Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, and chapter 12. We have
one of our free Bibles, that's page 1119. 1119. Hebrews, chapter
12, and reading from our text, verse 3. For consider him, that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your
minds. Hebrews 12 and verse 3. Consider Him. In the preceding
chapter, Hebrews 11, we have set before us the Old Testament
saints that lived and walked by faith, dying in faith, believing
that the seed of the woman should come, the Redeemer should come. They are set before us and the
Holy Spirit is seen fit to record in the Word of God, not just
in this chapter, but right through, witnesses of those that have
handled and tasted and felt of the things of God. Those who've
known that they are sinners and testified of it, spoken of what
they felt going on within, the struggles that they'd had, the
burdens that they bore, and the relief and helps that they found
in the Lord. We have these that are set before
us in the scriptures, but also many of us have those that we
have known and we walk with, We've heard them, we've seen
them. Their experience has not just been what we have read on
the pages of the Gospel Standard or some obituary. We've actually
got a personal knowledge of what things they uttered, the things
that they said. We've heard their groans, we've
seen their tears, we've heard their praises. And very often
it has been a great comfort and great help. Do you think of those
that have gone before? When the devil comes in and he
says, well, there's nothing in religion, it's only just imagined,
there's no reality, there's no heaven to come and there's no
real blessing at all. Then at times like that, sometimes
it's been a great help when the Lord has brought before us one
after another of his dear people and the grace has shone in them.
We've seen how they've walked, we've seen how they've died,
and the sense of reality has brought the devil to flee. And
it's a great mercy that God has given us in the Word and in our
lives, those that are such witnesses. The Apostle Paul speaks of himself
as being such a witness of one brought from such enmity and
hatred to God. to a love to the Lord and an
apostle, calls himself the chief of sinners and unworthy to have
had anything, shown him of the mercies of God. And in the New
Testament, that personal witness is a very, very important thing. And many that have never read
the Word of God, or if they have read it, they've got a wrong
message from it, or is that counted and taught by others, But when
they see the lives of the people of God, then they see something
different than the world. They see another testimony, a
living testimony, and they ask those questions. And we are told
that we are to give a reason of the hope that is set and that
is within us to everyone that asks us of it. And we are to
do it humbly, but taking it as an opportunity. We are to be
the salt and light of the earth, and in turn show to another generation
the wonderful works of God. They shall tell the fathers to
the children the things of God. The Lord has ordered it like
that, and there's precious promises that are given to those generations
that are following. But the Lord has given another
life, a blessed life, an example and one set before us, who is
set before us in the text, and that is our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. The chapter here begins with
the cloud of witnesses, wherefore seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with
patience the race that is set before us. to our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God on high. For consider Him, think carefully
of Him. Don't just pass over quickly,
all that he endured, all that he went through, but consider
it carefully, him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. He then is an antidote to that
weariness and the burdens and sins and the sorrows of the way,
in he that walked the same way, that came to this world that
lived here below, that died and rose again, ascended up into
heaven. We are to consider Him. So on this evening, to firstly
consider the work He came to do, and secondly the victory He gained,
and thirdly, to consider the suffering he endured in gaining
that victory. But first we consider the work
he came to do. We think of the introduction
to the name that he was to be called. Given to Mary, given
also to Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. We go right back to the first
promise in Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman that should
bruise the serpent's head. Thou shalt bruise, he shall bruise
thy head, Satan's head, thou shalt bruise his heel. He came
to destroy the works of the devil. He came to redeem and to save
his people from their sins. from the power and dominion of
them here, and from condemnation, from eternal death, giving them
spiritual life and eternal life, a body and a soul. The Lord had a work that He had
to do. Wist ye not that I must be about
my Father's business, was His words when He was but twelve
years of age to Mary and to Joseph. We must always remember this,
however low, however discouraged we might be, and especially when
we feel and know our sinnership, and know what it is to feel under
condemnation, we have to remember what was it the Lord came, what
was His mission, why did He leave His throne on high, Why was there
all that anticipation of the Old Testament saints for Him
to come in, if there was nothing for Him to do? If there was no
work for Him to do? If there was no people for Him
to save? If it wasn't too bad, and that
it could be found some other way? We ought to remember there
was a work, a work that only He could do, a work that had
such anticipation leading up to it, and now in the Gospel,
a work that is to be remembered, remembered in the ordinances
of the house of God, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, remembered
by His people, and preached, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We are to think on this, And
you might say, yeah, but you don't know my sin. You don't
know all that I'm going through. You don't know what I'm like.
The Lord does. Every heart knoweth its own bitterness. And as in water face upon the
face, so the heart of man to man, he fashioned their hearts
alike, and we are all alike for them. There's no temptation taking
you but such as is common to man. You might think that we're
only ones, like we are, but if we be the worst of sinners, was
it not that for sinners the Lord came, and the Lord suffered and
bled and died? Let us not lose sight of the
reason why the Lord came, the work that He came to do, and
He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. To live a life and work out a
righteousness that He should give to His people and to pay
the debt that they owed and to release them from condemnation. To then give the promise of the
Holy Spirit to apply that work and bring them to believe in
what He has done That really is the summary of what a believer
is brought to believe. To believe what Christ has done,
to trust in what Christ has done for them. And the very evidence
He's done for them is that they've been raised up to a concern and
to feel their sinnership and to want Him to do it for them
and to feel their need of Him. And where that is so, they may
know that it was done for them. And so He has passed by them
while they are in their blood and bid them live. He has given
the concern. He has given the sense of sinnership. He's made their souls real. He's
brought them to pray. He's brought them to seek after
Him. Really, the coming of the Lord
and the work that He has to do is a complete work, a work from
the time that the people were given Him by His Father to redeem,
and the time when He shall say, Behold I and the children whom
thou hast given Me. So I want to think secondly of
the victory He gained. Our text says, For consider Him,
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
he be wearied and faint in your minds. In this second point,
consider him the victory he gained. He came to do a work, and he
accomplished that work. We read, didn't we, the words
of our Lord on the cross, it is finished. The Lord did gain
that victory. We have a beautiful testimony
of that in the 15th chapter of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. When the final victory is to
be realized, from verse 54, the apostle says, so when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, that's in the resurrection, that
this mortal shall have put on immortality, Then shall be brought
to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He applies that, therefore, my
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is
not in vain in the Lord. In the preaching, in this lifting
up of the Lord Jesus Christ is not in vain. And I please God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Go
ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature,
He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. And lo, I am with you even unto
the end of the world. The victory the Lord accomplished
at Calvary, the empty tomb, is a seal and assurance given unto
all men in that God raised him from the dead. It's a victory
over death, a victory over the grave, a victory over the sentence,
the just sentence of death for sin, because Christ did not die
for his own sins. He shall be cut off, says Daniel,
but not for himself. No, he laid his life down, a
ransom for his people, a substitutionary offering for his people. And
that is a victory that is gained, a victory over sin and death
and hell, and victory over the world as well. The Apostle John,
when he writes in his epistles, he speaks of the victory that
we have in a way of experience over the world and the things
of it. In 1 John chapter 5 and verse
4, we read, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. And in our text and the context,
we are looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And our Lord himself prayed concerning Peter that his faith, that it
did not fail. And that victory that the Lord
has accomplished is a victory that yet is being unfolded in
every single sinner that is brought to eternal life. One of the doctrines
we most surely believe is the irresistible work of grace in
a sinner's heart. Those for whom Christ has died
and paid the debt and settled that account, they must, they
shall, be brought to spiritual life, they shall endure unto
the end, and they shall be with the Lord in heaven. Cannot be
that our Lord's prayer of John 17 come to nothing. Father, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. It shall be. accomplished. He is the first fruits. He is
the first begotten from the dead. He is already in heaven and it
is that assurance that all his dear people will be with him
in glory. The word of God does not set
forth victory in the balance or uncertain. It sets it forth
as being already gained. And sure and certain, when we
think of those Old Testament saints, all set forth in Hebrews
11, as yet there had been no bloodshed, not the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But on the promise of it, they
were raised to spiritual life. On the promise of it, they were
saved, they were brought to heaven. And in due time, the Lord fulfilled
that promise. And so we have that assurance
as well. that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So we
are to consider the victory already gained not by us but by the Lord
for us on our behalf that which he has accomplished and he has
done all the time in the gospel were to be brought from ourselves
to the Lord. Heimreiter says, out of self
to Jesus lead, for in us intercede. Lead us down to death, and there
banish all our guilt and fear. All the time we tend to be looking
inward, and yes, it's an inward exercise, and the reality of
sin is within. It must be a personal experience
of it, but the remedy is not within us. The remedy is not
within us, that's outside us, that's in Christ. Do we not fall
for that mistake in thinking, well, it must be an inward work,
it must be that which we know and is going on within and we
partake of it and then follow on with the thought, well, yes,
but the victory must be wrought in us, in a sense that we bring
it about and we accomplish it. No. What the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin, in
the flesh. It is that the righteousness
of the law be fulfilled in us, that we'll not to be spiritually minded is life
and peace, to be carnally minded is death. It is the Lord that
works in us, to will and to do, of His own good pleasure. The
people of God, their hope, their strength is in the Lord, crying
to the Lord, looking to the Lord. And in our text it's considering
Him, considering what He came to do, considering what He has
done, And I want to look then lastly at considering the suffering
he endured in gaining that victory. And it is in considering that,
may we have some fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings. May we remember the cost. May we remember also that as
he was in the world, so also are we. And if they did these
things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? And
if they heard the words of the Lord or rejected them, will they
not do the same unto us? Our Lord said, if they have persecuted
me, they will persecute you. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. Very clear. difference between
the people of God and the world and in their bodies. They have
a body that Paul in Romans 7 says is a body of death. It is the
flesh. It is one that all the time sins. It can only sin. But there is
in the soul that which loves the things of God, desires the
things of God. In the resurrection it won't
be so. It will be like our Lord was
on the earth. Our Lord had a real body and
a real soul. And there was no conflict between
the body and the soul. Both were perfectly sinless and
pure and holy, and no conflict with the Godhead either. And
in the resurrection, the bodies that we shall have will not be
like we have now. They'll be real bodies like we
have now, and soul united to them, but they won't be any sinful
propensities, not at all, no conflict at all, a complete oneness. But here below, the Lord has
so ordered it that there is and there will be the conflict. And
there will be that conflict not only inward but with the world
and the devil and all of those that hate the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are to consider the sufferings
that the Lord endured to gain this victory, and if we are also
to gain the victory, then there will be that path of sufferings
as well, in a very similar way, so that we have, by experience,
some fellowship with the Lord, some realising what He went through. No two people can have, say,
an operation maybe appendix or whatever it is, those who have
never had that operation, they haven't known what it felt like,
leading up to it, or recovery, or anything like that. But two
people, both who have, can compare notes where they only have to
say that they've had it and the other one knows exactly what
the other one has gone through. And yet in that sense, what they've
gone through is only for themselves. They haven't endured that operation
or the pains for anyone else, but for their own healing. But
those things that we go through, they will give some insight into
what the Lord endured, that He suffered not for Himself, not
because of His sin, but for us, and to accomplish the victory
for us. And these are the reasons why
we are to walk this path, through sufferings. And so the things
we are to consider, there are just five of them here. The first
is in our text, and that is the contradiction of sinners against
himself. Consider him that endured, it
wasn't just for a moment, just for a day, just for a few hours,
but endured it, Again and again and again, for the three years
of his ministry, he was saying one thing and sinners contradicted
him. He said that he was the son of
the father, they said no, he was from Beelzebul. They said
that Joseph was his father, he says that God was his father,
and all the time they opposed him and contradicted that which
he was saying. In one sense of that, thinking,
And they were the religious leaders of their day that were looked
up to by those that were listening. And they're religious leaders
today that are contradicting the word of God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. But in Christ's day, it didn't
stop there being believers. It didn't stop there being those
that were brought to a true knowledge. And it'd be a good thing if we
really considered what our Lord endured here in His life, in
His time here below. And we will endure the same contradiction
of sinners against ourselves. Our Lord then also was forsaken. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Not only by man, they all forsook
him and fled, but by God himself, hiding his father's face from
him. Dear Job knew what it was to
have friends that came first to sympathise with him, but then
they were miserable comforters and they couldn't help him. And
many of the people of God know what it is to be forsaken of
friends, of brethren, to be a sparrow alone upon the housetop, to know
what it is as Job again. Oh, that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even to his seed. He looked on the
right hand and on the left, he could not find the Lord. Now the Lord knew what it was
to walk this path. Then we have our Lord's humiliation. have the rendering of it in Acts,
in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. That's another
rendering of that in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, you have much of
his sufferings that are set before us. He was oppressed, he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Brought as a lamb
to the slaughter and as a sheep before her, sheer as his dumb,
so he opened not his mouth. Those times when we don't speak,
we can't speak, we silently endure what is laid to our charges.
We have him that was wounded for our transgressions. We just
read that simple statement, didn't we, with the scourging, violent,
And we have in Psalm 129, the plowers plowed upon my back,
and that made deep their furrows, the very real, agonizing, painful
aspects of our Lord's sufferings in the preparation for crucifixion
and the crucifixion itself, that which He endured, that is so
graphically set forth in Isaiah 53. man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, smitten, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his strides we are healed. And all the time
the emphasis of this passage is that those sufferings that
he endured, our transgressions, our iniquities, our peace, with
stripes that we are healed. And it's all a substitutionary
offering. It's a work that's done because
of our sins and to purchase our peace and be able to consider
this. Isaiah 53, a very good chapter
to really ponder over and to consider. And one that the Holy
Ghost has set the seal upon in the preaching of Philip to the
eunuch and so blessed to the eunuch at that time. Then we have the temptations
of our Lord. We know how he was tempted of
the devil in the wilderness and that is part of what he is qualified
to sustain and help his dear people in their temptations. In Hebrews chapter 2, at the
end of that chapter, we read, For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted,
clearly setting forth this as part of the sufferings of our
Lord, to be tempted. And then there was the suffering
of death in that same second chapter of Hebrews. We have in
verse 9, But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. The sufferings of death, no matter
whatever we may suffer here below. By the time when we come to death,
it may be said, you have not walked this path heretofore. Here is a new path, an entrance
into death, and it is set before us here, the Lord suffered death,
the eternal God, God of no beginning nor ending, And yet in becoming
flesh and dwelling among us, he could and he did suffer death. He did die the same as you and
I must die and yield up our spirit unto God. The Lord said to the
dying thief, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. His body
still hung upon the tree, but his soul with the dying thief,
with the thief when he died. in Paradise. And these sufferings
that the Lord went through, those things that He endured, we are
to consider those things that He endured for that very, very
same purpose as to save us from our sins, to deliver us from
the wrath to come, but also to be as a help to us here below,
which is very clearly set forth in our text, will consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, or
those things, not just contradiction of sinners, but endured these
things, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind. If we want an antidote for when
we are wearied and faint, discouraged, disheartened, overwhelmed, then
this is where we are pointed to, pointed to our Lord while
He was here, while He walked here below, while He endured
these things. This is God's remedy, not ours,
not our prescription, God's prescription. You know, if we had a doctor
and we went to him with a case, we'd trust what he said, wouldn't
we? Or would we say, well, actually, we want this? He knows best the sorrows, He
knows best the path. And this is what He directs us
to look to and to remember. And this is what when we come
to remember the Lord in the ordinances of His house, we're particularly
directed to Calvary, to His sufferings, to His death, to the suffering
of death. And then our Lord rising, again. You do show forth his death till
he come. Yes, he is alive. He is ascended
up on high and will come again with power, great glory. So may this word remain with
us and be under the Spirit's aid and blessing a real help
to us. For consider him that endures
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be wearied
and faint. in your minds. Amen.