beginning with verse 11, now
through verse 17. Hebrews 12, beginning with verse
11. Now, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward It yielded
the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby, or by the chastening. Wherefore lift up the hands which
hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your
people. lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but let it rather be evil. Follow peace with all,
and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, looking
diligently, lest any man fail or fall from the grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any
fornicator or propane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. And if 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." Let's ask the Lord to bless this. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we come
before you tonight to worship. We come to give thanks, honor,
praise where it is due. All praise, honor, glory, strength,
everything but only unto the salvation, but only unto the
Lord. We are what we are by the grace
of God. A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above, an ever good and perfect gift coming
down from you. We are recipients of your divine
grace, we're beggars. Everything we give is a handout. And the crumbs, even just the
crumbs, are more than we deserve. Yet you have prepared us a whole
table in the presence of our Lord. The gospel table full of fat
things, wine on the leaf. Solomon's table was Scandal provisions compared
to the riches, unsearchable riches that are found in the gospel
of Christ. And Lord, our capacity is such
that we cannot receive much. We are little children most of
the time when we come to your area of work. We confess that we give milk. unable to take much stronger.
It's our fault. We take the blame. We take full
blame. We also need a teacher and so
on. So we come to you and ask that you heal our ill here and
open our blind eyes. Break these sin hardened hearts. Our minds, they've transformed
these minds, these worldly minds. Let us not be transformed, but
rather transformed. And this all comes through the hearing
of your Word. What a powerful thing your Word
is if you use it on us, in us, So get glory in yourself, in
glory in your word. He says you magnify your word
above all of your name, above all of your character, all that
you are. You magnify your word. Man is as good as his word, only
as good as his word. Oh Lord, your word is so good. Such a revelation yourself. Such
a marvelous Insight is the mind, will, purpose, and our God. Lord, make it known unto us. And may we be doers of work,
not hearers of work. We need to be hearers of work.
And you must give us ears to hear, hearts to receive. We need
to be hearers of work, but along with hearing, we need to be doers
of work. Not pure as I am, but deceiving,
I said. Lord, what good is your Word
to us if we hear it and say we believe it and yet don't act
upon it? We're not really learning it. We've not really been taught
by the Spirit. So, order our sins in that Word. have no iniquity, have dominion
over us. We're not, you said it wouldn't,
you said sin would not have dominion over us, but we're not under
the law, we're under grace. So be gracious to us in honor
of your word, and use it in all of us. We pray that you can form
us to the image of your sons, which you have ordained for all
your people. Let us not be as Esau. Let us not be as Ham. Let us not be as Judas. We have not one foot there by
nature, but by your grace, we pray that you might keep us by
calling and standing against grace, mercy. Those who, those who consider vandals will
take their mercy. So Lord, let us consider Him.
Let us look to Him. Let us follow after Him. We pray, With all those that
call upon the name of the Lord, we need one another. We ask that
you would mind our hearts, not only to you, but to one another. We need one another to exhort
one another daily. And so much more as we see that
great, fearful, and terrible day of the Lord approaching. We pray for these that have been
mentioned. We pray for those of you who are quiet, for all
of you. Hold him up before you and ask your heavenly mercy upon
him. For your glory, for the fervor
of the gospel, for the good of the church, Jack, for the good
of men and women all over the world, that's through his preaching
or raise him up in many more years just as a pioneer. You pray for the radio program
or you ask if you would use it in our community. You call somebody
to hear your voice, give wisdom, to know what to say, and expression,
and how to say it, and then give hearing ears to hear it. A willing
mind and a setting heart brings them to hear this gospel. Save
their souls for your glory. We'll give you the glory. And
praise the church. And we ask your forgiveness of
our sin. We ask all these things, we pray,
we meet together tonight on that matchless night of Jesus Christ,
with his honor and glory. And yes, he honored us with his presence. Amen. Okay. As we've said so many times,
scriptures are full of warnings and then promises. full of promises and warning,
comfort and correction. Listen to him. The nurse referred
to him by name. I can't believe it. It's Evan,
Andy, John, Seth. You with me? It might have been
funny enough that he was aware of it. Scripture is full of promises,
comfort, correction, encouragement, admonition. And Hebrews, the book of Hebrews,
perhaps has more of these things than any other book. If you've
been following closely with me, you've seen that. It's full of
blessings, promises. It starts out from the very beginning,
telling us, pointing us to Christ, who He is. In chapter one, who
Christ is, and how much better He is than the angels, and Aaron,
and the priesthood, and the law, and so on and so forth, or the
blessed promise, or any certain one. In chapter three and four, how He
is realized, and we learn the same doctrine we did, but what
He makes you faith, and how you get to know Him. You see, they have constant promise,
basic promise, Christ-given promise, all promises of God within them. And they're dedicated to the
Lord God. And they serve Him. They never
serve Him. They're immune to following Him. And the more and the more
they promise Him, the more and the more they promise Him, the
more they promise Him. And here in chapter 12, in these
verses we've just read, there are many warnings and promises,
comforts and corrections that are desperately needed. Now he's
been talking about chastening. He started in verse 11, he said,
No chastening, for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Now chastening, Chastenings are corrections from God. Corrections. And he said it can be without
them. You're not a child of God. Every child needs correction.
No child has been born that doesn't need it. Straighten out. I mean, long years of it. Right? Years. And so God corrects his people.
There are various ways we're going to look at in a moment.
But here, and I brought this to your mind, and it was brought
to my mind by Brother Elvis. God in his wisdom and his mercy
and his goodness, he does more correcting with his word than
anything else. God doesn't want correction or
chastening, but he's worried that anything, you know, just
like a wise parent does. A wise parent talks more to his
child than he does grips him. A whole lot more verbal correction
than corporal. Right? Constantly talking to
your child. If you're a good parent, follow
him. Constantly instructing. And though the child thinks you're
pounding him and bashing him, it just won't stay off the case. You do nothing, and you're sort
of constantly correcting yourself. All right? Let me embarrass my
daughter a little bit. I'm all the time getting on with
her about her posture. You know, and your parents did
the same, and they showed that. And I didn't sit up straight,
I'll tell you. But the ramifications of poor
posture are profound. And she thinks, and she thinks,
and she thinks, and she thinks, and she keeps pounding her back, and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and
more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and
more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and
more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more
and more and more and more and more and He doesn't lose work. Isn't that
mercy? Isn't that great? When we think of God's chastening,
don't think of him hurting us, taking something away from us,
or losing something. There's more to his work. All
right? This is true chastening. Even
chastening is not joy, it's just greed. It's a real, true correction
or chastening, a lesson learned Most of the time it's painful
because of the grief, whether it be physical, you know, I've
seen when a so-called spank their children, you know, if you don't
stop that, I don't know what will happen to you. If you don't
stop that, you know, if they say that a hundred times, I'm
going, I'm going, I'm going, one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, and then finally, quack, quack, quack, and the
kid goes, That's not correct. That's not
chasing. It's got to hurt. But they got
to remember that I don't want another one of those. I remember
that. You ever get a lick in your jaw?
Your dad ever give you a lick and you remember and you say,
I ain't going to do that again. It's got to be painful. and emotionally and physically
in order to be learned, all right? So that's what he's saying there.
It's not joyous or extreguous, but afterwards, verse 8. All
right? I mean, verse 8. After chastening,
it yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The peaceable
fruit of righteousness, or peace-giving, peace-filling righteousness. Peaceable fruits. Right now,
listen, you know these things. You know righteousness and salvation
is imputed by Christ. This is all our salvation, imputed
by Christ. And all those whom Christ introduced
his righteousness to, the Holy Spirit imparts righteousness. We are made partakers, Peter
said, of the divine nature. Now, how is that? Well, it's
a process. The Holy Spirit is conforming
us. We do not put everything on the right hand. Imparting. Righteous living. Righteousness imparted. Here
it's also about the peaceable fruit of righteousness. What's the peaceable fruit of
the Bible? Galatians 5 tells us what the
fruit of the Spirit is. It's love, joy, peace, non-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, gentleness. Fruit. Not fruits, but fruits, character. So there are many characteristics.
It is the character of Christ you see that will be performed.
All right? That's what this is talking about.
Chastity, that's what it's for. Makes life practical. All right? Peace comes by Christ's blood.
Peace with God. Peace of conscience. And yet there's peace in the
will of God. There's peace in love. And I'm
not talking about self-satisfaction. I'm not talking about being satisfied
with yourself. Let me say this. There's no peace
in sin. No. No rest. No peace in sin. But I remember, you know, at
times when I was, you know, I had done something and I was, you
know, guilty and finally, you know, and I wasn't found out
yet, you know, just as you just finally got found out and got
open for it, and I feel bad. And standing where I'm standing
now, that makes sense to me. All right. Chastity is the
subject. And Chastening is to conform
us to Christ's image. To remove sin from us. That's what Christ removed sin
from. Christ removed sin from us. From our record. He blocked it out. Sins have
to be removed from us too. All right? Chasing from God comes
in many different ways. You've chasen your children according
to their personality, right? Many times you've chasen the
same way, but according to their personality. One's stronger than
the other. One's a male, one's female. There's
just different ways to chasen your children according to the
wisdom and discretion you have, right? So is it God. What's chastening
this man, he might not use on me. What he used on me, he might
not use on me. He knows they're fronting him,
and he feels really distorted. But chastening, God's event,
fall on him. One, like I said, it's His Word.
God's Word. All. He uses His Word, and all
is here. You get from the dance, the stand,
and so forth. Tribes. They all go through tribals. Now listen, tribals aren't always
disciplinary actions. You understand what I'm saying?
People don't always go through tribals. It's because God's chasing
them, or disciplining them for doing something wrong. That's
not tribals. It's strictly a thing. God sends tribals. Remember Job. God commended Job and said, I
heard trials. Christ had no sin. But some trials are just interactions
on God's part. Correct me. Trials, so God used
His Word, God used trials. You parents, have you ever used
this boy in your children? Chase him. Don't say anything, Joe. Ignore them. Huh? You children, you, all of
us here, we're children, are children. Did it ever bother
you when your parents knew that they were ignoring you, that
they were into the side of treatment? Hmm. and say he's just confessing
or something. Live in your life, try to do
that. Live in your life, live in yourself. Peter, God hasn't convinced Peter
to try it, has he? Oh, Peter boasts at him. He's
full of pride, full of self-righteousness. How did Christ convince him of
that? How did He deal with him? How did He discipline Peter on
the lesson of himself? You've never done that to a child,
right? You've done it. They've fallen into trouble. Many disciplinary, different
chastenings by death privations, hardships, through many things,
many numerous ways, and we don't know them to God. We don't know
His ways, His ways of past times and after, but we know some of
them. And then after the chasing, whatever
it may be, we may feel lonely, we may feel down, just like your
children. They're going to get mad. After God's been chasing, they
cannot have Him hanged. Look in verse 12. He says, Lift
up a hand for your hanging back. A hand, look at it. You ever see your boys do that
joke? That's the first primary. I'm going to talk about three
things here. I'm going to talk about hanging
hands, people knees, the length of feet. He says, hanging hands,
that's his objection. You know, it always gets so rejected
and it's damned and it's dirty and sinful and God's implications
in various ways. And we always hang our heads,
hang our hands, and he said, lift up your hands. Lift up both
of your hands without racking them, that way. That's God. Lift them up. He'll receive you. And if one mother in here ever
turned when her child was reaching out, huh? No matter how bad it
is. Huh? Lift up those hands and
hands. He'll receive you every time.
I don't care what you've done. But here's the thing, though,
listen now. We have hanging hands at times, and here's, that's
comfort in that. That's encouragement in that.
But here's the review here. Our hands hang down, and we don't
lift them up, and nothing breaks. That's what, you know I'm talking
about. I'm not working with men, I am
literally, but it's figurative. Hands aren't lifted up, and nothing
breaks. If there were a religion that doesn't go over in a prayer,
we'd exercise and handle it more in a prayer. We'd be a little
less happy than we are now. If our mouths were more turned
up in prayer and song and smiling and all that, we'd be a little
less of that. People that are continually in a habit of smiling,
they smile a lot. They're blessed. They're blessed
with this, you know. People are all the time doing
this, they're going to have peace of mind. Isn't that right? The temple's having that. There's
more praise than that. Here's another thing, not to
mention that's another concern. You don't use your hands, you
don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your
hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you
don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use
your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands,
you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't
use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you
don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands,
you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you
don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you
don't use your hands, you don't use your hands, you don't use
your hands, He might have been born in 89. I'm not talking about
Charlie Pattinson. Or your first officer, or whatever. But I'm talking about right here
is a woman with bad knees. I hope you're talking about her.
That's bad. But, uh, I'm talking about knees
that just won't buckle under whatever, buckle up. Won't quit. Ready to quit. Ready
to faint. You ever fainted? What happens first is you get
a flash in the back of your head. And that's what he's talking
about here. Ready to faint. He said, unless you faint in
your own minds, he said, there's another place. He believed it. Lift them up. That's how it was
in God's mind. It's all over now. It's almost
over. He'll hold you up. A little while
longer, just longer than that. Well here's the, here's the,
now that's the comfort, here's the, here's the ammunition. Our knees get weak. And you know what I'm going to
say. If you don't bend your knees much, they'll be weak. Am I right? Bend them in prayer. Remember
when Christ washed the disciples' feet? What did He have to do with it? He had to do with
washing my feet. That's what it's saying in there. There's two areas you're greatly
conditioned, I mean, I'm sure, if you're like me, they're weak
in this, in the knees, and prayer, and you can't serve. You have
to exercise to get the seat in both areas. All right, here's
another thing. He says in verse 13, and let's
strike paths for your feet. Lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way, and let it credit the evil. Lame thief. Lame thief. You know what the word of God
is going to be on this one, don't you? I'll just say one word,
and you're going to feel it in your chest. Anybody lame? On
both legs? King says, that's it. I'm going
to bring him into this house of mine. But now here's the admonition. Crooked feet. Turn them off.
Our feet. Sad to say, too often walking
in lack of work. Perseus. Walking Perseus. He said, you're asking me to
do something. Perseus. I like the word. Feet. He says, make straight paths
with your feet. Straight paths. Straight is the
gate and narrow is the way. So he said, make straight paths
with your feet. What's that mean? Have your feet
always in the way. Well, what? Well, you earned
it in this direction tonight. You got it in the right direction
tonight. Everybody here is feet pointed toward God. You pointed
your feet in the direction of where Christ is. That's good.
That's a great thing to do. You come here and get your feet
shot. There's no saying, my poor spirit,
No teeth, no voice. No teeth, no voice. Bad teeth, don't work the same
way. See, if there's no teeth, there's
nothing to eat. He certainly believed it was
a good, I mean, it was a human vision. A little walk of faith. No walk. And you know, using the horses
again as an example, if those horses go very wrong without
being shot, those pigs ran off. That's just bad. They'll go home
like that. They'll go home like that. They have to be trimmed and shot
in the same way with those people. If our pigs turn out of the way,
Are you hearing me? I know you are. Very good. Easy to understand. Set your
feet all the way to the point in the direction of where Christ
is and where Christ's people are. And He'll show up and train
us. Christ will wash you too. You
come here, He'll wash you too. We've been washed enough. Oh,
let me have a whiff. We're not kidding. We've got a wonderful co-director,
home dietitian. Ah, boy, they'll be turned out
of the way so easy, like all my children of Israel. You've got bad feet, bad hands,
bad knees, come to the Great Procession. Come to cry, fix
my feet. Fix my hands, fix my knees. All
right, let's go to the next verse. Verse 14. Follow peace with all. Follow peace with all. I want you to turn quickly to
2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Follow peace, all right? Since
Christ is our peace. So follow Him. Follow Him. Follow peace. And follow those that follow
you. Where are you going? Now, same thing we were talking
about. Where are you going? I'm going to worship. What are you standing in line
for? The young will get the blessing. Stand there too. Follow it. Follow peace. Follow Christ.
Follow them. Who follow Christ? Look at verse
22. We also youthful lusts follow
righteousness, faith, love, peace, See it? Follow peace within the
call of the Lord, out of a pure heart. People that aren't playing
games are people that have come to worship God in spirit, rejoicing,
pride, with no compass in their faith. Wherever those are, go
where they are. Follow them. Sit down with them. Follow peace. And this is also,
you know, talking about being a peacemaker. Remember our Lord
said, Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children
of God. Peacemaker. Somebody who's always easily
offended, somebody who's always getting, always on the defensive,
somebody who's always stirring up something. No, sir. God said that's a peacemaker. It's those pieces. through the righteousness of
the Son of Peace for them to make peace. Peace, peace, peace. David said, I am at peace. Said,
there's the boy. Remember when David said that?
It was by our Lord, when he was revived. Revived by our King. Peace. He is at peace for a son
of God. But he said it to us at the same
time. Especially. And you remember the scripture
that says, as much as possible live in peace as we live with
all men. But in context here in Hebrews, you're talking about
your brothers, your brothers. We can't live with these people.
He that loveth not loveth not. How can a man say he loves God
when he doesn't love his brother? He gets all put out to somebody's
brother, really. How? How? Well, listen to this. In Romans
14, it says here, Let us therefore follow after the things which
make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." James
said, in many things we all offend everybody in here, but starting
out here, we're just offended by that. And we are, it wouldn't be easy
to be offended, because we're offensive creatures. Let's be
a peacemaker. Follow peace. follow Him, live peacefully. Everything, things which make
peace, love, things which don't evil, marriage, all things, hope
of all things, rejoicing, honor, faith, that is the truth. All right? Live peacefully. And
look at this. He says, Peace, Christ is our
peace, and in Hebrews 12, and follow holiness, follow peace
with all and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Follow peace with all and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. Now Christ is made
unto us with wisdom, light, and holiness. Right, He is our Holiness. Right, He is our Righteousness.
If you're found in Him, you're going to see the Lord. If you're
going to be with the Lord. Life is hidden in Him. In God,
you're going to see the Lord. Your Cousin. Holiness. Follow Holiness. He is our Righteousness. Alright? And we're not going to see the
Lord either in the context here. He hasn't gotten out of context.
We're not going to see the Lord unless we're like Christ. That's right. Say, I don't understand. Yes, we do. Look with me at 1
Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I've
made a mistake before taking that verse out of context. Certainly,
the principle application may be
that he is a spirit of one, and that Christ is our holiness.
But in the context, he's been talking about chasing us, making
us like Christ, hasn't he? Huh? He's been talking about
making us like Christ, chasing us. And if we say we don't understand,
it says, follow holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Follow after, pursue, that's what follow means, pursue holiness.
In another passage, it says, protecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord. So I don't understand. Yes, we
do. Right here it is, 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse 9. Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? These
fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor offenders,
nor abusers of the self of mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. They just won't do it. That means
continual. And we've looked at this before,
how all believers are prone to many things and can fall and
do just about anything. But they don't practice this.
That's the stance here. And she's looking, verse 11,
"...such were some of these which you watched, having sanctified
and justified them in the name of the Lord Jesus." And he goes
on and on in that chapter to talk about all the things involved
with it, all of R.H.P., all of the performing of Christ. And
that's what Paul said, "...let us lay aside every weight of
sin, but heal each other's sins." Follow Christ, follow holiness.
Is that worse? Certainly not. That's just wrong. Be like Christ. Man doesn't want
to be like Christ. He's not going to see Christ. And when God has begun to work
in a man, it's going to show up. Well, if I get a little girl
and say, Christ is in the belly, let's stick out a moment. They
sure will. More and more. The person who
grows old and grows cantankerous and mean and so forth, doesn't
have Christ in them. The person who grows old
grows gracious and more merciful. That's the whole point. Whole point. He found it in Him, and He made
life. Right? That's what I mean. And
then when Paul said that Philippians 3, Oh, how many Christ's we have
found in the earth, but we do not have no right to them, which
is unlawful, that righteousness which is God not faithful. I'll cry to Jesus. Oh, how we
conform unto Him. Oh, the power of His resurrection,
right? In every world. Well, now here's
your strength, all right? Here's your encouragement. How
do we do all this with just weak and, you know, love? It goes
right back where it starts, man. Look at the other side. Look at the other side, because
without Him, you can't do anything. You can try your best, be like
Christ, but without Christ, you can't be like Christ. All right? So look the other side. Never
take your eyes off Him, never quit calling on Him. If we in
our own strength confide, our childhood will be lost. We're
not the right man on our side, the man who got us on the Jews. Does it have to be that way? Christ Jesus, it is He, and He
must win the battle. He must fight for it. He must
go before it. Look diligently. Alright, look
at this. Now, does this trouble you, this
verse 15? Look diligently, lest any man
fail with the grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness spring
up trouble, many be defiled. Lest any fall from the grace
of God. All right, here's the comfort.
We'll give you some words of comfort, then we'll give you
words of warning, all right? Here's the comfort. You can't
fall from the grace of God. Christ said, I give unto them. Who's the grace of God? I ask
that question first. Who is the grace of God, the
gift of God? I said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. It is impossible. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ? Shall this shall that? Nobody. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He doesn't take them back. Faithful
as He is, He called you, He'll do it. You can't... You mean, once in grace, always
in grace? Yes. It's exactly like that. You've heard exactly what
Christ said. Once in Christ, always in Christ. Now, that's
the comfort. Here's the more. And I'm not
talking out of two sides of a map. It's not yet in that preaching
here. I'll explain. Here's the warning, Paul's New
Giving warning. You forsake the assembly of yourself
together. If you sin willfully, that means
reject or do whatever, don't lay aside and wait and sin, it's
so easy to be sick and consumed with whatever and forsake the
assembly. If you're a hearer only, you
will prove, what we will prove is that we're, like John said,
they went out from us because they were not us. Because if they were of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. No doubt. Fine. But
what God does is framework. Right? God's done, begun to work. He's going to perform it. If
a man leaves, he never was of God. And all these things are just
tell-tale signs, possible signs. But they're not under grace.
They're under confrontation. Now here's what the world says.
The world says a man can accept or reject the grace of God. No.
That's what the world says. A man can accept or reject the
grace of God. Well, half of that's true. Now, salvation is 100% by the
grace of God. Nobody's going to receive the
grace of God unless he's forgiven Him all that. Nobody's going
to choose, if you will, until He chooses us. Nobody's going
to love God unless He first loves us. Nobody's going to believe
unless God gives them forgiveness. Nobody's going to repent. Salvation
is 100% by the sovereign grace of God. We don't accept Him. You know that. We're accepted.
We're accepted in the Lord. All right? And He keeps us by
His power. We're not kept by our power.
He makes us will. And I tell you what, a man can
object to the grace of God. That much is true. A man can
object to the grace of God. And that happens many ways. How
many visitors have we had come in here? How many over the years? Think about the years before
I got here, some of you. In the ten years I've been here,
how many visitors have come in here? And some say, why? And
Lee, what did they do? They fell from grace. They rejected the grace of God. They proved, and to be in context
here, he is Esau. He is Esau as an illustration,
as a character witness, if you will. And he wasn't of us, or
he no doubt would have. If he saw there to be an odd
God, he no doubt would. If Cain had been an odd God,
he probably would. Right? Some stand against
grace, presume upon it. And that, people, it's not over.
The win-win's not over. Like I said, full of promises,
blessed promises. There's enough promises tonight
to make us all just lift us up. Hang, hang the people along the
lines. Better people than the start
right here, better preachers than myself. See, we need you
more. I'm not there yet, but I'm going
to follow after. I'm going to follow after that
for which I'm after, that I'm after. It's not as though I've
already attained, but this is what I'm after. I forget yesterday,
today's the next I wish. Well, let me close with these
verses right here. It says, verse 15, a root of
bitterness. Now, here's a real telltale sign. Oh, wow. I wish we had a whole
message to work on this. Because this is so subtle, and
yet so damning. A root of bitterness. Bitterness
toward God. This happens. Some God sends
some trial. God sends something in somebody's
life. God sends a trial. And no trial
is joy. It's a grief. It's a hard trial.
And people get bitter in the madness of God. I don't understand
why He did that. I can't figure out why He did
that. It's a sad way to do it. It's bitter. I say that. But bless God, I've seen people
endure, well, we've just read Hebrews 11. Anyway. They'll never
be called upon to endure more than they did. I thank God in
the name of the Lord. Beware of this, for who would
bitterness bring up in you against God? He's too wise to err. He's too good to do wrong. He
knows what God has in mind to do better for you. Rude bitterness
against God, rude bitterness toward others, toward each other. I tell you, just a little, little
rude, just a little feeling of bitterness toward a brother or
sister keeps you from the gospel. One, and I've said this
before, One cheap way to keep people from hearing gospel is
to get mad at the preacher. When you get mad at the preacher,
he definitely won't come. And some do, some get mad at
the lady, you know. And like I said, you know, all
of us, ladies especially, are fancy. But you can't really,
how can you leave somebody, you know, We profess to love God,
Christ, Christ our God, how can you do it if you can't? Profess
to love Christ the Gospel, profess to love man above Christ, how
can you do it if you can't? It's the Bible, you can't. They
laugh at us, but then I laugh at them. Beware this root of
bitterness. And you know what he did? Well,
the peacemaker. And then it goes on and on and
on and on and on and on and on and
on. And so is spiritual communication. Wordly, that is. Adultery, that's
what God calls being consumed with wordly, spiritual adultery.
It's just all of a sudden the wordly is consuming me. Everything
about it is consuming me. It's a hole that sucks you in.
Beware of it, you see. Beware of it. In the end, he
stopped repentance. He wanted to change. He wanted
to change. And he cried. Please, please,
please. He could not change. Why? Because you can't change. When I became a Christian, I became a Christian. Who can? Look indifferently. And He's found right here. Christ
is found right here. Put your feet straight back,
look indifferently. That's the root of bitterness
right there. Then you see repentance and can't
change. The only one that can change.
And it's changing and He's changing us. See, but that's what this
gospel's doing, it's changing us. Conforming us, changing us,
transforming us. All right, I hope that was some
words of help. Many words of warmth. Warmth.
Warmth. We all need it. We need all that.
And then, oh, let's look at each other and say, whatever present
help we have is right here, one of our station. All right, stay
with me. Our Lord, we ask you to heal our hands, our knees, and
our feet. O great physician, O balm of
Gilead, we pray that you would take this balm, the healing balm
you're working, a salve, applied on our eyes, ears, hearts, hands,
knees, and feet, all over. Peter said, watch us all over,
especially our feet. We've got shoddest, we've got
preparation of the gospel, peace. May we be made like Christ. We want to see you, we pray. Forgive us, forgive us, we pray,
in that blood which was shed for the remission of our sins.
Watch us with the water of your Word, we pray.