Finish Strong Together
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 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; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 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.
As we have been working through Hebrews 12, hopefully you notice that there is a theme. The theme is that of a race. As I preached about a few weeks ago, this is not a sprint, but it is a marathon, more than that it is an agonizing marathon.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Gospel Commands!
Gospel Commands!
The author of Hebrews is telling us two things we are to do and three things to avoid.
Two Things to Do
Two Things to Do
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
Christian up!!!
Christian up!!!
We are told to get tough.
This is the phrasing
“man up”
be brave or tough enough to deal with a difficult or unpleasant situation.
However, I think I like the phrase Christian up.
We are told to finish strong.
I think of the exchange in Job when God speaks.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
God is telling Job to stand up and be the man.
This is the idea of girding our loins.
Tying up one’s long, lower garments about one’s waist or loins indicated readiness for travel (Exod. 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 9:1) and battle (Nahum 2:1).
In the NT to gird up one’s loins is used in the figurative sense of preparedness (Luke 12:35; Eph. 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:13).
Thus to make someone’s loins shake or loosed is to render the person helpless (Ps. 69:23; Isa. 45:1).
We are called to stand up and be tough. However, we are not alone. This is not a message of self-help or postive thinking.
Those efforts will fail! Why? Because they are trying to work under their own power, we are not called to do this. Secondly, it would be foolish to not use every resource available.
We are called to toughen up and gird our loins, but we are to do it as we are focusing on our God, Lord and Savior.
This is a message of God focused thinking! (Isaiah 35:3-4, Job 4:3-4)
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. 4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
We can stand tough because of the promises of God! (Psalm 118:5-6, Psalm 145:14, Isaiah 41:10, Romans 5:18, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 13:6 )
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
English Standard Version Chapter 41
Isaiah 41:10
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
English Standard Version Psalm 118
5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free.
6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
7 The LORD is on my side as my helper;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
So, I ask you. Are you focusing on your weak knees and drooping hands?
There is a technique in running, your keep your head up? Why? When you hold your head down, you cut off the windpipe, it makes it harder to breathe.
For you in the Christian life, are you focused on your fears or you shield?
We talk about the full armor of God, but I want you to focus on this one part.
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
We are called to run tough, to be strong, to gird our loins preparing for difficulty and trouble. We have a tough race to run, but we are not doing it alone.
Most importantly, we can trust in God as our shield, our protector and defender, we can trust in his promises.
Secondly, while we are never forsaken by God, we are also commanded to run this race together.
Be Tough as a team, not just as an Individual
Be Tough as a team, not just as an Individual
Christianity is not an individual faith. We are individual in our personal salvation and repentance, but we grow and survive as a team, a family.
One of the most common statements that pastor’s are hearing is that people are missing the meeting together.
We can have the best preacher in the world, we could even bring Charles Spurgeon back from the dead to preach to the world and have massively huge video church, but it will not be enough! We can hear great preaching and teaching, but when we are not meeting together you are still not filled, there is still a feeling of emptiness. This is the beauty and power of the local church. We are meeting together, we are living life together, we are bearing each other’s burdens, we know we are not alone.
This is the gift of the local church and a local Pastor (or Pastors). There is a connections that we need, it is this connection that gives us the strength, courage and energy to keep running the race.
It is also is a means of grace that allows us to push forward, even when we feel like we cannot.
The idea of making straight paths is the concept of smoothing and straightening. (Proverbs 3:6, Isaiah 40:3-4, Isaiah 42:16)
I want to spent a moment here talking about this smoothing and straightening, this is not making our life as a Christian easier, it is about not adding obstacles or extra work.
This is the idea of adding additional requirements
How do we see the as an action of the church? A team effort.
First
We not to be a stumbling block for others. (Romans 14:13 , Romans 14:21, 1 Corinthians 8:8-9, 1 Corinthians 8:12-13 )
8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
As we are running this race in the Christian life, are we being a stumbling block to others? Or are we helping to make paths smooth and straight.
Here are a few examples of current church bylaws:
No one can bring a colored drink to church, especially red Kool-Aid.
There will be very specific guidelines regarding the church van (but the church doesn’t own a van).
The church has to have a minimum of five deacons (but the church only has 20 members).
No one can sell cassettes on church grounds.
No one is allowed to bring glitter to church.
No church member can drink alcohol except during the Lord’s Supper.
No one can sell paintings on church grounds.
While these are funny, it highlights a problem. The problem is that sometimes in our attempts to be “Godly” we end up turning a smooth straight path into American Ninja Warrior.
We must have the attitude of helping each other by not creating obstacles to our path.
We must be willing to put aside anything that hinders another believer, except for the Gospel. We hold lightly to the things of man, and cling desperately to Christ and His Word.
Second,
We need to stay true to the teaching in the Scripture. Basically, we need to have a correct theology. (1Timothy 1:3-8, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Timothy 4:2-4, 1 Peter 2:8b)
The author of Hebrews gives us the third positive action. This may sound familiar, as it is often commanded in the New Testament.
13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
We are commonly commanded to love one another and to have peace with each other, but the author of Hebrews takes this one step further.
Strive for Peace
Strive for Peace
We are commanded to strive for peace, with everyone!!
This means everyone.
I know you are thinking, Pastor Robby, sure you have this wrong. This is not what the meaning of this verse is in the original Greek.
Well, fortunately for you, I am taking Greek as one of my classes.
So here is what it means.
peace n. — harmonious relations and freedom from disputes; especially during the absence of war.
Okay, so we know understand what peace means, but does it really mean everyone?
entire adjs. — constituting the full quantity or extent; complete.
This is not taken out of context.
Romans 12:17-18, 1 Peter 2:12
We are commanded to strive for holiness!
This means we are to work on our sanctification. How do we do this?
We do this by staying in the Word, daily. Prayer, worshipping with other believers.
We are commanded to strive or pursue peace and holiness.
This should bring up an image of a criminal being pursued by the police.
Or from the movie Smokey and the Bandit, where the Sheriff Buford T Justice leaves his jurisdiction in Texas to chase the Bandit Burt Reynolds from Texas to Georgia. Most of the movie shows his relentless pursuit of the Bandit.
This is the language and intensity that is being conveyed.
The question for us, are we showing this same level of pursuit? Or are we just playing church? You cannot play around in Christianity, you are going to be miserable.
If this is you and you are truly born again, you are going to be facing trouble on two fronts. The first front is from the world, because of your profession of following Christ. The world hates Christians because we are constant reminders of God and His impending judgement.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
The second front is from God and His discipline.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
This is why we must pursue peace and holiness.
The great news is that we have a huge head start when we when become believers. We are given the gift of Grace, of Salvation, Justification and Sanctification. We are made holy because Christ’s holiness replaces our un-holiness. But we are still called to pursue. We are still called to work through our faith.
So while we see the two things we are to do, we are also cautioned to avoid three things.
Three Things to Avoid
Three Things to Avoid
Verse 15 begins with the phrase “see to it”.
In some contexts, this is a charge to the Elders in teaching, guiding and protecting the flock. This is also a charge to Elders, it is what separates Deacons from Elders, as Elders are responsible for teaching and defending the faith.
9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
But this is not the context of this passage, this is a command for all believers. This is not just an Elder responsibility, but it is an expectation for all believers.
Believers are expected to be vigilant, to watch carefully.
This specifically applies to doctrine and theology! (Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7, Acts 17:11b, Romans 16:17, Ephesians 4:14,1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 Timothy 1:3, 1 Timothy 6:3, Titus 2:1, Hebrews 6:1, 1 John 4:1)
Now that we know that we are to be vigilant and to watch carefully, we will need to see what the author of Hebrews is telling us to avoid.
But I need to make a quick detour.
It is the heart of your Elders to see you all grow in the faith, in love, in faithfulness and in knowledge.
So, we have decided to take an active approach to growing in knowledge.
We are going to teach a course in Systematic Theology.
Some of you are thinking what is Systematic Theology, simply put this is a course that teaches what the entire Bible says about a subject.
This course takes a topic and teaches what the entire Scripture says about that topic. It puts the Old and New Testaments together and looks at subjects.
It looks at things like:
God the Father
God the Son Jesus
God the Holy Spirit
The Bible
The Church
Man
Salvation
We will be using the DVD based course by Wayne Grudem. He is a great teacher who is amazing making this understandable by all.
We are going to kick this course off on Wednesday March 3rd at 6pm. Childcare will be provided.
I will send the sign-up link through Church Center today.
Now, we will go back into seeing what we are to avoid.
These are people who as Jude explains, “crept in”
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
He provides further explanation,
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Ignorance of Grace
Ignorance of Grace
These are not people struggling in the Christian faith, these are people who do not have what they profess. They are false converts.
Deuteronomy 29:19-20, Hebrews 4:1-10
This is the seed sown on the rocky ground.
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
These are the people we meet who make a profession of faith, walk the aisle, sign the card, get baptized but then are never found in a church again. Sometimes, these people stay in a church, but they only attend they are not really involved.
By this, I mean they live separate lives church and outside of church.
They become the grumblers, complainers and whiners, just like the Israelites in the desert.
Bitter Springs
Bitter Springs
This is a call for us to ready ourselves against idolatry and apostasy.
Some of you are thinking, this could not happen to me or not in this church. Pastor Mike and Pastor Robby teach the Bible this cannot happen to us.
Well, let me share a quote from Jared C Wilson
Every weekend men and women file into church buildings in order to exult in the rhetorical skill of their preacher, to admire him and think of their church as his church, not Christ’s church. Many of us file in each week to enjoy the conspicuous spiritual exercises of our brethren. We worship the worship experience; we tithe with expectation of return from heaven’s slot machine; we dress to impress; and we serve and lead to compensate for the inadequacies in our hearts that only Christ can fill. Every weekend, hundreds of preachers extol a therapeutic gospel from the pages of the same Bible where the real gospel lies. We Reformed are not exempt, as too often our affections are poured totally into doctrine with only vague admiration reserved for doctrine’s Author.
When the Israelites made the golden calf, they ascribed their worship to God! (Exodus 32:5, Nehemiah 9:18)
This is not a call for us to go idolatry hunting in others, I am not calling for a sin posse to search out the church. This is a defensive action, not offensive. We are to guard against, not attack.
We are also to be continually on guard. Notice that there is a indication of some time in the root and trouble?
When we identify areas that are not in alignment with Scripture, we need to act. The longer we wait on taking action, the more difficult it is to fix.
Imagine trying to remove a mature sequoia tree, what effort does it take to remove it?
Now, what about a seedling? How much effort does that take?
This is why we are be continually vigilant, every cult started with a small group of people. This is why many become defiled, the root takes root and grows.
We must guard against it and stay grounded in the Word.
The last person to avoid is characterized by Esau.
Deviant Appetites
Deviant Appetites
Esau is a great example of who not to be, let’s look at some of the Scriptures concerning Esau.
34 When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan! For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time when I punish him.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Outside of the Scripture, the reputation of Esau is worse. Rabbinical tradition paints Esau as a consistent womanizer, one who chases his passions without restraint. It is said that when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, we was exhausted from sexual conquests, including adultery with a betrothed maiden. Philo of Alexandria describes Esau as “unrestrained, lecherous, impure and unholy man”
While there is not clear incidences from Scripture, the author of Hebrews calls him sexually immoral, using the Greek word pornos. This is the same word that we get the term pornography.
Esau is described as sexually immoral, the same description found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Hebrews 13:4.
Esau is further described as unholy, a man who has no regard for God.
Esau is a picture of the person who only chases their lusts and passions. They have no regard for anything but physical pleasures.
John Calvin explains it as:
..those in whom the love of the world so holds sway and prevails, that they forget heaven as men who are carried away by ambition, addicted to money and riches, given over to gluttony and entangled with the other kinds of pleasures, and give the spiritual kingdom of Christ either no place or the last place in their concerns.
Folks, this is a sign of false teachers, it is a sign of wrath.
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Esau pursued the lusts of his flesh at the cost of his blessing from his father. This lust also cost him the eternal blessing from God.
We are to watch out for these people, for they are dangerous and they are not believers in God. They are enemies.
But, here is the great hope.
There can be forgiveness. God can forgive sins. Maybe there is someone here like the three people Hebrews tells us to avoid. If this is you, then do not despair, repent, turn to God and trust in His work on the cross.
He is able to save you from your sins.
For those who are in Christ, guard your hearts and minds, be vigilant, keep running, gird up your loins, leave no-one behind and trust in the Lord.