Paul has shown us all these different
ones, and then he encourages, wherefore, see that in verse
1? Wherefore, and we looked at that in detail, we're not going
to go too much into that again today, but seeing we also are
accompanied with the bowels, so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight. And we looked at that last week.
And the sin, which does so easily beset us, we looked at those
two things, and then let us run. Run, keep going, keep on with
patience, the race that is said before us. And I asked you this
question last week. I said, do you know how to run
this race that we're in? Do you remember that question?
How do we run the race? Look at verse 2. Again, looking
unto Jesus. But there's more. There's more
than just that. We look to Him because He is
the whole of our salvation, including our faith. It says the author
and the finisher of our faith. Folks, even our faith. I know
I hammer a lot. I hammer a lot on how... because
that's what the Lord's Word does. Over and over. We'll just use
the most famous scripture of all. The world misquotes it,
but still it's still... A very important scripture, John
3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever, whosoever, whosoever believeth. That's faith. Believing is having faith. God-giving
faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. I love to state in the prayer,
thank you Lord for not leaving us to ourselves. I wouldn't have
any faith if it wasn't for God giving me the gift of faith.
So we see, looking to the author and the finisher, there's no
other place to look, is there? There's no other place to look
but the one who is purposed for us to be saved. It goes on from
that, it says, who for the joy, speaking of this very one who
is the author and the 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. Folks,
there's a lot to consider. And it all revolves around who
He is, what He has done, and where He is right now. That last
part, who for the joy that was set before Him. If you took an
umbrella, and you wrote on the front of the umbrella, Christ
and Him crucified. Every vine, every part of that
umbrella that comes down would be pointing exactly to that.
Christ and Him crucified. For who? Who for the joy? This one who is the author and
the finisher of our faith. It was joyful for him. It was
a joy that was set before him to endure the cross. Why? Because he knew the results.
He knew he wouldn't fail. He's God. He cannot fail. Doesn't mean it wasn't hard.
We know it was and we're going to look at that a little bit
in our next lesson, in our next message. It was hard. Our Lord showed great distress. Can you imagine? The righteous, justice, perfect
God in the flesh being made sin. Worse, worse than that, being
made our sin. Being made our sin. There's much to consider and
it always revolves around who He is, what He has done and where
He is right now. Look at verses 3 and 4 with me
for consider. Consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners. Isn't that what I just said?
Can we wrap our minds about what God, what our Lord, what the
Creator of all that is has done for you and I? Folks, that just
magnifies His grace bigger than anything we can imagine. His
mercy, more than anything we can imagine. Consider Him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest
ye be weary. I know folks who think it's tough. I know this path that the Lord
has us on we consider to be difficult when our faith is weak. Do you know, I've talked to our
pastor, Pastor Gene Harmon, just about every day Monday through
Friday. Very rarely do I miss a 7 o'clock call. And one of
the things I admire, not about him as a man, but at what God
is doing through him, is even when his faith, even when he's
weak in the flesh, at his age, as long as he's been walking
with the Lord now, he still is is strong in who his Lord is. He still turns with strength. His body's failing him. His body's
got no strength in it. But God has still given him a
mind of strength that's strong enough to turn from the ways
of this world and the doubts and the pride. and give God the
glory for everything that's happening in his life. Judy fell the other
night again. Bruised her hip real bad. But imagine the trouble that
is for Gene. Imagine what he's going through
having to deal with those things with his wife. Some of you might
have had to go through those things. Some of you may have
seen it with your own loved ones as well. It says in verse 3,
what a What a lifting for you and I. We think we got it bad? Look
what our Lord did. Look what He did. He endured
such contradiction of sinners. The righteous God walks through
this valley in the shadow of death. He walks with people that
He will judge at the end of time. and judge them to damnation. But he had to walk that path,
didn't he? Remember, we're considering him, we're considering what revolves
around who he is and what he's done and where he is now. It
says right there, it says against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds. Verse 4, Ye have not resisted
unto blood striving against sin. We haven't, but He has. Aren't
you thankful? Aren't you thankful for Him?
He certainly has. And God accepted His blood as
payment for you and I. And in accepting His blood for
payment, He raised Him from the dead. and sat him at the right
hand of God the Father on his throne in heaven. Consider him,
John Gill wrote this, he said, in the greatness of his person,
as God, as the Son of God, as the heir of all things, as in
his office as a prophet, a priest, a king, as the Savior of lost
sinners, the leader and commander of the people, as the apostle
and the high priest of our profession, as we read over in Hebrews 3
verse 1, consider Him in His human nature. Can you imagine
God in the flesh hungered? Can you imagine God in the flesh
needed His mother's milk? He required his mother's milk.
Consider him and his conversation on earth and what he did and
what he suffered for men, goes on John Gill. He goes on to say
how that in his very nature he was pure and holy in his conversation,
harmless and innocent in his deportment of meek and lowly. who went about doing good to
the souls of men, and at last he suffered and died, and is
now glorified. Consider the analogy between
him and us, and how great proportion, and therefore if he was ill-treated,
no wonder we should consider him under all of his reproaches
and sufferings. So let's consider Christ, shall
we? This is the one stranded by which This is the one standard
by which we should endeavor in all things and at all times to
govern our lives for the glory of God. This is the one thing
which ought to motivate us, inspire us, encourage us, and strengthen
us as we endeavor to walk with God this race that is ever set
before us. May God the Holy Spirit inscribe
these words upon our hearts and make this rule our lives. Consider
the Apostle the High Priest of our profession. Remember our
study back in chapter 3 verse 1? It said consider Christ always
in all things and above all things consider Christ before you make
decisions. Consider the Lord Jesus before
you do anything. Before you go anywhere, consider
Christ. We want to talk, we want to consider
Him in His person. Always remembering and giving
consideration to who He is, the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty,
our Savior. He is our merciful and faithful
High Priest. He always bears us upon His heart. He always makes intercession
for us. Doesn't that bless you? Doesn't
that bless you? Have you ever been somewhere
out, maybe by yourself, and a thought goes through your mind? How about,
I like to use this one, all those red lights, stop, got it. You
can use anything you want. But I use that as an example,
because I'm not going to share with you what really goes through
my mind. But you ever sit there and think to yourself afterwards,
you know what, I'm so thankful. I don't mean to let myself do
that. I don't mean to think those thoughts. But oh how thankful I am that
when I do and I catch myself at it, I can say, I have a mediator. I have a high priest in heaven
who's saying, I paid the price for that. I sprinkled the bread
on the mercy seat for that. Oh, what grace that just blesses
my heart to know that my high priest has gone into the holiest
of holies. He's in heaven right now, sitting
on his throne, working all things out according to his counsel,
not mine. Let us consider the one who never
ceases. to consider us. Do you know that? Even in your dreams
at night, even in your dreams at night,
the Lord is still considering you. We're the apple of His eye, folks. If He loved us so much that He
was going to give His Son, to die for you and I. How can you
not give us all things? He considers us, we should consider
Him. How about considering His sacrifice? Have you considered His sacrifice?
We considered His sacrifice last Sunday after church when we came
to the Lord's table. The sacrifice of Him in the flesh
and the sacrifice of His blood. Consider what the Son of God
has done for us. In sacrificing Himself, He has
saved us by His grace. We are the objects of His electing
love, His immutable grace. He loved us when we hated Him
even. Have you considered that lately?
Even when we hated Him, when we said, I'll not have that one
to rule over me. And you know, if you're a child
of God, you said that. You may not have said it with
the lift, but you were saying it with your heart. I'll do it
my way. We sing the song that Elvis sang.
I did it my way. I thought I did it my way. In all the time, I was still
doing it his way. He came to us when we would not
come to him and when we could not. He wanted us when we did
not want Him, but above all, the child of God, listen to this,
ever hold this fact in sacred memory and consider it well,
the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us. He laid down
His life for us, bearing our sin in His own body on the tree,
that we might live forever with Him without sin. What about His
debt? What about our debt? Not His,
ours. Have you considered our debt
lately? Consider this as well, we owe Him everything. All that we are, all that we
have, all that we hope for is because of Him. We have in our
baptism acknowledged that we are His. Let us never fail to
remember that fact. Consider Christ. Let us unceasingly
consecrate ourselves to Him and to Him alone. I'm yours, Lord. I'm yours and yours alone. Consider His will. Our Master's
will, consider that if you would. Nothing is more important to
a faithful servant ever seeking grace to know and to do that
which is the Savior's will. Consider Christ and gladly surrender
all things to Him to do His will. Let's consider His glory. Consider
what is best for his glory, the interest of his kingdom. I was
speaking with my grandson-in-law just yesterday, or the day before
yesterday, Michael, Amber's husband. You know, they're in Texas now,
Templeton, Texas, just outside of Austin. And he has come to
church here a couple of times back when they first got married.
He showed an interest in what was being said here. I didn't
know it, but he had been listening to messages from other preachers
online. And when he'd come here, he clearly
stated, he goes, wow, there's a big difference from what I'm
hearing from these guys and what you're preaching out of the book
here. There's a big difference here. You're talking about one
who deserves to be called God. Well, his wife wasn't very interested
in the Bible. In fact, she had some other thoughts
about things. I'll just leave those private.
So they stopped going to church. But Michael, I didn't know this,
he still continued to listen. He works in a position now where
he can actually tune in to the radio and listen to messages
while he works on his computer and gets paid for it. How wonderful! So he calls me up a text and
he says, Grandpa, I'm thinking about going back to church again,
King, and I'm looking for a church here in Temple, Texas, or somewhere
close by. Can you help me out and give
me an idea of what to look for? So I talked to him. When I first
got home, I found out what got him back into looking to the
Lord again. And I said, well, I want to begin with this. Do you understand what religion
is? And he said, well, I think so, but go ahead and tell me
what you think it is. I said, religion is nothing more
than humans trying to appease a god of their imagination from the wrath to come. Think
about it. That's the basis for anybody
to have any religious belief at all, isn't it? We're trying
to appease an angry god. We sinned against them. Everybody
knows they sinned. And then I said, and there's
only two types of religions in all the world. You can count
everything in it. Catholicism, Mormonism, Buddhism,
Muslim, whatever. You can get them all in there.
Baptism, Baptism. You can get it all in there.
There's only two types of religion. One of works, by the works of
man, and the other by grace. And I told him right there, I
said, open up your Bible to Ephesians chapter 2. And we read together
verses 8 and 9. How are you saved? By grace. I said, if the preacher doesn't
mention that, then he's not a good preacher. If they ever deter from that,
then they are a false preacher. All of God's preachers preach
grace. Why? Because it gives all the
glory to God and God alone. He will not share His glory with
another. When we go to do anything, And
I didn't say it this way to him, but I kind of said it in a similar
way. When we go to do anything, any
church you go to and listen to somebody preach, the very first
thing you want to do is look and see, am I glorifying God? Am I in a church that glorifies
God? Or are they glorifying men? And
as I spoke to him about these things, he listened, and he goes,
oh, you know what, that church I went to last Sunday, I would
have said at first that that wasn't in any of those two categories
you said, because they didn't talk about works or grace. I
said, but at the end of the meeting, did they offer you an invitation
to be saved? Oh, yes. I said, there you go. There's the works of men. We
come to Christ, there's no doubt about it, but did they tell you
that you can't come to Christ unless He comes to you first?
You know, I'm getting the picture. By the end of our conversation,
I brought it all the way back around to this, and you've heard
me speak about this lately, holier than thou. Are they preaching
holier than thou? I'm getting better. I'm not as
bad a person as I used to be. I turned myself over to God.
I made a decision. Are you getting better? And if
they're preaching that, then they're preaching holier than
thou. And they're taking all the glory away from God. Consider. Consider, if you will, what is
best for His glory. Consider, if you will, the interests
of his kingdom, the service of the gospel, and the welfare of
his people. It's impossible to separate the
glory of Christ from the interests of his kingdom, the service of
the gospel, and the welfare of his people. If the consideration
of these things is the dominant concern of our hearts, we will
not greatly err in our behavior. if He takes those considerations. And oh, how I pray He does. Can you imagine how blessed I
am? To know that my great-granddaughter
and my granddaughter might be influenced by her husband and
her dad who wants to know more about the Lord? Kathy's over
here smiling, she's blessed too! What a hope! What a joy in my
heart to know that I had a chance to speak about my Savior and
glorify Him to Michael. And I just pray Michael, I pray
Michael will take that into consideration. as he looks for something to
satisfy his heart, to satisfy his soul.