Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 940
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, July 10, 1870
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” Hebrews 12:14,15.
WELL did the Apostle declare that the righteous scarcely are saved. It is no child’s play to be a Christian. The Christian life is beyond the poet’s meaning, real and earnest. The hills of difficulty which lie before us are no molehills, and the giants and dragons with which we must contend are no phantoms of a disordered brain. When we reach Heaven, what monuments of Grace we shall be, and how shall we throughout eternity emulate one another’s praises, each one feeling himself to be the deepest debtor to Sovereign Grace!
It will be well for us to remember that the religion of Jesus Christ is not a matter of trifling, that the gaining of Heaven is not to be achieved by a few half-hearted efforts. And if we will at the same time remember that all-sufficient succor is prepared for us in the Covenant of Grace, we shall be in a right state of mind—resolute yet humble, leaning upon the merits of Christ and yet aiming after personal holiness. I trust that in my ministry I shall never keep back the doctrines of the Grace of God, but I am anxious at the same time with equal clearness to declare the doctrine that good works are necessary evidences of Grace.
I am persuaded that if self-righteousness is deadly, self-indulgence is ruinous. Rowland Hill said he had spent a large part of his life in battling with the white devil of Arminianism, but he would now fight the black devil of Antinomian-ism. I desire to maintain always a balance in my ministry, and while combating self-righteousness to war perpetually with loose living. Antinomianism is a black devil, indeed, a devil whose smutty fingers have defiled full many of the pure truths of our holy faith, and made even good men shy of receiving them. We, must remember that though we are saved by Grace, yet Grace does not stupefy us, but rather quickens us into action. And though salvation depends upon the merits of Christ, yet those who receive those merits receive with them a faith which produces holiness.
The text before us is so full of weighty matter, and my own heart is so full of solemn searching, that I despair of speaking to you all that the text has spoken to me. May the Holy Spirit, the Author of Sanctification, help me, and bless the Word to you. I beg you to notice that there are before us two living things to be followed and two things to be avoided.
I. There are in the text TWO THINGS TO BE FOLLOWED. The fourteenth verse tells us what they are. “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” We are to follow peace and holiness. The two are consistent with each other and may be followed together. Peace is to be studied, but not such a peace as would lead us to violate holiness by conforming to the ways of unregenerate and impure men. We are only so far to yield for peace’s sake as never to yield a principle. We are to be so far peaceful as never to be at peace with sin—peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles.
“Follow peace,” but let the following of it be guarded by the other precept, “holiness.” With equal ardor we are to follow holiness. Some who have aimed at holiness have made the great mistake of supposing it is necessary to be morose, contentious, faultfinding and censorious with everybody else. Their holiness has consisted of negatives, protests, and oppositions for opposition’s sake. Their religion mainly lies in contrarieties and singularities. To them the text offers this wise counsel, follow holiness, but also follow peace. Courtesy is not inconsistent with faithfulness. It is not necessary to be savage in order to be sanctified. A bitter spirit is a poor companion for a renewed heart.
Let your determination for principle be sweetened by tenderness towards your fellow men. Be resolute for the right, but be also gentle, pitiful, courteous. Consider the meekness as well as the boldness of Jesus. Follow peace, but not at the expense of holiness. Follow holiness, but do not needlessly endanger peace.
Having thus hinted at the connection between the two, and how the two together make up a complete character, let us now take them one by one. Follow peace, “peace with all” says the text—an amplification of the expression. Follow peace with all the Church. There should be no quarrels within the sacred enclosure which the electing love of God has made. You are one in the Divine choice, you are one by the Savior’s purchase, you are one by the Spirit’s calling, you have one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. You are on the way to one Heaven—see that you fall not out by the way. “Let brotherly love continue.” Let each esteem others better than himself. Let each seek his brother’s good to edification.