Hebrews 13:7-16 The Faith Runner That Pleases GOD

The speaker discusses the importance of staying true to the faith by never forgetting the leaders who taught the word of God. They emphasize the power and unchanging nature of Jesus and his teachings. The speaker encourages the audience to imitate the faith of those who lived according to the word of God. Are you ready for a break? Yeah, one more week. Yeah, ready to go attack some other part of this world and see what we can discover. This is really good. I like this. Well, thank you. We'll see if we can take it. We still hope so. We'll see when I come back to this world. That's right. That's right. We may close that door for a reason. Thank you. The Veteran's Day event on Monday. Update. Thank you. You made me do an update, Ron. Oh, you did, yeah. Making me do an update. Oh, really? Yeah. They don't give you much choice. This is a computer. It is. Yeah, that's what it's called. My iPad is almost as good as this. But it's not a computer. Well, it is a computer, but not as good. It all depends on what you want to do. Yeah, that's true. I don't want to do too much. I feel like I'm a good dad. Make sure we got sound. Nope. All right, now we've got sound. Good. I think we're good to go. Good. Susan and Noel are here so we can start the class now. Well, thank you. This is the next to the last class. So I'm preparing you for the final exam for next week. And so I will tell you what the questions are so you'll have the answers. Okay. Hey, Lover, we need to start our class. We're going to get in trouble. Sorry. No, no, no. That's okay. You didn't call on me. No, no. She was looking that direction. But everybody turned. When I said Lover, everybody turned. That's great. Well, thank you so much for your faithful participation. And this is our next to last class. So we are going to have to discuss what we want to do for next semester. But we're going to do a shorter book. Okay. We promise. It won't take forever to finish. And is that true, David? Is there going to be one more tonight? Yeah. No? No, no. It's going to be good. Yes, and so we know that the answer to our question for our final is the Word of God, right? Yeah. So now we know the answer, what pleases God. Don't we? Hebrews 11, 6 says, without what? Faith. Yeah. A plus infinity. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to God must first of all believe that He exists. And secondly, must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So each of you are diligent seekers after God. God is going to reward you with more of Himself. So now we know we're headed in the right direction. So let's pray that God will do what He says He's going to do. He's going to keep His promises. Jesus, and I'll pray that prayer. Dear Lord, thank You so much that You promised us that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And You are God who keeps His promises in His Word. Thank You that what we are not, we pray that You help us to make us. What we have not, we pray that You would give us. We pray that You would give us Your grace, Your agape love, and Your wisdom this day. And this evening. Thank You for David, for teaching today. Thank You for all the participants that are here. And pray that we open our hearts to hear Your Word. That we ultimately would praise and honor and glorify Your Name. We pray these things to Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Alright, David. Thank you, David. Alright, let's do this. Okay, so. Pick up where we left off. Where did we leave off? Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13.6, yeah. So, if I recall correctly. I have to go back and think of that for a second. If I recall correctly, last week we talked about the portrait of a faith runner. Correct? Portrait of a faith runner. So, following up with that, the author goes into what I'm calling the faith runner that pleases God. And it reads, Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. So, it starts off with, the faith runner that pleases God stays true to the faith. Stays true to the faith. I want you to, on your scripture handout, I put J.B. Phillips' translation of the first verse there that we're going to take apart briefly. Alright, so, somebody can read that. It's a simple read. Never forget your leaders. That's the first part. And second, go ahead and read B and C. Who first spoke to you the Word of God. Remember how they live and imitate their faith. I felt like that Phillips took this first verse and really brought it down to the bottom shelf for us. Okay? Remember those who led you. Never forget your leaders. Who spoke the Word of God to you. Who first spoke to you the Word of God. And considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith. Remember how they lived and imitate their faith. So, first of all, you stay true to the faith by never forgetting. Never forgetting who? Your leaders. Why? Now, I didn't put that in there, but I thought this was a discussion we were going to have tonight, right? Why would you never forget the leaders? They show us the correct path. They help us. For example, my mentor that I got to bump up against. I got to watch him and observe him and truly wanted to imitate him. I like the scripture, how it breaks it down for his considering. And then the original is to observe carefully. And me being an outsider for so long, I was an observer. So, I really enjoyed, remember how they lived. And I appreciate those that had faith for so long. You meet people now that had faith for 30, 40, 50 years. When I first came to Christ was only 18 years ago. So, having those people in my life that had walked that walk for so long. It was easy to imitate them because they exhibited faith. They showed faith. Here it is, they walked faith. There you go. Or in this case, they ran. They moved on. Yeah. So, that's one. You never forget. Secondly, by remembering. What do you remember? You remember what they taught, right? The word of God. If they taught anything beside the word of God, what should you do? Not follow them. Not follow them. You should be like the Bereans, right? What did the Bereans do? Examine the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. Yeah, and Paul commended them for it. Right? So, the same thing holds true here. You need to be examining what I teach. Make sure it lines up. And if I get out of line, you need to say, I don't know about that, David. Let's work through that. So, yeah, it's what they taught out of the word of God. And I'm going to say it this way. Andrew, as much as you loved your leaders, right? That wasn't what changed your life. What changed your life was what? Well, the word of God. The word of God. As my friend over here to my right, who's looking at his phone right now. That's it. Go stand in the corner. I'm looking at my sweatshirt. Yeah, that's what he was doing. I heard the little alarm go off as he was... I was trying to turn my thing off. But you're absolutely correct. It was the word of God. Yeah. They showed me the word of God. They showed you the word of God. And that's what I saw. They didn't say, hey, Andrew, I got an idea for you to consider. No. Right? No. This is what the word of God said. This is what the word of God said. They came beside me just like in scripture and showed me. Yeah. This is where it's at. This is what it looks like. Yeah. And I'm so grateful. So what I was going to get my friend to say was one of his favorite verses. Oh, yeah. Go for it. The word of God is what? Go ahead. The living and active and sharper than any human sword, divides to the soul and spirit, joins to the marrow, the discerner of the motives and intent of the heart. Yes. Amen. Yeah. Right. And the psalmist said, what word I have, what? Hidden in my heart. Hidden in my heart. Why? I may not see. It isn't a man's idea that keeps you from sinning. No. It's his word that you've hidden in your heart that has impact. Okay? So we remember the word of God. Then by imitating. Imitating what? Well, back to what Andrew said. Now you can go, Andrew, you can repeat what you said, right? You look at how your leaders lived, and assuming they lived, they were faith runners, assuming they lived as faith men and women, right? He said, I'd like to follow that. Oh, yeah. I'd like to be just like, I'd like to be like Mike. Is that the way it goes? There were several people when I first came to church here, those are the men that I saw in the churches every week. And some of them I never got to know. Right. But several of them I got to bump up against and imitate because I saw the love of their family gravitate to them, the love of their wife gravitate to them because they're walking. Were they perfect? No. Did they have perfect lives every week? No. I loved that part of it, too. But you could see that there was a love in the walk that they shared. That's what I wanted to imitate. There you go. And that's why I wanted to be near them. So you stay true to the faith by never forgetting, by remembering, by imitating, by knowing. Verse 8. Verse 8 says who? Knowing who? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Why? He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yeah. What does that say? That says that Jesus and the gospel, what? Never change. Always the same. You can take it to the bank. You can write it into eternity. You can grab hold of it and say this is the faith that I have. It's in Jesus and his word because it never changes. Right? So Jesus said what? Jesus said what? Fill in the blank. Jesus said what? Come unto me. Right? I'm the way and truth of life. I'm the way and truth of life. And no one comes to the Father but through me. So since he said that, what are you going to do? I'm going to go to him. You're going to go to him. Right? Jesus said what? Go to all you that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Jesus said come to all you heavy laden and I will give you rest. So you're going to do what? Go to him. Go to him so you can what? Rest. Rest. Right? Jesus said what? Love one another. Love one another. So what are you going to do? Love one another. Love one another. Jesus said what? Come on. Think of it. He's the way, the truth, and the life. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus said this. He said all this stuff, didn't he? He is eternally trustworthy. Right. Jesus said I'm the door. Right? He said I'm the life of the world. He said I'm the bread of life. He said I'm living water. He said I'm a good shepherd. He said I'm, what did he say? I take my yoke upon you. I'm the door. I'm the door. Everything. And Jesus said I've come. I've come. To give you life. To give you life. And abundantly. And that abundantly. So since he said that, what are you going to do? You're going to go to him for what? Abundant life. Abundant life. Right. I thought, oh, you didn't. You just. Yeah. Okay. Jesus. Jesus. You see what I'm saying? I wanted us to go through that exercise so we could really grab ahold. We don't need anything else, do we? No. We really don't. Anything else is just temporal anyway. Yeah. This is all we need. So. By knowing Jesus. And the gospel. That never change. You stay true to the faith. You stay true to the faith by discerning. Now. Who. What. Who and why. Let's look at Acts 20. 28 through 30. Paul is setting the stage. Paul's on his way to Jerusalem. And he stops off to say bye to all the leaders at Ephesus. And he knows when he goes to Jerusalem. He's going to get bound up. His end's coming. Okay. He knows it. Everybody tells him don't go. He says, why are you kidding me? I'm not only willing to be bound but to die. Yeah. Yeah. Don't. Man, I got to do what God's telling me to do here, guys. God's telling me to go. He's telling me when I go this is what's going to happen. That's okay. So he stops off right outside of Ephesus to tell the Ephesian leaders goodbye. And look at how he finishes his address to them. Susan, you want to read that? Sure. He says, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Pretty astute of Paul to give that warning. Right? Why do you think he knew to give that warning? He studied the Bible and it happens all the time. Well, that's right. But he'd also experienced it already. Right? He'd already had that experience. Without leadership too, people tend to go their own way. Oh, yeah. When you have good leadership, people will stay together. You lose a good leader, Paul's going away. Right. Then if someone doesn't step up, then you don't have someone leading them. And people begin to go their own way then. Yeah. So John also addressed it, right? In 3 John. Y'all remember 3 John? He said there's a rascal over at that church that he addressed. I don't remember his name right now off the top of my head. But if y'all read 3 John, what you'll see... Yeah, but you know what I'm talking about, right? There was a rascal in that church who was not being godly. And John addressed it in a letter. Why? Because... Why do false teachers arise? Because of Satan. Satan's part of it. But what would be the... To get a following. To get a following. It's all about pride, isn't it? It's all about ego. It's all about ego. It's not really unfamiliar to us, is it? It's not. When you look across Christendom, you know, quote unquote, you can see it. Right? The problem is... And I don't want to get lost in the weeds. But I happened to turn on the TV Sunday morning to set... To record the Cowboy Game. I don't know why. Really? I don't know why either. I don't either. That's the last time I'm doing that. Anyway... No, it ain't. You'll be okay now. Cooper Rush is coming in. Oh, maybe so. Now that Jack's out, Cooper's coming in. You'll be okay. You'll be okay now. Okay. Anyway... And at 9 o'clock in the morning on Channel 4, there's a guy from Houston. And his message is always the same. And it sounds great. It appeals to our flesh. It appeals to the flesh. And, you know, when he's talking here about those that are going to come in, speaking perverse things, in some translations it says, twisting the truth. Twisting the truth, yeah. It's not coming up with an absolute flat-out lie. Right. No, that'd be very easy. Yeah. It's called spin. Yeah. And it's... And that's why some are easily deceived. If you're close enough and you catch up on certain things, you're thinking, oh, okay, he knows what he's talking about, because I've heard bits and pieces. Right. If they're not ones that read their Bible and truly dive into it and know the word itself, they're like, okay, my example would be Joel Osteen. I wasn't talking about... Yes, you were. We knew. But when you listen to him at first, you think, oh, this guy knows what he's talking about, because he talked about this. But then he comes up with something like there's seven ways to get to heaven, and you're like, okay, all right, Joel, what are you talking about? Yeah. You lost me now. But for other people that don't know, and this is maybe their one time to hear this, and now they have this attraction that, hey, I want to know what God's about. Well, now you have just taken them from a desire to really know who God is to this la-la land of whatever you've created. It's not anything that lines up with the word. Yeah. And it's sad, because that's how some people don't really know the true meaning of what God is all about and what he can do and how he is and everything became, because they're deceived by so many. Yeah. So this is nothing new. No. But Paul's saying this is going on in the first century church. And it's still going on today. It's just now we have it on TV. Yeah. It's proliferated, isn't it? It's easy to broadcast and to distribute. Yeah. So we've got to discern false teachers who teach false doctrine to draw disciples away from the faith. So you stay true by being discerning, being the Berean, making sure that what you hear or read does line up with what God says in his word. You've got to be discerning. You stay true to the faith by rejecting. All right. Verse 9c talks about not by foods through which those who were occupied were not benefited. And what we're talking about is legalism. Legalism. Rules about diet. Again, the context of the letter. He's writing to Jews who have been saved, who are experiencing opposition and persecution and pressure from the Jews that have not been saved, to come back to the formal way of life. The temptation is to go back to avoid the pain. But here the author again says, don't go there. He says, why do you want to go back to legalism? Why do you want to go back? Who enjoys legalism? Anybody in here? You know, truthfully, I was conceived as Southern Baptist. My parents were in seminary when I was conceived. I've been raised very strongly in the church. And it's easy to follow rules. And it is for me. I mean, some people just are natural rule breakers. But I'm a natural rule follower. I know someone just like you. I'll live with her. So it was a comfort zone for some time. It's a lot less comfortable to be called to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me daily than to just, you know, we used to have those envelopes where you checked my tithe, I read my Bible, I came to Sunday school, I came to church. You got 100%. You got 100%. So not that legalism is right or anything, but it can be something that we can easily fall into and feel pretty good about ourselves. Sure. Sure. Especially if we're looking at our neighbor. Oh, yeah. If you start comparing yourself to the people around you, then you quit looking at... If you compare yourself to Christ, then you have a good picture of where you are. But if you start comparing to your neighbors or people you work with, then you have to be careful, otherwise you get puffed up because, well, I'm going to church tonight and here to study God's Word. Yeah. And those guys are going to the bar. Yeah. You know, that's not the way we're supposed to be. We're supposed to, yeah, let's come to Bible study, but then let's pray for our brothers. Let's not get all puffed up because we have learned, by God's grace, that gain salvation through Jesus. So we don't have anything to be puffed up about. Now, obedience to His Word, nothing wrong with that. But legalism ties back to man's ways. Yeah. Way too often. Yeah. Well, that they added two. Right. It wasn't the 603 that were given in Leviticus. It was what they did with that 603, where it became illegal. Okay, what's work? Well... Turning on a light switch. Turning on a light switch on the Sabbath, that's work. Really? By whose definition? Right? Well, if you flip the switch, now you've got to sell your, do your, what do they call it? Wooden Hail Mary? You know what I'm talking about. That's a different thing. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about. You had to do your... I can't remember the title of this term now. Anyway, you get the point. Legalism is basically trying to achieve righteousness by... Work. Works. Yeah. And what the author is saying, why do you want to try to achieve righteousness by works? You've got Jesus who never changes. And He saved you by grace. You're already His. Don't go back to legalism. You've got to reject it. That's how you stay true to the faith. There's no benefit at all in terms of relationship with God. There's no benefit to go down the path of legalism. And by embracing what? Acts 20-32. Acts 20-32. Somebody read that, please. And now I commend you to God in the word, to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. So what would you want to embrace instead of legalism? His good grace. Yeah, His word of grace. Right? Again, that's the word of God. The word of His grace. The word of His grace. A while ago, we didn't hear that, but let's do this again. Jesus is grace. Right? We beheld Him. That is the only begotten Son of the Father. Full of what? Grace and truth. Grace and truth. Grace and truth. Those two are... They seem opposite. They're opposed. They seem opposite, but they're like the guidelines on the out. There you go. You can go too far one way and too far the other way, but God is perfectly lined up. Yeah. Grace and truth. Grace and truth. Now, because He is grace and truth, what do you want to do? I want to go there, right? Yeah. I want to go there. I know that my friend right here is all about grace. He says it all the time. Grace. Grace. It's a good thing. But it's the word of grace. What does the word of grace do? It strengthens your faith. Unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. Strengthens your faith. So stay true to the faith by never forgetting who brought you to Christ. By remembering the word of God. By imitating the life of the one who brought you to the Lord, assuming He lives the life of faith. By knowing Jesus, who never changes. By discerning false teachers and false doctrine and making sure you don't go down that path. By rejecting anything that has to do with man's ways or legalism. And by embracing His word of grace. That's how you stay true to the faith. And you please God when you do that. Now, the runner of the faith, runner of the peace of God, suffers for the faith. This is not Joel Osteen talking here, by the way. Okay? We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. So this is a difficult passage of scripture. I'm going to do my best to try to explain it. The context is a reference to the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. So we are going to see what Leviticus has to say about the Day of Atonement. Look at Leviticus 6, 24-29. And, who hasn't read yet? Who would like to read? I haven't, I'll read. Okay. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his son, saying, This is the law of the sin offering, and the place where the burnt offering is slain. The sin offering shall not be slain before the Lord. It is most holy. The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. Anyone who touches its flesh will become concentrated. And when any of its flesh splashes on a garment in a holy place, you shall wash what is splashed on. Also, the earthenware vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken. And if it was boiled in a bronze vessel, then it shall be scoured and rinsed in water. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It is most holy. Every other day of the year, when someone brought a sin offering, remember there were five different sacrificial offerings, if I recall correctly. Susan, you might be able to help me if you can remember them. But, one of them was a sin offering. Every other day of the year, someone brought a sin offering, and the sin offering would be someone who knowingly has committed a sin and is remorseful and wants to be forgiven of it. Okay? So they bring a sin offering to sacrifice the lamb or the ram or the bull's life in place of their own. They transfer their guilt to the offering. The priest takes it and splits its throat, pours out the blood, catches the blood, throws it against the altar, and then takes and butchers the animal in such a way that certain parts of the animal are then burned on the altar. The rest of it, the priests are allowed to boil and eat every day of the year except one. Yom Kippur is different. So let's look at Yom Kippur, Leviticus 16, verse 27. That sin offering was different. That sin offering was once a year they would make the sacrifice for all unknown sin. The assumption is made, I know there's a sin I've committed that I didn't remember. I don't think I would have had enough animals to sacrifice. I just don't. But if I could remember them all, you should have been up to date. But there's a good chance I wouldn't have had them all remembered. And one day a year on Yom Kippur, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies. And first he would take a bull for himself. And he would sacrifice the bull as his sin offering. And he would take the blood of that bull and throw it against the altar. He goes into the Holy Place and he sprinkles it on the mercy seat. He makes atonement for himself. Then he comes back out. There's two goats. One of them is a scapegoat. The other is a sin offering. They select the goat by lot, whichever one is going to be the sin offering. And the sin offering then, he takes and does the same thing with that animal. Splits his throat, catches the blood, goes into the Most Holy Place and sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins of the people. The bull and the goat of those two sin offerings cannot be eaten. They are taken outside the camp and burned. Completely. So, what this is referring to is that day. What could a priest normally do with a sin offering? Well, they could normally eat it. But what was required to happen to the sin offering on the day of atonement? Well, they had to take them outside the camp and burn them. Why was this required? And here's the answer. On that day, in order to totally rid the camp of sin, the idea was with atonement, the day of atonement, we're getting rid of all of it. So the animals to which the sin had been transferred had to get out of there. They couldn't stay in. They had to get out of there. Had to take them outside the camp and get rid of it all. That's what happened on the day of atonement. All sin needed to be removed completely to be right with God, to serve Him, and to live in harmony with Him. So now I ask the question, how is the atoning death of Jesus similar to the day of atonement? Let's look at Hebrews 13, 11-12. Here it says, for the bodies of those animals, etc. I like what Phillips did with it. Going back to Phillips, I have it on your scripture sheet. Somebody read Phillips version, Hebrews 13, 11-12. So, why is He outside the city gates? He is the ultimate, the ultimate atoning blood sacrifice. The once and for all, it's done blood sacrifice. And get this, until the moment, until the moment when you hear Him say, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Right? It was at that very moment, that all of a sudden, your sin, and my sin, and your sin, I mean all of our sin, suddenly is upon Him. And what happens when all of a sudden, He who knew no sin, became sin? God turned His face away. And for the first time, and only time in eternity, there was a separation between the Father and the Son. Until that moment now, in essence, in the temple, in the most holy place, that was still where God dwelt. Right? Now the moment that happened, what happened? The veil, from top to bottom. Veil from top to bottom. Access to the Father now, is for everybody. And not just the high priest once a year. Why? Because all sin has been removed, and taken outside the camp. And there's been a separation of sin, for us for eternity. Isn't that good? That's great. Okay. Now, what must a true faith runner be willing to do, concerning what Jesus did for him or her? Look at verse 13. So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and do what? Bear his reproach. I looked that up. I thought, what in the world is bearing reproach? What do y'all think that is? What's bearing reproach? Taking the weight of it. Alright. Alright, okay. Any other thoughts? What's bearing reproach? Okay. Changing to stand in the gap. Okay. For what other people have done. Okay. Taking the punishment. Okay. But Jesus has already taken the punishment, right? How do you bear his reproach? Identify with him. There you go, Tom. By what? Identifying. There you go. There's the gold star. You say, I'm his. He's mine. And you leave behind the love of the world. That's right. There it is. You grab a hold of Jesus, and you're not ashamed to say, He's mine. He's mine. It says to make publicly known. To make publicly known. Yes. And you desire. And you desire. So now, so back to the context of the letter. Okay. He's writing again, to Jews have been saved. Now let me tell you, as soon as they made the decision to embrace Jesus Christ, and receive his gift of salvation, by faith. As soon as they did that, what's the next thing they did? Y'all remember? They got baptized. It wasn't wait three Sundays. It wasn't wait for I'm not ashamed Sunday. It was right then. Right then. It was the Ethiopian Union saying, Hey, there's water. What prevents me? What prevents me? It was right then. That they go and they take a dunk. And they go into the water saying, I'm dead to myself. And I'm dead to my old way of life. And I'm rising up to new life in Christ. And I'm his and his forever. I belong to him. And it's before they're finished drying. Any other Jew that's noticed, that's not there yet, begins to be offended. And reproach begins to start. Does that make sense? That's what he's saying here. He's saying, embrace him, and be willing to embrace him, knowing full well, that when you embrace him, it's coming. So to answer the question, here's how I answered it. Identify with him, and be willing to experience the suffering and shame that may come because of it. And again, the context of the letter, don't go back to the temple, the old covenant system, and unbelieving Jews, but be willing to suffer because of your faith in Jesus. The faith runner that pleases God, bears his reproach. What motivates a true faith runner to be willing to suffer for the faith? Look at verse 14. We do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Back to the context, right? If you are a Jew, and you're relying on your works, is there ever any peace? No. There's never any peace. Never. You can't do enough. That's what I said. I probably told you a testimony about a Jehovah's Witness coming into my door one day. Y'all heard that story, haven't you? I don't remember it. I haven't heard it. I was working on a lesson, as I'm working now on a Saturday. Saturdays always come on Saturdays. That day, Terry and whoever was in the house, I wasn't there. They were gone. Night by night. I'd get up and I'd go, and I could peek around the corner. Oh, no, not today. Not today. Went back down and sat down. Not, not, not. I've already said not today. I'm not doing that. About 10 seconds later, bang, bang, bang, bang. I'm telling you, he rattled the windows. Okay. You asked for it. I'm telling you the truth. Yeah. In love. In love. So I go to the door. I open the door. Hey, I know who you are. I said, let's just cut to the chase. You're going to tell me that the way you get to heaven and have a relationship with God is by how you live, what you do. And I'm going to tell you that's not true. That the way you get to heaven is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the cross. There you go. Because you can't get there by what you do. And then you're going to say, yeah, but. And I'm going to say, your yeah but's going to go to James. It's going to say, you know, about works and faith. You show me your works by my faith, or whatever. My faith without works is dead. And I'm going to say what that means is that once you believe, you have works that give evidence of your faith. It's not the works that make you right. It's your works say that your faith has made you right. Am I warm? Is that where we're going today? Yeah. And then you're going to tell me that Jesus wasn't the Son of God. I'm going to tell you, no, He is. And I can show you different scriptures where He actually said He's the Son of God. Okay? So, we're at an impasse. Do y'all want to change your minds? No? Okay, well, I'm not changing mine. Y'all have a good day. I walk back in the door. And it hit me. I'm not done. So, I go back out the door and they've gone across the street. I chased them down. I said, one more question for you, sir. I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal with you. I said, when you show me exactly how much good works it takes to get there, then I'll believe your story. But when you read His Word, you'll discover there's not enough good works you can do to get there. You sure can. I'm going to tell you that. So, when you're ready, you know where I live. And I'll be happy to tell you how you can have faith in Jesus Christ and have eternal life in Him. And that was the end of the story. And I knew they weren't going to change. But they heard the Gospel, didn't they? They heard the Gospel. Now, I don't know if you can do that with every Jehovah's Witness, but boy, they picked the wrong guy on the wrong day. Right? Can you? Can you do enough? No. You can't do enough. You can't. So, what motivates a true faith runner? To be willing to suffer for the faith? It's because my eternal destination is secure. I have a city that I look to. And by the way, the older I get, the more I'm looking. Right, Ron? Just making sure we're in the same picture. Right? The older we get, the more we look, right? The more we understand it's coming. Well, when you look around out there and what's going on, you know it's coming. Right? It's coming. That city's going to come. And when it does, we're going to have eternal joy and peace and goodness and, I mean, provision. Everything you ever need is going to be there. That's what motivates me to say I belong to Him. I've got a city I'm going to. This is not my home. Finally, the faith runner that pleases God sacrifices because of the faith. Now we're going to have some fun. Finally. Through Him, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. It is the fruit of the lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. So sacrifices because of faith. First of all, in words. And what type is that? Well, I just gave you three Psalms. Let's just read them real quick. So I'm going to start reading Psalms 43-5. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the health of my countenance, of my God. Psalm 108, 1-3. You can keep going. My heart is dead fast, O God. I will sing, I will sing praises even with my soul. Awake, harp and lyre. I will awaken the dawn. I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples. And I will sing praises to You among the nations. Keep going. One more. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with the harp. Is it lyre? Lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing. Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So what type of word is this? Is it word of what? Praise. Word of praise. Praise. How often? All the time and in every way. All the time and in every way. Continually. Now what that means is have an attitude of praise. We went down the path the last time of a brother who had experienced the death of a son. And there's a lot of pain in that, right? There's no denying the pain. And it's a struggle to try to understand why. I told you all about my daughter's best friend. There is no explanation I can give. I was meeting with Andrew on Friday. We were talking about that. And what I say, Andrew, I said, you know what? There's nothing that we can experience in life that isn't found in God's Word. Nothing. What we're talking about is Job. You go to Job and no one in here has experienced what Job experienced. Would you all agree? No one. No one. Yet what does he say right off the bat? The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. What? Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's praise. That's praise. Yeah. In chapter 19, right? He says, All I know is though my flesh be destroyed with these eyes I will see God. That's faith. But it's also an offering of praise. That's praising God because He knows what His future is. Man, praise. In the middle of mess, praise Him. In the heights of happiness, praise Him. The psalmist here in Psalm 43, Why are you in despair? In despair, praise Him. Right? In 108, He says, I'll give thanks. He says, I will sing praise, I will awake in the dawn, I will give thanks to you. I'll sing praises to you. He wanted to give thanks because God had provided in some way. So thanks is a form of praise. And then just praise Him just to praise Him. Anyway, as you said a second ago, my brother, you said, anyway, all the time and every way, right? Praise Him. All the time and every way. Praise. It's amazing how things change when you praise. It's amazing. I got said before, on more than one occasion, I get in the car after a hard day and I put on my Pandora and I go to my praise songs and I start singing. And it's amazing how I get home and I hadn't said one thing about the traffic. Not one thing. It didn't bother me at all. I just sat there and sang praise. Everybody else looking at me going, what's that guy doing? He's singing. You don't want to hear it, but he's singing. Amen. Praise Him. Changes everything. Sacrifice. In words, sacrifice indeed. Indeed. Do not neglect doing good and sharing. What are we to do? Well, we're to do good to others, right? Do good to others. How? Look at 1 John 3.18. A little children's list. Not that I was worried or was tongued, but indeed and in truth. Indeed and in truth. Share the resources God has provided you with others who have needs that those resources can be used to meet. I'm going to do a crossover. I'm thinking nobody was in my Sunday class. Sunday morning. It just fit the lesson and it came out. It's amazing what God does. In 1978, Terry and I had moved back here from Lubbock. We were going to this church. We were expecting Brian. I had a job. She was a stay-at-home mom. I made a whopping $12,000 a year. It was okay in 1978. That wasn't horrible. But we weren't getting rich. Lainstretch. It was paycheck to paycheck. And one Sunday night in the service, there was an announcement made. That day, a family in our church, their house had burned down. And so there was an offering taken up. And we looked at each other, and we knew all we had in the checking account was $10 before the next paycheck. And it was going to be the next week, but we had to make it to the paycheck. So we both agreed, and I was like, write the check. Write the check. So we wrote the check. Put in the offering. And the very next day, now guys, I don't know how to explain this. Okay? But the very next day, we go to the mailbox at the apartment complex we were living in. And inside that mailbox was a white envelope addressed to us, but it had been typewritten. Open the envelope, and inside the envelope was $100 cash. And wrapped around it was a piece of paper that had been typed out. It said, My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. I'm not Joel Osteen. Okay? Hear me. What did I do? What we did is what we're talking about here. We had resources. We had a brother in need. We said, let's help him with what we got. And that's what we did. You cannot give God. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory. Not yours. I cannot tell you the amount of times with little gift that God has just told us to give for whatever purpose. And we've looked at each other and smiled at each other and given the gift and not ever been without a meal or gone hungry or been without a place to live or without gas to drive. God is just so incredibly gracious when you're obedient with just... He's just asking you to be obedient with what you have. And if all you have is a Coke Zero and there's somebody thirsty and God says give them the Coke Zero, give them the Coke Zero. I mean, I know it's a simple example but I cannot tell you the times just that God has told us just to do something that is minor that's made a difference in people's lives. And God just has been so so richly gracious to us. I mean, you can't even... I could take hours and tell you time upon time upon time when we shouldn't have had enough money to pay the bills but the bills always got paid. And we shouldn't have had enough money to buy groceries but we always had plenty to eat. And that's just the grace of God. That's just the way He takes care of His kids when we just attempt to be obedient. Well, back to something my friend likes to say, right? He said, we don't know who the author is but we do, right? I don't know who gave the gift to us but I do. Right? Share. Help people in need. Why? Who is pleased with faith learners who offer sacrifices both in word and in deed? Our Heavenly Father. Sacrifices please God. Sacrifices please God. Whether it's a sacrifice of praise bring joy to the Father. or it's a sacrifice of a deed it brings joy to the Father. Okay. Wrapping it up. Am I staying true to the faith no matter what comes my way? If not, what do I need to do to strengthen my faith? Am I willing to unreservedly and unashamedly identify with Jesus and share my faith in Him when given the opportunity? If not, what needs to change? Do I continually express praise and thanksgiving to the Lord through prayer or song? When you give your testimony about what I just did. Right? That's giving praise to God. When I share what God's done in my life I'm giving praise to God. That's testimony. Attitude. The way I live. Am I looking for and being sensitive to opportunities to do good to others and share the resources that God has provided me to help meet others' needs? Finally, is the way I'm living pleasing to God? The faithful that pleases God stays true to the faith suffers for the faith and sacrifices because of the faith. John? And obedience benefits those who obey. That's right. Obedience always has benefits. That's a great word. I'll give you a gold star. We'll finish tonight on the gold star. Yay! Well, when you talk about trusting and obeying that's an A plus to infinity. A plus to infinity. But see, you all agree with that, don't you? See? So all of us get an A plus to infinity and that's the whole idea. But we also, Ron, have to... Our leaders have to be made accountable too. Mm-hmm. That is spiritual. Amen. Amen. Yeah. So I think that the best thing that God has for us is what His best is. So what is God's best for us? What is God's best for us? For us to be conformed to the image of His Son. A plus to infinity and beyond. That Romans... See, we just heard a paraphrase of Romans 8, 28, 29. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. And His purpose is for whom He foreknew He also predestined for us to be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. And then verse 30 then says for whom He foreknew He also called. And those He called He also justified. And those He justified He also glorified. Ah! So God is sharing His glory with us when we choose to be conformed to the image of His God's Son Jesus Christ. So what can we say then? If God is for us who can be against us? See, now where we're headed with that now at the end of Romans 8 the most powerful scripture in all the Bible. Romans 8 is the most powerful chapter in all the Bible. But the end of Romans 8 is even better. Which says, verse 38, He says, For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels or demons nor any power nor height nor depth present or future nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from what? The love of God. Amen! See? A plus infinity. See, you all are passing this course with flying colors. Isn't that amazing? So we're thanking God for the end of this study. But that's really where we're headed with that. So, so when we look at life that way, when we look at life that way, we start with the little heart, right? And our little heart is based upon our self. And our self is a thing called ego. And ego is based upon a problem. It starts with the big letter P. Amen. See, A plus infinity. See, because when we are prideful, then what happens is this little word pride blows out of proportion, doesn't it? And so what happens then is what pride does is it causes us to be isolated from the world around us. A man who isolates himself seeks his own desires and his heart races against all wise judgment. So we see that Proverbs is talking about the idea of the fact that if we end up thinking this way, we're thinking very smallly. And God wants us to be not just small people. He wants us to be great people. So greatness is all about this. See? He wants us to be not small hearted. He wants us to be great hearted. And the only thing that covers this problem of self is a person. And his name is Jesus. Yay! So if we do something in regard to this issue of Jesus Christ, we realize that for by grace that we save through faith and that not of ourselves it's a gift of God not of works as any man should boast because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to be conformed to his image. See? So now we see that Jesus is bringing into play you know the book of Romans. So we see that Romans 8 28 through 39 is now been activated by this thing called faith. The whole book of Hebrews is talking about faith. And you see the thing is that we have to realize that Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ that is superior to everything and anything in all creation and in the universe. So we center on Jesus and what happens? Something changes. Do we change the world? Now that we have trusted in Jesus. Now how many of you have been praying for this election? Everyone right? Do you know who I voted for? Did he win? No. No! But see God's will is being done regardless of who won. See? Because if Jesus is number one in one's life then what happens is the stuff of the world becomes small. Because the world is small. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life. See? What happens in the world is something that is very very corrosive to a relationship. And when we have lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life then we realize that this pride erodes relationships. So the only antidote to eroding relationships is a person. And his name is Jesus Christ. Now how does Jesus do that? Well see David just wonderfully gave a wonderful story about what Jesus' death on a cross does. It pays for the penalty of this problem called pride. And so now no longer are we sinners but we're still sinners but saved by grace. So you see what happens then is when we trust in Jesus Christ through Ephesians Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10 because we are His workmanship you see what happens is God realizes and God the Father then reveals His will to us. See? And God's will is something that Jesus says in John 4.34 He says My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me. And John 4.24 says God is spirit so we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. See? It's a both and isn't it? So now we realize that there is someone who is going to help us to embrace the truth of God and His name is the Holy Spirit. So we have this triune God then acting on us so that we can make practical and make rubber meets the road type of life you know making this real. Because all we have cognitively is we read God's word. And we know that God's word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword divides to the soul and the spirit joins in the marrow the discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. His heart. So God is interested in transforming our hearts So now we realize that there are two ways to look at life. We can look at life pridefully and this is the world outside of us the world is trying to press us and conform us into the world's image. Okay? That's Romans that's Romans 12.1 you know and Romans 12.1 and 2 so we realize that the conformity of the world is trying to do this to us trying to help us to be more and more about lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life so we become very materialistic right? Walking by sight and not by faith. And 2 Corinthians 5.7 talks about that very issue. So what does a life walking by sight look like? Like everybody else. Okay. It looks like the world doesn't it? Being squeezed into the mold of the world. So we see that materialism is very very rapid in the world. You know what's how big a car you drive how big a house you're living in how nice clothes you wear and stuff like this you know and the thing is that it's all by appearance right? And so we can live a life focused on focused on materialism and materialism has a problem and the problem with materialism is that we are basing our life on what we do. All of us are gifted in so many ways. Some craftsmen some lawyers some educators teachers etc some pharmacists you know etc some of our engineers are real smart people our engineers they can handle these computers well but you see the problem is is that if we base upon our lives upon what we do then what we see is on the outside we all have all these degrees and all these honors and all these achievements is that really satisfying to life in general? If so, why not? Because it's fleeting. Yeah. And it's so superficial on the outside. Okay, right. Superficial it's uh it's fleeting and it's those are so so accurate in giving us the fact that the fact is that when we live life by sight what we see is that really truly who we are on the outside. See, the question is is that really us? Is that really us? Who are we the reflection of? If you're viewing you're the reflection of the world. Yes. And you're going to always fail. That's right. So the end the end is that you know is the fact that we fail because of the fact that what the world is asking us is that we have to be perfect in performance. Okay. So in in the in the Bible okay in in in Matthew 5, 48 it says something very, very important. It says be perfect because now you're God in Heaven you're perfect. Do we want to be perfect according to the world or perfect according to God? According to God. Yeah. It's a it's a it's a it's a whole different way of looking at life. See, if if if we're the way we look at life is by what we do then performance perfectly is what the world asks. So if I pay my quarterback a hundred million dollars a year and he threw his interceptions and he gets tears his hamstring and stuff like that so he can't play you know, then we say well, that guy's not very good because his performance is below what our standard is. Man's standard is saying to the world I want you to do what I think you ought to do. See? So what the world's standard is is Judges Judges 21, 25 which says in those days there was no God so they did what was right in their own eyes. So when we live according to sight we live what's right in our own eyes and that's a downward spiral, isn't it? We have a very unhappy world around us see because does this lead to peace? See, it doesn't, does it? Because life becomes so chaotic that it's miserable and the whole point of my watch stuff how much time do I have? It's quarter to. Okay, okay. So I'll try to finish in 13 minutes. You know, Ron, I think about the scripture Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Oh, oh. A plus infinity. But you see, that verse and all the verses in God's Word is beyond infinity. See? It's infinity and beyond. Because see, all this all this living by sight is all about IQ. How much we know about the world around us. You see, Solomon had this, right? He was the smartest, the wisest in all creation. And God asked him God asked Solomon what he could give him as the new king of the nation Israel and so Solomon asked he asked God, please give me wisdom. And God says to Solomon because you didn't ask me for riches and glory and honor and having the biggest and the best castle etc. I'm going to give you wisdom. But I'm also going to give you everything else thrown in. But he says, no, I don't want you to collect wives. He missed the mark a little bit. You know, 700 wives and 300 concubines is not really following his direction. I don't want you to collect horses and stables of 20,000 misses the mark a little bit. And I don't want you to collect gold. And in his palace he had solid shields of gold worth probably close to a million dollars today. Alright, that misses the mark a bit. Now what did God give him? God gave him wisdom of the world. And wisdom of the world Prudence, which is common sense. Knowledge. Cognitive IQ. Discretion. Being able to read between the lines of all the information that he had in his mind. Counsel. Knowing where to get good advice. Sound judgment. Having moral compass. Understanding. And power. Solomon was given the power of influence. He was the greatest king that ever lived. The richest king that ever lived. He was the smartest king that ever lived. The wisest king that ever lived. And yet he was miserable. In Ecclesiastes 1. All is meaningless. He was so aware of his emptiness. That's right. In the time chapter, just chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes, he says this. He says, God has made everything beautiful in his time and has placed eternity in the hearts of all men. So Pascal says this best. He says, Pascal says, God has placed a God-shaped vacuum in every heart. Amen. Ah. Emptiness. See? Not that he was a failure, because he had everything. But he wasn't happy. He didn't have any joy. But on the other hand, there's someone else out here that gives all of that and then some. See? It's called a spiritual quotient. And it begins with Ephesians 2.8.9. That's Tom's favorite verse. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. See, there's where the action is. See, it's God giving us something that we need desperately. And that's relationship with him. How did he do that? Now, most of us know John 3.16, right? This is the reason why I know the Lord as my Savior. Because of God's love. For God so loved the world, he gave it to you. It's only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. So this is a gift. See? God's gift to us is salvation. Romans 8.9 and 10. If we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with our mouth that he raised from the dead we'll be saved. Because it's with our heart that we believe and are made right with God. Made perfect with God. Jesus' mouth we confess and we're saved. So when this happens, a whole new aspect and perspective of life begins. The moment of salvation, God gives us something wonderful. And that's the fruit of the Spirit. 5.22.23 And what are the fruits? Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. See? All nine spiritual qualities of God is given to us that moment of salvation. He says, I'm going to give you this. I'm going to give you all my love. Agape. Love, joy, peace. I'm going to give you my joy. Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The whole shebang is yours. Because I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit who will help you to cultivate these skills. Are you going to be better tomorrow than you were today? And the answer is absolutely. Why? Because now you have Jesus in your heart. When Jesus is in your heart, all, everything changes. Not just here, but here also. I'm also going to give you a thing called love. Now this is, over here, this wisdom has love in it. But it's eros love, phileo love, and storge love. Friendship love, family love. And the reason why those kinds of loves are over here, you know, is because phileo and storge love is all about need love. We need to be loved. And we're unhappy if we're not having our needs met. And so how many unhappy family members or friends do we have that are unhappy? Because they have been blackballed by their friends and family. See? Very unhappy world. But God says, I'm going to give you something better. But He incorporates those and brings them over here. Because, you know, the whole idea of agape love is very different. Agape love is gift love. It's a gift. It's a gift of grace. So we can choose to live according to Mount Sinai, the law, which is to live perfectly, or we can live according to the law, Mount Zion, by grace. So by grace God has given us His love of agape, which is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keep no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. And this kind of love never fails. The God-shaped vacuum that Pascal was talking about is now filled with Jesus Christ. But He also says, I'm going to give you, page 317, I'm going to give you something even that's going to tie everything together. And that's called, My Wisdom from Above. That's first of all, pure and peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, full of good fruit, impartial and sincere. Now all this, this spiritual quotient of life, and the differences, this intelligence quotient of life. Intelligence quotient, now all of you have a good one. Okay? And whatever it is you started with in the 3rd or 4th or 5th grade, it's pretty much the same. After you got all your degrees and all your achievements and all your awards, it's pretty much the same. But this one, this one goes on to eternity. Because this one grows with each passing day. Because now we realize that it's really a gift from God. And He's giving us the Holy Spirit who is going to help us to cultivate these skills of living. See? These are the skills of living. Now if we haven't got the love, are we going to be unhappy like Solomon? Ah, no. Because we know that the best has come. And who's coming again? Jesus. Amen. See? That's why you're on a roll to infinity plus infinity and beyond. Because we're looking at a life of eternity with Jesus Christ today and forever. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He keeps His promises. And there are over 7,494 promises that Time-Life has recorded. So there are more. So how many more promises can God give? Well, we just keep reading and God gives His promises in His Word. So the best is yet to come. So when you have your final exam next week, you're all going to get an A plus to infinity and beyond. Why? Because Jesus is in your heart. Jesus is the key. He's superior to anything and everything in all creation. So now we get to know that we're going to live an eternity with Him. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day. Thank You for this moment in time where we can just reflect upon Your goodness and grace. And that's what's going to carry us through to eternity is Your grace. It's much, much better than the law. And for by grace that we're saved through faith and that not of ourselves is the gift of God, not of works as any man should boast because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. So the secret and mystery of life is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Like Colossians 1.27 says. So this day and every day, dear Lord, we pray that You would help us to proclaim You, teaching and admonishing everyone with all wisdom so that we would be able to present everyone that we meet, greet and serve to be perfect and complete in Christ Jesus. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Thank you so much, everyone. Thanks for being a blessing. So is there one talk or two? From today? Next week will be our last. So you're going to get two sets of notes next week. One from David and one from me. I'm going to do an overview of our whole class. And David's going to do the same. So you're going to get a double barrel blessing. So we'll celebrate next week. So what are we going to do? Candy or something? Yeah, we're... So nothing that's going to be bad for our arteries. But thank you so much for coming, everyone. See you next week. Thank you.