The Exhortations for the Christian Life - Part 2

- Well, if you would take your Bible turn back to Hebrews chapter 12, I did say that we would be in verses 12 to 17, although we are not going to get to verse 15 to 17, and I will explain that here in just a moment, but two weeks ago, we got started in these verses. We got started in these general exhortations that the author gave this congregation. And since it has been two weeks, and the fact that this morning's message is just a continuation of that part one, I'm gonna do two things. First, I want to remind us of where we are in the progression of the letter.

This is all about keeping the context of this original recipients of this letter before us. And we will see that we relate to this original audience and their circumstance and these exhortations more than we realize. And then second, I will summarize and expound on what we covered in our part one. In verse 12, we saw this call to strengthen ourselves spiritually. In verse 13, we saw this call to straighten out our lives for the race of faith that he has marked out for us. And in verse 14, we saw this call to strive for peace with all men and holiness.

And I will take this striving for peace with all men, this striving for holiness a lot further than I did at our first message. And next time we are in Hebrews, we will examine this call to scrutinize our lives in verses 15 to 17. Now we know where we are in the progression of the letter. Chapter 12 is all about the practice of faith, the practice of faith. And we are seeing how the author really gets practical and illustrative in his teaching. And writing to this congregation, he used a running analogy to encourage and teach them. He called them and he calls us to run the race of the Christian life well.

Then knowing their sufferings from leaving Judaism for Christianity, he called them to embrace them as a part of the loving discipline of God. And he calls us to do the same. Well here in verses 12 to 17, the author was led of God to give them these general exhortations. He knew they needed. If they were going to run the race of the Christian life well and if they were going to embrace the trials and the difficulty and the discipline of God that he had for them. He knew that if they did not embrace these exhortations and live them out, well, they would flounder and suffer and maybe even fail to a great degree in their race of faith.

Now look brother, look sister, I believe that some of you are being held back. I believe some of you are possibly hindered in a great way in your particular race of faith because of some of what we see here, some of the sins here and difficulties that we see here. And because I love you as your pastor, I really urge you, I strongly urge you to take all of this teaching to heart and study it and make sure we are all obeying it. Now let's get to our verses. I want us to read them again and in the message we will only come back to verse 14. But I do want us to read them again to get them in our minds and our heart and in our thinking.

Verse 12, 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. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and 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 found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears. Now this morning I will revisit this call to strengthen and this call to straighten. That's in verse 12 to 13. And I'm gonna share a few insights here that really I just didn't have time to mention back in our part one. Then I will revisit and go a lot further with this call to strive in verse 14. We will see what it means to strive for peace with all. Everyone the English standard says and how this relates to their church context and ours.

And then we will see what it means to strive for and pursue holiness. And I'll tell you church, there are a lot of individual Christian responsibilities here and more corporate, I will use another term, interpersonal Christian responsibilities that we may not see at first but we will. I promise you we will. So let's revisit number one, the call to strengthen. We see that right there in verse 12. Here we saw that the author used another analogy, the human body, hands and knees.

It is easy to see that he is giving us a picture of someone whose hands and knees are weak and we should understand that this analogy applies to the race of the Christian life. Sometimes I'll call it the race of faith. But think of the circumstances of this congregation, this original audience. We know their race of faith was hard and very difficult because they faced rejection and persecution for leaving Judaism and turning to Christ in Christianity. And this difficult race of faith was about the discipline, the loving discipline of God for them. So the author gave them this exhortation, I call it a call, to strengthen themselves.

Now the English Standard uses the word strengthen and it means to set up, it means to lift up, to restore, to reinvigorate. If you do some studying on your own, you'll see that in their day, this word was used in the medical field when doctors would set dislocated body parts. But the author was not referring to any kind of a physical weakness here. He was using this metaphorically to call them to strengthen their spiritual weakness. By picturing weak and weary arms and knees, he was directing their attention away from their trials and sufferings and towards their own spiritual weakness that they were enduring under the discipline of God.

And we know that the author was drawing from an Old Testament circumstance and passage that they all knew, Isaiah 35, three to four. In that passage, in that situation, Isaiah was calling God's weak and fearful people to do the very same thing. Instead of giving into spiritual weakness and discouragement, they were to strengthen themselves and to strengthen one another. But before we move on from this call to strengthen, I want us to see the obvious and not so obvious. I didn't have time to get into this two weeks ago. First, the obvious. It is clear that the author was calling them to their personal responsibility.

They were responsible to strengthen themselves. But notice there is another side to this responsibility, not only were they to strengthen themselves, but they were to strengthen one another. Remember, folks, this was written to a local church, a local body. So they had this corporate interpersonal Christian responsibility here as well. So notice how this responsibility all comes together. In their race of faith and the discipline of God that was very, very difficult for them, they clearly needed strength in strengthening. And they were responsible to strengthen themselves. And on top of that, they were responsible to strengthen one another.

First through their example, and then second through their personal direct interaction with one another. And look, church, we are responsible to do the very same thing. And then second, the not so obvious. It is clear that the author was implying spiritual weakness. He was clearly saying that some, if not many, were weak in failing to some degree or to a great degree. They were lacking spiritually. Otherwise, why would he be calling them to their responsibility to strengthen themselves and one another? And notice how the not so obvious relates to us. It may not be obvious to some.

It may not be obvious to most that some of you are weak and weary and lacking spiritually. Some of you were not lacking. You were not weak spiritually before. Maybe one or two or three years ago, but you are now. It might not be so obvious, but you are. But how are we to strengthen one another? Well, first of all, we are to strengthen ourselves. Therefore, becoming a model for others. And second, we all need mutual accountability. We desperately need very close personal relationships among one another so as to strengthen one another. You see, we need mentorship. We need to be mentors. And we need to be mentored.

When I was studying this this week, I was reminded of something I heard Brother Jeff say. Brother Jeff is pastor of Grace Life Church of the Shoals. Obviously, their church is a lot larger. But in the context of a sermon, he was talking about the health of their small group ministry and how hard they weren't there. And he made the comment about how many small groups they have. If I remember right, he said something to the effect that they had 75 or 80 small groups. But then he went on to say that out of those small groups, there were all these accountability groups that happened organically.

They didn't track 'em, they didn't keep up with 'em, they just happened on their own. And he went on to describe these accountability groups of two or three that meet together in the church whenever they want in town, at a restaurant, in homes. And he described well, well over 50 or 60 accountability groups that they knew of. Mentorship, personal accountability, these interpersonal Christian relationships. Then second, or number two, let's revisit the call to straighten. Number two, the call to straighten right out of verse 13. Here the author was using more imagery in his teaching, that's obvious.

The word path brought relatable images into their minds and the same with this phrase out of joint. But again, think of what they were living through in their circumstances. Their race of faith was very difficult. It must have been very difficult. So the author gave them this exhortation, this call to straighten out their lives in using the imagery of a wheel track or a rut cut by a wagon or a cart or a chariot. The author urged them to make straight and smooth paths for their feet, paths for their life. But this meant more than making life's path straight.

This spoke of making their way of living right, making their way of living plain and smooth according to God's way and according to God's word. Instead of being wrong and crooked and rough according to sin and self and even the world. In their context, many were struggling under that persecution and the pressure to return to Judaism. And their trials now and the discipline of God, that was all exposing wrong ways of living, even sinful ways of living. So the author called them to straighten out their way of living so as to live their race of faith well. And he was calling them to their responsibility to the weak.

While the lame referred literally to a crippled limb in the gospels in the book of Acts, here in Hebrews, it spoke metaphorically of those who were limping about spiritually under persecution and on the verge of going back to Judaism. The author was calling them to live in a way that would help strengthen the spiritually weak rather than becoming the cause of them continuing to limp around spiritually. Just like with verse 12, I want us to see the obvious and not so obvious. First the obvious, the author was calling them to their responsibility to straighten out their way, their direction of living. God was not going to do that work for them.

No other person was gonna do that work for them. It was up to them. And just like with their responsibility to strengthen one another, they were to help straighten out one another as well. Remember now this was a local body of believers. But next the not so obvious, you probably guessed it, the author was and he is clearly implying that some if not many had crooked in wrong ways of living. He was clearly saying that some if not many were not living God's way as they should and it was hindering them in their race and causing weakness upon weakness. And take note of how this all produced this lameness and weakness.

They were spiritually lame and weak because they were not living the right way and direction and that caused more weakness. And look at how we are responsible to do the same thing. But a question, how are we to straighten out one another? That kind of sounds like we may be getting very personal. You see, if we all have some crooked and even sinful ways of living, some worse than others, if we all need the direction of our lives smoothed out a little and maybe straighten out a lot so as to run the Christian race of faith well, then how are we to straighten out or help straighten out one another? And notice how the not so obvious relates to us.

It may not be obvious to most or some that some of you have some crooked, even sinful and selfish ways of living. The direction of your life isn't what it should be or what it used to be. Some of you, you live in a way, you are going in a way that is not as godly as it should be and it's not as conducive for the service that God has for you. Maybe two or three years ago it was, but not so much now, so how are we to help straighten one another out? Well first, we are to straighten out the direction of our own lives so that we can run our race well. Remember, it is up to us. And second, we need this mutual accountability here as well.

We desperately need very close personal relationships within our church so as to help one another straighten and smooth out the direction and our ways of living. Again, mentorship. We need to be mentors and we need to be mentored. I won't name any names, but there are men in this church that God has used me in this way. I have not only discipled them in the ways of God according to the word of God, but I have discipled them to help straighten out their way of living so that they can run their race of faith better. And I can give you names and they can say, yep, God has used Pastor Chris like that in my life.

Now before we move on from verse 12 and 13, I want to point out something we see in this original context. This relates to us now. We know that some of this original congregation were truly born again, but we see that some of these believers were spiritually weak. They were living crooked and they were spiritually lame. Well, I want us to ponder a question. These spiritually weak believers were not living as straight and smooth as they should have. So how do you think they influenced those Jews who were not born again? Let me restate that.

These spiritually weak believers in this congregation now, they were not living as straight and smooth as they should have. They had spiritual weakness in their life now. So how do you think they influenced those Jews who were not born again? And how do you think they influenced those weaker brothers and sisters in the church? And we need to see that we have the lost around us who were influenced by us. How are the lost influenced by us? And we have the spiritually weak and weaker around us who were influenced by us. How in the world are we influencing the spiritually weak around us?

Look folks, the corporate nature of this message is getting thicker. Next, number three, the call to strive. The call to strive in verse 14. Here in the verse, we clearly see a change in the language. The author moves from using imagery and illustration just to plain clear teaching. Look back at verse 14. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now I said this earlier, but with this exhortation, I wanna revisit what we explained before and I wanna take this teaching a little further and this is a lot here that we need. Think about it.

There are those in our life who do not want peace with us. There are circumstances and people in our life in which we can never have peace. Think about it. Some of you do not have peace and relationships where you should and some of you may be striving and working hard for peace and relationships where you should not. I'll help you here. And we must understand what it means to strive for holiness. Otherwise, we will not see God according to the text. Right here now is where some say the author can be teaching that we can earn our salvation. Now question, have we ever known people who believe that they could somehow work their way into heaven?

But you know, a lot of people that do believe in salvation by grace and grace alone somehow think they can add to their salvation. But before we straighten all that out, we need to see the great urgency and responsibility here. The English Standard says we are to strive for these things. The New American, the Legacy Standard says we are to pursue. And this word strive or pursue, it means to run and to run fast in order to catch something or someone. Language scholars tell us this is very, very strong language that communicates a striving hard and fast after something.

If you do some study on your own, you'll run across scholars that tell us this spoke of a hunter in their day chasing their prey. In their day, this also was used to speak of a soldier pursuing their enemy. In their day, this was used to speak of an athlete pressing hard towards victory. And it always implied great, great intensity. We do this in many ways in our life. Some of us are deer hunters. So we pursue with great intensity a deer kill so we can brag about it and put it in the freezer. I've been shooting my bow all summer. Some of you are into exercise.

If we are into exercise, we strive with great intensity to run farther and faster, to bike farther and faster, and to live more and more. In our jobs and careers, we pursue hard that promotion, a better job, better pay, so as to provide for our family and pay the bills and maybe even pay for some of those wants. You get it. Well, here the author was calling them to strive for and to chase after peace and holiness with great intensity, consistency, and constancy. But we need to ask what peace and holiness are and we need to answer those tough and touchy questions I mentioned earlier as well as the ones I mentioned two weeks ago.

First, the text clearly says we are called to strive for peace with everyone, not some with everyone. Now the meaning of the word peace is real simple. It means harmony, tranquility, well, the opposite of hostility, but the meaning is much, much deeper and richer than the opposite of hostility. Again, I was not able to get into this two weeks ago. Seen in the scriptures, peace speaks of a harmony and well-being in one's condition that has been established by God. This speaks of one who has been reconciled to God through Christ, so they are at peace and harmony with God, therefore they are in a state of peace and harmony in their very being.

This is the born again believer, folks. Therefore, the believer's life is characterized by a love far and a peace with others. Of course, this can only happen when one is at peace with God. The loss cannot possess this peace, nor can they strive for this peace. But notice the real meaning of this peace. This is much, much more than just getting along with other people, because the believer lives at peace with God, enjoys the peace and the harmony of God, and God lives within them. They were able to do the same with others. They are able to extend peace to others and to live at peace with others because of a continuous work of God in them.

Now think about this church. Follow me here, think with me here. God made every effort that was needed and he provided the greatest sacrifice possible to be at peace with us because of, and through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we can possess a perfect peace with God. Romans 5.8 says, but God shows his love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And on down, verse 10 says, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. So if we are born again, spirit-filled, spirit-guided believers, we will make every effort possible to be at peace with others, even all.

And look, church, it is not a stretch to say that to do otherwise is not Christ-like and does not reflect the spirit-filled, spirit-guided life. To do otherwise is simply not Christian. Back to the original audience. These Jews who were truly born again were to strive to be at peace with all, even those unsaved Jews, and even the ones who had left the faith and gone back into Judaism. And it is conceivable that some of the ones who had left the faith could have turned around and attacked and persecuted those true believers.

And here the author was exhorting them to strive for peace with everyone, even those who could have turned and become their persecutors. And the same applies today with us. We are to strive to be at peace with those who disdain us. We are to pursue peace and strive to maintain peace with those who reject us and even persecute us. The last time I checked in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Love your enemies "and pray for those who persecute you." Question here. Who in your life is wronged you? Who in your life is wronged you? Even wronged you horribly.

If they have wronged you for some sin, you committed, now you need to go and repent to them. But if they have wronged you and you were innocent, then you are to strive to be at peace with them at all costs. Again, what does our Lord say? Love your enemies, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. If someone has wronged you for your Christian testimony, your Christian convictions, your Christian faith, you are to love them, pray for them, and to pursue peace with them. Many of you know this story that I'm about to tell you. Years ago, I served a church where I left under very difficult circumstances. I was fired wrong terribly.

There are men in this church who were there at that time so they can testify to the truthfulness of this. But in that circumstance, I stood with my pastor and against men in the church who were in the wrong. Really, it was a classic power struggle in the life of the church. And there were certain men forcing the pastor out and they wanted to run the church. Well, I stood with what and who was right. And it cost me. Well, not long after the dust settled, God led me to trade in a business with some who had wronged me. They were part of the group who had wronged me. See, I pursued peace.

I pursued a continuous peace with them as best I could, and I attained it. Now, how? Only because it was a work of grace in me. But church, let's be honest here. We really have a dilemma. The text says we are to strive hard for peace with everyone. The text says everyone. But how can we pursue peace with everyone when some do not want peace with us? Here is where we must remember that true Christian peace is like dancing. It takes two. Some of you are thinking, what in the world is Pastor Cruz talking about? We must remember now that this kind of peace, true Christian peace is like dancing. It takes two. What I'm saying here is this.

It is not possible for you to be at peace with someone who will not be at peace with you. You can't dance with someone who won't dance with you. Think about our greatest example, Jesus. Jesus was perfectly peaceful toward all men, but all men were not perfectly peaceful toward him. So this brings us to a principle we must know and live by here. We get this from verse 14 and from other scripture. And this is the principle. We pursue peace with all men. We strive very hard to be at peace with all men no matter the circumstance, but we cannot attain and possess that peace if the other party will not allow us to be at peace with them.

And I did not invent the principle. We see this clearly in Romans 12, verse 18, where Paul says, "Impossible so far as it depends on you. "Live peaceably with all." I like how John MacArthur explains how we're to live this out. And I'm quoting him. We are only responsible for our side of the peace process, but we cannot use another's belligerence as an excuse for responding in kind. We have an obligation to live peaceably whether or not those around us treat us peaceably. If they do not live peaceably, that is their problem. It is never our excuse. Now, I will add to and change what MacArthur says here.

Look, church, listen, brother and sister, we are responsible for our side of the peace process and maintaining peace with all, but we cannot use another person's refusal to extend peace and we cannot even use their sin and mistreatment of us as an excuse to respond like them. We have an obligation to, no, we have a command to strive hard to have peace with all as best as we can whether or not others do the same. And if one or some refuse to be at peace with us, that is their sin and problem, but we live at peace with them at the level at which they allow. Remember what Paul said.

Again, Romans 12, 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. But I wanna get personal here. I wanna revisit a question or two I asked two weeks ago. We're going further here with what it really means to truly pursue peace with all. Are there people in your life that you should have peace with but you do not? Are there people in your life that you should have peace with but you do not? Instead of peace, you have hostility. Instead of peace, you have alienation. Instead of peace, you have bitterness, animosity, broken relationship. Again, if that lack of peace is from your sin, then you owe them repentance.

Then maybe you will be able to attain that peace that we are commanded, you are commanded to pursue. Now church, stay with me. I wanna keep going further down this road. We need to see that there are certain people we should always share a true Christian peace with like we see here. And there are some that we should share peace with but it may not be what we would call Christian peace. Let me explain, you'll see it. You'll see it. First of all, we should always possess and maintain Christian peace with all believers in our church. There should never be a time when there is no peace between us and among us.

Of course, sin comes into relationships. Church discipline comes along but that should always lead back to peace. And along that same line, we should always possess and maintain peace with believers in other churches we partner with like those in our Anchor and Truth Network. Second, we should always possess and maintain peace with believers in other churches, not our own. Now I'm speaking of Christian churches now. Some are not Christian, sadly. I'll give you an explanation. I have many brothers and friends at First Baptist Church here in Brookhaven.

They may hold as some different third and fourth layer doctrinal positions and convictions but these are true Christian brothers and sisters and I have true peace with them. I know Pastor Greg Warnock at First Baptist Church. He is a good brother and he is always kind to me and he has been for 20 years. He's always encouraging and I can say the same thing about many of the leaders at First Baptist Church. I know them, I've known them for years, I love them and I respect them. We have peace. I think about our Presbyterian friends and brothers.

We obviously disagree on baptism which is a secondary matter and even though their position on baptism hinders them from becoming a member here, we should have and maintain true Christian peace with our Presbyterian brothers to do otherwise now as a sin. Third, we should always at all times, always at all times possess and maintain Christian peace in our home with our spouse and our children. I'm referring to a Christian home. We should always have and maintain peace in the home. We should always possess and propagate Christian peace in the home with our spouse, with our children and look, men, look, fathers, it begins and ends with us.

Fourth, we should strive for peace between us and our extended family. Oh, but this can be hard and with some difficult and even with some virtually impossible. Your extended family may not be Christian. Their values and morals may be unchristian. They may even reject and resent you for your faith in Christian walk. But we should strive for peace with our extended family at a level they allow that will not, number one, be harmful to our Christian walk. Number two, be harmful to our family. Number three, hinder our service to God and our church. I need to restate that.

We should always strive for peace with our extended family at a level they allow that will not, number one, be harmful to our Christian walk. Number two, be harmful to our family. Number three, hinder our service to God and our service in the church. And last, we should strive for peace with others, neighbors, coworkers and so on. But remember church, when we are pursuing peace with others outside our church and especially if they are not Christian, we strive for peace at a level they will allow.

But not be harmful to our Christian walk, not be harmful to our family and our family faith and third, not hinder our service to God and our service in the church. Now do you see why we need very close Christian brothers and sisters, now do you see why we need very close mentoring and accountability relationships with brothers and sisters? This is hard stuff. It's hard. Again, we need to go further. So follow me church. Remember their context. The context of this original congregation relates to us, relates to us a lot more than you know. So let's think of our church context now. Again, I'm going further down this road.

When folks leave our church and they desire to maintain true Christian peace, we should strive to be at peace with them. Now this is when someone leaves our church right. Let me restate that. When someone or a family leaves our church and they desire to maintain true Christian peace, we should strive to be at peace with them. This is when someone leaves our church right. Here recently, many of you know that Ben Abernathy worshiping with us and visiting us for quite a while, he was looking at church membership. I was counseling with him in the matter, but the Lord led him to move to the Jackson area to be near his sons.

And I was able to connect him with a good solid church up there. And he's worshiping there, he's serving the Lord there. He left right. We have Christian peace, it's not been broken. I think back to quite a few years ago, there was a family that was visiting our church. Now they never joined, but he left right. He came to me and he pointed out some doctrinal differences we had. And he came across a little growth, but I appreciated it. He said, "Pastor, I'm going down here to this other church, but I want to be able to come back here anytime. I want you to know where I'm going. I thank you for your ministry." He left right.

But there are times when some leave and they break peace and fellowship with us. So we are not able to maintain and pursue this peace. We're seeing here, Christian peace has been broken and they will not allow it to be restored. Let me restate that because this is very important. There are times when some leave and they break peace, they break fellowship with us. So we are not able to maintain and pursue this peace that we're seeing here. Christian peace has been broken and they will not allow it to be restored. Two examples.

When someone is disciplined out of the church for clear, unrepentant sin, they are refusing peace and unity and fellowship. And we are commanded to break fellowship and peace with them. Jesus says in Matthew 18, 17, speaking of church discipline, let him, let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. What that means is this, when someone is disciplined out and they refuse to repent, we treat them more as a non-believer. We can't have Christian peace with them because they're in unrepentant sin. But another example.

When someone, even a brother or a sister now, they break fellowship and they break peace with us and they refuse to restore that peace. There is broken peace, there is broken unity, there is broken fellowship and they will not restore that. We've had people that I believe are truly Christian do that here. They didn't wanna sit down to be honest. They didn't wanna come and ask me questions. They didn't wanna ask and deal with the hard things. And they just walked out the door, didn't answer texts, wouldn't answer phone calls, would not meet with me, would not meet with others. We call that being ghosted.

You see, there are brothers and sisters now that break fellowship and peace and they will not allow you to restore it. And I'll tell you church, that's hard. So peace, Christian peace. It's a lot more here than you need. Now let's continue with verse 14. Second, we're called to strive for holiness. Look back at the verse. Strive for peace with everyone. And right now you're probably saying, "Pastor, I don't see how you got all of that "out of that verse." I could have kept going. I could have. And for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now here we've gotta ask what is holiness? Now this is real simple.

Holiness is being set apart unto God and for God. But before we can truly understand this call to pursue holiness, we must understand that biblically, there are three different kinds of holiness. We didn't have time to cover this two weeks ago. And if you do some study on your own, you'll run across this. First there is what is called positional holiness. Positional holiness comes to and for the believer when they are converted to Christ. When someone is born again, they are set apart unto God, by God, so they are made holy. We see this explained in 1 Corinthians 6.11. I'll read the Amplified.

Paul says, "And such were some of you before you believed. "But you were washed by the atoning sacrifice of Christ. "You were sanctified, set apart for God, made holy." That's positional holiness. Second, there is what is called practical holiness. Practical holiness is seen and understood in our sanctification. In the day-to-day walk with God, the believer is sanctified or made more and more holy, more and more set apart and unto God. William McDonald points out that this holiness should be progressive, that the believer should be growing more and more like Jesus, more and more holy, more and more sanctified. It's practical holiness.

Third, there is what is called perfect holiness. Now, perfect holiness is not seen in some kind of a sinless perfection, no. But when the believer leaves this earthly life and they are made perfect in the sight of God, the believer is delivered ultimately from sin, and finally from their old sinful nature, and they are in perfect holiness with God. Well, a question. Which holiness is the author talking about here? Which holiness is he calling us to pursue hard after? It's real simple. Practical holiness. He is referring to the day-to-day walk with God where the believer seeks after more holiness, and they are made more holy.

I love what William McDonald says here, and I'm quoting, "Practical or progressive sanctification "is something that involves our obedience and cooperation. "We must cultivate this holiness continually." I asked you these questions two weeks ago. What are we striving for in life with great intensity? Oh, we're striving after something. Are we striving after hobby? Are we pursuing money and career? Are we pursuing and striving after acceptance? Are we striving after physical looks, popularity, and power? We're striving after something. But how are we to strive hard after this holiness? I touched on this last week.

In this letter, it is explained as a drawing near to God with a clean and a clear conscience. Chapter 10, verse 14 and 22. In Luke, church, look at the means of grace that God has given us to help us in this constant pursuit of holiness. God is giving us Bibles. God has given us Bibles and Bible study aids to help us in this pursuit. You do know there are believers in the world today that don't have Bibles. He has given us the work of the church. We have consistent and faithful Bible preaching and teaching, Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights.

We have healthy small group ministry where we minister the word together, meet individual needs among one another, help equip the saved, provide fellowship among the body, and help each other evangelize the lost. Luke, church, if you can't grow here, there's something wrong with you. If you can't grow here, there's something wrong with you. I've grown in churches that were far less healthy than we are. I said this before, I believe you can neglect your personal study and be faithful here and absorb everything you're taught here and still grow. Now I'm not telling you to go home and put your Bible on the shelf.

So God has given us a healthy local church from which we can strive hard in this personal pursuit of holiness. But before we move on from the verse, we have to answer the question I posed earlier. Does this somehow say we can earn our salvation? Kind of seems like it. Well, the answer is no, because salvation is by grace and grace alone. We know the verse, Ephesians two, eight, nine. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God, not a result of works. But what the author is saying is this, no person will see God in heaven unless they do possess progressive holiness or sanctification.

That is because progressive holiness is proof that one is genuinely born again. We know this from our studies through the book of James. James chapter two tells us that faith without works is dead faith. So faith with works or progressive sanctification proves that one has saving faith. And James gave us the example of Abraham in chapter two to prove that. So verse 14, we see this call to strive hard and our pursuit of peace with all, and that's a lot, and our personal and practical holiness. Now, as I begin to close and finally finish up verse 12 to 13 and 14, I wanna explain why I have taken two messages to cover these verses.

I mean, think about it. Why haven't I moved faster through the verses? Why haven't I moved faster? Look, church, there's a difference between mechanical preaching and pastoral preaching. Mechanical preaching moves on through the verses. Mechanical preaching outlines a book, outlines the chapters and moves through. If I preach mechanically, I would have covered verses 12 to 17 in one message, but I don't do that because I'm your pastor. God has been with me in the study in these scriptures the past few weeks. As your pastor, I see and understand that we need extra time here.

This has been a real burden in me for you and for what we have here the past few weeks. So I strongly add your pastor, I urge you to get what the Lord is putting before us in all of these verses. Why? So that you and I will run our race of faith well individually and together. But one more thing before I close, I want us to see the individual and the interpersonal responsibilities here. We are responsible for the call to strengthen our spiritual weakness. We are responsible to straighten out our lives and our way of living so as not to be spiritually weak. And we cannot do this alone.

We are responsible for the call to strive hard after peace with all in this progressive holiness. And we cannot do this alone. One more thing, one more thing. Look around you. Left, right, back in front of you. Look around you. I know Nolan just walked out, look at Nolan. (audience laughing) You need these brothers and sisters to help you in this lifelong calling. Look around you. You need these brothers and sisters around you to help you in this lifelong calling. I need you in this lifelong calling. I especially need my elders. Now I say my elders because they're God's, they're mine.

If there are any group of men on this earth that will help me in this lifelong calling, it's the elders of this church and the men of this church. I need you as well. We need each other in this lifelong calling. So this is a part two of exhortations for the Christian life. And I'll be honest with you, somehow, some way, I just don't know that that title gets at all.