I've entitled today's message,
God's discipline or his correction of us to cause us to follow Christ. And this is really the second
part, which is the second part in the text of scripture we're
looking at from last week's message, which was God's correction of
his children. And last week I might have, or
not last week, was it the week before last? It was the week
before last. I felt that maybe I had overemphasized
the need for parents to correct their children. I didn't mean
to do that if I did, but I did so because it's such a strong
correlation. It's the way God enables us to
see in looking at this, the spiritual correction of his people. But
notice that this bringing to light the relationship
of God the Father to us is what this chapter is about, the children
of God, the sons of God. And this relation we have to
Him, as we know from Scripture, is because of the love of God
the Father for us. It was in love that He chastens
His people. It was the love of God. It says
in 1 John 3, he says, Beloved, what manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. So it was love, pure love. It arose from God's heart. Now,
when we think about love, we can't help it as people, but
to think of love as at least in part, the attraction of one
person for another, for the qualities that they find in them. A mother's
love, for example, for her children. I know that mothers give and
give and give and give, and their life is a life of giving. They,
from the moment of conception to the, in fact, even before
that, their life is developing themselves in God's grace, developing
themselves to have children, and they have children, and they
spend the rest of their life giving for their children. So
motherhood is a very, very precious gift and you see that in that
sense that they, almost more than any other person that we
know, their love is known by their giving, constantly giving.
They give in labor, they give in patience, they put up with
our nonsense and our foolishness and our rebellion. And they give
in doing things for us. And they give when they absorb
our rudeness and disrespect and forgive us and correct us. Mothers
are amazing in that way. A picture of God's love for us.
But even in a mother, there is this endearingness or this closeness
of a mother's love for her son or daughter because of what she
finds in them. because they are her own. Now
God the Father, His love for us and the Son of God's love
for us has nothing to do with us. There's no qualities in us
that would attract God's love for us. And that's why the love
of God for us, that He would put us in a relationship to Himself,
so near and dear as being His sons, And the love of Christ
for us that He would fulfill that relationship as our brethren
and not be ashamed to call us brethren, that love for us, it
goes beyond words and all conception. It surpasses knowledge according
to Ephesians chapter 3. And so we see in this chapter
here the love of God the Father. And these words here, even though
they seem sobering to us, that God would correct us and discipline
us, and as children, when we've received that discipline from
our parents, it is sobering, it is. Olivia's dad used to say, tighten
you up. And it has the effect, you immediately
stand up and your eyes open up, I'm all ears now. That's the
effect it has. But it's for our good. It's for
our good. So when we read this in Hebrews
chapter 12, he says in verse 10, for they verily for a few
days, our fathers on earth, for a few days, they chastened us
or they disciplined us after their own pleasure. But notice,
he, our heavenly father, for our profit. So God doesn't discipline
us because he needs something from us. He disciplines us for
our profit. This is the hardest thing for
us to understand. Throughout the scripture, God is seen as
the giver. If he receives anything, it's
because he first gave to us. We can only give to him what
he has first given to us. He's the giver only, and that
is pure love. God's love for his people is
a giving. He gives. He gives them life. He gives them faith. He gives
them life out of the righteousness that he gave to them, which he
worked out and provided for them in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
it's all giving. He provides for them. He protects
them. He gives them comfort. He instructs
them. He draws them to Christ. He does
everything, all giving on God's part. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the same way, because he is the perfect, the expressed image
of his Father's glory. He gives, he gives, he gave himself,
and he couldn't give anything more than when he gave himself. And he continues to give. He
says in Matthew 20, 28, he didn't come to be served, but to give
his life a ransom for many, and then in glory, what is he doing?
He's interceding for us. And He says that the Son of Man,
at the end of time, He will rise up and He will serve His people. Doesn't that just bring you to
a state of utter humility that the Son of God and God the Father
and the Spirit of God would give to you and give and not stop
giving? What a blessing this is, just
like a mother. And you see it in your mom. And
I hope that your mom, that you give her the honor today that
you see in that, that husbands, we love our wives, and we see
that they've given. They gave themselves when they
married us, didn't they? Gave away all other options to
have themselves, to be our wives, and then they gave themselves
when they bore our children, and they keep giving. but it's
only a reflection of God's gift to us. So let's read together
now in Hebrews chapter 12. Remember now, and we have to
remember this, we have to ever keep this in mind, that the book
of Hebrews contains many warnings, many warnings. Children are warned
by their parents, but it's for their good. We have to be warned,
we're thick-headed, we're hard-hearted. And we don't pay attention. We
are easily distracted like a sheep going the wrong way. And the
Lord has to correct us and has to bring us in. So he gives us
warnings. And here in Hebrews chapter 12, he's warning again. He's showing us that these warnings,
these things that come to us that would tighten us up or that
would set us in a state of sudden alertness and giving all attention
to God and his word are for our good. So, for example, in Hebrews
chapter two, he starts out this way, he says, therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him,
God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will."
So you see this warning, don't let slip what you've heard. Don't
let it slip. Because if you let it slip, the
word of salvation in Christ, there's no other hope. Don't
let it slip. And then in Hebrews chapter three,
he goes to this again. He says in verse eight, he says,
in verse seven, he says, wherefore as the Holy Ghost say it today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness. And he goes on to
show that they fell because of unbelief. Remember, he said,
in verse 12 of chapter three, take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from
the living God. but exhort one another daily
while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin, for we are made partakers. We are
of his family, and we partake of Christ's salvation and his
inheritance. We have a lot in his inheritance
if, he says here, and it's not an if as if it won't happen,
but it's an if of certainty, since we hold the beginning of
our confidence steadfast to the end. That confidence of faith. So here's another warning. Consider
the Israelites who fell in the wilderness. Now, remember here,
they did not enter that land of promise because of unbelief. We enter into the land of salvation
through faith in Christ. How serious it is then. In chapter
four again, he says, Christ is our Sabbath, rest. We have ceased
from our own works. We've entered into God's works,
the finished work of Christ for us. And he goes on throughout
the whole of the book of Hebrews. In chapter six, he says this,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on to perfection. He had to warn them. The Hebrews
were tempted to draw back from the gospel of Christ's work to
go back to the ceremonies and the sacrifices and the law keeping
of the old covenant that depended upon them to make themselves
holy, to bring themselves to God, to keep themselves in the
love of God, all these things. But he says, no, no, no, in the
New Testament, not only is the old in its shadows fulfilled,
but the law of the old is also fulfilled, and far beyond that,
because now a new and eternal covenant has been fulfilled in
the blood of Christ. And so these warnings go on.
Chapter 6 was about leaving those Old Testament things and laying
hold on Christ. In chapter 7, he says, in verse
11 of chapter 7, if perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people received the law, what further need was
there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek?
And then in verse 19, for the law made nothing perfect, but
the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh
to God. Again, he's showing us that we
have to go on, leave behind the shadows, leave behind the personal
obedience for righteousness, leave behind the ceremonies.
They're all fulfilled in Christ by his precious blood. And so
in chapter 10, he also gives us this warning. In chapter 10,
he says, If we sin willfully, in verse 26, if we sin willfully
after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there
remains no more sacrifice for sins. If you leave Christ, if
you have another salvation, there's no other sacrifice. You're damned
unless Christ died for you, unless you by faith lay hold on him.
And so these are warnings, aren't they? But the chastening hand
of our Father to do what? to bring us to Christ, to bring
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. No man can come to me, Jesus
said, except the Father which has sent me draw him, drag him,
and everyone that has heard and learned of the Father cometh
to me. The Father, the Father, the relationship and the result
of our relationship with him is that we're brought to Christ
through his word, by his will, through the blood of Jesus, by
his own spirit. And so he goes on in chapter
10. He says, verse 35, cast not away,
therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. You have need of patience, that
after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
So again, it's all about, and he says this, we are not of those
who draw back into perdition, but of those who believe to the
saving of the soul. We believe, and then he gives
chapter 11, all the accounts of faith. Abel, Noah, Abraham,
or Enoch and Abraham, and on and on. Moses, they all endured
by faith. Some were delivered out of perilous
trouble by faith. Others were delivered through
that trouble, all through faith. They all lived by faith and they
all died in faith. None received the promises in
this life, they all received them looking to Jesus. And then
he sets up Christ himself in chapter 12, verse 1. He's the
one who is the author and the finisher of our faith from beginning
to end. We come to him for faith. We
rely on him to maintain and sustain that faith. And he will bring
that faith to perfection because Christ is all in our salvation. Christ is all in all of our life
in salvation. And so we're disciplined by God
to learn this. And it is His work that brings
us to this realization, this persuasion in embracing Christ
by faith. And so this is what it's about.
The children of God, blessed by the Father, brought to Christ
to see the new covenant fulfilled in Him. We're made sons of God. God is our God, we are His people,
and He has given us these eternal promises in Christ by His blood. Amazing grace. So we go on in
chapter 12 now. He says, notice in verse 7, if
you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. I want
to be chastened by God, don't you? Why? Because I want to be
brought to Christ. I don't want to be left to myself.
I do not. I know what I am. I know something
about what I am. And I know unless I had parents
who corrected me, I would be the worst. If God through all
the course of my life, especially, And without the gospel, there
would have been no effect, no resulting grace in the chastening
of my parents or in the chastening of all the trials of life. But
through the gospel, God has used the chastening hand in all of
our lives who believe him to bring us to his Son. Troubles
in conscience, troubles in body, all sorts of troubles. Fears
without, fears within, everything. God, by His grace, uses all things
together for our good to conform us, to bring us into that predestinated
purpose, to conform us to the image of His dear Son as His
children. What grace this is, what love
of God, what ability that God has to bring us to this that
no one on earth could ever have done, to turn our hearts to Him. And so we see this, if you endure
chastening, if you endure it, in other words, if God, in his
grace, gives us grace to continue looking to Christ, we don't depart
from him, like Jesus said in John 6, are you gonna leave me
too? Lord, where else will we go?
You have the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure
that you're the Christ, the son of the living God. No, that's
the chastening of God that did that. God persuaded them of that. God gave them that gift and it
was his grace. So if you endure chastening,
God deals with you as with sons. Now in verse 11, this is the
second part. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. The effect of trouble in our
life is good, but the trouble itself is not pleasant. It is
not comfortable to feel the stress. of that internal stress of the
new nature and the old nature wrestling together day in and
day out. And the frustration of seeing
my sin and feeling helpless against what I am and knowing I have
to be saved by somebody stronger than myself. Someone who takes
pity on me and has mercy on me and whose grace is strong enough
to deliver me from my sin. And that is not a pleasant thing.
to be under that constant struggle. It causes us to cry out with
Paul, oh, wretched man that I am. In so many ways, we feel that
frustration, and that's the stress of the new nature. Subduing the
old nature, but it isn't easy. And then there's all the afflictions
of life that come in too. This world, this world is not
a pleasant place to live. And especially because of false
religion, In this world, men afflict us by telling us that
Christ is not enough. You need to do something else.
And we have, we're called on, as it says in chapter 13, Hebrews
chapter 13, he says, he said this in verse, verse 13, or verse 12, maybe
I'll back up, he says in verse 10, we have an altar, chapter
13, verse 10, we have an altar where they have no right to eat
which serve the tabernacle. So the Jews, the Hebrews to whom
the book was written here, they were those who grew up on the
sacrifices, and all of their countrymen, the people they lived
with, They worshipped by going and offering sacrifices, observing
feast days, going to the temple. That's the way they worshipped
God. It was required under the law, but in the New Covenant,
all that was done away because it was fulfilled in Christ. He's
the temple, He's the altar, He's the sacrifice, the high priest.
Right? He's everything. And so he says
to them, we have an altar, not there, not in Jerusalem, where
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle on earth.
They have no right because they've rejected, they haven't embraced
the true tabernacle which is in heaven. For the bodies of
those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp. When on the day of
atonement, the high priest would bring the bullock and then the
goat and kill them and bring their blood into the holiest
of all and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and on the horns of
the altar. And then afterward, they took
the bodies of those beasts and they would burn them. What was
left over after they killed them and sprinkled their blood, everything
else, they would burn it outside the camp. because, and the man
who did that was unclean, he had to wash his clothes. So the
comparison here is Christ is the one who was offered. He offered
himself as a high priest. But it was a reproach. The Jews'
religion looked upon that as a shameful thing. It was a stumbling
block to them. Christ crucified was to them
the most shameful thing, the cursed tree. But Paul said, no,
no, this is all my boast. What you consider shameful, I
glory in." And so he says, we need to leave the old covenant,
and all the ceremonies, and the sacrifices, and the law-keeping,
and everything else, and go out to Christ as those who carried
the bodies of those beasts out to burn them, because, and they
became unclean in the eyes of men, they were reproached. So
we embrace Christ as everything, and he says here, let us, in
verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 12, wherefore Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. He was crucified outside the
walls of Jerusalem. Verse 13, let us go forth therefore
to him without the camp bearing his reproach. Okay? So that's what he's saying here
in chapter 12. You Jews, you Hebrews who have
believed Christ, you need to leave the old covenant. The old covenant proves you're
guilty. The old covenant proves you're condemned. It condemns
you. And therefore it holds you under the condemnation of death. The old covenant exposes your
helplessness before God in your sins. And the Old Covenant leaves
you in this case in order to direct you to Christ. And the
New Covenant, in which He does all that God requires for you,
because God laid all the obligations of Himself for you on His Son,
and Christ fulfilled them all. You contribute nothing here.
You have to rest in His finished work. It was by His blood alone
that you gained access to the throne of God, to the holiest,
into the holiest. His body rent as the veil rent,
and that's our access in His blood. It's Christ crucified.
Everything comes to Him. And so this is what we need to
do. We need to leave everything else.
And for the Jews then, the Hebrews then, it meant a lot to do that.
They left not only the worship, but they received the reproach
of their countrymen. And they were cut off so that
they couldn't benefit from that community of Jews and all of
the commerce and all those things. They were deprived of property.
They were deprived of friendships and family. and they were cast
out, their name was considered the off-scouring of the world.
And so it was throughout history, those who clung to Christ as
sinners needing a savior and finding their all in Christ,
they were accused by those of other religions, which are all
the religions of the world, of being shameful things. Especially
when they told them the truth, that all of your righteousness
and your religion is but filthy rags. Because they've forsaken
all their own righteousness and clung to Christ only. People
don't want to hear that all glory belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They don't want to hear that He's the Lord that we submit
to willingly and obey in love. They don't want to hear that.
They'd rather live their own lives. They'd rather trust their
own works. And so the gospel is opposed
to all other religions, and this causes shame, and this causes
all kinds of suffering. But he says, this is necessary
for us. We have to leave the old and
come to the new, come to Christ. And so no chastening for the
present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward
it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness. What is the
peaceable fruit of righteousness? What is righteousness? Well,
the righteousness of God that is ours, there is only one righteousness,
isn't there? Jesus Christ, the righteous.
There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none good, but God. All these things scripture plainly
says. And so our only righteousness
is found in the obedience of Christ, that loving submission
of his which caused him to lay his life down for sinners, us,
who believe him. That is our obedience before
God. That is our clothing. That's our sin covering. Christ
and His righteousness. But the fruit of that righteousness
is what? Well, the fruit of the righteousness
of Christ, first and foremost, is that we're born of God. The
Spirit of God is given to us. We have been given the Spirit
of Christ. Christ now lives in us. He dwells
in us. We live now. And the life we
live is Christ living in us. That's the fruit of righteousness.
But the fruit of Christ living in us is that we believe him,
faith, and love, love for God and love for his people. We love
others because he first loved us. We love God for the same
reason. We forgive and we show mercy
because God has forgiven us an infinite debt. And he's shown
us mercy when we deserve nothing but wrath. And that's why Jesus
told the Pharisees, they did not know God. Go learn what this
means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Over and over again, he rebuked
them openly and condemned them for their total lack of mercy
and their cruelty in their self-righteousness to hold others in contempt and
condemn others for their sin when they themselves were the
worst of sinners. But not to the believer. The
believer has been corrected here. We have been made to see the
mercy of God towards us in Christ, and that causes us to want to
show mercy, to be ye kind one to another, even as God for Christ's
sake. and forgive one another even
as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. You see that? There's
a being brought under in submission by grace in looking to Christ
so that we now want to forgive and show mercy to others and
we love God's people because as sinners we've found our salvation
in Christ, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. So
the peaceable fruit of righteousness is the new man, Christ in us. who produces this fruit in us
of faith in Christ and love for his people. He says in 1 John
2, verse 12, my little children, notice the relationship, my little
children, I write these things unto you because your sins have
been forgiven you for his namesake. And that's the basis of our love
for one another. It's for his sake, for Christ's
sake. We want to receive others and
forgive others because that's the way God received us, for
Christ's sake. And that's the way we come to
God, through the blood of Jesus. And so we want to others, we
want this for others. And that's the fruit of righteousness.
And it's through the discipline of the gospel applied in the
experience of our life. Verse 12. 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. So this is referring,
again, back to Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35, and I'll refer to
this now in Isaiah 35. We read this earlier. Verse three,
strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
It's a quotation from Isaiah 35, verse three. Notice, say
to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. How can you do this? The race
we run is long, isn't it? The entire life of faith, it's
a long race. And there's many obstacles, and
there's many people who would oppose us. This is a kingdom
of darkness that opposes the kingdom of light. Our own sinful
nature. So many obstacles and difficulties,
and it's long, and it seems like there's no visual encouragement. It's all just by faith. And that
was the problem with the Hebrews in the book of Hebrews. They
were so used to living by visual outward religion that when all
that was taken away, they had to rely on Christ by faith. They
felt unsteady. So he says here, this is the
way you're strengthened. First of all, when God tells
us to be strong, when he tells us to lift up the hands, and to hang down and the feeble
knees in this long race in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 12, because
the Lord says it, then we can do it. But we don't do it by
our own strength. We come again to him to receive
the grace he requires for us to live. This is a principle
in scripture that what God requires of us is always more than we
can give. We don't have the strength to
do one thing, Jesus said. He says, without me you can do
nothing. So we have no strength in ourselves.
In fact, it is in our weakness, our inability, that we find Christ's
strength is made perfect. Remember 2 Corinthians 12, verse
9 and 10? And so here in Isaiah chapter
35, he says, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come
with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he
will come and save you. How are we strengthened? To see
that our God has come against our enemies, judged them for
us to save us from them. Our sins and hell and death,
all of our enemies, God has come to save us. Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened. We didn't see this before. The
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. We never heard this before. Then
shall the lame man leap. We couldn't walk by faith before. The tongue of the dumb shall
sing. We couldn't confess Christ before. But now we so gladly
confess as being sinners that Christ is our all, that we are
able. We stand against anything that
opposes this. And mostly that's our own doubtful
selves. And so he goes on here in chapter
12, verse 12. He says, lift up the hands which
hang down in the feeble knees. Remember Christ your Redeemer,
the ransom he paid. Remember that your salvation
is in him. See this with your eyes and hear this with your
ears and walk in this by faith. All of this is by faith in Christ.
And he goes on, verse 14. I'm sorry, in verse 13, and make
straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but let it rather be healed. How do we make straight
paths? Well, the words here mean like
in a track, like a wheel going in a track or in a road. And
I was out mowing the lawn the other day, and I always like
to, you know, I'm an OCD, I like to mow straight. But when I look
down at the wheels of the lawnmower, It gets crooked. And I look back,
it's all wiggly. So then I try to look at a far
point, and I push straight, just looking at that point. Somehow,
the angle between my eyes and that point, and your internal,
I don't know, your gyroscope in your head, you keep straight
by looking far away at that point, don't you? You ever seen a tractor
plowing in a field, the lines are nice and straight? I always
wondered how they did that. Well, before they had laser guidance,
the guy would just sit there and look at the end of the field
and just keep looking to that long, faraway post. And he would
plow straight. And so it is with us. How do we make our path straight? Well,
verse one, looking unto Jesus. He's already there. It seems
far away in time and distance, It's not physical, we can't lay
hold on it, but faith sees that faraway object of Christ sitting
on his throne, finished the work of our salvation, already received
our inheritance, and faith seeing that through the telescope of
faith, it brings it near. It's the substance of things
hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. And so we plow
straight, looking unto Jesus. He's the author. We come to him
for faith, the finisher. We look to him to perfect our
faith and to maintain it through that whole process of our life.
It's always coming to him to receive the grace we need to
do what God says, which is to look to him and to walk in this
faith. He says, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. How
are we healed? How are we brought to life? How are we made whole? Isn't it by the stripes that
Christ received for us? And don't we receive that by
seeing that in him? By his stripes you were healed. And then he says in verse 14,
follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord. Now, the translation here and
the translation in almost all the versions, the modern versions
of Scripture, by the way, the modern versions of Scripture
are not good in general. In many, many places in Scripture,
and not only this, but others, you see this. So I encourage
you to always look at the older translations. The King James
Version is an old one, for example. And there are others, like there's
one called the Young's Literal Translation, YLT, and the Literal
Translation of the Bible by J.P. Green Sr. is also pretty good,
and there's others. You can go back in time. Things
that were translated before the 1800s relied on the older, the
Textus Receptus and things like that, but I don't want to get
into the details there But the point is is that what does this mean
here look? He says follow peace with all
men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord is
it do you understand this as? Now try to be at peace with everybody
and by the way also follow holiness because without following holiness
you won't see the Lord as as if holiness is something that
we we sort of progressing so that we get more and more holy,
and in following after holiness, in our progression in holiness,
then we will see the Lord? Is that what he's saying here?
Or would the grammar say it this way, which is the way that, I'll
read it to you out of the one I mentioned a minute ago, which
is the literal translation of the Bible. In J.P. Green, Sr., he says this, eagerly
pursue peace, and holiness with all. See the difference? Instead
of trying to live at peace with everyone and also pursue holiness,
the translation here is eagerly pursue peace and holiness with
all. And the Bible hub says it this
way, peace pursue with all and holiness without which no one
shall see the Lord. So here you see that that there's
a pursuit we're to eagerly pursue after, and it's peace and holiness,
and we're to do this with all. That's the way that it should
be understood. Who are the all? Do all men pursue
peace? Do all men pursue holiness? Well,
we know that's not the case. None of us would, by nature.
But we pursue peace and holiness with all, meaning all those who
are in the new covenant of grace, in the covenant of redemption
of Christ's blood, the ones who are called the called of Jesus
Christ, the ones who are called the saints, the sanctified ones.
And so with all of God's people, all those in the race, all those
looking to Jesus, we pursue peace and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. That's what he's saying here.
But that still leaves us the question, how do we pursue peace
and what does this mean, this peace that we're to pursue and
this holiness without which no man shall see the Lord? Well,
it helps me greatly to realize how we have peace and how we
have holiness from scripture. We can't understand this without
knowing this. How do we have peace with God? Isn't it by the
blood of Jesus alone? Isn't that what it says, for
example, in Ephesians chapter two and verse 14? Let me read
that to you. He says, for he is our peace,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. In verse 13
of Ephesians 2, now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our
peace. So we're reconciled to God by
the blood of Jesus, not by any other way. We're not reconciled
by our repentance, we're not reconciled by our faith, we're
not reconciled by anything but the blood of Jesus. And we're
brought to realize that through the spirit of God given to us
in believing him. And then likewise, in Colossians
chapter one, it says the same thing, the same truth. It says
in verse 20, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Okay, so how were we at peace with God? There's only one way,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then also, Notice how the
way, unless we pursue holiness, unless we have holiness, we won't
see the Lord. So how are we enabled to see
the Lord? How are we brought to God according
to the Gospel? Well, again, these very familiar
texts of Scripture teach us in John 14, 6, Jesus said this, He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh, notice, unto the
Father but by me. How are we brought to the Father?
You can't see the Lord without holiness. You're brought to the
Father by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ.
And so in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, as we looked at this
before, he says this. In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. So we see here that our peace
with God is the blood of Jesus, our access to the Father and
into the holiness, to the holiest is by the blood of Jesus. So
what is it that we need in order to see God? Well, we need this
holiness, and we need to pursue peace and holiness with all,
with all of the Church of God. And that peace is in the blood
of Jesus, that holiness is by the blood of Jesus. Look at chapter
10, verse 10. What is this will? What is the
will of God the Father? It was captured in the New Covenant,
which is called the New Testament, the will, that last will and
testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
testator. By his death, that will is made to us. He says in
Hebrews 10, verse 9, then said he, Christ, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, the
first covenant, that he may establish the second, by the which will,
the New Testament, the will of God the Father, we are sanctified,
and you know what that word is? The same word is used in Hebrews
10, 14, holiness, sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. What does the Bible say here
about how we are made holy before God? By the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. just as the high priest in Leviticus
16 on the day of atonement offered that goat the blood on the mercy
seat, and he removed the guilt of our sins, or the sins of the
people there, symbolically, but Christ, by his own blood, actually
purged us of our sins before God, the guilt was removed, therefore
we're made clean, we're made holy, we're purified, by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it says that in Hebrews
1, 3. He by himself purged our sins. It was by his blood. Here
it is, by the offering of the blood of Jesus. In chapter 13,
we read a moment ago, in verse 12 of chapter 13, he says, Jesus also that he might sanctify,
there's the word, holiness, the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate. So who is it that sanctifies
us? Do we sanctify ourselves? Well, in Exodus 31, 13, the Lord
says, I am the Lord that sanctifyeth thee. That's his name, Jehovah
Kadosh, the Lord that sanctifyeth thee. In Hebrews chapter two,
it says, he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. And Christ is the one who sanctified
us in Hebrews chapter two, the high priest, all by his blood. The one who does it is God. God the Father separated us,
that's sanctifying us, separated us when he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love. He chose us in Christ.
Christ sanctified us when he shed his blood. He removed our
sins, the guilt of our sins before God, and then God sanctified
us when He birthed us, when He created us in Christ Jesus, when
He created in us a new man in righteousness and in true holiness. The new man is Christ in us. We live by the faith of Him as
Christ that liveth in us. He's holy. So all of that is
our sanctification before God. So in Hebrews chapter 12, And
verse 14 when he says, eagerly pursue peace and holiness with
all, meaning with all the church of God. You Hebrews, you Jews
who grew up in the old covenant, now you need to securely grasp
and comprehend and embrace the fact that Christ himself has
fulfilled all for you so that in faith you realize the peace
he obtained and the price he paid to obtain your peace with
God, his own precious blood. You don't come in your pride.
bringing your works, and you don't stay back in your pride
as if you need to make up some difference in order to make your
conscience clear now. You look to Christ and see that
He has fulfilled all by His precious blood, and therefore you come
boldly, openly, confidently knowing that since God has done it all
in Christ and God looks only to Him for you, that you can
come also into the very holiest by the blood of Jesus. Pursue
this, make this the aim, the way that you draw that straight
row, the way your hands are lifted up and your knees are made strong
to run this race in patience looking unto Jesus. Because if
you continue, and this was the whole, the summary, this verse
is the summary of all that's gone before in Hebrews. It's
not just some random added thought to what's going on here. He's
concluding, he's bringing the whole matter to a summary conclusion
here. You need to look to Christ, because
without Christ for you, you cannot see God. Without Christ, without
faith in Him, without the Spirit of God pointing you to Him and
the Father bringing you to Him, then you have no hope. And so
what do you do now? What do we do? We say, Lord,
bring me to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do whatever is necessary. Make
me to go in the path of your commandments. And this is His
commandment, that you believe on His Son and that we love one
another. Amazing grace, isn't it? And
so now we are together going to do this. We're going to remember
the Lord Jesus Christ, whose body was broken for us and whose
blood was shed for us. And His blood shed for us is
the New Testament. It's the way that all the promises
of God are given to us. And it's the reason that none
of the promises of God are withheld from us. Everything is fully
given to us because all of it depends only on Christ's blood. Oh, if we could just lay hold
of this, grasp this, pursue peace with God through the blood of
Jesus, come into the throne room of God through the blood of Jesus,
and remember what he did to bring us there. He did it himself.
And he stands, as it says in the bulletin today from Revelation
chapter five, verse six, the lamb on his throne, appearing
there with fresh blood. God never, the blood of Christ
never grows old to God, it's always fresh. Before the foundation
of the world, at the cross, now in the church by faith, and at
the end of time, the whole worship will be the lamb slain.