Now I want us to focus our attention
on that one verse that Brother Randy started with in his reading,
verse 14 of Hebrews chapter 12. We're not going to take it out
of context, obviously. We're going to view it in its
context where he says, follow peace with all. Men is in italics,
but that's okay. All men follow peace with all
men and holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord. And most of the time when you
hear this passage preached, it is emphasized this way, that
that holiness, if you don't have that holiness, you won't see
the Lord. And that is true, whatever this holiness is talking about.
But also, this peace also, without which no man will see the Lord.
So don't separate the two, as if we can We can have holiness
without peace. He says, follow peace with all
and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now the
title of the message is Peace and Holiness. And I've got two
simple points in this message. Point number one, peace. Point
number two, holiness. Don't you love it when a good
outline comes together? Sometimes I don't have an outline,
I just go through the scripture, but peace and holiness. Now,
as I looked at these things, we need to understand exactly
what this peace is and exactly what this holiness is. And I
put these together in one message, but to be honest with you, I
don't know that I'll get through the whole message in one sitting,
because when my time runs out, you know me, I quit. So we'll
pick it up next week. But let me just give you something
to think about at the beginning. The peace of which he's talking
about is simply saying, that true believers, God's people,
are to be a peaceful people. We're to be peaceful people,
and I'll expand upon that in just a moment. And then the holiness
that he's talking about is that which separates us from the world,
that which distinguishes us as the people of God. Most people,
when they think of holiness, they think of Christian character
and conduct, which is okay in a sense, but You don't need to
see it as just mere human morality, or human generosity, or attempts
to be good. It is something that, by the
grace of God, distinguishes the people of God from the world,
and that's what I wanna, I'm gonna talk about that a little
bit, but I may not get to all of that today. But let me start
this way. You know, the false gospel that is known
as the gospel of health and wealth. Are you familiar with that? The
health and wealth and prosperity gospel. All right, that's a false
gospel. Unless you're talking about spiritual
health, spiritual wealth, and spiritual prosperity in Christ.
But you know what I'm saying. These preachers who preach that
the Christian life is or at least should be if you have the right
attitude, the right faith, or the right psychology should be
a pretty much a bed of roses or even living in a peaceful
environment. That kind of false gospel deceives
a lot of people today, doesn't it? It deceives a lot of people. And, you know, they talk about
how, you know, well, if you pray enough or have enough people
praying for you, you won't get sick, you won't die physically,
all of that stuff. There's, you know, you know that
kind of thing. Or if you send in your seed,
and by seed, they think that, they think originally in the
Greek word that means a check. Send your seed and then the Lord
will give you ten times more, all that kind of thing. The health
and wealth gospel, prosperity, that we as Christians, if we
have the right attitude, if we think and say the right things,
you know, there's a word of faith movie. Just speak it and it happens. And that way we'll be living
in a peaceful environment where we all just get along. And we
should just get along. Part and parcel of that is the
ecumenical movement. Well, we're all Christians. There's Baptist Christians, Methodist
Christians, all of that. And I'm telling you, that's a
false gospel. It's totally wrong. And it deceives thousands of
people, millions maybe. But it's anti-biblical, but here's
what I'm saying. We who know the truth, we who
have been brought by God's grace to see the true gospel, we know
better, don't we? Now think about it. Just read
the Bible. You know, I tell people all the
time when they come and ask questions about what I preach on television
or what I preach here, and they'll say, well, I believe this. And
I'll look at them and say, well, that's all right. You have the
liberty to believe that, but it's not in the Bible. And that's what a Christian believes.
What's in the Bible? What's God's word? That's what
faith is. Faith cometh by hearing, and what? Hearing by the word
of God. So it doesn't really, we're not
talking about opinions here, are we? Not at all. We're talking about a faith,
a belief that is based upon what God says. Now I know people differ
on what God says, but there are people today, they just believe
things that aren't even in the word of God. It's not even interpretation. It's just not there. And we can
talk about interpretation in another venue, but this is the
thing. Listen to what Christ told the
disciples in John 16 and verse 33. He said, these things I have
spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. And we're talking
about peace. In me, in Christ, who is the
Prince of Peace, who made peace between God and sinners by the
blood of the cross, that in me you might have peace. But he
said this, in the world you shall have tribulation, trouble, not a bed of roses. But he said,
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So whenever we're
talking about peace, wealth, health, prosperity, that is guaranteed
to every true child of God, what we're talking about is not worldly
things, physical things, we're talking about our health, wealth,
and prosperity that can only be found in Christ, through his
blood alone, through his righteousness alone. Now many of these Hebrew
Christians, this is the book of Hebrews, it was written to
Hebrew Christians who were suffering, who were being tempted and tested
and being tortured, because of their testimony of Christ. They
believed the gospel. They preached Christ and they
suffered for it in their communities. Both the unbelieving Jews and
the Romans were after them. And so many of them were being
tested very harshly. And so that's why the writer
of Hebrews, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in passages
like Hebrews 11, gives the hall of faith there, showing how God's
people in the Old Testament, how they were given faith by
God, how they trusted Christ who was to come, who they hadn't
actually received the promise, meaning Christ had not actually
came in their day, yet by the grace of God, they persevered
through. And that's the only way we're
gonna persevere, isn't it? by the grace of God. We won't
make it on our own. It's not me and Jesus got a good
thing going. He's got a good thing going.
And it's all his power and his goodness and his grace. And so
he shows them. He says that God keeps his people
and his people persevere. And he's encouraged them. And
he shows this, he says, many of them were drawing back, denying
Christ. Well, the Bible teaches us that
those who claim to be Christian, but then who deny their faith,
that they were never saved to begin with. Now, that's what
the Bible teaches. You know, people today, they say, well,
they were saved, but then they lost it. That's not what the
Bible teaches. That's not in the Bible. Hebrews
6 doesn't teach that. Hebrews 10 doesn't teach that.
It teaches that those who forsake, who claim to believe Christ,
claim to believe the true gospel, now not a false one, but who
claim to believe a true gospel, but then who forsake it, or what
the Bible calls apostatize, they fall away from it, they were
never saved to begin with. Isn't that what the Bible teaches? And so, here these believers
were going through severe persecution, and that brings doubt, doesn't
it? We have doubts. Somebody said,
well, we shouldn't. Well, we shouldn't sin at all.
But we do. As I mentioned last week in preaching
on the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that's a believer, a child of
God, who comes out through the trial, whatever trial it is,
however severe it is, but comes through by the grace and power
of God, clinging to Christ even more. Christ who is my righteousness. But as we go through these trials,
our humanness is exposed. Our sinfulness is exposed. And
that's what he calls the sin that so easily besets us in verse
one of chapter 12. And that's sinful doubt, unbelief.
What the disciples pray, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. And we become ashamed, but we
come out. Here's the remedy, verse two,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. God
started this whole thing, and God's gonna finish it. Aren't
you glad? Because if he left it to us to
finish it, it would be unfinished. I love John 19, 30, which simply
says, it is finished. I love the gospel of a finished
work. Most, all false gospels, what
do they say? You gotta do this, you gotta
do that. No, it's finished. Our sins are purged away. How? By the blood of Christ, his death.
We stand before God in his righteousness charged to us and we have a complete,
eternal, uncontaminated right relationship with God based upon
his righteousness imputed to us. So we look to Christ and
that's what that is. Note verse 11, no chastening.
Now this is what he says, for a believer all the trials of
life are to be considered as the loving chastisements of our
Heavenly Father. and they're meant to cause us
to persevere in the faith. How? Driving us more and more
to faith in Christ. The assurance that we have in
Christ. That's that peaceable fruit of
righteousness. And this even includes the opposition and persecution
that comes from the enemies of Christ and his church. During
trials, our natural way of thinking is this, Lord, what am I doing
wrong? What have I done to deserve this?
Isn't that the way we naturally think? And knowing that we often
do the wrong things. We do. Often do suffer for this. You think about this. If you're
a believer, if God chastised you over every wrong thing that
you did, how would you feel? You wouldn't be able to lift
up your head. I don't care how much you go through. But he does chastise his people.
The Bible says it's according as God knows that we need it. And chastisement is not paying
for sin. It's not punishment because of
sin necessarily. It is correction. Think of it as correct. God's
dealing with us as sons, as children. And these are chastisements of
love. And knowing that we often do the wrong things and suffer
for them sometimes, this may be persecution for doing something
right. A chastisement, did you know
that? Right in the sight of God. And that's why he says in verse
12, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble
knees. This is quoted from Isaiah. Isaiah suffered for the gospel.
Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way, and let it rather be healed. In other
words, think right about this. Walk by faith, not by sight.
You see, how do I know that the trials that I go through as a
believer, and the trials that you go through as a believer,
how do I know that they're the loving chastisements of our Heavenly
Father? I'll tell you how I know it.
It's not because I feel it, it's not just because I wanna believe
it, it's because God said it. That's how. And that's what walking
by faith and not by sight means. We walk according to the word
of God. Whatever God says, that's true. Whether we feel it or not. So what about this peace? Verse
14, follow peace. What's the word peace mean? It
means tranquility. It means harmony. That's what
it means. Peace of mind. Peace among people. Peace among nations, to follow
peace. You know that word follow means
to pursue it. It means to chase after it. It
means to reach for it diligently as much as a desired goal. Follow
after. In other words, this is not to
be a casual search as to say, well, if I'm gonna go throughout
my life and if I happen to run on it, it'll be okay. No, this
is not a, we are to diligently follow after peace with all. And you know something, it's
what's interesting, many times used in this word follow is used
in the negative sense as in pursuing someone to do them harm. In fact,
in Matthew 5 and verse 10, it's translated persecuted. Blessed
are you when men persecute you. That's the same word as follow
here. In other words, they're chasing after you, they're following
after you, they wanna do you harm. but it's also positive in many
cases. Romans 14, 19, listen to this. Let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may
edify another. It's talking about peace among
brethren. Follow after it and we could go on. And certainly
here in our text it's positive because of holiness. Follow peace
with all and holiness without which No one shall see the Lord. True believers are to be peaceful
people. We're not to be brawlers, debaters
in the sense of trying to pick a fight. To strive to be at peace
and live in peace with all people. Even unbelievers. We're to be
peacemakers. Didn't Christ say in the Sermon
on the Mount, Matthew 5 and 9, Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Now he's not
talking about pacifism. He's not talking about pacifism.
We can defend ourselves. But Christianity, real Christianity
from the Bible is truly a religion of peace. It is. Now you know
they say today, for example, there's an argument about Islam.
They say Islam is a religion of peace. All I can tell you
this, is this, the Quran, the book of Islam, contains at least
109 verses that speak of physical war with non-believers, non-Muslims. And some of them are quite graphic,
talking about chopping off heads and fingers and killing physically
infidels, non-Muslims. Now, don't get me wrong, there
are peaceful Muslims and I'm glad there are. But you know
those who don't join in the fight in the Quran are called hypocrites
and warned that Allah, their God, will send them to hell if
they don't join the slaughter. Now that's what the book says.
But let me tell you something. No Christian has ever been commanded
or ever will be commanded in the Bible to take up physical
arms against unbelievers and try to force them to confess
Christ. You say, well, what about in history? It was all wrong. The Crusades, that was not holy. It was sinful. The Spanish Inquisition,
idolatry. That's what it was. In fact,
Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse three, he said,
we walk in the flesh, but we don't war after the flesh. He
said, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. What is he telling us as believers?
Our battlefield is the mind, the heart. Our weapon is the
gospel, the word of God, the sword of the Lord. He wrote in Ephesians, put on
the whole armor of God. Read that, Ephesians 6 and verse
12 and on. Every piece of that armor is
spiritual. None of it is physical. We wrestle,
he says in verse 12, we wrestle against flesh, not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. When someone, and you remember
what Christ said, he said, when someone slugs you on the right
cheek, what do you do? Turn the other cheek. He said in Matthew 5 in verse
43, you've heard it said by them of old, thou shalt love thy neighbor,
hate thine enemy. I say, and you love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you.
Pray for them that which despitely use you and persecute you. That's
the mandate. So bottom line, true believers
are to be peacemakers, peaceful people. Now how do we do this?
Well, first of all, I want you to think about this. Our first
concern in making peace is preaching the peace of God, which comes
through Christ, the Prince of Peace. That's our first concern,
isn't it? We are true, blessed are the
peacemakers. Well, we're truly peacemakers
when we preach and witness the gospel of peace, salvation, reconciliation
with God, peace with God, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Prince of Peace. Look over at the next page in
Hebrews 13, look at verse 20. Listen to what it says here in
conclusion. It says, now the God of peace, now that doesn't
mean God's at peace with everybody. He says, the God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. How did Christ make peace between
God and sinners? Through the blood of the cross.
We preach the cross. We preach the death of Christ.
We preach the righteousness. The kingdom of heaven is not
meat and drink, but joy and righteousness, peace with God and righteousness.
That's what we preach. That's what we believe. That's
our hope. That's our ground. That's our message. The gospel
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Sinner, if you
don't have Christ, you have declared war on God. You may be a nice
person, you may be peaceful among men, but if you don't have Christ
and you don't trust Christ and believe in Christ, you have declared
war on God. In fact, Colossians 1 says you
are an enemy of God. You say, well, I don't think
I've declared war. Yes, you have. If you're not for him, you're
against him. So true believers are to be peaceful, peacemakers,
and our first concern is preaching the gospel. That's what we do. I don't want to ever meet with
you without preaching the gospel. I don't want to get bogged down
in this idea, well, if the gospel's in this text, but we're preaching
practical Christianity today. No, sir. There's nothing more
practical for a Christian than to hear the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace through the Lord Jesus Christ based on his
righteousness alone. I need to hear it every day. Peace with God comes only at
the expense of the blood of Christ. You see, we're, by nature, naturally
children of Adam. And what did Adam do in the garden? You say, well, he ate an apple.
He did more than that. He disobeyed God. And you know
what he really did? I'll tell you, it's not exaggerating
to put it this way. Adam declared war on God. To be as gods, it's what Satan
said. Eve was deceived, but Adam knew
full well what he was doing. And you know what? We fell in
Adam. And we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.
We're born sinners, born enemies of God. Born enemies. And the only way
we're gonna find peace is looking to Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, pleading his blood and righteousness alone. And
then we are to be peacemakers. We're to be peaceful people,
even with unbelievers. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They shall be called the children of God. Now, as I said, he's
not talking about pacifism there. He's speaking of the tranquility
that we are to promote. Knowing that there's no peace
with God without Christ, without righteousness, his righteousness
freely imputed for our forgiveness and justification, God reconciled
to us, and us reconciled to God, therefore we preach to sinners,
be ye reconciled to God on that same ground. And that's peace
which by the grace of God rules in our hearts, binds us together
in true Christian unity. Colossians chapter three and
verse 15, listen to this, let the peace of God rule in your
hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be
you thankful. You know what keeps us together?
We all have peace with God through that one person by his grace
based upon that one ground. Now back in our text, follow
peace with all, all men. Certainly with all our brethren
in the faith, but also with unbelievers when we can have peace without
doing what? Now here's where we come to the holiness issue.
It says follow peace with all men and holiness. And holiness. Well what does
he mean? Well let me just give it to you
briefly. As I said, certainly we're to
have peace with all men, promote peace with all men, without compromising
or denying Christ and the glory of God and His truth. In other
words, if the only way that you and I can get along is for me
to compromise what I know God's Word says and how He saves sinners,
who Christ is, what Christ did, what He accomplished, why He
did it and where He is now. If the only way that I can get
along with you and have a peaceful coexistence with you is by me
compromising that, denying the truth, denying His righteousness,
then I'm not to do it. Do you understand that? I'm not
to do it. That's the holiness he's talking
about. Now, what do you mean? Well, look at this thing of,
you know that word holiness? It's the same as sometimes translated
in the scripture as sanctify, sanctification. And there's a
lot of confusion about this thing of holiness and sanctification.
Many believe that justification, for example, justification, that
legal work where God forgives us and receives us, accepts us,
and declares us righteous, there's many people they think, well,
justification is totally a work of God without us. Have you ever
heard the term monergistic or monergism? You ever heard that
term? It's all over the internet. And that means it's a one-sided
issue. It's all of God. God does it all. And that's true.
Justification is like that. But others believe that sanctification
is a work of God with us in cooperation with God, and they call it synergistic. That means me and Jesus have
a good thing going, that kind of thing. But that's not the
way it is. You see, sanctification is just
as monergistic as justification. It's all God. That's what Paul
said in Galatians 2. He said, the life that I now
live, I live by the grace of God. It's not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Sanctification is totally a work
of God for us and in us, or through us, and we do cooperate with
him, but it's only by his grace and power. We believe. Why do
I believe? There was a time I didn't believe.
I can remember, I can remember sitting in the back of the church
hearing the true gospel, hating every minute of it. What changed? Well, I'm a good fella. Or I'm
just less rebellious. No, it was totally the sovereign
grace of God. See, ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, regenerated by the Spirit. The words holiness and sanctification
do not refer, in the Bible now, they do not refer or describe
mere human morality or human ethics or human religious devotion
or human religious activity. That's not what it means. The
words holy, holiness, sanctify, sanctification, describes what
it is that actually separates and distinguishes God's true
people from the world. That's what it is. That which
is truly distinct, separate from the wicked world. The Bible speaks
of sanctification by God the Father. That's God's unconditional
electing love from the very beginning. It's where he separated his people
out. He chose his people. Isn't that
what the scripture says? I know people don't like to hear
this now. God chose his people from the beginning of the world.
He chose them and gave them to Christ. That sanctified, he set
us apart. And it wasn't based on anything
that we do or would do or try to do or promise to do or anything
God foresaw. It's not that God looked down
through a telescope of time. and foresaw what we would know.
It was totally a work of God. What? Sovereign grace. Sovereign, unconditional election,
we call it. Because that's what it is. And
you may say, well, why did God choose this one and not that?
The only answer the Bible gives is found in Matthew chapter 11,
where Christ said, foresaw, Father, it seemed good in thy sight.
It was for his glory. And then it speaks of sanctification
by God the Son. That's Christ's successful redemptive
work at the cross to redeem us from our sins. We were separated
out by God's grace in his redemptive glory. What does that mean? It
means Christ died for me, buried for me, rose again for me, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for me. How do I know that? Because it also speaks of sanctification
by the spirit. The spirit of God in the new
birth. Regeneration and conversion.
If God chose me, if he separated me out before the foundation
of the world, if God, if Christ died for me, if he separated
me out on the cross and died for me, how am I gonna know?
The Holy Spirit's gonna come. And under the preaching of the
gospel, Not the preaching of a lie, but the preaching of the
gospel. He's gonna give me life, regenerated
by the Spirit. He's gonna separate me out spiritually
by bringing me to Christ, to follow Him. That's what the Scripture
says. Look at 2 Thessalonians with
me. 2 Thessalonians. And I could give
you a lot of Scripture on this. Let's just look at a few. 2 Thessalonians
2, look at verse 13. Well, look back at verse 10 of
2 Thessalonians. He's talking about the last days
in which we're living. He's talking about how the great
deceiver, Satan, will come. And in verse 10 in 2 Thessalonians
2, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, look at it, because they receive not the love of the truth
that they might be saved. Now have you received the love
of the truth? Have I received the love of the truth? Now he's
talking about people here who have not received the love of
the truth. Why did you receive it and they didn't receive it? What's your answer to that? Well,
the biblical answer's this. John chapter one, verses 12 and
13. Remember it says, he came unto his own and his own received
him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he the power,
which the word their power means not ability, but right, to become
the sons of God, which were born, not of blood, not of human genealogy,
Not of the flesh, nor by works of the flesh, that is, not by
any works that we do, nor by the works or the will of man,
but were born of God. I'll tell you why you received,
because God marked you out, Christ died for you, and the Holy Spirit
came to you and gave you a new heart. You were born again by the Spirit.
You say, well, why would he do that to me and not to somebody?
It seemed good in his sight. I don't know why, and you don't
either, but you ought to just stand amazed in the rest of your
life and thank God that he showed you the way. But look here in
verse 11 of 2 Thessalonians 2, and for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That's
God's judgment. that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Look at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
all the way 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. Isn't that amazing? Christ prayed in his high priestly
prayer, John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word
is truth. You know what a saint is, don't
you? It's a sinner saved by grace. Sanctified one. You remember,
as I quoted earlier, Christ said, blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of... What is it? that
distinguishes the children of God from the world. I'll tell you what distinguishes
us. Our gospel. Our gospel distinguishes us.
Our faith and our trust totally in Christ. We plead his righteousness
alone and nothing else. That distinguishes us. We repent
of what the world holds dear. We repent of dead works and idols.
We don't just repent of the immorality. We repent of even the religious
activity. Don't we? Luke 16, 15. That which the world
highly esteems. What does the world highly esteem?
Well, they esteem good behavior, morality, Dedication, sincerity,
generosity, the world esteems that. Those are good things in
and of themselves, but when they're aimed at saving us or maintaining
salvation or making us righteous in order to prepare us to meet
God, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination.
And you know what? When God brings us to be sanctified,
to be holy, separate, Those things are an abomination to us too. We repent of them. Now I'm gonna
continue on this next week on some other things that we need
to see. But that's the whole thing. He's not talking about
just moral behavior. Should Christians be moral? Yes.
Should they be generous? Yes. Should they be kind? Yes. Responsible? Yes. But that's
not our holiness. That's not what sets us apart
from the world. I'm gonna show you that next
week. What is it that sets us apart? The grace of God, who
brought us to love the truth. And we cannot compromise it in
order to have peace. Do everything we can to maintain
peace. But my friend, peace at the expense of the truth, at
the expense of the glory of God, is deadly. Did you know that?
Crying peace, peace, we'll get to that next week. Crying peace,
peace when there is no peace, just in order to get along. That's
what I'm talking about. Follow peace with all men and
holy.