Now I would like to ask you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. You know, I told you in chapter 6 there was some very hard interpretation to deal with. Chapter 10, there was some very hard interpretation to deal with. In chapter 12 of Hebrews, it isn't that the translating or interpreting is so difficult, but it's It's as deep and difficult a topic as anything you saw in chapter six or chapter 10. That's why it's all in one book. And where we're following a theme throughout the book of Hebrews that we're looking for the warnings. In the fall, we studied about a perpetual gospel that must be preached, not for just new people to hear and be saved, but for the saved to keep hearing. It has a continual work of delivering us and sanctifying us. And here's why. Because in Hebrews 12, it tells us what we are prone to do. Like the old hymn says, prone to wander, Lord. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. And so we're getting lots of warnings about what can happen. in the mind, the heart, the soul, the spirit of people. And the two categories we've mentioned before, there are those who believe they are believers and they are religious and they do things, at least for a while, and then things come up and they prove that they're really, they went out from us because they were never of us. And then there are those who really are believers, but they got areas to grow up, areas to mature, getting up from something where they failed. And the same scriptures can warn a religious person that they're lost and not really saved and that they can get saved. The same scriptures can tell a saved person, now you ought to know better than that. This is what the meaning of our salvation is. This is what Jesus means by this. And we need to get back on track. And so this wonderful scripture and the wonderful Holy Spirit can take and apply it to different people. But consequently, some of the Spirit's choice of words and topics and themes, they render us into looking at Old Testament examples and some things, and it can get scary. And I fall back on the good old hymn, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." So having said that, I'm looking at the third message on Hebrews 12. And usually when I'm led of the Lord to teach something, I feel like, oh, this is the most important place in the whole Bible. And boy, I really feel that right now. Hebrews 12 has just been, something on my heart for a long time now. And what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get to the second half of it. So we're going to, in the scripture reading, we're going to pick a little bit of the first part, but we're going to get to the second half. So as we do this scripture reading, chapter 12, we're going to read verses one through three, and that really sets the stage for what we're doing. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed or surrounded about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus." the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." And then we go to verse 12, and we'll read to the end of the chapter. Verse 12. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat or food sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And as so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But you are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. In this word, yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, some translations say, let us be thankful, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Wow. Again, the focus here, we had chapter 11 that talked about all these people, we call it the Hall of Faith, and all these people, how they ran their race of their life and how they demonstrated faith. And it's a beautiful study. We did that earlier when we were studying chapter 10. We add that on. But now we have a race. It's one thing to look at their race, but now we also have a race. And we need to run it carefully and faithfully and patiently. And the only way to do that is to keep our eyes on the one who is the author and finisher of our faith. So looking unto Jesus. So what's the problem? Why does the gospel have to continually be preached to believers as well as unbelievers? It's because people get their eyes off of Jesus Christ and become weary of the race that is set before them. And the first part here we've been studying in chapter 12 is we need to run our race continually looking unto Jesus. And we've pointed out two particular things as we're looking at him. What are we noticing? Number one, he's our example. He's our example. We need to do like Jesus did. We need to be like him. And I'm not going to re-preach that, But there was an interesting thing I picked up from verse 15, and you just have to bear with me. I'm not so senile yet that I'm preaching things twice and I don't know I've done it. I've seen that happen sometimes. But there's an overlap here. At the top of the second side or the second page, verse 15 is mentioned, technically not in this section that we're studying, but it had to be mentioned because you've got the looking unto Jesus, and then it says looking diligently. looking diligently. Looking at him gives me my object. Looking diligently tells me, I've got to take this very seriously and prioritize this. But there's something else that's been added to it there. And it says that, in our translation, you may not quite catch it. Because it just says, less than a man fail. But what it's saying here is that we need to see that no one fails. We're looking out for others, not just ourself. So one way it's been worded, see to it that no one fails. Looking diligently lest any other man fail of the grace of God. That's the idea here. I'm not just here for myself, I'm here for others. That'll get dealt with again a little lower in the page, but I wanted to point it out that we look at Jesus, but we must look diligently, not just a casual glance once in a while. That look that the lifeguards were told, never take your eyes off the waterfront. Never turn your back to the people out there in the water. They have to walk backwards sometimes to just make sure, because a moment can make a huge difference in them. And we have to look unto Jesus, because a moment of our eyes off of Him can just get us into all kinds of trouble. So Christ, our example, leads us then to Christ, our coach. And we've dealt with this already, but verses five through 11 is standard stuff for the chastisement of the Lord, quoting from the Proverbs. And we typically think of the heavenly father, because it talks about a father who loves his children, will chastise them, correct them, and so forth. But we dealt with the fact that Jesus also is called a father in scripture. Well, it's all there. But Jesus also can speak to us as a father to his children. And so we're keeping it in context. I'm looking unto Jesus. Parents, have you ever had to correct a child and they're looking around and you say, look at me when I'm talking to you. I see some faces smiling. Have you had it said to you, by the way, when you were a child? And it looks like you're not paying attention, not respecting, so look at me when I'm speaking to you. Jesus wants that too. And again, if you look at him, you may see him look stern, but you'll see love in his eyes. And at the right time, you'll see the smile. But he does it in love. He does it for the purpose of correction, for better behavior, for better things to come out of it. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. So Jesus can be like a father. And he's called that in several places. You can look that up if you haven't studied that yet. But what I want to get on here in verses 12 through 14 is that Christ seeks a positive response to his coaching, to his counseling, to his correcting. Now we had written out Psalm 105 verse 4, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face evermore, continually looking for him, not just knowing who he is, but looking unto Him, not just for help, but looking for Him for grace and power and a relationship that's going to get stronger and stronger. And I'm thinking here, in John chapter 1, I'm fond of repeating this, but you know, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, verse 14 says of John chapter 1. A little farther down, and it says, of His fullness have we all received, verse 16, and grace for grace, literally grace upon grace, grace after grace after grace after grace after grace. That's the idea. We behold His glory. He's full of grace and truth. And as we behold this, we receive something. For verse 17 says, the law was given by Moses. And that's a good thing. but the law can't empower us, the law can't transform us, the law doesn't have any saving power, it only reveals the need and the standard. But, wonderful word, but there in verse 17, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Yes, Moses gave some truth, but Jesus gave grace and truth, and grace being a gift has to do with empowerment. He leads us to do something, he also will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5. Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it. Jesus working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Okay, so we know that Jesus is doing this and expecting something positive, which means we can repent. We can agree with him. we can get things fixed. And I'm going to borrow from 2 Peter here. Chapter 3 of 2 Peter. The last two verses, 17 and 18. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that you know these things before, beware, lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." Now that's a common thing you would read in the book of Hebrews. Matter of fact, chapter 10 ended on a very strong note about don't go away and be like the others. I always admired Job because when all the bad stuff happened to him, and finally his wife comes up and says, why don't you just curse God and die? What a terrible way to talk to a man who's down. And you'd think he could have snapped back, shut up, woman, you know, that kind of a thing. But he very carefully chose his words. He says, don't speak as the foolish women. Notice he didn't call her a foolish woman. He says, don't speak like them. And when the Spirit of God's talking to us, He's saying, don't be like the world. You're better than that, because I am with you. And Peter is giving a positive correction here. A warning, actually. Since you know these things, don't fall away with the error of the wicked. Don't fall from your own steadfastness. Verse 18, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever, amen. Don't just grow in knowledge, and that was one of our topics earlier, unprofitable knowledge. We don't mingle it with faith. It doesn't get 18 inches down below our brains into our heart. Growing grace in a knowledge, which means I'm going to not just know more about Jesus, I'm going to become more like Jesus. That's what he wants. In 2 Corinthians 3, 18, but we beholding as in the glass darkly, the glory of the Lord, are changed, are transformed, metamorphosized. If you want to get technical, we're changed into the same image, not all at once, but from grace to grace. even as by the Spirit of our Lord." So our knowledge is not simply, oh, here's seven easy steps on how to be a successful Christian. It's here's how we identify with the Lord. And we are receptive when He corrects us. We take it as from Him. And if He's giving us correction, that means He's got better things in mind. And He's just waiting for us to join in and come along and get back on track. And the Lord's wonderful about this. bringing us back into alignment. If we be otherwise minded, Philippians 3.15 says, even he shall reveal this unto you. And I love him for that. So, the reference to holiness, and when we were observing the Lord's table, I think I mentioned this, but without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. I'm back in Hebrews 12, just in case you wondered, the roving preacher here. Hebrews 12, verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now there is a positional holiness. I mean, I've been placed in a position where I stand before God, accepted, and I'm holy. And that's the kind of thing like in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 21, it says, he became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's my standing with him. But there's another thing, not my standing, but my state. And here I'm talking about the practical holiness. And this is too, and it scares some people because they think, oh no, I got to do a bunch of good works or I'll lose my salvation. Nobody said anything about losing salvation, you know? Eternal life is called eternal for a good reason. And so it begins now and will continue. And in the Lord's good grace, and that's why He corrects us, is He's getting us saved not just from the penalty of our sins, but from the power of them, the deceptive power of them. Now then, this kind of holiness that's practical. I guess it lines up with Jesus being our coach again, but Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. And in the notes, you've got the whole verses 1 through 6 to deal with the church of Sardis. For time's sake, I want to be a little efficient here. Let's catch what Jesus says to his church in verse 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. For I have not found my works perfect before God." Now that's pretty realistic. You haven't lost everything, but you're weak. And if you keep going the way you're going, you would die. You would fail, you would fall, it'd be done. So let's strengthen it up. Now I've had a few times of experience with physical therapy where certain muscles I didn't know it, I quit using them. My activity went down, and even though I was active in some ways, I wasn't using muscles, and all of a sudden I'm having problems. Things don't work, things don't feel right. I had problems with my feet, I had to have arch supports, and eventually I learned how to do therapy and not need the arch supports, because other muscles weren't working the way they should. And that's kind of this whole feeble knees thing, and the hands that hang down stuff. And there are things that need to be strengthened. And once we get them working again, a whole lot of things feel better and work better and we can do more. And it's just, the older we get, the more this is a perpetual problem, right folks? I don't think I have any kids out there to stare at me blankly. Every one of you should know what I'm talking about. But then also in chapter three is verses 19 through 21. Jesus says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. You know, every now and then I've been taught to remind myself that as the Lord has chastened me or brought me into difficult times, and I feel so miserable, but I will be happy again. I will be happy again. He will restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. There's a whole lot more I can't talk about that yet because there's so much more I need to share. But he's talking to us and he's saying, with me, you will be overcomers. Paul had that moment, that wonderful moment where he says, I am persuaded. that neither height, nor depth, nor length, or things present, or things to come, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is the Christ Jesus." And just before that, he said, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Now, without him, we can do nothing, John 15, 5. But anyways, I must move along to the official second half of this chapter. In your notes, it says Hebrews 12, 14 through 29. We had this little interlude here where 12 through 15 was important to the first half of the chapter, and it also ties us in, brings us into the second half of the chapter. In Hebrews 12, verses 14 and 15, you've seen, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. So first point is don't let the race make us negligent of others and careless with God. Okay, I'm supposed to be looking out for other people, make sure they don't fail either. Somehow, it isn't that I forget me and only focus on them, it's just that while I'm focusing on myself, take a moment to look around on the things of others and care how they are, seek their benefit. It has a wonderful way of getting us all going forward. You know, when we're all doing this together, we encourage each other. We, you know, what was it in the Hebrew tense? They provoke one another to love and good works. I happened to look at another translation and they had an easier word for today. It's stimulate. Provoke sounds kind of negative. I'm good at provoking. Can I really stimulate somebody? So here we are, looking out for others, and also, this may seem like a contradiction, but how is it that I could be careless with God while I'm trying to run my race? You think it's all about God. No, we get so focused on our own footsteps. We get so focused on ourselves. And I hate to say this, but I tried going to an exercise place one time, and all the mirrors were up, and there's these people looking in the mirrors. They're doing all this kind of stuff. I found that very distracting. I think sometimes we have too many mirrors up and we're flexing stuff maybe we don't really have because it's like the subject of humility. You can ask God for it, but you can never thank God for it. And we can get so caught up in rules and principles and success stuff that we might be as straight as a gun barrel and just as empty, that we might actually be doing this without the Lord, trying to do the Lord's things without Him. And we have to watch out for that. So as we're doing all that we're doing, we're focusing on our weaknesses and strengthening things, and that's good. But don't ever forget, you've got to have the coach's approval. You've got to look at the example of Jesus and be able to say, I'm not quite done yet. There's more to go. And caring for others in a humble way, we're caring for others. Not judging, but caring. The second half of verse 15 talks about bitterness. Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. One day it dawned on me, what do you mean roots springing up? We think of roots going down. That's where the minerals are and the water and all that. They're not supposed to go up, they go down. And then when we lived, in Weston, and we had a large backyard, and there was this tree, and I've already forgotten what the name of it, what kind of tree it was, but it had roots that spread out just under the surface, and they were runners. And if I didn't mow the lawn, you know I'm fond of not mowing my lawn. I like the wildflowers. Well, we were getting trees. This one tree was gonna fill the entire backyard up with trees. If I let it, if I didn't mow the lawn, up they popped. The roots sprung up, and the next, you know, I got two trees, three trees, four trees. I remember the day I sat down with my son. Actually, we didn't sit. We walked around and said, okay, we got to get rid of these trees, but maybe there's one we'd like to keep. So he and I walked around. What do you think about that? Would that look good right there or this one? And we saved one. We were going to let it grow up. And the others I just mowed over. And you just keep on mowing. But that's kind of what life's like. Keep on mowing. You'd like to say, once and for all, I got this all out. Nope. Here comes another runner popping up. So that's become very powerful to me, that success is a daily issue, an annual issue. I need the every hour issue. Don't let any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you. And many people get defiled. They get a whole backyard full of those rotten kind of trees. Now verse 16 and 17, it's telling us, don't become like Esau. And Esau is a carnally minded person desiring blessings without repenting. The background story, I can't open up, but I put it in there for you. Genesis 25, 29 through 34, Genesis 27, 1 through 46. You can get the main big story here, but I'm just going to abbreviate. Here's Esau, the firstborn. And I might just mention, you know, they were twins. He came out first, but The second one, Jacob grabbed his heel. And he's kind of known for this, he's a heel grabber. Okay, you have ankle biters, he was a heel grabber. And anyways, these two boys were very different, and mom favored Jacob, dad favored Esau. He liked venison. He might have come from Wisconsin. No, that's not possible. But he liked his venison, and Esau was a hunter and a rough guy, and he made good meat and all that. So he and Esau just get along fine, but Jacob was the mama's boy. And there came the time when, There was something in mom's heart. She says, you know, I just can't stand the thought that he's going to be the spiritual leader of this family. You see, there's an important thing going on here. Promises to Abraham, transferred to Isaac, and then Isaac's son. Who's that going to be? Well, yeah, you're answering me correctly, but it was going to be Esau. He's the oldest. Now he's out hunting one day, and he stayed out too long, and he come back, and he's so hungry. And there's Jacob. He's got a whole mess of beans going on. Now, there's something that I know is dear to my heart. It's a good pot of beans, but when you're hungry, it's really looking good. And Jacob said, hey, would you like some beans? Boy, I sure would. Would you sell me your birthright? And Esau just quickly says, well, what good's a birthright if I die? I'm starving. So sure, you can have the birthright. Give me the beans. He even gave him seconds, probably. When it was time for Isaac to bless his son Esau, mother overheard it and she had Jacob go out and she took goat and could fix it up real good. And she had Jacob put on all this fake stuff like fur and everything to try to imitate being Esau. And father who's lost most of his vision, in a sense, he accidentally blessed the wrong boy and gave him the official blessing to be the spiritual leader. And he went away, and shortly after that, here comes Esau, and he's got all the good food. I'm ready, Dad. What? And here's the important thing. Isaac said, I've already blessed your brother, and he shall be blessed. In a moment, he recognized that the sovereignty of God, despite the foibles of man, whether it be Rebecca or whether it be Jacob, God wanted to bless him. He shall be blessed. We're not gonna rescind this. We're not gonna say, oops, let's do it again. And so Jacob got the official spiritual leader blessing of God, and he saw us crying and crying, oh, Father, won't you bless me too? Can't you please bless me too? Here's the thing, he did get blessed. Isaac said a lovely thing about God prospering him and blessing him and so forth, but not about the transfer of the privileges of that elder son and the promises of God, that was not mentioned. That's over. So Esau, notice in your text, it says, when he would have been blessed, when he wanted to be blessed, he was rejected. He got a blessing, but not the blessing. And the reason he was rejected, because he found no place of repentance. And when it says, though he sought it carefully with tears, that was not repentance. That's the blessing. He sought the blessing with tears. He did not repent. And so that's a picture for us of carnality. Now, I just pushed the story a little farther. Because Jacob found out his brother wanted to kill him. He was so mad, I'll kill him. Mother's trying to protect her boy. She packs him up and sends him off to Uncle Laban's. And that's a whole other story. But when Jacob finally left Laban's and he had his wives and concubines and cattle and sheep and all that stuff, he's terrified to go back. He wants to go back to see his family, his father. I think mother passed away. But he heard Esau was coming with a lot of men. And he's shaken. He's thinking, oh no, he still wants to kill me. And he wrestled with God all night at the River Peniel. And I'll save that story for later. I really want to talk about that one. But God changed his name and made him a prince with men, and his name became Israel. And when he comes to Esau, Esau embraces him, hugs him, and says, oh, my brother, good to see you. Don't worry about me. God's given me lots of good things. I'm fine. And that, you know, I've had people say, see, Esau was a real godly person. He forgave his brother. That's not the point. All that guy ever wanted was stuff. I'm fine wasn't really right. He never lamented losing the heritage. that should come from Abraham to Isaac and Esau, he didn't care. I got goats, baby, I got cattle, I got servants, I got wives, I got all my stuff, I'm fine. Which shows you the unspirituality of this man through and through. He never really understood what he gave up. And many people in this world, Jesus would say, what would it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Esau forever goes down as this carnal person, and there's a statement I can't deal with, but I'm gonna dare to mention it to you because it's gonna provoke you, and you're gonna have to study and pray about this, but the phrase, or the sentence, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. I cannot touch that one today. A smart man would have not mentioned it, right? No, I will. I will seek it out. because it's a tremendous theme. It pops up here and there, and it has some great things to teach us about the evidence of God's true elect. Many people are nice, many people like God, many people want to use God to get better things in life, and they want to be good, but they don't have that essence of the kingdom of God in their heart. and they do not appreciate the heritage of those that fear thy name." Okay, I got to move on. We come now to some really interesting things. Verses 18 through 24. Now, I can't even take the time to read all that, so bear with me. In verses... 18 through 21 we're dealing with one place, one idea, and verses 22 through 24 we're dealing with another. Okay, so the notes say here, don't focus on Mount Sinai, which is representing legalistic, fleshly, fear-based duty. Jesus didn't bring us to that. to get caught up in legalism. And when I say fear-based duty, legal obedience, I obligate, I gotta do it, and no joy, no love involved in it. No, we've not been brought to that kind of religion. Rather, we're told that we are brought to Mount Zion, which represents Jerusalem. which is a heavenly, spiritual, grace-based, Christ-centered way of living. And so we need to look at two spiritual camps. One is carnal, and the other is truly of the Lord. Now, I want to emphasize some things here. The place where the law was given, Mount Sinai, it's associated with God's justice, holiness, and wrath. And you read in verse 29 of Hebrews 12, God is a consuming fire. Now, for some, he consumes them, and others, he refines them. You want to be on the refining side. He's getting the dross out, making the gold precious more. But let's focus on Zion, because here's some tricky stuff. Okay, Zion is a reference to Jerusalem. It is associated with God's justice, excuse me, I missed the wrong line here. It's associated with peace. After Jerusalem, city of peace, shalom, you know that means peace, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is represented with peace, redemption, reconciliation. Now it says we come to a heavenly Jerusalem. Psalm 46 says there is a city, not there will be, there is a city. and it brings peace to the hearts of God's people. The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God one day to earth, but it exists already. It's a heavenly city. That excites me. That's the realm of where we exist. It isn't just about this old Jerusalem down here. It's about a heavenly Jerusalem that will last forever and is so glorious, you just have to read the last two chapters of Revelation. but it's also the environment of angels, which in Hebrews 1.14 says they are ministering spirits. Come to minister to those who shall be heirs of eternal life. See, we come from a grace-based mountain where Jesus came, died, and rose again. We come to a place that's associated with peace and reconciliation, redemption. We have a company of angels ministering to us We don't see them normally. We don't always have evidence of them, but we know they're working. We are also involved with the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven. Christ first rose from the dead, and he's called the firstfruits of a greater harvest that's coming. As Christ's church increases, we are born again and belong to the future harvest of those who will be resurrected. We belong to the forever family of God. See, chin up is what our writer's telling us. Get your chin up. We're not here to haggle out at this fiery mountain where death and fearful things are going on. We have been delivered from the law so that we can now have the law of Christ in our hearts. And the law of Christ is a law of peace and joy. We've been brought to the spirits of just men made perfect. Now that one really can scare you. But remember what we learned in chapter 10, verses 10 and 14, that by one offering, he is perfected forever, them that are sanctified. Perfected here is referring to that position, that holiness, that state, excuse me, that status with God. And so I have within me the Holy Spirit of God. and He dwells in me. And so, in a sense, I'm perfect. Paul will even say to the Corinthians, I speak unto those that are perfect. He's talking about your status with God is perfect because Jesus established it. Now, while it's talking about the position we have with God because of the work of Christ on the cross, it's our spirit the Holy Spirit within us causes us to bear witness with one another. So the spirits of just men made perfect, in plurality, I'm talking to perfect people. Yeah, you can laugh, I get it. I laugh too, but I hope I laugh like faithful Sarah, and all shall laugh with me, because it's gonna happen. We're gonna see it. We don't see it so much now we have to know it. We're experiencing things that we don't fully apprehend yet. But we bear witness one with another. In other words, I can tell, normally, another Christian. They can tell me. We have things to talk about. We relate to things. We're talking the same language, and we bear witness. Now, that's for those who are all alive here, but I want you to think about this. What about all the saints there ever has been? And you know, in the Old Testament, you have a lot of record of where saints did wrong. They failed here. But when it's talked about in the New Testament, they only talk about the part that's good. They talk about the part that's right. And that's because after the cross, their sins and iniquities, I will remember no more. And so, You know, we don't talk about Ishmael, all that Ishmael might live before thee. No, Abraham staggered not at the promises of God, but was strong in faith, Roman 4 says. Oh, I go back to Genesis and wait a minute, what about this? What about that? Well, what about it? It's under the blood of Christ. So what I do now is I can relate to all those saints. I can relate to David and to Moses and to Elijah and Isaiah, I can relate. And the things they say and the things they do teach me. Even we're told by Peter, consider the prophets, look at them, see the end of the Lord, how pitiful and tender mercy and so forth. And we get to relate to them, Paul, Peter, James, John, we get to relate to them. And even in church history, Now, we don't have perfect, infallible records of this, but we hear the great stories of people that served God, suffered for His sake, were martyred. We have sermons and records of actions, and people did great things, and they can be inspirational to us. So I can get broadening this out to where we are brought to the spirits of just men made perfect means I recognize Christ working through people, and how even in the Old Testament, Peter says the spirit of Christ was in them. I recognize Christ and His work and His thoughts and the things that He brought, and they that know their God shall do exploits," Daniel said, which means powerful great works. And we get to relate to all that. What encouragement, what inspiration, what way to get our eyes off the world and quit making heroes out of these ungodly entertainers and some of the other people that they make heroes out of, not me. We have the heritage or the inheritance of those that fear thy name, Psalm 61 5 says. Last but not least, it says, Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Now, right now, I can't elaborate too deeply, but you get it. Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, boy, we got that all over the place in Hebrews and even in other parts of the New Testament. But catch that part The blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Now I've noticed some commentators think they're referring to Abel's offering he made. He shed animal blood as he was instructed to and God accepted that offering. But that was an offering that was temporary. That was an offering that had to be done again and again and again. And so Christ sacrifices eternal once and for all and actually takes away sin. And that's good, but I really think of something else, the blood of Abel being his own blood, his literal personal blood, when his brother Cain murdered him. And God came and talked to Cain, and he says, where's your brother? And Cain snapped back, am I my brother's keeper? How should I know? Me, me, me, me. And God said, the blood of your brother, The blood of Abel is crying out to me from the ground. Now, there weren't too many people to blame for murder back then. You didn't have enough people to make a jury, so God himself came and did this. The blood of Abel was crying out, murder! Justice! And that's the way it is. Does the blood of Jesus do that? The blood of Jesus says, peace. forgiveness, reconciliation. Yes, the blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of Abel. Well, just wrap up a little bit more of Hebrews 12 here. We're down to verse 25 and 27. See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once again I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away, Jesus says." But notice with me in verse 25. See that you refuse not him that speaketh. The Greek word there for refuse means to reject. to avoid, to ask to be excused. And every now and then I've tried to talk to people about wanting to learn of the Lord, or wanting to do something for the Lord, and I'll get a polite little, no thank you. They think they're being nice, but they're refusing. They're refusing. And the Greek word says they might be just asking to be excused. Not me. No. As if God was giving a choice. We have to stop and think about this. God isn't giving us a lot of choices. But the choices He gives us are wonderful if we'd only figure that out. So don't refuse Him. Don't refuse Him. I would love, love, love to get into Hebrews 1, 1-3, and Hebrews 2, 1-4, and Hebrews 10, 28-31, and I can't do it. I ask you, you'll see almost a summary of some of the things we've already taught, but how this matter of not refusing Him. But I must get to verse 28. Wherefore are we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved? Let us have grace. I'm going to stop there. Let us have grace. A lot of translations say, let us be thankful. Well, I looked it up, and indeed, the word speaks much about thankfulness, gratitude, gratefulness. But I like the idea of the grace part because, you know, an unthankful person is an ungracious person. And I'm going to give you a little statement that, believe me, I was trying to write sideways on this page. I wanted to fit one more sentence in, and I absolutely could not. That's my problem. But I want to make this statement, and you may want to write it down even. But a gentle spirit is the evidence of a grateful heart. A gentle spirit is the evidence of a grateful heart. If a person has thanks to God for what he has, what he is, also what he doesn't have, like somebody else may be suffering with something, but if a person can take time to be grateful and count their blessings, that will relieve them of that anxious tension that's in people that makes them so nasty, so edgy, so gnarly, The person who can be gentle is the person who has taken time to count their blessings and they're grateful. So I'll say it again. A gentle spirit is the evidence of a grateful heart. Let us have grace is, I think, a very important statement. Let's take in this grace. Let's receive it. Let's absorb it. Let's appropriate it. Let's let it be engrafted and become a part of us, and gratitude is certainly going to be a byproduct. Well, again, verse 28 goes on to say, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. Don't forget to serve God reverently. Now reverently, the most literal way it's translated is with fear. We don't like that word. We wanna think there's gotta be something better than that. And indeed, the word respect is good if you remember that you can fear something that you respect. I see a grizzly bear, I'm gonna respect that. which means I can't wrestle them down. I'm gonna be a little bit afraid about this, so with respect, I'm gonna keep my distance. I'm not going out to Yellowstone and try to feed the buffalo like some people, bison or whatever. I respect a tornado. I know it's awfully tempting to stay out there with a camera and take the picture of it, but you know, there's things that are fearful we need to respect, and if we don't treat them with respect, we're gonna get hurt. And back to the old Chronicles of Narnia statement. about Aslan, who represents Christ, but is he safe? Oh, no, he's not safe, but he's good. And in another place, Lewis mentioned that God is not a domesticated animal. There's a wildness about him. And so we respect him, we reverence him, and we realize we mustn't trifle with him. And to kind of wrap this up, I go to 2 Corinthians 6, starting with verse 14. Every point here could be its own sermon, you know that. But in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, I'm going to read to chapter 7, verse 1. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. But with Jesus Christ, you may be holy. You may be saved from your sins. and we may walk together and serve him together wonderfully, in love, but also with the fear of the Lord in our hearts, too. Fear's a good thing, because grace had taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. Heavenly Father, please apply the lesson to us regularly. May these things speak on. And I pray that you'll give us faith as we need it here. And that we'll rise up and follow you and run the race that's set before us. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.