By Grace We Hear His Voice - Hebrews 13:22–25

I think it’s a true statement and agreed upon by everyone that no one likes to be told what to do. We naturally cringe at being corrected by someone when our minds are made up, we feel like we’re right, and changing direction will be difficult. You’ve likely been on both sides of this at one time or another. Sometimes you were the one doing the telling; other times you were the one being told.

Of course, we shouldn’t always do what others tell us just because they do so. But when what we are being told is true, and we find ourselves out of accordance with the truth, then we must change. Doing this, however, is a natural struggle for all people. We desire to be self-governed. We love to be right, and we love to feel that we know best. And even if someone else knows better, it is true that you don’t have to listen to them.

But what happens when God is the one telling you what to do? Do you ever cringe? What about when God is the one correcting you, demanding that you change course? We cringe at being corrected by God when our minds are made up. This obviously puts us in opposition to Him, and it makes us subject to His wrath against sin.

But the good news of Jesus Christ tells us that God has responded with a plan to replace our cringing with a desire to do what God tells us. In Ezekiel 36 in the OT, the prophet Ezekiel recorded this promise of God: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel describes the inward working of the Holy Spirit of God as He raises sinners from a state of spiritual deadness to new life in Jesus Christ. God causes rebirth in those whom He saves. Jesus said, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This rebirth is the Holy Spirit’s doing, and without this action, we could never walk in His ways.

Since God has taken action, in spite of how we cringe at His correction, we should respond with humility and eagerness to obey Him. But how do we do this, when our sinful nature still cringes at His commands? Two essential truths are highlighted in these final verses of Hebrews, verses which at first seem to be simply tagged on. But remember: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

Notice the outline on page 6 in the WG. How can we respond to God with the humility and eagerness that don't come naturally? We need to understand these two things: We must respect and receive the reading and especially the preaching of the Scriptures ultimately as God’s voice, and we can respect and receive the reading and especially the preaching of the Scriptures only by God’s grace.

Now look again at verse 22. “I appeal to you, brothers.” The whole congregation who originally received this letter is being addressed. This is a “P.S.” P.S. stands for “postscript” and comes from the Latin, “post scriptum,” which means “written after.” These short remarks are meant to be a reminder with a personal and pastoral touch. He says, in other words, “I urge you.” To do what? You see it there, to “bear with my word of exhortation.” The preacher understands that his words can and probably will strike a nerve.

The letter of Hebrews, which is a sermon written, carried to, and read aloud to a church, does what all faithful preaching of God’s Word should do: it proclaims Christ, explains the great truths of God, and preaches to the heart. Faithful preaching shows the way to godly sorrow for sin and glorious hope in the work of Jesus. Faithful preaching of God’s Word warns us and counsels the people in an authoritative way, warning us of the dangers of sin and counseling us to trust wholly in Jesus.

Faithful preaching helps the people see and worship Jesus, which requires challenging how we naturally think. It assaults the human intellect and offends the human will. Sooner or later, we are told things that we don’t want to hear. And for these reasons, when we hear it we must “bear with” it. We must endure it.

This preacher tells these people that leaving Jesus and the church would be in vain. He tells them that people who turn away from Jesus for good were never truly saved. He tells them that their sufferings are the discipline of God, their loving Father. He tells them that nothing they do is hidden from God’s sight, but that all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. He tells them they must reject immorality and not be controlled by fear. He tells them that they must walk by faith through the most trying times of life. And they must “bear with” these commands.

This same language is used by the apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 4 as he tells his protege Timothy, “Preach the word...for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” People will not esteem the truth; they will not respect and receive the voice of God.

Look at the end of verse [22], “for I have written to you briefly.” Briefly! This is our 30th and final Hebrews sermon. Thirty weeks! You could read this through aloud in about an hour, so in that respect, it is brief. But the message is clear: Jesus is the better Savior and He is the only Lord. Wherever else we might turn for hope, Jesus is better. Jesus is enough. Some will hear this message and turn away. So the writer pleads with them to not turn away because the words are true and they are from God.

Earlier in worship we proclaimed what we believe. Look back at that with me if you would. This is a summary of principles laid out in multiple passages of OT and NT Scripture. We read these words: “The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them to Christ; of conforming them to His image, and subduing them to His will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith to salvation.”

What was Paul’s answer to people’s natural rejection of the truth? Preach the Word of God. Proclaim the message of God. Paul also tells Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” The preacher is simply a laborer handling that which belongs to God, that which God has produced and determined to use, that which is breathed out by God.

The apostle Peter states that the Scriptures were not produced by the will of man, “but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Scriptures are God’s message, and when they are read and preached faithfully, God speaks. We must respect and receive the reading and especially the preaching of the Scriptures ultimately as God’s voice. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” God telling us what to believe and what to do.

There is OT precedent for this. Nehemiah ch. 8 says that Ezra, who was a scribe and a priest in ancient Israel, read from the Word of God to the people. Then he, along with many others who served, “helped the people to understand the Law…They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” What was it that the people of God needed to understand? Not the opinions of men, but the precepts of God. When the writer of Hebrews says “bear with my word of exhortation,” he knows that it is God’s Word of exhortation which the people must respect, receive, and obey.

We also get a sense from this postscript of the structure through which God speaks. Verse [23], he says, “You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.” This may be the same Timothy who was discipled by Paul, may not be; either way, the implication is that the man was locked up for preaching the gospel. The dying world wants to shut down the proclamation of the living God. The sinful nature and our sinful enemy cannot stand God’s holy Word. This is why governments seek to suppress the truth; this is why souls suppress it.

Notice verse [24] “Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings.” We don’t have enough information to make a conclusive statement about who he is referring to in Italy, but it is clear that Jesus Christ established His church with a structure with leaders and congregations. Interestingly, the word used here which we translate “leaders” refers to those who would speak the Word of God and serve as the undershepherds of Jesus.

The leadership is plural; there must be accountability among the leaders.And there are standards for the leaders. The early NT church had a clear structure in place. This is why Peter wrote, “I urge the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. God provided a structure to strengthen the church’s confidence that when the Word is faithfully read and preached, God’s voice will be heard.

This opens up the subject of the reliability of the Scriptures and the manner in which God gave them to His people. Can the words themselves and the explanation of the words be trusted? Why might we not trust their reliability? Isn’t it because people are not trustworthy? The men who wrote the Scriptures, and the preachers who explain them -- how can they be trusted?

Good questions, in fact, the Scriptures speak to the reality that false teachers will be everywhere. The apostle John wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Yes, people are liars, but here’s one thing you have to remember: so are you. You’ve deceived before. You’ve willingly gone against what you knew was true. Of course sinful people would doubt the trustworthiness of God’s message. Of course we would question the way He chooses to deliver it. Of course we would rather look within ourselves and believe a message that suits our own passions.

What we need is a message that comes from outside of ourselves, a message delivered through more than one person, delivered in more than one short span of time, a message which can be explained systematically and in detail, and yet is very simple. Paul told the Corinthian church, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The faithful preaching of the Word is centered around and founded up the person and work of Jesus Christ. And left to ourselves, we would never believe it, much less live by it.

Yes, people are not trustworthy. We can’t even trust ourselves all the time. And so we can respect and receive the reading and especially the preaching of the Scriptures only by God’s grace. Notice verse [25] Grace be with all of you. Only by grace - by God’s undeserved favor - can preachers deliver the truth with precision and integrity, and only by grace can the people receive it and do what it says. The writer of Hebrews knew these folks would need God’s grace to receive and obey the message. There should be no getting puffed up with pride. It’s by God’s grace that we are who we are.

These final words of Hebrews form a good bookend to the first words of chapter 1. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” We can proclaim God’s truth and hear it only because of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That is why we must cling closely to Him and look to Him.

Friends, we must make it our life-long goal to know and walk with and worship Jesus Christ. We do not always faithfully do what the Father tells us to do, but Jesus did. Our hope is not that we can do like He did, but that what He did was done in our place. Have you trusted in what Jesus has done? And do you trust in Him again each day? You see, in whatever decision you must make, in whatever you must face and endure, as you make your choices and live your life, God has spoken the final word on all matters in the person and work of His Son Jesus. By grace, may we hear and obey His voice.

Let’s bow together in prayer.