McNeil, William: Studies In Hebrews 34 ~ Hebrews 13;1-19

Now, in our study today, we are going to look at the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. We've come now, uh, to the closing chapter of this epistle that we have been studying day by day for a number of weeks. Now, let me remind you of something I said in a previous study, that in chapter eleven, faith is presented as the power to live the Christian life. In chapter twelve, it is hope presented as the incentive to continue in the Christian life. But here in chapter thirteen, love is presented as the motive for living a devoted Christian life. So you might say that chapter thirteen is a chapter of love as the glorious motive. Now, there are certain very practical exhortations given in this chapter. You have personal exhortations, verses one through six. Then there are doctrinal exhortations, verses seven through nineteen. Then we have general exhortations, verses twenty through twenty five. Let us look first of all at the first six verses that set before us certain personal exhortations. 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 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 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. Now let us pause there for a moment or two and examine these. Here, I suggest in the first six verses, we have personal exhortations. The first exhortation is to charity. The second exhortation is to chastity, and the third exhortation is to contentment. Now, if love is to be the glorious motive, you can well understand how that if a Christian is motivated by love, then he will be characterized by true charity. For that really is the true meaning of love. In the word of God, the word charity and the word love appear to be synonymous. But then, if a person is motivated by that great love that is shed abroad in our hearts, then he will be characterized by chastity. And certainly, if we are motivated by love, we will be characterized by the spirit of contentment. Let us enlarge on these a little. He says, let brotherly love continue. Now, love of the brethren existed, but required to be maintained in the face of trial. This love would be expressed in hospitality and sympathy. For he says, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Away back in the Old Testament, there was a day when Abraham was in his tent door, and Abraham saw three men approach him. He very soon gave them the invitation to have fellowship with him in his tent. Uh, he prepared for them some food, so they had a time of fellowship together at a time when he entertained them, but then it was only afterwards that he realized he had entertained angels unawares. Now that, of course, was a way back in Old Testament times. But if brotherly love is to continue, we've not to be forgetful to entertain strangers. Now, at the time when this epistle was written, the Christians were being persecuted, and perhaps they were being hounded from one town to the other. The result was this, someone might come into your town, and you wouldn't know who he was. But if you received him into your house, it would be that you were entertaining him. You were showing and expressing love towards one of your own brethren, someone that loved the Lord. And so he's saying here, let it continue, let brotherly love continue. In the beginning, when the church was established in Jerusalem, they expressed a great measure of love one towards the other. No one considered what he possessed to be his own, but it was all looked upon as belonging to the Lord and could be distributed to the needs of others, so that no one was in want. According to their need, there was the distribution that was made. But now he's saying here, let brotherly love continue. It may be there was the possibility that that brotherly love was beginning to cease, that every man was looking after his own affairs and not taking any interest in anyone else. And so he's giving them this great exhortation here to charity. Let brotherly love continue. Now he says, remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. In plain words, some of their numbers were suffering. Now, in any family, if a member of the family is sick or suffering, surely the whole family feels it, and everyone in the family is sympathetic towards the one who is sick or suffering. Likewise, he's saying here in the spiritual family, we should be remembering one another, especially remember them that are in bonds. It may be that some of their number had been put already in jail just because they were Christians. All right, he said, remember them. You know, there was a time when the great Apostle Paul was lying in prison at Rome, and the Christians in the city of Philippi heard about it, and they decided to send some relief to him. So one of their number was delegated to take certain things to Paul. What these things were, we're not told. They must have been things that Paul was in need of. It may only have been a blanket to keep him warm in prison, or it may have been some extra food. Whatever it was, they're called the things, and they made up this parcel of things, and one of their number left their home and went all the way to Rome in order to carry these things to the prisoner. Then he sent them back a letter of thanksgiving, and today we possess that letter of thanksgiving in what we call the Epistle to the Philippians. See that great expression of love by these Christians. They were not ashamed to confess that they were in association or in fellowship with Paul, who at that time was a prisoner. Ah, that was love, and it was really expressed. Now, in verse four, he touches on a very vital matter. He said, marriage is honorable in all and a bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. If there is one thing that should mark Christians, it is chastity. Here he sets before us the principle of marriage. Remember, it is a divine institution. Marriage is honorable. Away back in the book of Genesis, it was God who instituted marriage when he made Eve and brought Eve to Adam, and Eve and Adam became one flesh. Let me remind you, my friend, that the Lord Jesus Christ put his stamp of approval upon marriage when he said, in the beginning it was thus, that a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. Now, it would seem to me that in the first three verses, he speaks of the family unity, but here, when he comes to verse four, he brings us to this closest of all bonds, the bond of marriage. And he's telling us here that marriage is honorable in all. It could be that at that time there were certain people already beginning to teach that it was wrong to get married. Of course, there have been people who have taught this error right down through each generation, and there are those today, because that they are supposed to be in certain religious offices, they're not supposed to get married. The Bible distinctly says marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. And so therefore, there is the principle of marriage. It is a divine institution, and there is nothing sinful about marriage. He speaks in the Word of God about the purity of marriage, and he says here, marriage is honorable and all, and the bed undefiled. There's purity in the marriage bond, and the marriage relationship is honorable, very honorable. But remember this, there's the very opposite thing that's stated here, and that is that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. God will, God will punish sexual immorality. Even in our land today, we're discovering that the judgment of God is resting upon individuals just because of this sexual immorality. There are certain diseases that people are suffering today which have been brought about because of immorality. Here is the punishment for the violation of the marriage bond. And so therefore we should look at this, that this is an exhortation. These are personal exhortations to Christians. We've to be motivated by love. And when a Christian is thus motivated, he will be marked by charity. He also will be marked by chastity. He'll live a pure life. But verses five to six deal with contentment. Now, the rule of contentment is command- commanded by God. The reason for contentment is confidence in the promises of God. He distinctly says that we've to be content with such things as we have. Now, if we're going to be content, remember this, that God has promised that he will supply our every need. Let your conversation be, that is, let your manner of life be without covetousness. Be content with such things as ye. Isn't it strange how all of us have the tendency to be covetous? That is, you see something that you don't possess. You see something that someone else possesses, and immediately you covet that thing for yourself, and you're saying, oh, if only I could get possession of that. And it may be that God has been supplying all that we need, and yet we have this great covetous desire for more. And the law of God forbids covetousness. We're not supposed to covet what belongs to our brother or what belongs to someone else. The Lord 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. Here is contentment. Again, I may quote the Apostle Paul. On one occasion, he said he had learned, in whatsoever state he was, therewith to be content. He knew what it meant to abound and have sufficient of everything, an abundance, and he also knew what it meant to be in want. So whether he was in the state of having an abundance or in the state of being perhaps just scraping the bottom of the barrel, he said he had learned to be content, and here's why. Because he had the promise of God, and that promise was, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. This actually is a quotation from a way back in the Old Testament. God, first of all, said this to Jacob when he was going out on an unknown journey, that he would be with him and would never leave him nor forsake him. This promise was also given to Joshua when he was going in to possess the land. It was also given to Solomon when he took office and when he was going to build that magnificent temple. But here is given to us, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. The Lord has never forsaken one of his own yet. The Lord stays by us. So therefore, we can rest on the promise of God. Now, verses seven through nineteen, he gives us doctrinal exhortations. Verses seven and eight, he says, 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, that is, considering the end of their manner of life. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Here's the doctrinal exhortation. There's to be consideration, and you've to remember your spiritual leaders and follow their example. Then remember Jesus Christ, who abides the same throughout all ages. There then we're given this exhortation for consideration. Now, when it says remember them which have the rule over you, I want you to remember that in ecclesiastical circles today, we have departed very far from the scriptural order of rule. Because if we were to go back again into the Bible, into the Acts of the Apostles, we would discover this. It was the Holy Spirit who set men in the place of leadership in the early church. Today, you'll discover it is men who vote men in. They choose their own leaders. Now, that is not the scriptural order. The scriptural order is that we were to recognize those whom the Holy Spirit had gifted as being leaders in the church. And if the Holy Spirit raised up men to be leaders, our responsibility is to recognize them. And now he's saying here, remember them. Remember them which have the rule over you. Remember them which lead you. Those who have spoken unto you the word of God. Now he said, you've seen the manner of life they have lived. Now I want you, he says, to follow their example, considering the end of their manner of life. And then he rises to this very, very high level, and he says, now what about considering and remembering Jesus Christ? He was the same yesterday and today and forever. He is consistent in all things. So therefore, remember him, and you also, as you consider the men who have been your leaders, have been your example, and remember Jesus Christ, who abides the same, and you consider these and follow them. There's to be consistency in your life. And that leads you on to verses nine through sixteen, where there is to be continuance. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. And from there to verse sixteen, he's dealing with the idea now of continuance. We've to continue in the essentials of Christianity, not in the externals of legality. Far too many people today follow religious ideas that have only the externals, but Christianity is something that has the internal essentials. It has to do with the heart. And so therefore, he's telling us not to be carried about with those strange doctrines. And you and I are living in days of strange doctrines. There's hardly a day dawns, but you hear of something new, someone coming up with a new idea and trying to do away with what is already written in the Word of God, trying to do away with the old established truths and introducing new ideas. The Bible tells you what these are, strange teachings, strange doctrines, and it says you're not to be carried about with these divers and strange doctrines, but stand by the essentials of Christianity. Don't be moved around with the externals of legality. Then he's telling us down here to continue in the place of separation, outside the secular and sacreligious things. Verse thirteen says, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We should always keep in mind that the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we profess to trust, whom we pro- profess to follow, was one who was rejected by this world. The world had no time for the Lord Jesus. Even when they crucified him, they crucified him outside the city walls of their city. And so there he was put in the outside place, the place of rejection, rejected by the world. And he's telling us here that we also have to go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. That takes you back to the idea in the Old Testament that when the sin offering was made, the carcass had to be burned outside the camp, taken out to the place, what was reckoned to be the unclean place, rejected and despised. The Lord Jesus was taken out to the place where he also was despised and rejected of men, and you and I have to be prepared to go forth unto him, bearing the reproach. And then there's to be, we've to continue in the exercise of offering spiritual sacrifices which please God. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So there is to be the continuance in the exercise of offering spiritual sacrifices which please God. Verses seventeen through nineteen uh deal with the exhortation to consistency. There's to be consistency in our submission to the standard of rule. There's to be consistency in service by those who are rulers, and there is to be consistency in our sincerity and mutual prayers. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, so that they the must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us that we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. And thus we come to the end of our study for today. We've dealt now, we trust, with these exhortations, personal exhortations, doctrinal exhortations, which are all growing out of this great motivating force of love. In our next study, we shall conclude not only this chapter, but our study in this book.