Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 12? Hebrews chapter 12. Now I began this message last week
concerning the issue of peace and holiness. Peace and holiness. And it's in verse 14 where the
word of God commands true believers It says, follow peace with all
men. And then it says, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. And last week, I told
you I had two points in this whole message, number one, peace,
number two, holiness. And I dealt mainly with the issue
of peace, which is As I said, this word peace, it means tranquility,
it means harmony, it means peace of mind, it means peace among
men and women, peace among nations even. In other words, we as believers,
as true children of God, we are to follow after, we're to pursue
a peaceful existence. And true believers are to be
peaceful people, to strive to be at peace and to live at peace
with all people. We're not to be brawlers. We're
not to be fighters. We're not to be ready to throw
the fist. Our warfare is not a physical
warfare. We don't draw physical swords
and guns. And in the cause of Christianity,
we're to defend ourselves. I don't believe it's talking
about pacifism here. I believe we have every right
to defend ourselves. But our warfare in the ministry
of the gospel, in evangelism, in edification, is not a physical
thing that we take up arms like the Muslims, many of the Muslims
do in other religions. There's been much bloodshed over
Christianity, one man said, and I say, oh no, there's been much
bloodshed over false Christianity. You need to understand that,
keep history in perspective there. But Paul said, our warfare is
not carnal and our weapons are not carnal. But our warfare is
a spiritual warfare. We wrestle against principalities. And remember when he talked about
the whole armor of God, it's all spiritual armor. And our
sword is the word of the Lord, the sword of the Lord. And our
battlefield is the minds and the hearts of men and women,
and we seek to pull down strongholds. Of course, we know that's the
Holy Spirit's work, isn't it? If you have a stronghold in your
mind, in your heart this morning, against the glory of God and
the salvation of sinners, I can preach the word to you, I can
draw the sword, but it takes the Holy Spirit to topple that
stronghold, doesn't it? And that's what he does when
he brings us to faith in Christ. We read last week in Matthew
5-9 where it says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called the children of God. And of course, we know that our
first and foremost task in being peacemakers is to preach the
gospel of peace, preach the prince of peace, peace between God and
sinners based upon that right ground, which is the blood of
Christ, who made peace between God and his people through the
blood of his cross. the kingdom of God, His joy and
righteousness and peace in the Holy Ghost. In other words, unless
I have Christ, unless I'm His and He is in me, unless I'm washed
in His blood and clothed in His righteousness, literally I'm
at war with God. The Bible says that before God
brings us to be reconciled to Him by the power of the Spirit
and the preaching of the gospel and brings us to faith in Christ
and repentance of our dead works, What are we? In Colossians 1,
it says we're enemies of God. We're in a warfare against God.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God. Neither indeed can be. Well,
I know many carnal minds who are trying to keep the law for
salvation, but they're not subject to the law of God. Do you know
when a sinner becomes subject to the law of God? When he sees
the glory of God in Christ. and sees that Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, Romans
10.4. That's when you're subject to the law of God. When you see
that all the law can do for you based upon your best efforts
to obey it is to condemn you. Am I right? I have one righteousness
before God. But then also, God's people are
to seek to live peaceably in their communities, in their societies,
all of that. But he says in verse 14, follow
peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. What he's telling us there is basically this, is that we are to strive to be
at peace with everyone, but not at the expense of holiness. That's
what he's saying. And so therefore it is imperative
if we're going to claim to be the true people of God, and it
says, and it's clear here, whatever holiness he's talking about,
whatever peace he's talking about, it says, without which no man
shall see the Lord. That's serious business, isn't
it? He's talking about salvation. He's talking about a right relationship
with God. So it's imperative that we understand
what this holiness is. And that's what I wanna major
on this morning. This holiness. Now the word holiness
here, as I've told you, is the same word that is translated
many times in the New Testament as sanctification. Sanctify. What does it mean to be holy?
What does it mean to be sanctified? Well, first of all, understand
that this holiness has nothing to do with what the natural man
sees as holy, and it is not a self-righteous view of ourselves, which says,
in essence, as is recorded, stay away from me, I'm holier than
you. Don't touch me, I'm better than you. That's self-righteousness. That's pride. That's unbelief. It's just like the church. What
is the church in the New Testament? It's a hospital for what? Sinners. Sinners. You don't go to the
hospital unless you're sick or you're visiting somebody that's
sick. And so somebody says, well, We're the most separated church
in America. There's a church out in Colorado. What are they talking about?
You know what they're talking about? If you go look at their website
sometimes, they're talking about taste not, touch not, handle
not. In the book of Colossians, you
know what the Apostle Paul was inspired by the Spirit to call
that? Worldliness. If you think your holiness or
your sanctification or your righteousness, now technically speaking, righteousness
is a different aspect than holiness. Righteousness is the legal aspect,
satisfaction to the law. Holiness, what is it? Sanctification.
It is our separation. What separates God's true children
from the world? And in order to find that out,
what we have to understand from scripture is this. What is it
that is uniquely Christian? That is something that separates
the people of God from the world, even the religious world. That's
the issue. So it's not this self-righteous
attitude that says I'm holier than thou. As I mentioned last
week, in the Bible we see three applications of this holiness,
this sanctification. The Bible speaks of a believer,
a child of God, being sanctified by the Father in sovereign electing
love before the foundation of the world. God separated his
people out when he sovereignly, unconditionally chose them before
the foundation of the world and gave them to his son. The Bible
teaches that. I know most people don't want
to hear it. Most people who call themselves Christians don't want
to hear that, do they? Don't agree with it. And yet,
the Bible teaches it. It's the word of God. I had a
fellow tell me one time, he said, oh, I love the Bible from Genesis
to Revelation. And I said, well, do you love
this part? Guess what we were talking about. God's electing
grace. He said, oh, I don't believe
that. Well, you don't love that part. That's what God's word
says. It speaks of secondly, sanctification
by God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he as our surety,
Christ is my surety. I was given to him. Christ said
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I was given
to Christ before the foundation of the world. He was made my
surety. What does that mean? That means
he became responsible, accountable for my debt, my sin debt. My sins were imputed, charged
to him. And then he came to this world
as my substitute, went to the cross, and died in my place.
I was set apart at the cross when Christ shed his own precious
blood as the complete, full, final payment for all my sins
and worked out a righteousness which God has imputed to me as
sanctification by the Son. That's a positional sanctification,
a positional holiness. And then thirdly, the Bible speaks
of sanctification by the Holy Spirit in the new birth when
we're born again. The Holy Spirit, sent forth from the Father and
the Son, brings us under the preaching of the gospel, the
truth. He's the spirit of truth, not a lie, but the truth. And
what does he do? He empowers that truth in the
new birth to our salvation. He gives us life from the dead. Literally raising us from the
dead, spiritually speaking. Gives us a new heart. A new spirit. Eyes to see. The eyes that we
didn't have before. Spiritual eyes. Ears to hear. And what is it we see in here?
We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see
who God is in his holiness, in his sovereignty, in his justice,
and in his mercy, his grace, and his love. We see who we are
as sinful people who deserve nothing but death and hell. That's what we are. That's why
we don't pray and seek from God what we deserve and what we've
earned. The psalmist said it like this
in Psalm 130 in verse three. He said, if thou, Lord, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? I have nothing to plead, but
Christ died for me. It's his blood. that washes away
my sins. It's not His blood plus my tears.
Oh, our tears of remorse and repentance, they're the product
of God's grace, but our tears don't wash our sins away. The
blood of Jesus Christ alone. His righteousness is my only
recommendation to God. His right, not mine, not mine
plus His, just His righteousness. And when the Holy Spirit brings
us to a saving knowledge of Christ, look over there at 1 Peter 1. Listen to this. What he does
is he literally, under the preaching of the gospel, and by the power
of the Spirit, he literally separates us out from the world. He calls
the lost sheep into the fold, out of the world and into the
fold. And listen to this in 1 Peter
1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. Now look at verse 2. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. That's the foreordination of
God, literally, the Father. Through sanctification of the
Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's the blood sprinkled on the conscience, the heart. grace
unto you and peace be multiplied. And then turn back to 2 Thessalonians
chapter two. I read this last week. 2 Thessalonians chapter two. When
he's talking about those who perish at the second coming of
Christ because they receive not the love of the truth. And now
understand now, if it weren't for God's sovereign grace, sovereign
power, redeeming power, regenerating power, we too would be amongst
that number who receive not the love of the truth. You understand
that, don't you? Who makes the difference here?
It's not you. It's God alone through Christ. He made the difference. And he says here in 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, but we're bound. to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What he's talking about is that which separates God's people. And that's this holiness, follow
peace and holiness. It's the realm of this third
application that's commanded in our text. They describe that
which separates and distinguishes God's true people from the world.
That which is truly distinct, separate from the wicked world.
I mentioned this last week, how we hear people talk about saints
and sinners. You ever heard that? He said,
I'm not a saint. I heard a lady tell me one time,
she said, I'm a Christian, but I'm no saint. Well, my friend,
if you're no saint, you're no Christian. Because every true
Christian is a saint. What is it to be a saint? It's
to be sanctified, set apart by God in all three ways. What is a saint? A sinner saved
by the grace of God. Holy in the Lord. We could say,
positionally, Christ is our holiness. He certainly was separate from
the world, wasn't he? The Bible says he was separate
from sinners. The Bible also says that he is
my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption
in 1 Corinthians 1.30. And then, separated how? Sanctified
how? As a sinner saved by God's grace,
And he's not speaking of one here who is morally perfect,
because if he is, we might as well close the book and go home,
folks. There's none of us who are morally
perfect according to God's perfection, God's standard of perfection.
You say, well, I want to be like Christ. Well, I do too. I haven't
made it yet in my character and conduct. How about you? I struggle. I'm in a warfare. It's called
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit, and I have to pray
with the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Well, what separates me then
from other sinners? I thank my God through Jesus
Christ my Lord. That's what separates God's people. You see, when he talks about
following peace and holiness, he's talking about more than
what people call human ethics, or even human morality. Now, does that mean that we're
not to be, as believers, moral people? Well, of course not.
We are to be moral people. But let me show you something.
Go back to our text there. When he says, follow peace and
holiness, without which no man shall see the, I'll tell you
how I was always taught something like that. I don't know if it
was from this particular scripture. but how I was always taught growing
up in false religion, false Christianity in essence. It would be like
you young people. And it was really applied to
young people because of the peer pressure. Let's say that if you're
in high school or wherever you are or in college and you're
invited to a party and the party turns into some kind of a drunken
orgy or something like that, well then you're not to participate. You're to separate yourself from
that. Well, let me tell you something,
young people. You are to separate yourself from that. You are not
to participate in that. You're not to let the world bring
you down morally. But what I want you to see today
is that that's not exclusively Christian. A Muslim would tell their children
the same thing. A Jew resting in the law would
tell their children the same thing, wouldn't they? If you
went to a party and they were all taking drugs or smoking marijuana,
should you separate yourself from that? You bet you should.
You bet your bottom dollar you should. But that's not holiness. They may ridicule you for that.
for not participating. And that's okay. Let them say
what they want to say. But that's not holy. That's not
uniquely Christian. That's what I'm wanting you to
see this morning. To be a moral person, a fine upstanding citizen,
that's what we should be. But that's not our holiness.
That's not uniquely Christian. Well, what is? I'll tell you
exactly what it is. It's our gospel, folks. It's
our message. It's called the light. The light
of God's glory. The light of truth and how God
saves sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ by his grace solely,
not in cooperation with us, but only by himself where he brings
us to be made willing in the day of his power. That's what
separates Christians. Now let me prove this to you.
I want you to turn to just several passages. Turn to Matthew chapter
10. Now, you remember he said, follow peace with all men and
holiness. Again, he's talking about seeking
peace with all people without compromising the truth. That's
what he means. Without compromising our principles
revealed in the gospel. Now he says, follow peace. Well,
listen to this in Matthew 10 and look at verse 32. Now listen,
this is our Lord speaking. He says, whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before
my father, which is in heaven. What is it to confess Christ
before men? It's to confess him as our savior,
as our Lord, as our righteousness. We have none. The world thinks
they have one. We have none. except him. And
he says in verse 33, but whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my father, which is in heaven. Now look
at verse 34. Now keep in mind, he's the prince of peace. We
preach the gospel of peace. He tells us to be peacemakers.
Look at verse 34. Thank not that I'm come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. For I'm come to set a man at
variance against his father, the daughter against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's foes shall
be they of his own household, but he that loveth father or
mother more than... You want to keep peace in your
own household, don't you? Well, Christ said, I didn't come
to make peace in your household. I want to tell you something. I've got relatives, family, physical
family, who believe the gospel. And I thank God for them, and
we have such sweet fellowship. But I've got family members who
don't believe the gospel. And you know what they do? They
just want me to hush. They don't want to talk to me
about it. In fact, I had one tell me, he said, listen, when
you come into my house, leave your doctrine outside the door.
What are you talking about? And I said, well, I can't do
that, but I won't talk to you about it. It comes with me, because
it's written on my heart. But I told him this. I said,
if ever you want to talk about the gospel, call me up. I'll
be more than happy to talk to you about it. That's what he's
saying here. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Our message is is a message that
the world hates. Look at John chapter 3. And yes, we're not just here
to stir up trouble. We don't go out and witness to
people to get them to hate us. Now that's what Brother Marker's
reading there in 1 Peter chapter 4. Somebody says, well, you know,
if we're saved by grace, we can just go out and rob and murder.
No, he said, don't suffer as a murderer, as a robber, or anything
like that, a busybody. But he said, if you suffer for
righteousness sake. Now, what is it to suffer for
righteousness over the gospel? And you know why? Because our
gospel will not speak peace to those who are unbelievers. Remember
Jeremiah, look at John three. Remember Jeremiah, he talked
about the false prophets of his day who cry, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. Let me tell you something. If
Christ is not your hope, if his blood alone is not your cleansing,
redemption from sin, if his righteousness alone is not your whole life
and right relationship with God, your justification, I cannot
say you have peace with God. Well, look at verse 19 of John
3. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. Now, what is this light? It's
Christ. It's his truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth.
No man cometh to the Father but by me. There are churches in
this town who call themselves Christians, who most of the people,
including their pastors or their leaders, will tell you that there
are other ways to get to God other than Christ. Now what do we do? Well, we shine
the light. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now you think you're gonna make
friends with them? There are churches in this town that call
themselves Christian, who right now, their denominations are
voting on whether or not to receive homosexuals into their church
family, even into their leadership. What does the light do? It shines
against that darkness, look at it. Verse 19, this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. In other words,
this light of the gospel, which separates God's people from the
world, exposes their works, their deeds, even their religious deeds. to be evil, not because they're
immoral or insincere, but because they deny the glory of God. They
deny Christ. They deny His holiness, His righteousness. You say, well, I don't want to
cause trouble. Well, I don't either. But I know this, follow
peace with all men and holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord. Why is it we won't see the Lord then? Because without
this, what do we give evidence of? Christ said, if you don't
confess me before men, I won't confess you before the
Father. It reveals a wicked heart. Peace
at the expense of holiness, peace at the expense of this life reveals
a wicked heart, an unbelieving heart. Look at verse 20, for
everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deed should be reproved, discovered. In other
words, our gospel totally rejects the works of men as forming any
part of the ground of salvation. It leaves a person with no hope,
no peace, no righteousness, no salvation, no assurance, except
that which we find in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. God forbid that I should glory,
save in what? The cross. His finished work. Somebody says, well, you know,
you asked the average person today who calls himself, how
do you know you say, well, I walked an aisle when I was 12 and got
baptized. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross. I did a lot of things when I
was 12 and 13 and 14. I made a religious profession,
but I didn't know Christ. I didn't know the Christ of the
Bible. I knew there was a guy named Jesus and he did good and
he fed 5,000 and all that, but I didn't know the gospel. You understand that? Look over
at John 12. Turn over there. Now here's an example of following
peace without holiness, without that which distinguishes us.
Now understand what I'm saying now. Should believers, true children,
should we strive to be better people? Should we strive to be
moral? Should we strive to be ethical, sincere, genuine? Yes. But that's not what distinguishes
us from the world. All, listen, all of the main
religions of the world teach that. Acts of charity, acts of
devotion, acts of self-denial. Buddha has the Eightfold Path.
The Jews have the Ten Commandments. Incidentally, you know this modern
movement called Christians and Jews Together? I wanna show you
something, just a moment here. But look here in Matthew, in
John chapter 12, in verse 42. It says, nevertheless, among
the chief rulers, also many believed on him, claimed to believe on
Christ. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest
they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God. That's following peace without
holiness. Think about that. We'll turn
to John 16. You know, this modern movement,
Christians and Jews together. Well, listen, it's Christ is
speaking to his disciples. They're telling them that they're
going to suffer for holiness. They're going to suffer for the
gospel. Remember he said over in John 15, marvel not if the
world hates you. It hated me before it hated.
Well, look at verse one of chapter 16. He says, these things have
I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They shall put
you out of the synagogue. They're gonna throw you out of
the synagogue. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God's service, and these
things will they do unto you because they have not known the
Father. They're gonna throw you out of the synagogue. Now, this
modern movement called Christians and Jews together, they get along
right well in the synagogue. because they're following peace
without holiness. Is that too hard? You reckon that Paul would have
dwelt comfortably in the synagogue? I know what happened to our Lord
when he went back to his hometown synagogue. You remember that?
Went back to Nazareth. Nazareth. And he got up and he
told them after a reading of the book of Isaiah, he said,
today this scripture is fulfilled before your very eyes. It was
Isaiah 61, I believe, what? And they took him outside and
were going to throw him off a cliff. Do you know what Satan's first
message was? It was essentially speaking peace
where there was no peace. He told Eve, thou shalt not surely
die. I'm telling you, friend, if you
don't have Christ, I don't care what you call yourself, if you
call yourself a Christian, And I think that's the greatest test
that we have to face in our age. And I think that was prophesied
by our Lord. He told the disciples in the last days, they'll come
saying, here's Christ, there's Christ, but don't believe them. False Christianity is the hardest
place to be discerning in. That's why we have to be skillful
in the word of righteousness that we can discern good and
evil. From the scriptures, not being judges. Somebody said,
well, you're not the judge. Well, the Lord tells us to judge
according to his word. But think about it. I don't care
what you call yourself. If you don't have the Christ
of this Bible, who is God in human flesh, and his finished
work, which is his blood and righteousness alone as your complete,
whole, finished salvation, you're not at peace with God. You're
still at war with God. Isn't that right? That's what
Paul said of the Jews of his day. His brethren, according
to the flesh, he said they have a knowledge of God, they have
a zeal of God, they're religious, but not according to knowledge,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, God's justice,
are going about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. Yeah,
that which distinguishes us from the world is our message. The
grace, the sovereign grace of God, and our God-given faith
in Christ. We trust no other, none other,
nothing else. And we do, we pray God, help
us to follow peace and holiness. With that which no man shall
see the Lord. That's our separation, that's
our sanctification. all by the grace of God in Christ.