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Today, and as we know, the book itself was addressed mainly to Jewish believers, some of whom, perhaps, although outwardly believers, were not real, but they were going through a very difficult time. And the chapter takes that into account, but ends in real triumph with a comparison between.
The.
One mountain, Mount Sinai, had spoke of the law, and then of course, Mount Zion, the heaven that speaks of our portion.
Would that be all right?
Stop.
Is there a brother that could read it for us?
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Wherefore seen, we also are compassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses. Let it lay aside every weight and the sin which that so easily bazetta, and let us run with patience the rate that is set before us.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endure of the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Lest he be wearied and faint in your mind.
You have not yet resisted unto blood thriving against him.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you its children. My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor fate, when thou art refuge of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he received.
If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if he be without chastisement, wherefore all are partakers, then our ambassadors and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh with correct, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and lives? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
But he for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chase means for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterwards it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, like that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed.
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 bringing up trouble you, and therefore thereby many be depiled.
Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as he saw, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessings.
He was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
For a year not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness, darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that, that the word should not be spoken unto them anymore.
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Or they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it must be stoned, or thus thrust through with the dark.
And so terrible was the site that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake.
Thy ye are common to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living Gods, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.
And to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that available.
See that you've refused not him that speaketh. For if they escaped, who refused him that spake on earth much more Shall we not? Shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?
Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying.
Yet once more I will shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken.
As of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receive we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved.
Let us have grace whereby whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
Just to get the perspective here.
We know that the book of Hebrews was written.
Probably by the Apostle Paul, although he doesn't identify himself, but it has all the marks of his footprint in the epistle and it was written to bring those deer Jewish believers.
Into the full blessing and light of the purposes of God for them, because it was very hard for them to lay aside what they had been going on with in Judaism for.
1500 years.
And in Chapter 11 we have the cloud of witnesses referred to here in verse one, all of those giants of faith in the Old Testament who are enumerated as being examples of how it was necessary to live like sight. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
But now we come to the practical side of things, because those dear Jewish believers were enduring a lot of persecution, it seems. And because of that, some of them were getting a little bit discouraged, a little bit cast down. Some of them were wondering if it was worth it all, and was this really what they've been called to do? After all, they were accustomed to thinking of God's blessing in temporal things and.
That if they were obedient, they would enjoy the good life down here, long life, prosperity and all the rest of it. And here, instead of all that, they were getting the very opposite of it.
And so.
This chapter brings out to them. On the one hand, no, don't expect it to be an easy path down here. Don't expect everything to go smoothly. It may come all the way. As it says in verse 4. You may have to resist. That is, resisting in the sense of not giving up right to the point where you'll be martyred for your faith.
But on the other hand, what is ahead? Oh, the glory is ahead. And what resource do we have now, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith?
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So it's a very blessed chapter, a very real encouragement to our souls. And although most of us here are not undergoing what we would call active persecution in the sense that many of our brethren are, yet at the same time Satan has his ways of wearing out the people of God by bringing troubles and difficulties upon them of one kind or another to the point where instead of it becoming a race, we.
To use a common word, we start to plot.
We're just plodding along sometimes in a pathway of faith.
And this chapter would encourage us not to do that. Just as that him we some would have the same.
Note of encouragement and praise in it.
The book of Hebrews, the profession is assumed to be real, that the author makes allowance that there could well be among those that had identified themselves with the Lord Jesus as Messiah. From among the Jews there may well have been unreality.
So there was a concern that as they saw their brethren suffering persecution, that they would say, no, this can't be right. This could not have been the Messiah. So the whole book, it's a very logical treatise, this book as it lays out through into the 11Th chapter. And then we get the practical side of things halfway through the 11Th chapter, 12 to the 13th chapter. But there are some verses in the book of Hebrews, including this chapter, that caused a good deal of consternation and concern for individuals. But if you just keep in mind.
So the author makes allowance for the fact it might be those amongst them that identified with this, uh, movement, I put it that way, that were not real. And so he had a concern for them. Would they press on? See a Jew, a faithful Jew before the cross do have to be saved. He had, he was certainly born again, but he did not have eternal life. He did not possess the spirit of life. So he also had to come into salvation. And that's never easy.
New book like natural book, there's some pain involved and uh, there was a struggle going on, I think in the constant salt of some of those that were. And you might say, well, how does that, how can I apply that to this present day? Well, I think too, especially in, uh, amongst Christian families, there are those that have grown up that come along to the assembly. They've identified outwardly with the Christian profession.
But maybe there hasn't been that expression of reality. And as they look at things around them and hear the voice of this world and what Satan is saying to them, they're going to let go. They're going to give up, say no, this can't be right.
N.
That, I think, is the burden of many in this room. No doubt that those that have grown up under the sound of.
The teaching of the word of God that they press on and they don't give up.
That one can lose their salvation. But if there hasn't been that work and they're hot, then like that seed that, uh, either the South of the air pluck away or the tongue with the. So this book, I think is very applicable to us in this present day. And then also, as Phyllis pointed out, the general encouragement of those that are real, we can get discouraged.
And look at things around us and we might say, well, what is it worth? Is it worth it all?
They would love to do nothing more than to ruin our Christian testimony.
MMM.
And sad to say, as we well know, Satan has been all too successful in dragging Christianity down to the level of a worldly religion and importing much of Judaism into Christianity in order to make it more palatable.
In that way, and as a result, without wanting to be critical, we see so much of the Christian profession today composed of those who pay lip service to it but who aren't real. And the world makes a mockery of all of that.
00:15:05
And So what is enjoined on us here?
And we get it in the first verse. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
It's not a 100 yard dash, it's a marathon, isn't it? It's a race that entails real patience, real endurance. And to do that we need to lay aside the two things that are mentioned here. First of all, every weight, and then the sin that does so easily beset us.
It might seem simple on the surface, but sometimes it can be very difficult to lay aside both of those things.
Many things in this life that end up being weights to us. Yes, we have to earn a living. Yes, we have to make our way in this world, and there are certain responsibilities that we have which we cannot. Sure, otherwise we are an equally bad testimony in the other direction. But there are an awful lot of things that are weights that we can well afford to lay aside.
And then the sin that does so easily beset us.
A besetting sin is the one that I find very hard to let go of.
We all have them, don't we? What is a temptation to me may not be a temptation to you.
But we all have those things that keep on coming back at us.
Over and over and over again.
This first verse is referring back to obviously Chapter 11 and all those witnesses that we had before us, and it's similar to what we would see if we turn to Romans chapter 15, verse 4. Whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we proved patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
And so we have the full liberty, and these scriptures would encourage us to look back at those ones in times past. Look back at the story of Abraham when he told to give up.
That which was most precious to his heart.
We we little little appreciate how how deep that trial was to Abraham because we see him carrying through it and and amazing faith overcoming. We have that full liberty to turn to the account of Joseph and see him in temptation there when all is against him. We have that full liberty as the as the children of Israel are in the wilderness, that wilderness pathway that we've been thinking about and considering. We have full liberty to reflect on the gods.
That preserve them and on and on and on, whether it be, uh, whether it be Jeremiah or whether you look at Daniel or all these different ones.
Wherefore, seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, each one of them giving testimony to the fact that the path of faith is worthwhile.
End the testimony that they that they bore, and the witness to us is that it's worthwhile.
To lay aside that weight it's worthwhile to to put away from our fat sin that would hinder us. It's worthwhile. It may not look like it at the time and as we look through those different accounts we may we we scratch our heads sometimes is how the Lord preserves different ones through those trials. Just for example, Joseph was 13 years. I believe in in his life everything went wrong.
13 years, that's a long time. And yet as we look at his life, he's part of that witness.
To to lay aside that way, to lay aside that sin, and to run with that endurance.
The path that set before us.
Yes, in the book of Hebrews points out to us that.
We have so much more than they have.
Abraham, compared to what we know, knew very little. He didn't know all the purposes of God. He didn't know everything that was going to happen. Yes, God made promises to him, but he didn't know what we know. He didn't have the nearness to the Lord that we know. He didn't know for sure that his sins were forgiven and all those things. He had faith. But oh, how much more do we have in the dispensation of grace?
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And so we need Grace to run that race.
But it's a race that needs to be run, and God will give us the strength for it.
I don't want to make an unfair comment.
But we have all seen people out jogging.
And we see some who are running along there nice and easily and with real vigor. And we see others there that I say it very kindly, but the jobs fiercely is as fast as a decent walk. Yes, it's a jog in in name, but that's about it. And there's just very little energy there. Well, I appreciate the fact that they're trying to get some exercise because sometimes it's.
People that are older or people that are a little overweight and they're doing the best they can.
But the Lord wants us to have an abundant entrance, doesn't it? And in these last days, Satan works largely by discouragement, I feel. And that's why it says in the chapter our brother referred to.
Through patience and the Darby uses the word encouragement of the scriptures. Yes, there's patience, we need patience, but it's also to be.
Done in a way that we are encouraged.
Keep on going and go, not as if, well I guess if I have to, but rather with the goal set before us and with joy in our hearts. Why? Because of the second verse looking unto Jesus.
If you'll permit me, I'd like to read a, uh, a poem that was shared at, at camp this year that really kind of stopped me. And I think it, it's unreasonable to, uh, our chapter. I'll try to read it quickly. Uh, it's called the young Christian. I'm sure many are familiar with it. I cannot give it up the little world. I know the innocent delights of youth.
The things I cherish. So it is true.
I love my Lord, I long to do His will, but oh, I may enjoy the world and be a Christian still. I love the hour of prayer. I love the hymns of praise. I love the blessed word which tells of God's redeeming grace. But I am human still, and while I dwell on earth, God surely will not Wretch the hours I spend in harmless myth. Those things belong to You and are its natural rights. My drafts, my pastimes, and my friends.
Mary and the Bright My father's heart is kind. He will not count it. I'll that in that my small corner of the world should please and hold me still. And yet outside the camp was there my Savior died.
It was the world that passed him forth and saw him crucified. And can I take part with those who nailed him to the tree, And where his name is never praised, Is that the place for me? Nay, world I turn away, Though thou may seem fair and good, That friendly outstretched hand of mine is stained with Jesus blood. If in thy least device I stoop to take apart all unaware thy influence steals.
Presence from my heart, I miss my Savior's smile, When ere I walk thy ways, thy laughter drowns the spirits voice and chokes the the springs of praise. Whenever I turned aside to join these for an hour, the face of Christ was grows blurred and dimmed, and prayer has lost its power. Farewell henceforth my place is with the Lamb who died.
My Sovereign, well, I have thy love, What can I want beside thyself? Bless, Lord, art thou my free and loving choice? In whom though now I see thee not be leaving, I rejoice. Shame on me that I thought another joy than this, or dreams that are dreamed. A heart at rest with me to crave for earth, earthly bliss. Those vain and worthless things, I put them all aside.
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His goodness fills my longing soul, and I am satisfied. Lord Jesus, let me dwell outside the camp with Thee, since Thou art there, and there alone is peace and home for me, Thy dear reproach to bear.
I'll change count my highest gain till thou return. Rejected 1 To take thy power and reign.
And that is exactly the problem, isn't it? Because Satan has done a good job of persuading believers that you can have Christianity and have the world too. You don't have to change your ways. You don't have to leave the world alone.
Not realizing that that worldliness, as the poem points out, uh, prevents the Spirit of God from ministering Christ to my soul. And as it said, there chokes the voice of praise.
End.
I can speak for myself, and maybe others can too. We have.
Seen that happen at times in our own lives and realize the truth of it.
I would only say that to balance that, let us remember that the scripture never teaches that we are dead to nature.
Dead to the world, dead to sin, yes, but not dead to nature.
And so.
For young people to have some good exercise and have some fun together, that's perfectly OK. And as you said, Steve, it's a cat that you heard that poem read. Calves are nice things to have.
There are real encouragement along the way, of course. If I can only live on a steady diet of a camp, then something's wrong. But, uh, at the same time, we're not dead to nature, and so the Lord would have us to enjoy times of refreshment like that, but not with the world.
He mentions here the sins. That doesn't mean that easily upset us, and I wouldn't want to confine it to anyone particular thing that there might be something different for you than for me, but I do.
I think that one thing that Satan has been very clever in is causing us to doubt what God has done. And that really was the the first condition, wasn't it in the garden there he said, is it Even so that God has said so he, he throws in their hearts unbelief in God and what God has given to them. So he says, is it Even so that God says, thou shall not eat of every tree in the garden?
And I believe that the seeds of what Peyton did there in each of our hearts unbelief in God's goodness for us. And Paul could say, and I think it's nice to have as a text in our hearts when he's on that voyage and there's lots of trouble, he receives the word from the Lord and he says, I believe God.
That's part of the verse that I, I think that I've enjoyed that from my own heart. Just carry that with us as we go through this world. I believe God.
David wants to do everything to counter that in our life.
An old brother some will remember whom I'm talking about, used to remind us that all our failure, whether as sinners or as Saints, ultimately stems from our unbelief of the goodness that is in the heart of God.
And if you think about that, it's true, isn't it?
And the goodness of God.
Sent the Lord Jesus down into this world to exemplify the pathway of faith as no other one did.
Someone raised the question once.
At the end of the previous chapter, Chapter 11, why are there so many examples given of those who were victorious in faith and yet when it talks in the middle of verse 35 about others?
Who, as it says, were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Verse 36 had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings and so on.
Verse 37 Stone saw tempted. Verse 38 Wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in Dems and caves of the earth.
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He said why are no examples given, no names given?
And the answer is not original with me, but I thought it was excellent. The answer was it is because the Spirit of God did not want to take away in any way from the glory that is due to the one who exemplified that pathway of suffering.
More than eighty other.
Some time ago. Quite a few years ago now.
I mildly reproached a brother in India for something that he did. I knew him well.
And his answer back to me was.
Brother, someday you will understand.
The stress and strain that I was under at that time, you don't understand what I was going through.
And that was his excuse for disobeying the word of God.
I hope I gave him the right answer when I wrote back because I really cared for what he was going through. I said, brother, you are probably right that I don't understand, but there is one that does, who went to every kind of suffering in the pathway of faith that a sinless man could go through, and he's the one that the scripture calls us to look to in that race of endurance.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Faith in the Saints has has been tried.
Your faith, my faith, is proved and tested and tried and it's a good thing. And God.
Delights to do that for our spiritual growth.
Faith always latches on to God, and God never disappoints.
The man Christ Jesus, however.
The author and finisher of faith.
Came to a point.
For he cried to God, a perfect man, and the heavens were like brass.
He went back and prayed a second time. Oh my Father, if it be possible.
But this cup passed for me.
Then discerning that it was his father's will.
Depressive.
And from the cross, my God, my God.
I think in the new translation it says he answered not.
The answer came later. You and I are the answer. Resurrection.
Down throughout all eternities.
But what a thing for a man, a man's face to go through.
Cry to God the hour of deepest need. I am so trouble.
Went through that dark, dark hour, bowed his head upon his breast.
And so he is the author and finisher of faith. He's the one who has run the complete course not to jump ahead.
And did it like that wasn't will ever be called upon to do?
And so we adore him for that.
One thing that characterized those in the 11Th chapter is what we find in the 39th verse, all these having obtained a good report through faith and received not the promise.
N.
Paul when he encourages Timothy and his second epizzle, he says when the arena edited from the way it appears that King James to the snow.
But in Second Timothy, 2 eighths says Remember Jesus Christ, the seed of David.
Raised from the dead according to my gospel.
You know, at the cross at that point, everything looks as if it was lost, everything was hopeless. And for those that had no faith that looked upon him as he hung there, there was some that marked some that shook their heads. It was who was his pretendant. It comes in North and then he was raised from the dead. The answer is in founded resurrection. And so for us too, we don't look forward to.
00:35:14
Our reward here and now. It doesn't mean to say that the life of a Christian should be one of misery.
Brought out in this chapter, but we're not looking for.
A present reward in this world. And that may seem, I trust, self-evident to everyone here, but it's not the gospel that's being preached to crystalline today. So we look forward to another day that there's a bright. And that's what the author of this epistle was doing. He's lifting their heads up to look heavenly, to better things, to eternal things. There's something ahead.
That makes all this worthwhile. And keep in mind that the Lord Jesus here is more than an example. He's not just an appendix to the 11Th chapter, another example that we should follow. And again, Christ is presented that way in certain circles. He's a good example for us to follow. He's far more than an example. He's an example for sure, but He's our object. And that, you know, if you have a leader in front of you, you follow your leader. And it's really the thought of the leader.
And finisher of our faith.
Gone before and we look for look to him now as our object.
We can walk with the world and we can enjoy the pleasures of sin per season, but we're going to walk that way. We are not going to enjoy fellowship.
Without the Father and with his Son. And you know what? The apostle John said these things.
Have I written unto you that your joy may be full now? Isn't that what we really want? Fullness of joy?
Well, he speaks of it in his first epistle where he says our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. So we got the choice. Do we want to walk with the world?
We won't enjoy fellowship with the Father himself. It's not to say that we lose our salvation.
But fullness of joy is to walk to communion companionship with the Father and with the Son, and it involves persecution, it involves the reproach of this world.
Lord, he suffered like no other persecution.
Tells us here we are to consider him Mr. Darby says consider well him, think about him and what he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be weary and faint in homogeneous. You got to just keep our vision on Christ. We have to be looking up and realizing that he suffered and why would.
Our pathway be any diff if we're going to follow him and I wonder if I could just take time to look over to John's Gospel chapter 15 and see what the Lord Jesus himself said about this matter.
In John 15 and verse.
181518 The Lord Jesus said, if the world hates you, he knows that it hated me before and.
You were of the world, the world would love your son, but because you're not of the world that I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord saves persecuted me. They will also persecute you If they have kept mind saying they will keep George also and so on. Probably the time is easy all of this portion, but notice what the Lord Jesus says in the next chapter.
In John chapter 16.
He says in verse 32.
Behold, the hour comes is now come, that ye shall be scattered every day to His own, and shall be his own. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.
And this is what I was thinking of particular in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
00:40:07
I have overcome the world.
So what is this matter of tear being a good tear?
I I just heard of a couple that moved to a community in the state of Iowa, and the name of this place is What Cheer, What Cheer? And the one brother who was talking about it just did that.
With that, what's your question?
Or could it be thought of in a positive way? What sheer Now here's a Christian couple having moved to this community, and they can bring cheer to this place.
And we can bring cheers to this world. And what's your it brings to the heart of Christ when we're willing to stand up and speak for him and live for him. And it's going to bring cheer to our own hearts as well. So let's just keep looking up and the Lord will never disappoint your need. Now, I don't want to be facetious, but I was talking to a man at Home Depot.
This is some years ago over in Fredericton, NB and he turned out to be a Christian and so he enjoyed fellowship talking about the Lord and.
This came time to part ways.
And they say, well, let's keep looking up. And he said to me, well, what do you see when you look down?
Say, well, what I'm seeing is the floor.
No. Well, you might see the floor, but you're also seeing double defeat, and I never forgot that. So let's not be defeated. Keep our eyes on Jesus.
What we have here, this joy, I believe, is a joy that you and I in one sense can have two, because this is practically for you and for me as an example.
The Lord Jesus is mentioned as being set at the Father's right hand, I believe four times in the book of Hebrews.
And this is the last one. And here everything that is said is an example for us. And so we don't have the atoning sufferings of the Lord brought in here.
We could not, of course, follow him in that, but we have everything that surrounded those atoning suffering.
The cross, the shame, and everything that went along with that pathway of faith.
And yet, what was the joy that was set before Him? Some have said, well, it's the joy of having us with Him there in glory. Well, I believe that that's included. But I would suggest that the thought goes deeper than that. What was the joy that was set before Him? It was the joy, I suggest, of doing the Father's will and the joy of being able to go back to the Father.
And say, as he says in the 17th chapter of John, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
Which one of us is going to be able to say that?
I don't believe any of us can. There was only one who could say that.
The great apostle Paul.
Perhaps and very likely, the greatest servant the Lord ever had has to say I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. He's been a faithful man, but he doesn't say I have finished the work.
I don't believe any of us will finish the work the Lord gives us to do.
But God never sets before us an example of any less magnitude than his beloved Son.
Christ is the example for us, and so this is an example for us. And on the one hand we look back and see that One who is the author and finisher of faith and who in a way that no other man ever could or did.
00:45:14
He exemplify that pathway here in this very world where you and I are.
But then.
The joy of being there with the father and to be able to be seated there on the father's throat and to be able to say.
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.
That ought to be our object in running that rich John's gospel. He is divinely qualified to pronounce on the quality of his work.
Not only did he do those things.
Acceptably in bringing glory to God, even with respect to sin.
But he's capable of divinely pronouncing what he did. Think of it. You meet people all the time, at least I do, and say, how are you? It's a courtesy. And some people say couldn't be better. Or they say they just give you these superlatives. And I feel a little bit like a slug myself, you know, And how are you doing? Well, you know, and I feel I say, wow, you once in a while, I'll comment and I'll say, well, you really must be quite a person too. And you can't even be better.
Umm, let's put put all of that like talk aside. The Lord was qualified here to pronounce on his work.
Finish the work, nothing left out.
Glorify you on the earth and what joy shared with his father when he arrives home, set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
Ground thorns.
Thrown aside.
In this passage in Hebrews.
'Cause she remarked Bill.
There is no pattern for us in atonement. That's alone.
He went into that place alone. He was the only one qualified to step into a place like that, but as one who had something laid upon him, as David said, when he went out to visit his brethren and they challenged his, his motive for coming, he says, has it not been laid upon him?
And it was laid upon the Lord Jesus as man, and he went through.
Through thick and thin, as we would say, the great contradiction of sinners against himself. Misunderstood and reproached and defied on every half.
Finishes the work.
He has that joy of bringing glory and delight to His Father. He delighted himself. He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul that He shall be satisfied. What a beautiful thing. But for you and I, we have our portion to walk in His steps, and He's our example is one who had an object before Him, who covered the shame, a small thing who had reward and glory before Him.
And so he set his face like a Flint. And that's the example I believe he has for us here. That's the race we had here. The race.
That Paul implies in Philippians.
I pressed for the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is a different kind of a race or a different aspect. I think in that Paul's desire, energized by the Spirit of God, was to become more like Christ morally here in this life. He pressed for that. He knew at the end he would be, but during this life that's what he pressed for. And so he says there be followers of me, period. In other places. He said be followers of me as also I am of Christ, because there it was.
Denying oneself and laying down one's life and looking for the benefit and blessing of another, We follow Christ the time.
But in Philippians 3 words seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ and pressing for that and that kind of a race. Paul is an example for us, not the Lord Jesus. He he was himself complete. He never ran that kind of a race to be something that he wasn't because he was always altogether that which he said he was the delight of his Father. All the fullness of God had dwelling bodily in him.
He just takes your breath away to think.
Who God sent into this world and that he should be a man here in this world. So he never ran to be something that he wasn't.
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In that sense, we have called. We have others.
You were saying that?
John, that side.
Unbelief is what gets us into trouble. Unbelief in the goodness of God.
The apostle says, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be pardoned for the deceitfulness of sin.
But you know faces that which shall.
Brings heaven down to earth. It brings the future into the present.
And it's a wonderful thing, what we can enjoy by faith.
And that's why here today we have our Bibles and we're sitting on chairs and sitting in a not an elaborate church building.
But the fact is, we are here because we have the Word of God, and that's where faith begins. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So what a wonderful privilege to be able to enjoy what God has for us.
Revealed to us through His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And may this evil heart unto thee not characterize any of us. I speak to myself as much as anybody. Let's take God at His word that brings peace, joy into our souls. Now we speak of Abraham. He didn't have what we have today. He didn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He didn't have.
The Word of God as we have it here in our laps today.
And yet it tells us that Abraham, he was the friend of God, and he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform.
Now, does that characterize my attitude, my thinking?
It want to here we are on this side of the cross with so much more than what Abraham had.
Maybe just.
Like the little girl said.
In simple faith, he said, God said it.
And I believe it. And that settles.
I heard somebody interposed the last two lines. God said it. That settles it, I believe.
I think it's hard for us to enter into the Lord's joy here. That's mentioned in the second verse and I it reminded me of what we have at the end of John 14. In that chapter he tells his disciples that he was going to go away, but that he would not leave them comfortless. He would send the Holy Spirit. But it says in verse 28 of the 14th chapter of John.
You have heard how I said unto you, I go away.
And come again unto you, if ye love, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father. For my Father's greater than ours is that expression. If he left me, you would rejoice.
Because I said I'd gone to my father. It was so hard for them to enter into this joy. But just think about here. He had been on this earth for perhaps quarter to 33 years, and he was anticipating going back to his father after he had completed the work the perfection of the father had given him to do. And yet it was so.
Like them, and like us too, to think about their portion. They were going to miss him. They were going to, umm, feel lonely without him, and so on. All of those emotions that welled up in their hearts. But think of his joy that he had before him enter into the presence of his father, having completed that word. And he longed for them to be able to rejoice with them. You might say so. We can't, can't we? We?
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We have much more than they had at this point, but the the coming of the Holy Spirit and the the completed scriptures before us. But we can, I hope, in some measure we can each enter into His choice.
This one more encouragement about the the race that we have here.
It says.
In order to lay aside every weight and the sin and let us run. And so, you know, each time we have a, a sin in our life, there may be a, a, the first step away from a good finish might say. And that can get discouraging perhaps. But just I see this as an encouragement to run anyway. You know, these races that are, that are held in the world around us.
Any disqualification and you're done.
Get back in the race, but that's not the race that we have here and it's important how we finish, isn't it?
So we see these ones that have gone on before us that have finished well and here we have this encouragement that.
Yeah, we mess up and we get off of that right path that would take us, you know, to the best finish line.
But we can still run and get back on the path and that's what the Lord wants for us is to finish. Well, I just said that it's low encouragement because I know that sometimes you're looking I'm so far off the path to be impossible to get back on without a lot of pain and and hassle.
But that's the path of joy, isn't it? Even when we get that far off the path, it's.
The Lord wants us to get back on it and to finish well.
So we get that later in the chapter. Don't be Andy with the Lord's chasing hand on us and.
I still remember a remark that a brother made one of our old writers in the 1800s and he, he made this remark. He said if God sees any desire in your heart to go after Christ, he will work it in you.
And that's very encouraging. And yet at the same time we perhaps.
Shrink back a little bit from the chasing hand of the Lord. But as you say, he delights to bring us back onto the path. He delights to restore us. Sometimes through some mishap or some little difficulty on the race, someone falls down. And as you say, normally in the Olympics, if you fall down in a race, that's that's it. But in America and you can fall down and get up again and still go.
And the believer can do that with the Lord's health. And so that is, I believe, what we get in part of the chapter here where we're encouraged to be a help to the hands that hang down and to out of the feeble knees and so on, because that kind of thing happens. Maybe we look at someone and say, well, it was his own fault. Why? Why did he stray from the path?
But if I make that kind of a comment, I don't realize what's in my own heart do I can be the one to do that next. And.
So while we perhaps have to be faithful, yet at the same time we need to realize that we can all miss the path, we can all fall. But there is a way back.
I think the key to.
Enjoy peace in our circumstances is to recognize that the Lord Jesus loves us with a perfect loss. Perfect love casts out fear and this is true of the Father too. You know there's little home because absolutely tender absolutely true understanding all things understanding you.
Intimately, infinitely loving, Intimately dear.
Near this is God our Father.
What have we to fear?
The Lord loves, He chases.
Skirts every sun whom we receive. Scourging seems like a very harsh treatment, but we find here is because he loves us.
And I think in any circumstance that we may find ourselves, let's not.
Take our eyes off the Ortiz. Let's remember that he loves us with an unchanging love. He has our best interests at heart. He wants to bring us back on the track. He wants us to be happy. And you know the hymn writer, He said that though I forget him and wander away, still he.
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Loves me wherever I stray back to His dear loving arms. When I remember that Jesus loves me, that love never changes.
We began the meeting singing a hymn and there's a line.
In that couple of lines, and that him that come before me, as we have these verses before us, and heavenly light makes all things bright.
True, and we have that exemplified so very clearly in the life of the Apostle Paul.
The one who would believe wrote these words. Looking unto Jesus, He saw light. He saw light from heaven.
And he met the Lord Jesus Christ.
In that light, and it changed his life, it changed everything about him, and it could change our lives too. Looking unto Jesus, these are not idle words.
The powerful words, it's the one thing that can change our life. Heavenly lights makes all things bright.
But it does something else, and we have that Paul saw this light from heaven that fell about him, and he rose from the earth. His eyes were open, he saw no man. He lost sight of the things down here, he himself said.
I could see not for the glory of that light. So the things of this earth as the hymn writer grows strangely dim and the life is glory and grace, the wonderful thing, heavenly life that we have given to us in these few verses that are like absolutely life changing if we apply them to our lives.
So we saved 208.
Are you?
Oh God bless.
You forever.
No. Are you still uncovered tomorrow?
Happier orders.
Are thought not giving us a sunshine square grid whatever I want my heart.
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Entertainment, but one loudly disturbed Hello Burger, Hello Granny and drinks.