Well, I want you to come back
to the start of Hebrews chapter 12. Before rushing on into the
next section about chastisement, as I was preparing for this,
I was kind of arrested by the words in verse three, consider
him, consider him. I just want to spend some time
with you this morning on those two words, consider him. You
see, today is Easter Sunday and even in our godless society,
as I've already said earlier on, there's a lot of religion
around today. You see it in the media, it's
all around. If people go to church at any
time, it will be Christmas and then again at Easter and they'll
go off to their cathedrals and the nice things that they like
and the choirs. What is the authentic experience
of true religion? This is very relevant to the
message of Hebrews. Where is it found, the authentic
experience of true religion? There are many who would say,
the majority would say, that if you come to a little hall
in a little village like this and gather in a room that's comfortable
enough, but there's nothing ornate in any way whatsoever, it's just
an ordinary room, that if you come here, you will not have
an authentic experience of true religion. We're not a proper
church. It doesn't look like a proper
church. You don't have altars, you don't have a priest dressed
in robes, you don't have incense, you don't have stained glass
windows, you don't have any of those things that make up for
an authentic religious experience, a proper church. That's what
they would say. Where is it found, this authentic
experience? You see, In first century Christianity,
which was when Paul was writing the epistle to the Hebrews, in
first century Christianity, was that authentic religious experience
to be found as some of the Hebrews were thinking in a return to
the Old Testament mosaic temple worship and animal sacrifices
and all of those things. Clearly that's what some of them
wanted to do. Just as the Galatians had been bewitched by Judaizers
and wanted to go back to the law and circumcision and all
of those rights. They said belief in Christ is
fine as far as it goes but it's not enough. You need to add all
these laws and religious practices to it. Is that where it was found?
Is that where it was found? You know, the Hebrews thought
it's in the Old Testament, it's in the patriarchs, it's in the
mosaic worship and temple worship. And today, is it found in the
mainstream, I'll call them this for want of a better word, the
mainstream churches, the Catholic church, the Anglican church,
the Baptist church, even reformed evangelical churches up and down
this land. Is that where it's found? The
authentic religious experience of true religion. Well, the message
of Paul to the Hebrews is that Christ has fulfilled all the
types and the shadows, that He is the substance, that He is
the reality, that He is the center of any true saving relationship
with the Eternal God. And what's the point of knowing
God? The devils know that there's a God and they tremble. What's
the point of any true relationship with God unless it's a saving
relationship? One that saves your soul. One
that gives you a lively hope. One that gives you a promise
of eternal joy. One that gives you peace in your
heart now that your sins are forgiven. That the blood of Christ
has cleansed you. This is it. He is the substance,
the center, the reality of any true saving relationship with
the eternal God. And without Christ, there's no
knowledge of God. It's Ichabod. Departed glory. The gospel is gone. You look
at these mainstream religions, there's nothing in it. There's
no hope of eternity without Christ and without hope in this world.
not only did every Old Testament priestly and temple worship type
you know they were all types pictures not only did they point
to and find their fulfillment in Christ but the very heroes
if I can call them that of the Jewish faith the ones that these
Hebrew believers wanted to go back to and say now they've got
the real authentic gold standard faith even those heroes They
lived their lives by faith, for the just shall live by faith,
the justified shall live by faith. And they knew, those, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, they knew the reality of salvation, the
truth, the real experience of salvation. How? Not in just the
outward forms, but in what the outward forms pointed to. The
reality of Christ. They looked to Christ. They lived
by faith. Abraham lived by faith, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. So did all of them. All of those mentioned in chapter
11. And the Christian life, as we saw last week, is likened
to a race. Run the race that is set before
us. Because we've got this crowd of witnesses around us, run the
race that is set before us. For most, it's a long-distance
race. For the thief on the cross, it was a very short race. For
others that we know, it has been a very short race. But for most,
it's more like a long-distance race than a sprint. It requires
endurance. It requires determination. patience,
single-mindedness, laying aside, as verse one has already told
us, laying aside every weight, everything that would impede
your progress. Think about the things in this
life that would impede your progress to the knowledge of God and the
reality, the realization of salvation in eternity. Laying those things
aside. Laying aside the sin that so
easily besets us. And there's one sin that so easily
besets all the people of God. It's the sin which is most prevalent
in the flesh. It's the sin of unbelief. That's
the besetting sin. And looking unto Jesus with eyes
fixed on Him as the goal. Eyes fixed on Him. Motivated
by Him. Taught by Him. constrained by
his love in everything that we do, looking away from ourself
and the circumstances that we're in, to him, in everything, whether
it's family distractions, whether it's anxieties of this, that,
or the other, looking unto Jesus. Where is he now? Look at verse
2. Verse two, 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. Where is he now?
He's set down at the right hand of the throne of God, having
completed such an ordeal, laying aside his glory, coming to this
earth, suffering all that he did, for the joy that was sat
before him, for the promise of the joy that what he did would
accomplish. That's where he is. He's there.
Look unto him. Where are we now? Where are we,
his believing people, now? We're in this flesh. We're in
the world for a while. In the world for a while, either
until we die or until he comes again to take those who are still
alive to be with him. And in this flesh, we're often
tempted to give up. We're often doubting. We're often
striving with sin. We're often experiencing trials. We're often experiencing the
chastisement of our Heavenly Father, who chastises His children
because He loves them, and for their eternal good. All things
work together for good to those that love God, who are called
according to His purpose. That's where we are now, in this
veil of tears, in this flesh. He is there in glory, and the
exhortation to us is this, consider Him, consider Him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest where you
are now, ye be wearied and faint in your minds, because you're
so prone to it. Lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. This
is the exhortation. Consider him. Stop a minute. Yes, we're in a race, but just
stop a minute and consider him. Think about him. It's revision
time. You know, I imagine lots of exam
classes are doing revision time now. Pause for a moment to consider
and meditate. What think ye of Christ? This
is the test. Who is he? What has he done? Why has he done it? This is what
I want us to consider this morning. I'm probably, for most of you
here, not going to tell you anything that you don't know well, but
the scripture tells us, consider him. There shouldn't be a day
goes by when we don't consider these things. There shouldn't
be a minute of what we do in every situation where we're not
conscious of the reality of these things. Who he is, what he has
done, and why he has done it. Who is he? Some of you will have
seen the leaflet that I sent out by email and some of you
have had an earlier version for a long time but it was preparing
this message that prompted me to revise it and make it more
relevant. What I do is I keep a pile of
them next to the front door and when the Jehovah's Witnesses
call and they offer their literature, I say, okay, I'll accept what
you're giving me on one condition, that you take one of these and
you promise to go away. Some do, some the other day did,
Others won't touch it. There was one couple turned up
on the doorstep and it was almost as if I was giving them something
poisoned. I mean, it was like, they shrunk
back from it. They just wouldn't even touch
it. As if a thunderbolt would come down and strike them that
moment for taking it. They just wouldn't touch it. Thinking about this caused me
to revise it because it's, who is Jesus Christ? This is the
test. This is the crux of the matter. It doesn't matter what
you think, ultimately, about the 144,000 and when the world's
going to end and all of these things that the Jehovah's Witnesses
make such a thing about. What matters is what think ye
of Christ. Who is he? He's eternal God. This is it. This is the key thing.
He is eternal God made man. He is the mystery of God revealed,
the unknowable God revealed. This is what he is. Let me remind
you, because we're considering, let me remind you of some scriptures.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. He was in the beginning with
God, and this Word became flesh. John tells us in verse 14, this
Word became flesh, the Word which was God, I can't understand that,
it's too big for my feeble puny little brain, the Word who is
God was made flesh, born as a baby, of a virgin mother, born of a
baby in poverty circumstances and grew as a man in this veil
of tears, this veil of sin. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us and the disciples said who lived with him so intimately
for that three and a half years, we beheld his glory. This man
who Isaiah tells us has no comeliness that we should desire him, a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and they beheld in
this man the glory of God, we beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. For
the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man, John goes on to say, has seen God at any time. We can't. He's unknowable. He's
the invisible God. He dwells in unapproachable light.
No man shall see me and live, said God from Sinai. No man has
seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in
the bosom of the Father, the very essence of the Father, He
has revealed Him. So why were the parents of Samson,
when they thought they were going to die, because they said, oh
woe is us, we've seen the Lord, we're going to die. Why did they
not? Because it was Christ that they saw. Why did Isaiah not
die when he saw Christ in the temple? Isaiah 6, his glory filled
the temple. It was Christ that he saw, we
know that from John 12. This is the eternal God. Who is he? Consider him. Consider
him who is seated in glory now, having accomplished his work.
And we're here with all of these temptations and trials and difficulties,
consider Him. He who was man was God. He is,
as Romans 9 verse 5 says, Christ over all, God blessed forever. Could anything be clearer? The
words are so clear. He is Christ over all, God blessed
forever. Titus, Paul to Titus, talks of
Him as our great God and Savior. He's our great God and Savior.
He is our great God and Savior. In 1st John, chapter 5 and verse
7, and this is why, you know, this is why I think the King
James Version, one of the reasons, is the right version to have
and to use, because all other versions water this down and
distort it and twist it and use the wrong versions of the original
texts to translate from, and they try and make it say what
it doesn't say. What it says is that there are three in heaven
that bear witness, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and
these three are one. The word Trinity is never used
anywhere in the Bible, but that verse alone makes it abundantly
clear that God is three persons in one. There is one God manifested
in three persons, Father, Word, and Son, and this one Our Lord
Jesus, who came as a man, is the second person of that Trinity.
He is, you know all the names of Jehovah, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah
Tzidkenu, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah, all of those names of God, He
is Jehovah Jesus. He is the Lord, our Savior, Jehovah
Jesus. He dwells in the bosom of the
Father. He shares the Father's glory. God is very jealous of
his glory. He will not share it with another.
He tells us that in Isaiah 42. He says he will not share his
glory with another because he's the infinite God, the only God. And Jesus, the man, prayed to
his father, restore to me that glory which I had with you from
before the beginning. When he was a man, John 17 verse
5, restore to me that glory which God says he will not share with
another. Who must he be? He must be God. How could he possibly ask for
that glory to be shared with him if he were not its rightful
owner? He thought it not robbery, says
Paul to the Philippians, to be equal with God, because he took
nothing away from God that wasn't his, our Lord Jesus Christ. A
distinct person, yet the same divine essence. He is God, our
Redeemer. in Isaiah 43, those verses there,
turn with me there, Isaiah 43 and verse 10 to 14. Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and
believe me and understand that I am he. Do you know, I think
this is Jesus saying, I am God. I am your Savior God. Before
me there was no God formed. Neither shall there be after
me. I, even I, am the Lord. He's our Lord Jesus Christ. And beside me there is no Savior,
no other Savior. God is the Savior of His people.
I have declared and have saved and I have showed. When there
was no strange God among you, you see, the people might have
said, ah, here's one claiming to be God walking among us. No,
God says, this is no strange God. This is the God-man. the one who is God walking amongst
his people. Say to the cities of Judah, behold
your God. Make straight his paths, he's
coming. Therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it? This is our God. There's no God
besides him. There's no sub-God. It's not
as if he is an under-God or a second-rate God. He is God come in flesh. He's God our creator. our Creator. You know, Isaiah saw His glory,
the glory of God in the temple in Isaiah 6, and we know it was
Him that he saw because John 12 tells us that this was Christ
that he saw. He saw His glory. He's God, our
Creator. We've already said John 1, He
made all things and without Him was nothing made that was made.
How could He be a created being if nothing that was made was
made without Him? He made all things. By Him, the
worlds were made, Hebrews 1 tells us. By Him, the worlds were made.
Colossians 1.15 tells us that Christ created everything. By
the Lord Jesus Christ, God created all things. He is God. This one that we're to consider.
Consider Him. He is God. Become man. The God-man to save His people. Isaiah 7 verse 14. You know these verses are always
quoted at Christmas time. But this is the promise of the
Messiah coming. That a man born of a virgin would
be Immanuel. And Immanuel means God with us. That's his name. God with us. God walking this earth. God come,
partaking of the children's flesh, becoming one of us in order to
save his people from their sins. Chapter 9 and verse 6 of Isaiah,
a man, a man a son born, a child born, a son given, a man who
is mighty God, who is everlasting Father. And we're told to behold
your God in Isaiah 40. Say to the cities of Judah, behold
your God. He is our God. He is the one
who walked this earth. He is the God of the universe.
He is the shepherd of his people. God says, I am the shepherd.
In that same chapter, Isaiah 40, God calls himself the shepherd
of his people. And John chapter 10, Jesus says,
I am the good shepherd. Everything that God is, our Lord
Jesus Christ is. Yet he was in the form of a man.
He was that which he was not. He became. When he was born of
a virgin, he became that which he had not been before. He'd
always been from eternity. the infinite God. But at Bethlehem,
the infinite God in the person of his Son became a man, that
he might walk this earth, that he might partake of the flesh
of the children as Hebrews 2 tells us, that he might save his people
from their sins. Christ is the God whom the Israelites
tempted in the wilderness. If you read in Numbers 21, it
says there that the Israelites tempted God. And if you read
what Paul says about that in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 9, those
Israelites were tempting Christ in the wilderness. The rock that
they smote in the wilderness, that rock was Christ. He is the
God who purchased His church with His own blood. God, it says,
in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, He is God, and God purchased
the church with his own blood. God purchased his church with
human blood. How did he do that? He became
a man that he might do that. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. Without him is nothing. He is
the source of life. He is the source of time. He
is the source of existence. the beginning and the end, the
God who alone can forgive sins. This is what they said to him
when he said to the people, Jesus, when he walked this earth and
he said, son, your sins are forgiven you, to this one and to that
one. And they said, the Pharisees, who is this that is forgiving
sins? This is blasphemy. Only God can
forgive sins. Yes, that's right. He was God,
forgiving sins with a word. He is the one to whom every knee
shall bow. Isaiah 45 talks about God. That's the chapter which finishes
with, look to me all ye ends of the earth and be ye safe for
I am God and there is no other. And it goes on about every knee
bowing to God. Every knee. And Philippians 2
says it's Christ to whom every knee shall bow. He is the God
to whom every knee. He is the one who has a name
which is above every name. You think, in the reckoning of
God, what must by definition be the highest name in the universe?
It must be the name of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has a name
which is above every name. How can that be if he is not
the infinite God? He is the one by whom alone sinners
are able to see God the Father. Show us the Father, and it suffices
us. Show us the Father, and that
will do for us, that will be enough for us, said Philip in
John 14, verse 6. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Show us
the Father, and that will suffice us. Philip, have I been so long
with you, and yet you have not seen me. whoever has seen me
said, this man, can you imagine being in the presence of that
man, Jesus. This one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus, when he said these words, whoever
has seen me has seen the Father. And the disciples didn't say,
oh no, come off it, we've been with you, we know what you're
really like, we know you. We know what you're really like
in private. No, no. They said their testimony was,
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. No sin, no guile was in his mouth. No, the one who walked this earth
as a man displayed the power of God. This man who looked so
weak in so many situations. who looked so pathetic to the
eyes of the authorities. He who walked this earth as a
man displayed the power of God. Do you remember when he went
into the temple in John chapter 2 and he cleared the temple?
How did he do that other than by the power of God? That was
a miracle. He had power over demons, over
evil spirits. He spoke a word. They were terrified. They said, what are we to do
with you, oh, you son of God? Please leave us alone. Let us
do what we really want to do. Who else has ever spoken a word
to the weather? Who else has ever spoken a word
to the weather? And it did what he said. When
the storm was raging, he said, peace, be still. And they were
amazed. They said, who is it? Who can
do this? It's God alone can do this. He had power over those
things. He had power over physical infirmities,
over diseases. He had power even over death.
When he raised Jairus' daughter, when he raised to life others
and cried out to Lazarus, Lazarus come forth. He had power over
death. For he is the resurrection and
the life. He's the one who is worshipped
by angels. Hebrews 1 verse 6, let the angels
of God worship Him. Consider Him. He's in glory. He's sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. He's in that most glorious place.
Consider Him. Look to Him. Run the race looking
unto Him. He's worshipped by angels. He
was worshipped by that doubting disciple who said, I won't believe
unless I see. I won't believe he's risen from
the dead unless I see the marks of the cross, the nails. And
Jesus appeared and said, Thomas, come here. Come and have a look.
Come and see. See the nail prints in my hands.
See the nail prints. See the sword mark in my side. Don't be doubting, but believing.
And what did Thomas do? fell to his knees before him,
my Lord and my God. You know in Revelation, when
one of the elders, one of the angels comes and says to John,
and John is so overcome by the sight, he bows down and worships
him. And the angel or the elder says, don't do it, please don't
do it, don't do it, we're just like you, worship God. And when
Thomas worshiped Jesus, he accepted that worship as fully his right,
for he is who he says he is. He's worshiped by saints in glory. Perpetual worship. We've just
seen in Isaiah 66, this is the destiny. You say, oh, church
gets a bit boring when it goes on. Next two weeks time on Saturday,
we're going to have five sermons on a Saturday. Can you think
of that? Five sermons on a Saturday? Oh dear, that's going to take
some, tolerating, isn't it? Five sermons on a Saturday. Well,
I love hearing preaching when it's full of Christ and the people
of God love hearing preaching, but I know what many people think
of preaching and how boring they find it. And I tell you, I've
heard plenty of boring preaching in my time as well that I could
have done without hearing. But the saints in glory are going
to love the worship of God. It's going to be their greatest
delight. It's going to be the constant theme of heaven. It's
going to be that that thrills them more than anything you can
imagine thrilling you in this life. It's going to be the delight
of the people of God. In Revelation 5, they cry, worthy
is the Lamb to receive honor and majesty and praise. This
is who He is. Consider Him. You cannot think
too highly of him. You cannot put him on too high
a pedestal in your thoughts. He is above all things. In all
things it was the will of the Father, says Paul to the Colossians,
that he should have the preeminence in all things. What has he done? Secondly, what has he done? Philippians
2, you know these verses, verses 5 to 11, let this mind be in
you that was also in Christ, who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he laid aside
that glory for a time, for a little while, made lower than the angels,
he came down to this earth, he walked this earth, he suffered
temptation, he suffered sorrow as a man, he suffered hunger
and tiredness as a man, all of the things, all of the feelings
and infirmities that we suffer, yet not once with sin, for he
was God. in all of his righteousness he
was God and therefore he perfectly obeyed the law of God and he
perfectly fulfilled all types and all shadows of him in the
Old Testament law. This man of sorrows taking on
him the flesh of the children that he might save the children
from their sins and he came down from heaven We ought to listen
to Him. For He came down from heaven.
He came declaring the truth of God as one come down from heaven. Who are you going to listen to?
Oh, well, I think this and I think that. He came down from heaven.
He knows the truth of God. He is the truth of God. He declares
the truth of God. He knows all of these things.
He preached the kingdom of God. What does that mean? He preached.
He went about preaching the kingdom of God. This was his ministry.
It means this. He preached what God was doing
in a substitute to save a people for his own glory. He manifested
the grace and truth of God to sinners in the gospel of his
grace. This is what he did in preaching the kingdom. And he
endured, it says in verse three of Hebrews 12, he endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself. Consider him who endured. You're having a tough time in
this world. You're having trials and difficulties
and chastisements and problems and doubts and all sorts of things
that would knock you off course, but consider him who suffered,
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, such
contradiction. In his birth, no room for him
in the inn, just a stable, just the poverty-stricken circumstances.
Probably before that, his virgin mother His virgin mother, before
ever he was born, no doubt was regarded with contempt by her
society as a woman pregnant out of wedlock in those days. She
would have been treated with contempt. In his birth he endured
such contradiction from sinners. Herod sought his death and in
so doing killed all the babies under two years old when the
wise men came. In his birth he endured it. In
his family, where he grew up, perfectly obeying the law of
God, never once sinning, never once giving anyone any cause
to hate him or despise him, yet he suffered such contradiction
of sinners against himself. Those who were his brethren in
the flesh, the physical children of Joseph and Mary after he was
born, conceived of the Holy Ghost but after that Joseph and Mary
had more children he had brethren he had brothers and sisters and
they didn't believe him and they said to him you want to make
a name for yourself go up to the feast and it says in the
gospel account they didn't believe in him some later did James was
the brother of Jesus and he was a believer and a pillar in the
church and wrote some of the scriptures But mostly his family
contradicted him. He suffered contradiction from
Satan. You think you might have suffered
temptation, but he suffered appalling temptation and yet resisted. He resisted all the way to blood. He went to the cross of Calvary,
obedient unto death. He suffered from the religious
authorities. who persecuted him, who opposed
him, who sought his death from his kinsmen at Nazareth when
he went and they gave him the scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth
and then he told them about how God had dealt with people in
the past and because of that they so hated him that they took
him to throw him off a cliff nearby to kill him from the Roman
soldiers he suffered contradiction Always resisting temptation as
a man. Always resisting right unto the
blood of the cross to which he was obedient. Obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Verse 2 tells us, he endured
the cross, despising the shame. The shame because it is a shameful
death. It was the punishment reserved
for the worst in society. A shameful death. It was a curse. He bore the curse for his people. obedient under death, made sin
for his people, he who knew no sin. What agonies he went through
in bearing that sin when he sweat as it were drops of blood in
the Garden of Eden before he went to the cross, bearing the
sin of his people, the sin debt that he might pay it, redeeming
them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them,
says Galatians 3.13. He has redeemed us, being made
a curse for us. For cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree, on the cross of wood. He hung on that cross of wood,
made a curse for his people. With the wrath of God falling
on the sin of his people that he bore, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. He shed his precious blood, the
price of the sin debt. And he finished the work of redemption. For God raised him from the dead.
He gave testimony to the validity of the payment of the sin debt
in that he raised him from the dead. And it was on that resurrection
morning they went to the tomb expecting to find him, to embalm
the body, to take care, and he wasn't there. He's risen. He's
not here. And so it is, the testimony remains
true for us. He who walked this earth, who
bore his people's sins to pay the sin debt, rose from the dead. God raised him for the justification
of his people. And he sat down in glory, ascended
on high. Consider him in all of your difficulties
in all of your trials. Why has he done it? Verse two,
for the joy that was set before him. What was the joy? It was
the salvation of his people. This is why he came. To save
those the father had given him. they couldn't go to heaven they
were sinners like everybody else they were children of wrath as
the others he must come and save them and though he was rich though
he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor says Paul that
ye through his poverty might be rich you might have the riches
of salvation in him This was the joy that sustained him. In
all his soul's trouble, in all his sorrow, in all his agony,
it was the joy of saving his people. This is why he went through
all that he went through. Read Isaiah 53, read the culmination
of it in verses 10 and 11, about the satisfaction of saving that
people. Read what the Psalms say. Lift
up your heads, O ye gates, and be lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. The Lord of hosts shall come
in with his people. Behold, I and the children. This
is his joy. This is the joy that was set
before him, to save his people, that he might have a people with
him for eternity, who are saved. that heaven might resound with
the praises of those people that He has saved. This is the joy
that was set before Him. Consider Him who has done so
much that you might be saved if you believe in Him. So let's
just apply it. In your troubles, in your doubts,
in your fears, consider Him. Consider Him. Keep Him ever in
your soul's view, in every circumstance of life. was you walk in his
steps. Walk in his steps. Inquire of
him in all things. You know in the Old Testament
so often we read about people either inquiring or not inquiring
of the Lord. Inquire of him. Look into him. Walk in all things looking to
him, the author and finisher of your salvation. Consider him. this is what the scriptures exhort
us to do, if so be that you're saved consider him now and always
as you run the race that is set before us