Sermon Cloud

The Need to Care for One Another

Hebrews 12:14-17

Grace Fellowship Church

January 11, 2009

Series 3 Sermon 65

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is [apostate] sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Introduction

Church discipline has been in the news recently.  I am not sure of the state or the name of the church or the people involved but a woman who was in gross sin was about to be put out of the congregation that had biblically disciplined her when she refused to repent.  The woman involved was so upset that the church would make her sin public that she decided to beat the church to the punch and went to Fox News with the story.  In her haste to avoid shame for her sin before a few people her sin was now broadcast to millions of people around the world.  The church came under fire for doing what the Bible has called them to do. 

What this highlights is the amount of ignorance that permeates our culture and our churches regarding biblical church discipline.  We have been looking at what the writer says about the Lord disciplining His people and now he turns his attention to how the church is involved in the Lord’s discipline of His people. 

Last week we looked at verses 12 and 13 and saw that we are to look out for one another in love and care and to make sure that we as believers do nothing to cause each other to stumble.  We will go so far in our love and care for one another that we are willing to sacrifice our own Christian liberty for the weaker brother or sister. 

What I don’t want for this congregation is for us to have any misunderstandings about biblical church discipline.  The beginning point for church discipline is love for one another.  It goes beyond mere friendship.  It goes beyond what would constitute a relationship in our day.  This love for one another is not just a fondness for each other but a deep abiding affection for the good and well being of one another in this congregation.  The Christian congregation greatly mirrors the Christian family.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ with God as our Heavenly Father.  Over and over in Scripture we are called the household of God.  So what should permeate any congregation is a brotherly love that the world can not comprehend.  And from this love springs biblical church discipline. 

Let’s be sure we remember the two types of discipline.  The first of course is formative or instructive discipline.  This is what we are doing right now.  As I or anyone else teaches we are being instructed on what God desires from us and expects of us.  We are getting to know our Lord and Savior through His Word as the Scriptures are set before us and taught to us.  Anything less than the consistent preaching of the Bible is not Christian preaching.  Those that make up the Household of God must know the Word of God and that is why we are committed to preaching through books of the Bible.  We need to know the whole counsel of God.  Some churches have pastors that skip and jump all over the place or they preach on a handful of topics over and over again but that is falling way short of what we need to know. 

Obeying the biblical command of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is formative discipline as well.  The Psalms are instructive and the hymns and spiritual songs help us with our theology.  There is great theology in the great hymns of the faith and in some of the newer songs as well. 

I was talking to a pastor friend of mine this week who pastors a church in Brooklyn, MS and he told me about talking to the music department head at William Carey University.  He was looking for a music leader for his church and the department head told him that he did not think that he had a young man that had ever held a hymnal.  They did not know the great hymns of the faith.  They knew a lot of the yippy skippy happy clappy stuff that is so popular today but nothing of substance. 

Also in formative discipline we have the public reading of Scripture.  Why do we read the Scripture each week publicly?  Because 1 Timothy 4:13 tells us to.  Listen as I read.

¹³ Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.

Teaching in the context also means doctrine or theology and that is why we read a portion of our confession each week.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ and so what we want to do in formative discipline is to get all of us into contact with as much of the Word of God each week as we can.  So how important is this formative discipline?  Listen to 1 Timothy 4:16.

¹⁶ Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

When churches neglect this formative discipline then they put the very eternal souls of the people who attend there in jeopardy.  Why?  Because it is the natural human tendency to change the message of Scripture to something more palatable for the sinful human heart.  The Bible declares that in order to be saved we must repent of sins and turn to Christ in faith alone for salvation and salvation that is real is accompanied by holy living.  Anything less is not true salvation.  And if anything less is taught then it is a false gospel and a false gospel is not the gospel that is saving. 

So just like in raising children, the bulk of our time is spent in formative church discipline. 

But like the woman who went to Fox News to avoid embarrassment sometimes it is necessary to have corrective church discipline.  Just like in formative church discipline the motivation for corrective church discipline comes out of a brotherly love and affection for one another in the Household of God.  The main passage for corrective church discipline is Matthew 18:15-17.  Listen as I read.

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

These are the steps on corrective church discipline.  First you go one to one to that person who has sinned and try to gain back your brother or sister in Christ.  If that does not work then you take two or thee witnesses with you.  If there is still no repentance or reconciliation then you take the matter before the church and if that results in no repentance or reconciliation then that person is put out of the congregation and is showing themselves as a lost person. 

There are other times in Scripture where the process is a lot faster.  For instance in the case of the man who was cohabitating with his father’s wife in 1 Corinthians Paul instructed the church to put this man out immediately because of the seriousness of the sin.  They were not to have anything at all to do with this man because of the sin he was involved in. 

The problem that we have in our day is that we think Paul was too harsh.  We think for some reason that when the time comes for church discipline that we are being overly critical or judgmental.  We are afraid that the person that is in desperate need of correction might somehow become a victim in all this and might be offended. 

I want you to grasp the seriousness of church discipline.  I want you to see that not only are we talking about a brother or sister’s temporal well being here on earth we are also talking about their eternal standing before God.  Look at our passage again with me.  Look at Hebrews 12:14-17.  There are four stern warnings here in this passage that have to do with the eternal standings of those in the church.  Notice verse 14. 

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Holy living is a result of repentance and faith.  It is possible for a Christian to fall into gross sin but if they are truly a believer then one of two things will happen.  First they will repent and be reconciled under biblical corrective church discipline or second, the Lord will discipline them Himself possibly to the point of death. 

Look back at Hebrews 10:26-31 for a stern warning for the Christian who refuses to repent.

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

There is a second and third warning in Hebrews 12:15.  Look at the verse.

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

The fourth warning is in verse 17.  Look starting in verse 16.

16 that no one is [apostate] sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

These all have to do with eternal salvation.  Grasp the importance and the weight of responsibility that falls on all of us as members of the Body of Christ.  It is more important than pulling people out of a burning building.  It is more important than snatching your child out of the street when an oncoming truck is feet away.  We are talking about the eternal salvation of some. 

God is sovereign but in His overarching sovereignty He has ordained means of seeing people into eternity.  One of those means is church discipline.  So to neglect church discipline is just as sinful as neglecting evangelism. 

So what are we to do?  How do we arm ourselves to be actively involved in the formative discipline and the corrective discipline of our brothers and sisters in Christ when needed? 

Context

Recall last week we looked at the importance of coming to the aid of the weaker brother or sister in Christ.  We talked about healing the brother or sister that was in need and making sure that by our lives we did not cause a fellow Christian to stumble.  Look back at Hebrews 12:12-13.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

This week the writer turns his attention to how we do this.  And he uses his admonition about straight paths for your feet in verse 13 as the starting point. 

PNP

This morning I want you to see from verse 14 two ways that we are to make straight paths for our feet in order to participate in biblical church discipline.

1. We are to work together for peace within the congregation.

2.  We are to work together for holiness within the congregation.

Purpose

The reason I am focusing in on verse 14 this morning is so that we can all grasp the importance of our participation in biblical church discipline.  And we need to understand that peace and holiness are two marks of a true church. 

PNP

So look with me at these two ways that we are to make straight paths for our feet in order to participate in biblical church discipline.

1. We are to work together for peace within the congregation.

Notice with me the first part of verse 14.

14 Strive for peace with everyone…

What we have here is a very strong command for the body of Christ to follow.  The word in my translation is strive.  Yours may be follow.  But the word means to do something with intense effort.  And the verb strive or follow is in the imperative and therefore is a command for the body of Christ. 

Just reading this in our translation we may get the sense that we are to strive to live at peace with all men everywhere.  That would be true because the Apostle Paul encouraged us to live peaceably with all men.  But here in the context of Hebrews 12 the writer is speaking specifically of life within the church. 

Maybe a better translation would be for all of us to pursue peace together.  And that is what the writer is getting across to us.  We are to strive for peace within the congregation.  As a matter of fact we are to work together for peace within this congregation for the sake of church unity and church discipline. 

In the first century church life was much like what we do here on the Lord’s Day.  We meet and worship and fellowship.  Now imagine if there was not peace in our congregation.  Imagine if there was enmity between some of you.  You would not sit at the same table or in the same row.  That is a bad testimony for one thing but what about what it says to the other Christians and to the world. 

One of my seminary profs told the story of a church he served after seminary.  There was an event that took place at a business meeting that marked that church to the community for years.  The church had to decide on a new typewriter for the church secretary.  Would it be manual or one of the new electrics?  Two deacons could not agree on which one and the debate got so heated the two men ended up in the parking lot fist fighting over it.  The community knew about it and that was the church’s reputation for decades after that event. 

So even when we disagree on minor issues and spend so much time together we are to strive for peace with one another.  This often takes work.  Personalities are different.  Christians even differ on some side issues that are not that important to anyone but them.  And let me say those things can be vigorously debated but at the end of the day we are still brothers and sisters in Christ.  If we hold to the fundamentals of the faith and confess Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior and as the only way of salvation then we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We don’t even have to agree on the timing of the second coming and the positioning of the great tribulation in order to live in peace.  I like talking about that and trying to hammer that out in my own mind but I am not going to get mad at you for understanding that differently than me.  Now if you deny salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone then we have a major problem that can still be handled in Christian love and affection. 

Why is this peace so important to the writer of Hebrews?  As a matter of fact it is so important that it is the first word in the Greek text for verse 14.  He puts it right up front so we will notice it.  The reason for doing that is because peace is a distinguishing mark of the Christian community.  If we serve the Prince of Peace then we should be marked out not by violence but by peacefulness. 

This peace should be so pervasive on the Lord’s Day when we meet that what we experience here is a taste of fellowship like we will experience together in Heaven.  We have too much of a temporal perspective I think to fully appreciate this.  People move around far too much in our society to really appreciate what is taking place in verse 14.  The early church understood and this is what we need to understand that we are not just individuals on this journey but we are a community of believers that are on the pilgrimage to Heaven together.  Not only do we enjoy fellowship here and now together but we also will enjoy fellowship in eternity with one another. 

At different times we will all depart this life for eternal life.  But eventually we will all depart and then we will be reunited together in Heaven never to be apart again and to fellowship in the physical presence of our Lord and Savior forever.  We will be with the Lord and with each other forever. 

What we have here on the Lord’s Day and any other day that we are together is a glimpse of that eternal fellowship.  As a matter of fact it was the Lord Jesus who said that where two or three are gathered together in His name that He is there in the midst.  So when we gather for worship and for fellowship which I believe is part of worship the Lord Jesus is in our midst actively participating in that fellowship.  Therefore His fellowship should be marked by the pursuit of peace among brethren. 

Second I want you to see that:

2.  We are to work together for holiness within the congregation.

Look at verse 14 again.

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

We are to strive for peace and we are to strive for holiness.  The same word that told us to work together for peace tells us also to strive together for holiness.  This is both personal holiness and corporate holiness.  Remember verse 13? 

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Here is what we must understand.  The church is the blood purchased possession of the Lord Jesus Christ and peace marks the church as His achievement and holiness marks the church as Christ’s possession.

We are to be holy.  We are to strive to be holy.  To be holy really is a hard concept to get across.  God is holy.  Which means He is sinless and pure and righteous.  And in our lives personally and corporately we are to be putting sin to death. 

My favorite puritan quote is by John Owen in his book “The Mortification of Sin” and in that introduction he says, “Either you will be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”  And that same thing can be said of congregational life.  We are either killing sin in our lives as a congregation or sin will be killing us as a congregation.  We must strive for holiness both in our personal lives and in our congregational lives. 

Let me express to you the importance of the diligent pursuit of peace and holiness in congregational life.  Look at verse 14 again and especially the last part.

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

This has to do with our salvation.  If a person in a congregation refuses to pursue peace and holiness then you can be pretty sure that this person is not a true Christian.  Divisiveness and sinfulness are the marks of an unbeliever and that unbeliever may confess Christ louder than the rest of us but the proof is in the pudding.  And the Bible says anyone who does not pursue peace and holiness will not see the Lord.  This seeing the Lord is the fulfillment of Christian fellowship which extends into eternity. 

This is where church discipline comes in.  And I am fully aware that in our day many of you have never even heard of church discipline.  And I am sure that all of you have ran into people in churches who flat out refused to pursue peace and was living in gross immorality as a full privileged member of a church.  And no one did anything about it. 

I know this to be true because I pastored a church that before I got there had allowed a young woman to join the church who was cohabitating with a man not her husband.  When I said to the men who were supposed to be leaders in that church that this should not have happened and now we are spiritually responsible to help this woman out of this situation they had no idea what I was talking about. 

So what we must do is to pursue peace in our fellowship and personal and congregational holiness.  This is making straight paths for our feet.  This is pleasing to the Lord. 

This does not mean that we will agree with one another on everything.  We are not programmed robots.  We all will see things through a different lens and we all come from different backgrounds but the beauty of the church is that God takes those different people and weaves us all together in this glorious tapestry that is bound together by mutual love for the Savior and each other and marked by peace and holiness. 

Lord willing, next week we will look a little deeper into corrective church discipline as we see the need to help a brother or sister in grave spiritual danger. 

Let’s pray.