Here's chapter 12. Before we get going here, for
all those watching on the live stream, we're testing out a new
microphone. I've noticed lately that the
sound has been kind of bad, and so we've got a new microphone
system that we're hoping will make the audio a little bit better.
And so if anything goes wonky, throw up some Gang signs on the
comments down there and my wife will try to let me know But other
than that we're going to proceed forward Hebrews chapter 12 There's
one particular verse I want to look at here brethren, but I'm
going to start reading in verse 1 and Really not for sure exactly where
I want to read down to whenever I get down there where I feel
I need to stop I'll stop but Hebrews chapter 12, now just at the onset, Hebrews
is, in my opinion, Romans chapter
2, or Romans 2, 2nd Romans. Paul had in the book
of Romans, eloquently, by the inspiration of the Spirit, give
the doctrine of justification. by the faith of Jesus. Not by your faith in Jesus. Justification
by the faith of Jesus Christ. And other paramount doctrines
also in Romans. But in Hebrews, Paul now writes
about Jesus and he writes how Christ and the new covenant has
not only come in and manifested and taken precedence and replaced
the old covenant, you know, the old covenant is gone. It's dead.
There is no old covenant anymore. There is not even the resemblance
of the old covenant still where we're not still holding some
of the old covenant and, you know, only adding in the new
covenant stuff. in certain areas. That's what
a lot of people at least preach. And I know some may not even
know what I'm talking about. There's a lot of people that
says that the law that God had given in the old covenant, the
law of works is still intact, that we still are to keep the
law, not to get saved, but to stay in fellowship with God.
That if we don't keep the law, that we're not going to be in
fellowship with God. But Paul, not only in Romans, but also
in Galatians, He made it very clear that there is no mixture
of law and grace. It's all grace. Everything is
grace pertaining to our salvation, pertaining to spiritual Israel,
pertaining to the spiritual promises, pertaining to the spiritual kingdom
and the spiritual city and the spiritual heaven. All these things
that we are right now hearing on TV because of all this stuff
with Israel. you know, that we should be backing
them because of their being God's people and all this kind of stuff.
Everybody is misunderstanding what the Bible is teaching. That
group, that people is no longer God's people. They are no longer
God's spiritual people. Israel is not the spiritual people,
or excuse me, the nation Israel is not the people of God. That
old covenant is gone and gone with it was the covenant with
old Israel. It's gone. And what all of that
was to begin with was all a type and a foreshadow of what has
always been from Adam clear until the end of time is the new covenant,
which is Christ is our salvation. He is the Israel of promise,
and we are His seed. We are in Him. We come from Him.
And because we are in Him, we have all the blessings. All the
blessings were spiritual blessings. All the promises were spiritual
promises. That land that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament
is not a land that is over in the Middle East. That land that
is foreshadowed is a heavenly land. It is a spiritual place,
okay? It's not a... Not a physical
thing at all. And so Paul in Hebrews writes
down that Christ and this covenant is superior to that of the old
covenant because it's built upon better promises. The promises
in the old covenant was you better keep it or else. That was the
promise. I'm going to let you live if
you keep this promise. But guess what? We found out
that all of history from Adam clear until us today have found
out nobody can keep it. Nobody can keep that. So that's
why Hebrews says that that covenant not only did it vanish away,
but it was imperfect. It had no ability to save anybody. And so therefore, the New Covenant,
which yes, the New Covenant, so to speak, began with the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, that was just
the manifestation of it. It was the revealing of it, because
that covenant was intact all the way back before the foundation
of the world. That everlasting covenant isn't
a covenant that God made with man. That was a covenant that
God made with Himself that He would do this salvation for His
people. And Christ was brought forth
to be the mediator of that covenant. And so that covenant began before
the foundation of the world. Now, it wasn't revealed to the
people of God during the old covenant time. It was hidden. It was veiled. It was a mystery. But that new covenant began to
manifest and be preached, and the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of Christ began to be preached, starting with John the Baptist.
But whenever Christ died, that ratified that covenant. Whenever
Christ died, His blood was set in the seal of that covenant
for His people. That was the foundation upon
which God, from all time, has been able to justify His people.
has been able to acquit and remit the sins of all of his people.
That's why David, whenever he slept with Bathsheba and committed
adultery and sent her husband out to the front lines and had
him killed so that he wouldn't get found out. That's why David
is still the man of God and still in heaven today whenever we go
to be with the Lord. We'll see King David there. Why?
Because that new covenant covered David's sins just like it covers
yours just like it covers mine if we're the children of God
and so Roman or excuse me Hebrews has been written to show that
this old covenant has gone away the new covenant has come in
and is being manifested and the foundation of the new covenant
as far as our experience of that is faith and Faith is the foundation
of the new covenant. It's not works. Grace is what
saves us. Faith is what God gives us that
we might look to Christ and say that's enough. His righteousness
is my righteousness. There is no work that I have
to do because as I've mentioned many times, brethren, Our default
position in the nature of Adam is works for righteousness. We need to do something to atone
for our own sin. We need to do something to please
God. And if you look across all of
the world, no matter what religion is out there, Everybody is preaching
and teaching that very thing even in the jungles and the and
the and the deserts and the you know wherever you know, whether
it's the Incans or the you know, the Native Americans or whether
it's the People over in Africa or the the pagans in in Europe
It doesn't matter or the Hindus in the and the Buddhist over
in and in the in the east It doesn't matter. What is there?
main thing. I have to do something to please
this deity. I have to do something to make
offering and sacrifice to this deity. Christianity, true Christianity,
is the only religion, is the only doctrinal system, is the
only gospel system that says you don't have to do anything
to be saved. Now that doesn't mean that there's not effects
because of that salvation. We do believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We do repent of our wrong thinking and our doctrine. We
do desire righteousness. We do desire good works. We do
desire or have love for God and our brethren. These are things
that God is working in us now. Those are the effects of salvation,
but none of that gets our salvation. Christianity is the only one
that says that you are saved by something completely outside
of yourself and apart from yourself. You do not do anything or have
any hand in your salvation whatsoever. You don't have the hand in choosing
God. You don't have your hand in coming
to God. You don't have your hand in believing on God. You don't
have your hand in receiving the gospel as truth. All of that
is God himself doing that work. He chose you. He died for you. He gave you the gift of the Spirit
of God that gives you spiritual life to hear the gospel, believe
the gospel, to repent of the false gospels, and to repent
of sin, of the unbelief that I can do righteousness. He gives
you the faith to believe on Christ that He alone is my righteousness.
Oh, that's God. God's doing that in you. You're
not doing that yourself. God does that. So anything that
is done inwardly is done by the Spirit of God. So it's not you,
because your flesh can't do anything. And anything that was done outwardly,
the choosing, the dying, the resurrecting, all that stuff,
that was done by Christ. The blood that was shed was Christ's
blood. The acceptance before God was
because of Christ and who He was. And so you had nothing to
do with that. So the New Covenant is a covenant
that is based on better promises because it is promises that don't
involve sinful, fallen man. It doesn't involve you. So you
can't mess it up. You can't transgress it. We can
be no transgressors whenever the covenant doesn't involve
something on our part. And so, Paul writes in Hebrews
about this beautiful, this big, beautiful covenant, as Trump
would maybe say. But look, if you would, in chapter
12 and verse 1. We're at a place in Hebrews where
Paul has already exalted the Lord Jesus Christ above angels,
above everything else. Okay? Moses, the Law, the Old
Covenant. Christ has been exalted above
all things. And then we've also seen that
the Old Covenant has passed away. But directly in front of chapter
12 is chapter 11 where Paul talks about that faith was given to
all these people of God in the past and how God brought them
through all kinds of tumultuous things, heavy things, dangerous
things, life-killing things. I mean, all kinds of grievous
things. And He did that by giving them
faith. to believe that despite what's being done to me in the
purpose and the will of God, God still is who He is and deserves
to be praised and that Christ Jesus is my righteousness and
I don't have to atone for something because I think that I am being
punished for something. You know, all this week whenever
all the things that was going on that we all were experiencing,
whether it was, you know, tenants, not doing what they ought to
do, or cars not wanting to do what they want to do, or whatever
the case might be, there can easily be a thought that, what
have I done that has made God mad, and what do I need to do
to make Him happy with me again? That's what kind of happened
with Job, right? There was this place that Job had everything
stripped from him, and what did his friends come to him and do?
His friends came and said, obviously it's something that you did,
Job, and God's mad at you, and you better get to doing some
good works, so that God won't be mad at you again. And God
said, that ain't right, that ain't true. And even Job himself,
in integrity, knew. That's not the gospel either,
and he didn't believe those guys, and he said, it ain't that. That
ain't what it is, that's not it. And brethren, listen, that's
not it either. God brings us through all these
trials so that our faith will be seen. That we will continue
to depend on Christ so that we'll find our sufficiency in God. That's why we have all of the
trials that we have. As a matter of fact, God said
it. Look here, we'll read it. Verse one, wherefore, and that's
in light of everything that we've just talked about. We just talked
about all these people that have been given the faith, but all
the trials that they were brought through, he says, wherefore seeing
we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight And the sin which doth easily
beset us, and brethren, I'm gonna tell you, and I believe, and
if I'm wrong, correct me on it, but I don't think that you can
find anywhere in scripture that can prove something different.
I think the besetting sin that is common to every one of us,
especially as it's tied to the context of what's gone before
and what is about to come in Hebrews, that the context of
the besetting sin that he's talking about here is unbelief. Now some
might say, well my besetting sin is getting drunk or my besetting
sin is getting high or mine is adultery or whatever. Brethren,
the one thing that is common to all of us, hey listen, some
people don't have a problem with drunkenness or adultery. They
don't have a problem with that. They might have some other sin
that they cling to, but they may not have some of those problems.
But there is one problem that every one of us are born with,
and that is unbelief. Every one of us is born with
unbelief. As I said, our default position
is to look away from Christ and look to our own righteousness.
That's what sin is. Sin is believing that we can
produce righteousness that we can do better than what God has
done. That's what Adam did. That's
what Eve did. They looked away from what God
said and thought they could do better. When they found out they
could not do better, what did they try to do? They tried to
cover it up. They tried to hide it themselves.
They sewed on fig leaves. I'll just take care of the, oh,
okay, well, I did mess up. Well, okay, well, I'll take care
of that myself. I'll just make myself a suit of fig leaves.
Well, God didn't accept their fig leaves. That's the one sin that is besetting
to every one of us. Our default nature is to always
look away and to look in, look away from Christ, and to look
inwardly into ourselves. And this is, I believe, what
Paul is saying is the essence of what faith is. He began to
say it right there in chapter 11, verse 1. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith isn't
something that we do of our own self. Faith is something that
is outside of ourselves. It's objective, not subjective. Faith is outside of us. Faith
is something that was done on behalf of us. And then it's given
to us, that faith, to believe that that faith outside of us
was accomplished and was perfect and was accepted by God. Christ's
faith, fullness, in everything that He did, and then everything
that He did in His death, burial, and resurrection, was what God
required, is what God accepted, and is what God looked at and
said, I'm at peace with everything. I'm at peace with everything.
And so Christ is who we are to look at. Christ is the one who
we are to focus on. Our faith, my faith is found
a resting place, not in device or creed. It is enough that Jesus
died and that he died for me. Faith rests in Christ's finished
work and himself. That's it. That's the simplest
idea of the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Not that you will get saved.
Thou shalt be saved. You already are saved. If you
are one who believes on Christ Jesus, and that is your hope,
and He is your hope, you have been saved. Why? Because that
is the evidence. That is the inward work of the
Holy Spirit. Because only those who are born of God rest and
rest alone in Christ's finished work. The reprobate continues
in their religious works. But he goes on to say this. Let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth easily beset
us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. It's not a race that we set ourselves
into. It's a race that's been set before
us. Let us run the race that's set before us. Larry's race that
God has set before him is different than the race that he set before
me and before Mark and before Rosette and my wife. I mean,
it's all different. Now, a lot of times, the race
that we're running, they maybe cross paths, run side by side
for a while. But brethren, listen, we all
have a race that God has set before us. And that race, Brother
Larry talked about it this week in one of his devotions, is governed
by the providence of God from the very beginning of time to
the very end of time. Whenever I come into this world
to the time that I leave this world, The race has been set. God in His providence is bringing
everything about exactly the way He has purposed before the
foundation of the world. And it's not going to deviate
because no one is more sovereign than God and can knock Him off
of His purpose and plan and will. No one can thwart it. The Bible
says no one can thwart His plan, that He will do all of His pleasure.
I will do all of My pleasure. He will do all His will. And
so, nothing can knock it off. So, we've all been set a race
that has been set before us. And in that race that God has
set before us, He has given us faith to look at Christ Jesus.
Now, I never was a runner. Never have been. You can look
at me and tell that. But, I do know one thing. Whenever I played
football, and I would hear them talking to those guys that was
doing most of the running, Or whenever track season would come
around and the guys would be running track and those relay
racers and hurdlers and all those guys that were running and all
that kind of stuff. I heard the coaches always tell them, whenever
you get that ball and you start running, you start running, you
quit looking around. Don't look behind. You just look straight
ahead and you just keep on going. You find what you're running
to and you just keep your eyes on that and you just keep running.
Don't pay attention. As soon as a guy starts running
and he starts turning and looking over his shoulder, that's about
the time the end of his toe catches and he trips and falls or he
judges a hurdle and nails into a hurdle and knocks four or five
down. Paul even said it, you know,
looking forward and not looking behind. Looking for those things
in our head. I'm going to keep pressing towards
the mark, the high calling. Well, how do you do that, Paul?
Are you just more spiritually stronger than all of us? No,
it's because Paul has everything that you have. He has the Spirit
of God and the faith of Christ Jesus given to him. And Christ
gives us the exercise of the measure of that faith. And so
whenever Christ desires in that set race for me to run strong,
guess what? He gives me an exercise of faith
that's a lot stronger. Whenever He has a purpose for
me to slow down when I'm coming around the corner maybe, what
does He do? He pulls that faith back a little
bit. He brings in some trials and some hardships. He brings
some things in so that I will begin to be more sufficient and
look into Christ and I will see, ooh, I'm trying to lean on my
own understanding and that doesn't ever work. That faith is being
exercised in us, not only to teach us sufficiency on Christ,
but that faith is given to us to preserve us. Because without
that faith, we'd turn around and go the other direction. We'd
say, well, forget all that. I'm going to try this on my own.
I got my own plans on here, you know. Me and my boss, a lot of
times whenever we're working together, we have different thoughts
and things about how something should be done. He thinks we ought to do it this
way, and I've done it quite a few times, and I think we ought to
do it this way. Experiences have told me, hey, this is going to
save us time, and it's going to be more efficient. He's more
meticulous on some things and wants to do it this way and go
through some of these motions, and I'm like, well, that's a
waste of time, and vice versa. He comes up with things sometimes
on me as well. Still a factor of main. So we
have two different thoughts about something. As soon as he's out of the picture,
guess what I do? I'm going to do it my way. I'm
going to do it my way. The purpose is to get to the
end, right? To get to the goal. To get it all finished. No matter
what it does to get there, right? Well, that's my mentality. So
what are we going to do as soon as we see things getting hard
and rough? We're going to say, well, obviously God's way is
not working, right? I'm going to try it my way. Let
me try it my way. God's way doesn't seem to be
working. Well, guess what? Maybe it's
not working because you're looking at it the wrong way. Maybe you're
looking at it thinking that God's way is not working, but God's
way is intending you to go through some things because you got a
little bit of pride, a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of independency
that you still have. You have a besetting sin of unbelief. So he says, let us run with patience. Let us run with patience. See,
God has set forth the race. And God has purposed that in
this race, He has promised. Remember, the New Covenant is
built on better promises, brethren. He has promised that all things
work together for good. not just the good things, all
things work together for good to them who are the called, to
them who love God and are the called according to His purpose,
or according to Him. I misquoted all that, but you
know what I mean. All things work together for good, right?
Okay, so the race set before us, beginning to end, God has
set it, no man can disannoy it. God has purposed it, He has a
reason for everything that's going to happen. He has declared
all things, the end from the beginning, and all things that
are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. Why? Because I have
a purpose in it. There's a purpose in Larry's
race from here to here, from Mike's race from here to here,
and everything in between. I have purposed that for a reason. And all things are working together
for your good. and then all things are working
together for the glory of Christ Jesus. So this race that's set
before you, if you're a child of grace, has been purposed of
God just for you. And it has been determined that
it is for your good. Now let me ask you, if God is
most wise, and I believe He is, can you say that in the wisdom
of God, Him determining what is the best for you in here to
here, that any deviation is going to be better? You deviating from what God has
said, is that going to be any better? You're saying that the
most wise God has determined this for me, but I don't think
I ought to do that. I think I ought to do it this way. I think this
ought to be how it should be done. And therefore, we complain,
we murmur, we have unbelief that God knows what he's talking about. Well, this run has to be done
with patience, brethren, because patience has its perfect work. See, whenever we, with patience,
trust God, I don't know what's going on in all this, Lord. I
don't know why all this is happening, but I know one thing. You're
faithful. You've promised that this is for my good and that
this right here is not something that I have to try to atone for.
This isn't something that I have to think that I have to do better
to get back into your graces or anything like that. Because
peace with God has already come through Jesus Christ. So what does he say? Run with
patience the race that is set before us. And here it is. Circle
this in your Bible. Looking unto Jesus. Why do we
do whenever we face all these trials of our faith? Look unto
Jesus. Don't look at the problem. Look
unto Jesus. The author and the finisher of our faith. See, we have no problem with
Him being the author of our faith, do we? We're pretty strong on
that. We believe in sovereign grace.
Our faith comes from Him. It's been given to us sovereignly. God chooses who He gives faith
to, when He gives faith to, and how much He gives faith to. That's
God's prerogative. We're pretty strong on that,
but brethren, we're not too strong on Him being the finisher of
our faith, are we? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him... Now, what's Paul doing here? Paul is giving Christ as
an example to encourage us in our trials and tribulations and
hardships and tests of faith. He says, for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Now circle that word. We see looking unto Jesus, and
now He's telling us to consider Christ. Looking unto Jesus, whenever
the trials and the tribulations and the tests of our faith comes,
He says, look unto Jesus. Let faith be your eyes, not your
heart, not your will. Let faith be your eyes. Believe
on Christ, on what He's doing, and what He's doing in you, and
what He has done for you. And then consider him that endured
such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary
and faint in your minds. Consider what Christ went through.
Whenever your test of faith comes, whenever hardships and trials
come to you, don't do what we were just joking about before,
you know, gloom, despair, and agony on me. That's what we all
want to do, right? We want to have our own little
pity parties. What does the Bible tell us to
do? Consider the one that we're looking to. Consider the one
who is the author and the finisher of our faith, and consider the
contradiction of sinners that He went through. Consider the
walk that He, who came down in our nature, experienced all things
and all points like we, so that he might be our sucker, our high
priest, who can sympathize with what we've gone through, and
how he has endured all things in this human nature, and he
has done them, and he has done them, what did it say there?
He endured them, despising the shame. But guess what? He was
victorious in all things and he sat down at the right hand
of God. And so it says, for us to consider that, lest we be
wearied and faint in our own minds. It says, verse 4, Ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. See, we've
not even gone to the point where Christ did. He suffered all the
way until death. all these things and without
sin. We have a little relief in all that, you know? When all
the temptations and trials come our way, whenever I'm working
on a piece of equipment and it's not going my way and nothing
wants to work and I fix it and turn it on, boom, it goes back
dead again. I've tried to fix it, figure
it out, turn it on, boom, it goes back off again. Tried a
third time, a fourth time, a fifth time. It's two hours in that
I've already been there and I got an hour before the place closes
and they're ready to kick me out. Now I'm gonna have to get
a room, stay the night, start back the next morning. They still
can't do x-rays. I start again and start again.
I call tech support. They lead me through a bunch
of stuff. We can't figure it out. It's just one thing after
another and after another until I take a screwdriver and throw
it in the middle of everything, cursing everything around me. throwing all kinds of curse bombs
and kicking stuff and you know what? I just had a release. It got
to the point where I just said forget it and I just cursed,
threw my stuff, felt sorry for myself, give up, whatever I wanted
to do. I had a release but guess what? Christ didn't do that.
Christ never gave in to the sin to say whatever thy will is,
O Lord, I can't do that, or I'm not going to do that. Christ
said, I have come to do thy will, O Lord, and He did the will of
the Lord. He never once wavered at that.
Now, I'm not saying that we have the ability to do that, brethren.
I'm not saying that let Christ be your example. You've got to
get out there and do the same as He did. I'm not saying that.
I'm saying what the Bible says right here. Looking unto Jesus
the author and the finish of our faith. Consider that when
you're in these situations and don't let these trials bring
you to the weariness and thankfulness of the mind. Because Christ has
been there. He knows what you've been there.
Go to your knees and boldly come before the throne of grace and
ask for help. If not changing the situation,
give me grace to have patience to see myself through or see
your way through this as you take me through this trial. He says, And ye have forgotten
the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My
son, and this is hard. This is hard. These scriptures
are hard, brethren. He says, My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of Him. Listen, I faint easy, brethren. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth. We all know what chasteneth means,
right? For whom the Lord loves, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. And what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not?" See, a good father is going to chasten their
children. A good parent chastens their
children. And God is saying here that the
Lord loves us. Therefore, he is chastening us. Listen, there is a wrong understanding
of chastening from the Bible. And that's exactly what we were
talking about a while ago, what Job's friends were saying. They
had the wrong idea about chastening. They thought God was chastening
Job because Job had done something wrong and needed to atone for
what he had done. to get back into good graces
with God. And a lot of times, what we think in our mind and
what most preachers in this world that claim to be Christians preach
is that, oh no, you've done something wrong. You've got to get right
with the Lord. You've got to get right with
the Lord. You've got to figure out whatever it is. You've obviously
done something. You need to get in the right
standing with God again. Get back in His favor. But what
does it say here? God chastens those. Chastening
may come on you even though you've not done anything. But God has
a purpose in it. He has set the race before you,
and that race is a perfect race. And that race is full of trials
and tribulations that's going to try your faith. He says, if you endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as sons. And what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? He says, if you don't chase him,
then you're acting as if he's not your son. Listen, my children,
whenever they were younger, and even still today, whenever they
were younger, they got chasen. Sometimes when they weren't doing
it, I mean, we set boundaries for our children. We chastened
our children in a positive way. We positively chastened them
for their discipline as they're growing into adults so that whenever
they become adults, they become functioning members of society
and not blights upon society. That's what's wrong with most
of what's going on today as all these woke kids, these people
laying out in the streets and blocking and impeding traffic
and tearing up houses and buildings and cars and all that kind of
stuff and all the disrespect that you see in the country today.
And all these people that are just whining whenever they don't
get everything their way is because parents have not disciplined
and chastened their children in a positive manner, not just
whenever they've done something wrong, but give them discipline
and structure. And this is what God is saying.
He chastens His children. It isn't just when you've done
something wrong that chastening needs to come. It is, I put things
upon you so that you can learn, so that whenever these times
come upon you, your trust and look will be unto Christ. That's
what trying of our faith is. But if ye be without chastisement,
Whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. If there is no chastening, then
are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. There's another thing, look at
that on the physical side. One of the good things about
chastening and disciplining your children is chastening and disciplining
children, even in times where they've not done something wrong,
but for structure and for character, it causes them to have reverence
for you, respect for you. Listen, I have a I had a great
respect for my stepdad growing up. He was very disciplined.
And he he made he made us be disciplined. My football coach
all through my growing up through football was extremely hard on
us. But it made a man out of me. It taught me discipline. It taught
me hard work. It taught me not to give up.
It taught me not to feel sorry for myself. There were some things
that he taught me in doing those things. I know some people may
think that's frivolous stuff, but listen, those are character
building things that I went through and I am thankful for that kind
of structure. That took place in some areas
that my dad didn't have. Although my dad did a great job.
He taught us, listen, we had to get out on that roof and we
had to rub, we had to tear off shingles, we had to pick up trash,
we had to pack shingles up the ladder and have them up there.
And in between all that, we had to make sure that dad had shingles
as he was nailing them things up. And if he ran out of shingles
and had to wait on you, you got trouble. Listen, he taught us
how to work. And that taught us how to be
men. It taught us how to treat our employers. It taught us how
to get up in the morning and go to work when we don't feel
like getting up and going to work. Taught us how to keep our
stuff up and do all the things. Listen, that's also chastisement. That is also part of the disciplining
process. And that is good. And God is
saying, look, if it's like that in the natural realm, there is
a greater weren't being done in the spiritual realm here.
He says, "...the fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and
we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few
days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our
prophet." Our chastening from the Lord is for our prophet,
brethren, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now look at
verse 11. Now no chasing for the present
seems to be joyous, and I can give a hearty amen to that. But it's grievous. Nevertheless,
despite what you think about it, despite what your opinion
is, Nevertheless, God says, afterward it yieldeth the peaceful fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Your trials
and tribulations that God brings you through is for your profit,
and it's going to make you a person that you would not have
been unless God had brought you through that. He says, wherefore
lift up the hands which hang down. I see myself every time I read
this. I see myself whenever we were fixing this car out here
the other day. I see myself whenever I was working on that piece of
equipment the other night until 10 o'clock at night, still had
to drive an hour and a half to get home. He says, wherefore lift up the
hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight
paths for your feet. Lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but let it rather be healed. What does it say here? Make your path straight? Does
that say straighten up your act, and this will go away? No, he's
saying straighten up your thinking. Lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your
feet." For your feet, not by your feet. You notice that, brethren? Did you catch that? Paul said,
make straight paths for your feet, not by your feet. You don't make straight paths
by the way you walk. He's saying make straight paths for your
feet to walk in. Lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but let it rather be healed. And now you get to
the verse that I actually want to be talking about. That was
all my introduction, by the way. Verse 14. How do you do that? Follow peace with all men and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. looking diligently,
lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
spring up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." That seems to be odd in the place
that it's at in Scripture right here, don't it? How many of you
heard a preacher preach verse 14 and tell you You need to follow
after peace with all men. You need to be at peace with
everybody. I've preached that. Is that what the context means?
Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man
will see God. I know. I've not only preached
it, but I've heard it preached many times, especially at youth
camps. Without holiness, no man's going
to see God. You better get right with God.
You better start obeying them commandments. You better start
being obedient to the Lord or you're not going to see God.
Only those who are holy are going to see God. So holiness, righteousness,
obedience to the law is what you need to do. Again, brethren,
We're dealing with law versus grace. Paul dealt with it in
every epistle that he has wrote to some degree or another. And
here it's no different. Paul is contrasting the law,
which we talked about. As a matter of fact, if you'll
look back at, I think it's Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12, right whenever Paul starts getting
into the goody of the doctrine that he's talking about here
of the New Covenant. He's already talked about the
exaltation of Christ. But what does he say here in
verse 12? Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief. What's he talking about? Unbelief. What is it that we are to stay
away from? The besetting sin. Unbelief. in departing from the living
God. Now, brethren, remember he's
writing this to the church. If you are a true child of grace,
you cannot depart from the living God. There is no way you can
depart from the living God. He will preserve you. The promise
of God is that He will keep you and preserve you, and that He
will not leave you. So what's he mean here? That we depart
from the living God by faith, removing our trust in Him, and
looking to our own selves. That's what unbelief is. By thinking
that we have to do something for righteousness to get back
in good graces with God. That's what unbelief is. By thinking
that we have a righteousness that God will accept. That's
what unbelief is. And he says, take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Whenever
these trials and tribulations come, be careful not to be like
Job's friend said, a heart of unbelief that says, you've done
something wrong, obviously, because God's punishing you for it. So
now you need to get up there and give some kind of a righteousness
as a sacrifice unto God. So you can get back into writing.
standing with him. So Paul here and all this stuff
that he's just been talking about, now all of a sudden he's going
to tell you, well, you know what? You need to be peaceful with
everybody that you know. Well, be peaceful with everybody. Oh, and don't forget, keep all
the commandments because without holiness, no man will be God.
You really think that that's what Paul is saying? That don't
even make sense in the context of this scripture. So whenever
it don't, whenever it contradicts what has been said, we need to
look at what our thoughts are on this and say, well, maybe
this is not what it means, and pray that the Spirit give us
understanding of that. When he says, follow peace with all men, I believe he's
talking about the doctrine of the finished work of Jesus Christ
who has brought peace for all of us, brethren. See, He's not
talking about making peace with all men. There's no ability to do that.
And He's not talking about making peace with God with all men,
because we can't do that either. Right? And He's not talking about
Christ Himself being our peace and following after His example,
because we surely can't do that. So what is it talking about here?
Follow after peace or follow peace with all men. Well, I believe that he's talking
about here that we're to follow after the doctrine that brought
peace in. What is it that faith looks to? We have been made peace with
God through Jesus Christ. whenever our trials and tests
of faith come, don't think that you've been separated from God.
Don't think that you have made God upset and now He's punishing
you for that and that now you have to do something in return.
The peace is still with God even though He's chastening you. There
is peace with God although it seems like He is punishing you. The peace of God is there. There
is never a time whenever the peace with God is ever broken
or severed. Number one, because God said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's given us the Holy Spirit
and He said that Holy Spirit is never going to leave us. How
is there going to be broken fellowship with God if we still continue
to have the Spirit of God in us? The fellowship is there.
And besides, the fellowship is not based upon your performance.
The fellowship with God is being based upon the fact that we have
been unionized with God before the foundation of the world in
Christ Jesus. I can't deny this son, no matter
how bad me and him, if this boy right here ever does something
and me and him are at odds and we fight and fuss and he says,
you know what, I'm going to live on the other side of the world.
And never calls me, never talks to me again, never rides or anything
like that. We never see each other again.
And both of us go to our deathbed, never reconcile. And you know
what? I can't deny that that's my son. He can't deny that I'm
his father. That union is there. And that kid will always be my
son. And God has promised He will
never leave you nor forsake you. And that all of your sins have
been removed. There has been remission of sin.
And that nothing that you do, sin-wise, can ever separate you
from the love of God. Now you can separate yourself
from your perceived fellowship with God by sinning. You can
feel like he's turned away. You can feel like you've walked
away. But brethren, the race has been
set and every bit of that inside there, all the getting off course,
what we think we're getting off course, is all part of the race. Whenever we get to heaven and
we look back and we see that trail that we've run, as jagged
and off course as it looked like it was, guess what we find out?
There was a little highlighter, straight as a string, and all
those little turns and twists and stuff was in there. It was
all inside that highlighter and God said, zip, there's your course. And it was all within God's purpose. The peace with God cannot be
annulled because of your disobedience. Paul here is saying, follow after
the thoughts that are of peace. What brought the peace with God
to you in the beginning that you were so strong in faith about? Now all of a sudden the trials
of your faith have made you look away from what at one time you
were strong in the faith in and believe, yes, God loves me and
will never forsake me. The Bible says that nothing can
separate us from the love of God, neither height nor depth
nor anything. Now the trials of your faith
comes and what do you think? God don't love me anymore. God's
mad at me. I've done something, now I have
to do something to make it right. I'll say no. Follow after the
thoughts of peace, because right now, you are having thoughts
of, I've done something wrong. the thoughts of unbelief. That's
why I said, circle those things. Remember those things. Looking,
consider you've forgotten. These are things that we have
forgotten. Under pressure, we forget that the peace with God
was made by Jesus Christ, not by our works. It was by Jesus
Christ. So follow peace with all men. with all the people of God. That
is what we all do. Listen, as we come together in
the congregation, you know what we are to exhort each other to
do? Look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of faith. Whenever
Larry's having a bad week, you know what? I'm not trying to
give my advice to him. I just say, well, brother, the
Lord will see us through. He says the same thing to me.
We whine about it with each other. That's just our human nature
is to do so. And we find some sort of strange,
odd, you know, Comfort in that, I'm sure. But
ultimately, whenever Larry or me or you or whoever is watching
and listening, whenever we lay our head on the bed at night,
Larry's advice don't give me the comfort that Jesus can. And
I can't give Larry the comfort that Jesus can. to know that
God has made peace with me or I've been made peace with God
through Jesus Christ. And I had a whole bunch of verses
wrote down to go read about that. But brother, I think you understand
that and know that. I don't have time to do that.
But what I would like you to see is the second part especially. And holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. I hope that all of us here have
been given by God to know and understand that there is no way
on earth, this is talking about your own actions and obedience. Because none of us are holy.
There is none that is righteous, no not one. Paul is talking about,
and he even says in verse 15, look at this again, there's this
word again, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace
of God. Lest any man, that word fail
there also means to fall away from. to fall away from the grace
of God. And so, there are some people
that build a whole doctrine on that and say, oh, you can lose
your salvation. The Bible says that you can fall from the grace
of God. That's not what that's talking about. It's not talking
about that you fall out of the grace of God and become lost
again and unsaved. The Pentecostals believe that.
The non-denominationals believe that. The free will Baptists
believe that. There's a whole bunch of people
that believe that. That you can lose your salvation. and they'll
go right here and say, right here, looking diligently lest
any man fail from the grace of God. Well, what are we to look
to? Holiness, without which, the Phillips, they grew up in
a denominational system that preached that kind of stuff,
the holiness movement. And I mean, it was, you gotta be holy. Legalism,
law, commandments. Sanctification, you have to be
sanctified. I think the Nazarenes preach,
you have to be fully sanctified. I know one church, Nazarene church,
to be a Nazarene preacher, they have to be totally sanctified,
meaning totally holy. Not totally set apart, totally
holy as God is holy. Brethren, it says, looking diligently,
lest any man fail of the grace of God. So he's telling the church
here, he says, follow after the thoughts of peace. Christ is
our peace. And our peace with God came through
him and him alone, not in your activity. and holiness, you are
holy before God, even though you failed these trials that
God's brought you through, whenever I kicked a machine, threw the
screwdriver at it, and then turned around and told it what a so-and-so
it was, to my shame, that's sinfulness? The Bible
says, I have a holiness before God. He doesn't count that sin
against me. Did I sin? Yes. Is it an actual
sin? Yes. Did God know about the sin? He absolutely did. He died for
that sin. He died for my actions in front
of that machine the other day. He died for that. He knows that
sin. But guess what? The justice of
God has said not guilty. Because the blood of Jesus Christ
covered that sin. Now that doesn't mean I just
ought to throw the screwdriver and kick it and test it again and
say, okay, well, brother Christ is going to cover this. No, but
without Christ holiness, none of us are going to see God. So
don't think that whenever you mess up in the times of these
trials, because listen, Hebrews 11 talked about the great faith
of David, the great faith of Moses, the great faith of Abraham,
the great faith of Jacob. It talked about the great faith
of all these clouds of witnesses that has encompassed us. But
guess what? Every one of them, the Bible
also talked about how pitiful their faith was. Abraham's faith
was pitiful. Moses' faith was pitiful. David's
faith was pitiful. But God's faith was perfect. And the things that they did
that's recorded in there, that was a great achievement, guess
what that? That wasn't their faith, it was the faith of Christ
in them that did it. So brethren, none of us are going
to be able to measure up, looking diligently lest any man fail
from the grace of God. Does that phrase sound familiar
to you? I think Paul's used that phrase once before. Look quickly,
Galatians chapter 5. because I think this proves the
context of what we're looking here. Galatians chapter 5, verse
1. Stand fast. Sounds a lot like
what we've been talking about, right? Looking diligently, considering
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. What was the yoke of bondage
Paul was making reference to there? The law? The commandments? He says, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that
he is a debtor to do the whole law So Paul Paul saying here
is because in Galatians someone was saying Yeah, you can believe
on Christ, but you still have to be circumcised according to
the law of Moses You have to be circumcised And Paul here
is saying, and he's using circumcision as a term to represent the law,
all the commandments of God, the old covenant. He says, if ye follow the commandments,
or try to keep the whole law, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that thinks that they are
keeping the whole law, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
If it's one law that you're looking at, whether it's circumcision
or the whole law that you think you have to keep, don't forget
the law also says, if you think it's law-keeping that gets you
right with God and keeps you right with God, if it's law-keeping,
don't forget one of the laws also that is in that law that
you think you've got to keep is that you've got to keep all
of it. Every one of them all the time. Now brethren, is that
not a weight? That's a curse, the Bible says.
But what does he say? He says, Christ is become of
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace. Now these Galatian believers
aren't going to fall from grace and lose their salvation because
they've been saved outside of themselves by Christ. They can't
lose their salvation. So what does Paul mean, you've
fallen from grace? Your understanding has fallen
away from grace and has fallen back into works. That's what
Paul is talking about here in Hebrews 12, 14. Follow after
peace and holiness without which no man will see God. We can't see God. We can't come
to God. We can't be with God at the end. Nor can we continue in fellowship
and righteousness being believed and we have confidence and assurance
of faith. We can't have that unless peace
and holiness is understood and brought to our mind as coming
from outside of ourselves. If we think it's within here,
there's always going to be turmoil. There's always going to be this
feeling of separation between us and God. But God has promised
us that that's been removed and that you can boldly come to My
throne. I am your Father. Come to Me.
All ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. But He said, if you look away
and you look at your works to get you back into fellowship
with Me, which fellowship is not ever left, If you look at
that, guess what? You have fallen from grace. Not
lost your salvation, you've fallen from the grace that you once
looked. Even Paul said that back in Galatians. He said, have you
begun in grace, but now are made perfect by the works of the law?
That's what he's saying here in Hebrews. Have you begun looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, and now
you're turning away and looking to your own righteousness? He says, looking diligently unto Jesus,
lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
bring up trouble you, and therefore many be defiled. Listen, I think
we ought to guard that within our assemblies. There are people
that come in and they begin to preach this stuff just like in
Galatia. Listen, those elders in Galatia and the members of
those churches in Galatia, whenever that junk of work started working
its way into those churches, they should have stood up and
took care of that. They should have said, no, that's not right.
And rebuked and corrected those brethren that were in their midst.
And if they didn't listen to that, they should have removed
them from their assembly. Why? Because lest a root of bitterness
spring up and trouble you and thereby many be defiled. The problem is a lot of people
don't believe that church discipline does anything. But it's God's
means of bringing His children back into right correction. Whenever
a true child of grace is disciplined by the church and has been removed
from the fellowship of the church on biblical grounds, by the way,
there's a lot of disciplining that goes on because of issues
between men, right? But if it's on a biblical grounds,
The Bible says that there's a reason for that. That whenever you turn
them out, that there might bring conviction and bring restoration
to that child of grace. It isn't just us throwing a hammer
down and showing some authority or some power over somebody else. No, there's a love relationship. There's a love relationship that's
there. There is a reason for that. And so Paul here is saying,
listen, this can creep into the churches just like it did in
Galatia. It can creep into the churches and cause problems.
And he says, so let's look diligently lest anybody fail the grace of
God, and a root of bitterness spring up and trouble you, and
therefore many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright, for ye know how that afterward, when he would have
inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place
of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." What
was Esau's issue? Esau wanted an earthly birthright,
and he despised a heavenly one. That's kind of weird. Paul put
that in after he's talking about what we've just been talking
about. See, we're looking for an earthly solution to stay in
fellowship and to get the blessing of God. Esau was wanting an earthly
blessing. And he was seeking it in an earthly
way. He had no care on heavenly things. God said that he was a profane
person. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person. Was Esau a
fornicator? Whenever you turn from being
married to Christ and turn back to the law, who you are dead
to, supposedly, the Bible says, that is fornication. Spiritual
fornication. You are turning from Christ and
turning back to self-righteousness. you're turning back to the law.
That's the reason why Paul gives all those examples of marriage
and divorce in the Old Testament is because it symbolizes our
being married to Christ in grace and being married to the law
in words. We have been divorced of the
law or we have died to the law and therefore are no longer bound
because we've died to the law that is no longer our husband.
We are now married to Christ and in grace and faith, we look
to Him and we're married to Him. But if we go back to works, it
is as if we are committing adultery upon our husband. So brethren, verse 14, follow
after peace and holiness without which no man may see the Lord
is an exhortation to the church to continually to look unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of your faith, that whenever your
times of temptation and trials and tribulations come, that you
follow after what has made you peace. Think upon what peace. It isn't you being obedient and
keeping the law and getting back into right standing with God
by your actions. It was Christ's blood that did
that. So just continue to run the race with patience, enduring
as God enables you with patience what He brings your way and go
to Christ. Go to the throne of grace and
ask for mercy. Ask for grace. Ask for help. Ask for longevity. For perseverance. These are things
that God has promised us and if He's promised those, He will
gladly give it to us. All right, that's all I have.
Does anybody have anything that you'd like to add? Anything that
you'd like to comment, corrections, or rebukes? All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the
day and thank you for all that you've done for us. We thank
you for Christ Jesus. We thank you for the salvation
that we have in him. Thank you for this time that
we've gathered here together, Lord, and we just ask you To speak
and minister to our hearts through the Word of God that has been
Opened up and read and Lord. I pray that if there's anything
that I've said that has been of error I pray Lord that you'd
bring correction to my mind in the heart and thinking Lord I
pray that you would keep these brethren here from following
after it Lord I pray that you would be our teacher through
the Spirit and that you would continue to grow us in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ the Father I just Rejoice
and exult in the Lord Jesus Christ today, that although the race
that has been set before us has many hills and valleys, has many
crooks and turns, and many times that we trip and fall, Lord,
you have destined us all to walk these paths, and that you said
that your grace is sufficient for us. And so we pray, Lord,
that you would give us faith to look unto Jesus, to trust
in Jesus, and not to fall back into the sin of unbelief, thinking
that we can do it our own way and provide for ourselves our
own righteousness. And Lord, may you always keep
in view this gospel message. Thank you again for all that
you are and all that you've done for us. We lift up the Bart family. Father, we ask you to be with
them and comfort them during this time. We thank you for the
many years that you've given us with the brother, his wife,
and his family. Lord, we just are grateful for
your salvation and we look forward to seeing our brother again one
of these days over there where we will never grow old. It's
in your son's precious name that we pray. Amen.