Enduring By Grace

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors. Select a time to jump to that point in the recording.

0:00Praise God, it's great to be with you all this morning. God's good. He's gathered us together. He's great and greatly to be praised. And I'm praying that He meets each and every one of you exactly where you are. Gives you what you need today. Gives you the help that you need, the comfort that you need, the wisdom that you need, and the grace that you need. So before I was a pastor in my prior career, I worked at a plant, pharmaceutical plant, not too far from here, actually, south of Petersburg.

0:28I worked there for about ten years. And by my count, I had about five different bosses while I was there. And one of those bosses was very difficult to work for. Very difficult. The problem wasn't his competency. He was smart. He was innovative. He knew what he was doing. The problem was I never really knew where I stood with him. He didn't give me consistent feedback. Sometimes I thought I understood him, and I did something, and he would say, why did you do that?

1:06He would be really frustrated. Other times I did the right thing, but he critiqued how I did it. Worse than the feedback, though, was his just demeanor towards me. Almost all the time. I felt like I was constantly disappointing him. Anybody ever work for someone like that? I'm praying for you, brother.

1:34It's hard, right? It's hard when you work for someone that you feel like you're constantly disappointing them. And since this boss of mine talked so often about how many people at the company didn't really contribute and weren't really needed, sometimes naming them by name, I thought to myself, how long until he says that about me? Maybe he's already saying that about me when I'm not in the room. For important people in our lives, where we stand with them makes all the difference in the world.

2:12If we know where we stand with them, if we feel like we are constantly disappointing them, we're on that razor's edge, being cut loose, it's going to change how we feel, how we act, how we think all the time. God is going to get in our heads, in our hearts. It's true about the people in our lives, and it's true about God.

2:38And here's the truth. You can know where you stand with God. You can know. And I want each one of you to know where you stand with God, to know that clearly. Lord willing, you'll know that even clearer at the end of today's sermon. You'll go out of here clearer about where you stand with God and what that means for your life. And even better than just knowing where you stand with God is the good news that you can be in good standing with Him. And that happens by grace.

3:14That is the key word today. It happens by grace. That's what today's passage is all about. By grace, we stand with God differently. Approved. He's not constantly disappointed in us. He's not about to cut us loose. We're in the homestretch of our sermon series on Hebrews. We're going to finish it this month, Lord willing. Unless He returns.

3:43That would be great. That would be better. I would rather that than finishing up this sermon series. Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Today we see that in Christ we're in a totally different relationship with God. It's one that's marked by grace and that grace should shape how we live. Okay. That's the whole thing today. So let's turn. Let's go with me. Let's come quickly and eagerly to the word of God. To receive from Him what He has for us today.

4:12To be pointed to the truth. To be reminded of the grace in which we stand before God. Or if we don't stand in it today, then maybe you'll hear something, Lord willing, that will draw you in. And you will want to go further. To stand in the way that's described in this passage. This is Hebrews 12. This is God's word to us today. It's true in every part. It's true in this part. He is the authority. And He comes to us with His word for our good. So let's pay attention to it.

4:45Starting in verse 14 and going through the end of the chapter. 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. 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.

5:23For He found no chance to repent, though He sought it with tears. For you have not come to what may be touched. A blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. And the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words may the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.

5:56But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. And to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven.

6:42At that time, His voice shook the earth. But now He has promised yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is, things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe.

7:11For our God is a consuming fire. Pray with me. Lord, we kneel before you in our hearts. Lord, we humbly come because we need you. We need a good word from you. Lord, we are looking for peace. We're looking for assurance. Lord, we want not just truth that enters our minds, but truth that comes out in our lives. And Lord, most of all, we want to know and we want to hear about the love that you have for us in Christ Jesus, your Son and our Savior. So speak to us, Lord, the words that we need today, the specific words that each one of us needs.

8:00So that we come to you, so that we follow you. Lord, restore to us the joy of our salvation. Or bring us to salvation for the first time. Jesus, we pray this in your name.

8:20All right. Last week was enduring with discipline. This week, enduring by grace. Through Christ, we stand in a new way before God and our lives should reflect that. Through Christ, we stand in a new way before God. And our lives should reflect that. But this last section of Hebrews, like a lot of sermons, not every sermon, but a lot of them. Hebrews is a sermon, a written sermon. And this is the most practical section, the application section. Today's passage, it's bookended with commands.

8:56You probably saw that in the passage, but it's the middle part that I want to start with. Because the middle part is about a contrast. He's making a contrast between our standing outside of Christ and our standing in Christ. The contrast is made with this historical analogy. All right. We're going to talk about the middle section. Two ways to stand before God.

9:24So the author makes this contrast using the historical analogy of two different mountains. The first one is verses 18 through 21. The first mountain is Mount Sinai. The author takes us back to Exodus. Six weeks after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to Mount Sinai. Now remember, the Israelites, their understanding of God was very limited at this point. They didn't have the scriptures. They knew the stories told down through generations of the Lord calling Abraham.

10:01They knew the stories of God speaking to the patriarchs, doing great things for them. They had seen God's supernatural power, delivering them from slavery in Egypt. But beyond that, they didn't really know much about God. God brought them to Mount Sinai to reveal more of himself to them, to show them who he was. Moses told them, because God told them to, told the Israelites, wash, get clean, get ready. The third day after we arrive at Mount Sinai, the Lord is going to descend on this mountain.

10:41And descend he did. And boy, I want to tell you, it was more intense than anything they had ever seen before. It was more intense than the plagues, than they had seen in Egypt. More intense and awe-inspiring than the pillars of flame and smoke that had led them, that had protected them from the Egyptians. There was thunder and there was great clashes of lightning on this mountain. The whole mountain shook and trembled almost constantly. It was wrapped in this thick cloud.

11:22Can you imagine it? All around the mountain. And why was there a cloud? Because God had descended there in the form of a, of a blazing fire, an intense fire enveloping the entire mountain. They had come to, Hebrews tells us, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. How can there be fire and darkness at the same time? I don't know, but it happened. The sound of a trumpet blared. They looked around. Where is this coming from? We don't see any trumpets, but it's just deafening.

11:58This blaring trumpet, incredibly loud. The people were told, don't go touch that mountain. Don't even let your livestock come and touch that mountain. If you do, you will die. Not that they were, you know, wanting to touch the mountain. They were terrified. They were completely overcome with terror. They were so terrified, they told Moses, tell God not to speak to us. Please, we're begging you. Tell him not to talk to us anymore. He can talk to you.

12:36You tell us what he said. We cannot hear the voice of the Lord. Moses alone went up Mount Sinai to meet with God. He was chosen to speak with the Lord. He had spoken to the Lord before, but even he said, I tremble with fear. Everyone was overcome with fear at the appearing of the Lord.

13:09Now, modern people, that's you and me, we hear this and we scoff. Now, some say this is just some pretentious show, something it's put on, it's smoke and mirrors, something to look powerful and frightening, like pyrotechnics at a metal concert, or like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz. Remember him? He was just an ordinary guy behind a curtain, but he had all this stuff to make himself look mighty. See, this is just something that God's putting on to really, you know, put the fear of God in him.

13:56Or we think this, this is the other way we dismiss this. Oh, I get it. This is the angry God of the New Testament. This is how God used to be, or this is how people thought God was. And it's the New Testament that shows us how God really is. He's loving. He's not like that Old Testament God. We dismiss the Old Testament God as God having a temper tantrum, a mood swing. That God needs some Xanax. He needs to just chill out.

14:30We think these things because we think God is like us. Do you see that? If he was like us, the spectacle on Mount Sinai would be theatrics or it would be a tantrum and we could dismiss it, but people, God is not like us. He is completely unique. He's not like, he's not a better version of you and me. He is different than us. His holiness is not just better than you on your best day. His holiness is an infinite holiness. His power is not just greater than the most powerful person on the planet who ever lived.

15:14His power is so great it cannot be fathomed. His goodness and his justice, there is nothing higher. It's not that he's the closest to reaching some standard. He is the standard. There is nothing greater than his justice, than his goodness. This intense event on Mount Sinai, it is not a production. It is a real appearance of the God of the universe, full of glory, who is three-dimensionally holy. He is holy and he's holy and he's holy. He fills every space with his holiness.

15:53This command to stay away or die, it's not him throwing a tantrum. It's the reality that his perfect holiness responds to anything or anyone that's unholy. Holy with judgment.

16:06An electric fence is not throwing a tantrum when it shocks you when you touch it. That's just what it does. Now God is not some inanimate object who is holy. God is a person who is completely holy. The reaction of judgment is what happens when something unholy comes near. So we have to conclude against our supposedly better judgment, which is not really the Lord's wisdom, we have to conclude that the fear of the people was entirely appropriate. That was the appropriate response.

16:43That was the right reaction. They trembled at his character and his laws because their sin was exposed before him. This is who I am now. This is who I am now. I see it. Because I see this blazing mountain with the Lord's glory on it. Who am I? Wretched man that I am. Wretched woman that I am. They knew they couldn't meet his standard. And we need to know this too. This is who God is. Though he hides it from us sometimes, this is the full revelation of his character and his being.

17:27Fear and trembling and the expectation of judgment is how we stand before him on our own. It's all represented there and seen and exposed. Plain as day on Mount Sinai. Nobody who saw that mountain was confused. That is one way to stand before God.

17:51Judged by his law. With whatever scraps of goodness that we think we can bring before him. It's not enough. It will never be enough. We could have a thousand lifetimes of random acts of kindness as good as they were this past weekend. Kids, I hope you know. Don't bring those random acts of kindness to God and say, approve me, God. I went into a nursing home and read to a woman. She said it was the best part of her day. Approve me. That will never happen.

18:26The approval doesn't happen that way. And the people there knew it. But the whole point, the entire point of this passage is that Mount Sinai is not the end. It is not the end. You do not have to stand before God like that. The good news is that there is another mountain. And if you are in Christ, if Christ is your Savior, you are not standing before Mount Zion any longer. With God's law judging you, you have come to Mount Zion.

19:06Glory indeed. Now listen, you may not know what Zion is. This may be the first time you've ever read it. I hope to unpack it a little bit before you hear. Zion, it was originally a fortified hill around Jerusalem that David captured. But as the Old Testament progressed, Zion took on special symbolism. If you take the entire Old Testament, it becomes a reference to a future place, a promised place where God would gather all of His people, where He would dwell with them, safe and secure forever.

19:41It became the destination of hope for all the faithful, a place of security, a place without fear. And that's where we are if we are in Christ. Let me tell you about it. Here we're told that this is where we've come to, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We heard this earlier in Hebrews. Abraham and the patriarchs were looking forward to a city, the city of God. Their home was not in Canaan, though God had brought them there. They didn't call Canaan their homeland.

20:18They were looking forward to a heavenly homeland, the city of God, and that is Zion. To innumerable angels in festal gathering. I don't know what angels wear to a party, but whatever it is, they're wearing it. Maybe they take off their armor and they have some, I don't know. It's going to be awesome. Whatever it is, they got it on because they are there to celebrate God's victory. And this party has a long guest list. Mount Zion is full of the assembly of the firstborn.

20:59All of those who, like Abraham, were declared righteous by faith. Everyone listed in Hebrews 11 and beyond that, including you, child of God, if Jesus is your Savior. How could there be so many firstborn? How is that possible? They're all firstborn because they all have an inheritance. They all inherit the kingdom. They're all enrolled in heaven. They're on that guest list. And here is the best part. At Mount Zion, all these have come to God. This is the greatest treasure.

21:40Better than the crown He gives. Better than seeing the angels in that festal garb. Better than meeting all the biblical people. Better than seeing friends and family who have gone before us into glory. Better than all of those things, the greatest gift and joy of Mount Zion is God Himself. Dwelling with Him. Living with Him. He is still judge of all. Did you notice that in the passage? He is still judge of all. But there's no fear at Mount Zion like there was at Mount Sinai.

22:17Why? Because we know what the verdict is. If you go before a judge and you don't know what He's going to say, of course you're going to fear. But if you know what the verdict is in advance, there's no fear.

22:33We know where we stand with God. Forgiven. Accepted. Redeemed. Because we have come to Jesus. He did the work. He lived perfectly. He died for sin. He was raised to new life. He is the mediator of a new covenant. He's the mediator. You're not the mediator. I'm not the mediator. Jesus is the mediator. If you have faith in Him, His work, all of that work is for you. That is why it's by grace.

23:10At Mount Sinai, God's law was revealed. Moses led them there and their sin was exposed. But Jesus leads us to Mount Zion. The better mountain. The mountain where you can stand before God. Accept it. His grace is revealed there. Grace that covers us with righteousness from our Savior.

23:33Now I need you to pay attention to this. Because I know that like me, you're forgetful people. If you have put your faith in Christ, you are no longer standing before God about to be judged. He is not disappointed in you. There is no condemnation for you. Embrace again the truth. Children of God, that you stand before God differently than the people did at Mount Sinai. At Mount Zion, you are accepted. You are beloved. God rejoices over you and He calls you His own.

24:16How could He be disappointed? He has redeemed you. He has brought you in. Everything that happens to you, He does it for your good. Not to tear you down, but to build you up. Every single thing that happens is meant to sanctify you in word and truth to become more and more like Him. You do not stand in a place of fear and uncertainty or insecurity. When those thoughts enter your mind, you're back at Mount Sinai. But you're not there anymore. The whole point of this passage is to say you're not there.

24:57You're over here. You're in a new place. Grace, you've come to Mount Zion to God, your Father. You stand in grace. But, oh, how often we return to a place where God is like a fearful judge about to condemn us. Like that boss that I had who's constantly disappointed in us. How often we return to that. One of my jobs is to shake you out of that. To remind you where you stand. Don't go back there. Don't imagine that you're back there.

25:37That's the heart. That's the middle of this passage. And now we're going to return to the bookends. That's where we hear of how this grace should be reflected in our lives. How it should show up in our lives. Let's talk about how we're supposed to live because we stand in grace. The grace of God is so abundant it cannot be contained. In this passage, there's three directions that grace moves. It moves inward. It moves outward. And it moves upward.

26:09It moves inward. It moves outward. And it moves upward. Here's the first one. Grace moves inward. Since we've been brought to God, shouldn't we begin to resemble Him? Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase? No. By no means. The author tells us to strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. He says, See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. Sexual immorality and Esau are connected with the concept of appetites and cravings.

26:49Esau was the firstborn of Isaac. He was part of a family of promise, a family that knew the Lord. Esau had a spiritual heritage, but what he wanted more was to satisfy his craving for food right when he was hungry. He gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew.

27:14Now we hear that and we think, how stupid. But oh, how stupid all of us are sometimes for the things that we go after instead of the greater treasures of abiding in Christ. We have desires in us too, don't we? Money, food, drink, sex, money. Our old self tells us satisfy those desires as soon as possible. The world tells us that too. In fact, the world right now is telling you it's going even farther and saying if you don't fulfill those desires, if you deny yourself, you are a lesser person.

27:56You're violating your personhood. You're harming yourself if you don't get the desires that you want for any of those categories. Now that's a lie. That's not where personhood comes from. That is not the thing that you were made for. Satisfying your desires. Don't be like Esau. Belonging to God requires the use of self-control. Of all our appetites, all our cravings, holiness comes through self-control and self-control comes through remembering that we stand in grace.

28:41Because in Christ we have been given abundantly more than the world has to offer. I'll confess something to you at the risk of it being pointed out next time we have a buffet or a potluck. When there's a great buffet or potluck, I will go right to the desserts.

29:01Because the desserts run out. And that's what I want. I want your banana pudding and your homemade brownies and your cookies. I go right to the desserts and I put some on my plate and then I go back. I don't really care if the other stuff runs out. I want to try the desserts. Do you know what that's called? Not only is that gluttony, you know, there's a lot of things that could be called. That's called a scarcity mindset. I think it's going to run out so I go and get it early before somebody else takes it.

29:33I'm plotting and I'm scheming to get what I want. I'm like Esau. We need to leave the scarcity mindset behind and embrace an abundance mindset. We should have an abundance mindset. We're standing in grace at Mount Zion. Did you see that list of everything that we're standing there receiving and participating in? We don't need to obey our appetites and go after the fleeting pleasures of this world. They will not satisfy. They will never satisfy.

30:12And besides, you're grabbing at things when you have an abundance in Christ Jesus, your Lord. We've been served a banquet. If those trays of desserts never ran out, I wouldn't go to the end of the line first. Right? We need to live that way. The good things that God gives me, all of the blessings, the sanctifying grace, the assurance, the approval, the rejoicing, the fellowship, the access to God all the time, Him abiding with me though I walk the valley of the shadow of death, those things never run out.

30:55Live with an abundance mindset. And don't go after trying to satisfy your appetites. Jesus told us, oh, one of my favorite verses, one of my favorite things that Jesus ever said, fear not little children, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Oh, your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

31:26Grace moves inward as we practice self-control with an abundance mindset and walk in holiness and grace moves outward. If we stand in grace, we should extend grace to other people. The author tells us strive for peace with everyone. Everyone means everyone, people.

31:48Not just the people we find pleasant in the moment. Not just our friends, but also the co-worker who gets on your nerves, the classmate who picks on you, the family member who hurt you.

32:07We can't control how the other person responds. That's the Lord's job. But however the Lord acts, we're not off the hook. We are to pursue peace with everyone with urgency. Strive for it.

32:25He also says in this verse, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. One way that someone can fail to obtain grace is if we withhold it from them.

32:41This verse is a call to forgiveness. Forgiveness is in short supply these days, I'm afraid. Right now, victimhood means power. Victimhood means social capital. If you're hurt, the world tells you, you have a license to act and treat the person however you want to, even if you are a Christian. That's what the world says, but that's a lie. It's a lie from the pit of hell. The motivation to forgive is weakened in the world right now because victimhood means power.

33:17Why would I give up my power? By forgiving. There is great danger in this line of thinking. This word to us in Hebrew says, see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. By it, many become defiled. We're called to bear fruit in our Christian life, but bitterness and holding a grudge, it's like a bad spot on a piece of fruit. And you know what happens when a bad spot is on a piece of fruit and you leave it alone and unattended?

33:49It spreads. That whole piece of fruit is done for. Not only that, it'll spread to other pieces of fruit around it. Anything it touches. But here's the good news, the grace of God in which you stand at Mount Zion, it gives us a way out of that. A way out of bitterness and the captivity, the prison of a grudge. We've come to God, judge of all, and yet nothing is held against us any longer. This gives us every reason to uproot bitterness by forgiving.

34:25If you're like me, you pick up that piece of fruit and you cut that bad spot out. And you say, let me go ahead and enjoy this now. Right? Cut out that bad spot, that root of bitterness, the grudge that you're holding. Don't let it defile you. It will defile you.

34:51Let the grace of Christ move outward even to those who have hurt you. Isn't it time you let go of that grudge? Isn't it time? You stand in grace. Here's the last thing. Grace moves upward. It moves inward, it moves outward, and it moves upward. It moves upward by responding to the one that we stand before. It moves upward first as we listen. See to it that we do not refuse him who is speaking.

35:30Those of you under a certain age will find this strange, but at one point, to call someone who wasn't local cost money every minute. The person that made the call would be the one charged every minute. I got some big phone bills that my parents were frustrated about sometimes. But you didn't always have to be the one paying if you were making that call. You could also place a collect call. You would call the operator, you'd give the person the number, and you'd give them your name, and they would call.

36:05And if you were the recipient of that, you know how it worked. The phone would ring, and you'd say, do you collect call from so-and-so, do you accept the charges?

36:15You'd say yes, and then you're the one paying, even though you got the call. But the power, the weird kind of power was to say, no, I don't accept those charges, and then that's it.

36:36God is calling you. Are you refusing His call? Are you hanging up on Him? What does He want you to do that you're putting off? See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.

36:58He's calling you to Mount Zion. Maybe you're still at Mount Sinai thinking, maybe I can make this work. Maybe I can go up to that mountain and touch it. He's calling you to Mount Zion in Christ Jesus, to put your faith in Christ. Or maybe you're already at Mount Zion, you're standing in grace, but the fear has returned. He's calling you, but you're fearful. God, I don't know what that's going to mean for me if I do that, if I obey you in that way.

37:35He is for you, not against you. You should listen. Don't refuse Him who is calling. After listening comes gratitude, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Like most kids, my parents taught me to say thank you for whatever gift I got. I have a very vivid memory of a birthday party when I was a little kid. It was at a Burger King. And I opened up presents, and I opened up this one, and all the kids were around, including the one who gave it to me, and my mom was right here, and I opened it up, and I turned to my mom, and I said, Mom, I don't want this.

38:16And she was so like, say thank you. What a good lesson it is to be taught to say thank you. Kids, say thank you to your parents sometime for teaching you that lesson. If they're trying to get you to say thank you, what a good lesson it is. Not because you're always sincere, but because it trains you to look at what you've got and be thankful for it. To see the good in it, and to see the good intent that came from the person that gave it to you. We have to be trained in that mindset.

38:55This earth and the heavens, they're going to shake when God returns. They will fail, but we've been given an unshakable kingdom. Maybe you look at it now and you're like, I don't know what to make of this. It doesn't seem that great. That bowl of stew looks really much better right now. Say thank you to God for the unshakable kingdom that He's given you, even if you are just at the cusp of understanding what it is and why it's good.

39:23And as grace flows upward, it also flows upward in praise. As we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, we praise Him for the kingdom we have, the new identity that we have. We praise Him for the grace shown to us in Jesus Christ, whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. When Abel was killed, he didn't deserve it. God said that Abel's blood was crying out to him from the earth. When Jesus died, he too was innocent, but his death was for us.

40:01That's why his blood speaks a better word. Abel's blood cried out, deliver me, but Jesus' blood cried out and says, deliver them. Deliver them, Father. Redeem them. They're your people. I died for them, washed in my blood. Receive them as your children. Holy Father, receive them at your mountain at Mount Zion. Bring them in to be with you in glory forever. Through the blood of Jesus, we know where we stand with God. We stand in grace.