John Politan The Time of Your Life: Seizing the Moment for Christ (part 2) Hebrews 12:12 – 17 January 8, 2017 Reading from the Valley of Vision, “God’s Cause” (pp. 320 – 321) Open your Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 12. “What more can He say than He has already said,” what He has already revealed in His marvelous word? And, that is exactly what we are doing here, to look and see some more of the truth that He has revealed in His marvelous, marvelous word. Now, we pointed out last time when we were looking at this passage or section three or four weeks ago, before we had the little interlude that we have had the last few weeks, that the word of God is more than just doctrine. And, we made, hopefully, the point that don’t ever say you don’t want to hear about doctrine. Remember our two-word definition of doctrine: doctrine is nothing but “God’s truth.” So, when you say you don’t like doctrine, what you are saying is you don’t like God’s truth. So, you don’t ever want to say that. The Bible is more than that. It is not just doctrine, giving you the God’s truth; it also is exhortation. It is also encouraging us to take that doctrine and make application of it to our lives in specific ways that the word of God shows us. I Timothy 6:2: “These things, Timothy, teach and exhort.” It is information and it is exhortation, both combined. As a matter of fact, the word there for “exhortation” in I Timothy 6:2 is parakaleō, and a lot of times you hear that word parakaleō, and it is where we get the word paraclete; it is another word for the Holy Spirit, “to come alongside” and “encourage” someone. It also means “to urge,” “to call on,” “to call for action.” That is always God’s method of instruction: He gives you truth, tells you how it applies, and then encourages, motivates you to apply it. And, that is exactly what a proper exposition of Scripture should always be: what does the word of God say? What is the truth? And, then, what 1 The Time of Your Life: Seizing the Moment for Christ (part 2) does the word of God say about how it applies to your life? And, what does the word of God say about motivating us to apply it? I love what one man said. I lament over what one man said, but I do appreciate the way he said it. It is amazing the number of times that I (and I am sure you are the same way) come across Christians that have an intellectual grasp of what the word of God says and have no practical (or, very little practical) application of it in their lives. I have counseled people, sat with people who are really theologically astute; some deep doctrines of God’s word, deep truth of God’s word, they know. They can quote is as well as I can. In some cases, better. But, they have no grasp in terms of making it applicable to their lives. The phrase that one man used, was he said they know the doctrines of grace, but they have never experienced the doctrines of grace. They believe the word of God is inspired, but they don’t submit their life to it. They believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, but they don’t submit their life to Him. They believe that God is omnipotent – you start out a Puritan prayer with, “O Sovereign God,” they buy right into that – but they don’t trust Almighty God in most areas of their life. The word of God calls us to task. The word of God says that we are not only to understand the doctrines of grace, but we are to experience the grace in that doctrine, in God’s truth. And, by the way, the transition that you almost always get in the word of God when you are going from information to action, when you are transitioning from information to action, is you are going to see one of two words almost all the time: “wherefore” or “therefore.” The “wherefore” and the “therefore” words are buzzers that should go off in your mind and say, “Oh! He has given us some doctrine. He has told us God’s truth – now he is going to explain it and tell us how it applies, or tell us what we need to do, to urge us, ‘Here is what you need to do now in light of what I just told you.’” You say, “What in the world has this got to do with the book of Hebrews?” It is because 2 The Time of Your Life: Seizing the Moment for Christ (part 2) in the book of Hebrews we have eleven chapters of doctrine: truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. And, all along the way, every once in awhile he will throw in a “therefore” or a “wherefore,” but when you get to chapter 12, it is the gigantic, colossal wherefore/therefore chapter in the entire book. For eleven chapters, it is “Christ is a better priest,” “it is a superior priesthood,” “He made a better covenant,” “a better sacrifice,” etc., and “therefore, come all the way to Christ. If you have come all the way to Christ, go all-in for Christ.” That is what he has been telling us. That is the doctrine. That is the teaching. That is God’s truth for 11 chapters. And, now he says, “In light of all that, here is what you do. Because He is better, because it is all better,” and he jumps right into Hebrews, chapter 12. What does he say? Heb. 12:1 Therefore – “Because of all these things I told you about all these saints that we have, this cloud of witnesses – we have witnessed that God has been faithful and they have been through all this hell on earth.” He says, “Because of that truth,” Heb. 12:1 Therefore [what?], since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance – What was that? Those were the good things but not the best things; the good things that are keeping us from doing the best things for the cause of Christ. Heb. 12:1b [L]ay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance [be patient, steadfast, sticking to it] the race [he uses that metaphor, the race] that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus – You always want to have your eyes on the goal, remember? Fixing your eyes on Jesus. He is the author and the finisher of it all. He is the one that gave you the grace to start the race, and He is the one that is going to finish the race, and He is the one that is going to uphold you through the race. 3 The Time of Your Life: Seizing the Moment for Christ (part 2) Heb. 12:2b [W]ho for the joy set before Him [the doctrine of eternal rewards] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It is accomplished. It is finished. He is not still working at it, He has done it – for you. Heb. 1:3 For consider [meditate, ponder, think upon these blessed truths. That is a part of how you stay focused on the end game, on Christ, and conform to Christ] Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. He is talking about fagging out during the race. “Don’t fag out. Don’t sag out. Get your second wind. Get a new breath. Get a new lease on life. Go for it again. You can do this.” It is done through encouragement in the word of God. It is done through what you are going to do on your own to encourage yourself, and it is done by what you and I (meaning other believers in your life, and you and me in other believers’ lives) do to encourage them. And, we are going to see a huge example of that in verses 12 – 15 in just a moment. But, to keep you oriented to where we are going, he says, verse 4, Heb. 12:4 You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons – Now he is going to talk about discipline. Remember when we studied discipline? And, remember: God’s discipline is not designed to slow you down in the race. God’s discipline is designed to make you and me faster, stronger, better. You are going along through life, and a hurdle, if you will, a problem, a struggle, a trial – financial, spiritual, emotional, physical, whatever it is – comes your way? That has been allowed by a sovereign God across your path to make you hurdle it, to make you go through it. Why? Because you will get stronger as a result of it – stronger in your faith, stronger in your conformity to Christ, greater in your conformity to Christ – and you will be the better for it. When the next hurdle comes, you will handle it even 4 The Time of Your Life: Seizing the Moment for Christ (part 2) better.