in the book of Hebrews, both
hours, if you would like to turn to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews
chapter 12. The writer here tells us, as
we heard last Sunday, to consider, consider Jesus Christ, consider
him who Let's read that. Verse three,
for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
So the wording consider him is the encouragement to prevent
us from becoming weary and fainting in our minds. That's the solution.
So the problem is, as we become weary and faint, why? We're not
looking to Christ. We're not looking, so consider
him. Consider him. So we have a solution, if you
will, a solution by way of encouragement from the writer here. Now he
begins pointing out the walk of every believer, every child
of God, every elect of God, the walk. How do we live? We live
looking. And he talks about the correction
of the Lord, the correction of the Lord towards his people.
I remember. In false religion, and I know
other religions are the same way, correction is a form of
punishment because of sin that's committed. It is an action brought
upon a certain individual when they don't dot every I and cross
every T, or they don't adhere to the rules and the standards
of the church that they're attending. They use religious piety, much
like the Pharisees did when they brought the woman called an adultery
to the Lord. And he tried to challenge the
Lord and said, she needs to be stoned. According to the law,
she needs to be stoned. And he said, let him without
sin cast the first stone. And he began writing in the sand
with his finger. You remember that? And one at
a time, they left starting with the oldest down to the youngest. And the Lord looked around and
said, where's that accusers? And she said, well, they're gone.
And he said, well, neither do I condemn thee. Go thy way and
sin no more. That's mercy and grace, isn't
it? Being found guilty, yet not having to suffer the punishment
do us, because the Lord took our place. Lord's showing us
this correction is not for punishment. It's not for, Lord doesn't get
pleasure out of punishment. He says he gets pleasure, he
gets, He delights in showing mercy. He delights in showing
mercy. Sometimes correction can be grievous,
especially when we succumb to unbelief. And we often do that,
don't we? We get overtaken with unbelief
and it's grievous because where the scripture says, one place
you can read it says, he was betwixt two is a rock and a hard
place is the way we put it. And that's how we feel sometimes. We feel trapped, we feel stuck,
we feel powerless. That's a good place to be. It
might not feel like a good place to be, but that's a really good
place to be. If you're powerless, you need somebody that has all
the power. Who's that gonna be? You can't look to your right
hand, as we've heard on Wednesday nights, or you can't look to your left
hand. Who's it gonna be? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are made over and over again to look to him. The good news
of the gospel is not, if you'll try a little harder, everything
will get better. No, the good news of the gospel is what the
Lord told Peter. Satan hath desired you, Peter,
that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that
your faith fail not. That's the good news. If he prayed
for you and he's prayed for me, the faith that he's given will
not fail. He won't leave us to ourself. He'll bring us back
to him. Just as he did Peter, Peter departed for a time after
he denied the Lord, affiliation with the Lord. He went fishing.
He said, well, I'm just gonna go back to doing what I know. He left the
gospel ministry and went back fishing. And the funniest part
to me is he went back, like all the way back to how he used to
do it. He didn't have any clothes on out there on the boat. I mean,
he was really experiencing fishing like he used to. He's like, this
is as good as it's gonna get. My Lord's dead. I've denied him.
I'm deserving of hell, there's no hope for me. And he saw the
Lord on the shore and he knew it was him from a great distance
off. And what did he do? Well, first thing he did, he
grabbed his coat. And the next thing he did is
he jumped in the water and he swam to the Lord. And as he's talking
to the Lord, the Lord says to him, Peter, do you love me? Think
about that question. If you had denied the Lord, denied
affiliation with him, I don't know what you're talking about.
I don't know. I'm not with, I'm not with them.
I don't. The Lord says, do you love me?
Oh, Lord, you know, you know, I love you, but I can't have
confidence in my love for you. It caused me to deny you. I need
you to love me with an everlasting love and give me love for you.
If you don't give me that, I will forsake you. He said, feed my
sheep. He was telling him, your feelings
are irrelevant. If you love me, feed my sheep.
If you do love me, it'll come out in action. We feed one another,
don't we? We point one another to the Lord
every chance that we get. That's the glorious part about
being brethren in Christ is that we point one another to him. That's our help. That's where
our strength comes from as the Lord. Lord asked him again, do
you love me? And he said, Lord, you know I
love you. He said, feed my sheep. And the third time it grieved
Peter. It grieved Peter. Do you love me, Peter? And he
said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. You know
I love you. He said, then feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. Stop worrying
about your sin and what you've done. I've taken that and put
it away. Stop looking for evidence in your life as whether you love
me or not, because you're going to let yourself down in that
regard. Look to Christ, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And that is the instruction of
our Lord. That is the correction. That's
how he teaches his people, is look to Christ over and over
again. Now let's read this text, Hebrews chapter 12, verse one.
We're foreseeing, We also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. How do we do that? He tells us in verse two, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of 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. For consider
him that endeared such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not resisted
unto blood striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord. Nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? Notice in verse four, he says
these words. Ye have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. I've titled this message, Woe
is Me. Woe is Me. He says, you've not resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. What he's saying is, is
you have it much better than you think you do. And he's given
a reference to those who in olden times, or before this was written,
in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the ones that
had strove against sin, they strived against sin, and the
Lord kept them, looking unto him. And they had to lay down
their life. They had to lay down their life
because of it. They died. They shed their blood. Someone
shed their blood because they were not willing to bow down
to false gods. They were not willing to turn
their back on the gospel. They were not willing to depart
from the truth. They stood firm, just like Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. But the Lord didn't allow them
to die in the fiery furnace. He brought them out. Daniel was
the same way. He continued to pray. The Lord
brought him out of the lion's den. But there was some men John
the Baptist is a good example. They beheaded him. Stephen's
a good example. They stoned him to death. He
said, you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. You
haven't had to do that yet. Even though you're full of unbelief
and you're full of wavering and this and that, you're full of
discouraging hardships that you're facing, you've not resisted unto
blood striving against sin. You've forgotten the exhortation
that I've given you. That's what he says next. You
forgot the exhortation. That whom that speaketh unto
you as children, my son despise not thou the chastening of the
Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. These men that he's referring
to were martyrs of the Lord. Martyrs of the Lord. He's saying
you're not a martyr. You have it better than you think
you do. See, we live in a time in a society where everybody
has an attitude, woe is me. I'm entitled. I deserve better. We know that's true, don't we?
Honestly, just in the last few years, that's increased abundantly
just for certain circumstances that happen. I don't need to
name them. It's just everything that's happened. It seems like everybody's more
entitled, more about themselves. And now we have ways of ordering
something, and it'll be there at your house the same day sometimes.
I mean, that's instant gratification. And I'm not picking on anybody
in particular, but I'm telling us. that this is the mentality
of our society now. And so whenever things don't
go our way according to the flesh, is it not true that we don't
bow usually, we bow up? And bow and bow is spelled the
same exact way, B-O-W. That's what our flesh likes to
do is bow up. And the Lord is going to make
us bow if we're his. He's going to stop us, say, no,
I'm not gonna let you do that. I'm going to keep you looking
to Christ. And thank God he does, because
if we were left to our flesh, is it not true? That's all we
would do is just bow up. We would just resist. We would
shake our fist to heaven. We would. But he keeps his people. He keeps us looking unto the
Lord. That's why it says, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, because if he chastening you, he's dealing
with you as sons. He's dealing with you as daughters.
He's dealing with you as his children. He reminds them of this past
exhortation, this encouragement, whom the Lord loves he chasteneth.
All of these admonitions are just different ways of saying
the same thing. No matter the circumstance, no matter the trial,
no matter the tribulation, no matter the pain, no matter the
sorrow, no matter the heartache, no matter what it is that you're
facing, no matter what it is, our holiness, our path, our pursuit
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's it. That's it. You won't find any comfort, any
rest, any hope, anything to glory in other than the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason I titled this message,
Woe is Me, I've already mentioned One mentality of having woe is
me, but the Lord's people, there's two types of people in the world.
They're the Lord's people and those that are not the Lord's
people, those that are not chosen unto eternal life, those who
the Lord leaves to themselves. They're the elect and there's
the lost. Now it's important that we understand
those that profess the gospel, our believing doesn't cause a
haughty attitude where we are entitled. It doesn't, well, I've
been elected. I've been, you won't hear a believer
that's been called of God ever say that. Matter of fact, the
fear of the believer, the only ones that really fear not being
the Lord is the believer. Because we see our sin before
us. That's why we have to come and hear again. Tell me the good
news. Tell me my sin's been put away. Tell me that Christ was
successful when he redeemed his people. I need to hear that again.
Because I see myself and I see my sin and how wretched and vile
I am. And the Lord said, just like
he said to David, fear not. I've put away your sin. You shall
not die. You shall not die. Now, we don't have a haughty,
self-righteous attitude. We don't think that we're better
than others. We preach the only gospel that truly is the gospel
of love, how God really loves people, his people, and how he
really sent forth his son to redeem those people. He didn't
try. That's love. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. That's love. That's, this
is, it's the only love gospel. There's only one. No, we don't
have a haughty, self-righteous attitude. To the contrary, it
gives the attitude of who am I? That thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am. That's what Mephibosheth said.
That's what Mephibosheth said. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips. That's what Isaiah said. Job
said, behold, I'm vile. I'm gonna put my hands over my
mouth not to talk anymore. I thought this and I thought
that and I'm wrong. The prodigal son came to himself.
He said, there's servants in my father's house that can eat,
but they have good food to eat. Maybe I can go back and he'll
just let me be a servant. My father put a ring on his finger
and a robe on his back. The Lord's people have the mentality
by God's grace, by faith bestowed of humility. We're humble before
our Father. We're humble before our Lord.
We're not halty. I know something you don't know.
That's false religion. That's self-righteousness is all that
that is. No, we don't have that attitude at all. We look at others
and we have compassion and pity upon them because we see, Lord,
if you leave me to myself, I'm gonna be worse than them. I'm
gonna be worse than them. Matter of fact, a lot of times
we think, well, I'm no better than they are, but for the grace
of God, there go I. Is that not what we believe? Who am I that the sovereign creator
would choose to think on me or you in love, in compassion, in
grace, in mercy? We're talking about God. Who
am I that he would come to where we are and condescend, become
a man and die for his people, be crucified hung without clothing
upon the cross before the entire world completely exposed. Oh,
when we start seeing us, how undone we are and the sin that
we are, we don't say, woe is me, I deserve better. We say,
woe is me, I'm undone. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Have mercy on me, the sinner. And on the other side of that,
there's those that say the same words, and that's usually the
case. When you find the false gospel, there's not much that
changes word-wise. Satan only added one word in
the garden to change every word God said into a lie, and it was
the word not. The Lord said, the day you eat of this tree,
ye shall surely die, period. Satan said, the Lord knows the
day that you eat of this tree, ye shall not surely die. One
word, one word, it's subtle. It's subtle, but in this case,
it's the exact same word, just like bow and bow is spelled the
same. It's woe is me, but it's not woe is me in humility and
woe is me as in contrition and repentance and faith looking
to Christ saying, Lord, have mercy upon me and begging, being
a mercy beggar. It's woe is me, I'm entitled. I deserve more. I've done this
and I've done that and I deserve this. That's the human mentality. That's human mentality. There's a message that's preached
today that God has a plan for your life. That he wants to have
a personal relationship with you if you'll just let him. But
that's not true. That's not true. God doesn't
want for anything. And God doesn't plan. He purposes. He purposes all things according
to his will. A plan can actually unfold and
unravel and fall apart. Not our Lord. So if we, if we're
talking about that, he doesn't plan. Now, if we're just going
to say that he framed the worlds and he chose to do so, but he
planned to do so. And he did that. I can understand
that understanding, but I purpose is much better. Don't you think?
I think so. He purposed it because it can't be thwarted. It can't
be distracted or destroyed, or he purposed. Men believe that you can have
health, wealth, and prosperity if you just believe a little
more. But that's not the promise of the word of God. That's man's
desire for the flesh. Man's desire for the flesh. That's
one of the many lies of the adversary that would just mean that I could
constrain God. You know what constrain means?
It means I could obligate him to do something for me. That's
silly. You won't find that in the scripture.
You'll see the Lord, the ones that he helped was the mercy
beggars. The one that came to him and said, Lord, I'm undone.
I need your help. I need your strength. I need
your power. I need your wisdom. I need you. I need your righteousness. I don't have any righteousness.
I need your holiness. I'm a sinner. That's who the
Lord helped. And the only way a man or a woman
will ever come to that understanding is if the Lord does that for
them. If the Lord gives them repentance and faith towards
God, gives them the ability to say, woe is me, I'm undone. I
saw the Lord high. and lifted up and he was seated
and his train filled the temple and I realized, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell with the people of unclean lips. It's not just them, that's
what Isaiah was doing is he was complaining about everybody.
He was saying, Lord, they're not doing this and they're not
doing that and they are doing this and they are doing that
and it's just frustrating and I'm just, I've had enough. And
then he saw the Lord. And he said, you know, they're
not the problem anymore. I'm the problem. And that's what
the Lord does for his people. Woe is me. I'm undone. I have no righteousness. I have no way to approach you.
You're going to destroy me for what I am. Lord, have mercy on
me, the sinner. This is the plea for every one
of God's people. No, we don't pretend. And that's
what these people are doing. Sadly, I say sadly, because these
poor souls, if they're left to their self, they'll stand before
God and say, Lord, I've done this and I've done this and I've
done that. And the Lord's going to say, depart from me. You just
worked iniquity. I never knew you. That's scary,
isn't it? Lord, don't let us don't let
us be that way. They'll have the woe is me mentality
right before God say I deserve heaven because of what I've done.
Like he's some kind of a genie. That's how people act. He's some
kind of a genie that they get to make wishes off of and he's
obligated to help them because of what they've done. No, the
contract was between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. It
was a covenant of grace before time ever began. We're just the
benefactors of it. We cannot constrain Him. We cannot
restrain Him. We can't make Him do anything
and we can't prevent Him from doing anything. He's God. He's
God, absolutely sovereign. This is why we must be taught
of the Lord. If we don't, we'll have a pity party. Job had a
pity party. Remember about Job, don't you?
One of the men, I mean, he suffered persecution. I mean, he had a
lot of tribulation that happened. I'll remind us of the story.
He had many flocks and herds and he had cattle, camels. He had all kinds. I mean, we're
talking hundreds and thousands of different animals. He was
the richest man in the world at that time, they say. I don't know
how that And for me, he was very rich, we know that. Somebody
said the richest man in the world. I don't know how Bible scholars
come up with that. But anyways, take it for what it is. You can
believe everything on Google, right? No, you can't. He was a very wealthy man. And
the Lord took everything from him. And one day, 10 children
died one day. Wind blew, the house fell down.
He lost all the cattle. He lost all the herds. He lost
all the flocks one day. Different nations came and took
this and took this, took this, and he was left to himself with
his wife. That was it. And Satan said, well, the only
reason he hasn't cursed you now is because you have a hedge about
him still, and you haven't let me touch him. He said, OK, well,
you can touch him. You just can't kill him. And Satan put boils
on him, sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his
feet. And he was in pain. You know what it is to have constant
pain, some of us. You ever had something broken or something
Even pulled muscles can be difficult, but he was covered all over,
didn't have no relief. They didn't have lidocaine back
in the numb stuff. You know what I mean? You understand
what I'm saying? He was hurting. And his wife comes up to him
and says to him, why don't you just curse God and die? Why don't
you just curse God and die? And Job said, you speak as a
foolish woman. You speak as a foolish woman. I won't do that. But Job
had Three friends that came to him that are terrible examples
of friends, but they weren't friends. They were whatever you
want to call them. I don't even know. If you had friends like
that, you don't need many enemies. That's the point I'm making.
And they came to him and said, Job, you've done this wrong,
and you've done this wrong, and you've done this wrong. And Job's like, I
didn't do anything wrong. And he's justifying himself.
He's saying, I didn't do that wrong, I didn't do that wrong.
If I'd have done that wrong, then God would have been right
in what he did. But I didn't do that. And I didn't do this. And he justifies himself, and
he justifies himself, and he justifies himself. And all three
of these men, and he looks at them, he's like, you know, you're
not helping me at all. You've been no help to me whatsoever.
You've told me I'm the problem, and I've done nothing. But then
Elihu, The preacher of the gospel starts talking to Job. And for
a chapter or two, he tells him all about the gospel. He tells him all about the Lord.
And before Job can even respond, God starts talking. Job, gird
up thy loins like a man does, for I'm going to require an answer
of you. You're going to answer me. I'm
going to ask you some questions. You've been asking me all these
questions. I'm going to ask you some questions. Oh my goodness.
Can you imagine the Lord saying that to you and I? My little
pea brain and the creator of the universe is going to ask
me questions? How am I going to answer those questions? Well,
Job found out pretty quick. He didn't know nothing. Everything
he thought he knew, he was wrong. The Lord said, where were you
when I laid the foundation of the world? Where were you when
I hung the stars in the sky and divided the sands from the sea?
Where were you when I formed the mountains, whenever I formed
the valleys and I created everything? Tell me, Job. Tell me. He kept
going for three chapters. Job finally answers and said,
I'm going to put my hands over my mouth and I'm not going to
talk anymore. Behold, I am vile. I am vile. See, that's the correction
of the Lord. He changed his mind. He changed
his mind. Second hour, and I'm trying not
to preach both at the same time, but the second hour we're going
to talk about the Lord's The chastening, we're gonna talk
about the Lord's chastening. And it's, I've titled that message, Whom
the Lord Loveth. Whom the Lord Loveth. So I'm trying not to,
and I may have just stepped all over the second one, I don't
know, but that's okay. But it's the same thing, Joe had the mentality,
they go together. It's still the same thing, that
he had the woe is me mentality to begin with, but then it changed
to woe is me in a different way, didn't it? Before it was woe
is me, I deserve better. I don't deserve this. I don't
deserve. And then it was, I deserve much
worse. Woe is me, I'm undone. Woe is me, I'm a sinner. I need
a savior, I need a substitute, I need a surety, I need a heavenly
father to rescue me. That's the plea, that's the difference
in mentality. And without the Lord turning
our minds towards him, calls it turning us around, completely
turned around, and seeing Christ, we'll never have that mentality
changed. lest he breathes the breath of life into us and causes
us to seek after righteousness, his righteousness. We'll never
seek after righteousness. That's why we must be taught
of the Lord or have a pity party. We'll believe we are entitled
because of our efforts or our merits, our works. But we have
the truth. The Lord told us this, in the
world you shall suffer persecution. What does that mean to you? Don't
answer, just think about it. In the world, you shall suffer
persecution. Well, that means you're gonna suffer persecution,
doesn't it? But he said, be of good cheer. I've overcome the
world. You can't overcome the world.
I've overcome the world. You're gonna struggle in your
flesh because your flesh can never believe God, but be of
good cheer. He overcame the flesh as well. You're gonna struggle
with your sin. You're gonna see it every day,
but be of good cheer. He put away your sin on the cross
of Calvary. Lord Jesus Christ did that for his people. You're
gonna struggle with unbelief, but he took that unbelief and
he nailed it to the tree and it's gone. It's gone, he's given
his faith to believe him. That's what the Lord's done.
We're gonna struggle, some of us struggle, think about dying.
I don't know how many of you do that. I might be young, but
I think about death a lot. I don't know if that's a pastor's
thing or what it is, but it's not that I'm, paranoid about
it. It's just the fact of that. This
is going to happen one day. It's a reality went to the believer.
It's a reality. And it's going to be the best
day of your life. If you're the Lord's people, that's the point that
you look for that day, either the Lord coming back or the last
breath you draw. That's the, that's, that's the two to waken
his likeness. That's, that's the hope. But
as we think about those things, sometimes you begin to worry
and fear and fret, but remember, he put away your sin. Death has
no claim on you. Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh grave, where is thy victory? conquered hell for his people
on the cross. So all these things of unbelief, and that's where
this started at, was the sin that easily besets us is unbelief.
He said, now look to Christ, consider him. Consider him. You haven't resisted unto blood
striving against sin yet. You have it better than you think
you do. I've put a hedge about you. You're my people. I will
keep you and protect you. And the only things that'll come
your way is gonna be for your good and for his glory. If you're
His, that's exactly right. You're good and He's good. It
doesn't feel very good. The Lord didn't say it's gonna
feel good. He didn't say, I came to the earth in order to give
you peace in your life. He didn't say that, not on earth.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 10, I'll show you that. He didn't
come for physical peace. He came for eternal peace for
His people, which is so much better than just temporary peace.
If it was physical, it'd be temporary. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, look at verse
29 with me. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your father? But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whoso shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven. And here it is, think
not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send
peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance. That word variance means to cut
in two or to sever. I am come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of
his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loses his life for
my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth
me. He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth
a prophet in the name of the prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward. He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous reward. Whosoever shall give
a drink into one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only
in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no
wise lose his reward. The Lord didn't come promising
peace in this world. He promised tribulation. He promised
persecution. That's what he promised. You
are at war right now with yourself, your new man and your old man. Want to kill each other. They
hate each other. That's why we continually sin
and the Lord has to bring us back to him. But the good news
is that sin has already been put away and the elder shall
serve the younger. That means that old man that
you are born with that you can see when you look in the mirror.
is serving, whether it wants to serve or not, the new man
created in righteousness, created in Christ Jesus, that's not seen
on the inside. It's the new heart of flesh that
the Lord's given you. That's the one that cries out,
woe is me, I'm undone. And this flesh is constantly
crying out, woe is me, I deserve better. And they go back and
forth and back and forth. And you know, look at what the
Lord does. He comes as, and I try, again, I'm trying not to preach
a second message. He comes in patience and in love, And he
says, seek you my face, seek you my face. And David said,
because he said unto me, seek you my face, therefore his face
will I seek. The Lord tells us, seek and you
will find, knock and it shall be open. What does that mean?
When the Lord puts the desire there for you to seek him, he's
gonna reveal himself to you. It may not be immediate, may
not be, it's never in our timing, is it? But he's going to reveal
himself in time and there's our rest. And there's our peace for
a moment. And it just shuts up the flesh.
It just shuts up the old man. We're sitting at the feet, just
like Martha did, anointing his feet with tears and drying them
with our hair, as she did. And it's all figurative. You
understand what I'm saying? But that's where we're at. We're at his
feet, rejoicing. My sin's been put away. Oh, woe
is me. I'm undone, but the Lord hath
made me whole. I'm undone, but the Lord hath washed me and made
me whiter than snow by his own blood. The Lord's done all this
for his people. This is the good news of the
gospel because of his finished work. We have peace with God. He didn't promise peace on earth
with men. He said, live peaceably as you
can with all that lies in you, but you're gonna have conflict.
We're gonna have troubles because nobody that doesn't know this
gospel, if somebody doesn't know this gospel, they don't have
a new and an old man. They just have the old man still.
They're walking according to the flesh and according to the
power of the prince of the hour. The Lord's people walk looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us peace with God, which
is far better than peace with man. It's far better than peace.
He said, don't fear man that can destroy only the body. Fear
God, which can destroy body and soul both in hell. Fear him,
and we have peace with him. Peace with him. This is the peace
that Far surpasses the temporary peace here. The scripture says
it surpasses all understanding. What does that mean? That means
if the Lord gives you that peace, you don't need to understand
the questions that you have anymore. When the Lord gives you this
peace, whenever you're worried about something, you're fretting
about something, you're concerned about something, you're troubled,
and scripture talks about that, being distressed, perplexed,
and different things, it's going to happen. There's ups and downs.
Either you're in a trial, you're coming out of a trial, or you're
about to go into a trial. That's just the life of a believer. It's over
and over. It's on repeat until we die. That's not gloom and
doom, that's just fact. Lord's gonna make us cry out
unto him, have mercy on me, the sinner. He's gonna show us we
have no confidence in this flesh. We have no power in ourself,
no ability. It's all him and all for his glory. No, to have
the peace that surpasses all understanding means I just don't
need to know what he knows anymore. I believe him. I believe he's
right and I'm wrong. regardless of what it is. I trust
him. I believe he does best. I believe he does good. I believe
he's right. I believe him. It surpasses all
understanding. I don't need to know anymore.
I trust in his wisdom. I trust in his righteousness.
I trust in his holiness. I trust in his truth and his
mercy, his love, his grace. No longer look to myself to try
to figure this out. I throw my hands up and say, Lord, save
me. Lord, save me. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Lord, save me. I'm going to drown if you leave me here. One minute
we're walking on water, figuratively speaking, the next minute we're
drowning again, taking our eyes off the Lord. You know it's true,
sinking again. Oh Lord, save me. Oh ye of little
faith, wherefore did you doubt? He told him why, he had little
faith. That's us, isn't it? Lord calls us to believe, calls
us to see you and rest. Now notice he tells us, Go back to our text here in Hebrews
chapter 12. He says here, verse three, for consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Consider his agony, his
suffering, Consider the work of the cross. Consider what he
bore. He bore our sin in his body on
the tree. Consider the work that he did,
the offering unto the Father. Consider those things. And if
the Lord enables us to consider that, and then we consider ourself,
we'll see ourself as the chief sinner. If the Lord enables us,
we'll see ourself as the chief sinner. We'll realize that should
have been my crown, it would have been my crown, it would
have been my cross, it would have been my nails, that would
have been my, my death. And even my soul being offered
up for my sin yet not putting away the sin because it's sinful
itself. So it would be eternal torment.
That's what we deserve. It's not, woe is me, I deserve
better. It's, oh, woe is me, I'm undone. What a savior. Who am I that thou should look
on such a dead dog as I am? Lord, save me. Lord, save me. But God, who is rich in mercy,
made his son the surety substitute for his people. put away all
those sin. We hear the beautiful words,
I've already said this, but that David heard from Nathan. Fear
not, David. David said, I'm the man. Nathan
looked at David and said, you are the man, David. And David,
you can imagine the flesh, if God doesn't give repentance,
when somebody accuses you of something, is it not, you ain't
telling me what for. You know, we kind of bow up on
that. When somebody, I remember one time, We were working on
a job and somebody, my dad looked at the other guy we were working
with and he said, oh, you're just being a liar. That guy got fighting
mad. That was jesting about the whole
thing. But the guy got mad. Why? Pride. Pride's the issue
here. So when the Lord reveals the
truth to you and I, it's only by grace that we don't have pride
in what he says. Just as David heard Nathan, he
didn't have pride in it. The Lord gave him humility to
say, I have sinned against the Lord. Me, I have sinned against
the Lord. And you can read Psalm 51. He
cries out to the Lord, Lord, purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. In
sin was I conceived, in sin did my mother bear me. He says, Lord,
if you don't save me and have mercy, I'll be destroyed and
I deserve it. Nathan looks at him and says,
fear not. The Lord hath put away your sin,
David. You shall not die. You shall
not die. So I did have Job in my notes,
just so you know. I didn't get ahead of myself,
I'm thankful to tell you. Just had to scroll past that.
We already talked about that. The exhortation here, brethren,
is to look to Christ. He is the solution. What problem
do you have? Doesn't matter. He's the solution.
He's the solution. People say that in false religion,
but they don't understand what we mean by that is, is He's everything
to His people. The Lord has made Him unto us
all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification,
and all of our redemption. All of our justification. He's
made Christ unto us everything. That's why he's the solution,
no matter the problem. Look to him. Look to him. Don't look to self. Don't examine
self for evidence. Don't attempt to go back to the
law to fix a problem. It ain't gonna work. No, matter of fact,
if you go back to the law to fix a problem, you're calling
into question your belief in Christ. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. You know what that means? If
you go back to the law, you're not going to Christ at that point.
That's what Paul was talking about to the Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you are so soon turned away from the truth.
They went back to circumcision, that's the law. That was the
problem. That's what we do. Lord, don't leave us to ourself.
We'll add one thing to it and ruin the whole thing. We'll spoil
it. Lord, don't leave us to ourself. Woe is me, I'll ruin it if you
leave me to myself. To take our eyes off of Christ
during the time of trouble while we're suffering the afflictions
of it, and to seek help from the old elements of the old covenants
to call into question our belief of Christ. Lord, keep us from
that. Don't allow me to call into question my belief of you
by running back to the old elements. They ain't gonna help me. I can't
fix this. Can we say that with all assurance
and surety, knowing that it's true? Lord, I cannot fix this. Maybe I've tried. And it could
be people think, well, I can work a little bit harder and
get rid of some of the sin problems I have. I can correct my life
and my morals. But even believers are tempted
to, and so often we do, when we have a problem, we immediately
jump in and try to fix it and end up making it worse than it
was to begin with. Anybody else? Can you testify
to that? That's my life. And then here
I am with the mess, and I think, oh boy, I've done it again. Didn't
even mean to do it. I wasn't trying to do it. I wasn't
even trying to have unbelief. That's the problem. We don't
wake up in the morning and say, you know, today I'm going to
be full of unbelief. I've decided. Who says that? No, we wake up
in the morning and say, Lord, don't leave me to myself. Lord,
I don't trust my hands. I definitely don't trust my heart.
I can't trust my mind. My lips are going to betray myself
and you if you let them. Oh, you know those three little
monkeys that see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. That's
something religious people practice a lot. That is the desire of
the believer. We don't wanna go, we don't wake
up saying, okay, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that and
I'm gonna do this. No, we're crying out to the Lord saying, Lord,
keep me from myself. I don't trust this. I don't trust
this, but I trust you. I trust you, I trust what you
did on the cross. I trust the blood that was shed. I trust the finished work for
your people where you successfully redeemed those for who you died
for. And I see myself, woe is me, I'm undone and I deserve
hell. If you don't save me, you are right in doing so. But if
you do, it'll have to be all of grace. So I'm pleading the
blood and nothing else. I'm pleading your darling son
and nothing else in his finished work. No price in my hand do
I bring, simply to Christ I cling. My closing question is this.
Have you bowed to God or do you bow up to him? You have to answer
that for yourself. I have to answer that for myself.
Have you truly bowed in the heart to him? Because it's not one
time. We bow now, and we bow now, and
we bow now. Only whenever the Lord enables
us to. Have you bowed to the Lord saying, woe is me, I'm undone? Or do you bow up and say, I deserve
better than this? I deserve more in this life.
And I definitely deserve heaven because of everything I've been
doing for God. People have that mentality, brethren. It's sad.
It's poor souls. The Lord hasn't called out of
darkness into his light. And we're not better because he chose
us. That's all by grace he chose
us. There's nothing good in this. He did that for his glory. He
did that for His glory so that we don't get to look down on
anybody. We just look up to Him. That's the point, isn't it? We
just keep looking up to Him. We don't look down on anybody, we look
up to Him. No, growth in grace is truly down, not up. The more you see of Him and the
less you see of yourself, that's growing in grace. The more you
see of Him holy and high and exalted and sovereign and perfect
and less you see of yourself, The more you see that you're
a sinner, you're undone, you need a savior, that's a good place
to be. He's growing you, growing you down. Either we bow to God or we bow
up to Him, it can't be both. Do you say, woe is me, I deserve
better by His grace, or are you able to say, woe is me, I am
undone. I'm the man of unclean lips,
I'm the chief sinner. I'm vile, Lord save me. Have
mercy on me, the sinner. The good news of the gospel is
this, brethren. John chapter 6, 37 says, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. I will in no wise cast out. Come
unto me, all ye that are labored and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly of heart. You shall find rest to your soul,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Why is it light? because
it's finished, the work is all finished. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's the command, and you shall be saved. Woe is
me, save me, Lord. Let's pray. Father, we come before
you thanking you for the time you've given us to be here, and
the word that you've allowed us to hear. We pray that you
would bless it to our understanding for your glory, for you alone,
Lord, are the only one that can bless it, for your purpose, we
bow to your purpose. In Christ's name, amen. Let's
take a break.