Do Not Be Led Away

Hebrews 13:9-14

The title of this message and section is is written in the negative “Do not be led away,” but the message itself is positive, “go to Jesus.” In fact this has been the message of the book… We have him, so go to him. What a wonderful encouragement this is for believers.

I want to remind you where we are in chapter 13 so that you can recall where we ended last week. Verse 8 can go with verse 7 just as much as it can go with verse 9. It really acts as a fulcrum for this whole argument. You could say in a much larger way that verse 8 is what all of life rests of. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The issue in the negative is that false teaching is always being peddled amongst Christians which seeks to spy out our liberties in Christ and enslave us. The reality is that false teaching is not always coming from the pulpit, but maybe times finding its way into your ears through conversations with one another, by books, tv, internet, school… etc.

We tend to think of it as coming from a preaching speaking what is false. That certainly happens, and is devastating on a congregation when it does. But the devil is very cunning and crafty, and often slips in where you least expect it.

It’s true isn’t it that something which claims to establish us, build us up, keep us strong, has a certain appeal to it? We must however be careful to see if it is of Christ. This is why in the verse 7 he exhorts us to look to those who have served Christ faithfully their whole lives and see the way that true faith manifests itself and imitate that faith. Faith in the Christ who never changes.

Well, today he is going to exhort us not to be led away by these, what he calls, strange and diverse teachings, but rather go to Jesus.

Well what are these strange and diverse teachings? We could take some weeks to break down what are the current strange and diverse teachings of our culture that seek to lead us away from Christ. We won’t do that here this morning, although Sunday evenings Mike is taking us through those. I haven’t been able to join on a Sunday night, but the video’s are up online where you can listen into the discussion so far. I think it’s been very helpful.

What the author here does is take the common false teaching in the first century church and apply it. Now whether or not the church here was facing this particular issue or he was just using it as an example, there’s really no way to know. But he says that it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace not by foods.

Now that’s going to take some explaining. He isn’t saying don’t eat food. In fact that’s exactly opposite of his point. Judaism had a list of dietary laws meant to keep Israel separate from the surrounding nations. And that was exactly their purpose, to keep them separated.

Think about the best way to get to know someone and become friends with them. You have them over for food and drinks. Now my stomach is about the least adventurist stomach out there, but I love tasting food from other places and cultures.

In the early church in fact at the very beginning the church would often gather together and have a meal. Its very easy to grow together in the bonds of fellowship around a table.

And so these dietary laws were not to keep germs away or ward off high cholesterol, they were for keeping them separate from the surrounding nations, to picture to the people what holiness was.

One of the first things to change in the New Testament was for the dietary laws to go away. Why? Because the gospel was the blessing of Abraham to the nations. Jews and Gentiles together in the same family. No longer in external ordinances that could not save, but inwardly. The dividing wall of hostility had been torn down in Christ.

But a common false teaching was that… yeah those rules had gone away but if you really wanted to be holy, you’d abstain from certain foods.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were good as an ordinary means of grace, but not doing some other things or doing some other things would really help you to be more spiritual.

This has been going on from the beginning. And it continues, just in other forms today, doesn’t it? We add all sorts of things to what we consider holiness to be or not be. Or to how we consider that a Christian can be a better Christian or a worse Christian if they would do or not do certain things.

Now this is the slipperiness of false teaching. Because isn’t it true that believers should change after salvation? Of course it is! Shouldn’t our lives begin to more and more reflect our savior once we repent and believe the gospel? Of course they should!

Notice what is said here, this has to do with what it is that strengthens or establishes the heart. In other words what is it that causes you to be firm and stable?

I have to tell you I am also so concerned when I hear professing believers tell me that getting away from the local church, getting away from the means of grace, getting away from fellow believers for a few months helps strengthen their love for Jesus. I’m very concerned that persons who speak like this believe they are in love with Jesus but in fact have been led away or carried away to love a Jesus in their own making who is not Jesus at all.

What is it that strengthens or establishes the heart of a believer? It is the grace of Christ. We’ll look at what his grace is in a moment, but understand that whatever it is that you turn to offers you something that promises to fill you and establish you.

When you’ve just run a few miles and you get back home and the cool water is waiting for you in the fridge, that water promises to satisfy your thirst. When you’ve been working all day and you get home to a hot meal, that meal promises to give life to your body. You know that feeling when you’re starving, you finally get some food in your stomach and it’s like the world is colorful again?

Spiritually speaking this is what laws and regulations, works, anything other than Christ is offering to you. Do these things and you will be firmly established, strengthened, you will find what it is that satisfies your souls.

At the very bottom of the author’s argument in Hebrews is this for you believer, the only thing there is that will establish firm in the faith is the grace of Christ. Come to him, run to him for nourishment, devote yourself to him and he will firmly establish your soul.

There is no foundation upon which you can be built which will withstand the storms of life except for this one. He is called the anchor of our souls (6:19).

Think of it this way, Christ is the better meal. What is grace in this context? as food is nourishing and satisfying to our physical bodies, so is Christ’s grace in the gospel.

Jesus told this to the woman at the well. He offers us in his person water that eternally satisfies. We come to his well and drink and never thirst again. Believer it is an infinite supply for you.

The lies you will hear sound something like this, “I know you haven’t felt as confident in your faith recently as you’d like to be, why don’t you try… If the answer is something other than availing yourself to the ordinary means of grace in the word and ordinances, you are in danger of being carried away.