Endurance With Virtue and Vigilance

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Today's Old Testament reading is in Psalm 34, 11 -18.

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Please stand for the reading of God's word. Come, O children, listen to me.

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I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

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Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good.

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Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward righteousness and his ears towards their cry.

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The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

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When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

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The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Today's New Testament reading is from 1

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Thessalonians 4 -1 -8. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the

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Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more, for you know what instructions we gave you through the

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Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the

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Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgresses and wrong his brother in this matter.

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Because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for impurity but for holiness.

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Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man but God who gives his

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Holy Spirit to you. Take your

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Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12.

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Hebrews chapter 12. I'd ask that you follow as I read along Hebrews 12 verses 14 to the end of the chapter.

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Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled.

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That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

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For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears.

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For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

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For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.

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Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living

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God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

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See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

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At that time, his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yet once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.

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This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

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Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our

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God is a consuming fire. Lord God, once more, again, the beginning of this week, we now sit here in the hearing of your word.

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We ask that your spirit make this a profitable time. We want to hear your voice. We want to hear your mind so help us to concentrate then to fight all distractions that we might hear your voice as you speak these words of instruction to us and we'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

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I would guess that all of you have seen a boxing match. We all know what that is.

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It's two men get into a ring and they pummel each other with padded hands but they really do a lot of damage on each other and you see them taking blows to the head and the midsection as well as returning the same to their opponent but how long do you think a fighter would last in the ring if all he did was take the punches?

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All he did was just keep taking blow after blow. How long do you think he'd last?

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Well, we could ask the same question about pursuing, persevering in the faith. We spent a lot of time talking about endurance.

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How long will we persevere if we just kept enduring the blows? Endurance or perseverance in the faith is just not, it's not just a matter of taking it.

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It also involves taking steps forward, taking positive steps and positive action and I want us to explore that this morning.

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I want us to explore it because that's what our writer is doing for us. He's exploring that very thing.

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Here we find our pastor writer still addressing the subject of perseverance in the faith. He hasn't let go of that.

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He's gonna continue talking about perseverance which the whole book is about but particularly starting in chapter 10 where he outlines the terrible things that were happening to these people and he's taking it all the way to the end of this chapter and so in verses 14 through 17 he talks about again what has to happen in us and with us as we persevere in the faith in the midst of persecution and hardship.

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So let's look at our text this morning, verses 14 through 17. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal for you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he had found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears.

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Now in our text this morning in verses 14 through 17 he calls you to action, actions that will promote perseverance.

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Now I want you to notice something. We have to see the structure of this passage. In verses 14 through 16 we have one sentence.

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It's one sentence and it looks something like this. Strive for peace and for holiness seeing that, seeing that or strive for peace and for holiness being on the lookout for and then he lists some threats.

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He tells us that in that last part to be ready to nip in the bud. Anything that would keep you from endurance or perseverance so you don't merely endure the persecution or the hardship you also persevere by taking particular steps.

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We're talking about now taking some positive steps, some things we need to be doing if we would endure, if we would persevere, if we would not give up our loyalty to Jesus in the midst of pressure to do just that.

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Now he addresses this to the entire congregation. So he says for you, the congregation, to strive for peace and holiness and he says to the entire congregation be on the lookout for.

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Now what are the actions you have to take to promote, to encourage perseverance?

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I would say there are two. The first is pursue virtue. There's virtues we must pursue as we withstand or as we persevere and the next, that's verse 14, and the next is practice vigilance.

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Pursue virtue and practice vigilance, verses 15 through 17. These are the steps we need to take in order to promote, in order to encourage our perseverance.

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What's the first? Verse 14, what does he say? He says in verse 14, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. Pursue virtues, what are they? Peace and holiness. He says strive for peace.

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Strive for peace. This is one of the hallmarks of Christ's disciples.

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We are people who strive for peace and we need to strive for peace with all men.

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He says strive for peace with everyone. We must be a people, if we're going to persevere, then we must strive for peace with everyone.

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Now, if you would look at Romans chapter 12, verse 18, there's a section there, we'll look in a little bit, that tells us how we are to love our enemies and in there is a verse, verse 18.

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If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men.

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Now that verse recognizes something. That verse recognizes not everyone's gonna want to live at peace with us.

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There's gonna be people who hate us no matter what we do. But it says as for you, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, okay?

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As far as it depends on you. If someone were to stand back and look at the equation and say I see these

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Christians here, I see these Christians in Leroux and I see the persecutions and the hardships they're facing and there are some people who just still hate them.

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But you know what? When you look at those folks, you can see they did everything they could to live at peace.

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As far as it depends on you, if someone were looking at the equation, they'd say, well, you can't blame them.

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They were the ones who really strove for peace. Now look, peace is something that we fight for.

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It's something he says strive for it. We've got to fight for peace. That means we have to remain peaceful in attitude and conduct and never take the initiative in stirring up strife.

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Now that does not mean that we abandon truth in order to get along or to avoid trouble. It doesn't mean that.

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It means simply don't be antagonistic. Don't go around poking the people of the world in the eye.

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Right? For example, there is a world of difference between standing in front of an abortion clinic with a bunch of signs and interfering with a lot of people and being dragged off by the police.

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There's a world of difference between that and standing in front of an abortion clinic and praying. There's a world of difference between the two.

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Don't be antagonistic, but strive for peace. Now I believe that in order to promote peace, you go to war.

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That's what I live by. In order to achieve peace, you go to war, but you go to war with different weapons.

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You go to war with weapons of good. Not the weapons of the world.

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Right? You go to war with weapons of good. It's particularly found in Romans 12, if you would turn there with me.

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Romans chapter 12, particularly verses 17 through 18. To me, this has been an incredible help for me and I hope for others as I've used this with them and trying to understand this.

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When it comes to striving for peace, when it comes to loving our enemies, right,

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God actually calls us to go to war. If you want peace, if you wanna love your enemy, you gotta be a warrior.

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What kind of warrior though? Let's look at Romans 12, beginning in verse 17. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

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Give careful thought to what people would see as good things. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

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Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine,

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I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.

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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. God calls us to go to war, but he calls us to go to war with good.

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And so if we want peace, we go to war, but we go to war with weapons of good.

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That's what he calls us to do. Strive for peace with everyone. How do we do that? We go to war with weapons of good.

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Let me just give you another reference. You can look at Luke chapter six, beginning,

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I believe it's verse 27, where Jesus outlines a whole program of how to love your enemies.

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And it is not an easy thing. It requires strength, it requires fortitude. But if we're going to live at peace with everyone, then we must go to war with weapons of good.

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Now having strived for peace, you say, well, what does that have to do with perseverance? Well, think about that.

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This encourages the growth of perseverance. You strive for peace by taking the offensive with weapons of good.

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You don't just endure the blows. You don't just endure the blows of persecution, but you go to war against your persecutors.

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Now, I don't know whether we're going to face persecution in the future. I tend to think that it's coming.

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And this is what we all need to remember. Even when we are on the receiving end, we still return fire.

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But we go to war with weapons of good. I hope you remember that in the days ahead. We don't just curl up.

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We don't just cover the face and take the blows. We fight back. We strive for peace by loving our enemies.

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This will encourage our growth and perseverance. We'll be doing something, right? We'll be doing something.

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Now, the next thing he says is strive for holiness, without which no one will see the

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Lord. We strive for holiness. We strive to be separated from sin. We need to be not just a peaceful people, but again, the disciples of Jesus ought to be known as a holy people, set apart from the people of the world in their character, in their actions, in their attitude.

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We ought to be holy. And he says, without which no one will see the Lord. This holiness is not an optional thing.

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Yes, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. I'm going to heaven. My life, oh, it's a shambles, but that's okay.

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I'm headed for heaven. That tended to be the way I was, I grew up in. Yeah, you can accept

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Jesus and your life can be horrible. You can be a drunk. You can do it, but you accepted

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Jesus when you walked the aisle, and so you're okay. But no, he doesn't say that here.

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He says holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Well, how can that be?

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Because holiness, I would suggest to you, or I would submit to you, that holiness is the essence of the gospel.

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It is the essence of the gospel. Listen to Matthew five, verse eight in the Beatitudes.

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Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They will see God. The pure in heart will see

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God, right? What does the Great Commission say? Jesus said, told his disciples, go out and make disciples of me, right?

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Baptizing, go out to all the nations, making disciples for me, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and what? Teaching them what? To obey everything

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I've commanded you. You see what that's saying? The gospel goes out in order for people to be distinguished by the fact that they follow

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Jesus. They obey his commands. That's what a disciple is, someone who's translating truth into life.

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Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter one, verses two and three. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified, that is to those made holy, in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, that is called to be holy ones, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, right? You can look at 1

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Peter chapter one, where Peter starts out by talking to the exiles who've been chosen by God, right?

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Who've been sanctified by the Spirit, made holy by the

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Spirit for obedience to Jesus. What is the goal of the gospel?

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Well, the goal is to reconcile us to God, that is true. But the goal is also that the gospel produces a people who are different, who are set apart from sin, set apart from the rest of the people in the world by the fact that they are holy people.

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And he says, then, this is what you have to strive for.

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You have to strive for holiness. Now let me tell you this because already, as we always do when we hear these commands, and especially in the book of Hebrews, we tend to draw back and say, oh no, do

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I have the power to be holy, right? Do I have the willpower to persevere?

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Well, notice that you must strive for holiness knowing that you can strive for holiness.

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In this book alone, look back at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, let's just turn what we've already heard before.

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Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10, notice what it says. And by that will, we have been what?

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Sanctified, set apart, made holy. The word sanctified and holiness are the same word, by the way, it's just translated in different ways.

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That we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We've been set apart already.

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We're holy in position, all right? We're a holy people. Not necessarily because of what we've done, but because we've been set apart in Jesus.

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We are holy people. But then he goes on, look at verse 14. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

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Now he talks about not our position, but our practice. He says you've been perfected, you've been set apart for all time by the sacrifice of Jesus, what?

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So that you can grow in holiness. You see? You've already been set apart, so now grow.

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Then verses 15 and 16, and the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days declares the

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Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. And then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

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So we're forgiven, but God also writes the laws on our hearts, so now we can be holy.

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We respond, there's an inner response to the commandments of God and of Christ. And so not only must you be holy, but you can be holy.

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If you belong to Jesus, you will strive for holiness. Nevertheless, the command is there, strive for holiness.

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Now you say to me, how does that contribute to perseverance? How does that help us? As you strive for holiness, you build your muscles against temptation, you gain strength.

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Now you're gonna see in your life that as you continue to strive to become obedient and you call upon God and his spirit to strengthen you as you strive, and as you grow, you find strength.

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You find that you're starting to resist temptation more, right? You're gaining strength.

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Now what's the sin that's at center stage in this book? Remember, look back at 12 .4.

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Remember what we just saw a few weeks ago in verse four of this very same chapter? In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

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Our struggle against what sin? The sin of apostasy, the sin of falling away. As you grow in holiness, you're strengthened against sin.

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As you grow in holiness, you're strengthened in order to persevere to not fall into the sin of apostasy.

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And as you grow in holiness in any part of your life, sometimes we make progress in this part of our life and not so much progress in that, right?

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There are different stages and different aspects of your life, but no matter where you're growing, if you're growing, it strengthens you to persevere.

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You're strengthened to resist that temptation, the temptation of giving up in the midst of pressure.

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So strive for holiness. This will strengthen you, your endurance and your perseverance.

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So if you persevere, if you'd endure, then you have to strive for peace and strive for holiness.

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These are actions that we can take. I want to persevere. What do I need to do? I need to strive to be at peace with everyone, all men.

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And I need to strive for holiness. Now he tells us in verses 15 through 17, practice vigilance.

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Let's look at it. Verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it, many become defiled.

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That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

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Practice vigilance. He says, be on the lookout. Be on the lookout for threats to your perseverance.

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Now again, he's talking to the entire congregation. This is what we all must be doing. We all must be involved in looking out for these threats.

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And he calls for you to look out for these three threats. Notice that no one, that no, that no.

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Those three sections mark out the threats to our perseverance. He calls you to look out for these threats, unbelief, defiance, and earthly desires.

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Those three things can compromise, can destroy, can weaken your ability to persevere.

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And it's stuff that's in the congregation. If it's in the congregation, it will affect all of us.

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And so we have to be alert. We have to be vigilant. We have to be on the lookout for these three threats.

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So be vigilant, first of all, against the threat of unbelief. Verse 15, against the threat of unbelief.

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See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Now, if anyone falls short of the grace of God, it's not because that grace is inaccessible.

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It's not because it's not there. It's not because it's hard to get. The problem is like the wilderness generation of Israel, which he talked about earlier in the book, right?

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They did not step out in faith. The problem was their unbelief. It wasn't the grace of God. It was their unbelief.

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Remember, turn back to chapter four real quick. Turn back to chapter four. Remember what he told us about that wilderness generation?

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Chapter four, verse one. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

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He's saying that after this whole discussion of the people of Israel stood on the

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Jordan. God had promised them the land. He said, I will go before you.

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I will go with you. I will conquer for you. You go. How do we know they didn't believe?

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Because they didn't go. If they really believed God's promises, they would have said, okay, let's go.

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But their inaction showed their unbelief. Now, remember what he's told us in these, beginning in chapter 10, when he started telling all the horrible things that were happening and then encouraging them to perseverance, what did he tell us to begin with?

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Do you believe that glory awaits those who endure? God has promised you glory if you endure.

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Do you believe glory awaits you? Remember what he said in chapter 10, verse 36? For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

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If you're assured of things, if you're assured of things not seen, right? Faith, what is that?

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What haven't we seen yet? Glory that awaits. If we're sure of that, if we believe that there's glory, then we will not fall short of the grace of God.

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There's belief, there's faith. So be vigilant against the threat of unbelief. What do we do with those who struggle?

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People are struggling in our congregation. How do we help them? Remember what he says in chapter three. Chapter three, beginning in verse 12.

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Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, right?

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How are we gonna encourage each other in the faith? We are going to exhort one another. When someone is expressing hard unbelief, we need to step in and help them and exhort them.

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We have to remember that the thing that's gonna harden our hearts is the fact that sin will deceive us.

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The deceitfulness of sin. And so we need to exhort one another when it comes to that, when it comes to sin, so that we are not hardened in heart.

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So be vigilant against the threat of unbelief, but be vigilant as well against the threat of defiance.

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He calls it here a bitter root. Now, our pastor who's writing this refers to a bitter root.

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He is clearly talking about, he's clearly referring to an Old Testament passage, which is

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Deuteronomy 29. He's got that in his mind as he writes these words.

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I don't know, maybe he was reading it in his Bible reading for that day.

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Deuteronomy 29, let's turn there. I want you to see this. This is what he's talking about. Deuteronomy 29, we'll begin reading in verse 18.

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Now listen carefully to Moses. Beware, lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the

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Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware, lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.

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One who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying,

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I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.

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The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the

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Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Now, what's going on here? You see here a person who pays lip service to the covenant, who swears loyalty to God in this covenant, who says,

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I'm in this covenant, and yet he still intends to worship other gods.

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Even though he's paying lip service to the covenant that says, you are the only God, and we will submit and obey and listen to your voice, yet he still intends to worship other gods, the stubbornness of his heart.

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And he assures himself, he assures himself that because he's part of the covenant people of God, he'll be safe even if he abandons the

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Lord. Now, that same bitter root is present today.

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There will be, might I say, there are people here among us who might have the same attitude, who might have the same attitude.

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Everything is easy right now. Everything's easy. But if things get hard, they have no intention of staying the course.

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I don't know your hearts, but I imagine if some are saying here, if staying true to Jesus and these people means

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I lose my house, well, I have to think about that. We need to think about that.

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A person who says, I'm okay, but I'm not so sure about that.

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Be careful of that kind of defiance. Such people will defile many if we're not careful, if we're not vigilant.

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Their kind of influence will start eating away at the muscle and the bone structure of perseverance in other people of the congregation.

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It's this bitter root of a willingness to abandon the

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Lord when things get tough. Or to even say, well, I'm okay, I go to church, but I, you know,

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I, you know, who says we have to claim

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Jesus? Why can't we just keep our mouth shut and just act like everybody else? Telling you, that kind of,

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God calls it stubbornness and defiance, that kind of defiance will spread.

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And we can't let that happen. We have to be vigilant. So we need to be vigilant against unbelief.

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We need to be vigilant against the threat of defiance. And then lastly, we need to be vigilant against the threat of earthly desire, verses 16 through 17, okay?

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That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal, for you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

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Now we cannot allow sexual immorality or irreverence to infect the community of God's people.

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And we're well aware of the fact that we cannot countenance adultery, let's say. We cannot countenance adultery.

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Oh no, none of that. We're gonna get on that. And we know that we ought to treat the things of God with holy reverence.

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And we say to ourselves, well, okay, I get it. We're not gonna have a worship service, right?

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Centered around a comedy routine or a Bible magic show, okay?

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Yeah, we know, we're not gonna do that. But he means much more than that. Our writer says simply this, what

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I mean is be on the lookout for the kind of life displayed in the likes of Esau.

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That's what he's talking about. Not just sexually immorality generally, not just irreverence generally, but he's saying, look at Esau.

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This is what I'm talking about. Be on the lookout, beware of the threat of the Esau's.

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All right? What's that like? It's the kind of life that lives for the immediate, whose existence is defined by appetite and indulgence.

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Okay? That's what he's talking about. A life that is defined like that, by those things cares nothing for the holy things of God.

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It only can see the immediate. It doesn't see the things of God. It only sees the immediate.

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Now, as we look into this, we need to make one thing abundantly clear. This text does not teach that God rejects people so that even when they want to repent,

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God won't allow it. That's not what this text is saying. Let's get that squared away right now.

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That's not what the text is saying. You can become like Esau where you want to repent, but God says, nope, nope, no.

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That's not what it's saying. Well, what is it saying? Well, let's look at this kind of life that Esau had. Esau sold his birthright for a single meal.

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What's so important about that? That birthright was tied to the covenant of God with Abraham, right?

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God promised all these things, you know, the land, that he would be their

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God, that if people turned against Abraham's descendants,

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God would curse them. All those different promises, you see them listed out in Genesis chapter 12.

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That birthright that Esau sold was all tied to that covenant, to those promises.

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But in contrast to the Old Testament champions who trusted God's word about things not seen, he looked no further than his immediate gratification.

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That's how much God's promises, that's how much God's covenant meant to him. Didn't mean anything.

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Yeah, okay, okay, I know. It's all God's promises, I get it, but I'm hungry now. I'll give you that for this meal.

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That's what he's talking about here. That's the kind of irreverence and impulsive indulgent kind of life that Esau had.

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He cared nothing for the marvelous promises and covenant of God. And then, after he found out that he'd lost the blessing with the birthright, they're put together, he regretted what he had done.

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He regretted it. He desperately wanted it all back. Why? Because now his brother was the big guy and he wasn't the guy who was gonna be in charge anymore.

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Now he's mad, he's regretting it, he's sad, and he sought it with tears and supplications.

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Now here's what might help us. When you read at the end, though he sought it with tears, what is it?

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It is the blessing, not the repentance. It is the blessing. He sought the blessing with tears.

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He gave it up, he lost it, and now he's seeking it with tears.

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And that fits the story and it fits the context here. He sought that blessing. He cried to his father and said, please, please give it to me.

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He says, I can't. He bitterly sought that blessing, but it was too late.

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And so why was he rejected? Because he had no chance to repent. What does that mean? He had no chance to repent because he was sorry for only the consequences of his sin.

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He wasn't sorry for anything else. What he was sorry for was, I lost, what was

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I thinking? I lost it, I regret it. But was he repentant? No. He did not mourn the fact that he treated the promises of God with such irreverence.

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I wonder what would happen if he'd come and wept before Isaac and said, the promises of God, I gave them up.

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He didn't do that, nor did he mourn, nor did he repent or mourn of his lifestyle of self -indulgent habits and pursuing his desires and his appetites.

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He wasn't sad for that at all. In fact, what he was regretting was the fact that he lost that prime position and he couldn't use it for what he wanted anymore.

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So that's what the writer's driving at. It did not occur to him that he was an earthly man defined by earthly desires.

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That's not what he was sorry for. That's not what he was repenting. He was regretting and saying, ah, what was

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I doing? Please, I want it back. That's what our writer is saying here. Don't be like that.

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Where the promises and the glory and all those things unseen that God has promised mean nothing to you.

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You're irreverent. You don't treat them with that and you just live by your impulses. Now, what does this have to do with perseverance?

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Well, think about it. Esau gave up the promise in order to ease his physical discomfort.

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He gave up the promise in order to ease his physical discomfort. We might be tempted.

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We might be tempted to give up the promises of the gospel to ease our social discomfort.

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We may be willing, if you will, to throw Jesus under the bus because people don't like us anymore.

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Because now we are being marginalized and pushed out of our culture.

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And that's true. Oh my, that's true. If you say something like, why do we call this gender affirming surgery?

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Wouldn't it be more accurate to say bodily mutilation? Isn't that more accurate?

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To say that today, you're gonna get pushed out to the edges. You're gonna be saying, what are you, some kind of a nut?

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Bodily mutilation, what planet have you come from? And some people are willing to not even talk about Jesus, give up Jesus altogether because of the social discomfort it will cause.

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We might be tempted to give up the promises to avoid the physical discomfort of jail, the physical discomfort of losing a job, of losing our property, the very things he's talked about in this book because of our allegiance to Jesus.

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Don't be like Esau, who's only after his comfort, only after what was, what made life what he thought good for him.

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Be careful of that. We may be tempted to give all those things up to avoid the ultimate discomfort of death for Jesus.

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Right? Don't be like Esau, he's saying. You see, if we don't deal with the threat of earthly desire, we will lose sight of heavenly glory.

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If we don't deal with earthly desire, we will lose sight of heavenly glory.

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And so he says, be vigilant against this threat of earthly desire.

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So if you would persevere, if you would endure, then you must practice vigilance.

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We must be vigilant. So then, persevering or enduring in the faith does not just mean enduring the blows.

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Surely, that is a part of it. Just like any boxing match. You gotta endure the blows.

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You don't just land them, you also endure them. Surely part of it. But it also involves taking action.

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It takes moving forward. It takes fighting back. So if you'd endure in your faith, then you have to practice some virtues.

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You have to strive for peace. We have to strive for peace with all men. And let me just say in conclusion, we have to strive for peace with all men, which includes us with one another.

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That's where it starts. Strive for peace with one another. That means we're going to go to war with weapons of good.

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It means fighting as Christ's warriors against those who would persecute us.

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Yes, going to war with good against those who would make our lives miserable. We're gonna go after them with the weapons of good and the weapons of the gospel.

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You have to strive for holiness. Listen, it's not a matter of gritting it out.

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I hope I have enough to persevere and endure. Just start looking at your life and saying,

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God, show me where I need to grow and help me to grow. Help me to go to people who will help me to grow, but I must grow in holiness.

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Those are a couple of the actions that we need to take. And then you have to practice vigilance, looking out for the threats that would weaken all of us in our perseverance.

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Be careful of unbelief. Be careful of unbelief. Work to strengthen your faith.

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Know the promises of God. Dig out the bitter root of defiance.

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Don't be defiant. Don't say, Lord, I'll serve you until.

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No, no. And then fight the life of earthly desire, the short -sighted disease that sees only immediate comfort rather than the promise of eternal glory.

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May God help us in this. May God help us to move forward, not merely enduring the blows, but moving in a way and taking the steps that he's called us to in order to strengthen us to endure.

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Father, your word is magnificent because it explains things better, better than anything out there.

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Father, your word equips us. It explains. It equips.

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Father, it energizes us. So I thank you for your word today. Lord, may it have its work in us that we will be and do what you've called us to be and you've called us to do.