Pressing Toward the Superior

Please, if you would turn in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12. I feel obligated when we have newer folks to give and sort of get us caught up. Our church primarily. Now, what I'm about to say is not as true in the last few years. It's still true, but it's not. It's not the same amount true. Which is. Our church primarily believes in expository preaching.

What we mean by that is the verse by verse handling of the word. So that the other side of that, if you don't know the difference or what the other kind of preaching would be, it would be topical preaching so that you would preach subjects or topics. And most churches are topical preaching. They're usually preaching a series on marriage or a series on love or a series on, you know, happiness or whatever.

And we do that too. That's why I say in the last few years, I've done more of that, but it hasn't been. It's always been specific to a need or something that, you know, trends in our church and things that I've experienced as a pastor that I think could be addressed in preaching. But typically the. What we'd prefer to do is preach verse by verse through Scripture because the Word is the powerful thing.

And so right now, if you haven't been here, we have been going through the Book of Hebrews, and I'm doing a little bit different than typical expository preaching because typically you go literally verse by verse and you might handle three or four verses a Sunday. But I've been doing something a little different from Hebrews because Hebrews is a book that in my opinion, gets sliced and diced. It gets used in individual chunks, and the overall teaching of the book can sometimes suffer from that.

So that if you're only used to looking at a few verses, and last time, or the time before last, we looked at Hebrews 11. Like that chapter almost always gets preached separate from the book so that we can look at the lives of the faithful people and talk about the people. And I try to emphasize in the survey what the big picture of the book is.

And the big picture of the Book of Hebrews is that Christ is superior. Now there are. You could preach the Book of Hebrews as warnings for the faithful because it absolutely has very strong warnings. There's some today in today's passage, but the overall picture of the Book of Hebrews, if you needed to put the Book of Hebrews in one sentence, it would be something like Jesus is superior to anything else. And if you wanted a subheading or a parenthesis, you would say, don't make anything else superior, something like that.

Now, that is specific in this context to Jewish believers. That's why it's called the Book of Hebrews. These are Jewish Christians that in the first century had left Judaism and accepted the truth that Jesus is the Messiah and believed that Jesus is indeed the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that they had believed.

The issue with that is when you have a church that is mainly or primarily Jewish, there is a really good chance in that context with that group of people that there are some people in there, and you might even be able to find this in yourself. I just talked about in Sunday school that when I got saved, I did not like having to just be a completely new thing. I literally thought my life was over. I'm saved now my life's over because all the stuff that identified me before I have to do away with.

Well, imagine if you're a Jew, somebody that for centuries, for millennia, your people, your ethnic people have been the chosen people of God, right? And there were promises through Abraham and all throughout his lineage, there have been promises, land promises, seed promises, blessing promises for centuries. And now someone comes along and says, jesus fulfilled all of that. So you don't need to emphasize that anymore.

That is a tough pill to swallow if your entire identity is found in your heritage and your faith. And so you might come along the scene and say, you know, I like the idea of trusting Jesus, but I also like our ceremonies. I also like that we're the special people of God. I also like that we have the name rights to the things of God and the promises of God.

And so they might. Those folks might be prone, like we might be prone to bring baggage into our Christian faith and say, our faith is Jesus plus, can I do it? Are you going to be mad at me if I do it? The Constitution, Jesus plus my family, Jesus plus my occupation. So we're very prone to do this, to think that our life is Jesus plus something.

And the Jews had lots of pluses, things that could have been the thing that they thought were necessary and that without those things, they are not faithful. And so the author of Hebrews comes on the scene and says, God did used to speak to us by the prophets, but now he has spoken to us by his Son. And then he spends the entire book saying, his son is best. He's better than the prophets, he's better than the angels, he's better than Moses.

In fact, all that stuff that you count, dear Jewish believer, all that stuff that's important to you, all of it in the Old Testament, through Abraham and David and everything that happened, was all looking forward to the time when God's own son would sit on the throne and he would have no rivals, there would be no seconds, only him as first.

And the book is telling the people that the Jews, that, that don't make sure there are no rivals to Jesus Christ in your life and in your worship and in your religion. Don't add to Jesus at all. And don't think that those things were for themselves. They were all pointing forward to a better promise, a better covenant, a better sacrifice, a better priest, all of it looking forward to Jesus.

That's the book of Hebrews. And then you add to that the dangers associated with trying to make anything else superior. The author of Hebrews goes through great strain to make sure that you know that if you try to make other things superior to Jesus or equal to Jesus or even added to Jesus. God hates that. He hates it. Jesus will have no rivals. Jesus has no peers. Jesus is exclusive.

Can I say it in a way that might hurt your feelings? God is narrow minded. It is His Son and his Son only.

So now we're getting to the point where in the last chapter, in chapter 11, after chapter 8 through 10 or so 8 is about, there's a better priesthood, a better covenant, better promises, right, chapter eight and to have no others. And then chapter 10 is about, since that's true, that there's a better priest, better covenant, join together, gather together to serve and love one another. Because the day is coming when God will judge the earth.

So you need to be looking out for each other and be obedient and, and follow the Lord and make sure your life shows that he is the superior thing in your life. That's roughly chapter 10. And in fact you need to live by faith. You need to not trust in your works. You need to not trust in your own righteousness. Faith is this thing that God expects you to have.

And what is it he opens the book of chapter 11 with, what faith is? Faith is a stuff. That's a technical term, faith is a stuff. And it is essentially you saying, I have heard God speak, I believe what God says and I will put my confidence in what God says. That's faith.

What I just described right there, I've heard what God says. I believe what God says. I put my confidence in what God says. So the people of the Hebrew church would need to say, God did say that with Abraham and Sarah and all the others, he did say that with David. He did say that through Melchizedek and all the other things. He did show us. He did speak.

The author of Hebrews says he did speak and tell you there was better promises. And now you, by faith, trusting those promises, believe those promises and walk in those promises. In fact, I'm going to give you some examples of people who walked in God's promise, who, when God spoke, they listened. And that's all of chapter 11.

But chapter 11 is not about the people. It's about the faith. It's about the center of the faith, the object of the faith. And in our case, in the Book of Hebrews, the object of the faith is Jesus.

So who's the main character of Hebrews, chapter 11? Jesus is the main character, not the people listed. The whole point of those people being listed is to tell the Hebrew believers, all of those people looked forward. We now have Jesus. He came. So we're not looking forward to a Messiah except for his second coming. He came, and we need to put him first.

That's the Book of Hebrews. And then you get to chapter 12, where it says looking unto Jesus, because we're looking unto Him. We want to lay aside any weight, anything that would distract us from running toward the upward call in Christ, anything that would keep us from making Him First.

I have a sermon at the end. There's only a couple of Hebrew sermons left. You can see we're at the end of the book. I'm going to. In between Hebrews and First John. I'm going to preach a sermon that I preached years ago, not 10 years ago, but close to it, called Ordinary Glory. And I'm going to be emphasizing in that sermon the idea that the normal things we do glorify God.

And we shouldn't be thinking only of missionaries and pastors and people as servants of the Lord, that all of us can bring God glory in our daily lives. And that, I think, is what the author of Hebrews is telling the Hebrew believers, too.

When you put Christ first, everything becomes about him being first. Everything. If you're a mechanic, if you're a homemaker, if you're a student, whatever God has you doing, you do it because Christ is there. And you want to do it in a way that honors him. You want to make sure he's superior.

Years ago, when I was still a custodial technician, there was one of the secretaries at work came in on a Monday morning, and she had been to a funeral on Saturday, and she was livid. She was angry. Becky would Know who it is, but I'm not naming any names.

She was very angry because at this funeral, the preacher said that the reason that person was in the. In the casket, the reason they died, was because of sin.

So how do you think she interpreted that? Whose sin did she think the preacher was talking about? The person in the casket. So she had equated that. That preacher had the gall to say that that guy died because of sinfulness, because he was evil, because he was wicked.

Now, when I tell you in this room, does sin cause death? What do the Christians in the room say? Yes. Do we think that one sin causes one person's death? Is that how we think?

So if you don't know what that's called, that's called retributionism. Don't go Google it because you won't find anything on it. That's just the name we theological people give it. It's what, Remember what Job's friends did to him. Well, the reason you're suffering, Job, is because you've clearly done something wrong. God saw that you did something wrong and he punished you for it.

Or how about the man born blind, Lord, hey, tell us, why was this man born blind? Was it his sin or his parents? So human beings have the idea that when people suffer, they probably did something wrong in their life to deserve that suffering. That is somewhat understandable. The problem is, is that Christians do that. Christians do that.

So when we enter into Hebrews chapter 12, the author just told us in verse one, lay aside any weight, anything holding you back from serving the Lord, or any sin that might ensnare you, any sin that might take you captive, Right? He said that in verse one.

And then instead of holding on to sin, move toward Christ, looking to Jesus, the author and finish of our faith, right? And for that faith, verse three, many people have suffered.

Now, the reason I'm bringing all this up right now is because when we enter into chapter 12, the question might come up in your mind when talking about suffering first or chastening second. Am I suffering because of something I did, or am I suffering because of something that's happening to me?

And the answer will always be yes. The problem and confusion might come in chapter 12 when the Lord is going to tell you in this room right now, you in this room, not just the Hebrew believers, but the believers, that you could be suffering both because of what's happening to you, because of sin in general.

Like we understand the wages of sin being death and causing all the trouble in the world. And you also might be suffering because of Your own sin because you're not obedient, because you haven't laid aside the sin that so easily beset you, because you have not fought hard enough against sin.

So you might be suffering right now in your life because of sins you've committed. But I'm not like Job's friends that think that first. You should not be like Job's friends or those people questioning Jesus to think, okay, If I counted 42 sins in your life, then that's why your suffering is at this level. That is not ours to do.

But we're going to enter into a discussion over sin and suffering and sin and chastening, which is spanking discipline from the Lord. And it's very important that you don't have it in your mind that I will only suffer if I'm really, really, really, really bad.

And I should expect happiness and good and blessing in my life. I'm sorry to tell you that none of you in this room, even the Christians, are neutral. You were born in Adam, you were born sinning. And we have all made ourselves enemies of God and this world since the Fall has brought on the curse. It is called the curse for a reason.

And if you experience suffering, instead of questioning God and saying, everything's supposed to go good for me, why is it going bad? Look back to the garden and yell at Adam, why did you do that to us? We're suffering right now. There's cancer right now. There's war right now. There's rape right now. There's genetic diseases right now. We're going through all of that because of the Fall.

One because of sin in general. But also we have to do self examination and ask if it's my sin. It's okay for you to ask, did I cause this? And both of those can be true at the same time.

But what's not true is that we're innocent. What's not true is that we shouldn't expect suffering. You live in this world, the world that has rejected God. You're going to feel the pangs until Jesus comes back.

And I don't think it's fair for us to question God. All of the world's problems are because of sin. No one escapes the effect of sin. No one.

So instead of crying unfair to the Lord, why is this happening to me? I. I don't know which applied to you. When we start unpacking Hebrews 12, I don't know which of the things apply to you. Is it your sin or is it sin in general?

But the one thing you don't want to be doing is asking, why are there trials unfair? Things are supposed to go good for me. I expected blessing when I got saved. I expected things to go good for me. Not bad then. You don't know the world you live in.

So as we unpack today, I am not telling you like I have some sort of insight into the plans and purposes of God. I don't have a key to God's desk drawer so that I know exactly what's happening with you.

I don't know if your sin has caused any of your suffering, but I do know sin causes suffering. I don't know if you have failed and God is chastening you because of your failure or whether you're suffering just because of sin in the world and the persecution that comes on us because of the sin of the world. I don't know that.

So as I unpack the book, don't yell at me like I'm pointing fingers at you, like I am saying, I know why you're suffering. It's because of these things you did in your life. I'm not Job's friends, but I am going to say striving against sin is mentioned here. I am going to say he already told us to lay aside weight and sin.

And it is very possible, maybe even likely, that if we are holding on to sin, we should expect trouble. And when it comes, we have. We have a right and a wrong reaction. The wrong reaction is, I'm angry with God because he's done this to me. And I'm going to tell you that is never all right. It is never all right to be angry with God. Never. Is there an excuse to be angry with God? He always does what's right. And if we don't understand it, that's our understanding's problem, not him having failed.

So now as we'll dig in, I hope you're ready. We're at chapter 12, where the warnings are pretty strong. And. And the warnings are to stay the course.

And the Hebrew believers had already been challenged that they hadn't matured like they should. And they've already been challenged to make sure they're not falling for those other things that are promised to them, that they don't hold on to their religion and their legalism and their tradition. They're supposed to be moving toward the Lord.

And things are going to try to stop them. Things are going to try to stop your faith. Things are going to try to be obstacles. This world hates that you serve Jesus Christ, and it's not going to Let you do it easily. So this is for us, too.

Let's pray, Father. Now, as we open the book and we look at these verses, would you help us understand them and also apply them, that we would indeed recognize that if we're going through a trial, whatever the cause, that it's at your hand and it will ultimately be good for us. That's so hard for us to understand sometimes. Our pride really thinks that we should only ever get good treatment and so help us see the balance and. And also be encouraged that if we're going through difficulty, you have a purpose and a plan in it. In Jesus name, Amen.

All right, you're in. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 4. You. You. He just said in chapter 11, at the end of that chapter, remember all those people that pressed on for the faith, and some of them were murdered and martyred and killed and saw and two and all that, right?

And then he goes to Jesus in chapter 12 and say, Jesus is the one who suffered. His suffering is the one you should really pay attention to. So they suffered for the faith, but Jesus also suffered his suffering as the one that paid for your sins.

And now he turns his attention to the Hebrews, the believers, and says, but you, you have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. So in the battle against sin so far, you're still alive. You have not been martyred or killed for the faith, or you have not done something stupid and got yourself killed by your own sin. So you still have a chance, Hebrews, you have a chance right now to pursue the Lord, to move toward the Lord.

You have not yet resisted the bloodshed. You have not died. But I do want you to catch something. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed. You know what that could mean? That they might.

So maybe persecution hadn't gotten to these people yet. Maybe they hadn't been suffering like others have, because maybe their culture, the Jewish culture, was still allowing them to think what they think a little bit. Maybe because they're still in the family and they weren't experiencing the same level of persecution as other people in other areas, because we don't know where this church was.

But after all, those other people suffered, even died, for the faith to trust what God said and do what he said after Jesus suffered. Trusting what God said and doing what God said. You have not died yet, but you need to trust and do what God says.

That's the lesson here in verse 5. By the way, I always try to be sympathetic to the esv because you all know that I Don't love the esv English Standard Version or the New American Standard Version or the New International Version. I don't love those translations of the Bible because of the manuscripts they're based on. It isn't the translation part, it's the manuscripts. I believe they. They're on it based on inferior manuscripts.

But because of that, because you all know I do that, I'm always trying to be somewhat sympathetic to those of you who are okay with ESV or think Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. I usually give plenty of arguments for you there. But there's a couple of things in chapter 12 and 13 where the ESV gets it wrong. And this is one of those, because the ESV is going to translate verse five as a question.

But it's not a question, incidentally. That's. That is a freedom that you can have in translation because there's no punctuation in the original Greek. So there is some latitude there. But I'm telling you, the grammar seems to make it a statement, not a question. Okay, so look at verse five.

And you have forgotten. So if you have an esv, it says, have you forgotten? Right? It's a question. But the actual statement is he's telling the Hebrews because they should be mature already. I think back to chapter four and the other things they've been challenged on. He's telling them, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons.

And then there's a quote here from Proverbs 3. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If you ever needed one verse to separate real Christianity from modern evangelicalism on a whole, that's it. Because modern evangelicalism does not have a version that God loves people by spanking them. Because that's exactly what it says. It says, God loves you when he spanks.

You notice carefully. It says, do not despise the chastening. And then it doesn't say, because eventually everything's going to be okay. Did you notice that? No. Literally, the reason the Greek word is gar gamma, alpha, rho, right there in verse six. For because whom the Lord loves, He chastens.

Don't despise the chastening. Why not? Because it'll eventually work out. But because God loves you when he chastens you.

There's always a goal in suffering. The Lord always has a goal in suffering. We May never see it on earth, but he always has a goal. God is not capricious. He's not just smacking people around here and there willy nilly.

If you are suffering either because of your sin or someone else's, God has a plan. And if you are being chastened, disciplined. Isn't that interesting that the word discipline can mean somebody that's focused and learning their craft and being, you know, disciplined, being zeroed in on a task. They have discipline, right? That person has self discipline.

And that same word can mean right? How is it possible that that word can mean both things? Because both of them have an end goal of growth and maturity. They both have the same target, which is over here.

You're learning. In fact, we say it in theology, this is called formative discipline, where you're learning to be a disciple. It's right in the word disciple. A discipline, okay? You are learning formatively. You're taking the lessons in. You're listening to the Word. You're growing in Christ likeness that is teaching you.

But if you get off track, you will get corrective discipline. Formative discipline is Christ being formed in you. Corrective discipline is you're trying to sway away and the Lord will spank you and get you back. So it absolutely says what it says.

Do not despise it when the Lord does that. What's the first thing we usually pray when we fall into trial? Please remove the trial. It's usually the first thing we pray.

Look at verse seven. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

But if you are without chastening, of which all become partakers, then you are illegitimate sons.

I don't have time to go into it. And I will go into it a little more at a later date when we get into the passage on fornicators and adulterers. But I do want to say right now, how long has it been since you've ever heard anything about illegitimate children in your culture? Children born illegitimately?

I will not use the B word that used to be used of illegitimate children. And you say, well, no, that is an old antiquated thing. That is not something that we think about in our day of somebody that is born out of wedlock, right? Somebody who has no father or mother. We don't talk about that in our day.

The book of Hebrews is New Testament, folks. It's not Old Testament. Paul is writing the New Testament, right when he talks about illegitimate children. So I'm not here to pound that home. But I am here to say, be careful not to try to adjust scripture to your culture. You're supposed to be adjusting our culture to scripture.

And we are seeing the effects of the. The breakdown of family, the nuclear family. We're so used to it in our culture that when, look, look at verse seven again, when it says, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? If I could go back in time and tell the author of Hebrews, hey, all of them in 2026, all of them in 2026 are being told not to discipline their children, that discipline is bad. All modern psychology will tell you that discipline of your children is bad. Don't do it. It's abuse.

So what son is there whom a father does not chasten? None in our day except those who are trying to be faithful and do what God says. In our day, it's considered wrong to discipline your children. So what are you going to do about that? Are you going to do what our culture says? Are you going to do what God says?

Now, we want to be really, really careful here because this does not say an angry, vengeful father who takes out his anger on his children. That is not what this text says at all. This says that he loves those sons. He loves them so much that when instead of following him in obedience and holiness, they choose sin, the thing that kills them and killed his son, a good father says, don't do that. I love you. Sin will hurt you, and if you continue in sin, it will destroy you.

And so a good father who loves his son takes care of his son with discipline or daughter. Endurance is not a popular subject. We all think that Christianity is just opening our arms and God gives us a big hug. He doesn't care if we change. He doesn't care if we grow. He doesn't care about our families. He doesn't care about how we treat our children or our culture.

That's not what we find in Scripture. God has a plan and a purpose. That purpose is your Christ likeness to you for you to grow and be conformed to the image of Christ, for you to be holy as he is holy. He didn't save you to leave you where you are. Yes, he saved you where you are, but he did not save you to leave you where you are.

And the author of Hebrews goes makes the argument from the lesser to the greater. He's doing this. The whole logic is, even earthly fathers know this, that to protect your kids, you got to stop them from doing bad things. And you don't do that by letting them do bad things.

I always say this. This is something that over the years I've said a lot of times. And I'm not judging you, okay? If you do this, it's up to you. But that whole idea that, you know, I'm going to let my son or daughter touch the hot stove to learn that it's hot, and then they'll learn their lesson. That way they'll learn. I do not believe in that.

I believe in saying, son, daughter, don't touch the stove. Trust Daddy. If you do, it will hurt. And I would love for my son or daughter to say, thank you for protecting me, Daddy.

Then if they touch the stove and get the lesson, that's okay. Then we'll talk about that afterward. But I don't have the idea that I'm just going to go let my kids suffer and then teach them the lesson of the suffering. I'm going to try to instruct them. I'm going to try to help them. I'm going to try to point them, prevent the suffering.

But then if they do the wrong thing, they need to suffer. And that's where chastening comes in. So please be careful. To think that the best thing is no discipline or the best thing is let him suffer. Neither of those are right.

A loving father wants to protect his children. A loving father does biblical discipline. Not abuse, not beating, not. Not showing your child who's boss or who's stronger. At the end of well done Biblical discipline, your child should know that you love them enough to help them with the lessons. It's hard to do. I know it's hard to do.

Verse nine, he goes on. He sort of amplifies that. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Boy, again. What if he could see our day, the disrespect of our day and the way children disrespect adults in our day and their parents.

Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live for they indeed for a few days, chastened us as seemed best to them. But he for our profit that we may be partakers of. What does it say? Why does God discipline us? So that we could be partakers of what? Mega blessing, right? Happiness on earth? Hedonistic pleasure? All my dreams coming true. Is that what it says? Why would God discipline you? How seriously does he take his own holiness?

He offers you the chance. Sinner. You're a sinner. You defied him in your disobedience you and Adam, first when you were born, and then you and your life defied him. You spit in his face. You said, I don't want you, I don't love you. I'm not going to obey your laws. And you know what he does to you. Loves you anyway, saves you anyway, rescues you out of that disobedience and says, though you're running against me, though you want my son dead, though you want my commandments erased, though you're trying to eradicate me from your entire culture, I'll chase you down and I will grab you by my grace.

I will give you mercy instead of justice. I will show you my son by the Holy Spirit. I'll show you the gospel. I'll. I'll show you that you have sinned against me. And I will save you from your sin. I will rescue you from darkness. I will keep you from judgment. You deserve absolute judgment, eternal punishment in hell. But instead of giving you that, I'm going to let my son go to a cross for you.

So how seriously does he take your holiness? Did he do all of that so you could ignore him and ignore his son? Or did he do that so that you would live for him and glorify him and live your life as a life of praise to the one who rescued you?

We so shortchange. We don't. We think it's such a small deal that Jesus would die for our sins. But go back to chapter 10. He says it, what will God think of us? How much punishment should we expect if the blood is falling down from the cross onto the ground and we walk through it like it's not important? Profane, a common thing. No, no, no. We don't think of it common. We think of it as very special.

And we think of it now as we've seen earthly fathers, or at least we should see earthly fathers discipline us and pay us respect. I remember very vividly my one and only spanking. I was not raised in a Christian home. I was actually raised in a broken home. I say this often that there were eight marriages in my two parents, three in dad and five in Mom. I was not raised in anything. The first time I ever stepped foot in a church, I was an adult. Okay, but my dad. I still honor my father. I think my dad wanted to do a good job. His father left him when he was 3. So I don't think my dad had good equipment. But I think my dad did want to do a good job as an honorable man.

And I got one spanking and I still remember it vividly. I remember that spanking. You want to know why? I only got one spanking. That's all I needed. It was all I needed.

Don't climb on the top bunk, Johnny. Do not climb on that top bunk. Don't climb on the top bunk. There I am climbing to the top bunk. I'm climbing. Nobody's watching me. Six year old Johnny eyes get just above, I see the top bunk. It's like coming over the precipice like I climbed Everest. Like I got here, I made it. And as I about to go over and climb to the top bunk, all of a sudden I'm floating through the air because dad had grabbed me and pulled me away from that bunk bed. So I was like seeing the bunk bed go out of my sight. And my dad swatted me one or two good times and said, don't you ever do that again.

And I wasn't the same for like a week because I'd never seen that side of my dad. I'd never known that I could push my dad to that point. And I was smart enough to never push him again, ever. From that point on, my dad would never have to spank me again. He yelled at me a few times. I always hated when he would get quiet. Quiet was way worse than yelling.

But what's the point I'm trying to make? Was my dad an abuser? What did my dad know about a young boy who had never been on a top bunk? What could happen to me if I got up there and was irresponsible? Why was he trying to keep me from all the fun of that top bunk? He was protecting me. And that SWAT did its job with my unbelieving earthly father. And I learned the lesson.

I know Todd has told me over the years, never want your pastor dad to use you as an example. Pastor sun has always defended my kids like, hey, be careful not to use your kids as an example. I told Judah I was going to tell this story. I don't have any stories that I can tell you right now. I'm not trying to make my kids out to be perfect. We have definitely gone through some valleys, peaks and valleys, okay? All of us learning each other and figuring each other out. Lots of discipline. They have been spanked more than Pastor Johnny has.

But I had a moment when Judah was a teenager where something I said didn't sit right with him. And I just happened to look out of the corner of my eye when he was at the kitchen table and he gave me one of these some of you will know this. You might know this. Look, he went, now do I need to tell you what that meant? I stood up and I said, stop eating. I stepped around the corner and I said something like this. Congratulations. You got to do that once in your life and that is the only time you will ever do that again. You will never do that again. I didn't have to spank him. I didn't have to discipline him. That was all that it took.

You all know the story of Pearl when she was little, walking past my office angry that she had to go to bed. You know what she said as she walked past my office? I'm gonna get up in the morning. Do you want to know what her dad said? Maybe.

My kids have never been defiant ever. They've always been respectful. I sometimes feel a little guilty at how good I had it with my kids. I really do. Because I know some of you struggle. I know you do. But I am going to say I never brag. You know, I don't brag. You know, I don't think highly of myself.

But I am going to tell you, there was no room for negotiation with my kids and my family. Dad was in charge. God's word was our rule. They would not think to go against God's word. Some of you have seen the movie Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin. Remember that, how he is a brat in that movie. We watched that one year when the kids were little and when he started acting like a brat, my kids, you could tell they were visibly nervous. They kept looking at me like, what are they going to do to him? Like how is he? How is he doing that? Because not only were my children respectful, but I'd like to think their dad was consistent.

We have a saying, slowbedience is nobedience. You do not talk back to your father or mother. You're not ever going to get away with it. Somebody did something really terrible one time in church. Many of you were there. And I asked my 13 year old son, what do you think would happen to you if you did that to our church? And he said, I don't know. I said, you would be a homeless 13 year old. There's a zero tolerance policy for sin in our family. God rescued us. He plucked us out of the fire. We are not going to be putting up with those things.

They didn't even know that it was an option to have another, to have a choice at a fast food restaurant. They were with their friends at church one time going through a drive thru and heard the kids Ordering what they wanted. Our, our kids were like, what is happening? I thought that was against the law, that you chose what you wanted.

And you can talk to my children. I always say it. Talk to them. Ask them, is your dad a tyrant? Is your dad a dictator? Was he malevolent? Was he a monster? How it must have been so hard to live with your dad. You can ask them. Make sure and ask them about all the laughter and the fun and the dancing and the silliness too.

I'm saying all this to you because you might think you're hurting your children. If you compromise or not, don't compromise. You might think if I push them too hard, it'll push them away. You might think if I don't, if I discipline them, they will never ever listen to me.

That might be true if your discipline is loveless. It might be true if you're not constantly telling them, we serve Christ. Christ is the center of our house. Not what your friends say, not what TV says, not what social media says. We serve Jesus. And I'll die to serve Jesus in this house.

So please, when you hear the Lord saying, whoever he loves, he chastens. If you think of God as some people do, the cosmic child abuser, you do not understand love and you certainly do not understand holiness. And it hurts. Chastening can hurt. It can hurt.

When your father says, you could be a homeless 13 year old or you can have a home forever. He's now a 23 year old that's not homeless because he honored his parents and he works really hard, just like all my kids do. And he's been respectful when he was challenged as a young man.

Eventually, son, you have to have your own faith. I said this to him when he was 17. Eventually, you have to have your own faith. You can't just borrow mom and dad's faith. You got to have your own. And that year he was baptized and he served the Lord. He's back there serving you right now.

And then you see my daughter and my family, people think, oh, isn't it wonderful to be a grandfather? You all know how great it is to be a grandfather or a grandmother, if you are one. But let me tell you something. I have a unique situation. My granddaughter is one of one. Not just because she's special, but because it's never happened in my family ever. There are no grandchildren to Christians. Zero.

And when you see that God rescued me and then he saved my children and then my children have children, I do not take that lightly. I feel like I want to Yell all these things more to you. Fight for the Lord. Fight for your families. Don't compromise. Tell your children how beautiful it is to run toward the Lord. There's so much pain out there. I remember being nine years old when my parents divorced. It has never left me. July 5th, when I was 9 years old. How lonely I felt, how desperate I felt when my mother says, go tell all your friends goodbye. We're leaving.

Fight for your families. Fight for the Lord. It hurts. Look at verse 11. He knows what we're going to say now. No. Chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful nevertheless. Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Does that sound like God wants bad things for us when we suffer? Does that sound like God is just in heaven loving to see us hurt? When either we're persecuted or we get ourselves in trouble with our own sin? Does that sound like God is just waiting there with his hand up like this? I'm just waiting for you. You wait. I'm watching the second you mess up. Is that what's being said here?

Or God saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. The only safe place for you is in my will. The only safe place for you is holiness. You've got to stay close to me to have that. Everybody that unplugs from me dies, and I have to spank you and swat you to get you close to me here. So stay close to me.

And then everybody says, but aren't we supposed to be happy? That's a false premise and a bad question. You're supposed to say, doesn't God want to be happy? Isn't the most important thing is that God is happy? And shouldn't I be adjusting my life so that the things that make me happy are the things that made God happy?

Shouldn't that be how I think I want my Father happy in heaven so he doesn't feel the need to swat me when I'm off base, that I'm close to him and he's looking down at me saying, see? Isn't this good, son? Daughter, Isn't this good where we are? Where we're walking hand in hand with the Lord? Don't pull away from me. Stay close to me. No, it's good.

Instead of arguing and saying, aren't I supposed to be happy? Argue and say, isn't God supposed to be happy? And isn't the things that make God happy the things. Aren't those supposed to be the things that make me Happy. He's happy when we're obedient. He's happy when we don't hurt ourselves with sin and disobedience. He's happy when we walk for his glory and press toward his son.

He loves his son most of all. And when we say we love him, we will love his son most of all. We have to get it out of our head that there's this third option out there. We think there are three options. The one option where I'm an evil villain, Darth Vader who hates God, and I want everything about God extinguished and done away with, and the devil is my friend. That's one version.

The other version is a super crazy, holy, fanatical Christian that everybody wants to be a missionary. And that's all they want to do, is not have anything to do with anything that's secular or worldly. And all they ever want to do is pray. And their families pray every night for seven hours, and that's all they do.

But there's this other version where I can just accept the blessing and the benefit of God without having to give him anything in my life. This version where I can be the old language used to be a carnal Christian. We're just as I am without one plea, right? If I'm saved isn't all that counts. I mean, I checked a box. I got the get out of hell free card. I'm not going to hell now. Isn't that all that counts?

God did not save you to keep you out of hell. He saved you to bring Himself glory. He saved you so that you would make him look good, that you would magnify him, that you would broadcast him, that you would show that he is the most important. That's why he saved you.

It bears the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Did you see that? When you're trained, you're righteous. Why would that be important? Because your father is righteous. Because his son is righteous. Because now you walk like he walks.

When someone says, why aren't you doing the evil things the culture does? Why don't you love what everybody else does? Well, because I'm not what everybody else is. I'm a child of the most high. I'm a son or daughter of God. How can I walk in unrighteousness?

And so I get off base, I start moving toward unrighteousness. And the Lord says, nope, no. Get back where you need to be. Okay, okay, I got it, Father. I got the lesson. I won't be doing that again. I won't compromise like that. Again. I won't laugh at those things again. I won't watch those things on the Internet again. I won't buy those things again, irresponsibly. I won't treat my wife like that again. I'm not going to disobey mom and dad like that again. I got the lesson. I'm going to get right back with you, Lord. I'm close with you. I'm right at your side. I'm sticking right with the Lord, because that's where it's safe.

Verse 12. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed again.

The author of Hebrews kind of does this. He'll. He'll. He'll go from, like, real strong chastity, warning, judgment, language. And then he'll back off a little bit and be soft and tender, and that's what he's doing here.

Your hands are worn out. You know what that means? It'd be like you're running so hard that you can't hold your hands up anymore. And your legs are shaking and they're. They're like, this is. You know, you're. I can't run anymore. I don't know if I can strive towards sin anymore or away from sin, against sin. I don't know if I can pursue anymore. I don't know if I have what it takes to be like those people of faith who look forward. I don't know if I can stand like the Lord did under the pressure. I don't know. And the author says, oh, yes, you can. That's what he says. Strengthen the hands. Don't give up. Instead of just thinking that the best thing for you is no trial, think that God can strengthen you for this trial. That's the idea.

Instead of you trying to say, give me an easy life, how about make me a strong person that can handle a tough life. Instead of me saying, don't put any obstacles in front of me and make it easier for me, and why are you mad at me if I sin? Everybody sins and making excuses for sin. Strengthen up those hands and feet.

Like I said, we almost always first pray that trial removed. Oh, I'm having a difficulty. Please, Lord, take it away, take it away, take it away. But what's supposed to happen when you count it all? Joy. What? What does going through trial that's properly counted as a joyful opportunity? What does it yield? Patience, strength, perfection, completeness.

Always love that series that pastor taught, I might steal that from him, borrow it and teach it. The complete Christian as pastor taught it multiple times over the years from the Book of James. Because when it says that you may be complete, that's what the trial is supposed to bring. Perfection, growth.

Same here. Strengthen those hands. Hang in there. And again, whether this is your sin that's causing it, get right with the Lord and get straight and strengthen those hands and feet for the race. Or it's something happening to you, don't quit. Be like those people that had faith and pursued the Lord.

It has horizontal implications too. In verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness. Again, I have to emphasize it, without which no one will see the Lord. Did your Bible have that in it? I don't think there's any translation missing. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. I think they all have it.

Again, this is not really popular in our day. It's not popular with modern evangelicalism to say God expects holiness, but he does so pursue peace with all people horizontally, right? And I do think it means all people, by the way. I think it first means Christian, but I also think it means be a peaceable person in the world.

Don't bring on chastening by being a person that's quarrelsome, right? Don't cause trouble with you or other people by being a quarrelsome people. Do what the Prince of Peace does and pursue peace. Remember, you're laying aside sin. Being a warmonger is sinful, right? Being somebody that's fighting and loves strife and loves gossip and loves slander and loves to tear people down, that person is not a peacemaker. And so the opposite of peace is war. So instead of making peace, I mean making war, make peace and holiness. Because if you don't have holiness, you won't see the Lord.

Now, again, I don't want to dig into that and say, is this person saved or not saved? Age old question. Was Saul in the Old Testament saved or not saved? And was Adam in heaven? And all those things, Right? People have all those arguments.

The simple answer is already found here, that the Lord is trying to make holiness in us. He's trying for us to pursue holiness. And he does that by chastening. In this context, and that chastening doesn't feel good, but it yields fruit. And instead of fighting back and saying, God, stop, stop. Stop punishing me, stop spanking me, stop giving me hardship, give me ease, give me a blessing. I'm trying to do what you want. I go to church once a month. Doesn't that make me a candid blessing. I prayed a sinner's prayer when I was 15 at camp that you're supposed to only treat me good now.

Or I could go the other way. Lord, I served you my whole life. I serve you every day. I serve your people. I serve. But things are still tough. Those people can complain too.

Then the next phrase is so shocking again. I wonder what. There's a Christian comedian that jokes about having a Dollar Store Bible because, you know, sometimes when you get things at the Dollar Store, they have manufactured defects. He was talking about the books being out of order and there being other books in there. And it used to just crack me up. Now, that was funny when the comedian did it. But then we did have some Dollar Store Bibles that we bought so that we could give them to people. And sure enough, man, the binding would break on those in just chunks. Like the whole book of Romans fell out. And so maybe don't buy your Bibles at the Dollar Store. Okay?

The reason I'm joking about that, because I think some people have Dollar Store Bibles and they don't have verse 15 in their Bible. Look at verse 15, looking carefully. Lest anyone what fall short of the grace of God. How do you fall short of grace? That's. That sounds contradictory. I thought grace was overcoming our shortcomings.

Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. How can we fall short of grace if it's a free gift? It doesn't mean we can earn grace. I can tell you that. First off, it doesn't mean that you are earning the grace of God.

I think what he's saying to those Hebrew believers and anybody that this applies to, remember this Hebrew church had trouble in it. It had people that should be teachers and weren't. It has all the strong warnings that have come before it.

So the author and the Holy Spirit who inspired the book sees a thing in this church to where there are probably plenty of unbelievers who think they're okay with God because they're Jewish. And now they're thinking, well, I'm close to the Christian element, right? I'm here with the other Christians. And now that I'm here in the vicinity, I'm in the locale of Christians. And I think it's pretty neat. And I think Jesus is neat. And this is exciting stuff here. And I might hang around you Christians and I'll do you the favor of giving you my presence and joining you and worship services, right?

And so these people are mixed in with real Christians. So in a group of people, and in a group of people like this, there might be people in here who aren't Christians, but you're mixed in with real Christians, right? So we're all here together.

And the author of Hebrews, I think, is saying something like this. Some of you have clearly experienced the real grace of God. Those of you who have might be experiencing the kind of suffering that makes you question your choice. And whether you want to continue in the faith or not. You might wonder if. If you should keep pursuing the Lord. And I'm telling you, hang in there.

That's what he's telling the believers, but he's also saying to the same group with the same words. There's some of you that are just mingling. There's some of you here who have not professed faith in Jesus Christ. There's some of you who don't actually have a conversion experience, who've never answered the call of repentance, who've never been saved. You've never trusted Jesus as your Savior. In fact, you think you have all those other things, the temple and the tabernacle in your tradition, and. And you think you're safe.

If you're trusting in those and think that by vicinity you can hang around Christians and be okay with God, you're going to fall short. You're going to fall short of the grace. You're not going to be a recipient of the grace of God.

So I don't think it means people had received grace and then can lose. It definitely doesn't mean that. But I do think it means there's a danger of thinking we're okay when we're not okay. Very easy to do that for people to grow up in church. They're baptized. Grandpa was a pastor, right? Somebody told me that. I heard a person tell me that one time. My grandfather is a pastor, and I've been a Christian my whole life. I said, really? You profess faith when you're a little toddler? Or how'd that work? Because you have to believe to be a Christian, right? You don't get Christian by osmosis.

So looking carefully, you're looking toward Christ. He already said it in verse two back there. Looking to Jesus, pressing toward letting the Lord, if he needs to chasten you, chasing you, not fighting it, not despising it, not arguing with God that this is a bad idea, that I go through this, but saying, if you're doing this to me and if my sin has caused this, then so be it, I'll Let you teach me the lessons or if the world's sin and the sinfulness of the world has caused this, then so be it. I'll suffer if I have to, but I'm going to be like Job. If I suffer. I'm never going to curse God. Ever. Job was righteous in all of that, and at no point did he ever curse God.

So Job learned his lesson. Grace changes people. If you didn't know it, no one ever actually touched by the grace of God can stay the same. So if somebody falls short of the grace of God, they were never actually touched by the grace of God. God touches you, you change because he's powerful. So if you're not changing, you should worry. You should worry if you're not changing.

If you don't love the Lord enough to accept the chastening. If you say, this is too much, I'm leaving. A lot of people said that. You know, I've told stories about my neighbor who said he used to be a Christian. And I told him there's no such thing as he used to be a Christian. You might have been close to the grace of God. You might have been near people who had the grace of God. But everybody the Lord touches, he changes. He makes more like his son.

Instead of crying innocent, we say, lord, help me. Give me more grace if I'm going through a difficult time. The thing I need is not for you to remove your hand and take away the trial. The thing I need is for you to be close to me and make me strong enough to handle the trial. If I need a spanking, and that's best for me, I'll take it.

Verse 16. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for a morsel of food sold his birthright for you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

This is the part where you would expect me to go on a Calvinistic rant about the fact that Esau sought repentance and didn't get it. But how about I'll do what I always do and I'll make the argument for you non Calvinists. This repentance could be the immediate repentance of having sold his birthright. Meaning he realized he made the big mistake in selling his birthright and in that moment hated the mistake he made and repented. But it was too late because he sold it. Right. That's an argument for this passage.

But if you want to talk about repentance. And you want to talk about the lesson and why Esau is included. How many people will God reject who come to him? All who come to me. But I will in no wise cast out. God has never rejected anybody that comes to him genuinely. Ever. Nor will he ever. There is nobody that ever approached God and said, I want to enter into your kingdom. I want to enter into your presence. And he said, nope, not you. He's never done that. God is not at the door of heaven holding people out.

So why is Esau mentioned here? What do we know about Esau? He was not a son. He did not want the chastening of his father. He did not want to obey. He did not pursue holiness. He did not have faith. The evidence was that he sold his birthright. He wanted the benefits. He did not want the God who gave the benefits. He wanted to sit at the master's table and get all the blessings at the table. But he did not want the head of the table at the table.

So Esau here is an example of somebody who had all the opportunity. I think the author picked the perfect person because he's Jacob's brother. He's as close as you can possibly be to Israel, because Jacob is Israel. Who's closer to Israel, the man and the nation, than his very brother. What did his brother do with the opportunity? Rejected. He rejected.

And you might want to argue about election and all of those other things. That's for another discussion. I could argue it here too, but I want you to see that he's used here that even after he failed, he did not have. We know what the. What Paul says that a godly repentance, a godly sorrow, what does it produce? Repentance. Godly sorrow always produces repentance. Was Judas remorseful? Yes. Was he repentant? No. Right.

So godly sorrow, the real one that says, I have offended God and the person I want to be right with is God. God accepts everybody that does that. But when somebody says, I have rejected God and I don't like the results of it, and I'm mad now that I got caught, and I'm mad now that it hurts me and I want the blessings, that's not the same as biblical repentance. Biblical repentance is always a turn toward God, not just a turn away from the pain that you were caused by rejecting him.

So Esau was not a man of faith. He was a man of selfishness and greed and evil. And he's called a fornicator. We'll get into that, in the next text, in the next portion or the one after? I don't remember yet.

So Jacob was a messed up man. I remember all those years, Pastor, calling him the scoundrel, right? The heel grabber, the supplanter. Jacob wasn't a good guy, was he? He wasn't a good guy. God doesn't save good guys. But he was the chosen guy who had a change of heart, who lost his wrestling match with God and said, that's it. You have me and I'll do whatever you call me to do. I might walk with a limp because of the chastening, but I'll follow you wherever you tell me to go.

So such a simple story that if God loves you, he'll chasten you. Instead of saying, take away the chastening, take away the trial, make life easier for me, say, make me the kind of person that can handle the chastening. Make me like Christ. Make me holy, make me able to stand up under the pressure. Stand for the faith. Stand for my personal righteousness and holiness. Stand for my family. Stand for my commitment to broadcasting the name of Christ even in the midst of trial and resistance. Make me like Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the tough lessons. It's hard to say thank you sometimes when we know suffering comes to believers and we go through difficult things, it can be hard. Even people who are faithful can have trouble. People like Job, who is doing the right things and then suffers. And Father, I don't think there is a lack of sympathy, but I do think we need to be aware that ultimately you're doing something for your glory and not just our contentment or pleasure or safety on earth. Christians suffer. They suffer all over the world. Persecution and all manner of suffering. They suffer because of their own sin. I would just ask Father that when we suffer that instead of complaining or being bitter or turning against those around us, that we would turn toward you and we would acknowledge that you're doing something good for us.

So please help us with that. In Jesus name, amen.