Falling Short of the Grace of God
Hebrews 12:12-17
Hebrews chapter 12 is our study tonight, and we've been studying in the Book of Hebrews for, oh, I suppose about 40 messages and having a wonderful time; and I almost hate to get to the end; and yet the end is coming; and we know God has something else in store for us in days ahead; but we come to chapter 12 and verses 12 through 17 as the setting for what we wanna discuss tonight.
We've entitled the message, "Falling Short of the Grace of God." Lemme begin by saying this. Scripture is not just doctrine; and we make a great emphasis on the fact of doctrine here at Grace Church that it's very important that you really know what the Word of God teaches, that doctrine is basic to everything. Paul said to Timothy, "Give heed to doctrine." Paul repeated again and again in the...in the pastoral epistles the importance of sound doctrine; and, yet, doctrine isn't all there is in Christianity by any means. There is also ethics or the living out of doctrine. There is not only the static didactic information, but there is the life that follows, living action; and the two always go together. In fact, they're designed together.
The Apostle Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:2, he said this, "These things teach and exhort." It isn't quite enough to just dispense the information unless you exhort the people to make it practical and operative in their lives. In fact, he repeated later to Timothy these words, "Read the text, explain the text, and apply the text." That's what a preacher is to do; and the term for applying the text is exhort. It's not just a question of giving you information, but it's a question of exhorting you.
I'll never forget preaching one time at Wheaton College to the student body, which is an awesome thing in itself, and all of that well-known faculty sitting there staring at you; and I was just a little outta seminary guy, and there I was facing 4,000 people in the great Edmund Chapel; and I began to speak; and, of course, I just get lost in what I'm saying anyway; and I was having a great time, and I was exhorting them to be committed to Christ, and I was going along through 2 Corinthians chapter 5 having a tremendous time, excited and all this stuff. And I got all done, you know, and I...I just kind of went away to think about what I'd said, and a student came to me and handed me a letter, a note that some student had written me. And this is what it said. "Dear Mr. MacArthur, I don't think you knew where you were today. This is Wheaton College. We don't need your type of speaking. Just give us the facts, and then you can sit down, and we'll take it from there."
Now if you wanna see how to get your ego deflated fast, that is it; and, you know, I thought about that. And then I thought about what the Bible says: teach and exhort, and I felt secure. And so I wrote a note back to him. "Dear Friend, Thank you for helping me examine my ministry and be confirmed in the fact that I am following a pattern established in the Scripture. Yours truly." I really believe exhortation is part of what it's all about; and so tonight I'm not gonna teach you nearly so much as I'm gonna exhort you. So get ready.
The word for exhortation in the Bible is parakaleo. Means to call on or to beseech, to urge somebody to some kind of action; and that's part of it. In fact, the whole Book of Hebrews is that. Verse 22, "I beseech you, brother...in chapter 13...I beseech, brother, bear with the word of exhortation." Thirteen chapters of exhortation, but not just independent exhortation. Exhortation based on doctrine as all good exhortation is. Both teaching and exhortation are necessary. They are, in fact, inseparable. God's method for instruction is simple. It is this: set before the individual the moral and spiritual principles, and then show him how to apply himself to those principles. And even a step beyond that, if I may, motivate him to want to apply those principles. So it's information, then how to apply it, then motivate him to apply it.
So the teaching of the Word of God is not just knowledge. It is knowledge that is practical and then it's knowledge that is motivated. You know, there are a lotta people who have an intellectual grasp of the doctrines of the Scriptures, but they really don't know anything about the practical life. Somebody said they understand the doctrines of grace, but they don't experience the grace in those doctrines, because they never know how to implement them. It is one thing to believe, for example, in the Scripture. It is to believe that it's inspired and inerrant. It's something else to live under the authority of the Scripture with joy. It is one thing, for example, to believe Jesus Christ is Lord. It is quite another to surrender to His Lordship and enjoy it. It is one thing for me to believe God is omnipotent. It is another thing in midst of trial to learn how to lean on His mighty arm.
So there is information and then there is exhortation. You see, beloved, that's what explains the therefores and the wherefores in the New Testament. The therefores and the wherefores are there to say, "In view of the doctrine I've just told you, therefore do this." Or, "On the basis of what I've just said, wherefore here is your behavior." The therefores and the wherefores are the changes or the transitions into action from information.
You have it in Galatians. Paul goes through Galatians, and he says, "You're free from the law. You're free from the law. You're free from the law," and he gives all of the information. Then he says in chapter 5, "Therefore let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." The therefore makes the transition. Eleven chapters of doctrine in Romans. Eleven chapters, and you haven't done anything. Eleven chapter of who you are, and finally he says, "Now, I beseech, therefore, brethren, on the basis of all the mercies of God I've given you for eleven chapters, present your bodies," and he moves into the practical, and it never does come in a vacuum. It always comes following doctrine. The Apostle Paul says, "We have victory over death." Remember it in 1 Corinthians 15? "We have victory over death," he says, 'Therefore be steadfast, unmovable."...Paul says, "Jesus is coming. Wherefore comfort one another with those words." There's always that transition into action.
Now, as we come to the Book of Hebrews, we have come in chapter 12 to the wherefores and the therefores. Now, there have been a few therefores and wherefores scattered in prior, but this is kinda the whole wherefore/therefore section; and it kinda closes out with just one practical exhortation after another right on out to the end of the 13th chapter. Now, he's been exhorting these Jewish believers to come all the way committed to Christ, sink everything they've got into Christianity, and let go of all of the Judaistic things. You see, for eleven chapters, he said, "There is a new covenant that is a better covenant based on better promises with a better Priest who made a better sacrifice," and he points out the complete superiority of the new covenant in the first eleven chapters. He then says, "Wherefore, get in the race and run it with endurance and don't cop out. Don't run outta gas. Give everything you've got to Christ. That's all you need. He is sufficient."
Dr. Barnhouse used to say, "Hebrews was written to the Hebrews to tell the Hebrews they were no longer to be Hebrews."...Hebrews was written to exhort them to go all the way to Christ, and you remember what happened. You see, when they made a profession of faith in Christ, and they established a little community of Jewish believers, they begin to be persecuted by their Jewish friends, and they begin to miss the temple, and they begin to miss the priesthood, and they begin to miss all of the things that were so much a part of their life. And they were trying to do...to just give their undivided attention to Christ, but there was persecution, and there was problems, and there was hassles, and their family was cutting them off, and their friends were turning them out, and there were real problems, and all of a sudden things were happening that didn't look too good. And they begun to kinda fall back, like they were gonna go back to Judaism.
Sprinkled among these believing Jews were some who hadn't even yet been saved, and they had identified superficially as professing Christians with this Jewish community of believers, and they were there in name only, not in truth. And they were in danger of turning around and going back to apostate, to be apostates, to apostatize, if you want the verb. They were in danger of saying, "Oh, this is ridiculous. I've seen enough of this. I'm going back to Judaism," and had they done that, they would've been locked in unbelief forever, because they would've rejected against full information, and that's what apostasy is.
And so, really, he's talking to two. He's talking to the Christians who are in danger of holding onto Judaism, and he's saying, "Let go of that stuff. Christianity is everything you need. Let go of it. Come on. Get in the race and run with endurance. Take what comes." Then he's also saying to