Heb 13:4-6 More Deadly than Death
Notes
Transcript
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
There was a famous SeaWorld show called Shamu. It was a show where killer whales and orcas performed an orchestrated show to the public. Dawn Brancheau worked with the orcas for 15 years. The orca trainer Dawn knew that she was working with killer whales, but for 15 years she worked closely, especially with the orca named Tilikum, for all those years she knew that it was very rare occasions for orcas to attack humans and she had been working with this orca for many years and she loved the orca. By the year 2010, the trainer and the orca are attracting more animal lovers to SeaWorld.
The trainer was likely unaware that this same orca, Tilikum, had killed two people, one in 1991 and 1999. Those two deaths were ruled as “accidents” as they fell into the water and drowned, even though their bodies were mutilated, which was “just” overlooked. In the trainer’s mind, there was no danger, Dawn had been working with this beloved killer I mean orca for 10 years without a problem.
Then one morning like any other in 2010, they had finished the show and the killer whale grabbed the trainer by the ponytail or arm into the water where she suffered a horrible death, the non-dangerous orca proceeded to mutilate the trainer. One year later the same killer whale is returned to perform shows at SeaWorld, but now no trainer is allowed in the water.
The orca did not seem to pose any threat or danger. But the killer whale turned out to be a very deadly threat. Sadly it took the lives of three people for many to see that there was a reason those whales were named killer whales.
What we will in the passage that we will study today is that the author of Hebrews warns us of two things that are more deadly than death, more deadly than being killed by a whale.
Remember the author of Hebrews is writing this letter to a small congregation who were former Jews who are facing and will continue facing great persecution. Many of them will likely pay the price of following Jesus with their lives. To the world, this group of people was an easy target and could easily be destroyed by the strong hand of the government of the time.
However, the author of Hebrews is showing in these verses that the greater danger was not to suffer or be killed because of Jesus’s name. It is a greater danger to grow cold in our love for God, who is a consuming fire, and to grow cold in our love for one another as we saw last week. Now in verses 4-6, he points out the deadliness of relapsing in our personal moral code, which he states is actually more deadly than death.
This is so counter-intuitive that I need to say it again. It is more deadly for us if we are not honoring God in how we think and act regarding sex and money than it is to physically die.
We will see this answered in full as we spend time this morning working through this passage.
4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Here in this verse, the author of Hebrews shows us two things that are more deadly than death. First, it says that we should honor marriage, the opposite dishonoring marriage is deadly, and we will see the how as we expand on this verse.
1. Dishonoring Marriage
God made it plain here that marriage should be held in honor. There are two extremes when marriage is dishonored: asceticism and libertinism.
Asceticism is based on the idea of severity to the body in order to achieve a spiritual goal. Some from the first century on believed that in order to reach a higher spiritual level one must never get married. Other ascetic groups throughout the church’s history viewed those who chose to marry as carnal and lower-level Christians.
However, the greatest assault on marriage’s home is the other extreme: libertinism. Within this category are those who see marriage as irrelevant as they seek unrestrained sexual fulfillment.
For many marriage is irrelevant, some see it as an obstacle to self-fulfillment, and at best marriage is seen as only an irrelevant contract between people independent of gender. Since the laws of the land abandoned God’s basic moral law, the battle right now in the courts is to remove the limitation of marriage to two people. Yes, you heard me, the current battle is to endorse polygamy only they are not calling it this but have a new term for it. Once God’s basic moral law is abandoned there are no boundaries or limitations as to what is going to be accepted next as “normal” or legal.
However, the author of Hebrews is not addressing the immorality and depravity of the world, he is talking to the church the ones who know God’s moral law.
How are we in the church dishonoring marriage? It might be through the extremes of asceticism and libertinism that we talked about. But statistically, the main way the church is dishonoring marriage is through divorce.
If believers have the same divorce rate in the church as the unbeliever does, then as a church in general we are trampling on our testimony and ultimately God’s character but also God’s message to the unbeliever and what Christ has done for us. Some might say marriage is too hard and difficult, but we as the bride of Christ don’t make “marriage” easy for Christ.
To the world, it is legal and right to get a divorce if you are not happy, but that is not what God calls us to do. From the beginning of creation marriage has been ordained by God between one biological man and one biological woman. Genesis proclaims, after God gave Eve to Adam, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (2:24). Marriage is self-evidently heterosexual and indissoluble. As Jesus said, “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6). Jesus honored marriage by performing his first miracle at a wedding (John 2:1 ff.). The Holy Spirit further honored it in Ephesians 5 by using it to portray the relationship of Christ and his church (vv. 23–32).
Therefore, in the words of our text, Let marriage be held in honor among all, or “Marriage should be honored by all”—or more literally, “Let marriage be precious to all of you.” As Christians, we celebrate marriage when it is truly a marriage according to God’s Word. We joyfully surround a couple as they follow God’s command to publically celebrate God’s ordinance of marriage. We must pray that our marriages will be a loud witness to the world and that we will remain faithful until death. Marriage is given to us by God and it deserves our greatest honor!
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled,
2. Sexual Immorality
Then in the next phrase of verse 4, the author of Hebrews shows us the second thing that is more deadly than death, the loss of purity. The author affirms in the positive “let the marriage bed be undefiled”
Logically, if we are to honor marriage it means we esteem its purity. The term “bed” is used here as a euphemism for sexual intimacy, and in demanding that it be kept “pure” the author of Hebrews is referring in sacrificial terms to married chastity. The bed—the marriage intimacy—is an altar, so to speak, where a pure offering of a couple’s lives is made to each other and to God.
I believe this purity also applies to the couple prior to marriage. We live in a culture where it is the norm for a couple to sleep together before they get married, often couples are living together before they actually get married. This should not be the norm for Christians. We should be a people who seek purity and uphold righteousness. We should be bold and say to those near us that even though things are accepted by the world, it doesn’t mean that it is right in God’s eyes.
The Christians throughout the centuries have stood out as the ones who value and live lives of purity. In the first century, Emperor Trajan was looking for ways to legally charge the Christians, so he sent Governor Pliny to find a way. This is what he was able to report about the Christians “They bound themselves by oath, not for any criminal end, but to avoid theft or adultery, never to break their word.…” Christian sexual morality was unique in the pagan world and a source of wonder. And it has become increasingly so today in a world that considers adultery irrelevant, purity abnormal, and sex a “right”. We Christians are called to be shockingly pure—to be a source of wonder and even disdain and scorn by a world that does not know God.
Why is not being sexually pure more deadly than death? Once again, we see that this scars God’s message to those He created and is calling to Him. I am reminded of how often this is used by God in the Old Testament to teach His people about Himself and His love for them and ultimately us.
4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Why is loss of purity more deadly than death? Because God is the Judge. We must honor marriage, we must be pure for God is the Judge
Being called to radical purity is nothing to mess with because the call concludes with this warning, “for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (v. 4c). This means that everyone—professed Christians and non-Christians alike—will be judged for adultery (extramarital sexual relations) and sexual immorality (other illicit sexual relations, including perversions).
Furthermore, those who have taken up adulterous lifestyles and remain unrepentant will suffer ultimate judgment and damnation, for despite their insistence that they are “Christians,” they are self-deceived. God’s Word is terrifyingly clear:
1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 “do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God”
Revelation 21:8; cf. 22:15: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Notice here in 1 Cor and Revelation that the sexual immoral is in the same place as thieves and murderers. Furthermore, the end result is the same, the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
God is a consuming fire, He is completely Holy and Righteous, and He called us to be holy. 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7: “It is God’s will that you should be holy; that you should avoid sexual immorality.”
These serious warnings are not just something to be trivial about.
All who are living in sexual immorality, be it adultery, fornication, or any other promiscuity, and are unrepentant are under God’s wrath and ultimate judgment regardless of what they assert about a salvation experience or confession. How we live will either demonstrate that we love ourselves or that we love Jesus. There is no third option you will either love Jesus or yourself.
There is no more serious warning from Jesus than His words from Matt 7:21-23 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
But what does this have to do with the survival of the church? Everything! There is no more effective way to destroy a church and its testimony than by sexual immorality. Immorality distorts theology.
Just look at famous, or some not-so-famous, preachers who have a secret life of immorality while they preach the word. In the end, when the truth comes out at best their faith is dashed to pieces. It is the waves of impact that hold the greater loss … the death of their church body, and many wavering in the faith while others abandon the faith.
Sexual immorality is more deadly than death.
I pray that God would take me home before I would fall into any of these pitfalls. It is better to be a dead preacher than a sinful one and bring damage to Christ’s church and shame to Christ’s name.
From v4 we saw the deadliness of sexual immorality. Remember when I said a few moments ago that there is no more effective way to destroy a church and its testimony than sexual immorality? Well, there is actually one more way … which the author of Hebrews points out here in verse 5.
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
3. Love of Money
The author of Hebrews knew that those who loved the world would not stand firm in difficult times and that those with the greatest affection for wealth would be the first to turn aside when they understood that losses and crosses would come from following Christ.
Love of Money is Covetousness.
Covetousness is plainly forbidden here and elsewhere in the Scriptures. “Keep your life free from love of money,” begins the command. The Scriptures present a desire for wealth as a danger. After Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, Mark tells us:
“Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (10:23–27)
Jesus’ point was that it is impossible for a man who trusts in riches to get into Heaven because a rich man trusts in himself! However, by the grace of God, it is possible. God’s grace can change hearts. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21)
A few verses later Jesus concludes, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).
Wealth has its disadvantages. It is difficult to have it and not trust it. Material possessions tend to focus one’s thoughts and interests on this world alone. Wealth can demand obsession and trust, it can consume and deceive your heart and your mind with the comfort of stuff, ease of life, and entertainment. Jesus said, “but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word (Mark 4:19).
Even though having wealth has its disadvantages, the author of Hebrews here is not forbidding wealth but “the love of money”. Such love can afflict the poorest and the richest. A homeless person can be as consumed by the love of money as the one who sits in abundant wealth. Saving is not a bad thing, but there are so many who waste their lives so that they can accumulate a certain amount of money. It is difficult not to love what you spent your life collecting.
Why is the love of money more deadly than death?
If you love money, you will never be content. The author of Ecclesiastes says: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income” (5:10).
C. H. Spurgeon says: “It is not possible to satisfy the greedy. If God gave them one whole world to themselves they would cry for another; and if it were possible for them to possess heaven as they now are, they would feel themselves in hell, because others were in heaven too, for their greed is such that they must have everything or else they have nothing.”
How do we fight this love of money? The remaining of v5 and 6 tells us:
be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
True contentment comes from resting in God’s care. In other words, “be content because you have God—and he will never forsake you!”
In the Old Testament, we see God saying this over and over. Gen 28:15 God told Jacob as he fled from Esau with only a staff in his hand, God said: “I am with you.… I will not leave you”. Moses encouraged the Israelites, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6, cf. vv. 7, 8). When Joshua was called to take over Moses’ leadership, God said, “I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). David instructed Solomon, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you” (1 Chronicles 28:20).
In no situation will God leave us, nor for any reason will He leave us. He will not leave us even for a little while. Sometimes we might feel like He is hiding his face from us, but He will not leave us.
We will only be content if we truly embrace the fact that we have God! Paul was content even though he had nothing he says in Philippians “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:12). And Paul says this in 1 Timothy 6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that”
Perhaps you, like these early Hebrews, thought (erroneously) that our physical death was what we needed to be conscious of, when in reality God is reminding us that the life you live can be more deadly than death itself. In death, we will face the Judge and it is how we live that determines God’s judgment of us … Will he say, I know you not despite you calling Him Lord, Lord? Or will He say, Well done, good and faithful servant?
My prayer is that you are living your life in purity and contentment. That you are continuing to repent and trust in Jesus. But if God is piercing your heart to say otherwise now … please do not continue to live a more deadly life than death itself. Do not worry about what others may say or think, rather I implore you to come before the Holy Consuming Fire and call on His Love and Grace to change you from this moment on …
Let us live in a manner that honors and glorifies God with all our possessions and our bodies dedicated to serving our Creator and the Coming King.