Let me invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to be looking this morning at verses 14 through 17. We are continuing our sermon series in this wonderful book of Hebrews. This is sermon 42 in this series with probably about five or six more to go as we come in, come to the close of this wonderful book. This morning we are actually picking up in the middle of exhortations that the author is giving. He has encouraged them in the midst of hardships. He's encouraged them with The faithful who have gone before and the hardships that they faced and now in the midst of their own hardships, he wants them to press on and to stand firm. We saw that God uses hardship in our life and as the writer puts it, in the lives of God's people here and then as discipline. And we see the command to endure hardship as discipline, all kinds of hardship, even persecution at the form, from the hand of sinful men. And so he goes on then to give some exhortations. In verses 12 and 13, to lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees. And so here we continue. with the exhortations in the verses that follow, verses 14 to 17. If you haven't brought a Bible with you this morning, we do have pew Bibles in the pew racks in front of you. Our passage is found on page 1009 in your pew Bibles. I'd encourage you, if you want to do so, to follow along in those pew Bibles. Here then, God's word, Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 14. 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. For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. And thus far, God's holy word. Let's go to him in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for your great grace to us. The grace that saves us and the grace that sustains us. And yet, oh God, you also command us to strive, to press on, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as the Apostle Paul puts it. And so, O God, encourage us by this passage this morning to press on in faithfulness to you, that you might be glorified in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. There is an old adage, fairly common adage in certain circles. It's often associated with military. It's also associated sometimes in sports events, various sporting events. And it goes like this, the best defense is a good offense. The best defense is a good offense. George Washington, General George Washington, once said, offensive operations oftentimes are the surest, if not the only means of defense. Offensive operations, at times, the surest means of defense. And perhaps, at least in our circles, a much more famous figure, Michael Jordan, I think, has also said something fairly similar. That's a joke. Michael Jordan. Thank you. But sometimes, we can also say the best offense is a good defense. the best offense is a good defense. This happens with sports teams oftentimes. They oftentimes win because of their defense. So depending on the situation, depending on what we're talking about, one side of the adage might be true or the other side of these sayings might be true. When our passage this morning Our writer is telling us to do both at the same time. To be on the offensive, while at the same time being on the defensive. Put up a good offense, and at the same time have a good defense. The exhortations are both to pursue and to defend, or as we see it here in our text, to resist. pursue and to resist, and they go together in the Christian life. They go together all the time. Sometimes we need one more than the other, and depending on our situation, but they go together all the time. And essentially what we have here are both exhortations and warnings. And in fact, as we move into verse 14 this morning, as I've said in the past, there are five warning sections in Hebrews. This begins the last one, the fifth warning section, beginning here in Hebrews 12, 14. The central theme of these warning sections has been about falling away. warnings against falling away. Back at the beginning of Chapter 2, the first warning section in 2.1, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. We see in chapter 3, verse 12, take care lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. We see in chapter 6, verse 4, another warning section, it is impossible for those who have once but enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, etc., etc., etc., and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. Very similar to what we see here in our passage this morning. So we need these exhortations. We need these warnings. And we need to be in some sense on the defensive about those things in the world that seek to entice us and draw us away from the faith, while at the same time always moving forward in the faith. There are actually two exhortations and three warnings in our passage this morning. We're going to look at these one at a time. Let's start with the exhortations, both of them are in verse 14 where the writer says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Strive for peace and for holiness. Pursue peace, pursue holiness. In other words, go on the offensive, move forward in the Christian life. The first one is strive for peace with everyone. Now again, remember, what's the context? The context is that of suffering. The context is that of persecution. They are being persecuted by unbelievers who are hostile to the faith of Jesus Christ. And so the everyone, strive with peace, strive for peace with everyone, includes these opponents of the gospel. To seek peace, with them. Christians are to strive for peace. We are to be peacemakers. Jesus himself said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. God himself at the very end of this book in 1320, a common benediction that we use in this church is called the God of Peace. So as we seek for peace, we are proving ourselves truly to be the sons of God, the children of God. Strive for peace. Reach out to others. Strive to love them, even the most difficult ones to love, even your persecutors. Be at peace with them. There are many in the world and many sometimes even in churches that thrive on conflict. They like to stir up a conflict in a variety of ways, stirring up dissension, stir the pot as we have sometimes heard it described in the past. Well, that should not be the desire of God's people, any of God's people. Christ is the Prince of Peace. What did he do? He came to bring peace in two ways, peace with God, a reconciliation with God, but also that we would have peace with one another. The Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, or as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 12, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. As far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. In many ways, this doesn't just mean don't have conflicts. It actually means seek to do others good. Seek to do them good. The Chinese evangelist, Watchman Nee, tells the story or has told the story of a Chinese Christian whose rice field was on a hill and he used a hand pump to bring the water up from the irrigation stream at the bottom of the hill. But then he had a neighbor that had a field beneath him and that neighbor made a hole in the dividing wall so that the water would go into his field instead of the one at the top. And this Chinese Christian didn't know what to do. He asked friends, other Christian friends, what should I do? I don't want to retaliate, should I confront? And one responded to him, Christians are not just to seek justice, but seek to be a blessing to others. Not just justice, but a blessing to others. And so what did he do? The next day he went out and he first pumped water into the neighbor's field. And then he went up and pumped water into his own. And this neighbor asked him, why are you doing this? And he described his Christian faith to him, and ultimately that man himself also became a believer, according to Watchman Nee. So we are to strive for peace with everyone. Secondly, we are to strive or we are to pursue holiness, as the second part of verse 14 says. Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Strive for, work at it. As we saw last week, it requires discipline, both God's discipline and our own disciplined life to strive for holiness. It is an absolutely essential. Why? Because without it, as verse 14 tells us, no one will see the Lord. Strive for holiness. without which no one will see the Lord. Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they what? They will see God. One of Jesus' Beatitudes. So we are to strive for holiness. What does holiness mean? It means, in one sense, to be set apart. The word holy does, the original word holy, the Greek word holy, to be different. Which means for all of us, and maybe especially an encouragement to you young people, it means to be set apart from the world. Not seek to always fit in, not seek to always be part of the crowd. Especially when they are doing things that are not honoring to the Lord. When we seek to fit in, to be part of the crowd, to go with the crowd, we will not be faithful followers of Christ because we will not be holy. We see this actually today in many professing Christians who are just simply going along with the world's teaching, going along with the world's ethic, which is contrary, much of which is contrary to biblical teaching, seeking to fit in, seeking to be part of the world. We must be set apart for God. We must obey God rather than man, as the early apostles put it. And it is an active pursuit, an active pursuit. We don't laze our way into holiness. We actively pursue it. We don't drift into holiness. We go after it. We strive for it. titled this sermon on Monday, when I sent the sermon title in to Rebecca, Pursuing Holiness. But actually, as I got farther on in the week, I realized maybe striving for holiness might be a better term. which is actually the one used here, striving after it, go after it, it is an active pursuit. Hywell Jones writes this, enduring as Christians is not wholly negative, that is the resistance, it does not merely involve resisting the influences of culture, it is not just drawing a line in the sand, but it is an active pursuit of what is good and right in the sight of God. We do need to draw a line in the sand, but it's not just that. We actively pursue what is good and right in the sight of God. So those are the two exhortations. But then there are three warnings in our passage this morning. We see this in verses 15 through 17, the first part of verse 15, we read this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. What do you mean, obtain the grace of God? Isn't it a free gift from God? Isn't that the whole point of grace? Isn't that the meaning of grace, God's free gifts? How can we fail to obtain it? Well, the Greek word actually has the sense of falling short of it. falling short of it, being lacking of it. In other words, this is directed at those who are leaving the faith, those who are committing apostasy, turning away from the gift of God to pursue their own pursuits. In context here, it would mean to give up. to lose endurance. And Jesus Himself said to His disciples and to us, it is the one who endures to the end who will be saved. The Christian life and the pursuit in the Christian life is not a one-time thing. It's not a temporary thing. It is a lifelong thing, right to the very end, to pursue, to go after it. Note in one sense, this is an exhortation for us individually, but it's also plural in the Greek. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. In fact, the word here for see to it is actually the word that is translated in many of our Bibles as oversee or overseer. It is a word along with presbuteros, elder. It is a word for elder that simply describes their function and that is overseeing. But this word here, the command here is not just for the elders of the church, it is for all of us. We are our brother's keeper. We have a responsibility to encourage one another. It's the task of the whole community. The Christian life, as I've tried to make the point and made it several times over the weekend in the Inquirer's class, the Christian life is a corporate endeavor. It involves the whole community. We need one another. Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend about a mutual acquaintance that we both had, and he made the comment, well, he believes in Jesus, but he just doesn't like the whole church community stuff. Well, if you don't like the whole church community stuff, you can't love Jesus. You can't love the head and hate the body. They go together. And we are commanded by God's word to be in community, to be together as God's people. We're corporate. We're a body. We need each other. We need to exhort each other. We're called to watch out for one another. Look out for. Reach out to those you haven't seen in a while. Encourage those who you might sense are slipping away from the faith. Reach out to them. Encourage each other. This is a corporate endeavor. This is not rugged individualism in the Christian life. It is what we do together as God's people. See to it. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. But next we see in the second half of verse 15 that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiant. The flip side of life together and the importance of it and the goodness of it and the sweetness of it and the importance of encouraging one another is that it's hard to live together. It's hard. It's not always easy. It is a joy, it is a delight, but it is not always easy to live in community. You know that. It wasn't always easy to live in families. There are rough times, there are rocky times in every family. We are a bunch of sinners. And you're looking at the chief standing in front of you preaching this morning. We get upset, we get easily offended, and we can even get bitter. A root of bitterness. We can even get bitter towards God's people. Of course, this is contrary to the thankful hearts that God desires us to have. But more, as he says here, this bitterness defiles others. It defiles others. The community is affected by this root of bitterness. Paul says with regard to a different sin, but the same principle here, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Put a check on our bitterness, our skepticism. Make sure that we can talk to one another. Confront one another. Talk about what may be causing upset or anger or bitterness in your heart. We need to be able to do that. Rot spreads. Rot spreads, even in the church. And again, this is a communal project for us. We all are doing this together. If you see a brother or sister, seems to be going off into a certain amount of bitterness. Go to them, talk to them, and encourage them. Roots of bitterness are oftentimes caused by the failure to deal properly with concerns and conflicts. The failure to deal properly with concerns and conflicts, we let them fester. We let them burn in our hearts without going and talking to the source, perhaps, of those conflicts. But the reality is true, when we carry our bitterness into the assembly, others are affected. It affects the whole. And finally, the final exhortation in verse 16, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy. He sums it up here with Esau, an interesting one, an interesting example, but it is a wonderful example because what did Esau do? He gave up his future blessing for a temporal physical gratification. He gave up his future blessing for a temporal physical gratification. That is what sexual sin is or can potentially be, as with many other sins as well. When we seek to pursue the here and now, we throw away our holiness. We throw away our holiness. Our holiness is focused on what is to come, not on what we get now. That was the great lesson from chapter 11. The great cloud of witnesses who pressed on, not seeing what was promised, but they kept pressing on. It's the opposite of holiness. It will lead us away from holiness. And notice in verse 17, he ends with a dire warning, a dire warning. You know, that afterward, verse 17 says, When he desired to inherit the blessing, it was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with fears. Now, praise the Lord, there are days and times for all of us living here, I'm sure, for repentance after sin, and praise the Lord for His graciousness that there is, but there may come a time when that opportunity to repent is no more, and the door is closed, as it was with Esau. So the exhortation here is to take this warning seriously, repent and turn away, pursue the Lord, pursue that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So I begin to bring this to a conclusion. We see that peace and holiness always go together. Peace and holiness always go together. Those who pursue the things of the world, the profane, the unholy, the bitter, et cetera, who hold on to their grudges and their bitterness, never have true peace. Never have true peace. Holiness, true biblical holiness leads to Peace, peace with God, peace within ourselves, peace with one another. As Matthew Henry puts it, there can be no true peace without holiness. Also, I think we can say there's no true holiness without peace. If we're not at peace, we're not truly holy. No holiness. without peace, both individually but also corporately, peace with others as well. They go together. And so our task this morning and our injunction this morning is together to strive for peace so that we may all attain holiness without which we will never see the Lord. Let me use this to transition now to our introduction to the Lord's Supper this morning. The Lord's Supper is itself a great expression of our unity and of our peace. And it is at the same time a means of holiness, a means of grace, a means of sanctification. It's a corporate expression. It helps to unite us as God's people as we eat the meal together. That's why we wait. The pastors typically tell you when the bread and the cup are distributed, we wait till everyone has received it and then we all eat together, a unifying thing, a unifying act for us as God's people. We also see at the Last Supper, when Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, that he gave us an example of how to love and how to be at peace with one another. And what was that example? That example was to serve one another. Christ is, in many ways, acting out what the Lord's Supper points to in many ways by what he does, by washing the feet of his disciples. He served them, and he prayed for them. At that great high priestly prayer, at the very end of the account of the Last Supper, he prays to the Father that we might be one. This is God the Father. and God the Son are one. And in His death, of course, Christ brought the end of enmity, both with God and with one another. His death not only saves us, makes us one with Him if we trust in Him, but it also makes us one with one another. So as we come to the supper this morning, we realize that really it is two-dimensional. It is vertical, but it is also horizontal. As we meet around this table this morning, figuratively speaking, yes, we commune with God, but we are also communing with one another. And also in this act, we are sanctified and purified and grow in grace through it. Lord's Supper is only for those though who are trusting in Christ and in Christ alone for their salvation, who are members of his church. What a delight this morning. some of our new Communicant members from just last Sunday get to take their first Lord's Supper with us. So we can be praying and rejoicing in that as well. For those children who have not yet made a public profession of faith, who may and themselves have trusted in Christ and are true believers, but not yet made their public profession of faith, we ask that parents keep their kids from partaking of this. But all who have trusted in Christ and who belong to him are welcome to come and eat this morning. Let's go to God in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for your great grace and mercies. The grace, oh God, that has brought we who were far off and lost in our sins, close to you. And you, oh God, bring us close to one another in a loving bond of Christian fellowship with Christ at the center. And so, oh God, we ask that you would use this meal to remind us and also to strengthen us as we seek to love you and seek to love one another. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen.