Hebrews chapter 12 again this
hour, if you would like to turn there. Me and Greg did not talk about,
well prior to being here this morning, I'll tell them in the
title of the message that I'm gonna be speaking on in the men's
study, but we hadn't talked prior to that whenever he read Ephesians
chapter two. Title of the message is Follow Peace. follow peace,
and he talked about peace in that text there. So I'm thankful when the Lord
does that. The writer here continues our
admonishment. It's just a continuation from
last hour. And it's admonishment during
chastisement. It's an encouragement of enduring
chastisement. During times of chastisement,
we're reminded of our frailty most of the time, our inability,
our utter dependence. And although that's grievous
for the flesh, that's a good thing. The more we think about
ourself, or the more highly we think about ourself, the less
we need Him. But the more we need Him, it's just fact that
we don't think highly of ourself. We see ourself as the sinner
needing the Savior. Now he's communicating warnings
here and gives us a clear example of what not following the Lord
looks like. He gives us a very clear example
here in our text of what not following the Lord looks like.
And Esau is the one he uses as the example. Esau is the one
he uses. Now let's read Hebrews chapter
12, verse 14 through 17. You'll have to bear with me again,
my nose is running. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 through
17 says, 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 springing
up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright, For you know that how 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. The word repentance here means,
the word place of repentance means he found no way to change
his mind. Now wait, a man cannot change
their mind. Did you know that? Not when it
comes to spiritual things. That's God that has to do that.
The Lord has to be the one that changes the heart. The Lord has
to be the one that changes the mind. And that's the opposite
of what religion does. Religion says you need to do
this. You need to let God, you need to give Jesus your heart,
you need to change your mind, you need to, and they believe
repentance is contrition and they come to an altar and they
cry and do different things, but repentance is when the Lord
comes to a man or a woman and shows them they're a sinner.
And not just a sinner, but the sinner needing a savior. And
then, simultaneously, always, hand in hand, the Lord gives
faith to believe and look to Christ. Believe and look to Christ. I've titled this message, Follow
Peace. Follow peace this morning. And
I'd like to answer, how do we follow peace? He also says follow
holiness, doesn't he? And I would like to answer how
to follow holiness. Notice the word, in verse 14, follow peace,
With all men, the word men is in italics. Does your Bible have
that in it? Mine does. And anytime we see
an italics word, what does that mean? That means it was put in
by the translators. They thought it might read better
if they put that in there. Sometimes I agree with them doing
that and sometimes I don't. But let's read it without it
and see. Follow peace with all in holiness. without which no
man shall see the Lord. Our Lord's not declaring live
peaceably with all men, although we are taught to do so in other
parts of the scripture. It's all that lies within you,
live peaceably with all men. That's scripture. But that's
not the message that's here because it's still in the context of
endearing chastisement, of endearing lessons, endearing trials and
afflictions. So living peaceably with all
men, that's not the solution to not having chastisement. Do
we see that? So that's not what he's talking
about. Although we are instructed to live peaceably. But this is
to say, even in the most difficult trial, do not do anything that
would make others believe that you do not have peace with God. That's what he's saying. Don't
do things that would show others that you do not trust in the
grace of God anymore, that you do not believe or have peace
with God anymore. What do I mean by that? Well, it would be Like, would you have
thought Peter would have had peace with God whenever he denied
the Lord, whenever they asked him, do you know this man? He
said, no, I don't know. I don't know what you're talking
about. Do you think he had peace with
God at that time? Well, he did, but he just didn't
know it. And he definitely wasn't telling them that he did. What
we are being instructed to do Our adversary is constantly at
work trying to devour whom he may, devour whom the Lord lets
him, devour whom he can. And so our instruction here is
as we're dealing with others, it's imperative that we don't,
during our trial, that we, what about Job's, this is what we
don't do. This is a good example of it. Job's wife said, why don't
you just curse God and die? That's what he's saying, don't
do that. Don't do that because you're showing that you don't
have peace with God. You're looking at what you can see with these
eyes rather than looking by the eyes of faith. And this again
is admonition. This again is an encouragement.
This again is instruction for the Lord's people. And we know
when it comes to admonition, instruction, and chastisement
of the Lord, he's the one that keeps us doing that so that we
don't have competence in our flesh. And we would make it a
work if it wasn't that way, wouldn't we? Well, I have never, made
anybody think that I was not at peace with God whenever I
was going through affliction. I've never done that, Lord. That's
what we would say, wouldn't we? That's what we would say. We'd
puff up. That's exactly what it would do. Ain't you glad it
doesn't work that way? No, we have to say, Lord, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. He
kept me. He kept me. Thou shalt keep him at perfect
peace, whose mind has stayed on thee, the scripture says.
He's the one that kept me throughout all this. I don't get any glory
in this. Left to myself, I'd have ran
away, I'd have quit, I'd have gave up. I'd have been like Peter,
went back fishing. I'd have quit the ministry. I'd
have been out there with no clothes on fishing again. But ain't you
glad he keeps his people? He keeps his people looking. No, we never want to say or do
anything that would make it seem like the grace of God is not
sufficient. Our flesh will deny our new man,
they hate each other. That new man will always look
to Christ, always look to Christ. That's why he tells us follow
peace. But follow Christ who is our
peace. See, that's the answer. Who is
peace? Would there be any peace at all
when the angels of the Lord, let me finish that thought first.
Would there be any peace at all if it hadn't been for the Lord
coming? We wouldn't have peace with God. Do we understand that?
He's the peacemaker. He's the prince of peace. What
did they tell the men whenever he was born in Bethlehem that
night? There were in the same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock
by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and
the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. Fear not. No, it's peace on earth,
goodwill towards men. That's what the Lord came to
do, is give peace to his people. Follow after him. He's the Prince
of Peace. He's the King of Kings. He's
the Lord of Lords. He's the only peacemaker and the peace bringer. He made peace for his people
on the cross once and forever. Look at his works. Look at his
works. Don't look at yours. Look at
his life. Don't look at your life. That's what he's saying.
So how is it that I don't ever make it seem like God's grace
isn't sufficient? Don't look at yourself. He's
saying the same thing over and over and over in different ways,
because you know, you and I need to hear it over and over and
over different ways, don't you? One time Henry Mahan was preaching
and the man was come up to him after service. And he said, you
know, you keep preaching the same thing over and over again,
I'm getting tired of it. And Henry said, well, I just implore
you just to keep coming. Just keep coming, listen. I think
they said it was about a year or two later, that man come up
to him and said, you know, you keep preaching the same thing
over and over again. And I think I'm finally starting
to understand. I think I'm finally starting
to hear it and I'm starting to believe it. The message doesn't
change. No, we're not going to start
today by taking everything that we've done for the last, however
many years we've been meeting together now, and then start
with the clean slate or a brand new slate and saying, okay, now
here's your responsibilities. And this is what you're going
to have to do in and of yourself, or God's not going to be pleased
with you. That ain't going to happen. Everything he's saying right here is look
to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Flee to Christ. Follow after peace. How do I
do that? Set your affections on things above. Look to him.
Look to him. Somebody says, well, I have a
hard time remembering to do that. Well, ask him. Ask him. Lord,
remind me to pray. Remind me to look to you. Remind
me to think on heavenly things in this distracting world that
I'm in. I want to. Remind me that I need manna,
Lord. Remind me to read scripture. Remind me to pray for one another.
Remind me to do all these things. Because if you don't, most of
the time, I set alarms most of the time. Half the stuff I do,
I set alarms because if I get busy and I don't pay attention,
the day will get away from me. I set an alarm to, well, it'd
be embarrassing if I told you how many alarms I have to set
on my phone. And everybody I talk to, well, it's going to get so
much worse when you get older. OK, I get it. I guess I'll just set
more alarms, then it'll be just fine. All right. Ask him. Ask him. Ask him to remind you
to cry out to him. Aren't you glad that's what the
Lord does for his people? It's what he causes us to do. Not
only does he enable us to cry out and beg him, not only does
he cause us to seek after peace, but he creates the need that
only he can feel. He makes us hungry. And he makes
us thirsty. What did the scripture say? Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Why? They
shall be filled. If you're not hungry and thirsty,
you're not gonna be filled. Those that are hungry and thirsty
are made hungry and thirsty by our Lord. He fills us with his darling
son. He makes us crave the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you love that, Lord? We're like the Samaritan woman.
Lord, give me this water that I never thirst anymore. Give
me this water that I thirst no more. And he does, doesn't he? We no longer run to the law for
our salvation. We've been made to know the law
could never save anyone. It could only show sin. We follow
the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now we run to him. We flee to
him. We plead grace. We plead the
blood. We plead mercy. No, we don't
look to ourself and examining ourself. We follow after peace. You realize the opposite of following
after peace is literally running to the law. Because the only
thing the law can bring is death to you and I. That's not peace,
that's death. But fleeing to Christ is life,
eternal life. He must enable us to do it. That's
what he's saying, follow after peace. Follow after peace. He alone is our peace before
the throne. He's the end of the law for righteousness
sake. He is our justification. He is our redemption. He is all
of our salvation. There is no salvation in any
other, neither is there any name given among men whereby we must
be saved. Now look at verse 14 again. Follow
peace with all men in holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. So if you don't have peace with
God, you're not gonna see the Lord. And if you have holiness,
you're not going to see the Lord. That's what he just said. So
how do I get holiness? And how do I get peace? Well,
he tells us in the next verse, verse 15, looking diligently. That's the answer. That's the
answer. If you want to know how to have
peace, if you want to know how to have holiness, Look to the
peace bringer, the Prince of Peace. Look to the Holy One of
God. That's the only way you're gonna
get it. It comes through and by Him. He's the source and substance
of it. This is why we follow holiness,
because we don't have the ability to be holy. This is why we follow
him for peace, because we don't have the ability to obtain our
own peace with God. Only he can. We're all together
born in sin, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. Not the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was born perfect and holy
and true. Ephesians 2 tells us, he is our
peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us. You heard Greg read that just
a little bit ago. I love that I didn't tell Greg to read that.
The Lord did that. He broke down the middle wall of partition.
He made peace by his own blood for his people. He's the one
that made peace. He alone is as holy as God. Why? Because he is God. He is God. He alone possessed
the substance to bring peace. It was his blood. You not, not
only, excuse me, not only do we not have the ability to bring
peace, we don't have the tools and we don't have the substance.
So even if we could do it, we don't have the tools or the substance
to do it. You see, he had to do it all. And that's what he
did when he saved his people on Calvary's cross. He redeemed
them all back to the father, all of the elect perfectly righteous
in him. That's why he's our peace. This
is why Colossians one tells us, and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, because of this, his people are now at peace with
God. Can you imagine? Can we enter
into that statement just for a moment? You are at peace. Because of what Christ did, you
are at peace with the sovereign creator of the universe. He does
not think. What'd the Lord say? I know the
thoughts that I have towards you, not thoughts of wrath and
judgment, not thoughts of death, but of peace, but of joy, but
of love. Why? Because of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. I know how I think on
you. was because of the one that made peace for his people. Because
of his own blood, we are at peace with God. And I love, he said
he's broken down the middle wall of partition. We're one with
him. Not only do we have peace with him, but we're one with
him. We're one with God. What'd the Lord say? They and
me, talking about his people, and I and the Father. We're one
with God. What a glorious hope this gospel
is, to be one with him forever and ever. By the death of Jesus Christ,
we've been made one with God, have peace with God. When he
bowed his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. Oh,
he finished it all. Now we have peace with God and
we have holiness. And who is our holiness? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, every one of God's
elected people, they have been justified. They have been sanctified. They've been redeemed. They've
been redeemed once and forever. because he made peace. I love
the thought that you don't know that you are born
in sin, shapen into iniquity until the Lord reveals that to
you. And even if you have the knowledge of it, you don't know
it in the heart unless he gives you the ability to know it. But
if you do know it, that means you also realize there's nothing
you can do to fix it. In religion, when we found out
we were sinners, we thought, well, there's something I can
do to fix it. Something I can do this and I can do this and
I can do this. And that's why in the scripture talks about they'll
stand before the Lord and say, but I've done this and this and
this in your name, cast out demons in your name. And the Lord says,
depart from me you that work iniquity. I never knew you. When
we realize we can't fix it. That's when the Lord shows us
the Lord Jesus Christ who did fix it. He fixed it. See, the
Lord gets all the glory in this salvation. Unlike other false
gospels, He gets all the glory in it. And there's none left
for you and I. But the good news about that is to the believers,
we don't want any glory in it. I don't want to be recognized.
I don't want to be praised. I don't want to be adored. We
don't desire that, do we? We say with the believers in
the scripture, all glory and honor and praise to Him alone.
To Him alone. He alone is worthy. So how is it that we follow peace
and holiness? Look at verse 15. Looking diligently,
lest any man fail of the grace of God. Looking diligently. Looking to what? Looking to who? Do I look to my works? That's
a what? Or do I look to the Lord Jesus
Christ's works? Do I look to my blood or look to his blood?
Do I look to myself, my person, my character, my actions? Or do I look to the sinless lamb
of God, his person, his actions, his character? Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of faith. That's how, looking diligently,
desiring to see him, begging to see him. hoping to see him,
not looking to self at all. But what does he mean here? And
this is something I wanted to make sure that I took the time on,
because anytime you come across something that could be misinterpreted
and has been misinterpreted a bunch by different people, I want to
make sure that we deal with this issue, lest we fall, lest we
fail of the grace of God. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Lest we fail? of the grace, lest
a man fail of the grace of God. Do you remember in Galatians,
he said, you have fallen from grace. You have fallen from grace. So that's actually in the margin.
I don't know if you have a margin in your Bible, but if you look
in your margin, it actually says fall from grace. What does he
mean fall from grace? Is this referring to someone
losing their salvation? Can someone lose their salvation?
No, because you're kept by him. You're not put in Christ before
time ever began, and because of your actions, God takes you
back out of Christ. See, if salvation worked that
way, nobody would be saved. Nobody would be saved. They that
are saved were saved from the foundation of the world. They
are in Christ Jesus in the heavenly seated. The Lamb's book of life
was written long before the world ever began. And the names that's
in that book were successfully redeemed by the Lamb of God.
It's sealed and he was the only one capable and able to loose
the seals, to bear the burden of death that was required for
the redemption of those names in that book. And now they're
forever redeemed. So what is he talking about then,
fail of the grace of God? He's talking about going back
to the law. He's talking about leaving grace. He's talking about
taking matters into your own hands, thinking, okay, well,
I need to look to myself to see if I'm getting a little bit better.
I need to look to my circumstances to see if I have favor with God.
I need to work a little bit harder. I need to do this and I need
to do that and I need to do this. That's what he's talking about.
He said, no, you've fallen from grace. If you're trying to be
saved by anything you do, that's falling from grace. And aren't
you thankful the Lord doesn't let his people ever continue
down that path. ever. He will always bring them
back. He will not lose one sheep. He
will not lose one sheep. It's speaking of looking elsewhere
for righteousness, brethren, it's talking about going back
to the law for justification. If we do that, we fail of the
grace of God, but don't confuse this. God's grace never fails.
So that we got to understand you're talking about a grace
that never fails. So how is it we fail the grace of God? It
means we never had it. Do we see that? That's what that's
talking about. If you leave the gospel and you
can see that in the new Testament, there was some that came in for
a time. And they said that they believed the truth, and they
said that they wanted to be baptized, and they were part of the church,
and they were faithful, and then they just left, and they were gone.
And they never came back. The Lord never restored them
back. They were never believers to begin with. They had a religious
ceremony. They had a religious practice.
They had a moral outward change, but nothing happened on the inside. That's what he's saying. Don't
go to the law for righteousness. It's the same thing. He has not
changed his tune one bit through Hebrews. We're almost finished
with Hebrews. We've got one more chapter after this, but it's the same
thing he's been saying throughout the entire thing. For by grace
are you saved through faith. It's not you, it's him. It's
not you, it's him. Look to him. Look to him with
that faith. He's saying you've left grace
to seek your own way. You're no longer following peace.
You've been left to yourself. You've been left to yourself.
That's why the word diligently is there, is it's an admonition,
it's an encouragement. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Look to Christ. Somebody said, well, if I'm supposed
to look to Christ, he's gonna make me do it. If you're supposed
to look to Christ, he will enable you to do it, but he's gonna
cause you to beg for it also. He'll cause me to beg for it.
He'll create a need, and then he'll fill the need. Do we see
that? It doesn't mean you've lost salvation.
It just means you've never had it if you leave. Understand something. Unbelief is not believing in
nothing. It's believing in something other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. It's trusting in something other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what unbelief is. Unbelief
is not believing in nothing. You're just looking to something
else in order to fix a problem that only the Lord Jesus Christ
can fix. There's only one that should
have our gaze. But oh, ain't it true, we spend a lot of time
looking in the wrong places, don't we? We say with Isaiah,
woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
thought, I thought I was good. I thought they had unclean lips,
but the Lord, you just showed me yourself and I'm the man of
unclean lips. Though my gaze is, Oh, I'm drifting again, Lord,
bring me back. Calls me to see you, put me on
the straight path again. Calls me to seek after peace.
Lord, calls me to seek after your holiness. Lord, I don't
have any holiness. Calls me to seek after yours.
I need your holiness. There's only one thing needful,
and it's the salvation that is of God, by God, purchased by
God, and freely given by God. That's what we need, that salvation.
That brings us to the example of those who do not receive this
glorious salvation. Esau is the example he gives
us. So let's read verse 16 and 17. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected
for he found no place of repentance. No way to change his mind, though
he sought it carefully with tears. What was the difference between
Jacob and Esau? Was Jacob a better guy than Esau
in the flesh? Jacob was a trickster. Jacob
was a liar. Jacob was a thief. Doesn't sound
like too good of a guy, does it? What was the difference?
God loved Jacob. That's it. Don't ever think for
a second that there's anything more to it than that. God chose
to have mercy on whom he chose to have mercy. And he chose to
have mercy on Jacob, the worm Jacob. Loved Jacob with an everlasting
love. Is that your hope? The only difference
between you and everybody else in the world is that God loves
you. That God chose you into eternal life. That's my only
hope, because if he doesn't, I have no hope of salvation.
I see him as sovereign, as true, as holy. I can't get to him.
I can't touch him. Lord, you're gonna have to save
me, and you're gonna have to do all the saving, not just part
of it. I need your peace. I need your holiness. That's
our hope, isn't it? Understand something, this word
hate doesn't mean that God disliked Esau a little bit. It means he
despised, detested, he loathed Esau. He hated him. He hated
him. Why is that? Because he was not
conformed to the image of his son. See, the love that God has
for you is conditional. It's conditioned on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you and I are not in the Lord
Jesus Christ, God does not love me and God does not love you.
But for all those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has
love with an everlasting love. He made Jacob conformed to his
image. He saw the blood. See, that's
the precious, that's the precious substance that we must have is
the blood. Without it, the Lord will not love us. Lord willing,
he'll hate us. But for those who have the blood
applied, the Lord loves them. They're his children. He calls
them his children. Jacob had need of the birthright
here. That's something important to
mention. But why? Was it for wealth? Because you
understand the birthright, the father would give his blessing
to the son, but he'd also give his inheritance to the son. Was
it just for the wealth or the power, the popularity? I got
dad's birthright. Maybe he wanted, Items that he
had. Was that it? No. No, it wasn't
it. It was the promise of the Messiah
that came with it. The promise of the Messiah that
came with it. It was the promise of the Savior. of sinners. That's what the birthright was
all about. God was saying, whoever receives the birthright through
his seed will have a son. Great, great, great. They didn't
know when it would be, but that's where the Lord would come from.
And it was actually the seed of a woman. We know it was Mary
and it was the Holy Spirit. You understand everything that
I'm saying. This is what the Lord was saying. The promise is to
you, Jacob, if you receive the birthright, the promise is to
you. It's gonna come through your family. And it did. It did. Jacob's two sons, Judah had Joseph
and should have studied it before
I tried to say it. I can't remember who had Mary. So you have to
forgive me. But the Savior came through that lineage, didn't
he? One of the 12 tribes, Savior came through that lineage. It
wasn't for wealth or power, it was because the Savior of sinners
was gonna come through him. He was following true peace.
He's like, I don't have peace in my flesh, I don't have peace
with my brother, I don't have peace in this world, but you're
promising a Savior that gives peace. Not the peace that the
world offers, but the peace that surpasses all understanding,
the peace of the inward man, the peace that says you have
peace with God. You have peace with God in so
much that you can enter the very throne room of God right now
and cry out to him and he'll hear you. God does not hear everybody
when they pray. They don't have an intercessor.
Only the Lord's people have a substitute. Only the Lord's people have a
surety. Only the Lord's people have an intercessor. Jesus Christ
the righteous. So when you cry, you have an
intercessor before the Father. And he hears you when you pray.
Jacob said, I need an intercessor. I need a substitute. I need a
savior. I need that promise to come to me. And he valued the
birthright more than anything. His brother came in at the opportune
moment. Jacob was pondering it, no doubt. His brother said, give
me food or I'm gonna die. I'm paraphrasing a little bit,
but he literally told him, I'm hungry unto death. We always
use the term, I'm just about to starve to death. No, we're
not. We're just really, really hungry. But that's what Esau's
mentality was. He valued his stomach more than
anything else because Jacob said to him, well, give me your birthright.
Esau's mentality was, oh, yeah, I don't care about that birthright.
It doesn't matter to me. I'm thinking of my stomach right
now. Give me that food. You can have it. And that's how he treated
the birthright, the most precious thing that he could have received.
He said, no, I don't need that. I'm good. I don't need a savior.
I don't need a substitute. I don't need a surety. See the
difference? See, Jacob's following after peace and following after
holiness. And Esau says, I have peace. I've made peace with the
devil. I've made peace with death. And hell, I'm in agreement with.
What'd the Lord say to those who says that? No, I'm going
to disannul your covenant. That covenant doesn't exist.
Covenant doesn't exist. You're not at peace. It's a false
peace. It's a false sense of security based upon what you're
doing. Esau says, I don't need a substitute. I'm good enough.
Jacob said, I do. I need the birthright. I need
the birthright. And he said, you can have it
if you give me that bowl of soup, porridge, bowl of soup, sold
the birthright, sold the birthright. Why did he steal the birthright?
What did he, what did he, so as trade, why did he trade the
birthright for that? Why did he sell it? He didn't value the
precious Savior of sinners. He was never made a sinner. He
never found a place of repentance. He never could change his mind.
He didn't understand why it was such a big deal. His mind was
never changed. God never spoke to him. God never came to where
he was and arrested him. God never called him out of darkness
into light. God didn't say, you're the sinner that needs the Savior.
Here's my beloved son. Hear ye him. He never did that,
but he did it for Jacob. He did it for Jacob. He saw value
in his physical need over his own soul. And that's the warning
that we're getting from the writer here is he's saying, seek after
peace and holiness. Don't seek after what you can
see. And he uses the example of the stomach here. Don't use,
don't seek after what can fill your belly. We can eat. You understand what I'm saying,
but not for, that's not going to satisfy when you come to stand
before God. No, we need the bread of life,
the fountain of living water. We need the, the blood of Christ.
We need the, We need him. We need him. Verse 17 says, for you know how
the 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. Why? Why was he rejected? Before they were born, he was
rejected. And what does that mean rejected
men act like an election because they don't understand it that
God was looking through the eons of time and he was like shuffling
through a Rolodex or something and he picked this one said no
not that one pick this one or that they were he he's God he
elected a people it was it's not a. He didn't go to the grocery
store. And I'm not saying anything degrading
here of our Lord, but that's how men seem to think of it.
Go to the grocery store and pick the best apple off the shelf.
You don't get the rotten one off the shelf and pay the same
price, do you? Well, that's not election, that's selection. That's
totally different. No, election is actually having
no, it's by grace alone, having nothing in me. I'm the rotten
apple. He chose the rotten one. And
it cost him his son. You're the rotten apple and it
cost him his son. And the same thing with Jacob. The same thing
with Jacob. No, the Lord chose to elect a
people and redeem a people clearly and distinctly by grace alone. For by grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. It is
the gift of God. So before Esau was born, he was
rejected of God. Why? He was not found in Christ. It's that simple. He was not
found in Christ. Romans chapter nine says, for
the children being not yet born, either having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works. I love that he added that in
there. The Lord added that not of works. Just in case you didn't
understand what he said, and I didn't understand what he said,
he says, not of works, but of him that calleth. It's all of
God. Salvation's all of the Lord. He said unto her, the elder shall
serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. This is why Esau never found a place of repentance.
This is why Esau lived and died looking to himself. This is why
Esau never sought after peace. He never sought after the holiness
of the Lord. He never looked to Christ because he was left
to himself. If we are to be saved, if we
are to be saved, the Lord's gonna have to save us. And he did on
the cross of Calvary. He successfully redeemed everyone
that he elected, including Jacob that day, by shedding his precious
blood, offering his soul to his father, and his father was well-pleased.
And the veil in the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom.
And now the Spirit says, come, and the bride says, come, and
whosoever will, let him come, take of the water of life freely.
Do you know the whosoever's are the ones that the Lord calls
out of darkness into his life? The one that has the need. Lord,
I need your peace. I don't have peace. Lord, I need
your holiness. I don't have any holiness. Lord, I need your justification.
I'm not justified in and of myself. I need your righteousness. Mine's
filthy rags. And he saw a thought, well, maybe
if I cry enough, I can fix this. There's a lot of people in religion
A lot of people in false religion that shed a lot of tears to no
avail. They don't do any good. Crying out of penance. Sad souls,
that's what they do. Crying isn't gonna fix it. Having
a broken heart about it isn't gonna fix it unless the Lord
gave you one. The Lord gave you a broken heart, that's a good
thing. That's a gift of God. So what do we do with this information?
We cry out, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. That's what
we do. Lord, make me a Jacob. It's your
choice. Make me a Jacob. I bow to you,
your sovereign choice. I bow to it. Lord, save me or
I will not be saved. You're my only hope. Save me
or I will not be saved. I love the thought. Everyone
came to the Lord. begging God for mercy. He said,
I will be thou made whole. I will be thou made whole. Jacob
was given repentance and faith, not because he was better than
Esau. He was no different than Esau.
They came from the same womb. They were of the same sin. They
had the same blood. He was no different. He was no
different. So why did God love Jacob? Grace. Grace, that's it. Grace. That's why our church's name
is called Holy Grace Church. We preach the free and sovereign
grace alone that saves sinners. God bestowed grace. And it's
not that Jacob followed peace and holiness, then obtained grace. No, it's like Noah. He found
grace in the eyes of the Lord, meaning God saw him, gave him
grace. Therefore, therefore he followed peace and holiness only
found in Christ. Followed God as all of his righteousness. He followed the Holy One. So
how do I follow peace? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God as all
your righteousness and acceptance before God. If we are seeking,
God is the doer of it. If we are knocking, God's the
doer of it. Good news of the gospel. is that it's the Lord that both,
he says, he worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. What does that mean? That means
all these admonitions are saying the same exact thing, brethren.
He alone is our path. He alone is our way. He alone
is our truth. He alone is our life. He's our
peace and he's our holiness. He's our righteousness. He's
our everything. Follow peace. Follow the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your
glory. Cause us to follow after peace in your holiness, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen.