so accustomed to worshiping with all that ritual and all that blood and all the sacrifice
00:46:49.400 | of animals and everything that attended to it.
00:46:54.560 | And they had to wonder, what about the ritual?
00:46:56.520 | What about the beauty?
00:46:57.520 | What about the animal selection?
00:46:59.080 | What about the costliness?
00:47:00.600 | What about the incense and priestly garb?
00:47:02.760 | It was all gone and it was hard for them.
00:47:06.460 | But this pastor is pleading with them to remind them that none of that stuff could do what
00:47:13.980 | the sacrifice of Jesus did, that none of that stuff could make you holy.
00:47:20.260 | And in a moment, the sacrifice of Jesus accomplished it all.
00:47:26.460 | So it's truly a better sacrifice as He's been teaching them all along in the parallel passages
00:47:31.960 | - Jesus sanctified the people.
00:47:33.920 | He said this in chapter 10, verse 29, Jesus' blood truly cleanses us, sanctifies us, makes
00:47:39.580 | us holy.
00:47:40.740 | Not the way the prefigured sacrifices did, but in reality, the blood of Jesus makes us
00:47:45.980 | holy.
00:47:46.980 | And when you think of the cross of Christ, you must think of the holiness that He accomplished
00:47:51.620 | for us there.
00:47:52.920 | He bore our sin.
00:47:54.660 | He granted us His righteousness so that we could be accepted by God.
00:48:01.300 | True cleansing, not of animal sacrifices, but through the Son of God, pouring out His
00:48:06.320 | life for us.
00:48:08.840 | And in verse 13, we're supposed to do something with that.
00:48:11.920 | Look at what it says, "Therefore, let us go to Him, Jesus, outside the camp, and bear
00:48:19.000 | the reproach He endured."
00:48:23.640 | Others struggle with this line because it's either telling these people that symbolically
00:48:26.620 | they need to go outside the camp.
00:48:28.040 | Remember the camp in Leviticus, a dozen times or so means unholy, unclean, secular, not
00:48:33.280 | sacred, dirty, defiled.
00:48:34.900 | Outside the camp was to be punished, was to be put out of the people of God.
00:48:38.120 | What was outside was dirty, what was inside was clean, inside was sanctified, outside
00:48:42.240 | was defiled.
00:48:43.240 | And He told them, all these Jewish background believers, that they should go to Jesus outside
00:48:47.520 | the camp and bear their reproach He endured.
00:48:50.560 | So we might be saying to them that Jesus suffered and died and was treated unclean by the world,
00:48:54.240 | and so they need to be not attached to the world.
00:48:56.400 | They need to be separated from the world.
00:48:58.640 | And that may be part of the argument.
00:49:01.040 | Others say that this author has given them permission to fully and finally walk out of
00:49:03.920 | Jerusalem.
00:49:05.240 | Stop waiting here.
00:49:06.240 | Go fulfill the great commission.
00:49:07.240 | This city has nothing for you anymore.
00:49:09.880 | And that may be an implication of this verse, but I don't think that's exactly what he's
00:49:13.360 | saying.
00:49:14.360 | I think what he's saying in verse 12 and 13, when he tells them, "Therefore, let us go
00:49:18.200 | outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured," is simply a reminder that ultimately
00:49:23.420 | these people need to remember what is clean and what is not clean.
00:49:28.440 | That security and safety and identity and holiness will not be found anywhere outside
00:49:36.440 | of Jesus Christ.
00:49:38.640 | That security and safety and identity is not in who they used to be or in some kind of
00:49:45.140 | false teaching or ritualism.
00:49:48.000 | This is such a good word to young seminary brothers who are maybe tempted by Eastern
00:49:53.960 | Orthodox ritualism or who have looked at Rome and thought, "Look, it's big and fancy.
00:49:59.600 | It's got junk and - sorry, Luther word - rituals and smoke and saints and junk."
00:50:06.560 | I went to the Vatican last year in full protest.
00:50:12.560 | Just I'd never seen it before.
00:50:15.080 | And we had a really sweet Roman Catholic tour guide lady, and I had a hard time controlling
00:50:22.440 | myself.
00:50:23.440 | So we went through the Vatican with all the people, looking at all what Luther called
00:50:29.240 | the Pope's secondhand junk, pillaged from all over the world, right?
00:50:37.240 | And she kept saying things like, "The Holy Father is going to be here tomorrow and talk
00:50:41.720 | to 150,000 people," and the only thing that I kept saying during the tour was, "I'm sorry
00:50:47.280 | to hear that."
00:51:00.280 | This author is trying to get their eyes, the eyes of their heart, their faith, Hebrews
00:51:07.160 | chapter 12, fixed and focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.
00:51:14.360 | They won't find security, safety and identity anywhere else.
00:51:19.200 | And Jesus walked out the walls of the holy city and He died and was cursed of God and
00:51:24.560 | shunned by the people He came to save, and they too ought to follow Jesus in bearing
00:51:28.720 | His reproach, in being called and seen as unclean and despicable and cut off from God,
00:51:34.920 | no longer following His rituals, no longer being called God's covenant people.
00:51:39.560 | They need to bear that reproach because that's the reproach that Jesus bore.
00:51:43.880 | What is He saying?
00:51:44.880 | Simply, He's saying, "Follow Jesus.
00:51:47.800 | Follow Jesus."
00:51:48.800 | F.F.
00:51:49.800 | Bruce says it this way, "They had been accustomed to think of the camp and all that was inside
00:51:56.000 | as sacred, while everything outside was profane and unclean.
00:52:00.600 | Were they to leave its sacred precincts and venture on to unhallowed ground?"
00:52:06.360 | Yes, yes, because in Jesus, the old values had been reversed.
00:52:13.980 | What was formerly sacred was now unhallowed because Jesus had been expelled from it.
00:52:22.340 | You see, if Jesus isn't in your church, if Jesus isn't in your Christianity, if it is
00:52:28.200 | not cruciform in its direction and shape and worship, if it's purpose-driven instead of
00:52:35.800 | Jesus-driven, then you've kicked Him out of His rightful place just like they did in this
00:52:48.120 | ugly scene.
00:52:50.280 | You see, if Jesus isn't in it, it's not of God.
00:52:54.720 | It's not blessed of God.
00:52:55.840 | It's not holy.
00:52:56.840 | It's not hallowed.
00:52:57.840 | It's not sacred.
00:52:58.840 | And once Jesus was kicked out of His nation and out of His people and out of the temple,
00:53:02.480 | and when He was hung on that cross, accomplishing the salvation of all who He would wash with
00:53:07.720 | His blood, that which was formerly unhallowed was now sacred because Jesus was there.
00:53:13.340 | He's telling these believers and He's telling you that all that's left for us is not ritual,
00:53:18.720 | no further sacrifices to be rendered.
00:53:20.740 | It is simply to follow Jesus, follow Jesus, bear reproach with Jesus, take on suffering
00:53:27.000 | with Jesus, go where Jesus went, follow Him until the day you die.
00:53:31.540 | You will not find security and safety and identity anywhere else that will bring you
00:53:36.160 | final salvation and persevering grace except in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:53:41.840 | In Him is our security.
00:53:44.140 | He is the one who will hold us fast.
00:53:46.820 | In Him is your safety.
00:53:48.460 | He is the one who will watch over you and protect you.
00:53:51.140 | In Him is your identity.
00:53:53.080 | You are now the one that Jesus loves and that should define you.
00:53:57.800 | You who were formerly blasphemers, unclean, Gentiles, are now holy because Jesus has washed
00:54:05.700 | us with His blood.
00:54:07.540 | And so the word is, follow Jesus and bear His reproach.
00:54:13.840 | Verse 14 is the answer, "We here do not have a lasting city, but we're seeking the city
00:54:20.000 | which is to come."
00:54:21.000 | Friend, what a word that is today to my post-meal Christian nationalist brothers with your strong
00:54:32.400 | families and your desire to rock the vote and invest in beard oil companies.
00:54:43.000 | Remember, here we have no lasting city.
00:54:55.000 | My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, and He's right.
00:55:01.080 | We're seeking the city which is to come.
00:55:04.400 | All the things that we cherish and value in this world and even in our own fair city are
00:55:08.240 | not going to last forever, and so this author is pointing us towards a city whose foundation
00:55:13.440 | cannot be shaken.
00:55:16.280 | Since chapter 11, he's been telling us not to stay, be like Moses who wouldn't stay in
00:55:21.000 | Egypt but went on.
00:55:23.080 | So he's urging them to go with Jesus and go where Jesus went, and the end of their life
00:55:26.680 | needs to be aimed at the new city of Jerusalem, at the heavenly version, not the earthly one,
00:55:32.260 | that it needs to be the city of God and not the city of man, the city of the world to
00:55:36.000 | come and not the city of this world, and there to tremble at the sight of that city and long
00:55:40.800 | at the sight of that city because that's the city that Jesus inhabits and promises and
00:55:45.860 | prepares a place for us, and we come with empty hands and no sacrifices and no animals
00:55:52.320 | and no grain offerings, but we still have, point four, a sacrifice of praise.
00:55:59.120 | What's our sacrifice?
00:56:00.120 | Verse 15 and 16, "Through Him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that
00:56:05.560 | is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name and not neglect doing good or sharing
00:56:09.760 | for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
00:56:15.160 | We don't bring critters to sacrifice.
00:56:22.280 | We bring something else.
00:56:24.780 | We bring our worship of Jesus and our work among others.
00:56:30.240 | We do good because we follow Jesus in good doing.
00:56:34.240 | We don't grow weary of good doing because Jesus is our example of doing good, and we
00:56:38.980 | share with others because who cares?
00:56:43.100 | This isn't our stuff.
00:56:44.100 | This isn't our city.
00:56:45.300 | It's not going to last.
00:56:46.300 | This whole place is going down.
00:56:48.080 | Our city is to come, and so we give our lives away for the needs of others.
00:56:52.440 | That's what's being described in these verses, and we bring a sacrifice of praise.
00:57:01.520 | And then finally, we have before us submission to shepherds, point five, verse 17, a familiar
00:57:09.680 | verse.
00:57:10.680 | I don't need to overwork it for you.
00:57:14.320 | We're to live in submission to shepherds, all of us.
00:57:18.400 | Pastors submitting to pastors because it's obey your leaders, a very general word for
00:57:23.680 | spiritual leadership in the New Testament, but pluralized intentionally.
00:57:28.920 | No rock star, one-man show, pastoral ministry, but shepherds plural.
00:57:35.640 | Not one guy with a personality, but godly men who follow Jesus and teach the Word of
00:57:41.400 | Jesus, whose authority, they're very mindful, is not their own but belongs to Jesus himself.
00:57:51.840 | You're following and you're leading people, pastor, you're leading people who are called
00:57:59.500 | to submit to you, and you should hold that with a very careful grip.
00:58:05.400 | My friend Mark Devers says authority is like soap.
00:58:07.840 | The more you have, the more you use, the less you have, right?
00:58:11.920 | That's how soap works.
00:58:15.400 | Hence, I remember right here in a Q&A on a Sunday night, not too long ago, a lady asked
00:58:22.040 | John MacArthur, he was standing right here, and she said, "John MacArthur, how much authority
00:58:27.880 | do you have?"
00:58:29.600 | And all the associate pastors went, "Ee, ee."
00:58:32.920 | No, we didn't.
00:58:33.920 | I don't know what made her ask that, but she did.
00:58:38.680 | And he said, "None but this."
00:58:44.560 | Pastors don't need to be bossy pants.
00:58:48.020 | They need to be heralds of the Word of God.
00:58:51.840 | I'm not going to boss you on the 10,000 issues of liberty in your Christian life.
00:58:56.760 | You have soul competency, spirit lives in you.
00:58:59.640 | Bossy pastors, heavy-handed pastors are the worst.
00:59:03.900 | And when they dictate outside of what God requires of His people, they stand on very
00:59:10.520 | dangerous ground, and so this word about submission is chiastically bookended around the whole
00:59:18.520 | point of spiritual leadership, which is, it's not about us.
00:59:22.460 | It's not about our authority.
00:59:23.760 | It's not about our word or our great ability to preach or our ability to do dynamic programs
00:59:30.840 | in the church.
00:59:32.520 | Pastors, the triumph of pastoral ministry exists as leaders, pastors follow Jesus faithfully
00:59:43.840 | and invite their people to walk alongside of them all the way to where Jesus is.
00:59:52.080 | That's our calling.
00:59:54.300 | We can do nothing else of value.
00:59:59.060 | As gospel preachers, we speak authoritatively from the Word of God when we call men and
01:00:04.440 | women to repent of their sins and turn and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
01:00:08.800 | That's the authority of our message, and as we walk faithfully with Jesus, we show them
01:00:14.680 | what it means to truly follow Him, no matter what the cost.
01:00:20.100 | And our message is the message of the chief shepherd, the one who went outside the camp
01:00:25.100 | and the one who's awaiting them, and at the right hand of God praying for them at that
01:00:31.820 | eschatological finish line.
01:00:36.460 | Spurgeon's autobiography, he closes it channeling his best bunion.
01:00:45.100 | He's thinking thoroughly influenced by the pilgrim's progress, and he describes the pastor's
01:00:53.900 | triumph in very similar language.
01:01:01.140 | Listen to what he says, "I am occupied in my small way as Mr. Great Heart was employed
01:01:11.340 | in Bunion's day.
01:01:13.580 | I do not compare myself with that champion, but I am in the same line of business."
01:01:20.660 | Spurgeon's description of a pastor, what he's supposed to do.
01:01:23.860 | "I am engaged in personally conducted tours to heaven, and I have with me at the present
01:01:33.820 | time dear old Father Honest.
01:01:36.660 | I'm glad he's still alive and active.
01:01:39.460 | And there is Christina and there are her children, and it's my business as best I can to kill
01:01:44.020 | dragons and cut off giants' heads and lead on the timid and trembling, and I'm often
01:01:49.700 | afraid of losing some of the weaklings.
01:01:51.780 | I have the heartache for them, but by God's grace and your kind and generous help in looking
01:01:58.140 | after one another, I hope we shall all travel safely to the river's edge.
01:02:05.780 | And how many have I had to part with there?
01:02:11.300 | I've stood on the brink, I've heard them singing in the midst of the stream, and I've almost
01:02:17.820 | seen the shining ones leading them up the hill and through the gates into the celestial
01:02:24.700 | city."
01:02:26.460 | Father, help us to be faithful in our pastoral ministry, to pay attention to our life and
01:02:36.340 | teaching, and to exclusively and wholeheartedly and devotively follow Jesus.
01:02:46.540 | To bring all your precious people along with us, steadfast in faith, strengthened by your
01:02:52.380 | grace, separated unto Jesus, even under reproach, bringing that sacrifice of praise, submitting
01:03:01.500 | to leaders because we know we can't do this alone.
01:03:03.980 | Father, thank you for your Word and the reminder to us.
01:03:07.900 | Thank you for the leadership of Jesus in our lives.
01:03:11.580 | Help us to follow the one who entered that unhallowed ground, knowing that he defines
01:03:16.820 | what is sacred and holy, and it's by his blood he makes us acceptable to you.
01:03:22.460 | May we follow Jesus without hesitation or reservation, wherever he leads, amen.
01:03:29.180 | Amen.
01:03:30.180 | Amen.
01:03:31.180 | Amen.
01:03:31.180 | you
01:03:33.240 | you