I’m a big fan of Yellowstone National Park, not only because of the great fishing it offers, but also because of the great natural wonders that can be seen.
Of course, some of its most famous natural wonders are found in its geyser basins, where Old Faithful can be found among many others, along with its mineral pools like the famous Morning Glory.
In each of those geyser basins you’ll find a board walk, and sometimes rails, to protect visitors from the very natural wonders they have come to see. Every couple years or so you’ll hear about someone who decided they weren’t going to be confined by the boardwalks and the guard rails and ventured out onto the geyser basin on foot. Tragically, what often accompanies these stories is that they were scalded to death by venturing into some very hot pool of water they should have avoid or were seriously injured by an unexpected blast of steam from a volcanic vent.
As it turns out those boardwalks and guide rails had a very important purpose. They weren’t intended just to confine but to protect.
And it’s the same way with our Christian life. The guide rails and warnings we find in the New Testament are intended not to confine but to protect.
As we come to the concluding verses of the Book of Hebrews this morning, it seems that this is the author’s intent. He wants to warn us against involvement with spiritually destructive teachings and activities of all kinds, but he remains especially concerned that his readers that they don’t abandon Christ and return to mainline Judaism. His message for us this morning and in our time consists of spiritual guardrails. Don’t abandon Christ and His truth—guard against strange teachings, apostate institutions and rebellion against spiritual authorities.
He has just told us that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. His character and His motives and His power are always the same. But teachings about God aren’t. They are often varied and strange—strange in the context of apostolic and New Testament teachings which are the standard. And in verse 9 he warns his readers not to be distracted by varied and strange teachings—varied and strange because they are not the teachings of the Apostles or the New Testament and offer no benefit to their relationship with God or spiritual lives.
Verse 9: “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.”
Now we don’t know exactly what the varied and strange teachings were, but they were probably related to Judaism. The clue here is that somehow the eating of particular foods was considered to be of spiritual benefit, and indeed kosher foods were an issue in Judaism, and especially rabbinic Judaism. There were apparently varied and strange teachings that somehow attached themselves to Jewish believers in a way that was not spiritually relevant or helpful. What was helpful was the teaching that God’s grace comes through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s how we have a right relationship with God, and that’s how our spiritual lives grow and are strengthened, not because we eat certain kinds of foods and avoid others.
Of course, we know that today there are all sorts of varied and strange teachings which Christians can begin to be devoted to, that are not helpful for their spiritual lives, but sometimes we are so devoted to them, you would think they were as important as the grace which the Lord Jesus Christ offers us. Often, even among and sometimes especially among evangelical believers, because a certain celebrity Christian endorses something, a fad diet, or even a particular form of political ideology, we tend to grab on to these things as though our spiritual lives depended upon them, and they don’t. Many believers, including I myself, are attracted to conservative political ideologies in our culture. However, we’ve got to be careful. These things are not on the level of Biblical doctrine, and they can be divisive and even destructive in our lives if we elevate non-biblical teachings to the level of unassailable beliefs and doctrines. The Pandemic has certainly resulted in some of these attitudes, to the detriment of some believers. A fellow pastor told me that he found it necessary to go to two services in his church, not because he had too many people, but because too many different and intense opinions about masks—he had to have a service where masks were required, and another where masks were optional. Again, we’ve got to be careful to examine where our beliefs come from, and whether they are absolutely supported by Scripture, and then just how important they are in the big picture. God’s grace, that comes thru Christ, and the vital doctrines of the Christian faith, as well as love from a pure heart and a good conscience--those are the essentials that cannot be violated.
And then Hebrews returns to the main thrust of the book for about seven verses. A rather complicated parable or illustration is made here to make the author’s point. It is once again, not to abandon Christ in order to return to official or mainline Judaism. The lesson for us today might be something like this: “Don’t abandon worshipping the true Christ to maintain fidelity with apostate human institutions.”
Now the writer makes the point that we have a means of spiritual sustenance and growth that is not available even to those Levites and priests who serve in the holy place and the most holy place in the temple. Of course, he’s talking about Jesus Christ. However, he makes his point based on a little-known truth from the Old Testament that tells us that no Levite, not even the High Priest, was permitted to eat the flesh of the animals that were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. According to the Book of Exodus, the bodies of bulls and goats that were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement, instead of being made available as food to the Levites and priests as were most other such sacrifices, were instead to be burned outside the Tabernacle, and outside the camp in the wilderness. Because they represented sin, they were eliminated outside the camp. However, in the case of Jesus Christ, the ultimate Lamb of God and atoning sacrifice, he was sacrificed, and died also outside the camp. And as the one atoning sacrifice for all mankind, we believers in Christ have the exclusive right to eat of His sacrifice not physically, but spiritually. The Levites and Priests who served in the Temple at this time had no right to eat spiritually, or benefit spiritually from his sacrifice, even as they had no right to literally and physically eat of the flesh of the animals sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. But we have the spiritual privilege of benefiting from the sacrifice of Christ that they, in their unbelief, will never have.
Therefore, he says in verse 10: 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.”
The gate spoken of here is obviously the gate of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus suffered outside the gate because he was rejected; and in fact, historically, He suffered right outside the gate of Jerusalem along a main highway so that He would be made a public spectacle to all. And He suffered outside the gate as the sign of His reproach, His persecution by the Jews, who rejected Him. But ultimately, He suffered for us outside the gate. And the writer then makes the point that his readers needed to go out from the camp of official or mainline, politically-correct Judaism in order to follow Jesus, even if it meant suffering the same kind of persecution and reproach that Jesus did from mainline official Judaism.
He puts the exhortation in eloquent words beginning in verse 13: “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.”
In other words, because official, politically-correct, mainline Judaism had apostatized, or fallen away, from the living God by their rejection of His Messiah, it had become necessary for Jews who believed in Messiah to abandon official, mainline Judaism in order to follow Christ, whatever the cost.
Now this is a really odd situation. What had been the religion so to speak, of God, the way people had approached God and had had a right relationship with God had now turned away from God. Official, mainline, and acceptable religious practice as a whole had abandoned God through rejecting the Messiah. So now you have these Jews who believed in Messiah struggling with the fact that the religion, and practices, that they had always practiced, the institution of mainline Judaism, had abandoned God, and God had therefore abandoned them. Therefore for them to be right with God, they had to abandon the institution of Judaism.
Wow, what a strange situation! But it’s the sort of situation that has been faced often in Christian history> It has happened when churches or denominations as a whole abandon the truth about Christ, His virgin birth, His deity, salvation by faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. It’s then that true believers need to come out from those now human and ungodly institutions that have abandoned the truth about Jesus Christ and have become apostate. Because God has written Ichabod over them. Because they have abandoned the truth and righteousness, God no longer is present among them, He no longer blesses them or has anything good to do with them. That’s what happened with official mainline Judaism in Israel at this time.
And that’s also what happened with most of the mainline Christian denominations in the United States of America in the last century. Their seminaries were infiltrated by apostates, people who did not believe in the deity of Christ, His atoning Sacrifice, salvation by faith through grace, or the Word of God, and taught varied and strange things that were literally heresy, that lead to spiritual destruction.
It happened with the advent of what was called Modernism, or Liberalism, that swept through the mainline denominational churches beginning about a hundred years ago and left them all spiritually bankrupt. They were full of people who went through the form of godliness but denied the power therein. So by the time I’m visiting small towns in Nebraska and Iowa as a young believer in the late 1970s, 50 years after Modernism’s attacks, churches like the United Methodist Church have very little left of biblical or orthodox Christianity, and the true believers who had been part of them are exiting them for Bible teaching churches. Because those denominations and institutions had abandoned the truth and righteousness about God, God abandoned them, wrote Ichabod over all of them indicating that the glory and presence and blessing of God had left them, and had gone on to those churches and institutions which believed and practiced and taught the truth. In other words, at various times in history, it’s necessary to abandon previously legitimate religious institutions because they’ve abandoned God. In fact, it’s even necessary to do so to keep on worshiping Jesus. And so the writer’s message here is don’t abandon worshiping and serving Jesus for apostate human institutions. Rather, abandon the apostate religious institution to continue following Christ.
Now the current rage which is enveloping many otherwise conservative Christian churches and colleges is acceptance of gay rights and the LGBTQ ideology. Just read in World magazine about Seattle Pacific University in the Northwest, a Christian and biblical college where now 70% of the faculty support LGBTQ rights—in other words the faculty and staff at this formerly biblical university want to include practicing homosexuals as part of the body of Christ. The board hasn’t caved yet, but the handwriting is on the wall. Also I just read that Baylor University, the largest Southern Baptist University in the world has now chartered a club for LGBTQ students. So many otherwise biblical churches are caving to political correctness in the culture in this one area—and a false gospel that says you can be perverse and immoral sexually and still be saved—that you wonder, in our country, which Christian churches and institutions will be left standing when the smoke clears. We’ve got to resist these unbiblical and heretical tendencies. And in some cases believers will be forced to abandon formerly orthodox biblical churches and institutions if they want to continue worshipping and serving the true Christ of the Scriptures.
So the writer recognizes the question might be asked by these Jews, how then do we worship God since the Old Testament sacrificial system is obsolete and since the sacrifices offered in temple no longer benefit those worshipers. And the answer is given in verses 16 and 17. The appropriate sacrifices are to offer sacrifices of praise and service, rather than bulls and goats.
Verse 15: “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” In other words, actively and continually love God by praising Him—Sunday mornings and every day—and love your neighbor, love your brother, by offering sacrifices of doing good and sharing. Because under the New Covenant, God is pleased with such sacrifices as these.
So two dangers have been specified. Two warnings applied. First, about varied and strange teachings that equate the external and physical with being means of spiritual growth, and gaining approval from God, when the truth is that only the grace offered through Jesus Christ can do so. And second, don’t abandon Christ to continue with an apostate religious institution. Be it a mainline denominational church, an apostate bible-teaching church, or whatever. When human institutions cave to cultural and worldly pressures, political correctness or the laws of the land, don’t cave with them. Abandon them if necessary so you don’t abandon Jesus Christ and His truth. For to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God, according to James.
A third warning has to do with how we relate to spiritual authority in our churches. How we relate to leaders—leaders like pastors and elders, even deacons might be included in this exhortation. A very natural tendency is to rebel against human authority, even when it’s God-given human authority. All of us want to do our own thing in the natural, in accord with our sin nature. Rebellion is endemic to our sin natures, so we’re not to live by them. But we are to humbly submit, even obey, to the leaders God has placed in the church.
Verse 17: Notice the strong commands given here; surprisingly strong in relationship to our spiritual leaders. “Obey your leaders and submit to them.” Now we might want to soften the words and say, “Honor your leaders.” But these exhortations are much more forceful. It is the word obey, and it is the word submit. In other words do what they say. Do what they say without grumbling or complaint. Sounds even strong to me. And of course I’m sure there are some cults that would take this to the limit—insisting they have control over your money, who you marry, where you live, what you do for a living. It’s not talking about that kind of control. Clearly the leaders in the church exercise authority over church policies and ministries, and the moral choices of their members. That’s where the obedience and submission is supposed to come, not in the extreme of controlling the details of church members’ lives.
And why are we to submit? The big reason is that our spiritual leaders are accountable to God for what they do. They will give account to God for whether they have been good shepherds and whether they have cared for the flock for whom Christ died. Again, verse 17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.” We are accountable to God for leading you and shepherding you as Christ.”
And then an understated warning is given: “Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” I think this is an example of under-emphasis. Rebellion and grumbling against spiritual leaders, except when they are in sin, is a very dangerous spiritual proposition. If there is grumbling, complaint and rebellion against a spiritual leader, so that they grieve, rather than minister with joy, God notices. And God is not pleased. And in some very serious way, this will be unprofitable for those who are so involved in rebellion against spiritual authority.
Now on the one hand, I want to stress that it’s okay, and proper, to question spiritual leaders. We need to be accountable as well. The Apostle Paul rebuked the Apostle Peter publicly in Galatians 2 because the truth of the Gospel was at stake. So there’s a time and place for that. But just to rebel when godly leadership is leading in a godly way is another matter.
And as the Book of Hebrews has frequently cited Old Testament examples of judgment with regard to violations of the Law, even so it could well be appropriate to cite examples from the time of Moses when people grumbled against, and ultimately rebelled against His authority. These were examples for us—in the case of Korah’s Rebellion, and Dathan and Abiram--the earth opened up and swallowed them and their families alive. Now I haven’t seen that happen since, or in my lifetime, but these examples are given to us as a warning of just how serious this matter is of appropriately submitting to the godly leaders he has put over us when they are acting in a godly way.
Now the Book of Hebrews then concludes with exhortations to pray and be equipped by the Great Shepherd of God’s grace who has provided us with an eternal covenant, as opposed to the temporary covenant of the Old Testament, which had by this time become obsolete.
In other words while we’re here, our work is not done. As we approach the eternal city, the new Jerusalem, continued prayer, and being equipped for service by the Great Shepherd of the sheep is in order.
And toward that end we must remember—Don’t abandon Christ for strange teaching, apostate institution or rebellions against godly leaders.
Rather, remember one of the most stirring, if not most stirring of all benedictions to be found anywhere in Scripture. It’s found in verses 20 and 21: “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing go do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Let’s pray.
