Striving for Peace & Holiness

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12.
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We are continuing this morning in our study of Hebrews, which we have been examining verse by verse now for the last couple of years.
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It's been our Sunday morning study.
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We try to do that.
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We try to go through books verse by verse so that we are being sure as to give heed to the entire counsel of God and not pick out just those verses which we might be more inclined to deal with and leave aside the ones that we would not.
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And many of those of you who come on Wednesday night are also aware that we do on Wednesday night, we've been studying through the book of Romans.
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So we do Romans on Wednesday night, verse by verse, and we do Hebrews on Sunday morning.
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And it's amazing to me just how much Hebrews mirrors Romans, even sort of on a chapter by chapter level.
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Romans chapter 12 is where the apostle Paul shifts his writing from the very theological, the very deep, the very founded on that which is to do with that which is doctrinal.
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And then he switches to the very practical in chapter 12.
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Well, the writer of Hebrews does sort of the same thing.
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The writer of Hebrews right around chapter 12 begins to start shifting his focus away from that which is highly doctrinal.
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The things like how the sacrifices worked and how the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how Jesus Christ is the very divine one, the very son of God, all these things which are taught in the book of Hebrews.
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And then you get to chapter 12 and he begins to focus on how we are to live out this particular truth, how we are to take these things that he has taught us and to make them applicable in our lives.
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In fact, Hebrews and Romans mirror each other so much that there is argument as to whether or not Paul actually wrote Hebrews, which I've said in the past, I don't believe that Paul wrote Hebrews.
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I think the text actually denies at a certain point that Paul could be the author.
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However, it matters not.
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It's always been somewhat of a debate who wrote Hebrews anyway, and it's not the purpose of the sermon this morning.
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The purpose is to mention this, though, whoever wrote Hebrews, we know Paul wrote Romans.
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And because there is such a mirror there, it shows us that there are these these sort of universal Christian principles that are found throughout the New Testament and their principles by which all believers should live.
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So this morning, we're going to start looking at some of those principles, and I don't know how long these messages are going to take, because unlike some sermon series is where I might say it's going to take four weeks or three weeks or two weeks or whatever, and we're going to do this for this amount of time, we're just going to look at the text and I'm going to preach to the text.
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And whether it takes two weeks, four weeks or however long it takes, we're just going to invest our time in studying.
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So I invite you to stand now as we read the Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to read verses 12 through 17 today.
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Whether or not we get through that entire amount of text is yet to be seen, but we will certainly study the bulk of it.
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So let us look now beginning at verse 12.
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Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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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 become many become defiled, 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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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to again look at your word.
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I pray, as I pray every week, Lord, that you would keep me from error as I seek to bring an understanding of the word and Lord, we know ultimately it is your Holy Spirit that will teach hearts.
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And we pray that you will open up the hearts of your people to hear the word and apply it to their lives.
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And through all this, Lord, we pray through the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Most of us who are parents, especially parents, actually are aware that children receive instruction via different methods.
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There are times when the direct method must be employed.
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We must tell our children to absolutely do something or we must absolutely forbid some activity.
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For instance, when children are young, we begin to give them very strict boundaries that they're to live by.
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And we very specifically tell them what not to do.
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You tell your small child, your infant child, as he begins to grow older, you say now when we go out or when you're outside, do not ever talk to strangers.
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You make that a very clear command.
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You say, you know, if you're home and you hear the doorknob, do not open the door unless mom and dad are here with you.
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Or you say, you know, when we're in a department store, we're in the Target or Walmart or wherever, do not ever walk away from us because we wouldn't want you to get lost or kidnapped or anything like that.
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And we give them very specific commands.
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They say, make sure as they get older, we say, make sure you clean your room, make sure you pick up your toys, make sure you fold your laundry, make sure you dust your furniture, whatever.
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We give them very specific tasks, very specific commands.
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However, as they begin to get into the adolescent years, as they begin to mature, we stop giving them as many direct commands and we start giving them more principles to live by.
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We begin because there are just too many things out there to tell them what they can and can't do with every single aspect of life.
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We can't tell them you can do this all the time.
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You can't do this all the time.
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So we have to start giving them principles to live by.
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Likewise, when we read the Bible, we come to certain passages that are very specifically stated commands and prohibitions.
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We are commanded specifically in Scripture to honor our father and mother.
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We are commanded in Scripture, thou shalt not commit murder.
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Thou shalt not commit adultery.
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Thou shalt not bear false witness.
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All of these things are specific governing commands from the Scripture.
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Straightforward do's and don'ts.
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Yet just like a parent must provide for his children, for his children principles to live by, so too the Bible provides us principles to live by.
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As we mature in our Christian walk, we're going to find that there are certain things that the Bible does not specifically address by name, but yet it addresses it in principal form.
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It addresses it in view of a principle.
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There are many things in our life today that the Bible never addresses because it's only going on today.
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It's something that's only really having to be addressed today.
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But yet the Bible speaks to it in principle form.
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For instance, I often hear people talking about the subject of abortion.
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People want to talk about abortion.
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And I've actually heard people say, well, the Bible never actually says that abortion itself is a sin.
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So what do we do with that? Because, yes, the Bible never addresses specifically an instance where there was a medical procedure called an abortion, because this is relatively a new thing.
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I realize they've been done in various ways in the past.
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But what we call the medical procedure of abortion.
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So how do you deal with that? Well, you go to the Scripture and you deal with where the Scripture actually talks about the principle of the sanctity of life and the principle that life does not begin at birth, but actually begins in the womb, because the Bible says in Psalm 139, God formed us in the womb and He knew us before we were even born.
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And even before we were born, our days were fashioned before us.
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So all of these things, we can go to the Scripture, we can find the principles and from those principles determine our ethic.
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We can determine what it is God would have us do.
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Well, this morning we've arrived at a passage of Scripture in Hebrews that I believe is one of those times where the Bible is seeking to provide for us principles by which we are ought to live.
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The writer is giving us the path which we can walk down along with paths that we should avoid.
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In fact, if you wanted to sort of make two broad categories for what he's going to give us in these passages, and we probably won't get to this whole thing today, but if you were taking notes, because I know some of you do, I would say really what he's going to give us, he's going to give us goals for which to strive and then he's going to give us failures against which to guard.
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So he's going to give us goals for which to strive and then failures against against which to guard.
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That was a lot easier to type than it was to say.
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So today we're going to focus mostly on the goals for which we are supposed to be striving for.
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And because of, as I can foresee, a lack of time, we will probably get to the failures next week.
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But let's begin today by looking at the goals for which we are to strive as believers, principles that we're to live by, goals that we're to strive for.
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Beginning here in verse 12, it says in verse 12, therefore, and remember, anytime you see the word, therefore, that is an indicator that what is being said now has a relationship to what has come before.
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That's a linguistic device that's saying that this particular statement has something to do with what came before.
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Now, what came before? What have we been studying over the last couple of weeks? Well, the entire section before deals with God's disciplining us as his children, that he treats us as sons and that the things that we experience in life that are difficulties, we should not look at them as God turning his back on us.
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But we should understand that every difficulty we face in life should be understood as a form of spiritual discipline because it helps us to mature in our faith.
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It causes us to have to rest upon the sovereignty of God, his providence, his love for us, his grace towards us.
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And thus, even in our most difficult times, we can stand with Job and say, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord, because Job teaches us exactly the attitude that we ought to have in times of severe difficulties, doesn't he? So here it says, therefore, that the passage before is talking about difficulties in life and things that we are going to be facing, hard times which are to come.
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It talks about there actually going to be times when, you know, if you go back into chapter 11, there are people who have had to die for their faith and their deaths have been atrocious and their deaths have been horrible.
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And some of them have even had to go through tremendous turmoil and pain and suffering.
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Thus, he gets to this point in verse 12.
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He says, therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.
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Now, this is hearkening back to the author's affinity for the sports metaphor.
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The writer loves to use sports as a way of describing the Christian life.
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He's already used racing as a way to describe the Christian life.
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He's already used boxing, which is part of one of my favorite things to discuss as far as to describe, because if you think about a 15 round boxing match and you think about all the things that go into training for a boxing match and all of the torment that the two fighters go through, it really is a very candid picture of what the Christian life can be like.
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We go through these times.
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But what are we going? We're going through these times of trial where it feels like the world is just beating us up.
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But yet we stand up, we lift up our hands, and that's why I like this passage, because he said, lift your drooping hands.
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You can imagine a coach or a corner man.
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I don't know if you know much about boxing, but anytime there's a boxer in the ring, he's got what's called a corner man.
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The corner man is the person who sits there and at the end of every round, the corner man comes up and he wipes his face off and he gives him some water to drink and he gives him encouragement.
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Hey, stay strong.
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Hey, you're doing good.
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Hey, you need to keep your hands up.
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Because what happens when a boxer drops his hands, his guard is let down, his chin is open wide, and he's, of course, at that moment in danger of a knockout.
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Likewise, in the Christian life, we cannot simply let our guard down.
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We cannot allow the stress, the difficulties imposed upon us by the world cause us to become weary and ineffective.
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We have to keep our hands up and fight the good fight.
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Now, it's important to note at this point that this is not the first time this metaphor has been used in Scripture.
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You can go back to the book of Job, which I've already mentioned once.
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In the book of Job, the phrase, keep your hands up and strengthen your weak knees is used there.
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Likewise, it is also used in Isaiah chapter 35.
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In fact, I believe this is actually a quote here in Hebrews of Isaiah 35, because Isaiah 35, verse 3 says, strengthen your weak hands and make firm your feeble knees.
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Almost an exact quote of what is being said here.
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So if he's not quoting it, it was such a common phrase to use.
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It was so common that he is saying almost exactly what was said by Isaiah.
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And again, it's just a metaphor.
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It's something that people use when they're thinking about sporting activities and things like that all the time.
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Get your hands up, strengthen your knees, get ready for battle.
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Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.
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And then in verse 13, he goes further.
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He says, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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Now, at this point, the writer is going away from the individual alone, and he's beginning to talk about the church's duty as a whole when the text references that which is lame.
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Be very specific.
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I want you to really pay attention to this because you'll miss it if you don't really pay attention when he says so that that which is lame may be may not be put out of joint.
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That is actually a reference to other people who are struggling.
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He's telling us all lift up your hands, strengthen your knees and make the path straight.
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The idea of making the path straight is clear any obstacles out of the way.
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If there's anything that would cause you to go to the left or to the right when you're supposed to be taking this narrow path, which is the path of Christ, move all of these obstacles out of your way so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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The idea of that which is lame is actually referring to the stronger ones encouraging the weaker ones.
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Standing strong is not a solo adventure.
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We must stand strong together if we are going to be effective.
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Some of us are stronger than others as believers.
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That's not something I invented.
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That's not an idea I came up with.
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That's just what the Bible says.
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The Bible says there are some people who are more mature in their faith than others.
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There are certain people who have more time in the faith and their level of spiritual maturity is more deep than others.
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And as such, there are always going to be different people who are who are a little bit more mature in their Christian faith.
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As such, we are to come together as a church.
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And when we see folks who are beginning to waver, when we see folks who are beginning to go off the path, we are to bring them in and make that path straight.
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This is one of the great benefits of the church.
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We meet together for worship and fellowship in an attempt to increase our spiritual maturity and strength so that we can encourage each other to stand against the onslaught of the devil himself.
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In fact, people say this all the time and it becomes rather frustrating to hear, not just because I'm a pastor, but because I'm a person who believes in the power of the church.
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I believe that the church has a specific responsibility in the world that I think has just been lost on most people because I hear people say all the time, and you've probably heard it before.
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Well, you ain't got to go to church to be a Christian.
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Everybody ever heard that? And what is the implication there? Well, usually what they're trying to say is I can be just as good a Christian by sitting at home and watching preaching on television.
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I can be just as good a Christian.
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I can do all the things that need to be done in Christianity.
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I don't need the church.
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Well, the major problem with that is that the church is designed so that when believers come together, number one, all of our spiritual gifts work together so that we all have a function within the body.
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And if a person is a believer and they have divorced themselves from the church, what they've done is they've divorced themselves from being able to use their gifts within the body.
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Likewise, when they've divorced themselves from the church, they've divorced themselves from that encouragement that is going to be needed when the world comes to bear on their faith.
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This is why Hebrews chapter 10, just a few chapters back, said this, it said, Let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
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And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, why do we gather together? We gather together to stir each other up towards good works.
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We gather together because the world is not going to encourage us in our following of Christ.
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Do you believe that that's true? The world is not going to encourage you to follow Christ.
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The world is not going to encourage you to study scripture.
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The world is not going to encourage you to be a better Christian.
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The world is not going to encourage you to repent of your sins.
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The world is not going to encourage you to evangelize.
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In fact, the world is going to do the opposite.
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So that one of the very most important aspects of the church is that when we come together, when the weight of the world has bore upon our shoulders, we come in and bear that weight together.
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It's not a solo mission, but we come in and we fight the battles together.
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That way, when one person's hands are starting to fall, others come up and lift up their hands, that that which is lame is not put out of joint.
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That's the whole idea of coming together as the church.
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Yes, we come together as the body of Christ.
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Yes, our main mission is to glorify God through the exaltation of the work of his Son.
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Yes, it is to be sharing in the ministry of the Holy Spirit one to another and sharing our gifts with one another.
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But the other mission of the church and the mission that must never be forgotten is that we encourage one another to stay the course of faith because the world will not encourage it.
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In fact, the world will beat us into the corner if given half a chance.
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The writer of Hebrews over and over again speaks of our need for one another in our Christian walk.
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We need each other.
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We really do.
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You can't do this by yourself.
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You're not supposed to.
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This is why in Hebrews 3, 13, it says, But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
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Continue to exhort and encourage each other every single day as the body of Christ.
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Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 11 says, Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
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That is our goal.
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I don't want to see any of you depart from the Christian walk.
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I don't want to see any of you begin to follow after other gods.
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I don't want to see any of you begin to be ineffective Christians.
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And likewise, you should want that for each other.
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When we look at one another, there should be a concern and a love that causes us to say, Brother, what can I do to lift your weak arms and strengthen your feeble knees? You see, the Christian life is more than just finishing our race well.
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It's also about encouraging others to finish the race, often in marathons, which I have never been a part of, so I'm speaking not from experience, but in marathon running.
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By the end of the marathon, the runners will be running arm and arm.
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Because they're so tired and their feet are blistered and bloodied and their sweat is just poured off, and if they were trying to do it all by themselves, they would fall flat.
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So they begin to link up and hold one another up as they come to that last stretch of the finish line.
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Beloved, it is the same for us.
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If we are not there for one another to encourage one another to lift one another up and, yes, to call each other to account, then the world will have its way.
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We need one another.
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We need that encouragement when it says to make the paths straight, the Greek word there is orthos, and it's where we get the word orthopedic.
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The idea is whatever curves another brother in Christ may be facing, whatever thing is causing his way to go wayward, we seek to straighten those out to keep that person focused on the goal.
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For one another, we are supposed to do that.
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But do you know what is required for that? Do you know what's required? Everything I've said so far, do you know what's required for it to actually work? Because all of what I've said sounds real good.
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We're here for each other.
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We're supposed to be helping each other.
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We're supposed to be encouraging each other.
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Hey, that's the duty of the church.
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Do you know what's required for all that? Actually caring about each other.
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And actually loving each other.
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If we are truly going to fulfill this mandate to be there to encourage one other, to make the path straight for one another, we actually have to care enough to speak words of encouragement into each other's lives.
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We have to be invested in each other and we have to genuinely desire each other's best.
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This is why the text goes on to say, strive for peace with everyone.
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Look there at the text, verse 14.
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It's already told us we've got to keep our hands up, strengthen our hands and our weak knees.
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And when we have those around us who are beginning to fail, we make their paths straight.
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And what is the next verse? How does it fit? It says strive for peace with everyone.
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Why is that even important? Because to be an encouragement to each other, we first have to be in a good relationship with one another.
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It is impossible to speak words of encouragement, true encouragement to people with whom we are currently at enmity.
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By the way, that word means war.
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And yes, there are people who are in war in churches.
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How are you supposed to encourage one another if you're at war with one another? It doesn't happen.
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You cannot build someone up.
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You cannot straighten someone's path if you are not in a peaceful relationship with them.
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It just cannot happen.
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You have to strive to be at peace with one another if you are truly going to be encouragements to one another.
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Now, that doesn't mean you have to agree on everything.
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I'm glad it doesn't because my wife and I don't agree on everything.
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She just knows I'm right.
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I had to say my wife and I don't agree on everything, but we love each other.
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And we always want to be at peace in our relationship.
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So we understand that's more important than those little things against you about which we might disagree.
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My family and I don't agree on everything, but I still love them.
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My fellow elders and I.
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We don't agree on every single little thing.
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But our love for one another helps us be able to work together.
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In fact, it's foundational in our being able to work together because it's that love and concern and care we have for one another that provides that mutual respect so that when there is a disagreement, it never becomes personal.
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Because we know we love the same God, the same Christ, we are both serving under the same power of the Holy Spirit.
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And thus, when there is a disagreement, it's never personal.
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It's just this is what we think.
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This is what we believe.
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This is how we understand.
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Let's talk about it.
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Let's work it out.
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And beloved, that same mandate should be followed throughout the church.
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This is why the Apostle Paul says in Romans Chapter 12 and verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men.
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I love the fact that he gave the caveat there because he said, if possible, so far as it depends on you, because we know you can't be at peace with all men because there are some men who won't be at peace with you.
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There are some men whose attitudes won't allow them to be at peace with you.
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But what the Apostle Paul here is saying is that we are to make sure that a war is never continued from our side of the field.
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We should always be striving for peace in our relationships, so much more so even in the church.
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We strive for peace in our earthly relationships because we do want to bear witness for Christ for all men everywhere.
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But particularly in the church, we need to strive for peace in our relationships.
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This way, we will better be able to encourage each other and our Christian walk.
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But notice it doesn't only say strive for peace.
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It says strive for peace with everyone and for what holiness to strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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Again, that phrase by itself, strive for peace and holiness, that could be a sermon just by itself and it may be sometime in the near future.
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But I have to show how it fits within context because the idea of striving for peace and holiness, yeah, that's a beautiful idea.
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And that is something that we could all talk about for days.
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But what is it saying in context? What it's saying in context is simply this.
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We are to strive with peace for everyone or with everyone.
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That is our mandate towards one another.
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And we are also to strive for holiness because that is our mandate towards God.
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And you know what? If somebody asked me to break down practical Christian living.
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In the simplest way that I would be able to do it, I couldn't do it any more simple than that.
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We strive for peace with everyone, particularly with our brothers and sisters in Christ, because that is that first fold relationship within which we will be for eternity.
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I will be with you all in eternity.
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We will all share an eternal home together.
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We will be together forever.
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If we can't get along here, boy, we got a long time and we're going to, you know, so we strive for peace in this relationship, first and foremost, and we strive for holiness towards God.
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That's the two foundation stones for Christian ethics.
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We strive for peace with one another and we strive for holiness towards God.
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We live according to his mandates, according to his commands, according to his holiness.
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That is our goal.
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We are to seek to be conformed to the image of his son.
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That's what holiness is, because Christ is the Messiah, the anointed one, the holy one.
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Of Israel.
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Thus, we seek to be conformed to that image, and that is our goal.
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That's the principles by which we live.
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That's the things that we are striving for.
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We strive towards others to live at peace and towards God to live in holiness.
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And the text clearly says that no one will see the Lord apart from that holiness, and the reason why no one will see the Lord apart from holiness is that it is these things which it is holiness, which is the hallmark of genuine conversion.
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Holiness is the thing that we grow in if we are truly being conformed to the image of Christ.
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And if we are not being conformed to the image of Christ, if we are not growing in our holiness, if we're not growing in our walk with the Lord, then we do not know the Lord.
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And thus he can clearly say without this holiness, we will not see him.
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And that's an important truth that we all must remember.
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It does not constitute a workspace righteousness and no way does it constitute that.
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But it does remind us that when the Lord saves us, when he does the work of conversion in our heart, our lives will change and we will seek peace with one another and holiness.
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And without it.
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We have to ask ourselves the question, do we truly know the Lord? And that's the question I think I'm going to have us end on today, because I think it's an important one.
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Consider that verse strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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Are you striving for peace and is there a yearning in your heart for the holiness of God? I'll leave you with that to think about.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look at these verses this morning and to consider our responsibilities towards one another, to encourage one another, to strengthen one another's walk with you and to love one another enough to speak words of encouragement to one another and to call each other to account.
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Lord, as we consider this morning.
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How much you have loved us to have given us your son and provided for us the church, a sanctuary, a place to come to be encouraged.
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We pray also, Lord, that we would be challenged.
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To never forsake, but to always stand firm on the truth of the word, which tells us that we should not forsake the assembling together, but remember that we come together.
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To build each other up, to encourage one another, to strengthen one another.
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To do that which the world will not do by encouraging one another to follow you.
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We do pray for peace, Lord.
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We pray, Lord, if there are relationships which are tense within the church, if there are things that are going on, Lord, we pray for peace.
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We pray, Lord, that people would love you more than they love their own pride, that they would be concerned with your holiness more than they would be concerned with their own attitude.
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And Father, help us to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourself, as this is the mandate for Christian ethics and upon which all of the prophets and writings are founded.
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Thank you, Father, for all you give us in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Beloved, stand with us now as we sing just a closer walk with thee, and if you have a need, please come as we sing.