Committed to Gospel Holiness

Q: What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

The Bible describes the Christian life as a race that requires discipline, endurance, and a focus on Christ. The writer of Hebrews uses the analogy of running a race to illustrate the Christian life, emphasizing that every believer has a defined course to run. This race requires not only perseverance but discipline, indicating that our walk of faith is not an easy endeavor. We are encouraged to run this race with patience and to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who himself endured great trials for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:1-3). The race is structured, and it is vital for believers to stay focused on Christ to finish their course well.

Q: Why is endurance important for Christians?

Endurance is crucial for Christians as it reflects our faith and reliance on God's strength to complete the race. Endurance is a central theme in the Christian faith, as we are called to persevere in our walk with God amidst trials and tribulations. The writer of Hebrews warns that we must run with patience the race set before us, indicating that our journey may be filled with challenges. By looking to Jesus, who endured the cross, we gain the strength and example needed to persist in our faith despite difficulties. Endurance builds character and reliance on God's grace, key elements necessary for finishing the race and obtaining the promised reward (Hebrews 12:1-2, Romans 5:3-5).

Q: How do we know that grace is essential for our salvation?

Grace is essential for salvation as it is through God's unmerited favor that we are saved, not by our works. The doctrine of grace underscores the belief that salvation is a gift from God, given freely to those who believe. This is evident in Ephesians 2:8-9, which states that we are saved by grace through faith, and not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. The sovereignty of God in salvation reflects His mercy, as He chooses to extend grace to those He calls, enabling us to respond in faith. This is the essence of the historically Reformed understanding that our entire salvation, from beginning to end, is rooted in God's grace alone.

Q: Why is discipline important in the Christian life?

Discipline is vital because it shapes our character and helps us grow into the image of Christ. Discipline in the Christian life serves to refine our character and helps conform us to the image of Christ. The writer of Hebrews notes that divine discipline is a sign of God's love and our status as His children (Hebrews 12:5-6). God disciplines us for our good, guiding us toward holiness and righteousness. Although discipline can be painful in the moment, it yields peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are trained by it, illustrating the transformative power of God's correction. In undergoing discipline, believers learn perseverance and develop spiritual maturity, which are essential for running the race set before us.

Q: What does it mean to look to Jesus in our faith?

Looking to Jesus means fixing our eyes on Him as our source of strength, guidance, and example in our faith journey. In the context of running the race of faith, looking to Jesus signifies turning our focus away from distractions and challenges, and instead placing our trust in Christ as the ultimate source of strength and assurance. Hebrews 12:2 instructs us to 'look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,' emphasizing the importance of recognizing His role in our salvation and journey. By analyzing His life and endurance through suffering, we find the model for our own lives as we pursue holiness and keep our faith anchored in Him amidst life's trials. This direct gaze towards Christ ensures we don't lose heart and can finish our race effectively.

I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to take
up our second consideration of this portion of Scripture in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12. We were encouraged to reflect
upon, as the opening verses of Hebrews chapter 12 gives us,
those saints that went before us as is outlined in chapter
11. And we defined them last week,
ladies and gentlemen, as the finishers. Do you remember that?
We called the folks who encompassed all of the Old Testament, who
believed God, who lived by faith and died in faith as the finishers. These were the folks of whom
it was stated in the early parts of chapter 11, they received
a good report. And they were given to us to
encourage us and to strengthen us and to cause us to remember
the nature of our walk with God. These are folks who ran their
race. These are folks who finished their course. These are folks
who are in the presence of God right now. To be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord. These are people that
are very, very happy. And their legacy, as is written
in Scripture, are designed to encourage us to continue running
this race as you and I are. I began to explain to you in
part last week the nature of the analogy that's laid out before
us. It's a twofold analogy. The one
is that of running a race. The other is that of learning
what it means to walk with God, your father. They are two analogies
that go together. We're going to still try to maintain
the tension of those two today as we work through this portion
of scripture and advance our way to the closing thought that
the writer would have us to engage in. And we learned last week
that the idea of running this race, racing, verse 1, and let
us run this race is the idea of a track, a course, a confined,
structured set of parameters in the which God places the believer. The believer operates on a course. And you and I have been encouraged
to stay in our lane, haven't we? If we're going to run lawfully,
if we're going to finish the race, if we're going to enjoy
the prize, we must stay in our lane. And while staying in your
lane, you are to experience the discipline that comes with running.
Now, if you know anything about running, what you know about
running is that running requires discipline. It requires the discipline
necessary for you to endure the course. And the writer is likening
our faith as unto a race. Now, as I said last week, if
you and I are given to laziness, we don't like this analogy. Because
running is hard, isn't it? And if you're just not an individual
that's given to running, you have an aversion to the analogy.
But nevertheless, your walk of faith is just like that. It's
a race. Now, this is not a race of speed. This is not a hundred meter race
because the race is not given to the swift. And this is not
really sort of a race of multiple exercises on the course, like
a marathon where you've got to climb mountains and lift weights
and endure certain obstacles to, as it were, indicate your
strength. This is a long distance race
in a spiritual way wherein you and I are called to endure. To endure. Endurance becomes
for the people of God the real challenge. Listen to the last
line. And let us run with what? Patience. Endurance is the word. The race that is set before us. And every believer has a race
set before them Every believer has a course that they must run. Every believer has an agony. That's what our word run means. It's an agony. Let us, or rather
the word race, it's an agony. We run on a track and the race
we run is an agony, a conflict, a tension, a tension. It's a
discipline and it requires endurance. Even when you're running a long
distance race, don't you have to focus? Even when you're running
a long-distance race, don't you have to discipline your body
to run in a certain form, in a certain way, to get maximum
efficiency out of the run? Now, I know I'm talking to only
about 12% of the people in the house, but just act like you
know what I'm talking about. The matter is discipline. It
really is. And this is why the writer so
quickly shifts to now you have forgotten the exhortation which
speaks unto us as a father disciplining his children. And so this race
is really about you and I persevering the course. The concern that
the writer has which will come up toward the end of our message
is people stopping in the middle of the race or people halting
in the process of the race or people being veered off the course
in any event of all the three, if you stop or halt or veer off
the course, you don't finish. And if you and I don't finish...
We don't obtain the price. That is the real concern here.
And as the saints of old finished, you and I want to finish too.
Do you remember what I said last week? There are three ways to
run. You can run well. That's what
Galatians said. You did run well. You can run
with a proper understanding, with a proper motive, with a
proper preparation. And then you can run in vain.
We said that last week. Paul said, I run, but I do not
run in vain. I don't beat at the air. Neither
do I misinterpret the nature of the course. I don't presume
upon, uh, my body being able to actually endure this race.
And so I do what's necessary to run this race with the objective
of what winning, winning. So he tells us in first Corinthians
chapter nine, you guys all know you can be a hundred people full
in a race. Only one ultimately wins first
place. Is that true? And so the objective
of the runner is to finish and to finish well. And this is what
we are being exhorted to do as we contemplate the nature of
faith, that walk of faith between us and God. And the writer then
quickly tells us, as is the first point in your outline, to look
away from yourself to Jesus. In fact, the way our outline
puts it, as you run this race, look away. to Jesus constantly. Is that the way your outline
puts it? As you run, look away to Jesus constantly. That's actually
the construction there in the original. You are already running
and you have been for a moment had your attention called to
those who are already finished. And you have contemplated Abel,
and you have contemplated Noah, and you've contemplated Abraham,
and you've contemplated those who have been sawn asunder and
persecuted and tortured, of whom the world was not worthy. You
have contemplated all those who finished but did not obtain the
promise. They are waiting on those of
us who are still running to finish. You were contemplating them and
you were encouraged. But the writer is saying now,
look away from them. And he's saying look away from
them because While you and I think about Noah and his family, we
think about the sisters that ran this race in the Old Testament.
While we can be encouraged by them, they ultimately are not
adequate enough to help us continue this course. It is not so much
that we look to Abraham or look to Moses or look to Joshua or
look to Hannah or look to Rebecca, but we must look to Christ. And
so the nature of the language there is not only not look, but
look away a very powerful verb, which says, fix your eyes on
Christ. Now, what the writer is saying
is once you get a grip on Christ, you're going to learn some things
about the nature of this race and you're going to be blessed.
The first thing you're going to learn is this, that Christ is
the author and finisher of your faith. What that means is he's
the one that drew it up. He designed it. He's the engineer.
He's the architect. The Greek term architecton means
that Christ is the one that actually created this course. He made
the track. He built it. And do you know,
child of God, you wouldn't be in this race if he didn't put
you in this race. That's right. Writer to the Roman
church, the apostle Paul said, it is not of him that run it,
nor of him that will it, but of God that show it mercy. Do
you know I'm only in the race because God has shown mercy to
me. The only reason you're in this race is because God has
shown mercy to you. I have no, you notice by now that not everyone
is in the race. And I know if you've been around
long as I have, you have seen some people start, but they didn't
finish. And so please understand the reason why you are in is
because we have a great architect who actually designed this course
and he has placed us in it. The text says he is our founder. He is the one who originated
this. The word is translated captain in the book of Hebrews
3. He is the captain of our salvation. So he gives us our instructions.
He places us on our course. And guess what? He is also the
one that sustains us on the course. The only reason you're still
running is because God's keeping you in this race. Philippians
chapter 1 verse 6, He who hath begun a good work in you will
also perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that God is the
one who put you in this race? That He's keeping you in this
race? That every day you wake up believing God, it was the
grace of God that caused you to believe Him? He's the one
that picks you up when you fall. You understand that, right? The
only reason we make progress in the cause of the gospel is
because God has determined to bring me to himself. And so he's
helping me run this race. You do believe that. And the
reason why you and I can be guaranteed we're going to finish this race
is because we have a forerunner who has already entered into
that which is in the veil. Even Jesus Christ, the anchor
of our soul. Do you know what that means?
Even if I catch a flat on this course, There's a chain that's
going to tow me in anyway. I say that to encourage you because
the rest of the message is going to hurt. So let me get the gospel
out front now so we can start dealing with all the troubles
that we have going on here. What we love about the gospel
of grace is the clarity and simplicity of it, as was taught this morning
by our elder, that this is all of God. And so we trust him to
get us there. But God would have you and me
to understand that as he is bringing us to himself, he is also doing
multiple things, one of which is building character in us,
conforming us to the image of Christ. In other words, while
we run this race of faith, God's going to be glorified in our
lives. And you might as well settle that down, because that's
really the case. So I want us to work this through
now. Looking away to Christ, we are benefited cheaply because
verses 2 and 3 tell us this. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him. There's a principle. Do you see
it? Where was the joy? In front of him. He had a view
of it. He had a vision of it. He lived
in expectation of it. He talked about the day that
he would rejoice when he sat down with his people at the table
in the kingdom and ate and drank in that glorious celestial finality
of all that God has purposed for us. Christ rejoiced in his
race because he saw the end game. And you and I have been told
over and over and over again We have not come into the maturity
of our calling as believers if we are not very clear that we
live by hope. We live by hope. We really are
operating out of a vision of the finish line, are you? This
is what is meant, ladies and gentlemen, when it says that
we are to constantly look unto Jesus. He's at the finish line
for the people of God. He's waiting to receive us. We
must continue running. And as we do, here's what we
are to contemplate. Verse 2 says, looking unto Jesus,
right? It's a present indicative. And
it really is an intensified noun here about looking because it
really talks about analyzing Christ. Analogizoma. It's a word
that means to actually examine the nature of Christ's own race. Because he ran a race too, didn't
he? I'm Master Rand. And by the way, don't you notice
that when we start having the New Testament writings about
him and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that Jesus was never
kind of just laissez-faire? That he wasn't just kind of kicking
it? That he wasn't just kind of hanging out? You never saw
Jesus just kind of in a listful fashion. Was he not always on
the course? Always running this race? Always
about his father's business? Do you know what we call that?
Discipline. Discipline. structure, purpose,
endurance. And the Hebrew writer says this,
you are to look under Jesus, contemplate Christ, analyze his
walk, imbibe it, understand it as a framework for your own calling,
because he did it for you. Looking under Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him, he endured the what? He endured the what? Two words,
endured. Because see, that's what we're
talking about. endurance. Are we not? Our master endured
what was called the cross. Now it was not merely that event
that took place at the expiration of his ministry, it was the whole
of his ministry. And for every believer we have
a cross. It becomes that mechanism, that catalyst by which you and
I learn how to endure. Isn't it interesting, have you
not discovered this child of God that walking by faith is
difficult? that life in this world is filled
with trouble, and that it seems to never ever really go away,
maybe diminish, but never go away? Well, Peter told you to
not think it's strange, because that's the nature of our walk
with God, because He's shaping us. And what this exhortation
is about is, do not start contemplating getting out of the race, because
many have. See, folks get tired and then
they want to sneak away and get out of from under the hoop of
minnow. That is the endurance that you
have to undergo as you run for Christ. Y'all know what I'm talking
about. Lord, can I just take a break
for a minute? No! But this is the point. As we
look to Christ, he ran consistently. Now, he was not intempered. He
was not running like a chicken with his head cut off. He wasn't
so hasty and so over-the-top zealous that he wasn't reasonable,
rational, nor did he demonstrate what we are called to demonstrate,
temperance. Is that true? The people of God are called
to temperance. That's part of the fruit of the Spirit. But
temperance does not mean lazy, nor does it mean being so slow
that we are retarded or that we are functioning in a capacity
that does not constitute diligence. I can be temperate and yet still
be very consistent in what I'm doing. But that's what God is
calling you and me to. And this is what the analogy
is. And our master endured the cross. Mark this now. And he
despised the shame. And he is right now set down
at the right hand of God by the throne of God. Do you see that?
Do you know what that means? He finished too. Didn't he say
it? It is what? Master finished the
race and he's the primary one that we look to and this verse
here actually Underscores the character of Christ in the race
and I would suggest to you that you would embrace this attitude
Because this is the attitude he had as he ran as he ran he
endured God give me the grace to endure As he ran, he endured
the cross and he despised the shame that comes with identifying
with the true and the living God. God, give me the grace to
despise every shame that comes with identifying with the true
and the living God. See, when you start talking about
serving God, you're going to have people spit on you. They're
gonna spit on you. They're gonna call you a shameful
thing because the world today lies in wickedness and it does
not acknowledge our God nor serve our God. So everyone that's running
the race for Christ has to be willing to be spit on as they
run. And you must despise the shame
of the cross. What a passion. What a passion
our master demonstrated of despising those things which would cause
most of us to topple over. See, if you have a respect of
persons, or you love the praise of men, or you care about human
opinions, you're not going to endure this race. Am I making
some sense, ladies and gentlemen? Our master put up with the ridicule. He put up with the calumny. He
put up with all of the allegations that were false against him.
He put up with the resistance, the hostility. He put up with
the temptations and the trials. He put up with it because he
endured the cross. He knew that was his calling.
And he despised the nature of those things that constitute
walking for God. And you've got to have that attitude
too. That's a gift of faith. Now mark verse 3. Mark what he
says. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself. Do you see that? That's our word. Consider there.
Consider. Consider. Deeply analyze. Reflect upon. Cogitate. Embrace as a conclusion. that our master ran well. And he ran so well that he was
able to endure contradictions of sinners against himself, lest
you be what? Weary and what? We're getting
ready to go to work on that whole concept. What our master is telling
us is, if you look to Christ, if you can master looking to
Christ, if you can keep your eyes on Christ when you are running
your race and you get tired, his race won will give you grace
to keep going. The key to the believer persevering
is their eyes being fixed on Christ. The key to the believer
being able to press forward in this race is their grace-giving
capacity to reflect upon Christ and all that he went through
for them. And the writer said, now listen,
you didn't go through what Jesus went through. And they're certainly
right. He was wholly harmless, separate
from sinners. He was perfect. And yet he endured
all types of hostility and wrath against him. And the implication
that the writer is setting down is that the people of the Hebrews
at that first century culture were not really going through
the level of hostility and persecution that even their master went through.
But Jesus already told them, and he told us too, if they did
it to him, they'll do it to you. Is that true? See, the writer
to the Hebrews is concerned that the Hebrew people value the race
enough to continue, esteeming the reward that comes with finishing. And that's where you and I are.
Do we value the reward? Do we value the race enough to
continue? And the warning is be careful
that you don't faint when you are running and get wearied,
wearied, wear down in your mind. We do get tired, don't we? We
do get weary sometimes, don't we? The writer said, be careful
that you don't get weary to the point of fainting. I'm going
to deal with that a little bit. Listen, go with me to your second
point. Mark this down because I want to remind us of some things.
The discipline of the race is designed to do what? Build character. The discipline of the race is
designed to build character. That part we think that we can
do without. And you know why we think that? Because somehow
we think that is just enough to be a possessor of the grace
of God. Like we understand the doctrines
of grace. We understand the gospel of grace. We are saved by grace
through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God.
Is that right? God saved us all by himself and
it's grace that causes us to stand and we stand on the imputed
righteousness of Christ by which we appear before God perfectly
holy and perfectly righteous and that standing will never
change for all eternity. Is that true? That gives a brother
a whole lot of breathing room, doesn't it? to know that when
God looks at me, he sees Christ. But see, I know that the Bible
also says that God has predestined me to be conformed to the image
of his dear son. That's the part I don't like.
Because the conforming to Christ is all about the enduring and
the work that God has to do to develop my character. I want
you to see it in verse 11. Verse 11. Listen to what it says. Now, no chastening for the present
seems to be joyous. Is that true? I have never whooped
my kids. And afterwards they came and
said, daddy, that was good. That was good. Man, can we do
that again? Never. No chastening ever is
joyous. When you meet people who are
acting like suffering is so celestial, so jubilant, so joyous, two things
have occurred. They aren't going through no
trouble, for real. Or they're nutty. Do you understand
that? See, so on a very practical level,
when you meet your brothers and sisters and they're actually
going through it, and they look ugly, just understand they are
in that grievous time of the chastening. Because you look
bad when you're getting whooped. See, I know this present generation
doesn't like fatherly discipline, but the text justifies me to
use that analogy. Can I keep going? Some of us
are old enough to remember the benefit of getting our butt whooped
that kept us out of trouble. Is that right? See, now you young
folk, you Gen Xers and you Gen Yers and you Gen Zers and Gen
everything else. I know you guys want to put us
in jail because we even talk about discipline. But what we
know is our generation has been much more productive than yours
simply because some of us were disciplined. And here's what
discipline works if you look at the text. It's not pleasurable,
it's not joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards, it
what? Yielded. It yielded the peaceable
fruits of what? Unto them which are what? Ah,
there goes your exercise again. See it? There go your exercise
again. Stay with me now. And this is
the thing that we who have disciplined our children have learned over
the years. If you discipline them lovingly and consistently
with the objective of educating them, the word paideon simply
means to instruct. So you guys can think in the
narrow sense of a physical belt or board if you want to, but
it's the larger scope of instruction that leads to education. All
of us are under the padean work of God. We are children being
educated, being taught, being disciplined, being instructed,
being corrected, being made to know truth about God, transformational
truth about God that actually conforms us to his image. Don't
you marvel when your kids start growing up and they start looking
like you? And then they start acting like
you? And over the long run start talking like you? Those are the
dynamics that we're talking about. And all that I might grow up
and start looking like and talking like and acting like the Son
of the Living God. But if it's going to happen,
it's because he's going to discipline me, instruct me. He's looking
for the peaceable fruits of righteousness that are a consequence of that
education. Now dads, you remember the marvel
of chastening your child when they were really out of line.
And then 20 minutes later, how mellow they were, how cool they
were, how reasonable they were. how rational they were, how mature
they were. You actually wanted to give them
some money because they had really grown up real quick? See, it works, it works, it works,
it works, it works, doesn't it? And when you love them, it actually
develops a connection, a relationship between you and them that according
to the Word of God is lasting and legitimate. See, because
it'll keep them out of trouble. I taught this to our men last
night in our men's meeting. The problem with our culture
is there's no fear of God in their eyes anymore, but that's
also indicative of a breakdown between parents and children,
particularly fathers and sons. and even fathers and daughters.
I guarantee you where you find a child having either the absence
of parental guidance in their home, more particularly a loving
father in their home, that individual struggles with authority. They
struggle with discipline. They struggle with structure.
They struggle with a lot of things because God knows best, doesn't
he? And this is what our text is aiming at, helping us run
this race and know that in this race, as we learned last week,
ladies and gentlemen, don't let trials cause you to misinterpret
God's purpose for you. The trials are designed for you
to learn how to think God's thoughts after him and relate to God in
your trials. Sometimes I only hear God's voice
crystal clear in the midst of my troubles. Sometimes it's only
in my struggles that God makes himself clear to me in terms
of revelation and illumination of his character and nature,
even in the Word of God. It takes certain trials for me
to actually penetrate into the depths of biblical truth and
see them for what they are. And then I go, I thank you, Lord.
I thank you. I thank you. I thank you for
the blessing of the struggle that I went through. I would
have never ever understood this passage or this text or this
concept of truth in scripture had I not gone through what I've
gone through. I'm not telling the truth, saints.
And this is exactly where we are here. So as we contemplate
point number two, I want to share with you and remind you that
what he's talking about is under the analogy of exercising, girding
up the loins of your mind. The discipline of the race is
designed to build character in us because right thinking leads
to a right attitude and a right attitude leads to proper decisions
or actions. See, what we're talking about
is a mental core development. You're going to see that in a
minute. A mental core development. What are we talking about our
core? Whenever you're doing any kind of exercises, any kind of
training, any kind of sport, key to being able to execute
that sport is building your what? Core. Core. Now for God, your
core is not your belly. For God, your core is not getting
a six pack, an eight pack, a 16 pack. God could care less if
you get a two pack. For God, the core is your spirit.
It's your mind. For God, the core is your mind.
For with the mind, I serve the law of God. For God is the core
of your thinking, your capacity to receive spiritual things and
to respond to them accordingly. For God, it has everything to
do with your understanding. Am I making some sense? And so
we must be built up in the faith. We must understand biblical truth
in such a way as that it makes the necessary transformational
impact in our life that yields the kind of fruit that God wants
from us. And so we must be disciplined
in the things of God so that they bear that fruit. And God
will take you through trouble until you come to understand
that. Again, the aim is certainly character development, essential
to building your relationship with God. You guys have affirmed
last week, and you may affirm again this week, that after you
have gone through troubles, and even in the midst of them, you
find yourself drawing closer to God, don't you? And Him drawing
closer to you. That's conformity to Christ.
That certainly is. And let me just share with you
four or five things that comes out of this when I talk about
Hebrews chapter 12, 11, yielding the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
One is a greater knowledge of God. I want to know more about
God, don't you? That's John 17 3 and this is
eternal life that they might know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou has sent I want the abounding knowledge
of God to make an impact in my life This is also what Paul said
in Philippians chapter 3 all that I might know him that I
might know him that the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Much
might take over in my life in such a way that I am able to
think God's thoughts after him I want to know him do you? I
want to know and I know part of that depth of knowing that
epigenosis comes through suffering I know that I know I have to
be brought low in order for me to see high. I know that And
so I asked God to be gracious to me that I might grow in knowledge
Secondly, I know I must grow in maturity. Do you and I know
that I I have to learn how to put away things that just make
no profitable sense in my life. Isn't that what we learned last
week? As you run this race, you got to lay stuff off, right?
Lay aside. Lay aside. That requires choices. That requires discernment. That
requires a disposition of attitude. You have to know that there are
things you got to let go if you're going to draw closer to God.
It's just true. You're not going to run a race
pat down. Remember the bag lady last week?
Did y'all remember the bag lady? Let her scare you to death, okay?
Because that's what you can do. You can gradually build the bag
lady with her three carts and you can be, you can call yourself
a believer right in the race, dragging three carts down the
road. Nobody want to run that race, but you can have so much
stuff stacked on your life because you have not made a decision
to prioritize Christ. That's where we're going in our
text. So I'll leave that alone. So I want to grow in my knowledge
and I want to be able to build in a level of maturity. I want
God to build me in a level of maturity that my choices result
in me being much more proficient in my walk with Christ. And the
third thing is I want to be more useful to God, don't you? The
reason why God would shape our character to produce the peaceable
fruits of righteousness is in order that he might use us saints.
God will not use you mightily. until he has humbled you significantly
enough to develop in you discipline and character so that you can
be his representative. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is critical. So some of us are not really
being used significantly by God because we're undisciplined.
You know, you run a race long enough and you can start teaching
people how to run. You play a sport well enough
and you can start teaching people that sport. You do anything well
enough to learn it and you become a teacher. See, a leader is simply
someone who has been taught who is now also teaching. That's
all a leader is. That's all a leader is. So are
you compelled to want to show others how to run this race?
Then you want to run this race well yourself. And that's why
you want to remain under the discipline of your heavenly father
so he can build that character to you. And finally, the other
thing really, and this is where we're going, is endurance or
perseverance. When you see somebody play a
sport well from start to finish, One of the things you are amazed
at is their conditioning. And you know, in order for them
to be in the kind of condition that they are in, they gave up
a bunch of stuff. They avoided a bunch of stuff.
They entered into the discipline and labor that's necessary to
build their body, to do what they do, and then to finish well. Everyone is shocked at the man
or the woman that starts the race and then poops out. or starts
playing the sport and then starts coming apart in terms of their
form and their structure. And every coach is looking at
form and structure to determine how well that person is executing
that office in that sport. Am I making some sense? All right,
we're going there now because that's where we're going. This
is what the Hebrew writer is getting ready to help us understand.
He's telling us very clearly that the discipline of the race
is designed to build character in all of these areas because
he wants you and me to know the importance of a walk with God,
which those saints have all had in such a way that they finished
a knowledge of God, building maturity, usefulness and service,
and then devotion to finish. Everyone who is serious about
anything that they do are serious about finishing the job. You
don't, listen, you don't meet people who are proficient in
their business or in their vocation or in their office who don't
have as their ultimate goal finishing well. Do you understand that? When we see these athletes or
these important persons who have achieved major feats, you know
what they have done? They have already determined
in their heart that they were going to do this thing until
it gets done. They weren't vacillating it.
Listen, you don't go and sign up to run a race and don't ask,
how long is this race? Here you are, you might be able
to impress people for about 20 meters, right? And you go sign
up for a race and this is a 200 meter race. You get out the blocks
with those guys, look at him run. Well, why did he stop? See? And lots of folks start
off zealous about Christ who fall off. The lapse time is so
short. The lapse. It's so short. And
this is what the Hebrew writer is concerned about. Do not misunderstand
where we are going as we are dealing with an analogy. The
Hebrew writer is really worried about them departing from the
faith, apostatizing from the gospel, abandoning Christ because
they wear down under the rigor of endurance that comes with
proclaiming Christ as Lord. Point number three in your outline,
then. Don't faint. Do you see that? Boy, if that
does not offend somebody that's tired. Here you are tired and
then the coach says, don't faint. But that's exactly what God is
saying to you and me. And we need to hear it, especially
when we have watched tired. Right when we are becoming feeble
and we are struggling, And we're getting ready to develop this
right now. Right when we are becoming feeble and becoming
weary in our mind, and going through the kind of loss of oxygen
that occurs when you're not in shape, and you start going into
the delirium mode, you know the delirium mode? Your coach must
tell you, do not faint! Because if you hear that as an
imperative, designed to help you continue, then you're gonna
make the necessary adjustments. See, when you are in fainting
mode, you aren't thinking right. When you are in fainting mode,
you aren't thinking right. And in fact, when you're in fainting
mode, a lot of times, because you're discombobulated in your
mind, you're thinking you're doing well, and you're looking
really bad. And the coach sees it, and the
coach is telling you, hey, hey, hey, hey, tighten up, tighten
up, because you are in trouble. And unless you make the necessary
adjustments, you're going to fail. And that's what the text
is saying. Don't faint. Don't faint. He's
coming from a couple of portions in the scripture, but I want
you to read with me again in chapter 5 what he says over in
verse 7. Listen what he says. Verses 5
through 7 of chapter 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaks unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor what? Faint when you are
what? Rebuked Him that's absolutely
amazing verse 7 if you endure Chastening God deals with you
as sons. Do you see that? He's saying
do not faint endure endure Do not faint endure So I want to
talk to us about that. That's a very important concept
to which he is calling us Literally the word ladies and gentlemen
means to fall apart It means to collapse The word is ekluo,
and it's a verb that means to fully dissemble. Here it is. You're running the race, and
you've seen these people run 5Ks and 10Ks, right? 5Ks and
10Ks. I'm talking about 5 miles, 10
miles, 20 miles, 30 miles. Man, that's running. Isn't that
running? That's running. And you see these folks, and
they're running, and they have strategies. And then you see them starting
to get closer to the finish line. They might be 100 yards out or
200 yards out, and they start sprinting, right? And then as
they're running, you see that one person. You know what they
start doing? Losing form. They start losing
form. And then all of a sudden, as
they're getting there, they start, you know, the agony of defeat.
It just starts unraveling. Unraveling. Right? Unraveling. And then they start
falling. And you're feeling bad for them. They're unwrapping. You thought
they might have won, but no. You know what they did? They
fainted. They came apart. It's the word
that Jesus used, same word, in Matthew's gospel, chapter 15,
when he had been in the mountains for three days preaching and
teaching and the people were ready to go home and the disciples
were ready to send them home. They were tired. You know, we
get tired of each other after three straight days. But the
master said, no, no, no, don't send them home because they haven't
eaten. If we send them home not having
fed them, they will be weary and they will faint out of the
way. They won't make it. And so what
did our master do? He took care of them, didn't
he? And this is what we're about to get into. Because the Hebrew
writer is encouraging us like the Spirit of God is encouraging
us to not faint. Do not come apart. Do not fall
apart at the seams. Do not find yourself unraveling.
And pastor, what does that look like in the mind? Good question.
What does that look like in the attitude? What does that look
like in the psychology? What it looks like is this. Every
area in which I was talking to you about discipline, structure,
perseverance, all of those things that are necessary to building,
building, those things start to fall off. When you start getting
weary, you fail to maintain the structure of discipline. You
fail to maintain the continuity of the spiritual exercise essential
to building the mind. You fail to stay on the proper
theological and spiritual diet essential to build up that inner
man. You fail to work on your core. Remember the mind is the
core. You fail to work on your perseverance. You fail to do
those things essential to building up your inner man. And so now
your inner man is starting to wax very lazy. You become now
again indecisive about what you're going to do. Now you know you
know what you should be doing and you start becoming indecisive
about what you're going to do. And then you start just sort
of taking some time off. And the mind is struggling but
eventually you start kind of justifying wasting time. Wasting time and then as you
are struggling through wasting time You are now somehow trying
to find Bible verses that will justify you to tell you you're
healthy when in fact, you're not healthy at all There is no
indication that you're healthy, but you are rationalizing it.
Guess what? You are waxing weary already
You are rationalizing. Every very explicit model for
development and character growth is given to you in the Word of
God and laid out very clearly. In fact, you were enjoying those
things a while back, but you're not enjoying them now because
you're getting weary in your mind. You're getting weary in
your mind. In fact, one of the evidences,
I've told you this before, that you are waxing sick is because
you don't have a strong desire for the things of God anymore.
You don't have a passion for the Word. You can't endure sound
doctrine. You aren't giving yourself over
to studying certain doctrines in order to know those things,
in order to be useful to God. You're kind of just laying back.
You're laying back. You're getting weary. You are
actually falling apart right before your eyes and other people's
eyes. But you're telling yourself you're
not until you collapse. Am I making some sense? Every
now and then, I'll get it from a brother or sister. Help, pastor,
help. I'm falling apart. Good. I'm glad you saw it because
most people are falling apart and don't even see it. Don't
even see it. And so the Hebrew writer would
tell us now something very interesting, encouraging, and necessary for
us in our fourth point. Are you there? Attend to the
weak members of the body. Do you see that? Attend to the
weak members of the body. I want to show you something
here. This is this is this is nice Fascinating but nice verse
12 and 13 says 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. Now I say attend to the weak
members of the body because what the exhortation is all about
is the body meeting the body's needs so that the body collectively
can actually finish this race. Are you following me? So let
me give you the vision. If you look, he made mention
of the hands that are hanging down. You guys see that, right?
Lift up the hands that are hanging down. It's really the arms. The
word hands is a synecdoche for the whole of the arms. It's connected
to your shoulders. We're dealing with the analogy
of the body. Lift up the hands that are hanging
down. And the feeble knees, right? And the lame feet. If you see
that as one composite whole, Hanging arms feeble knees and
lame feet. Let me ask you the question Is
that a condition for running anywhere? See it if we look at the analogy
what we see is a man who is out of shape a Person that is already defeated
mentally. They're on the verge of collapse
See their form is out of shape They're not erect, their core
is not strong, their arms are not up, their knees are not straight,
and their feet certainly aren't straight. Do you see that? He
says, you are to attend to that. Wherefore, lift up the hands
which hang down. And that idea of that, the idea
of lifting up is to encourage them in such a way that strengthens
them. It really means to instruct to
the point of, hey, get your arms up. You know, when we are running,
and I'm not saying that I've done a whole lot of running,
but I have ran in my life enough to know that you have to have
breathing techniques when you run. and you have to have posture
when you run. And once you are getting weak
and feeble, you lose posture and you lose your breathing technique,
thus you lose your oxygen and everything starts to go downhill
from there. The writer is saying to the people
of God, listen, look and pay attention to the disposition
of your body because you are appearing like a person who is
about to stop running. Then he says, attend to it. Admittedly,
the writer is actually telling us things that he has been telling
us all the way back from the beginning. He has already been
telling us that we should be careful to watch for one another. And in fact, I'm not going to
do it in the text, but I would challenge you to go through the
whole of Hebrews and look at how many times he uses the word
we, us, and ours. He said in our text, let us run
this race. with patience, the race that
is set before us. He says to us, let us consider
Christ. And here he's telling us in verse
12, wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down. Now immediately
we would think in terms of an emotional, psychological attitude,
that's all good, that's all fine, because it's really speaking
to the issue of faith, isn't it? When the hands are hanging
down, That individual is not demonstrating any sense of enthusiasm
or commitment or purpose or tenacity. We got to deal with that, don't
we? When the hands are hanging down. Lift up the hands that
are hanging down. Lift them up because they're
on the verge of collapsing. This is a corporate responsibility
for us to finish the race together. Don't you keep running and fail
to regard your brother because your brother needs your help.
This is what is meant by caring about your fellow member. That's
the analogy. The hanging hands and the feeble
knees and the lame feet. You and I are to be concerned
about a brother or a sister being able to run this race with temperance,
but also in a conditioned fashion that says to us, you know what?
They're doing well. When we talk, I can hear in their attitude,
they're doing well. They have their struggles, don't
we all? But they're doing well. Why? Because they are looking
unto Jesus. Let me help you understand. If a person spiritually is depicted
as having hands hanging down and feeble knees and lame feet,
you know how they are talking? Well, I'm not quite sure if God
is able to keep me. You know how they're talking?
You know, I don't know if this church stuff is all that important. I hear all the time folk Excising
themselves from the church thinking they can run this race with Jesus
all by themselves. They're already fainting in the
way Already fainting in the way and when you encourage them to
pick it up pick it up my brother says I'm here to tell you you
only got 24 hours in the day you can only do so much carnal
stuff and You still need to spend time with God. And now they're
telling you that you're laying legalistic trips on them and
work mongering trips on them when you're simply encouraging
them to pursue the grace of God that's able to give you what's
necessary for you to continue running this race. Well, well,
so they are waxing feeble and you're going to see the analogy
here in a moment. As a pastor, I've seen this many times. I've
seen the process by which people slow down. and then eventually stop. Now,
while they're slowing down and you notice the momentum has shifted
and they're losing that zeal, they will tell you, no, I'm not.
Now you know better, but they're telling you, no, I'm not. And
then you go, okay, because you're not going to arm wrestle anyone.
God can show you. And eventually they don't find
the grace necessary to continue in the race. It's a tragic, tragic
reality of which the writer is here encouraging us. Remember
what we are told in chapter 10 verse 23 and following. Listen
to it again. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. He is faithful that promise and
let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to what
good works. not forsaking the assembly of
ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one
another and so much more as you see the day approaching. Ladies
and gentlemen, listen to me. When you are healthy spiritually,
you don't slow down toward the end of the race. You pick up
speed toward the end of the race. There was this story of the old
horse that the master had that would truck from the house, trek
from the house to the store every day. This is in the days when
there was nothing but horses and buggies. And the master owning
a nice horse, he would go to the store and back home, the
horse got old. And as he got older, he would
slow down a little bit going to the store. But on his way
home, When he saw the house in view, he would always pick up
speed because the one thing he wanted to do was get home, get
home, get home, get home. And the believers call to look
to Christ. And the closer we get to glory,
we should want to pick up speed so we can get home, get home,
get home, get home, get home. No excuses. Get home. That's why you saw with our master
as he was headed to Calvary, he got more intense, not less,
more committed, not less, more zealous. And there were multitudes
of distractions. Herod distracted him. Hey, I
want to see you do a trick. Tell that fox I ain't got but
three days to go. And then I'm back in my glory.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? This is very important. And again, I don't want you to
miss this. The text is telling us that it's our job as brothers
and sisters to strengthen the feeble knees, to help lift up,
encourage, bring up those hanging arms, and to make sure, make
sure that the lame feet, this is interesting, the lame feet
don't have any reason to turn out of the way. So under point
number four, here's a statement that I'm going to make. Keep
the course clear. Keep the course clear. Whenever you're serious about
running a race, the one thing that you examine is the course.
You are going to walk the course many times over before you run
it to make sure there are no potholes, no dips in the ground,
no cracks, anything where in the course itself can actually
offend you or halt you or stop you. Are you hearing me? Track
athletes do this all the time. They pace the course. They learn
the character of the course, the nature of the course, the
contour of the course, because they want to be able to run well.
And in order for you and I to make sure that everyone is running
well, we are to make sure that the course is clear. Pastor,
what does that mean? Make sure that we keep consistently
preaching and teaching the truth of the gospel. Make sure that
our doctrine is sound, that our doctrine is consistent, that
our doctrine is clear. Make sure that we are preaching
the Word of God and teaching the Word of God and exalting
Jesus Christ. Maintain the simplicity of the
Gospel, the purity of the Gospel, the comprehensive nature of the
Gospel, the singularity of the Gospel. The one thing that will
cause people to stumble out of the way is over-complexity. See,
one of the problems with our present evangelical church is
they're caught up in 50, 60 different things. And they have not made
the way clear. And lame people falter all the
time because they don't understand that the path is Christ. I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the light. No one comes unto the Father
but by me. And this is why we constantly talk about preaching
Christ. For us, Christ is the sum and
substance of the revelation of God, and he is the way to God.
And to the degree that we are teaching consistently, comprehensively,
clearly, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that exclusively,
men and women have a straight path to the God of glory. Am I making some sense? Now,
if you fall off that path, you're really bad. Because the Bible
tells me a wayfaring man can't err in that way. Keep the path
clear. Maintain the constant preaching
of the glory of God in Christ. Be committed to His glory. Make
the course clear. That's what you do. Clear, sound,
preaching and teaching of the glory of God in Christ. It's
not only edifying, it's healing. It's healing. He sent His word
and it healed them. Lame feet get made strong when
you preach the truth of the gospel. In fact, the analogy of running
this race is given to us in Psalm 19, pull it up, verse 5. Psalm
19, verse 5. Now, Mark, this is where in Psalm
19 it speaks concerning the glory of God being manifested in the
word of God, and the line being drawn forth, and wherever that
line is drawn forth, the word is heard, and then it describes
the nature of God's word, which in its person is Jesus Christ,
as a bridegroom. Is Christ a bridegroom? Coming
out of this chamber coming from where the hidden places of the
mysteries of the kingdom of God and he is what? Rejoicing isn't
that what the Hebrew writer said? rejoicing as what a weak man
a lame man a feeble man a strong man to run a race and I submit
to you that you and I need the presence and the power and the
blessing of that Christ To help us get through our journey And
this is why we keep our eyes fixed on him. We keep our eyes
fixed on Christ because I know this. He ran that race for me. And that where he is, I am. And
one day I will actually be with him because he is my forerunner. Am I making some sense? But he
gave me the model. So God give me the grace to be
strong. Be strong. Point number five.
Let's go to work. Some very difficult things to
comprehend here. Very difficult things to comprehend
here. We need to see it as it is. The Hebrew writer wants us
to understand something very important. As he says over in
verse 13, make straight paths for your feet, lest that which
is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed. Verse 14 through verse 17 is
our warning. Fascinating. Follow peace with
all men Do you see that? Follow peace with all men now. Why is he moving from the analogy
of running? Running in an orthodox fashion.
That's what our word straight means orthodox an Orthodox path
with an orthodox feet running lawfully running this gospel
race and follow peace with all men Do you know why he's using
that statement saints watch this now when you and I are not laying
aside every weight and the sin that so easily beset us, you
and I are susceptible to distractions. And those distractions appear
in this form, controversies, debates, arguments, stripes,
and contentions with people. See, when the Bible talks about
laying aside in the New Testament, the thing that it says to the
New Testament church is lay aside all malice. Lay aside all guile. I'm speaking 1st Peter chapter
2 verse 1 and 2 Colossians chapter 3 verses 8 and following Ephesians
chapter 5 verses 3 and following It says lay aside all malice
all guile all clamor all anger all strife lay it aside. Are
you guys hearing me? You can't run this race Successfully
engaged in all kinds of petty arguments with all kind of people
now if you are walking in a carnal mindset you are always arguing
with people and People are always arguing with you Now watch this. A man or a woman that's serious
about running this race don't have time for petty arguments. This is how people know you're
serious about God. They can't knock you off your
track. Are you hearing me? You have
an agenda. Christ has called you to run
a race. He has set the race in front of you. He has told you
that he is the goal. He is the end product. And he
says, look away, look away. Do not look to this. Do not look
to that. Don't get caught up in this.
Don't get caught up in that. Don't clamor for this. Don't
clamor for that. Keep your eyes straight on. and
demonstrate a priority of soul that says I am committed to finishing
this race and I won't let any carnal thing hinder me. Follow
peace with all men. You know how you follow peace
with all men? Leave them alone. Follow peace
with all men and holiness. Did you see the term holiness?
I want you to get this. I want you to get this. Follow
peace with all men and holiness without which No man shall see
the Lord. I got another point to make here.
Because see, the writer is clear. The people that are serious about
God see his glory. See, this is the thing that helps
us drop all of the unnecessary garbage. When I look at the garbage
and it compels me to jump into the dumpster and get stinky with
it. And then I look to Christ and see his effulgent glory and
beauty and splendor. The choice is easy. I'm going
to stay on my course. When I get tempted by worldly
desires and worldly passions that tell me, you might as well
have this, man, you've been running long enough. Take your ease and
enjoy your life. But then I look to Christ and
see that he finished the race and what he has for me at the
end, the choice becomes easy. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
the choice. And then when people would want to find some reason
to argue, you know, our world is filled with folks that want
to argue. You better ask yourself, is it
worth this debate? Is this debate worth you getting
sidetracked from your race? Sidetracked. And here's the warning. If men and women are distracted
by petty arguments and gossip and strife and contention, You
are not seeing the glory of God. I don't know how you can behold
his glory and be wrapped up in petty arguments. It can't happen. It can't happen. And so there
are two verses I want you to mark with me. The first is back
up in verse 11, where the writer says, for verily, for a few years,
our earthly parents chastened us with regards to their own
pleasure. Nothing wrong with that. They
had goals for us just like our heavenly father has goals for
us, right? But God for our what? Prophet. The Lord chastens us,
corrects us, instructs us for our prophet saints. Is that true? And he explains it. This is what
we call an exegetical. What is that prophet? That we
might be partakers of his holiness. Do you see it? Can I have your
attention for a few more minutes before I let you go? So, you're
not going to enjoy communion with God. That's what is meant
by holiness. When you are preoccupied by the
strife of earthly and secular things. No man can serve two
masters. You can't serve two masters.
You can't immerse yourself in the clamor of the field of this
life. and enjoy fellowship with God.
It can't happen. And the goal wherein God would
chase His children is in order to draw them near to Him. This
was one of the other fascinating things about this matter of chastisement
that I saw raising my kids. When I disciplined my kids, they
drew closer to me. Because they still love you. Are you hearing me? Also, when
they understood it, here's what they understood. They were wrong.
They did deserve discipline. And all whom the Father loves,
He corrects. This builds a bond. So when my
Father chases me, you know what He's doing? He's keeping me a
partaker of His holiness. because he knows I'm about to
be tempted. I'm about to be tripped up. I'm about to go out of the
way. I'm about to get caught up with this con, this trip,
this plan, this scheme that has nothing to do with God's glory
or communion with God. So he will discipline me to keep
me in fellowship with him for which I am thankful, thankful,
thankful. You were made for fellowship
with God. You were not made to be caught
up in all of the clamor of this life. Fellowship with God. Fellowship with God the other
word is in first Peter chapter 4 where our God very plainly
tells us that the sufferings that we go through are such that
we might be a partaker of Christ and the sufferings that he is
also going through or has also gone through a partaker of Christ's
sufferings Think about it with me for a moment what the writer
is saying is the reason why we go through the discipline that
we do is is in order that we might suffer the way Christ did.
You're not going to glory without that. Our master suffered. You have to suffer too. Am I
making some sense? Our master suffered. So here's a sort of
an adumbration of the point. And I want to make my last point
with regards to Esau. This will be easy. All that live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer. Just write that down. If you
think you're going to grow and be used by God and not suffer,
you're in the wrong gospel. Let me see if I can make that
argument good. OK, here's what he says after he says, follow
peace with all men and holiness, which no man without no man shall
see the Lord and look diligently, lest any man what fail of the
grace of God. Do you see that? That's the same
idea as falling short. That's the same idea as fainting.
of the grace of God, lest any what? Root of bitterness springing
up do what? Trouble you and thereby many
be what? He's warning about what happens
when you and I don't properly interpret correction and admonition. That if we misinterpret the trials
that we go through as not being the loving hand of God to shape
our character, we might chafe at that, we might oppose that,
we might even adopt doctrines that actually oppose suffering
like prosperity preaching does. Am I making some sense? Now,
you may not establish a wholesale creed, but in your heart, you
may have an aversion to suffering and therefore not see the end
benefit that God is calling you to. If you're a child of God,
you're going to suffer because of Christ. Now, here's our warning. Esau. Esau. Now, who is Esau? He was Jacob's
brother. Remember Jacob? Who is Jacob? Jacob is the one whom God loved.
Remember that? Now Jacob represents every believer. He's a great
type of Jesus Christ. But he represents every believer.
Jacob and Esau were what? Twins. Technically, Esau came
out first. Jacob came out second. The Bible's
very clear. God loved Jacob and hated who?
Did he hate Esau? That's what the text says. But
do you know why? Esau hated God. Now let me help
you see this. Both of them were blessed to
grow up in a gospel church, weren't they? Their father preached the
gospel to them. Their mother enforced the gospel
in their life. Jacob was a man who aspired to
the blessings. Esau didn't. Esau sold his birthright. Did he not? This is Genesis chapter
26 through Genesis 28, and I want you to mark how the Hebrew writer
puts it because I don't want to hold you much longer, but
I want you to see the warning that I'm talking about because
this speaks to you and me today. Folks who are privileged with
the gospel, but then end up selling out the gospel, abandoning the
gospel because you don't want to suffer for a little while.
Listen to what it said. For you know, you know, no, going
to verse 16, lest there be any fornicator profane person as
Esau. Do you notice how the writer
immediately puts Esau in the category of both a fornicator
and unholy? He was both a fornicator and
unholy. Now he was in the same church with his brother Jacob,
heard the same gospel of free and sovereign grace, electing
love in Jesus Christ, salvation by grace alone. They both heard
it and in fact Esau had the birthright of the firstborn, didn't he?
He had the birthright of the firstborn but he's called a fornicator. Now what does that mean in a
spiritual sense? It means that while you have ostensibly the
doctrines of the gospel, you have such a love for the world
that you are a fornicator. Fornication on a spiritual level
is loving the world while at the same time externally appearing
to be a Christian. Am I making some sense? Fornicating. And we got that problem massively
here in America, in the West and in the church. Fornication.
But Esau was a fornicator because what he had done before he even
sold his birthright was to marry two Canaanite pagan women. Which
was a grief to his mama and his daddy because the word of God
says we should not be unequally yoked. Which means Esau had no
regard for the true and the living God even though he knew what
the gospel taught. He married two pagan women and
it drove Rebecca and Isaac crazy. Because Isaac understood what
his father Abraham went through to get him a godly bride in Rebekah. And here comes Esau. He's the
man of the world. He's a mighty hunter. He's tall
and strong and debonair. Powerful fornicator. Here he has the birthright of
the whole kingdom. He has the birthright to transition
from Isaac to himself and have all of the land and all of the
prosperity of the land and all of the dominion that was given
to Abraham. And what does he do? He sells it for what? A bowl
of soup. Why? Because he was a man given
to his lust. All the labor of man is for his
belly. He despised that birthright. And you know what? God despised
him too. Because the birthright pointed
to the death atoning work of Jesus Christ, the price for the
whole covenant. For you to throw out the birthright
is to say to hell with Christ. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, Esau had no love for the gospel. He did not see
himself as a sinner. He didn't see himself as the
object of mercy and grace. He didn't earn the privilege
to be the firstborn. of the Son of the Son of the
greatest man in the world. It was all of grace. You and
I didn't earn anything to come under the hearing of the gospel
and to be touched by the Spirit of God and to be drawn to Christ.
It's all of grace. Can't we suffer a little bit?
See, because Esau was saying while he was suffering in his
belly, getting hungry, what on earth is good, any good of this
birthright if it can't fill my belly? Are you hearing what I'm
saying? And if I were to take the time to expand that, that
has to do with every false gospel today, which has sold the gospel
out for material blessings, carnal blessings, worldly aggrandizement,
all of the fleshly things that go on in religion today. They
have abandoned the gospel. And then on top of abandoning
the gospel, he goes back and cries out to father Isaac, not
asking for the birthright. He wanted the blessing. You see
Esau's every day on your television. Many of you support them. These
are the false prophets you support because you want that carnal
blessing like them, even though they have sold out the gospel,
they don't preach Christ. They don't preach the glory of
God. They don't call you to repentance and faith. They don't tell you
you're a hell-bound sinner. They don't tell you that God
is angry with the wicked every day. They don't tell you God
must punish sin. They don't tell you He's the
judge of all the earth. They don't tell you there's a
day coming wherein God will judge the world through that man whom
He has raised from the dead, even Jesus Christ. You don't
hear the gospel, but they'll tell you how God will bless you
and you'll sell your birthright for that blessing. That's what
Esau did. And when he came to Father Isaac
saying, bless me, bless me, bless me, he could not get Jacob's
blessing because he sold it. And what the Hebrew writer is
saying to the Hebrew people is, if you depart from Christ, you're
just like Esau. There is no possible chance for
you to receive the blessing anymore. And let me close with the final
point. This is the audacity of Esau. When he went to his daddy
and begged for the blessing, and his daddy said, hey, We're
not blessed. I'm done. Those that get blessed by me
are blessed. And you can't change that. I'm
not taking that blessing from him and giving it to you. You
sold out access to the blessing when you sold the birthright.
You know what that means? The blessing comes with the birthright.
He got a subordinate blessing, which amounted to nothing but
a curse, because God said the only way you're going to survive
is by the sword. And then do you know what that
wicked man did after that? He went out and married two other
heathen women, making his parents mad again because he was a fornicator
and he was profane. Where did that all start? With
a root of bitterness in his heart because he despised the chastening
of the Lord. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? He misinterpreted how God works to prepare him for
the blessing that was his when father Isaac died. The exhortation
to you and me is this. It's very clear that we ought
to be committed to gospel holiness. Are you hearing me? Be committed
to gospel holiness. I'll keep it simple right here.
Don't get caught up in religious notions about holiness. It's
really simple. It's so simple I can't even,
I really shouldn't have to even explain it. I ain't explaining
it. I ain't. People act like they don't know
it. They act like they don't even know the alphabet. No, I'm going
to tell you. Because I don't want your blood
on my shoulder. So I'm going to keep it just
as simple. I think about this. Elders think about this. People
who love God and love his glory think about this all the time.
Holiness is simple. Holiness is always putting God
first. It's just that simple. It's not
about how long or short your hair is, what color clothes you
wear. I remember a pastor that kicked
a member out of the church because he wore a pink shirt. He called
that holiness. I said to myself, I'm going to
buy five pink shirts and go to his church. That's not holiness. Holiness
is not wearing lipstick or not wearing lipstick. Holiness is
walking Coram Dale and actually respecting the God that you know
is looking upon you. responding according to the light
of the glory of God that is emanating all around you because he has
allowed you to come into his presence no man can see God and
live and yet you and I get to behold his glory in the face
of Jesus Christ all the time how good God is to us how good
God is to us to give us a access into his presence by his spirit
because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ I value that I want to be a partaker of his
holiness Give me the grace to choose you every time. Every
time. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Committed to Gospel Holiness

What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

Why is endurance important for Christians?

How do we know that grace is essential for our salvation?

Why is discipline important in the Christian life?

What does it mean to look to Jesus in our faith?

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Committed to Gospel Holiness

What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

Why is endurance important for Christians?

How do we know that grace is essential for our salvation?

Why is discipline important in the Christian life?

What does it mean to look to Jesus in our faith?

Sermon Transcript

About Jesse Gistand

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