Seeing He ever liveth

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,” says the famous quote from Hebrews 12.

“Through the years I’ve heard this verse quoted time and time and time again, and every time somebody wants to tell you can lose your salvation, this is a verse they’ll quote,” testifies Jordan in an old study. “They’ll say, ‘See, if you don’t have holiness; if your lifestyle doesn’t measure up to my standards, or my religion’s standards or the church’s standards, or God’s commandments’ . . . If you don’t live up to the standard of holiness of that particular person you’re going to lose your salvation because without holiness no man shall see God.

“People who quote this verse never consider all things involved in what the verse is saying. Revelation 1:7, for example, says, ‘Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.’

“Every person on the planet when Christ comes back is going to see Him. Every eye shall see Him. Well, that verse in Hebrews 12 said without holiness no man shall see the Lord. When you compare those two verses, you immediately know that you better be careful trying to understand Hebrews 12:14.

“Revelation 6:15 says, ‘And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.’

“They see Him, they see His wrathful face, His angry face coming to judge them and they go hide. So they do see Him and it isn’t just saved people who see Him; it’s lost people too.

“Many times I’ve had people say, ‘Well, without holiness no man sees God,’ and they have no idea what they’re talking about!

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“Israel always thought of salvation at the Second Advent. Hebrews 9 is what’s going to explain this passage for us. In Israel’s program, they looked at salvation, not as a present possession like we do, but as a future possession up there. Something that comes at the Second Advent where He saves the Believing Remnant into the kingdom.

“The verse is talking about seeing the Lord at a very special time. When he says without holiness no man shall see the Lord, He’s talking about seeing Him, as in chapter 9, verse 28: ‘So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.’

“That is the Second Advent. That is a future appearing of Christ at His return where He brings salvation to these people. When Jesus Christ comes back out there at the advent they’re not going to see Him unto salvation. Lost men are going to see Him and be destroyed. But that isn’t the way you want to see the Lord, is it?

“Matthew 5:8 says, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’ Now, there’s Hebrews 12:14 stated another way. What happens when you have a pure heart in the Beatitudes? He’s describing the citizens of His kingdom in Matthew 5. He’s describing a time period of the tribulation when they’re going to be persecuted.

“Verse 10 says, ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

“You’re the salt of the earth' (verse 14). 'You’re the light of the world,' and so forth. He’s talking about His people who are the little flock, the believing remnant, the new covenant believers, the true circumcision—all the terms we use to describe the believing remnant in Israel in the tribulation looking toward the kingdom.

“What are these people like? Their lifestyle is described here.

“III John verse 11, ‘Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.’

“He says follow after peace AND holiness. The thing about seeing the Lord has to do with seeing the Lord out here when He comes.

“Hebrews 12:15 says, ‘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;’ Notice this issue about failing of the grace of God. Go back to Hebrews 4 and remember, if you will, verse 14, 15 and 16.

“Hebrews 4:14 says, ‘Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.’ Because we have a high priest who has been totally identified with us, understands our limitations, understands our troubles, understands the things that we face and yet He, having faced what you and I face, has been victorious. Now that’s what I’m looking for!

“You know, I talk to people all the time. One of the wonderful privileges of the ministry is to have people come and cry on my shoulder and that’s fine. If you need a shoulder to cry on mine’s available anytime, you know, within reasonable hours. That’s the privilege you have when you make the mortgage payment, see? That’s one of those privileges.

“One of the privileges you get in the Christian life is to bear one another’s burdens. You talk to one another and when you hear somebody and they got problems and you talk about it--this, that, and the next thing--you know, I’ve often thought about that and you know, you hear all about this problem and the next problem and the next; everybody just telling you about all their difficulties, but you know what people want to hear? They want to hear about how to get over them!

“You want to talk to somebody—I do anyway—who can comfort you with the comfort that he’s already gotten from God when HE was in trouble! II Corinthians 1:4: ‘Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.’

“What you want is somebody who can really get the job done. Well, any of us got clay feet when it comes to that, but the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. He lived an absolute, totally righteous life. He lived the life of perfect holiness.

“You know, when He died at Calvary, the way I know that His sacrifice was a righteous sacrifice that could take care of my problems is you can check Him! He demonstrated it in front of all His critics. With the Adversary and all of his host He demonstrated a life of absolute perfect righteousness. Tempted in all points like us but without sin. That’s why we can go to Him and Hebrews 4:16 says, ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ ”