Chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. We look at
verse 14 through 17 this morning. The Apostle here says, follow
peace with all men and holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man should 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 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." The title of the
message this morning is, Looking Diligently, Lest We Fall from
the grace of God, looking diligently, looking diligently. That's what
the scripture says in verse 15, looking diligently lest any man
fail or fall of the grace of God. Now let us be reminded the
root motive, again, of the apostle in writing to these Hebrews was
to encourage them. to encourage them in the Gospel
to continue to believe Christ, to believe on Christ, and to
rest in His perfect person and work. for all their acceptance
with God. Isn't that the purpose of the
church? Isn't that the purpose of preaching?
It is to encourage the saints. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Speak comfortably unto Jerusalem. Tell her that her warfare is
accomplished, that the Lord receive double at the hand of the Lord
for all her sins. Now listen, these Hebrews, they
did believe. They were, at the beginning,
very courageous. They, at the beginning, were
willing to part with all of their family, all of their possessions. They took the Apostle and embraced
him as their companion. Boldly, they did this. But now, the winds of trouble
have come. The flames of affliction become
hot under them, and they are tempted, they are tempted to
turn back. Now listen, if you've never been
tempted to turn back, you've obviously not been a believer
very long or that you're not being honest with yourself. We
all have these temptations of the flesh. I remember reading
Bunyan. He would get this thing in his
mind. Satan would put this in his mind. Sell Christ! Sell Christ! Sell Christ! And one day he thought,
well maybe I should. And he for weeks began to believe
himself to be an apostate. Thought he had sold Christ. We
are tempted, the troubles and afflictions are great, and every
believer becomes faint because of these trials and difficulties.
So Paul faithfully ministers as a friend, and he reminds them,
as a friend should, only those that endure to the end shall
be saved. Now isn't that a friendly thing to do? Doesn't that encourage
you then to continue? Only those who endure. I must
endure. That encourages me to endure.
That doesn't afflict me or hurt me. That helps me. It helps us
to have this encouragement. Only the elect will die in faith. Isn't that right? These all died
in faith. Isn't that what he said about
the Old Testament saints? So what is it about us that should
encourage us to faith? We should all die in faith, believing
Christ. Only the redeemed by the blood
of Christ will hold fast their profession of faith firm to the
end. Only sons of God are chastened.
Isn't that encouraging? He tells us that in the previous
verses. He says in Verse 5, he says, "...Have you forgotten
the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son? Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
are rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son he receiveth." Now doesn't that make your chastisement
that much sweeter? To know that it's of the Father's
hand? That you are a son of God if you are chastened? And what
does he say? Don't faint. Isn't there two
ends of this spectrum when you're chastised? Either to despise
it or to faint. That's the temptation, isn't
it? The first reaction, obviously, is despising it. Because it's
very painful. Don't despise it. But also, don't
faint. Don't faint. And so then he says that such
chastisement to such chastening and feigning saints in verse
12, he says this, Lift up the hands that hang down in the feeble
knees. Lift them up. And how should
we lift them up? If we are weak and weary, how
should we be lifted up? He said this, Make straight paths
for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the
way, but let it rather be healed. What is this straight path we
are to make for our feet? It is the gospel of peace. It is the gospel of Christ. It
is the old path. I think that's what Jeremiah
said, give us the old paths. I'm not talking about the old
path in the 1500's. I'm not talking about the old
path in the 600's. I'm talking about the old path
in eternity. That gospel that was from eternity. That's the
gospel we need to lift us up, to encourage us. That God has
chosen, Christ is redeemed, the Spirit is called, and the Spirit
will keep. This is the gospel paths. And
I thought of that in Ephesians. He said, shod your feet with
what? The preparation of the gospel
of peace. This is the straight paths that
we are to make for our feet, as so we are not turned out of
the way. but rather are healed. And so now look at your text
here in verse 14. He encourages us to follow peace with all and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now listen,
it is true that believers are to be the most peaceable people
in the world. If there are any believers that
go out and protest, you should be ashamed. We're not a protesting
people. We're not to be out into the
world trying to make contention for the things of the world.
What we are here for is to preach the gospel. That makes its own
contention, true enough, but we are to live peaceably among
men, as much as possible, as much as within us. We're to live
peaceably. We're to obey our magistrates
so long as it does not cause us to disobey our God. And so
we are to live peaceably. And listen, we are to live holy
in this world. We are to live, what the Apostle
said, soberly, righteously, and godly. When? Now. In this present world. This is how believers are to
live. These things are without doubt. This is how a believer is to
live. That's plain. It's simple, isn't
it? That's not complicated. But these
things, this outward holy living, this peace with all men, these
are just byproducts of our salvation, aren't they? These are things
that are just produced like fruit is produced outward from a tree. So if we have the fruit of righteousness
in, obviously these things are going to be produced without. It's a byproduct of the peace
and holiness that we have by Jesus Christ in the inner man.
But this text is not teaching, as some men say, of progressive
sanctification. This idea of following peace
with all, and if you'll notice men is in italics, it says following
peace with all. and holiness now how do we know
this is not talking about our our daily living because of what
follows without which no man shall see the Lord this is talking
about salvation and so then if this was talking about progressive
sanctification then our progressive sanctification would be necessary
for holiness for salvation that's not what he's saying We conclude
that his words, without which no man shall see the Lord, that
this is talking about salvation. This exhortation, friend, is
an urgent one. Believer, pursue, follow peace
and holiness. Pursue it with all that is in
you. Pursue it. Where are we to find
peace and holiness? Where are we to pursue peace
and holiness? These two are only found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. These two are only found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He alone made peace. by the blood of His cross. Now
what it tells us in Colossians, He made peace by the blood of
His cross. Jesus has alone satisfied us,
made us holy. He hath perfected forever, that's
what the scripture says, perfected, made holy, forever, sanctified,
forever, who? Those that were sanctified by
the Father. You remember 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30, but of God are
you in Christ who have made Him to be wisdom, righteousness,
and what? Sanctification and redemption. So where is holiness and peace
found? It is only found in Christ. And so then how should you have
peace and holiness except you be in Christ? In Christ. This is what he's saying. He's
saying make sure you are in Christ. Because without peace provided
by Christ and holiness obtained by Christ, no man shall see the
Lord without that. No man shall see the Lord. You
remember, it says in Psalm 85, verse 10, mercy and truth have
met together. Listen, righteousness and peace. have kissed each other. Where?
Only in the Son. Only in Jesus Christ. Only in
the Son of God. So fainting saint, pursue this
truth. Pursue it with all your heart.
Lay hold of it with all the faith that God has given you. Whatever
measure of faith you have, lay hold of this truth. that all
my peace with God is in Christ and all my holiness before God
was obtained by Jesus Christ. Lay hold of this truth. We could
never make peace with God, nor could we ever by our works obtain
holiness, yet Christ has found both. So then he continues on
in our text. He says this, looking diligently. Looking diligently. Same thing
as he said, pursue peace and holiness. That is found in Jesus
Christ. Now then, listen, where is it
found? In Jesus Christ. Now then, look diligently for
what? See if you have it. Look diligently within yourselves,
lest what? Any, lest any man fail of the
grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness spring
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Seeing no man will
see God without peace and truth, therefore let us each one examine
ourselves. Except this be found, you'll
always be faint. Except this be true of you, your
hands will always hang down. Except you know this. I like
that in John's epistles, he keeps saying, that you may know. That
you may know. That you may know. Why? Because I need to know. I always
need to know. So that my hands don't hang down.
So that I can be strong and bold before men, before God. Now then the Apostle says this
many times in other places, we're going to have the Lord's Supper,
I thought about this as I was studying, he said this, when
you have the Lord's Supper, what are you supposed to do? Let every
man examine himself before he eats. Why? Because this is only for believers.
This is for only people who have faith and peace and holiness
in Christ. That's who this is for. Even
so, we ought to do daily. He says in 2 Corinthians 13,
15, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your
own selves. We like to prove others. That's
the nature of us, isn't it? We like to examine, and it has
its place, and I'm going to show you that in just a minute. Taking
care of our brethren, it has its place. I'm not talking and
saying that it doesn't. But first, you cannot help anyone
else except you know yourself. Except you be strong. That's
why the Apostle says, you that are strong in the faith, restore
such and one. You that know your standing,
only you are able then to come alongside and help others. But
you first must examine yourself. We must examine ourselves. And isn't it a joy to find yourself
in Christ? Isn't that a joy? When you've
examined yourself by the grace of God and you see by the Word
of God and by the Spirit that dwells in you that testifies
to you of these things, doesn't that bring you happiness? Doesn't
that bring you contentment to know, I'm in Christ. I have Him. I have peace with God. I have
holiness in Him, that brings the greatest joy. Surely we'll
lift up our hands if we know this, if we examine ourselves
and find ourselves to be in Christ. And the second way this is, he
says we must in love and grace also seek to help others. Looking diligently lest any man,
not just yourself, any man, fail of the grace of God. We're also
to take care and help our brethren who have fallen away, who seem faint and weary. Isn't that what the church is
for? Isn't that why we assemble? To encourage one another, to
strengthen one another, to love one another, to come alongside
one another. Yes, I'm here for myself, but
I'm also here for you. I'm here to help you in your
troubles. We are to look diligently, not
just on ourselves, but also in love and care for the brethren. Philippians chapter 2 and verse
4, look not every man on his own things. But every man also. Now you look
on your own things, you should look diligently first there.
But also, the apostle says, on the things of others. How? How would you do this? In what manner and attitude should
we take in looking toward others? With love and humility. Look on your brethren that are
weak and fallen with love and humility, with an eye of compassion,
longing that none of our brethren fall. You know, it is my desire,
everyone who professes the name of Christ, it is my desire that
they really know Him. It's my desire that they know
Him. It's my desire that you all continue in the faith And
that it should be your desire for everyone else in the church. That they continue along with
you. What is that song? Who will come and
go with me? I am bound for the promised land. have compassion. Paul said, we
are all one body. Isn't that right? Isn't that
how he makes the analogy of the church? We are one body, we all
have one head, same Lord, same faith, same baptism. We're all
going to receive the same reward of eternal life and glory with
God, holiness. And so that if we're all one
body, I use that analogy, if your foot were to fail, If your foot were to fail, would
not your whole body then be engaged to help? See a man keep falling and he
says, that darn foot, I'm just not even gonna pay it any mind.
And he just keeps slamming his head against the floor. No! The whole body is engaged. And
so it is with the believer. If our foot is hurt, we engage
to help. Well, it's how we are to look
diligently, look earnestly on one another, and help in every
way you can. Help them. The Apostle says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12, verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the members should have the same care one for another. Whether one member suffer, all
members suffer with it. And one member be honored, all
members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ
and members in particular. And you remember the exhortation
in Galatians, you that are spiritual, restore such in one. It is as
one were setting a bone, you want it done tenderly and gently. And this is how we restore our
brethren. Well, it is true that all the
body is to restore their brethren
with gentleness and meekness, yet listen, it is the main purpose
of the pastor. It is my obligation and my responsibility,
and yet it should be my joy to always come alongside you and
help you to restore you. The Apostle said this to those
in Ephesians, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over which the Holy Ghost had made you overseers. And how
do we do this? How do pastors do this? Because
this is really a trouble in in other churches. I don't even
want to say gospel churches, but possibly. Possibly. They
want to restore by force. I met a man who actually was
part of a reformed church and they called him the enforcer.
He would actually literally go to people's houses and he would
kind of guilt them and force them or try to, with judgmental
words and so forth, try to guilt them into coming back. Oh, that's
not the means that God has chosen. He said this. How do we oversee? How do we restore? Feeding the
flock of God. What I'm doing now, this is the
means by which men are restored, is by the preaching of the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel. This is why the church body is
to obey them that have the rule over you. Why? It's because we
are to take care for your souls. We are to care for your souls
as those who must give an account. And we do so by example. Not just by preaching, but by
example. By faithfulness. Am I faithful
to preach the Word of God to you? Is that not an example and
an encouragement then to others? Be faithful. Leading is by example. And I should be an example to
those. I do this by preaching and by
example. So then you should pray for all
pastors. Pray for them. And may God move us to love and
grace and care for others. To look diligently not only to
ourselves but to those of the flock. Now listen, even though this
is my obligation, I know this, there are many things a pastor
never sees that you may see. There are people you engage with
that the pastor may never engage with. So then it is your obligation,
it is your responsibility to come alongside that person that
you know that needs help. and you are to restore them.
You are to look diligently and care diligently for them as you
do your own soul. Therefore, we must take great
care that we be found in Christ, that we continually not faint,
but believe on Him who is our holiness and our peace, and look
diligently to those others, lest they fail of the grace of God.
Now, what does this mean to fail of the grace of God? He says,
"...looking diligently, lest any man should fail of the grace
of God." Now, we know this, that the Father has chosen and redeemed
all of the elect. All those that Christ redeemed,
the Holy Spirit, will come and quicken with the power and grace
to faith and life in Christ. And what is the truth about this?
None of them will ever fail of the grace of God. None of them
will be lost. Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. Those 144,000, you remember in
the book of Revelation, they were sealed sealed unto the day of Jesus
Christ return, secured by the blood and kept by the Holy Ghost. So with this in mind, The mind
and heart of the elect will always be as the apostle. Yea, I, doubtless,
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. Is this not daily our, it is
daily the heart of the believer. This is our heart, that we be
found in Christ, not having any righteousness of our own, but
all His righteousness. Now that is the heart and mind
and soul of every believer's daily hope. So then to fail of the grace
of God is to fail of having the grace of God at all. Only those who have not the grace
of God shall fail of the grace of God. Anyone who leaves the gospel...
Now, how is this manifest? How is this failing of the gospel
manifested? When one leaves the gospel for
another gospel. It may be manifest that they
leave religion altogether, which is probably more honest than
the other. But they who leave the gospel
of Jesus Christ, or leave the church altogether, are apostates. He is one that had only an outward
manifestation of faith. He hourly received the gospel,
he only hourly embraced the gospel, and by mere determination of
the will made a profession of faith in Christ. That is one
who will always fail of the grace of God. You remember the seed and the
sower, the parable the Lord gave. He said He cast a seed and some
fell upon the stony ground. And they with joy received it. But because there was no depth
of earth, when the sun came up, they withered away. And the other,
they stoned the thorny ground here. The seed was cast among
the thorns. And it sprang up, but the thorns
choked it. And these are men who You remember,
like palatable. He's like the man on the stony
ground. He received that word with joy for a while, until what?
He came to the slough of Despond. And sure enough, when he was
offended by it, and he turned and went away. And so is all
false professors. They come in, they seem joyful,
and then, man, it gets hard. Hearing this same gospel over
and over and over again, they become discouraged. They want
to turn away. This is not helpful. I don't
like it. And they turn away and they find
persecution because of this gospel. They'll turn away. The others
are like those that they stick around a long while. They grow
up, but the gospel to them is nothing more than the things
of the world. It's just another thing to them.
Their job, their family, all of that are equal with the gospel. And so what happens is, when
that gospel begins to spring up, the cares of life, children,
and family, and friends, and jobs, begin to choke the Word. And pretty soon the Word just
begins to be put off and put back until what? Until they leave. Until they leave. But those that received it on
good ground, what happened to them? They were fruitful. They were fruitful. Some thirty,
yes. Some sixty, some an hundred. Different quantity measurements,
but surely all of them had all of the fruit of the Spirit. Every
one of them. And so then let us with zeal
and love take great care to keep our eyes on Christ and desire
in love that our brethren do the same, lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many are defiled." Now,
the Apostle is referring to an Old Testament passage in Deuteronomy
chapter 29, where Moses said this, "...lest there should be
any among you, man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart
turneth away from this day from the Lord our God, and go to serve
those gods of these nations." lest there should be among you
a root that beareth gall and wormwood, a root that bears bitter
fruit." What is the root? What is the
root cause of apostasy? Unbelief. It is the root sin,
and every believer knows this within our own heart, this weed
is in our nature, and it must be plucked up at every sight. It must be rooted out at every
thought and instance, it must be cast aside. You can't stop
it from... Luther said, you can't stop the
birds from flocking, but you can stop them from nesting. And
so it is true. We can take the root of unbelief
and believe the gospel. If we are His, we will. But these
who are on stony ground, or on thorny ground here, these let
that weed fester inside their heart, and it grows until it
springs up outside of their heart, and it bears the bitter fruit.
Now listen to me, there is no more bitter fruit than apostasy.
There is nothing more bitter than for a man to be an apostate.
Why? The apostle tells us, that once
a person becomes apostate it is impossible for them to be
renewed again to repentance I don't know exactly the whole
story off my head but Spurgeon mentioned of the one man who
denied Christ by signing that thing for the Catholic Church
and that man on his throughout the rest of his life when he
recanted He could not repent, and died in his apostasy. Miserable
death. Miserable bitter fruit. Unbelief is the root, and apostasy
is the fruit. So I encourage every one of us,
root it out. Root it out. Let it not come
into you, your thoughts or minds. And listen, we don't need to
look far to find examples of apostates. Look at the free will
religion. You want to know what apostasy
is? Look at them. Tell them of the gospel of God's
sovereign election, of Christ's perfect redemption, of salvation
by the grace of God without the work of man. And what do they
do? The bitter root springs up. And they deny it. And if they continue in it, it's
nothing more than apostasy. Nothing more than apostasy. is
to deny the gospel. That's what apostates are. They
deny the gospel of God's grace in Christ. So in verse 16 through
17, he gives us an example of this in Esau. He says, "...lest
there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright." He gives an example of this apostate
Esau One who seemed to be a possessor of the birthright, he seemed
to have strength and was most favored of Isaac. But what did
time prove? Time proved what God already
determined. The elder shall serve the younger,
as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Time proved what God had already
determined. Esau is a model of apostasy. And so we are to look diligently
lest there be any fornicator or profane person such as Esau. Now what does it mean fornicator?
He's not talking about sexual immorality here. We know this,
that no fornicator or adulterer shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. We know that. Anyone who has that tenor in
their life, that's not a believer. That's someone who's just pretending.
And we know that no profane person, some godless person, is going
to enter into heaven. But that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about spiritual fornication. Spiritual fornication. Spiritual godlessness. He said this in many other places
in Hebrews. Hebrews 3.12, Take heed therefore,
brethren, lest there be any of you of an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. So this fornication and
profaneness is spiritual. Calvin wrote this, he said, the
profane are those in whom the love of the world holds sway
and prevails that they forget heaven and give the kingdom or
the gospel of Christ either no place or last place. That's what a profane person
is. Someone who sets the cares of this life. Isn't that what
Esau did? Is that not what he did? He set
his appetite above the birthright. He thought lightly of Christ. He held to the other and let
Christ go. That's apostasy. That's apostasy. This is the essence of apostasy,
to lightly esteem Jesus Christ. How countless millions claim
to be Christian, yet they despise the gospel of grace. They hold
it so lightly, they care little for it, and embrace the world. All the
while believing on their way to heaven. Can't wait to see
my mom. Can't wait to see my dad. Can't
wait to see this person. You know what? That's one thing.
Everybody wants to see everybody else. Nobody wants to see Christ. They hold it lightly. To apostatize is to embrace that
which is of the earth, earthly, which is the earthly gospel of
freewill works religion. They gladly forsake the things
of God for the things of the world. This is a warning to all who
are tempted to sell Christ for the world. If you continue in
this path of unbelief, you will be rejected, is Esau, verse 17. For you know that afterward,
when he should have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. I want you to know
this. Esau did not repent. That repentance
that he's talking about is the repentance of Isaac. Isaac would
not repent. from what he said. Isaac said,
I've given him the blessing and I will not repent. So when he
sought repentance, who did he want it from? He wanted it from
Isaac. Who does the apostate want repentance from? God. He
wanted God to repent. No. I tell you, he sought it
carefully with tears. Who wants to go to hell? No one wants to go to hell. but
they want God to change it so that they can go rather than
them repent they want God to they want God to do it their
way what did Esau find? he was rejected
and so will every apostate be rejected And in the end, they
will have to eat their bitter fruit for eternity. And you know, one sad thing about
apostasy is some are rejected and given over
even in this life. Some who have turned away from
the gospel are already awaiting, like those angels in chains,
awaiting damnation with no hope. Now tell me, is unbelief a bitter
root that yields a bitter fruit? Look diligently in yourself to
see if there'd be this root and then weed it out. It's an encouragement,
isn't it? Who's encouraged by this to make
sure? Believers! Apostates, they don't
have any care for this. He must be talking about somebody
else. Believers, I know who I'm talking about. He's right here.
I need this to look diligently, lest I should fail. Oh, today, if you will but hear
His voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation. So while it is called today,
let us hold fast to Christ, never forsaking Him for the porridge
of this world. He's all my hope. He's all my
life. And He deserves all my love. I believe Him. And those who continue in this
will never be apostate. He said, oh, but I'm persuaded
better things of you. Why? You believe. You who believe,
I'm persuaded better of you who believe and continue to believe.
May God help us in this.