Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 3 and 4. Hebrews 12. I was thinking while
we were singing those songs, how easily we can sing those
words. But oh, that the Lord would give
me a heart Lord, remind me of that. One of these days, it's
all going to be over and we're going to see Him. Oh, may it
be in mercy. Hebrews 12 verses 3 and 4, For
consider him that endured Such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, you have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Let's pray
together. Our Father, we thank You this
evening that you've blessed us in allowing us the privilege
to be able to come together and hear the gospel. Oh, the blessed
truth of God's mercy and grace in Christ. Father, I ask you
tonight, have mercy on us. Lord, I know you're calling out
your people all over this world. your remnant. Lord, would you
do so here. Lord, would you increase the
borders of your flock according to your good pleasure and purpose,
eternal counsel, for Christ's sake. Amen. The life of a believer is revealed
by Scripture to be what's called a race. And from the time that we're
converted, we're in the race. We're put in the race. We run
the race. You that know Him are running
right now. We run by faith. And for our encouragement, for
God's glory and our good, the Scripture set forth in that 11th
chapter a list of some that had run the race and were kept by
the grace of God, the power of God. Now while we're running
this race, the Scripture says that faith cometh by hearing. And right now, God's people are
being kept. Right now. He's giving faith
right now to believe. If He didn't give faith, fresh
faith, alive faith, heavenly faith, and considers it our faith,
and calls it so. That's what He told the woman
who had the issue of blood. Thy faith has made thee whole."
It's a gift. It's a gift of God. We're kept. Now the Scripture said last time
we looked, seeing these witnesses that we considered, these that
had gone through trials and afflictions, the Scripture says, let us lay
aside every weight, every worldly care, and the involvements that
take our interest, steal our heart away, tries to steer us
from considering Him. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. unbelief. And let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the Savior, the Author, the Beginner, and the Finisher, the One that
brings to maturity our faith. Author, Finisher. Begins it, brings it to maturity. Our precious Savior endured the
cross. Scripture said, despising the
shame of that cross. I tried to explain a little bit
of the shame of the cross. It was the most degrading of
executions. It was that execution that was
reserved for the dregs of society. He despised that shame. Died
as the humbled one. The servant. The lowly servant. Made himself. No reputation. Now God has exalted him and he
is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. faith, granting faith, life,
salvation to His people. Now, we're in this race. Here
we are. We're coming here to be fed,
fed food, spiritual food, and struggling and striving against
our flesh, that old man. I remember when I was in high
school, I was telling you about running the race. And I can remember,
I'd get ready and they'd make that first call. First call with
a 440. That was, oh, my stomach just
tore up, just, you know, butterflies, and just knowing it's going to
start. There was a struggle going on.
There was a striving within myself. Am I going to get sick? Am I going to get a cramp? Am
I going to make it? How can I do this? In this race
here, only by the grace of God. Lord, if You don't keep me, I'm
not going to be kept. Lord, help me. Lord, help me
to look away from myself, look away from the distractions of
this day. There's so many things that would
discourage us, cause us to mull over it and struggle over it,
fret over it, causing us to muse upon the temporal, the things
of this world. This life is going to be over.
It's going to be over. I don't know how quickly. But
I know it's a vapor. I know that. We look around and the older
we get, the faster it goes. It's before you know it. Here we are, there's so many
of us. We're just in the twilight, humanly speaking, of our life. And we know. We know. We look
and we see. We've seen others that have passed
before us. And I realize how many times
I struggle over things that just don't matter. They don't matter right now, much
less eternally. What do they matter? Oh, but
the Scripture says concerning The struggles that we have, or
we think we have? For consider him that endured
such contradiction, such strife, such disbelief. Consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds." I tell you this, we're
going to have our eyes upon something. We're going to be looking at
something. This world, ourself, the trials that we go through.
The Scripture says, consider Him. I got to thinking about
this. a few minutes ago. And I think
that's probably what caused my mind to kind of go and to start
thinking about what we were singing. Those songs, Gary, that you picked
out. Outstanding words. And I got to thinking about the
title of this message is, Consider Him. And I think about that commandment,
that exhortation. And I think to myself, oh Lord,
help me Consider Him. God. And everything that I'm
going to say in the next few minutes, I know is so. But I
think how far short I fall doing those
two words right there. Consider Him. And I think, How helpless I am. The Son of
the living God, I know that so. But Lord, how frail I am to consider
that. Heir of all things. Everything is His. Everything was made by Him and
for Him and without Him. Nothing exists. By Him, all things
consist. The Prophet of God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. The Great High Priest. The Obedient
Servant. Made flesh. The only man that
ever pleased God. Consider him, he that endured such contradiction. Press on. Press on. I know it's tough at home. I
know it is. I know it is. It's tough at work. I know. Consider him. Think upon Him. The battle rages. But here's what the Scripture
says, that we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. The
victory has been won. The crown is His and ours in
Him. Consider Him, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds, in your spirit, because of the trials,
because of whatever comes our way. Whatever it is, He sent it. Whatever
it is, He permitted it. He allowed it. He may use Satan
just like He did with Job, but Almighty God is the One that
does all things and does them well. And even the wrath of man
is going to praise Him, contemplate Him. Consider that Almighty God
has eternally looked upon His people in love, in Christ, I've loved
you with an everlasting love." Consider him in whom God has
always been satisfied. Peace has always been there.
Justification has always been established. Consider an Almighty God. God Almighty. John said, we've
looked on Him. That glory was manifested. He said, and we saw it. We touched
Him. We talked to Him. We heard His
words of assurance. And I'll tell you this, we have
His Word right here. That Word that's never going
to fail. You consider Him. that took flesh and humbled himself
and under his own demand for righteousness, bore the guilt,
paid the debt, humiliated for his people. Consider him
that endured. The hatred, the resentment, the
strivings of sinners against himself. That Almighty God, that
God Himself stood silent when Pilate, a nobody, A nobody. Pilate, a man that God Himself,
who stood before Pilate, the One that stood before Pilate,
that made Pilate, that allowed Pilate to take another
breath, that allowed all of those peoples
around him to still have life. Life Himself. And he was mocked and ridiculed
and whipped and spit on and hit with a reed and put a robe on
him and put a crown of thorns on him. Consider him. Placed himself in the hands of evil men and
in perfect obedience to his father's will. laid down His life according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to redeem
His people. And I'll be honest with you,
I hear and read the words, I hear myself saying them, and I think
to myself, Lord, forgive me for my inability. Lord, forgive me
for not thinking upon You as I ought. Lord, thank You that
You would not mark sin. that you would not mark iniquity.
Lord, if you marked iniquity, even the desire to consider you
as an ought, Lord, if you marked that, who could stand? Oh, consider him who put away
the guilt of his people under the judgment and wrath of Almighty
God, bearing their sins in his own body, And while he was doing
it, being laughed at and ridiculed, he saved others. He can't save
himself. Thanks be unto God for that. If you're who you say you are,
why don't you come down? He couldn't come down. He said his face is aflint. Redeem
his arm. And while he was being taunted,
laughed at, ridiculed, there was one thief that the Scriptures
record, that he turned to and that thief cried out for mercy. That thief that, but for the
grace of God, he was getting ready to die in his sins, but
for God's grace. Lord, considering him, considering
who he hung next to, that thief said, Lord, would you remember
me? When you enter into your kingdom,
I know who you are. And he said today, you're going
to be with me in paradise. Consider him who mercifully saved
One of His own that He eternally loved. Consider Him who truly
died. God Almighty that laid down His life as a
man. Truly great is the mystery of
godliness. God manifested in flesh. Died, rose again on His own merit. Raised Himself. The Father raised
Him. The Spirit raised Him. The Lord
said, I've got power to lay down my life. I've got power to take
it again. You consider Him and sat down on the right hand The accepted power. That's what
that means. The right hand. The accepted
power. Sit down. Accepted in the Beloved. Sit down at the right hand of
the throne of God to appear in the presence of God for us. One of these days, Carl, that's
going to mean everything to us. Oh, struggling saints, consider
Him lest you be wearied in your minds. He who lives within His people
right now by faith. He's never going to leave His
people. Coming back soon, the trumpet of God is going to sound,
and dead in Christ is going to rise. We which are alive upon
the earth, Paul says, are going to meet Him in the air. And while
we're struggling right now with the fleeting cares of this world,
verse 4 says, you've not yet resisted under blood, striving
against sin. He did. He did. Hung between heaven and earth,
forsaken of all. See, with us, the Lord said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He was
forsaken of His Father and of men. Disciples fled. He was alone. He died alone. Consider Him. Oh, how little
have the conflicts of this life cost us. How little. In comparison to his endurance, the strugglings of many others,
I'll tell you this, if we're sitting here right now reading
these words, hearing this gospel being preached right now, you've
not resisted under blood. You've not yet. You may. But
you've not yet resisted under blood, striving against sin. I think about the light affliction. Somebody gets mad or upset with
me or you or says something arrogantly. Let me tell you this. The most amazingly horrible thing
that I've heard lately I cannot think of a more blasphemous thing somebody to
say when you take them and show them in the Word of God. This
is what God has to say right here. Look, it's right here.
And they say, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care what
it says. You tell them about God Almighty
whose purpose and will it is to show mercy to His people. And for them to say, I don't
care, to get angry at the messenger, but I know this, I have not yet
resisted unto blood. As I said, it may be that the
Lord may call some of us, one of us, None of us, all of us,
before it's all over, to suffer. And there has been some that
have. What's the difference between us and them? The believer is not passive though. We may not have been striving
as of yet, but God's people do strive. They do struggle. They
do resist. They struggle within and without. Mostly within. That's where the
real war. We cry unto Him for strength
and wisdom. Lord, help me. Lord, keep me. Lord, we wait for Your deliverance.
We wait for Your guidance. For Your Word. We know this,
Lord, that all of our foes are going to be taken away. All of the trials are going to
be over one of these days. Listen to this though, Exodus
23, 30. Concerning our foes and trials
and tribulations, by little and little I will drive them out
from before Thee until Thou be increased and inherit the land.
That was a promise. of God to Israel concerning the
Promised Land, but spiritually. Do you know why we continue to
struggle, strive? And the wisdom of Almighty God
is to cause us to turn our face toward Him. It's good that we've been afflicted.
It's good. It's good. It's for our good
that the Lord teaches us. and shows us of our need of Him. It's good that we struggle. He could completely remove all
of the trials, all of the sickness. It could be over-reacted. I know
that. I've read that. I've seen where
He's removed it. That leper came to the Lord and
he said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. The Lord said,
I will. But I'm telling you, if He doesn't,
I know that it's for our good. We've not yet resisted under
blood, striving against sin. We've not died, but we strive. We struggle. We take heart. Verse 5 and 6, I'm going to just
read these two verses and then I'm going to stop. And Lord willing,
we'll pick up right here. And you 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." Lord
willing, I'm going to pick up right there next week. But with
the command to consider him We struggle with it. But let me
tell you what He's going to do mercifully for us. He's going to send trials, chastings,
chastisements. And it's going to cause us to
cry out in mercy, Lord, help me. Teach me. Through these trials, to consider
you.