The Church with a Testimony Before the World

Oh, that I may know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, that I might be made conformable unto

His image. If the apostle could say that, that had a pretty good relationship with Jesus, you and I can say, oh, that I may know

Him more. When we sang that song together a while ago, it would be easy to say, well,

I know who Jesus is, but there is a constant call to know

Him more. The longer I walk with Him, the deeper it gets. Me and the brother was talking about that in the

Word a while ago. There's things that I read and knew in the Word 15 years ago that has grown, has gotten better, has gotten more clear, and the longing that we have as Christians to know

Him more fuels that fire. I want to go back to Hebrews 12 this evening, and we'll find our text there.

Appreciate your hospitality so much. I love this congregation down here.

It's a good blessing. All the families, just love y 'all all to death.

One of the things that always sticks out to me is, I don't know if y 'all notice it, but do y 'all hear those little girls singing?

I can hear that. I know if I can hear it, Heaven hears it well. It just blesses me.

Keep singing, church, and keep worshiping like you do. It's just a good blessing to me, probably more for me than it is for me to be here for you.

Hebrews 12 is where I'll go back to the text this evening. I'm a strange duck anyway, so I'm going to do this strangely.

I've done the last half this morning, but I want to do the first half this evening. I'm going to kind of go in reverse.

I want to look at the first 17 verses. Same thing, I won't be able to cover everything in detail, but this is how it was on my heart, so this is how

I wanted to talk to you about it this evening. I know we just sat down from standing, so you can remain seated, but let's listen closely to the

Word of God as we read it aloud. In chapter 12 of Hebrews, beginning in verse 1,

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which 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, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Ye have not resisted unto blood striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children,

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.

For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening,

God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is He whom the Father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had fathers in our flesh which corrected us, and gave them reverence.

Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

For they verily for a few days chastened 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 yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them, which are exercised thereby.

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.

Follow after peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the

Lord. Look indeligently, lest any man should fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful that You've given us a good opportunity to come before You this evening with thanksgiving and with praise.

I was glad when You said to us, let us go into the house of the Lord. I was glad,

God, that these have gathered here this evening too to worship. And I pray that our hearts would be knit together in rejoicing this evening because You've given us a hope in Your Word.

I pray, God, that we wouldn't just casually pass by this time together, but we would realize that hell trembles at the fact that heaven is glorified by some folks that was previously condemned, now justified in Your Son.

I pray that You'd do a work in us this evening, that Your Word would find the dark corners of our soul and shine

Your light in there. Show us Your goodness and mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.

This morning, I'll talk to you about the church standing before our transcendent

God. Now what I meant by that was, you and I as Christians are not just standing in a congregation and we're doing our little religious thing.

We're quite literally living before God who has time and everything that is in His hand.

There's nothing that binds Him concerning time or concerning creatures or concerning creation.

You and I stand before God as the church, as it were

His prize. And we stand there in a holy reverence.

Now, all of the rest of the world, those that are not saved, the ones that are outside of Christ, they too will stand before God.

And they will give an account. They too will stand before God, condemned in their sin, outside of Christ, without hope.

But instead of rejoicing in His glory, they'll be weeping in fear and terror because of His judgment.

Now, I talked about how the church looks as we stand before God. I mean, right now, we stand before God in our worship.

We stand before God in our life. But tonight, I want to back up and I want to look at the first half of this.

And I want to talk to you how that the church stands with a testimony that the world sees.

Now, you and I are standing here and we're looking at God. And our face is set towards the

Father. Our face is set towards that holy hill of Zion. Our face is set towards Christ.

And all the world is looking at the testimony of the Christian. And that's what I want to look at this evening.

The Reformers had a phrase or a saying that was all common throughout the

Reformation. It was a Latin phrase and many of you are probably familiar with it. Coram Deo. And if I was to ask you, many of you would probably be able to say it.

I'd hope you'd be able to even though you didn't make it too good in Latin class. It means before the face of God.

Coram Deo means before the face of God. And the reason they would always say that and they would remind one another of that phrase, even like it was some kind of greeting, is because they realized that there wasn't a second that they were not living before the face of God.

So what I don't want you to hear tonight is that when you come to church, you're in the presence of God, you're before God.

And then when you go out into the world, it's a different thing. That's not what I want you to hear. I want you to hear church.

You continually, constantly are living before the face of this holy God. That Moses could not stand to look at the backside of Him.

And you have been granted the fullness of God. Where at? In the face of Jesus Christ.

What's the song that we sang? Look full to His wonderful face. And so I want to look at this first part of this chapter, first half of this chapter, and pull out a few things.

And as a matter of fact, I'll even go into chapter 11 a little bit. First of all, the church, with its testimony that the world sees, now we're looking at God and we're seeing

Christ and that's our position, but you are also reflecting something to the world.

And what is that? What is the testimony that the world sees? I think one of the things that we see in this text is the very first word that I read to you, wherefore.

Now, I'm a simple, far from a Bible scholar, but my scholarly instincts are very simple.

And I use this little phrase that I've heard many times, and you have too, when you say a wherefore, you ought to say what it's there for.

So that's simple enough. So you go back and you say, wherefore what? Wherefore what happened?

And all of us are quite familiar, I imagine, of the previous chapter.

Now faith, substance of things hoped for. Faith, it's evidence of things not seen.

And he begins to go into a litany, a list of all the

Old Testament saints, one right after another, beginning with Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Jacob.

And all of those died in the faith, not having received the promises. He continues on down through Isaac and Joseph and Moses.

And he lists them, Rahab, Samson, over and over. He begins from nearly the beginning and lists them for you and I to remind us that it is by faith that you're saved.

These people were living by faith. I know that there's conversation or there's wording about the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, and absolutely we're here today as a

New Testament church. But we want to remember one thing, that it was faith.

It was Abraham in faith. It was Sarah in faith. It was Enoch in faith.

It was Noah in faith. And it's you and I in faith.

Nothing new there. David, Samuel, the previous chapter lists them off.

One right after the next, after the next, after the next. And he's reminding the reader.

He's reminding the Christian. Wherefore, seeing you are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

Now he's almost calling you and I to something here. Let me try to illustrate this as best

I can without having what Brother Randall told me this morning. He said,

Do you got one of those skyscraper sermons? And I said, What is that? He said, That's one of those that's just story after story after story after story.

I said, I'm going to try not to, but I've got a story. It's illustration. When he says,

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. It's almost like he's calling you to recognize your heritage.

Recognize what God has put before you. Recognize those that have gone on before you in faith.

There were some things as a young man that I wouldn't do if I knew my grandma or grandpa would have seen them.

There were some things that I wouldn't do if I knew that maybe my distant even aunt, uncle would have seen them.

Because I knew that they all had ties to me and ultimately they had ties to my dad who had ties to his leather strap around his waist.

I recognized that I was accountable in a sense to those around me because of what they had lived.

Now I'm not saying that this is a perfect illustration. But look how the scripture calls us to our heritage.

He calls us to David. He calls us to Abraham. He calls us to Noah. He calls us to Moses. And he calls us to all of these in verse 33 -40.

Who through faith subdued kingdoms. They wrought righteousness. They obtained promises.

They stopped the mouths of lions. They quenched the violence of fire. Escaped the edge of the sword.

He goes on and on and on and he reminds us that we have some people that have gone before us that lived in the same faith.

Now when you are called to this as a reminder. Wherefore seeing your compassed about with that great cloud of witnesses.

You're tied to that. You know I believe that this is what

I'm saying here is real. Our family is real. And it goes way back.

When I read things like this in the scripture. I realize that it almost is a slap in the face to the rugged individualistic mindset.

I'm going to plow my own way. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to be my own person. Let me remind you of the most simple truth.

You're not your own. You're bought with a price. And you're not standing on your own two feet as it were.

We have giants in the faith that has gone before us. And there's many of them that's even in the four year back there in a lot of those books.

Read some of the things that they suffered and endured. And some of the things that they established. And that's just in the past 500 years.

And God takes us all the way back and He reminds us of our heritage. Not so that you can have some kind of pride in your forefathers necessarily.

But so that you can look at God's faithfulness from generation to generation to generation to generation to generation.

And on and on and on. Now I don't take a strong eschatological stand on anything.

Your pastor knows this. We've talked about it a lot. But I do want to live in this one way. That my great, great, great, great grandchildren will know who

Jesus is. Because of God's faithfulness to mine. And to my grandfather's.

And to my father's father's. And all the way back and I count them all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And you and I can stand in the Christian faith today and say praise God. He's faithful from generation to generation.

So first of all the testimony that this world looks at. How come Christianity ain't dead yet?

C .S. Lewis said Christianity died a thousand times. But it had a

God who knew His way out of the grave. Christianity has went down.

It's been almost destroyed. And God revives it and brings it back to life.

This is the testimony that we leave for the world. We leave a heritage. We leave a past.

So first of all we leave a past. The church and it's testimony has a past.

Secondly, look at verse number 12 verses 5 through 9. He says,

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the

Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth.

If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the

Father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons.

Furthermore, we had fathers in our flesh which corrected us. And we gave them reverence.

Shall we not much rather be subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? So what's the testimony that the church has as it stands and it looks at Jesus?

As it looks at the Father, as it stands before the Father, the world sees a past.

They see a past, a heritage of the Christian faith. But secondly, they see some pain.

He's talking about chastisement. Now, we could try to explain this away into something that's more complicated than what it is.

But I think we're all still big kids here and we can recognize what this is. This is a striping.

It's a reminder. It's a correction. What's that look like? And I could probably ask some of these young ones around here and it's still fresh in their memory.

But could I ask you, dear seasoned saint, is it still fresh in your memory the last time that God said, huh?

Or the last time that God says, that's dangerous. Don't touch that. You know, the

Christian lives a different life. The Christian lives a life that is subject to God in every way.

And there's a constant reminder to the Christian that the wages of sin is death.

And the gift of God is eternal life. Now, we ought to be careful not to fall in the ideology of our modern day.

Where we hide the rod and we do not do any chastisement whatsoever.

There's no pain introduced into our lives. Let me ask you this.

I've seen some of these videos. I'm sure you have too. One of them I've seen not too long ago.

They had the train tracks and the tunnel. You know, the train tracks are a good four foot below the step where you step into it.

And just, there was someone standing there at the edge. And just as they were a severe gain, and you know that it burnt their neck.

And it was, I'm sure it had a little bit of pain involved. What was better?

A tore shirt? A little skin on the neck? Or a train at 70 miles an hour?

I remember one time I had to get one of my children because they had directly disobeyed me.

And it put them at a, it was a case where it put them in extreme danger. Running out into a road.

And when I grabbed them, I grabbed them with all of the strength that I had in my hands. Because I was afraid of the danger that they were placing themselves into.

And I would have put myself in front of them had there been something coming. Now you can call that some kind of derelict anger.

Or you can call it a love that goes beyond this world. Now when your

Father, your Heavenly Father dear Christian. Reaches down and He chastises you.

And He corrects us. That sin is much more dangerous than you realize.

For that child that I just spoke of, that road was just another piece of property. And it looked like fun to play there.

And often times, and I've seen this even in Christian's life. That they'll be flipping through something.

They'll be looking through something. Reading something. Or maybe they'll just test a little something. And they'll think, well it's just another place to play.

That conversation with that person that you knew from years and years ago. Is just a place to play.

Let me remind you of something dear Christian. God knows the severity of that sin.

When He said wages of sin's death, He meant wages of sin's death. And when

He yanks us back by the collar and it hurts. And we have pain in our life.

We have suffering in our life. When Horatio Spafford stands at the edge of the boat.

And looks over the dark murky waters where his family drowns. And he writes those words to that song.

When peace like a river attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll.

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say. It is well, it is well with my soul.

Dear Christian, do not despise the chasing of the Lord. It is not His hatred. It is not

His malice. It is His love that grabs us. And pulls us into Himself.

So what is the testimony for the church? They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Not a hint. Not a suggestion. They shall suffer persecution.

What is this testimony? As you look at Christ dear church. And the world looks at you.

What do they see? They are going to see some pain. They are going to see some wounds.

They are going to see your past. They are going to see some pain. Thirdly, I want you to look at verse number 12.

He says, wherefore, and I know that I am skipping a little bit down through the text here. For times sake.

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down. And the feeble knees.

And make straight paths for your feet. Lest they which that is lame be turned out of the way.

But let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men. And holiness without which no man shall see the

Lord. Looking diligently. Lest any man fail of the grace of God.

For any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. And thereby many be defiled. The church has a testimony before the world.

And one of the things that they are going to see is your heritage or your past. They are going to see that it is proven time and time again.

That your religion, your faith is steady and steadfast.

They are going to look at you and you are going to see probably some pain in the church. And thirdly, they will look at you and they will see purity.

Purity. Purity in the church. Clean. Spotless.

A bride prepared as for the groom. One that is clean and ready to meet

Him. One that has her lamp trimmed and ready.

He says in those verses 10 -14. God chastens us in the last verse of 10.

That we might be partakers of His holiness. Now God does not chasten you so that you learn how to wear the right shoes.

Or the right shirt. Or the right dress. You say, well isn't that holiness?

You ask a few scattered groups across and they might say that. But the idea of holiness is simply this.

Set apart. Set apart for God. And my question to you if you are part of the church.

Part of those that are born again. Is there purity? Does the world see purity? Well they say, well they will not catch me doing any of that stuff.

Well I hope that they don't catch you doing any of that stuff. I hope they don't catch you out running with the world and doing as the world.

But will they catch you doing some of those more simple things? Like a little gossip on the social media or something like that.

Purity, holiness goes much further. Than just simply the clothes you wear.

Or the places you go. He says in verse 11.

He said now this chastening. It doesn't seem good. It's not joyous. It hurts.

It's grievous nevertheless. Afterward it's going to do something. It's going to yield peaceableness.

The fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. You know

God does not chasten or correct His people. Just to simply show

His authority. God does not need to do that to show His authority. He doesn't need to ring your bell for you to acknowledge who

He is. You're going to acknowledge who He is one day whether you like it or not. But He corrects us so that there is a yield of righteousness.

There is the production of righteousness and purity in the life of the saints.

I'm reminded of the text that tells us to be holy for He is holy. Set yourself apart.

Sanctify yourself unto the Lord. So that you may be set apart from this world.

What does the offerings of Baal and the worship of God have in common?

Not a thing. What does the lifestyle of the wicked and the life of the believer have in common?

It should not have a thing. Separation and purity is still right.

Plead to Christ and to His purity. I'm not talking about that you're going to get clean and God will accept you.

God says, I'm going to take you and I'm going to chasten you as My child.

You're His. He's going to clean you as His child and make you pure and righteous.

So what does the world see as they look at the church? They see a past.

They see some pain. They see its purity. They ought to see its purity. And lastly, they see the church's prize.

They see the church's prize. Now I skipped this part of the text, but I'll come back now.

The writer of Hebrews, whether it's Paul, Apollos, Luke, he gives us some good stuff right here.

Wherefore seeing we are compassionate about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

Now, verse 2. He said, let us, or at the last part of verse 1, the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

I hear competition in the air, do you not? Let us run with patience this race that is set before us.

What's the prize? Paul, what's the prize? Apollos, what's the prize? Luke, whoever it may be.

He says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

When the world sees the church, and she's got her eyes set on Christ, that's her prize.

Your prize, dear Christian, is not just simply to live a good life, or to raise good children, or to do all the

Christian things. Your prize was nailed on a tree. Your prize was crucified and pierced through for your sin.

Your prize there was pressed down with a crown of thorns on His head.

Your prize was Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith.

He is not just the author, but He's also the object.

He is not just the source of your salvation, but He is the prize of your salvation.

Let me put it quite simply like this. If Christ is not your prize, dear church, dear part of the church, then the world looking at you is going to see something that you may be valuing that will burn and perish.

But if the world sees a testimony through the church that it is Christ and Christ alone, they'll actually have something to look at.

They'll have something to long for. They'll see that it's not just popularity in the community, but it's a power in heaven.

We sang that last song that we sang a while ago, that I may know

Him. Oh, that I may know Him and know Him more. Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, he said,

I count all things. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.

He said, everything else is dung. He says in another place, oh, that I may know

Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.

That I may be made conformable to His image. Church, that's the testimony that we have for the world.

When we are conforming to Christ, when we are looking at Him, the more we look at Him, the more we are conformed to Him.

The last thing here is a testimony that the church has, and the reason

I wanted to go this route is a lot of times on Sunday nights, you seem to get kind of a core group in.

And I wanted to remind you that yes, dear church, you are standing coram

Deo. Every moment before the face of God.

And every moment, the world is looking at you in your testimony. Do they see

God's faithfulness through the past? Do they see that God is strengthening and reforming you with some pain in your life?

That He endures you through? Do they see purity?

Where God is cleansing and sanctifying you? And most of all, does the world see your prize?

Jesus Christ. Let them see Christ in you, for that is the hope of glory.

Father, we come to you in Jesus' name. Let us know the power of your resurrection and the fellowship of your sufferings.

I pray, dear God, that you would continue to strengthen this body, that they would walk in the power of the

Spirit, that they would know your word, that they'd be strengthened by it. I ask, God, that you would be with their pastors, too.

God, I know that they long to see them, and I ask, God, that your blessings would be on them and protection as they travel.

Lord, and if there's anyone here this evening, God, we ask with all sincerity that you would show them that Jesus Christ is more valuable because of what

He'd done in this world, came and died for their sins, and if they'd believe on Him and turn from their sin and trust that He is what they need in righteousness to be saved.

I pray, God, that you'd draw them to yourself, save them by your grace. I pray,