Hebrews chapter 12, and I really
just want to read a couple of verses, maybe. Hebrews 12, 14, 15. Follow peace with all men and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Look indeligently,
carefully, lest any man fail of the grace of God. lest any
root of bitterness spraying it up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled." Of course, this epistle here was written to Jewish
believers, those that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ among
the Jewish nation. Some of them were getting scattered
out now, being persecuted and so on, but it was written to
the Jewish nation. That's why they call it the Hebrews,
the book of Hebrews. And Paul, or whoever wrote this
epistle, we were talking about the other night, whoever wrote
it, he described really, to my understanding, who he was writing
to in the sixth chapter. And he says some things about
these people. He says he was writing to those
who had been enlightened. They were in the dark, but they
had been enlightened. Their minds had gotten light. And the Lord had come there by
the Holy Spirit and through His Word and give light to their
understanding. The eyes of the understanding
had been enlightened. We read about that different
places in the Scriptures. God that commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in your hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face
of Jesus Christ. And if somebody wanted to describe
what it is to be saved, what it is to be converted, really
one way to describe it is just coming out of the darkness into
the light. That's what it is. You've been
enlightened. And then He said you've tasted
of the heavenly gift. You know that has to be the Lord
Jesus, doesn't it? God so loved the world that He
gave What an unspeakable gift God has given to us. And we've
tasted that gift. If so be that you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. He said, you've tasted that heavenly
gift. And then He describes them like
this, you're made partakers of the Holy Ghost. How does a man
become a partaker of the Holy Ghost? Well, when he's born of
the Spirit. The Spirit comes within us and
He's the Spirit of adoption, and He cries, Father, and we
cry, Father, and we're partakers of that divine nature that He
gives us, so we're partakers of this sovereign, eternal Spirit
of God and of Christ. Then He makes this statement,
He said He identifies them like this, you have tasted the good
Word of God. You've tasted the good Word of
God. There was years in my life, I never opened this Bible because
when I did, all it was was a bunch of words on pages. I had no idea
what it meant, what he was talking about. And then the Lord began
to enlighten me. And I'm telling you, this became
like milk to a newborn baby. And it came like honey to your
taste. You tasted the good Word of God. And this is why those apostles
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words of eternal
life. Isn't it wonderful that you can
pick up this book and it's the words of eternal life? And you
can read it knowing this is from God. And it feeds your spirit. It's food for your soul. You've
tasted the good Word of God. And then he identifies them like
this. He says, you've tasted the powers of the world to come. There is going to be a new heaven
and a new earth. And that same power that's going
to create that new heaven and a new earth is the same power
that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And it's the same power
that quickens you from your dead state in sin. You've tasted this
power of the world to come because that's God's power. You've tasted
of God's power. That's the way He identified
these saints. But boy, now they had suffered. Some of them were
growing discouraged. They had grown discouraged. Paul
tells us here in chapter 5 that they had become dull of hearing. They had suffered and they had
become discouraged, and now they had become dull in hearing the
gospel. Suffering has a tendency to do
that sometimes, doesn't it? You ever seen people they suffered
so extremely that it just changed the countenance of their face?
A face that was full began to become wrinkled, and you say,
my goodness, how they must have suffered. That's what had happened
to these people. And I want to consider just for
a minute some of the things that they'd
suffered. I want you to look back here in chapter 10. And this is what I'm getting
at. Suffering sometimes can make
us bitter. It can make us bitter if we're
not careful. We've seen people who have suffered and they've
become bitter. Look how they suffered. Look here in chapter
10 and look in verse 32. Look how they suffered at the
hands of their fellow men simply because they belonged to Christ,
because they professed Christ. Look here in verse 32. He said,
Call to remembrance the former days, in which after that you
were illuminated, you were enlightened, you endeared a great fight of
afflictions. And here's what they endeared.
Partly, while you were made a gaze in stock, both by reproaches
and afflictions. Boy, they talked about you. They
made fun of you. reproached you, misrepresented
you, cursed you, laughed at you, wouldn't have anything to do
with you, simply because you were a believer in Jesus Christ. That's what happened in the early
church with these Jews. If you professed Christ when
He was here, they would put you out of the synagogue. They hated
you. And partly while you became companions
of them that were so used. So they suffered reproach because
they were believers in Jesus Christ. But that's not all. Look
in verse 34. For you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling, the plundering of your goods. They confiscated
their properties. I imagine they went into their
houses and got their furniture. We know from the book of Acts
that they drove many of them out of Jerusalem because they
persecuted them that they had to leave. They went everywhere
preaching and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ. But He said, knowing
in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. So this is some of the things
that they suffered. Paul was writing to them in chapter
13, and he said, Here we have no continuing city, but we seek
one to come. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the camp. They had to go without the temple,
had to go without the city of Jerusalem, and sometimes without
the whole nation of Israel. They had to leave their nation
because they were believers in Jesus Christ. That's how they
suffered. That's how they suffered. That's
the first thing. That's the first thing. And I
guess you and I, because we never experienced this, probably we
don't know what endearing a trial this was, what a heartache, what
a grief this was to them. The Lord Jesus told them, He
said, they of your own house are going to be your enemies.
Father is going to turn on his sons, and mother is going to
turn on their daughters. That's what you fellows are going to suffer.
And that's what happened to them. Over here in the 12th chapter,
but here's something else. Look at something else here,
and that was the chastening hand of the Lord. Look in chapter
12, and you just read this. You just read this. We don't
talk too much about the chastening of the Lord, but I tell you,
if we have experienced it, well, we can know how grievous sometimes
it can be. David said, Lord, don't rebuke
me in your anger. Don't chasten me in your sore
displeasure. Don't chasten me like that. But
look here in verse 5. Just read this. If you just read
about the chastening of the Lord, in verse 5, You have forgotten
the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My
son, don't despise the chastening of the Lord. And don't faint,
don't lose heart, don't get discouraged when you are rebuked of Him.
For whom the Lord loves, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth. If you endear chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is He whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
we are of all our partakers. then are you bastards, illegitimate,
and not sons. Wherefore we have fathers of
our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, respect. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the father of spirits than live? For they for
a few days chasten us after their own pleasure, but he for our
profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields
the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which
are hanging down, and the feeble knees. So they not only were
suffering at the hands of their Jewish friends, relatives, and
neighbors. Boy, here they were enduring
the chastening of the Lord. And thirdly, here's something
else. The matter of being told constantly
in this book that they must exercise patience. If you're going to
follow the Lord, you're going to have to be patient. Look in
chapter 10 and verse 36 what He said to them. Chapter 10 and verse 36. You
have need of patience that after you have done the will of God,
you might receive the promise. The Lord is on His own timetable
and you can't rush Him. One of the things you find out
in your Christian life that you spend most of your time doing
is waiting on the Lord. Abraham waited for 25 years for
one promise to be fulfilled. The Lord gave him a promise that
you'll have a son. He didn't tell him it would be
25 years later when he was an old, old man. But after he had
patiently endured, he obtained The promise. Patience. You ever heard anybody talk about
trying your patience? Well, God can try your patience,
can't He? He tried your patience. Somebody says He may not come
when you want Him to, but He'll come right on time. His time. His time. So all of this suffering,
I guess, had finally discouraged these Hebrew believers, and it
had exposed them to some danger. And he mentions it here in verse
15 of our text, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace
of God. Here is some good advice for
every professor of Jesus Christ. Make sure that you are saved
by free and sovereign grace. Make sure that you don't come
short of being saved by grace. The whole system of salvation
is a system of grace. And if we fall short of grace,
we won't be saved. We just won't be saved. It's
a good thing, he said, that the heart be established with grace. Why grace? Because grace saves
us. Grace has saved us, grace is
saving us, and grace will save us. Peter said we shall be saved
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think it would
be naive of us this afternoon, as we gather here to worship,
to think that everybody else that's gathered to worship in
this great nation is saved by grace. Their understanding of
grace is not even scriptural grace. We were talking about
that this morning. What is grace? It's not obligated. It has no promises from you to
be fulfilled. It doesn't wait for any movement
on the part of its objects. At first it comes unsought for,
unasked for. And it does the work. If repentance
is required, Performs it. It breaks the heart. If faith
is required, it works faith in us. Saved by grace. Make sure that we don't fall
short of being saved by grace. And here's something that is
very comforting. The grace of God in the heart will not fail
to save. Men may fall short of saving
grace, but no man will fall from it who are saved by it. Many people come short, don't
they? It will be sad on the Day of Judgment when people knock
and say, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast
out devils in your name? But they come short of that one
thing which saves you, and that's grace. But where grace begins,
it's work in the heart. It will never fail. And a person
will never fall from it. Look here what the Apostle said
in chapter 12 concerning this kingdom. Look he said in chapter
12 and look in verse 28. Chapter 12 and verse 28. Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, Let us have
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and
with godly fear. We have received a kingdom which
cannot be moved. And listen, if one citizen of that kingdom
should fall away, just one, then that kingdom would be moved.
Would it not? Because if one can fall away,
then all may fall away. And if a man can fall away from
grace, he will fall away from grace. But we receive a kingdom which
can not be moved. And what is that kingdom? Is
that not the church? Is that not the saints? Are we
not in the kingdom? And that kingdom won't be moved.
Not one citizen will be taken out of that kingdom. There's two reasons no true believer
will ever fail or fall from the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Two reasons it'll never fail. Want me to show them to you? Look at it in Luke chapter 22. There's two reasons. The grace
of God will never fail. Once the Lord begins it in the
heart, it'll never fail. Once you begin to believe, you'll
never cease to believe. This may be not a good way to
say this, but you know a believer that's had this grace begun in
his heart to believe, you cannot not believe. You cannot not believe. You just cannot. Sometimes you're
ready to throw up your hands and say, I can't believe. But
you can't not believe. You just can't. And there's a
reason why that is. There's a reason why that grace
of faith will never fail in your heart. And we're told right here
in my text, look in verse 31. Look, 22 verse 31. Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan has desired to have you. that He may sift you
as wheat. And buddy, He can do it to you.
Peter found that out, didn't he? But you're the only thing
that saved him and kept him believing. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. And he had no bones about it,
no doubts about it. When you are converted, not if,
but when, then strengthen your Why will faith never fail? Jesus
Christ is the author of it. And He pleads on its behalf before
the Father in heaven. And He'll never fail. Let me
give you another reason. Look over 1 Corinthians chapter
13. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
13. Here's another reason. A Christian will never fail of
God's grace. Not a true believer. Well, let's just begin reading
in verse 1. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 13,
verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. And though I have to give the
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, and have not
love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffers long,
and is kind. Love envieth not, love bondeth
not itself, love is not puffed up, love does not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thanketh
no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endeareth
all things, and look at this, love never fails. Love never fails. That love that you are born of
will never fail. It will never fail. We know it
can grow cold. We know that. But it will never
fail. And if that grace of love in
the heart will never fail, because the Spirit has given us a new
birth, and if that love failed, then the new birth would die.
But if that love that's of the grace of the Spirit never fails,
how about that love in heaven that Wayne talked about this
morning? That love that the Apostle Paul said, I'm persuaded that
neither life nor death Angels or principalities or powers or
things present or things to come, no life, no death, shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
We're killed all the day long. We're led like sheep to the slaughter.
But in none of these things we will be separated from the love
of God in Jesus Christ. It'll never fail. Well, I guess
if there's one thing in all the Scriptures that proves the security
of the saint, that's got to be one of them. That's got to be
one of them. Love. The love of God in Christ. But when the apostle here is
saying that fail of the grace of God, there's many people come
short of it. But I tell you one thing, it'll
never fall out of grace. No true believer will ever fall
out of grace. Look back at our text again. Here in the last part of our
text. So that's very comforting to
me. It encourages me to believe, looking
diligently. I tell you, I want that settled. I don't want to be trusting partly
to grace and partly to works, partly to Christ and partly to
my... I don't want to go through life like that. Well, I want
to be saved by grace, don't you? And what other way to be saved?
And boy, that was settled. Actually, a lot of people got
doubts and fears because they've not settled this thing. It's
not settled in their hearts. And it can be settled. And one
of the things that will settle it, just look at His Word and
say, I believe it. I believe it. Somebody said, maybe it was
Spurgeon, they said, what would you do if God was here talking
to you? If Jesus Christ was here talking to you, would you believe
what He told you? Well, of course, if He told me.
Here it is. We think sometimes, well, if
He came here and told me, I'd believe Him. But He's telling
us. We'd be ready to believe if we heard Him from His mouth.
But we doubt what He says in His Word. Believe Him. Ain't nobody but saved people
believe the Bible. Lost people don't believe this.
If you believe Him, you're a saved person. You're a saved person. That ought to be settled. Settle
it. Settle it. But here He says this, "...lest
any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and therefore
many be defiled." Boy, this has been a concern for so many poor
suffering saints about this bitterness. Whoever you may be able to apply
this to, I tell you what, you can't disqualify the saint because
he has trouble in his heart and he has fears and concerns that
he don't want to be bitter. And I think it's this suffering
that we looked at, suffering at the hands of their fellow
man, even suffering of the chastening of the Lord, Wait in and wait
in and wait in while you're suffering, and sometimes it can harden the
heart. Sometimes it can even cause a
degree of bitterness in our hearts. Could I say this not only towards
our fellow man, but sometimes towards the Lord? Bitterness? Have I grown bitter? because
of what I've suffered? Boy, I've suffered some and you
have too. Have I grown bitter in my heart because others have
done me wrong? Man, can you imagine having to
resist that temptation when they come and say, Get out of your
house. This is my house. Leave your furniture here. Leave
your bugging horse in the driveway. That's mine. Get out of the house,
you Christians. Wouldn't that be tough? You reckon
any of them was ready to become bitter about it? Am I offended
with the Lord because of His chastening hand? That seed that
Brother Lurie told us about last week that was sown in the browers
and the thorns? When tribulations came and trials came? By and by, they
were offended. And this is what Paul has said
here. Be careful, look diligently near
your sufferings that you don't get bitter over your suffering. Here is a good defense against
the bitterness that can take root in our hearts. Here is a
good defense against people treating us wrong Here's the only defense
I know that works. Pray for them. Pray for them. You can't grow bitter against
somebody that you pray for. You can't do it. You just can't
do it. Pray for your friends who don't
agree with you on something. Pray for your friends who are
mad at you. Pray for your enemies who hate
your guts. Follow peace with all men. Recompense to no man evil for
evil, but as much as life in you, live peaceably with all
men. If your enemy hungry, feed him. If he thirsts, give him to drink.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And
I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use
you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father. For He sends His Son. His Son
shines on the good and the evil. And He sends rain on the just
and the unjust, not because He's required to, not because they
deserve it, because that's the way He is. Be like our Father
in heaven. Be kind and be merciful. If you love them that love you,
what reward have you? The Republicans do that. If you greet them, your brothers
only, what do you more than others? The heathen do that. Pray. It's hard to grow bitter towards
anybody when you pray for them. There's one thing that I've been
doing, and I've found a need to do it for several weeks now. Months, I guess. Months. Every
day, I get off by myself, and I say, Lord, I forgive everybody. and anybody that's ever done
anything to me. And I say, Lord, please, give
them grace, if I've hurt anybody, to forgive
me. Lord, I forgive everybody that's
ever done anything to me, and give them grace to forgive me. And boy, there's something about
that prayer, when you're honest with Him, that has a tendency
to nip that bitterness in its bud. And I tell you, you can't
pray that long, I don't believe you can, and be honest with Him,
but those old roots will be plucked up, and they can't grow. Root of bitterness. Bitterness
will consume us, won't it? Bitterness will consume us. Forgive
Forgive unconditionally. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven
us. Forgiveness. Sometimes I watch Richard Wurmbrandt. He was in one of the countries,
one of the old Russian block countries. I forget now which
country it was in. But they kept him in solitary
confinement for like 15 years. He saw nothing but gray walls.
Only time he was out when they got him out daily to beat him.
had this one captain that beat him almost daily, beat him. Romania,
Romanian prison. And when they took him over,
when the wall fell, and the Russian blocks fell, those countries
fell, they took those guys, those guards that were doing that,
and they put them in jail. And almost on a daily basis,
Richard Wurmbrand would go to that captain and sit with him
and visit with him. and became good friends with
him. A man that beat him for years. I guess he had two choices. He
could either forgive him and pray for him or he could grow
bitter about it all. Look in diligently lest any root
of bitterness. I was reading a story this week
about one of the martyrs. I'm not for sure where I read
it. maybe in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, but they were hanging a believer. They were hanging a Christian.
He wouldn't recant, so they were going to hang him. And the poor
hangman, the guy that was trying to fix the knot, he was so nervous
that he couldn't tie the knot. And the Christian stopped, and
to keep the hangman from getting into trouble, he tied the knot
and handed it to him. And he put it around his neck
and they hung him. And he thanked Him for sending him home so early
to be with the Lord. Ain't that love? You either pray
and forgive and love or you take a chance of this root of bitterness
coming up in your heart. But there this is and this has
happened too. And I've talked to preachers.
I've talked to children of God. that had had trouble with this. Growing bitter towards the Lord.
That's dangerous. But that's happened. That's happened.
John the Baptist sent his disciples to the Lord Jesus one day and
he said, Are you he that should come or do we look for another?
And he was in prison. His ministry was over with. They
had him in prison. And the Lord sent word back with
his disciples. And he said, you go tell John
what you saw. I've healed the sick. I've raised
the dead. I've healed the lepers and all of this. And he said,
blessed is he who ever is not offended in me. Why would he
tell John that? John's having trouble. Shut up
in that prison or dungeon waiting for them to cut his head off.
John, don't be offended. Don't grow bitter. Don't grow
bitter. Did the Lord Jesus ever grow
bitter when He endeared all He endeared for us? Consider Him,
He told us in the first part of this chapter, that endeared
such contradiction of sinners against Himself. Consider what
He endeared for us, and He never grew bitter. Could we grow bitter
with Him? Do we have any right To even
say anything about the way He treats us? Has He ever treated
us unkindly? Has He ever treated us unjustly?
And when we feel His rod, can we go bitter when we remember
why He chastened us? Why does He chasten us? Because
He loves us! Why does He put His rod to us
and turns us from our sins and our foolishness? He does it so
we won't be condemned with the world. Why does He hide His face
sometimes? Just to make us love Him more
when He reveals Himself. Why does He whip us sometimes,
though it grieves us, to conform us to His image? He cares more
about us, brothers and sisters, than we care about ourselves.
We'd go on in our sins. We'd play with the little toys.
We'd enjoy this world. We'd get ourselves in all kinds
of trouble if the Lord didn't love us and guide us and chasten
us. And when we think about that,
can we be bitter? Can we be offended with our Lord?
Never. Never should we think that way.
Lord, forgive us when we think that way. And Paul tells us one more thing. Here in chapter 12, I think too,
helps us with this. What a remedy for those who are
aggravated with us or even our enemies. Pray for them. Don't
be offended with the Lord when He chastens us. He loves us.
It's for our good. And here's something else that
will help us. And He tells us here in verse 1 of this chapter.
Seeing then that we're confessed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and sin that doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith." Take fresh courage! Mend your pace! We're in a race! And I tell you how to become
discouraged, and discouragement could lead to bitterness. It's
when we get so heavy, we can't run, and we just want to sit
down. Fresh courage take, mend your
pace, and he said in verse 12, lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your
feet. Let that which is lame be turned
out of the way, but rather let it be healed. Mend our ways,
brothers and sisters. Mend our pace. I don't know how well we're running,
do you? We're running with patience.
Whatever we've got in our lives, maybe we've got things in our
lives that's hindering us from running. That's what the Christian
life is. It's laying aside the things
that beset us while looking unto our Savior and our Lord. I hope that's a help to us. I
hope that's a blessing to you.