Hebrews 12

CHAPTER 12THEME: HopeWe are in the practical section of the Epistle to the Hebrews where we see that Christ brings better benefits and duties. Chapter 11 is the faith chapter; chapter 12 is the hope chapter; and chapter 13 is the love chapter.

Hebrews 12:1

THE CHRISTIAN RACEWe read in the first part of this epistle of the peril of drifting; that is, of just being hearers, drifting along, and doing nothing at all about God’s salvation. Now in the last part of the epistle the writer is speaking to believers of the peril of remaining stationary. He is saying, “Let’s get into the race. Let’s get moving and not just drift along. We are racers.” I would say that one of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is the peril of just remaining stationary, of doing nothing. When someone becomes lost in the extreme cold of the far north there is grave danger of freezing to death. The first step in that process is to fall asleep. You have to fight sleep, and you must keep moving or you will freeze to death. In a spiritual sense, the danger is the same for us as believers. We have to force ourselves to stay awake and keep moving forward in our relationship with Christ. Otherwise we will just fall asleep. I like to tell the story about the old cowboy at one of the great camp meetings they used to have years ago in West Texas. A little lady got up and gave her testimony. She said, “The Lord filled up my cup twenty years ago. Nothing has run in, and nothing has run out.” The old cowboy sitting in the back spoke out and said, “I bet it’s filled with wiggletails by now!” I think that is the condition of a lot of believers today. They can say the Lord has filled their cup, but there’s no running over. They’ve just remained that way. I agree with the cowboy, there are a whole lot of wiggletails in the cups that people are boasting of today. “Wherefore,” we are told, we are to move out, and we are to live by faith. Why? Wherefore is another one of these little words that cement the chapter that goes before with the chapter that is coming upand that is what it does here. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” For many years I took the position that the “witnesses” are the Old Testament saints, many of whom are listed in chapter 11, and that they are sitting in the grandstand watching us run the race of life today. I personally couldn’t think of anything more boring for them than to watch us run the Christian race down here the way some of us are running it! And I no longer believe that that is what this verse means. When my understanding of this verse changed, it cost me the use of a marvelous illustration, but I will pass it on to you because it is a very sentimental story which does make a point. Years ago a friend invited me to the kickoff luncheon for the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena where I heard a newscaster tell this story. He told of a famous football coach in the East. The coach had a player who was known for two things. The first thing he was noted for was his faithfulness at football practice. He was the first one out and the last one to leave, but he never could make the teamhe just wasn’t quite good enough.

The second thing he was famous for was that his father often visited him on campus and they would be seen walking arm in arm across campus, very much engrossed in conversation. Everyone noticed that and thought it was wonderful. Well, one day the coach got a telegram saying that the boy’s father had died. The coach was the one chosen to tell the sad news to the boy, and so he called him in and told him. The boy was greatly shaken, of course, and had to go home for the funeral. But he was present at the next game, sitting there on the bench.

Then he came over to the coach and said, “Coach, this is my fourth and last year, and I’ve never played in a game. I’m wondering if today you could put me in for just a few minutes and let me play.” And so the coach put him in because the boy’s father had just died. To his amazement, the boy turned out to be a star! The coach had never seen anyone play a better, a more brilliant game, than this boy playedso he never took him out of the game. When the game was over, the coach called the boy off to the side and said to him, “Listen, I’ve never seen anyone play like you played today, but up to today you were the lousiest football player I’ve ever seen. I want an explanation.” And the boy said, “Well, coach, you see, my dad was blind, and this is the first day that he ever saw me play football.” If this Scripture means that the Old Testament saints who have gone before are sitting in the grandstand watching us run the race, then that story would be a good illustration. However, that interpretation is not accurate at all. The witnesses are not sitting in the grandstand; they are the ones who have already run the race down here. They are the ones who were down on the racetrack as you and I sat in the grandstand watching them run the race of life in chapter 11. And they ran it by faith. Those who would be called a howling success by the world ran the race by faith.

And those who suffered what the world would call miserable defeat, also ran the race by faith. Although they suffered and were slain by the sword, they were just as great heroes. They all witnessed to us. We watched them as we went through chapter 11, and there were many more in the Old Testament, as the writer told us that time would fail him to tell of all of them. They witnessed to us, and encouraged us to run by faith and to live by faith. Therefore the Christian life is here likened to a Greek race. Christ is the way to God, and along the way the Christian as a soldier is to stand firm, as a believer is to walk, but as an athlete, he is to run the race. And one day we are going to fly, my friendthat will be at the Rapture. We are going to do a little space travel to the New Jerusalem. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed 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 the race that is set before us.” We have here another “let us” salad. Now this is not a danger signal that is put up here at all, but it is a challenge to us. Let us now get out of the grandstand; let us get down on the racecourse of life, and let us do whatever God has called us to do wherever He has called us to live and move and have our being. Let us run the Christian race, and let us move out for God. That is the whole thought here. We are challenged to run with patience, having laid aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. God has saved us from sin. He has brought us into the heavens, actually, into the holy place, and He has made us to sit in heavenly places. He’s given to us His Holy Spirit. But in spite of all that He has provided, the average Christian falls down and stumbles and wanders like a man lost in the dark. What is wrong with the Christian life as it is being lived at the present time?

I will come back to the same string which I play on all the time, because I think this is the answer: the problem is that Christians do not go on with God. They get saved, give a testimony of their salvation, and that’s all they ever have. They never maintain a serious study of the Word of God, which is essential to growth. They are like the little girl who fell out of bed one night. When the little girl began to cry, her mother rushed in and said, “Honey, how come you fell out of bed?” The little girl replied, “I think I stayed too close to the place where I got in.” That is the problem of the Christian today. We stumble and falter and fail because we are staying too close to the place where we got in.

We need to go onthis is a race, you see. The Christian life is a racewin or loseand it is the only race where everybody can win. Paul wrote, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all …“they all run to receive a prize. He went on to say, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly …” (1Co_9:24, 1Co_9:26). And again, he rebuked some of his followers saying, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you …?” (Gal_5:7). We are encouraged by these witnesses. They are not spectators; they are testifying to us. They are in the cheering section, encouraging us to run the Christian life. Abraham is saying to you and me, “Move out by faith.” Moses is saying to you and me, “Move out by faith.” Daniel is saying to you and me, “Move out by faith.” Now there are two conditions to be met: “Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” What does he mean by “lay aside every weight”? Weights are highly unnecessary in a race; in fact, they are a hindrance. We ought not to be using weights. I remember years ago when Gil Dodds, a very fine Christian, was a famous runner in this country. Some of us went out to the track at the University of Southern California, to watch him run. He ran around the track a couple of times with tennis shoes on. Then he stopped and changed into some other shoes. One of the fellows there asked why he needed to change shoes. He took one of the tennis shoes and one of the lighter pair of shoes and tossed them both to the man who had asked the question. Believe me, there was not much difference in the weight of the shoes, but just enough, he said, to cause him to lose the race. In the Christian life there are a lot of things that are not wrong in and of themselves, but Christians should not be carrying those weights around. Why? Because you won’t win the race. I’m going to use an illustration, but please don’t think I am picking on this one particular thing, because I am not. You must determine for yourself what you can do as a child of God, and I must determine that for myself. But one young lady went to her pastor and asked, “Is it all right to dance?” Her pastor replied, “Sure it is, if you don’t want to win.” The point is that it is not a question of right and wrong for a Christian in his conductit is taken for granted that you are going to do what is right.

The question is: Will it hurt my testimony? Will this keep me from winning the race? Will this be a weight in my life? There are many Christians today who are carrying around a weight they ought not to be carrying around. Don’t ask me to argue with you about whether dancing is wrong. I won’t argue about any of those things which separationists say you cannot do if you are Christian.

I don’t say you can’t do it. All I’m saying is: Are you in a race? Do you want to win? Are you looking to Jesus? That becomes the important thing. “And the sin which doth so easily beset us.” What is “the sin”? This is not just sin in general; it is the sin. Again, we are cast back into the previous chapter by the wherefore which opened this chapter. What was the great sin in the last chapter? It was unbelief. Unbelief is the sin, and there is nothing which will hold you back as unbelief will. It is just like trying to run a race with the weight of a sack of wheat on your shoulder and your feet stuck inside an empty sack! You’ll never be able to do it, and you cannot do it in the Christian life either. Unbelief is what holds many of us back, and if I may make a personal confession, I am confident that it has held me back more than anything else in my Christian life.

Hebrews 12:3

BELIEVERS ARE NOW IN CONTEST AND CONFLICTThe words patience (in v. Heb_12:1) and endured (in v. Heb_12:2) are from the same root. Trouble generally produces patience and endurance. These Hebrew believers had come out of a religion that had a tremendous ritual and a great temple. The temple of Herod, although it was not completed even at the time it was destroyed in A.D. 70, was a thing of beauty and actually awe inspiring. Also there was a great ritual that went with it. It had been a God-given religion at the beginning, but it had been debauched and prostituted by the time this Hebrew epistle was written. Nevertheless, as far as religion was concerned, they had it. Now these believers had given up all of that; they no longer were going through all that religious ritual.

They had now come to consider Him, that is, Christ, and He was everything. He was the temple. He was the ritual. He was Christianity. He was all of it. There was this simplicity in Christ, and the writer now calls them to consider Him. They are to know what He endured when He was down here and how He learned patience. We are told in the beginning of this epistle, in the section which presented His humanity, that He learned a great many things down here although He was and is God. In the flesh He learned something which God had to experience by taking on our humanity and suffering for us. He endured and He learned patience. “Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” May I say this to you very candidly: unless you stay close to the Word of God where the Holy Spirit can take the things of Christ and make them real to you, you are going to get weary of the Christian life, and you are going to faint in your minds. This is the reason there are so many discouraged Christians around today. My friend, if you come to the Word of God and get close to Jesus Christ, you are going to be encouraged. You will not grow weary of this life down here. Oh, my friend, we are living in the greatest days that have ever been!

Hebrews 12:4

This simply indicates that at this time the temple was not yet destroyed. The persecution from the Gentiles of the Roman Empire which was going to come had not yet broken upon these believers. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood.” He is saying to them, “Although you are having a very difficult time and you are having your problems and troubles, the only cure for your weakness, your weariness, your faltering, your failing, your stumbling, and your discouragement is to consider Him. Consider Christ.” Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face; And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” Helen H. Lemmel

Hebrews 12:5

The writer is quoting here from Pro_3:11-12"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Their only resource was Christnot a temple, or a ritual, or a religion. They were almost outcasts at this time, and the writer is telling them not to forget this exhortation from God to His children. The word children is used in the Authorized Version, but in the Greek son and sons are used six times in verses Heb_12:5-8. The Greek word for “son” is huios, and it means “full-grown son.” Now there are a great many saints today who do not think they need to be disciplined, but discipline is for mature saints, people who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. There was a time when I had come to the place where I thought I didn’t need to be disciplined anymore. I thought I had come a long ways. But the Lord put me flat on my back physically to let me know that there was some more disciplining to be done. The word chastening means something a little different from what we think today. We think that chastening is punishment. The Greek word is paideuo, and it means “child training or discipline.” You see, the Lord disciplines His own children.

Hebrews 12:6

The question is sometimes asked, and it is a very pertinent question: Why do the righteous suffer? When illness confined me to my home and I spent most of my time flat on my back for about a month, I had a great deal of time to study, and I want to pass on to you what the Lord has shown me through my own experience. Let’s put this down as an axiom of Scripture: God’s children do suffer. The Bible doesn’t argue about thatthe Bible just says that it is true. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all” (Psa_34:19). In the Book of Job we read, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job_5:7). The Lord Jesus said, “…In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (Joh_16:33). And even Paul said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2Ti_3:12). Why do God’s people suffer? There is no pat answer to that. No one little verse of Scripture answers it. I have gone through the Scriptures and listed seven reasons why God’s children suffer. I would like to share them with you:

1. The first reason that we suffer as God’s children (and even as His mature sons) is because of our own stupidity and our own sin. 1Pe_2:20 reads, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently….” The word faults refers to a sin where you missed the markyou just didn’t quite make it. “For what glory is it, if …ye shall take it patiently?” Peter says there is no value in the suffering which was caused by our own foolishness. How many of you years ago invested some of your savings in a wildcat oil well in Texas? I was a pastor in Texas for many years, and I can tell you about a whole lot of folk who own dry oil wells. I know of one man in particular whose family is practically in poverty today because of such an investment. He has suffered because he played the fool. I know another man who came to me in Los Angeles, and said, “Dr. McGee, I have certainly played the fool. My wife and I haven’t been getting along too well recently. I had to work late one evening and called my wife and told her so. There is a very attractive woman in my office who has been very sympathetic toward me, and she had to work late also. All of a sudden it occurred to me that it would be nice to have dinner together. We didn’t do anything but go out to dinner, and it was a friendly sort of dinner. But the wrong person was in that restaurant and saw us. He called my wife and told her. It never went any further than that, but it could have turned into a really bad thing. I played the fool.” You know, a lot of saints suffer because of stupidity.
2. The second reason we suffer is for taking a stand for truth and righteousness. I can guarantee that if you take a stand for truth and righteousness, you are going to suffer. How many men and women could testify to that? Peter says, “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled” (1Pe_3:14). Many people deliberately take a stand for God, and they have suffered for it. However, we can be foolish and misguided in our thinking concerning this. One man came to me and told me that where he worked everybody was his enemy because he had stood up for God. Well, another Christian man who was an official in that same concern told me that this man was trying to lecture everybodyeven during work hours! He was making an absolute nuisance of himself by attempting to witness to people while they were busy on their jobs. You see, he wasn’t really suffering because he took a stand for truth and righteousness.
3. We suffer for sin in our lives. Paul says, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1Co_11:31). However, if we are God’s children and refuse to deal with the sin in our lives, God will deal with it. He will judge us.
4. The fourth reason we suffer is for our past sins. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal_6:7). One time when I was a pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, we had Mel Trotter, the great evangelist and converted drunkard, for a series of meetings. One night after the service we all went to a place called Candyland. The rest of us got big sodas or malts, but he got a little glass of soda water. The others began to kid him about it, and he made this statement, “When the Lord gave me a new heart, He didn’t give me a new stomach.” Liquor had ruined his stomach, and he was still suffering because of that.
5. The fifth reason God’s children suffer is for some lofty purpose of God which He does not always reveal to the believer. We see this in the Book of Job. Job suffered because he was demonstrating to Satan and the demon world and to the angels of heaven that he was not a timeserver, that every man does not have his price and that he loved God for Himself alone. I hope I never have to suffer as Job did.
6. The sixth reason Christians suffer is for their faith, as we saw in chapter 11 of this epistle. Some demonstrated their faith, and great victories were won. Some were delivered by the sword; some were slain by the sword. I think of the French Huguenots who went into battle, knowing they would all be slain. Yet they went into battle saying, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” You see, they suffered for their faith.
7. The seventh and last reason God’s children suffer is for discipline. That is what we have here in verse Heb_12:6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” This means child training or discipline, not punishment. Punishment is to uphold the law. A judge punishes, but a father chastens and he does it in love. God uses chastening to demonstrate His love for us. And the writer makes it very clear that you are an illegitimate child if you are not chastened by the Lord, my friend. Many people say, “Oh, why did God let this happen to me? I must not be a Christian.” The fact is that your suffering is the proof that you are a child of God. I think that if you are an intelligent Christian, when you are in trouble and do not know why, you will go to the Lord and talk to Him about it. I am sure that He will get the message to you and let you know why you are in trouble. The reason may not be that He is judging you. God does judge us, and that is punishment, but He is also our loving, heavenly Father who disciplines His children. When I was a boy I, with several other boys at school, got into trouble. My dad came down to the school where there were several hundred children, but when he walked across that schoolyard, do you know who he was after? He was after his son, and he took his son home and disciplined him. He didn’t discipline those hundreds of other childrenbecause they weren’t his. He disciplined only his boy, the boy whom he loved. My dad died when I was fourteen, and now I have a heavenly Father who does the same thingHe disciplines me in love.

Hebrews 12:9

Believe me, I listened to my dad. I hadn’t heard about the new psychology in which you don’t pay any attention to your parents, and your parents aren’t supposed to discipline you. My dad disciplined, and I listened to him. The writer says that if we listen to our earthly parents, “shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” Whether or not you listen to your earthly father, you had better listen to your heavenly Father. The writer to the Hebrews goes on to make a suggestion. He says, “Be in subjection to the father of spirits, and live.” Does he mean live it up? I think he means to live a Christian life in all its fullnessthat’s the positive side. But I think there is also a negative aspect, which is that the heavenly Father disciplines in very severe ways sometimes, and there is a sin unto death. The sin unto death is a sin that a child of God can commit, and sometimes the heavenly Father will take a disobedient child out of this world because he is disgracing Him. The writer is saying that you had better listen to your heavenly Father because He is disciplining you in love, but if you persist in going on in sin, He may take you home.

Hebrews 12:10

Sometimes I think my earthly dad got a little angry with me and vented his anger on mebut even then he did it for my profit, I’m sure. My heavenly Father disciplines me for my profit alsothere is no doubt about that! “That we might be partakers of his holiness.” I believe that there is no way you can become a full-grown child of God living in fellowship with Him (that is the main thought behind “holiness”) except through the discipline of God.

Hebrews 12:11

This is like the boy whose father said to him before he whipped him, “Son, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” The boy said, “Yes, Dad, but not in the same place.” God chastens His children. He does not get any particular joy out of it, but He does it because you and I need it. Not only does chastening not seem to be joyous, it isn’t joyous, but grievousthat is our experience. Although no chastening at the time is fun, “afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” God does not discipline you without purpose. I am reminded of the story of the man who lived in a home for the mentally ill. There was a visitor one day who saw the man beating himself on the head with a baseball bat. The visitor went up to him and said, “Why in the world are you hitting yourself on the head with the baseball bat?” The man replied, “It feels so good when I quit!” God does not discipline you just to make you feel good when it is over. He doesn’t give you ill health just so you will appreciate good health when it returns. There is always a purpose in the discipline of God for you. Now what is your reaction when God disciplines you? There are four reactions we can have to God’s discipline that are mentioned in this chapter. I want us to take a look at each of them:

1. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord …” (v. Heb_12:5). The first reaction is that you can despise the chastening. You can treat it lightly and accept no message from it at all. You simply become a fatalist and say, “Well, I’m having trouble. Everybody has trouble.” You do not recognize the fact that your heavenly Father is disciplining you, and you do not get His message in it at all.
2. “…nor faint when thou art rebuked of him” (v. Heb_12:5). There are those who respond in this way (I would call it the crybaby reaction): They begin to cry and say, “Why did this happen to me? It is not worth living a Christian life. I have served the Lord, and now He’s letting this happen to me.” In other words, they just faint away. Many saints take that attitude.

However, when I was going through a serious illness several years ago, I received several thousand letters from people all over this country and throughout the world. Many of those people were suffering much more than I, and their attitude made me feel ashamed of myself. They had been on beds of pain for monthsseveral of them for yearsand they wrote the sweetest letters I have ever read. Those letters came from folk who had real victory. We hear of meetings where people are healed and where they talk of great victories. Well, to be very frank with you, if you want to know where the great victories are being won today, go to the hospitals or visit some dear shut-in saints who have been in bed for months, and listen to them talk.

You can faint, but these saints don’t faint because the Lord is strengthening them. 3. “If ye endure chastening …” (v. Heb_12:7). This is a dangerous response to have because it is so close to that which is true, but this is the response of the super-duper pious saints. To me they are like the Indian fakir who crawls up on a board filled with nails and lies down. He doesn’t have to lie down there, but he does it. There are a lot of saints who accept the discipline of the Lord in a passive way: “Oh, this is of the Lord, and I will endure it.” God never asks you to take that pessimistic, super pious attitude. If you are in trouble, why don’t you go and ask Him, “Lord, why did You send this to me? There is a lesson here, and I want to learn it.” Don’t accept it in a passive manner, simply enduring it but complaining all the time. 4. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (v. Heb_12:11). Have you ever done sitting-up exercises? Once I became acquainted with a man who jogged around the golf course where I played golf. He was inclined to be a little chubby, so he exercised in order to lose weight. Are you exercised when you get into trouble?

When you have to suffer? When an enemy comes across your pathway? Stop and ask God, “Why in the world did You let that fellow come across my pathway?” You know, God does it for a purpose. God does all these things for a purpose, and we need to be exercised by them. The apostle Paul said, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1Co_9:27). Paul exercised himselfthat is, he didn’t give in to the desires of his bodybecause he did not want to come before God’s presence some day and be disapproved.

My friend, whoever you are or wherever you are, it is time to take your sitting-up exercises. I would like to give this word of personal testimony. A number of years ago when I had cancer, my first question to the Lord was, “Why?” It didn’t take me long to discover that it was my heavenly Father punishing meI understood that. I was a hardheaded child of God, but I got things squared away with Him. He healed me of the cancer and richly blessed the growth of our radio broadcast ministry. Then suddenly I was knocked down with another illness. The doctor told me to stay on my back, and I did so for three weeks or more.

I learned something during that time which I would like to pass on to you. God wasn’t judging me this time, because I’ve learned to keep my account short with Him. I get things straightened out with Him about every day. I do fail HimI guess I’m still as hardheaded as I ever wasbut I go to Him and confess my sin. I believe I am in the will of God. So I went to Him that second time and cried, “Lord, why in the world did You let this happen to me?

I want to go on with the radio ministry.” He put me flat on my back, and He said, “You are My son, and I am your Father. There are a lot of things you haven’t learned yet. You may have the notion that your radio ministry is essential and that I can’t get along without you, but how did I get along without you before you got here? You are going to lie here and learn something. I am your Father, and you need to learn to endure for Me. You do not know how to rest, and you do not know how to wait on Me.” It took me a while, but I finally said to Him, “All right, Father, if You want me to lie here, I’ll lie here.

I want to learn the lesson You have for me.” We need to be exercised by the Lord’s discipline, and then we will not find ourselves in the position described in the following verse

Hebrews 12:12

Don’t go through life as a Christian, complaining all the time. I used to have a friend who, when I asked how he felt, always told me how he felthe took fifteen minutes to tell me how he felt, and he never felt good. Therefore I quit asking how he felt. He was going around all the time with his hands hanging down and with feeble knees. May I say to you, someone is watching you. How do you endure the trouble that comes from God? Do you endure it by being exercised by it? Do you say to yourself, It is my Father, and He is chastening me. There is a purpose in it and a lesson I want to learn. We should start our sitting-up exercises: “One, two, three. One, two, three. Lord, I’d like to know why I am suffering this way.”

Hebrews 12:13

I’ll be very honest with you and admit that I have never clearly understood what the writer meant when he said, “Make straight paths for your feet.” Are we to walk the straight path so that the weak saints might follow in our footsteps? Or, are we to walk the straight path so that we don’t get in the habit of limping through life? There are a lot of lamebrained Christians today who complain and criticize and are not witnesses for God at alland yet they appear very super pious.

Hebrews 12:14

Be encouraged and be at peace with all men; that is, with all who will let you be at peace with them. There are some people who just won’t be at peace. Follow peace with all menwith all Christian men. We should make this one big cross-country race where there are a lot of us running the Christian life together. “And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” If that means that I have to produce holiness, then I am going to give up, because I haven’t any holiness. But, oh, the peace that I have which came through the blood of Christ! “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom_5:1). If I have any holiness, it is because Christ has been made unto me righteousnessHe is my righteousness. If I get into the presence of God it will be because Christ died for me. That is encouraging, my friend. It makes me want to get out and run the Christian race.

Hebrews 12:15

DANGER SIGNAL: THE PERIL OF DENYING"Looking diligently” has in it the thought of direction. And what is that direction? “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith …” (Heb_12:2). “Lest any man fail of the grace of God.” The word here for “fail” is not apostasythis is not speaking of the danger of apostatizing. It means simply to fall back. In other words, a believer must keep his eyes on the Lord Jesus, not on men. If he doesn’t keep his eyes on Him, he is apt to get to the place where he does not avail himself of the grace of God. Now God has a tremendous reservoir of grace, and He wants to lavish it upon His children. He is prepared to do that, and He is able to do that. Christ paid the penalty for our sins, and God is rich in mercy, rich in grace, and He wants to expend it upon us. The problem is that many of us do not avail ourselves of His grace. But you see, we are talking here about realitysomething that you can go to God for and lay hold of it. That is the glory of it all, and that is the message of this epistle.

Have you gone to Him today, my Christian friend? Have you talked to Himyes, reverently, but really talked to Him like He is your Father? Tell Him about yourself. Tell Him you need grace. We all need grace and it is available, but we’ve got to apply for it. We need to ask Him for it.

Do not fail of the grace of God. “Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” One critical, ugly saint in a church can stir up more trouble than you can possibly imagine, just like one rotten apple in a barrel spoils all the others. We need to ask God for grace to endure whatever we are going through, and not become bitter toward any one or toward any circumstances.

Hebrews 12:16

Fornication here is spiritual fornication. There is the danger of turning from God to the things of the flesh, and it could be most anything of the flesh. As far as Esau was concerned, it was the selling of his birthright, a spiritual birthright that entailed so much. It meant that Esau would be in the line that led to the Messiah, and it meant that he should be the priest of the family of Abraham. But he didn’t care for it; he was not interested in spiritual blessings. “Profane person” does not mean that Esau cursed a great deal. It has no reference to that at all. The word profane comes from two Latin words: pro, meaning either “before” or “against,” and fanum, meaning “temple.” Therefore, it means against the temple or against God. It means that Esau was just a godless fellow. He saw no need of any recognition of God, or of any relationship to Him, or of any responsibility toward Him. So he despised his birthright and counted it as something of no value.

He was even willing to trade it in for a bowl of food! There is many a man who has sold his soul. Some have sold it for liquor, some for drugs, some for sex, and some for dishonesty. There is a danger for the child of God to turn from God to the things of the flesh. We will either go forward in our relationship with Christ or fall backwe won’t stay in the same place.

Hebrews 12:17

Few passages have been as misunderstood as has this passage of Scripture. It gives the impression that poor Esau wanted to repent and God wouldn’t accept his repentance. However, the writer is saying something altogether different from that. Esau despised his birthright and then found out later that there was also an inheritance attached to ithe would inherit twice as much as any other son of Isaac. The point is that Esau was interested in that which was physical. When it says, “he sought it carefully with tears,” it means that he did a great deal of boohooing.

He was like the thief who began to weep when he was caught and to say he was sorry. But he wasn’t sorry he was a thief; he was sorry that he’d been caught. Likewise, Esau was not repenting because he wanted to turn to God and receive His spiritual blessing. He repented because he had missed out on something material. He was actually against God.

Hebrews 12:18

The writer is speaking here of the giving of the Law to Moses on top of Mount Sinai, and he is speaking of the old covenant. The people to whom he was writing were Hebrews who had turned to Christ. We need to keep that in mind all the time in this epistle. We must remember that the early churchthe three thousand who were saved on the Day of Pentecostwere not Gentiles but were Jews. Until Paul and Barnabas and the other missionaries began to move out, the early church for those first few years was 100 percent Jewish. Now these Jews in Jerusalem who had turned to Christ find themselves at a great loss. They had been accustomed to going to the temple. They had been accustomed to hearing the Mosaic Law read. But now they are shut away from the Law, and now they are shut out from the temple. They are no longer a part of the system at all, and they feel very much on the outside. Therefore, I think the writer is saying to them. “You come now to a mount that is different from Mount Sinai, and you do not want to go back to that.” Mount Sinai was the place where the Law was given and three thousand people were slain (see Exod. 32), but three thousand people were saved on the Day of Pentecost.

There was death at the giving of the Law; there was new life when the gospel was preached on the Day of Pentecost. The giving of the Law was by no means a delightful experience. There were thunder and lightning, earthquake and storm, blazing fire and the blast of a trumpet that grew louder and louder and louder. It was a terrifying experienceso much so that the people said to Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exo_20:19). Now the writer to the Hebrews says, “You don’t want to go back to that system. We have left all that behind us.” When I was a pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, there was a lady in my church who was a very lovely person, but I always felt that she was one of those Paul spoke of when he said, “…Silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2Ti_3:6-7). She was a woman who was sort of a social hanger-on. She belonged to a very wealthy family, went to their cocktail parties, and engaged in their sins, but she still wanted to go to the Bible classes. She attended my church but never became a member. And she pretended to be quite a Bible student. She said to me one day after I had preached a sermon about the Law. “Dr.

McGee, the giving of the Law is so beautiful, isn’t it?” I had to say to that dear lady, “The giving of the Law is not beautiful. I think it is one of the most frightening scenes in the Bible! And it was a law that these people were told would never be able to save them. God gave them a sacrificial system whereby they could bring a sacrifice. A little animal had to die because the Law couldn’t save them. The Law actually condemned them.” These Hebrew Christians had been accustomed to going to the temple and going through that ritual. Now there was nothing for them to go to, no ceremony, and no sacrifice to bring. So the writer tells them that they really do have something

Hebrews 12:22

Remember that he is speaking to Hebrews. Mount Zion was David’s place in Jerusalem. His palace was located there, and he was buried up there. Zion was David’s favorite spot. Many of the Jewish believers had still been going up to the feast in Jerusalem, but the persecution had broken out, and Christians had been driven out of Jerusalem. So he assures them they have a Jerusalem in heaven. Mount Zion is the heavenly city, the eternal city of the living God. The Book of Revelation calls it the New Jerusalem. I cannot give you the number or the street name, but my future address is in the New Jerusalem. This is what we have come to by God’s grace. We have something far better in Christ than the Jews ever had under the Law. “And to an innumerable company of angels.” I have made the statementand I will stick to itthat angel ministry is not connected with the church. But we are going into the New Jerusalem some day, and the Book of Revelation shows us a huge worship scene there, a great scene which John saw and tells us about. John said in effect, “There is a company of created intelligences there, ten thousand times ten thousand of them.” And then he looked around and said, “My, I didn’t see that other crowd out therethere are more than any man can number.” They are God’s created intelligences called angels. I have never seen an angel, but I’ve often wondered about them. I am going to come some day to the New Jerusalem and join with you in that great worship of the Lamb, and all these created intelligences will be there. One thing I want to do is just to talk to some of them. Wouldn’t you like to talk to them? I’ve never had the privilege. Whenever I meet someone who tells me they have had a dream or a vision and an angel spoke to them, I tell them they ought to think back to what they had for supper the night beforethat may explain the presence of an angel! You haven’t seen an angel my friend; you may think you have, but you haven’t. Yet the time will come when we will go to the place where they are.

Hebrews 12:23

“The firstborn” does not refer to Christ here, although He is called that elsewhere in Scripture. The writer is speaking of the ones who have been born again. They are the only ones who are going to be there. This is the church of firstborn ones, those who at the Rapture will be caught up to this place. Their names “which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all.” I thank God that when I get into the presence of “the Judge of all,” there is one who will already have paid the penalty for my sins, and my record will be clear. “And to the spirits of just men made perfect.” “Perfect” does not mean complete or perfect as you and I think of it. It refers to Old Testament saints whose salvation has been made complete now that Christ has died as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

Hebrews 12:24

“And to Jesus"then we are going to be brought into the presence of Jesus. “The mediator of the new covenant.” He is the mediator of the new covenantHe is not going to thunder from Mount Sinai. Even when He was here, He sat down on a mountain and gave the law for His kingdom. I think it is going to be lots sweeter when we come into His presence some day and see Him as the mediator of the new covenant. “And to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Abel’s blood cried for vengeance, but the blood of Christ speaks of salvation. This is wonderful. Back in verse Heb_12:3 we read, “Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself….” The writer is trying to get these Hebrew Christians to take their eyes off the temple, off a bloody sacrifice, off a ritual, and on to the person of Christ. Today we need to get our eyes off a church, off religion, off an organization, and off a man. No man down here should be the one to whom we are looking. Look to Jesuslook only to Him. The temple with all its splendor and ritual was passing away and was to be destroyednow they are under a new economy. Consider Him. Look to Jesus. Someone has said that this is the simplicity of our faith, and I agree with that, but there is a danger of oversimplification under the evangelistic methods which are being used today. I have a little book which I have entitled Faith Plus Nothing Equals Salvation because I believe this is true. Faith alone can save. However, today we have an epidemic of easy believism. Many folk have made salvation a simple mathematical equation: If you can say yes to this, yes to that, and yes to a half-dozen questions, then you are a Christian. This type of approach leaves no room for the work of the Holy Spirit and for the conviction of sin. It just means a nodding assent, a passing acquaintance with Jesus. It does not mean that you are born again. There is a word that is being overworked today: commit your life to Christ. What kind of life do you have to commit to Christ? If you are coming to Christ as a sinner, you don’t have any lifeyou are dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord Jesus is the one who said, “I have come that you might have life.” You do not commit a life, but He committed His life for you and He died for you. You are dead in trespasses and sins, and He has life to offer to you: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Joh_10:10). We also hear people say, “Give your heart to Jesus.” Well, my friend, what do you think He wants with that dirty, old heart? Read the list of things He said come out of the heart (see Mat_15:19). They are the dirtiest things that I know. He didn’t ask you to give your heart to Him. He says, “I want to give you a new heart and a new life.” We need today the conviction of sin, to know that we are sinners. We have made salvation a very jolly affair. An evangelistic crusade today is just too ducky; it’s so sweet, and it’s so lovely. I don’t see people come weeping under conviction of sin.

Hebrews 12:25

“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” Since the Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful and since His words are very important, it pays you to give attention to Himit will be very profitable to you. “For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” If you want to see what happened to a people under the Law, go to the nation of Israel even today. They are not dwelling in peace. Theirs has been a really sad story for over nineteen hundred years. Why? Because they refused to hear Him. They also refused to hear the Law, and for that God judged them. It is a serious business not to listen to this warning. Jesus said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (Joh_7:17). If you do His will you will find out whether it is true or not, but if you refusehow will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?

Hebrews 12:26

At the giving of the Law there was an earthquake, and at the crucifixion of Christ there was an earthquake. Now God is saying that the day is coming when He is going to shake everything. When I look at the tall buildings in downtown Los Angeles, I am tempted to say to them, “I want to get a good look at you today because you may not be here tomorrow.” God says He is going to shake the earth and heaven itself. Do you know why He is going to do that? God is going to shake everything to let all His created universe know that there are some things which are unshakeable, and one of those things is living faith in Jesus Christ. He is the Rock that we rest upon, and He cannot be shaken.

Do you want a secure place today? He is the place to go. He is the air raid shelter that is safe today. Men want to make the world safe, but no man can make this world safe, nor can any world organization such as the United Nations make it safe. It is not even safe for me to walk at night down the street on which I live. However, God is going to make it safe some day, and in order to do that, He is first going to shake everything.

Hebrews 12:27

In other words, we had better be very careful that we build our lives on the right foundation. Are we building on sinking sand? Or are we building upon the Rock which is Christ? “That those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” God will remain. His word will remain, and the eternal kingdom to which believers belong will remain.

Hebrews 12:28

As believers we are moving toward a heavenly kingdom, but as we move toward the heavenly kingdom we need to recognize that we should be serving God down here. But how are we to serve Him? Well, we are to serve Him “acceptably.” How do we serve Him acceptably? “With reverence and godly fear.” My friend, Christianity is not playing church, and it is not assuming a pious attitude. It is a living, vital, and real relationship with Jesus Christ that transforms your life and anchors you in the Word of God.

Hebrews 12:29

You can take that or leave it, but it just happens to be in the Word of God. This is a solemn reminder that grace is available for you to serve God, but don’t trifle with God, my friend. Don’t think you can play fast and loose with God and get by with it. I remember that when I first came to Pasadena as a pastor in 1940 I was asked by a lady to go see her husband. They were a lovely couple, but the husband was sick and in bed at home. In fact, he never got out of that bed; he died there. When I went to see him, I presented the gospel to him. He heard me courteously and then said this, “Dr. McGee, I would like to tell you right now that I accept Christ as my Savior, and I will do that, but I have trifled and played with God so often down through the years that I don’t even know myself when I’m sincere and when I’m not sincere.” My friend, don’t trifle with God. That day may come when you won’t even know where you stand with Him at all. I tell you, our God is a consuming fire, but he is also a gracious, glorious, wonderful Savior.