Grace Has Come

0:19Crossfree Bible Church. Crossfield Bible Church is our fourth confessional Baptist Church. For more information about our church and for directions, you can find us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good morning again. It is obviously and always wonderful to be back in the pulpit preaching. Thank you again, Brother Gerardo. Actually, not thank you again, because I'm not sure I told him thank you the first time, but thank you for filling in last week. It is a blessing to have you. But here we are again in Hebrews. We're going to be in chapter 13, covering verses 9 through 14 today. And I, this being the first Sunday of Advent and the lighting of our hope candle. I did my best to tie all of these themes together for us this morning because we are going to make it through Hebrews, Lord willing. Next week will be our last Sunday in Hebrews. We'll finish up that last little section, and then we will very briefly cover that final greeting and that benediction together. But this morning, it's Hebrews 13, verses 9 to 14. Last time, not last Sunday, but last time we were in Hebrews, the main focus was Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Theme of that was the unchanging Christ, right? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That is verse 8 of the text directly preceding our verses this morning. And if that is true, which it is, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, then this must necessarily include his doctrine. This must include his grace. This must include his salvation. This must include his acceptance. All of those things must also be the same yesterday, today and forever. If Christ is unchanging, then God is unchanging. And if God is unchanging, then everything about God is unchanging. They are very old. During the Reformation, and we've said this before, I think, during the Reformation there was one Latin phrase that summarized that Reformation movement, and that phrase in Latin was ad fontes. Ad fontes. To the fountain head in English. To the fountain head. The fontes, the fountain. The fountain head. Because we know and we've all experienced that the further we get away from the source or the fountain head, the more diverging and the more strange the path becomes. So we stay near the fontes, the fountain head. And we return again and again to the fountainhead. And this is why we return again every year to the birth of Christ. To the Advent. This is the fountainhead of our salvation. And this is why it never gets old to drink again from that refreshing water of the incarnation. Has anybody ever said, oh no, here comes Advent again? Don't. Because that is our fountainhead. And it is refreshing to drink again. The blessed grace given to us is shown in the incarnation when God wrapped himself in flesh, born to us in pure innocence. That he, Christ, in flesh, the personification of pure innocence, he that knew no sin, became sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is amazing grace. So we joyfully return to that fountain head year after year to drink from the fountain of grace. That is certainly what we will do this morning. We are going to be reminded then this morning of grace. What is grace? The truth concerning grace, and more specifically the means of grace, which providentially Brother Gerardo brought up this morning already. And in that we look at sound doctrine, sound truth. We look what is what is grace exactly. We look at the sacrifice of Christ in the incarnation, and then we will finish with everlasting acceptance. The sacrifice of Christ and everlasting acceptance. That's Lord willing where we're going. So stand with me if you would and let us read our text. Hebrews 13, starting in verse 9. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those who devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. This is the word of the Lord. And it is by his grace that I pray, and in his name, amen. So in this idea of being reminded of grace or defining grace for us this morning, we must look at the call for sound doctrine. This is verse 9. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. I will support that by two other verses. Titus, verse 2. Sorry, chapter 2 and verse 1, Paul says, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. You remember from Hebrews as well, chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. The call then is to know what is right, to know the truth. So that we are not led away by what is wrong, what is false. We are to know the truth. And in the truth we find grace. This is why the truth is so important, not because we want to fill our heads with doctrinal and theological knowledge, but because in the truth we find the grace of God. It is in sound doctrine, at that fountainhead where we are refreshed by grace. It is where our hearts are strengthened by grace, that is in the truth. So we must know truth. And in these various and strange teachings that our text says, or diverse and strange teachings, that is not sound doctrine, not truth of God's word, we begin to seek strength in things other than grace. This is the danger. Perhaps not realizing that devoting ourselves to such things does not benefit us, as our text says. Many practical examples can be given, and I'll give a few, but fortunately for us, our text really tells us explicitly, or certainly gives us a hint at what the author is meaning here when he speaks of diverse and strange teachings. He says at the second half of verse 9, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. Good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods. What does he mean, not by foods? It was common that when the Gentiles converted to Christianity, they were considered not fully in grace until they participated in the Jewish things, right? This is what Paul addressed specifically in his letter to the Galatians with respect to the Judaizers who were forcing the Gentiles to undergo circumcision as the means by which they were fully entered into Christ or fully saved. And without that, they were not considered to be fully saved. As though there was a special measure of grace given to a person when they participated in a particular food ceremony. Okay? As though there was a special measure of grace given to a person when they participated in a particular food ceremony. It as though it is as though they were saying you're not really experiencing Christ until you do this. You're not really experiencing Christ until you participate in this feast. Or perhaps some said. Maybe they said that. It wasn't really until I started doing this that I began to truly experience Christ. And the failure there with respect to the foods is a failure in connecting that Christ says that it is not what goes into the body that defiles us, right? But what comes out. And in the same way, it is not what goes into the mouth that makes one righteous. It is not what goes into the mouth that gives one grace. But is what is given within. And to think otherwise. Such feasts point us to the grace offered to us by the real and lasting meal. Those feasts, those food ceremonies point us to the grace offered to us by the real and the lasting meal. The food and drink that fills not the stomach. I'm tempted to just read the entirety of John chapter 6, but I won't. I'll give you a few verses. Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give for you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. Verse 32, he says, Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. John 6, 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Verse 41, I am the bread came down from heaven. Christ continues, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that the one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live ever. And the bread that I give for life of the world, for the life of the world is my flesh. Finally, Christ says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. So the strange teaching, then, is the one who posits that we can receive grace by any means other than the person and work of Christ in his word, the true and living bread. Any teaching that posits that we can receive grace by anything other than the person and work of Christ in his word is not true. It is not true. And if you think that that strange teaching isn't still happening today, let me warn you that it is. Two new Latin words for you. Ex opera operata. By the doing it is done, is what it is in English. By the doing, it is done. Teaching that the grace is given in the doing. That grace is infused in the ritual, or in their case, the mass, and by participating in it, you are receiving grace simply by the doing. That your heart is strengthened by the doing, not by grace. And I'm not going to pick on the Catholics because we do it more, actually. I haven't been to church in a few weeks. I need to go get my battery recharged. You heard that? That is ex operata. Ex opera operata. By the doing it is done. As though it is in the doing that one gets grace, as opposed to the one who did the doing. Going all the way down. Okay. Have you heard this one? Have you been to that new church? Their worship ban has got me hooked. How about this one? Have y'all done that new Daniel diet? Seen that new Daniel diet? I have never been closer to God than when I started eating only fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Man, I'm so close to the Lord. I read an ad for the Daniel Diet, and it says that the Daniel diet will change your relationship with the one who created you. It can be yours for the low price of $19.95. Foods. We're not strengthened by foods. Strengthened by grace. So let me remind you again of grace that your heart may be strengthened by it. Grace's favor not gained through the doing, but Grace's favor that is unmerited. Grace's unmerited favor, given an eternal love by the one worthy of the doing. This is grace. The fountainhead of our faith is that while we were still sinners, while we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us. God became flesh, wrapped himself in flesh, dwelt among us, knowing that we would kill him. He emptied himself knowing the cost. And to say that his grace can be found in food or in some doing is to lessen the magnitude of his divine work in the incarnation. What did Christ come for if his grace can be found in a leg of lamb? Or whole wheat bread? Or the emotional cords of a synthesizer. What did he come for then? Galatians 2. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Galatians 2, 20 to 21. Not to diminish those things like a leg of lamb or whole wheat bread or the emotional cords of a synthesizer. These are certainly not irrelevant at all. And God sends. Grace. He sends rain on the just and the unjust, doesn't he? He is generally benevolent. He reveals himself through many things. He shows grace in many ways, but those are not saving grace. And if saving grace is sought after in anything other than Christ and anything other than his word, we are perverting the grace of God. For it is good for your heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those who devoted to them. Okay, so we're going to connect then those sacrifices to their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. And this is starting in verse 11. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. The priests were allowed to eat certain portions of the various offerings. And it had to be offered and burned outside the camp, away from the people. This is a clear and explicit foreshadowing to the Christ, to the final sin offering. Who would be offered outside the camp, that is, outside the city, taken away from the people, and our sin offering was burned outside the camp. And this is both a reference to the physical location and to the rejection by his people. He was an outcast, and he was cast out to be offered. This fulfilled the sin offering. Do you see this? Think about that Levitical sin offering and what Christ did. That fulfilled the sin offering, foreshadowed in the very system of those who rejected him. And the irony of that is astounding if you really think about it. Their rejection of him. So to return again to that or to seek grace in that sacrificial system, something that was so wonderfully fulfilled and completed by Christ, is to deny him of the honor of the completion of his work. Imagine you complete a huge project for work. And you finish this work, you put in a lot of work for it, you turn it into your supervisor, and he takes it from you, and he makes a few meaningless additions to it, and he signs his name on it, and turns it in and takes all the credit and says, here you go, boss. Got it all done for you. That would be an utter betrayal, wouldn't it be? How many of us, though, try to add a few meaningless things to the work of Christ and then sign our name to it? It's a perversion of grace. A perversion of grace. It also means that the grace of Christ is found outside the city. This is verse 13. Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. The grace of Christ is found outside the city. If grace is only found in Christ, and it is, and Christ is found outside the camp, then where do we go to find grace? Outside the camp. We have to go outside the city. If you want to stay as a member of respectable society, if you want the admiration of the wisdom of the world, if you want to maintain the favor of those in high society, whatever that is, not wanting to fully stand with Christ, then you will have no lasting fellowship with him. Because he is outside the camp. Our Lord and Savior was taken out of the camp. He was beaten and he was mocked and he was ridiculed and he was despised. If he was alone out there, would you go to him? You cannot find the cross. You cannot find the grace of Christ sipping cocktails with the progressives, with the woke, with the worldly, as though our favor of them or from them is more important. We know Christ. We know the real and true Christ, the only one who saves, the only source of grace, and we must go to Him. We must stand with Him. As our text says, that means we will likely bear the reproach that he endured. But we consider it a blessing. We consider it a blessing to suffer. We consider it a blessing to die with Christ rather than to live in the city of vainglory. We lit the candle of hope. And there is hope. The hope is that we don't stay outside the camp forever. There is a new city being established in which we will have everlasting acceptance. I am of the belief that camp here, as we look at verse 14, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. That city here, and camp, as it refers earlier to Christ, are metaphorical in a sense that we're not literally going outside the city. We're not to move to the country and go outside of the city and get away from everybody, looking for this better city to be established. It's not literal in that sense. But it is literal in that there is a physical reality that we are hoping for. We are not only hoping in a spiritual fulfillment of God's promises, though that be true. The hope of Christ is a spiritual salvation and a spiritual reconciliation to God, but just as we will both spiritually and physically bear the reproach of Christ now, we will both spiritually and physically be reunited to him in that eternal city. I'll look very quickly up the metaphorical and the literal aspects of this everlasting acceptance. Metaphorically, we look forward in hope to the day when we will be everlastingly accepted. Mom brought it up in Sunday morning when we were next door, but I made a note to say something about this as well. And Cade commented on this when we were on the cruise. How good it feels to walk into a place with like-minded people who love you, who accept you, and who celebrate your coming. For him, it was wearing a freedom, Charlie Kirk freedom shirt, and all the people that were just supporting him. How good that feels. You just know there's this feeling of commitment, support, protection. It gives you confidence, it gives you joy. That comes from unity. Okay? And in that example, that came from unity on a set of particular things. Imagine what it will be like when we are welcomed among the saints in glory, when we have unity on everything. After living outside, metaphorically, of the city for so long. In situations where we're unsure about our social acceptance, we've been there, unsure, or maybe we're not unsure that we're socially unaccepted. These situations where we're unsure about how people feel about us, uneasy about our sin and how our sin may have affected other people, we're guarded, we're ready to give a defense, we're always on edge, we're bracing for the next trial. You feel these things. Imagine then walking into the presence of Christ, all the saints in glory where forevermore such emotions will be only a memory. Imagine a day where every soul you meet embraces you and celebrates your arrival. Imagine the joy when perfection brings forth perfect unity and we are all together forever worshiping and serving our God. That is the city to come that we seek. Literally, though, we believe that this city to come is a place. It's here on earth with actual people. That this blessed salvation and the subsequent unity in glory necessarily and thankfully includes a physical reality. We're not just floating in unity amongst the clouds, right? Christ, even now, through you, through his bride, the church, he's building this holy city that is to come. We'll get there. Just as real as we are sitting here this morning, we will be there, sitting there, worshiping in glory. And that's important. That is very important to have that picture in your mind because the call to bear the reproach he endured is a tough call. But it becomes possible when you see the full picture of where you're going and who you're going to and who you will be when you get there. When we were reading through that book, that discipline book, the Donald Whitney book, he talked about a guy, a young boy who is shown a man playing this guitar virtuosely, virtuously, uh amazing guitar player. And the boy asks the man who's showing him this, who is that guy playing this guitar so beautifully and so masterfully and so wonderfully? And the guy tells the boy, that's you in 20 years. You will get there. And if that, when that revelation comes to him, now when he goes back to his time, how much easier is his practice, daily practice, knowing that I've already seen where I'm going. How much easier is it to go through the grind of work when you know what the end result is going to be? When you see the full picture of where you're going, who you are going to be, and the unity that awaits for you in glory, you can say, okay, I'll bear the reproach, I'll put in the work, I'll get there because I know where I'm going. I know who I'm going to be. And you will. And we will all be there together. Because we see and we know where we are going. We're going to Christ. Our hope. Our grace and glory. The hope has come this morning. The grace has come once again to us this morning in the person of Christ, who is the same yesterday. It was the same today and is the same forever. Whose word will not change and has not changed, whose means of grace has not and will not change, whose promise has not and will not change. Church, today is the first day of Advent. We return again to the fountainhead of our salvation. Hope of glory. And he gave his only son. Whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. May your hope be renewed again this season. May the grace of Christ be poured out anew for you as you cling so closely to his cross. May you be strengthened and emboldened to go to him outside the camp. To forsake the city of this world and instead bear the reproach he endured, looking to that everlasting city and his everlasting promise. We'll get there, church, by his grace. Because we're in many ways already there. Let us keep following Christ by his word, glorifying and enjoying him until we walk hand in hand into everlasting peace and the everlasting city. Hope has come. Grace has come. Christ has come. Amen. What else can we say but be thankful for Christ this morning? We thank you, Father, for sending your son. We thank you, Father, for sending hope to us. Help us to be refreshed in your grace this morning. By and through your Son. Revealed to us in your word. Let us return again to that fountain head. Lord this season, let us draw nearer and nearer to the cross, nearer and nearer to your word. Lord, refresh us again in your grace. That we may be emboldened to go to you, to bear the reproach that you endured. And so that we will walk into the city with you. We thank you for the city that is to come. Let us be the hands and feet that help build that city for you, Lord. We ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.