Disclaimer: This transcription is provided for informational purposes, reference, and convenience. Please note that it may contain errors, omissions, or spelling mistakes due to the nature of live audio transcriptions. While we strive for accuracy, this document should not be considered a fully authoritative record of the sermon. For clarification, we recommend referring to the original source. Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

Thank you. You may be seated. Wonderful old hymns. Nancy squeezed my hand very tightly when we began to sing, "Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us," because about 43 years ago, that's what we had sung at our wedding. And the Lord has been faithful to that end, to be sure.

Will you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 12? If you've not been with us, we continue to make our way verse by verse through this amazing epistle written to the early Jewish believers, and others who had come into the church that were Gentiles as well. And may I remind you that the Epistle to the Hebrews is filled with magnificent doctrinal truths that help us understand the nature and the purpose of God's plan of redemption, especially as it relates to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And many of you have commented on how you just didn't realize there was so much doctrine in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and I'm thankful that you have been patient as we continue to look at every single verse, and many times every word, listening to the careful exegesis of each phrase; exegesis referring to just the linguistic and historically accurate interpretation of the text. And of course, this is at the heart of expository preaching, because we know that right doctrine results in right living. If your doctrine isn't right, your living is probably not going to be right either. And so we must know exactly what God has said and the implications of his great truths in our life, and then the Holy Spirit applies those truths to our life. And as we come to Hebrews 12, we see that that's exactly what is happening.

This chapter is filled with exhortations to those in the early church, and, by extension, to all of us. We've had a number of chapters now filled with rich doctrine, and now it's time to understand how to apply that doctrine in our life. And he's been doing this in other passages before this, as we'll see, but that's certainly what's happening. And so bear in mind that the indicatives of Scripture and the imperatives of Scripture are inseparable. The indicatives meaning the facts, the doctrinal truths of scripture, and then the imperatives, the commands, what we need to do those things are tied together. This is God's method. He explains, he teaches, and then we apply. And that has been what we've seen repeatedly in Hebrews. Let me remind you of this before we look at our text this morning, because this is so important in understanding the Word of God. In Hebrews, you have doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. And then there's a transition from teaching to exhortation. For example, in chapter 10, verse 19, we read,

 "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

"by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

"and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

"not forsaking for our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near."

Moreover, we saw in chapter 11 all of the examples of faithful Old Testament saints that trusted in God's promises and his power and his provision. And then he begins in chapter 12, verse one.

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus..."

Now after, as you will recall, he has explained the doctrine of divine discipline in our life and how it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, he moves once again to exhortation in terms of how we need to apply this in our text this morning, beginning in verse 12. So let me read verse 12 given that introduction, "Therefore," in light of all that he's been saying, especially as it relates to discipline and suffering in our life,

"Therefore strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are that are feeble,

"and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

"Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

"that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

"For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears."

Now again, here, the Holy Spirit inspired author is addressing the believers in the early Hebrew Christian church, and ultimately to all of us, concerning how they are to conduct themselves in the church, especially in certain critical areas. And so therefore what we see here are some very practical exhortations for church members, if I can put it very simply. Let me give you the four that we can use as kind of summary categories. We should, number one, encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble. Secondly, be a good example to unbelievers in the church. Third, pursue peace with all men, and then finally, be on guard for and confront unbelievers in the church who are deceived and cause trouble.

Now some of you may hear that and say, "Wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this. You know, I like the church. I like to come. I like to show up. I'll even put a little bit in the offering plate, but, you know, all that other stuff. I mean, that's what we have a pastoral staff to do; elders, we've got deacons, we've got other people. This isn't really for me. I mean, I like to come out here and hang out, you know, network my business a little bit, but I'm a spectator. I'm not a player. I'm a consumer of this restaurant. I'm not the cook or the waiter or whatever. I'm in and I'm out." Unfortunately, that's the attitude of many Christian people today. Many think this way, and folks, if that's you, that's just very, very unbiblical. It's dishonoring to the Lord, and of course, it's indicative, especially of our selfish culture. We're the selfie generation, aren't we? We love to exalt ourselves, me first, and that bleeds over into the church, and so there's a sense in which we come to church, and we don't see that that God expects us to be a part of the family. Imagine somebody moving in with your family, and they just sit around and don't do anything. So if you're a part of the body of Christ, you will want to serve the head, which is the Lord Jesus. Isn't it interesting, if you think about that analogy, there's no organ in the human body that shirks its responsibility? Every organ works together.

Now, this whole idea of really functioning in a body and having responsibilities in the church was very new to the Jewish people. They weren't used to that type of thing. They had a priesthood, 1000s of priests, and they didn't see themselves as part of a spiritual organism, the body of Christ. They came to the temple or to the synagogue, and they would worship. They would do their sacrifices, their rituals; they had their feasts and their convocations, and then they were out of there. There wasn't a sense of one-anothering within the body. And so now everything's different.

Now remember, he has just finished exhorting them concerning running the race of faith, you always want to interpret these things in context. And of course, that was very hard for those people, and for many people, continuing today because of persecution, especially in those days; not only because of persecution, but also because of their sinful predispositions that we all have. So he's told them that they need to jettison all of the excess weight in their life that impedes them from running the race of faith, living a life that is pleasing to God, which could cause you to forfeit temporal joy and eternal reward.  Get rid of all that stuff and also get rid of the sin that can trip you up and keep you from fixing your eyes on Jesus and running the race of faith that God has set for you. And to be sure, the specifics of each person's weight and the types of sins that they have, it's very different for each person, as it is for each of us. But there's one thing that they had in common, one thing that we all have in common. We may have different baggage, we may have different sins, but one thing we all have in common is it's tough. It's difficult, whatever the issue, and so running the race of faith and enduring God's corrective, protective and instructive discipline is never easy.

So guess what? We've got to help each other. We have got to help each other. And this brings us to the first exhortation. Notice, he says verse 12, "Therefore strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble." So my first point to you, the first thing that he's encouraging us to do, is to encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble. Very simple. Now, here the writer is returning once again, to the race metaphor that he's been using. And anybody that's been in any athletics knows what it's like to get winded. When I think of this, I remember when I played basketball in high school and college, especially at the beginning of the season, when you had to run those wind sprints, and your knees would get weak and you couldn't hold your hands up anymore, and you're gasping for air. That's kind of the idea here. And the imagery that the writer is using is taken from Isaiah, chapter 35 where God spoke through his prophet to bring words of of encouragement to his beleaguered and broken people, the ones that were faithful to him. They were so profoundly discouraged; they saw all of the evil around them from the pagans and even from a lot from the Israelites. They had endured wicked kings, and they were losing hope that they would ever be able to dwell in their own land in peace and prosperity. So the Lord speaks through his prophet concerning the unfathomable blessings of the promised coming kingdom. And he says in in Isaiah, chapter 35 and verse one,

 "The wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; like the crocus

"it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon, they will see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

"Encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble.

"Say to those with anxious heart, 'Take courage, fear not. Behold your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you.'"

Beloved, there can be no greater words of encouragement to the exhausted and to the feeble than to remind them of the glories of the coming kingdom and all that God has promised. I've had the great privilege of speaking to discouraged saints, impoverished saints, persecuted saints all around the world. I think of the saints in Africa that are in that category; the persecuted and the isolated saints in Siberia, the believers, even in Israel, who are under such enormous persecution from the Orthodox Jews. And I can tell you that in every case, the topic they want to hear about more than anything else, is the coming kingdom. They want to hear about what God is going to do. They want to hear about his promises. And it's for this reason that, remember Paul said to Titus in chapter two and verse 13, that we are to "look for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us." I know that some of you in here today, some that are in within the sound of my voice, are discouraged. You're despondent. You feel as though you've been running and running and running the race of faith, and you're exhausted. Your knees have become weak, your hands are hanging down, and you need help. The problems in life seem insurmountable. They seem unbearable, and perhaps it feels like there's no end in sight. If that is you, and certainly I've been there before, isn't it wonderful when a friend comes alongside you and encourages you, speaks truth into your life, shares with you some of the great truths of the Word of God, and helps you, once again, get in the race by helping you get your eyes fixed on Jesus? That's the point with all of this. Isn't it interesting when we injure ourselves, physically, it's fascinating to see how that the body immediately brings to bear all of its resources to bring healing - biochemical, neurological, muscular, skeletal - interactions that help us survive and heal. Beloved, the body of Christ should be no different. When one of us hurts we all need to come, we all need to help. We need to encourage. We need to strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, so that together we can run with endurance, the race that God has set before us.

I have seen a number of examples of this, but I remember one scene of Special Olympics, and the children are running a race, and all of a sudden, one of the little boys falls down, and all of the others kind of seem, even though some had passed him, and what did they do? They all come back and help him up, and they all finish the line together. It's like there was no self-interest with any of them. The big deal there was helping the other person. And I just think that's such a picture of how we need to be. Someday, it's going to be you that falls down. Some of you are already down. So as Hebrews 10:25 says, we need to "encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So the first exhortation, given all this great doctrine that we have received, the first thing is, you need to encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble.

Secondly, he says, "and make straight paths for your feet." Let me get ahead of myself. This brings us to the second point, the second thing we need to do, and that is to be a good example to unbelievers in the church. Now let me explain that to you. First of all, this phrase "and make straight paths for your feet" is taken from Proverbs, chapter four, verses 25 through 27. There we read,

 "Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

"Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established.

"Do not turn to the right, nor to the left; turn your foot from evil."

In other words, what he's saying, and we see this phrase - this concept turning left and right - we see this in other passages. It's the idea of God saying, "Do not deviate from my commandments. Do what I tell you to do. Don't get off track. Don't be distracted from the way of wisdom that God has set forth in his Word. Avoid all of the by-paths that can lead you astray." Another way of thinking of this is live a life of integrity, a life of godliness and purity of heart. Make the right choices, stay on the narrow way, don't get off on the broad, all of those types of things.

So he says, "make straight paths for your feet." Now why? Why do we do this? Well, he answers it here, "so that the limb, which is lame, may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." Now, this requires a little bit of careful study to understand what the writer is saying. Hopefully I can explain it to you. When he uses the word the "limb which is lame," the term lame in the original language, is what you would expect. It means lame. It means crippled. It means any person that has some kind of impaired ability to walk. But what's interesting, in the Greek Old Testament, called the Septuagint, we see the same term translated "hesitate" in First Kings 18:21. Let me tell you what was going on there. Elijah was confronting many of the Israelites who had been vacillating between worshiping Baal like all of the pagans around them, and worshiping Yahweh, the one true God. And so during the week, if you looked at the history of that day, they, especially the men, would go and consort with the sex slaves of Baal. They were considered to be priestesses. Well, that's a clever thing that Satan came up with. And then they would pretend to honor God on the Sabbath. And so Elijah confronts them on Mount Carmel in First Kings 18:21, "Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you hesitate...' and here is this term that can also be translated "lame." The idea is, how long are you going to function as though you are spiritually impaired?

"How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' But the people did not answer him a word."

Now, what does this mean in this context, in Hebrews 12? Well, given all of the warnings to the borderline Christians that had attached themselves to the church, I believe the lame, who are in further danger of being disabled and need to be healed here in verse 13, I believe that is a reference to the vacillating "almost Christians" that are a part of the church. Remember, many had probably professed Christ, but they were not actually born again. Remember, we studied that. We've seen how that there were people within that church, and frankly, in every church, who were right on the edge of placing their faith in Christ. They had an intellectual understanding of the gospel, but they had never made a wholehearted commitment to Christ. They were, shall we say, "Christian" unbelievers. Christian in quotes. They were Christian in name only; those who had made a shallow profession of faith. They had considered the truths of the New Covenant, but they never fully abandoned Judaism and made a wholehearted commitment to Christ. And you remember throughout the epistle these people are warned by the Spirit of God, through the writer in chapter two, for example, in verses one through four, remember there they refused to pay close attention to what was being taught with respect to the gospel. The text says they were drifting away from what they had heard, neglecting so great a salvation.

And then in chapter three, beginning in verse seven and following, they were compared to their ancestors in the wilderness, who had, quote, "hardened their hearts against the truth," and so they were guilty of the sin of unbelief, they had never come to Christ in genuine brokenness and repentance. Instead, their heart was becoming increasingly hardened to the things of God. They were tempted to fall back into Judaism.

In chapter five, beginning in verse 11 through verse 14, we read how they had become, quote, "dull of hearing." They had regressed to a state of apathy. They had become indifferent to the saving, transforming truths of the gospel. They possessed, once again and an academic understanding of Christ, but they did not possess Christ himself. So this was a big problem in that church, as it is in every church. Matthew 13, Jesus warns about that, how that Satan is going to come along and he's going to sow tares amongst the wheat. They're going to grow up together and so forth.

Then in chapter six, you will recall, there is yet another very stern, sobering warning. He warns these people to leave the elementary teaching about the Christ, and press on to maturity, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age have to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

Now in light of that, as we come back to verse 13, believers in the church are exhorted to make straight paths for their feet. Why? "So that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." Metaphorically, I believe this is speaking to the spiritually disabled, the, shall we say, phony unbelievers within the church, the ones that are unable to run the race of faith and progress to maturity; they're in danger of apostatizing, of falling back into Judaism, because now they know the truth of the gospel, and yet they still don't fully believe. So they would end up in a worse state than before. So make straight paths for your feet, so that these people will not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

I must pause for a moment. Some of you are no doubt in that category. You know about Christ, but you do not know Christ. You do not love him. You do not have a desire to serve him, to know more of him; a very dangerous place to be. But the exhortation here is to true believers. What are we supposed to do? Make straight paths for our feet, run the race of faith that God has set before us, live a life of integrity, be faithful to the Word and the will of God. Why? So that the lame will be healed, they will be saved, so we need to be a godly example to them, not a stumbling block. Again, counterfeit Christians are always going to be in the church, and most of the time they're not even aware that that's who they are. In fact, in Matthew seven, Jesus tells us that that many of them are going to say, But Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these religious things? So in their mind, they thought, "Man, I thought I was in. I thought I had made the cut here." But they hadn't. And so they think they are believers because they're doing all the same things other believers are doing. Right? We all kind of look the same, at least at a superficial level, but when they see true believers function in faithful obedience, especially in the context of suffering, that begins to separate, shall we say, the men from the boys. They begin to realize, "My how do you do that?" They know they can't do that because the Spirit of God doesn't dwell within them. And so those kind of people within the church need to see true believers live lives that are faithful. They need to see long term, undeterred, unrelenting faithfulness, joyful obedience, adoring worship, come what may. But if suddenly these people see a believer get off track, and a person who professes Christ all of a sudden ends up in a train wreck with their marriage or their life or whatever, it's a very dangerous thing, because then the unbelievers within the church will say, "Huh, that's interesting. I guess I'm not so bad off. After all, if these people are making such a mess of their life, and I know my life is a mess, I guess, I guess that's just how it is." So it's a very dangerous thing. So folks, beware. People are watching closely, make straight paths for your feet.

As I was thinking about this, my mind went to Bunyan's allegory. Remember the Pilgrim's Progress? You will recall what happened there with, in one of the scenes where Christian and his friend, Hopeful, became weary. They became discouraged because they were traveling on what they called "the rough and narrow way." So Christian began to look for a better way. Sound familiar? Yeah, we need to find an easier way here. And suddenly he found it. It says, to their left, a place called "Bypath Meadow." Oh, it looks so inviting. And so Christian persuaded his weaker brother, Hopeful to join him. And sadly, their decision, as you read the story, it led to spiritual and doctrinal compromise as they sought to gratify their flesh, and they quickly discovered that Meadow was filled with deep pits of temptation, quote, "put there on purpose by the owner of the grounds to catch presumptuous fools." So Christian soon regretted leading his friend Hopeful into such a terrible place, all because of self-indulgence, all because they were discontent. They had a lapse in faith and obedience. They were overwhelmed by apprehension now and helplessness and hopelessness and the horrors of an accusing conscience, and they wanted to go back to the rough way, the right way. But he says this, "by this time, the waters had risen greatly, which made going back very dangerous. Then in my dream, I thought to myself that it is easier going out of the way when we are in it than it is going in when we are out of it." So in other words, it's easier to get off the right way then when you're off the right way, to try to get back in the right way. So it says they ventured back, "but it was so dark and the floods so high that they nearly drowned nine or 10 times. Not only that, but no matter how they tried, they couldn't get back that night to the steps that led over the wall. Finally, they found a little shelter and decided to sit there until daybreak. Being very tired, however, they fell asleep." Beloved, recovering from moral failure, doctrinal compromise, spiritual bad choices is very, very hard. A ruined testimony is very hard to reclaim, and the guilt of sin can produce within us feelings of divine abandonment. In fact, someone has rightly said "1000 fiends may be easier met with than the remembrance of one sin."

Well, you remember that story, the next morning, Christian and Hopeful woke up and realized that they weren't far from a place called Doubting Castle. And the owner, Giant Despair seized them and threw them into his dungeon. Oh, Child of God, live a life of integrity. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. What a powerful thing it is to people, even within the church, that may not know Christ, to see someone who knows Christ follow him, come what may.

So, first, we are exhorted to encourage the exhausted, to strengthen the feeble. Secondly, be a good example to unbelievers in the church, and then a third exhortation, pursue peace with all men. Oh, this is a tough one, isn't it? This is a tough one. Verse 14, "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." See, this is a command to live a life of peace and holiness, as we will see. Pursuing peace is basically loving our neighbor and pursuing righteousness, or sanctification as it says here, is basically loving God. By the way, if you want to see the opposite of this played out in vivid, graphic detail. Look at what happened in Charlottesville. Look what continues to happen around the country, on both sides of these battles. What you see there in protesters, regardless of the side, are people with no moral compass, no love for God, no love for their neighbor, no respect for authority, and therefore, in the depravity of their heart, they express all of the vile and violent things that that are just a part of them. It's such a sad thing. They're interested only in self. But as Christians, as we think about this pursuing peace with all men, we must remember first of all that having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that great? That's Romans five, one. The war is over. We have been declared righteous. So we have peace with God, and that's a judicial peace. But because of that judicial peace, we also have not just an objective peace, but a subjective peace. We can enjoy peace in our life. But what he's asking us to do here, given our position, the fact that we have been sanctified - set apart from sin unto God - we now need to practice who we are in position; and that's progressive sanctification. We gradually become more like Christ, and so we enjoy more fully all of the peace that is ours with God and the peace within our hearts; therefore, we have the ability to be at peace with all men as much as we can.

Now let's look at these two categories of exhortation closely. First, he says, "Pursue peace with all men." Now this does not mean that we are going to enjoy peace with all men. I think you understand that. It means we should try to be at peace with all men. Now bear in mind the early church, oh, my goodness, it was very diverse in its religious cultures and ethnic cultures. They clashed with one another. Remember the two main categories, you’ve got Jews and Gentiles, and they hated each other. But then there were subcategories within those categories, subcategories of ethnicity and culture. For example, in Acts two, remember at Pentecost, the people marveled, it says,

"'And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

"'Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

"'Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

"'Cretans and Arabs--we hear them in our own tongue, speaking of the mighty deeds of God.'"

So many of these people come to Christ. They all become part of the church, or at least many of them do. In Colossians 3:11 Paul speaks of both the Greek and the Jews, "circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freemen, but Christ is all in all." The Scythians were like ISIS today. So you have these people that are coming to Christ, and now they're all of a sudden in the church. So you have these very distinct cultures with radically different ideas about how to live their life. There was nothing homogeneous about them. All of us, for the most part, are pretty much the same, not so in the early church; and now they're worshiping Christ together in one body with all of their religious and cultural baggage. And it's for this reason in Romans 14:19, Paul says, "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another."

So you've got difficulties within the church - just getting along with everybody - but then you've got all of the problems outside the church, with people persecuting you, taking your property, putting you in prison, and all of those types of things. So when the Spirit of God says, "Pursue peace with all men," know that that was really tough. It's tough now, I would say tougher in those days. Romans, chapter 12, verse 14, Paul says, "Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse." My that's tough. He goes on in verse 18,

"If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

"Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord.

"But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he's thirsty, give him a drink; for In so doing, you will help or heap burning coals on his head.'

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Boy, it's hard, isn't it? Even in our culture. I mean, we look around today and we see this rise in white supremacists and Neo Nazis, and groups like that; and then you look on the other side and you see, frankly, anarchists that hate the Constitution and hate the country, and they're looking for every opportunity to somehow, you know, spew their venom. It's easy to end up hating people, right? And yet, what are we called to do to these people? We're called to love them, to pray for them, to be an example to them, to try to pursue peace with them. So we've got to guard ourselves, dear friends, from hatred; show them the love of Christ. Yes, we've got to protect ourselves from them if they attack us, but let's pray for them. Let's be bold in giving them the gospel, and then with those in the church, especially those that might not agree with you, and certainly that was the issue in that early church again, pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another, especially over issues of conscience. Those personal preferences that we might not share with our brother and sister in Christ. Those nonessentials that can divide us unnecessarily.

Paul spoke to this as well in Romans 15, verse seven, he says, "Accept one another, just as Christ, also accepted us to the glory of God." I hope you can honestly say that you love everybody in your church family, all right? Hope we can all say that. And I think, as best I can before the Lord, I love all of you, but some of you, I don't know if I'd have a real good time going camping with, all right? You might not like me as well either. I mean, let's face it, there are going to be things that cause just a little bit of "Well, I'm not sure I connect with that person as well." I mean, that's always going to be there in our fallen estate. And so we, we may not like each other, but we are commanded to love each other and to pursue peace with all men. "Ah, but pastor, that woman just rubs me the wrong way." Or, "Their kids are just completely out of control." Or, "Yes, but pastor, that guy voted for Obama," you know, or whatever. You hear, these types of things and yet what we need to realize is that the Spirit of God may not be sanctifying them at the pace that we think he should. Right? So we love them. We pursue peace. We be patient. Ephesians, four verse one, "Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord," Paul, says,

"...implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

"with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,

"being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Folks, this is how people outside the body of Christ are able to witness the transforming power of the gospel when they see us love one another. Moreover, this is how unbelievers in the church are able to see the transforming power of the gospel. And this brings us to the second part of the verse, verse 14, "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification with which no one will see the Lord." If I could translate that maybe a little bit differently, pursue the kind of sanctification without which no one will see the Lord, that's what he's saying. So the issue at stake here is our personal testimony. Unbelievers, both in the church and outside of the church, need to see our unrelenting, unwavering commitment to peace and to holiness, without which no one would ever be attracted to Christ. That's the idea. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples." Jesus said, if you what? "if you have love for one another."

But I want you to notice something else that that is very important. Sanctification is here viewed as an indispensable element of genuine saving faith. Sanctification, being that that personal pursuit of holiness because of our love for God and a zeal for his glory.  Sanctification, Westcott said, quote, "is preparation for the presence of God." It's an amazing thing how the Spirit comes along and causes us to be born again - regeneration, the supernatural, instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. He breathes life into the spiritual corpses. He makes us a new creature in Christ; gives us a radically different view of everything. We begin to love what God loves and hate what he hates, and then little by little, in the process of sanctification, he conforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ. And yet there is nothing more devastating than to watch someone who claims to know and to love Christ suddenly end up in some great scandal, and you begin to see perhaps what was really in their heart. Because really, no one ever falls into sin. Sin just eventually expresses itself because it's been lurking in the shadows for years. And Satan loves to use this to make a case against Christianity. Yeah, just a bunch of hypocrites. You saw what happened to old so and so. He'd been going to church for years. Quoted the Bible all the time, and now look at him, or whatever.

Folks, if you say you've been born again, and the Spirit of God therefore dwells within you, you need to look like Christ. And if you don't, there's something wrong, right? You're going to bear the fruits of the Spirit. The Spirit is going to cause that to happen. As I often say, if you're an apple tree, let's see the apples, right? That's fair. And I see so many professing believers today, they can't be distinguished from unbelievers. There's a real problem. Jesus spoke of this, especially in the context of false teachers in Matthew seven, beginning in verse 16, he said,

"'You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they?

"'So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

"'A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

"'Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"'So then, you will know them by their fruits.

"'Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.'"

Ligon Duncan said this quote, "If God is holy, then all those who fellowship with Him must be holy. If our spiritual quest is to glorify and enjoy God forever, and that God is a holy God, then our character must be transformed to reflect His holiness. A well-rounded Christian," he went on to say, "a well-rounded Christian perspective requires that we both desire to be a blessing to others and that we be utterly different because we have been made like our God through His grace at work in our hearts. This holiness is an essential requirement if we are going to enter into the presence of God." And I might add, it's by his grace that we become like Christ. Beloved, never underestimate the importance of your testimony, because other people are watching. And I might add that you can't fake it for long. You might for a while, but a half-hearted love for Christ can't be concealed for very long. And frankly, who you are alone with God defines who you really are, and if you're phony there, eventually your phoniness is going to manifest itself to your husband, to your wife, to your kids, to your friends, certainly to your church family. A true love for God and a passion for his glory can't be manufactured, but rather it's got to be cultivated in a man or a woman who is habitually conversant with God; a person who is saturated with his word; a person that is filled by the Spirit of God.

So we need to be at peace with all men, and then finally, be on guard for and confront unbelievers in the church who are deceived and caused trouble. Notice verse 15, "See to it," he says, "that no one comes short of the grace of God."  In other words, be vigilant in helping others embrace the gospel of Christ, so that no one will be left out of the kingdom. That's the idea. When people come to the church, when people come to Calvary Bible Church, they need to be able to say something supernatural is happening there. Something amazing is happening there. God is at work in some mysterious way there. So he says, "See to it that no one has come short of the grace of God." And then he goes on the next phrase, see to it, "that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it may be defiled." Now, contrary to what some people might think, this is not describing a person who is struggling with bitterness, but rather, this is speaking of a person who is himself, the personification of bitterness and bears a bitter fruit in his life. This is speaking of the arrogant, ungodly man who is angry with God, who is nevertheless still attached to the church. And we've all seen this kind of person; the angry, self-absorbed, mad at the world, kind of person. They will stand out in the community of God's people. And this is rooted in Deuteronomy 29, this phrase, where there is a warning against idolatry, beginning in verse 18, we read, beware,

"...so that there will not be among you a man or a woman, or a family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.

"It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, 'I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.'"

There's the arrogant rebellion.  "'The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him," the text goes on to say, "But rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven." So folks, we have to be on guard for those kinds of people that sometimes come into the church - and they have certainly been here before - this is the person who, frankly, has already apostatized in his heart, but has not left the church, and eventually it manifests itself. Very often when we, as elders, begin to see these things and we start moving in to lovingly but boldly confront them, there's typically some kind of blow up, and they leave the church, and many times, the reasons they give for leaving the church are not at all what they truly are, but that's what happens. But we all need to be a part of this, because it's a very dangerous thing. It can poison the body.

Then the writer closes with a well-known example of a man who had an opportunity to honor the Lord, but chose instead to live a life of immorality, a godless man. Verse 16, he's warning, "...that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau." You know, let me stop there. Wouldn't it be awful if that was your name there? You know? I mean, it's just such a terrible thought. Make sure that you don't have an Esau in your church, "who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessings, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears." In other words, his repentance was merely remorse over his own stupidity, not over a brokenness of his sin and how he had dishonored God. He wanted, like many people today, he wanted reward without responsibility. He wanted blessing without repentance and obedience. So we must, as the text says, "See to it" - the idea of oversight - "See to it" that this kind of person does not spread his or her poison in the church.

Well, there you have it. Four very practical exhortations that we are to obey as we run the race of faith, which will include suffering as a part of God's loving hand of discipline on our life for our good and for his glory. But these are our responsibilities in the midst of it all. Encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble. Be a good example to unbelievers in the church. Pursue peace with all men, and be on guard for, and confront unbelievers in the church who are deceived and cause trouble. May our hearts be obedient to these ends, right? Let's pray together,

Father, thank you for the clarity of your word. I confess that very often, especially in our culture, even our evangelical culture, we fail to take these things seriously. And I pray that that will not be the case. I pray that you will burden our hearts to be obedient to these ends so that we can enjoy all of the blessings that you want to lavish upon this body here at Calvary Bible Church, and each of us individually. So Lord, thank you for your word. May we live it, may we protect it and proclaim it for Christ's sake, and it's in his name that I pray. Amen.