Sermon: The Great Reward of the Sanctified Life

I take a copy of God's word this morning. Uh, we're gonna turn open to the book of Hebrews chapter 12 if you want to use the pew Bible right in front of you or under the seat in, uh, that you're on, those of you in the first row. It's on page 1009 of the Pew Bible page 1009 this morning. We're going to look at as we continue our way through the book of Hebrews, we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14.

Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 this morning,

and let's pray before we hear from God's word.

Our Father, we come before you this morning with desire to hear your voice.

Confess that even this morning as we've been in worship, that our hearts have been cold or lukewarm. Our minds have been distracted, that

we have often, too often already this morning been thinking about ourself rather than you. That we have mouthed words and we have sung them and not truly thought upon them or been gripped by them.

We are not the people we desire to be

and we are desperately in need of your mercy and your grace. So we pray even this morning that in your exceeding kindness that you would choose to speak to us As you've promised to do that we would hear your word loudly in our ears, but not just in our ears, but deep down in our souls, we would find that we are waiting with baited breath. What it is that you have personally to say to me personally. Each of us in this room may we know

that we have heard from you as we leave this place. We pray all this in the strong name of Christ, the living word. Amen. This is the holy and errand sufficient word of God. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14,

strive for peace with everyone, one and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever think, speak to God. Amen.

Stopping in Hebrews as we're going through it just to do this one verse this week, and there's a reason for that. And the reason is is because this verse is in my mind. It is the heartbeat, um, that I have as your pastor. My great desire for you and my great desire for myself, uh, is found in this verse and what is being communicated, uh, in this verse. And that is that I would hope that each of us here would know and that we would see,

and that we would experience the Lord. That's my great hope and my great desire for you that you would know, see, experience the Lord and we're gonna get there this morning. I want you to know and see and experience the Lord not in a, in a slight way, but I want you to, in a growing and everlasting way, it's gonna take us a little bit to get there this morning, but I want to remind us of the context as we jump into this one verse

and don't just pull it out of context. The, the context that we are in is that the writer of Hebrews is riding to these Jewish Christians and he is telling them that he wants them to finish the race. They've, they've begun well, but now they are facing persecution and he wants to make sure that they end will, that they end the race in faith. And you remember, he has just gone through the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11,

and now he is telling them to keep running, to keep looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of their faith and finish this race. And that gets him here to our verse. And in our verse, what he does is he gives us two imperatives and one warning, two imperatives and one warning to help us to finish a race. And these two imperatives, they are two equal pursuits that must occupy us. If we are going to finish this, raise two imperatives

that are governed by the one imperative verb that you see there. You, you see it at the very beginning. He says strive and then the imperative. There are two ways that he desires you to strive. He says, strive for peace with everyone. And then the same verb is implied though it's not. Said again, strive and strive implied for the holiness strive. It is a very strong word that is used here. It is used in some context within the New Testament

and outside of the New Testament to speak of the idea of chasing after an enemy or, or persecuting someone or prosecuting something. It, it is an intense word. There's nothing tepid about this word. It's an all consuming kind of verb that he uses here.

When Lee and I were in uh, seminary, when I was in seminary, there was a older family that we were very close with that was going outta town for a weekend and they asked if we would come and stay at their house and we would, uh, watch their dog for them. And so we volunteered to do so and stayed that weekend and they said, we just ask that you would exercise the dog. You can either take the dog for a walk or you can throw the ball with the dog in the backyard.

He likes the ball. And so I decided for the ladder. And so one day I went outside and I threw the ball for the dog and the dog went and got the ball and he came back and he dropped it at my feet. And so I threw the ball again and he went and got the ball and he came back and dropped at my feet. I threw the ball again and he went and got the ball and he came back and he dropped my feet and we just, we just kept going. He was having a good time. I was having a good time.

Did I mention that he's a Labrador retriever? And did I mention that this was in Dallas, Texas in the middle of the summer? Well, it never occurred to me that he wouldn't stop that he was just gonna keep going. I would throw it, he would get it, he would bring it back, and then it finally hit me. He's not going to stop. And so I put the ball down and I told him we were done. And then I looked at him and he just began to wobble

a hundred pound dog. And I opened up the door and he is wobbling, his knees are buckling and I put my hands under him and I'm trying to waddle him into the air conditioning. And then I think once I finally get him inside, I gotta get him some water. I'm, I, I might have killed the stove and I think the, the water bowl, it's over in the bathroom, which was 20 yards away. I don't know why I didn't go get the water bowl and bring it to him, but we waddled all the way

to the bathroom and then I, he just stood there and looked at the bowl. He was panting so hardy, so I pushed his face into the bowl and he just, he just leaned up against the toilet and just propped himself up.

I thought I'd killed him.

He was a Labrador retriever. He was obsessed with that bowl. If it meant dying to get it, he was gonna die to get it. He didn't die. I didn't mention that in the first service and some women came up to me with baited breath after the service wondering if he had died. But this is the type of pursuit he's talking about. This is the type of passion

the the author is speaking of. When he says strive, he's saying it may kill you, but it's worth it. You are facing persecution, they are coming after you. There may be even more severe persecution on the horizon. Continue to strive. If it kills you, it's worth it.

Two pursuits. First strive for peace. Again, the context, they are the ones facing persecution. They're of enemies that are, we don't know what it looks like, but in some way they are being prosecuted for their faith and they are being tried in the midst of this. And the writer of Hebrews says to the Christians, strive for peace. Well, it sure would've been helpful if you had told the ones persecuting us to strive for peace.

But you see, he has no word for them, no control over them. He says to the Christians that you are to strive for peace. That's the command. And so this admonition is about their conduct, what they are to do, strive for peace with who? Well, the scope is he says everyone every, everyone

could leave it at that. But I want to try to stimulate our minds and hopefully stimulate our hearts a little bit here. Everyone that includes striving for peace with your spouse. That means striving for peace with your mother and father and your brother and your sister, with your aunts and your uncles. Strive for peace with those in your home and your family, but not only them, strive for peace with your boss, your coworker, your competition.

Strive for peace with those in your workplace, but not only them. Strive for peace with everyone would include your neighbor, your pickleball opponent, that grumpy grocery store clerk, that crazy teenager on Hagadorn that just cut you off in traffic, that rude fast food worker, that bank teller strive for peace with those in your city, but not only them, you are to strive for peace with everyone, which would include that person behind

that Twitter account, That poster on Instagram, that opponent on Facebook, the person sitting next to you in the pew, the elder that is over you, the person that you disagree with theologically or practically the person that you are on a different page with politically or on cultural issues.

It's everyone. He says

there's no limit here. The scope is not narrow, it is not small. You are to strive for peace with everyone. It's all encompassing.

Why? Why this imperative at this point in the letter?

Well, because they are suffering the effects of a lack of peace. They are suffering the effects of sin having come into the world and they're being persecuted as a result of it. Sin breeds disharmony, holiness produces peace. You think back all the way to the garden when sin enters into the world and Genesis three, immediately we see disharmony. Adam and Eve, they are har hiding themselves in bushes. They are hiding themselves from God,

but not just from God from one another. Sin breeds disharmony and then Adam immediately begins to accuse Eve and then we go into Genesis four and immediately what happens, Cain is murdering his brother Abel. Sin breeds disharmony

And holiness brings peace. They're Christians. Christ is the prince of peace. It's not a mistake that when the angels, what we often recite at Christmas time in Luke two, when they appear to the shepherds in the field and they make the announcement that the sun has been born to the world Christ, that they say glory to God in the highest and on peace among those with whom he is pleased that Simeon in Luke two when that old man is at the temple

and Jesus is brought and he sees the baby Jesus that he says, in praise to God, Lord, now you have allowed your servant to depart in peace

that Jesus himself when he returns and the kingdom is finally consummated. Yes, he brings justice to bear on the earth but so that there might be everlasting peace, he consummate a kingdom of peace.

And so those who are united to Christ are to be those who manifest what they shall enjoy everlastingly peace.

Paul echoes these words in Romans 1218. He says, if possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. We can't control others. We can't control what the world brings to our doorstep. We can't control how it treats the Christian or how it treats the church, But we are to strive for peace where we can control it ourselves. And so Paul can say Strive for peace with all and the writer of Hebrews can say here, strive

for peace with everyone. Why? Because this is what holy people look like. Sin breeds disharmony. Holiness brings peace.

Jesus says in the beatitudes,

blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.

The writer's clear that they are suffering and they are going to suffer and they're going to suffer even more and there's all gonna be all kinds of disarming between them and the world that they are in. Jesus made this clear you're going to be hated. He says, if the world hates you, John 15, know that it has hated me before. It hated you, expect it. But he also expects that as far as it is possible for us, that we strive,

that we pursue, that we persist, that we prosecute being in peace with everyone as far as it is possible for us,

Which leads to a second imperative.

He isn't simply concerned as we seek to finish this race with our relations with people, but also our relation to God. And that's so incredibly important because you can have peace with people if you give up the truth of God and no, he is very concerned with your relation with God. This is not just a horizontal concern, but a vertical concern. Strive for peace with everyone, the horizontal imperative and for the holiness, the vertical imperative.

Strive for holiness with God.

You see throughout the scriptures, think of Isaiah six or think of the scenes in Revelation. Often the refrain around the throne of God is this, that is holy, holy, holy. This is what the angels are singing before his throne. Hol holiness is not some mere aspect of God. It is not some part of God. It is neither something that he has become or something that he is becoming. It is who he is in and of himself always has been holy.

There's no darkness in him at all. He is absolutely pure. As one reformer said, holiness is the beauty of all God's attributes without which his wisdom would be subtlety his justice, cruelty his sovereignty, tyranny his mercy. Foolish pity. As another theologian said, holiness is not so much one perfection of God as it is the harmony of all God's perfections as they are opposed to sin. It is the pure essence of God's character.

Abrao said, the brightness of all of its perfection, he's holy, holy, holy. And as God is holy, so God's people are to be holy. This is the refrain throughout the scriptures in Leviticus 20. God says, you shall be holy to me. Fry the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. The same is true in the New Testament. For example, Peter says in one Peter one, as obedient, children do not be conformed to the passions

of your former ignorance, but as he who calls you is holy, you also be holy and all your conduct since it is written be holy because I am holy Jesus. In the beatitudes links both the vertical and the horizontal and back to back beatitudes, he says, blessed are the peacemakers which is proceeded by. Blessed are the pure in heart. Strive for peace, Strive for the holiness to imperatives. You want to finish the race. Strive for peace, strive for the holiness.

Strive for the holiness. The word that's used in our verse for holiness, uh, it's often translated in the New Testament, will translate as a word for sanctification and that's what he has in view here. Our sanctification, not our justification, our sanctification Justification is that declaration is that declaration before the throne of God in the courtroom of God. What what Elder Pat Quinn prayed about in that congregational prayer this morning that declaration

before the throne of God that we are counted as righteous before God. Not because of anything we have done, but because of the righteousness of Christ that has been attributed to us and because Christ has paid the penalty for our sins upon the cross and because of his death for us and because of his life for us and that righteousness being given to us, we now stand those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith have believed on him

as their Lord in their savior. They are now declared righteous in the courtroom of God. That is justification. It is a declaration. Sanctification is not a declaration. It is an ongoing work in the life of the believer. It's the work of God. It's a work of God by the spirit of God and yet it is a work of God in which we as the people of God are to strive and we are to strive by the means of Christ's appointment by the power of Christ that we might be conformed

to the likeness of Christ. We are striving to become more like the one we love

our sanctification,

striving in the grammar there. It's a present active imperative that is, it's in the present tense, which means that it's ongoing. It's a command, it's an imperative. You're to keep at it. It doesn't stop this side of heaven,

but we just keep at it. It's part of running the race. You just keep on keeping on striving. This means we exert effort are to fight. The good fight you're to put on and you are to put on. You are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You are to die to sin. You are to live to righteousness. You are to walk, run, seek, fight, contend, strive like Gus. You are to be willing to give your life. Just keep after

It. You keep after him.

Sinclair Ferguson said, or sanctification is marked by tension and conflict, not quietness.

We strive to become increasingly what we already are. Holy as He is holy

for the Christian, for the person that has been justified before the throne of God. This becomes your desire, becomes your pursuit becomes a true passion.

How? How do you do this? First we have to say this, that if you are not in Christ, it is impossible to pursue holiness. You can't do it. You have to first have come to Christ as Lord and Savior where you have brought nothing.

You bring nothing to him. You simply clinging to him and trusts in him as your Lord and Savior and you become united with him and therefore united with him now because you are united with him now you can strive by all the means of God's appointment to work out salvation.

How? Not by mere willpower. It's not something that we drum up within us. Rather we do it by relying upon Christ, by employing the means that Christ has provided. We engage our minds with the means that Christ has given. We seek to have our hearts gripped by the means that Christ has given to have our affection stirred by the means that Christ has given so that we can reign in our wheels and we can point our wheels in the right direction.

It is always by Christ. Again, how? By using Christ given means he's, he's given us gifts. He's given us gifts for our sanctification

and absolutely pains me. I mean it just pains me to watch so many that claim the name of Christ to go through this world and act as if you can just go through this world casually

that you can go through it lackadaisically and as if there's some kind of mystical way that you become more holy. It doesn't happen that way. You don't fall into holiness.

You strive and you strive. By God's mean, he gave us mean. He gave us his word and so we strive to, to fill our minds with his word, that our hearts are stirred by his word, that our affections are moved by his word, that our wills are engaged according to his word. Listen, if you are not reading your Bible daily, you are not serious about holiness.

You're just not serious about it.

It's the means he's given.

He gave us his word.

We are not just to check the box and reading it, reading it in a way that searches your mind where you're allowing it to search your heart. You're meditating upon it because you want to be more like him 'cause you love him.

It doesn't just happen.

He gave us his word.

If you are not coming to worship, we can week out to sit under the word preach the primary means by which he sanctifies us. Then you are not serious about holiness.

Been in interesting the last five years or so, there has been a drop in evangelicals attending church, but here's what's really fascinating about it. It's not that less people are coming to church.

It's rather that those people are less going to church. Lemme explain that. It's not that less people are going to church, it's just that those people themselves are not going to church as often.

It used to be that evangelicals went to church an average of three times a month over these last few years that has Dr. That has dropped to one to two times a month. There is a reason that the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 10, do not forsake the weekly fellowship of the saints. If you are able bodied and you have health and you are not here weak in and weak out, but you can go to the grocery store, you are not serious about holiness.

It's the principle means by which he sanctifies us is the word preached. You have to sit under it weaken and week out. And it's not just that you, you come here because he has put us together. He has given us gifts for one another. Romans 12, one Corinthians 12, Galatians four and on. We could go so that we can do what we can minister to each other to build each other up in holiness. You need the community

and we could go on if we are striving for holiness serious about our sanctification and we seek to grow in prayer, making it a daily and constant pursuit because it's a means a gift that he has given to us. If we are serious about holiness, then we attend to the sacraments. We come to the Lord's table. We allow ourselves to be searched. We Allow that means of grace to signify and seal to us all that we have in Christ and we remind ourselves that we're united with Christ

and that we are to grow in Christ. That when you saw the waters of baptism this morning that you didn't think just, oh, how cute that was these two adorable little babies, but you are also being reminded of your own baptism and as the Westminster standards say, you are seeking to improve upon your own baptism thinking, where is it? I've been washed with the blood of Christ? Where is it that I still don't look like that in my life?

I have been united to Christ in his death and burial and resurrection. Where is it that it still doesn't manifest itself in my life?

Proving your baptism.

We strive to become more like the one we love.

We do so in Christ by the means that Christ gave to us for our sanctification. We strive. Why? Because we know him and see him and experience him and we want to know more of him and see more of him and experience more of him.

It's my great prayer for You. That's our pursuit. That's What we're to be caught up with.

We're not to be like the world caught up with job advancements and money and power and prestige and cars and homes and vacations and to be caught up with Christ. We don't take our eye off that ball.

Someone hadn't done it before me. I create wristbands and say, what would Gus do? Just stay focused. Just stay focused on Christ.

We strive for him, which leads to the final thing, the warning.

This is not our pursuit. He says, without the striving for holiness, he says, we will not see the Lord

and that should raise a question in your mind immediately as a Christian, did he not just make our salvation something merited by our sanctification?

And the answer is no. He is simply echoing what is said throughout the scriptures that though our justification and our sanctification are separate things, they cannot be divided. They are distinct, they are different. They are separate, but they cannot be divided. Our holiness, our sanctification does not merit our salvation. We could say it this way. It is not the cause of our salvation, but it is the consequence. It's not the origin of our acceptance with God,

but it is the outgrowth. It's not the root, but it is the result. As James famously says in James two, faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. Why? Because our sanctification, our holiness cannot be separated from our justification. They are intimately related.

Why? Because we've been brought into the very family of God

And this is the family trait. I, He's holy.

If you're English, you have the stiff upper lip. If you're Dutch, you're a little tight with money. You're Christian, You're holy.

It's a family trait.

We are not what we were and we are not what we shall be. And so he says, we keep striving. It's all with that great end in view so that we might know, we might see, we might experience the Lord

if the negative which he has here is that without this holiness we will not see the Lord. Then the positive is also true. If we strive though not perfectly, none of us are going to do it perfectly. But if we strive in holiness, the promise is that we will see the Lord.

This is what in theology has been called the beatific vision.

We see the Lord.

We know God that is limited the side of heaven. We see God now as Christians, but it's veiled. This side of heaven. We experience God, this side of heaven, but it's limited here. Everything is mediated. We have no immediate encounter with God. It is always through mean, but there and then we shall know him and we shall see him and we shall experience him immediately.

Paul will say that we will see face to face

is that we're striving for.

He says in two Corinthians four, for God, who said that light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. John says it this way, in one of my favorite verses one John three, two, he says, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be made like him because we shall see him

as he is know him. See him. You experience him.

There's a lot of mystery surrounding it. I I don't know what it all looks, looks like. What will it look like to dwell with him in heaven on earth? What will it look like to see Christ I I don't know all the answers. There's some things we know. Actually we were driving to church this morning, my daughter and I, Grayson in the sunrise was, was happening and it was pink in the sky. And Grayson just looking at that, she said to me, she said,

dad, will there be sunrises in heaven? And I said, well, no. 'cause there is no sun. We're told in Revelation that that Christ is the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. He is the light that shine. It's gotta be more beautiful than the sunrise.

She said, so dad, if it's just light and there's no darkness in heaven, does that mean that there won't be any dark colors? I don't know. Good question. She said, well, I'm assuming there will be shadows. Wouldn't that be darkness? I don't know. Good question. And then we hit a pothole and she said, will there be potholes in heaven? I said that I know there won't be potholes in heaven and I don't know what it all looks like,

but I'm absolutely confident because of what the scriptures say is that you and I, if we strive for holiness, we will see the glory of the triune God in the face of Christ.

He is truly God and truly man for all the eternity. Now since his incarnation,

he shall gaze upon his face. He who now dwells bodily in heaven

and it will be a glory that is so great that illuminates the heavens and the earth. So there isn't even a need for the sun.

We will behold him and our beholding of him will not just be with our eyes, it will will grip our hearts and it will stir our affections like nothing you have ever experienced.

It will move your will to to do righteousness for all of eternity and each moment and eternity, we will be graciously granted a greater and more full knowing and seen and experiencing of God's glory. And yet every experience for all of eternity will be full. And yet there still shall be unending days of growth in it. He who is infinitely glorious, who defines beauty and goodness and holiness, will continue to flood our

finite lives with his infiniteness. And he will continually expand our capacity over days and years and decades and centuries to enjoy more and more of his glory forever.

That's What awaits you.

If you strive for holiness here,

be like Gus,

put your eye on the ball. You don't wanna miss out.

If it takes your life, take your eyes off of Christ. You keep striving.

Thomas Case and old Puritan wrote this once said, make God your choice and not your necessity and labor. Strive to maintain such constant converse with him that when you die, you may change your place only, but not your company.

He's your great reward. He's the greatest reward you can have. You want to know him, you want to see him. You want to experience here in the world to come. So You keep striving. Let's pray.

Our Father, we are exceedingly thankful.

You've chosen to redeem sinners such as us,

that you give us the great reward of yourself, greatest of all gifts.

And we long for that day that we shall see the glory of you and the sun and the spirit and the face of the sun

where we shall be made like him because we shall see him as he is. And you help us to strive by all the means of your appointment. As we seek to live at peace with everyone, we strive for that holiness by which we may see you, Everlast you pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.