Hebrews 12 verse 3, For consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. The title of this study
is Contradiction of Sinners. Since you believed on Christ,
Have you had to endure a contradiction of sinners? Look at that word
contradiction. It is contrary diction. It is to be spoken against. What the enemies of Christ don't
understand is that a word spoken against our Lord is a word spoken
against us. It's a contradiction. Usually,
this contradiction begins as soon as somebody believes on
the Lord. It did for these Hebrew brethren
that the writer is writing to. Look back at Hebrews 10, verse
32. And we'll see here the two ways
that they endured some affliction. There's two things they endured,
two reasons why they endured affliction. Hebrews 10.32 says,
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were
illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Verse 33
says, Partly you were made a gazing stock. both by reproaches and
afflictions. They partly rejected you because
you turned from trusting in your flesh to trusting Christ. Partly
because you turned from trusting in your works of obedience to
the law to trusting Christ who established the law on your behalf.
And then secondly, he says, and partly whilst you became companions
of them that were so used. The second reason you endured
contradiction is because of the new company you kept. You turned
from running with sinners and immorality and with religious
folks who believed that by their own hand they could do something
for themselves, and you turned to the company of saints, God's
people, who believed that Christ is all and that He's all our
salvation. And so because you trusted Christ
no longer, you endured a fight of affliction. And because you
became company with Christ's brethren, you endured a fight
of affliction. When we were able to get our
hands on the Prince of Life, we nailed Him to a tree. And because he's risen and seated
at God's right hand, when the enemies of Christ can't get their
hands on Christ, the next best thing is his saints. Contradiction of sinners. Let's
look at this first. Usually this contradiction of
sinners begins at home. It begins at home. Most of our
families in our day think that Everyone is a disciple of Christ. Every place where there's a church,
people are believing on Christ. That's what most people think.
Everybody accepts Christ and everybody accepts those who trust
Him. So, there's a church right down
the street. They're your brethren too. Why
don't you just go down there and partake of their feast? We're
going there. Why don't you come with us? Turn
to John chapter 7, verse 1. Our text in Hebrew says, consider
Christ our Lord. So let's consider Him. His own
family, according to the flesh, said the exact same thing to
Him. He endured a contradiction of
sinners against Himself in His own immediate family, according
to the flesh. Look here, John 7, verse 1. After
these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk
in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now, the Jews' feast
of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren, this is his brethren,
his immediate family, his brethren therefore said unto him, Depart
hence, leave this place, and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. They'll receive you. Just come
and go up with us to the feast of the Jews." Why did they say
that? Verse 5, For neither did his
brethren believe in him. They didn't trust Him. They didn't
believe in Himself. Then Jesus said unto them, My
time is not yet come. If He would have been ready to
go to the cross, He'd have went right then. But it wasn't His
time. And He said, Your time is always
ready. The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because
I testify of it. that the works thereof are evil.
That's what this gospel is, we believe. That's why the world,
no matter how religious men are, no matter how immoral men are,
they're in the same boat. And the reason that the folks
like that don't bow to this Christ is because the sovereign God
who must save, who has to save effectually by His own blood,
and who must regenerate by the irresistible grace of the Holy
Spirit in the heart. That leaves a sinner to behold.
Christ who has made sanctification, all our holiness, who separates
us and turns us from the evil of this world. This God, when
He's set forth, it declares in the hearts of those who aren't
fully trusting Him, it declares to them, if you're not trusting
Him, You lend your sins, and this world can't be saved but
by His power, and by His grace, and by the person and finished
work of Christ the Lord." And he said, because when I come,
just my very presence testifies of their evil. They won't come
to me because I'm the light, he said. They love their sin
and hate the light. They love darkness and hate light.
And they won't come to me. They'll reject me because I testify
that their works are evil. And so he says, go ye up into
the feast. I go not up yet unto this feast,
for my time's not yet full come. They would receive His brethren,
because His brethren didn't confess anything that went against their
sinful flesh. We're talking about going up
to a religious ceremony, to a religious... The same as folks in your family
say, why don't you go to church over here? Because if I go to
church over there, and I tell folks there about my Christ,
how that God put a people in Him before the foundation of
the world and how that He came and He perfectly obtained a righteousness
for them. That He went to the cross having
been made sin and He put away their sin, purged their sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. And that He's raised triumphantly
and He's working in power and glory right now in the midst
of His church. That His train fills the temple
in heaven and in earth. And as the King priest, He's
doing as it pleases Him. He enters in the hearts of His
people and He causes them, makes them willing to do His good pleasure
and work His will and that He Himself keeps them separated
from this world and keeps them stayed upon Him as all their
holiness and as all their sanctification. And they behold it by the price
He paid that He bought them and He will not allow them to return
to that sinful bondage again. But He keeps them as the apple
of His eye. And if I tell folks that, Folks
are going to say, but what about what I can do? You can't do anything. You're saying I can't do anything?
You're saying I don't have any power to do anything? You're
saying my works are evil? Yeah. That's why he had to come. That's why it took nothing less
than God's own Son coming in human flesh to pay the sin debt
of his people, to put away their sin. And it takes nothing less
than the power of the Holy Spirit to come and regenerate a sinner
and to keep him all his days. That's how powerful and evil
our sin is. And you tell that to a man? You
take away his works, his self-sanctifying works that he's doing by the
law, to where he can raise himself up in pride above somebody else,
and to claim how good he is above somebody else? You declare that
message to somebody, and what you'll see is, right quick, a
person saying, I don't think I'm that bad. I really don't
think I'm that evil. Well, you really don't hear what
God says about you then. This is what God says. This is
what God said. His Son is going to have all
the glory and salvation. And we're going to have none.
I'm not here to defend men. I'm here to defend the God-man.
I'm here to set forth the truth concerning God Almighty, the
Son of God, our Savior. And He said, that's why I can't
go up there. I can't go with you. My brethren, you can go.
They'll receive you. But I can't go. I can't go." The Lord said, they came to him one time, said
his mother and his brethren could not come at him for the press.
And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy
brethren stand without desiring to see thee. And he answered
and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which
hear the word of God and do it. And he says to us, the first
commandment, honor thy father and thy mother, which is the
first commandment with promise. And then when he saw his father
and his mother, when he was on the cross and Mary stood there,
he provided for her right up to the end. He said, He says,
Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by
whom he loved, and he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy
son. You see John? Behold him. Then
he saith to the disciple, to John, Behold thy mother. And
from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home, just
like it was his own mother. He provided for her right up
to the end. But you know what he didn't do? When they said,
Your mother and your brethren's outside. Nothing pulled him away
from declaring the truth and standing for the truth to go
out. He said, these are my brethren that hear the gospel. These are
my brethren. And so when we bear this contradiction
of sinners at home, Christ the Lord says, if any man loved father
or mother more than me, any man loved son or daughter more than
me, he's not worthy of me. That's a hard saying for an unbelieving
mother or father. That's a hard saying for an unbelieving
son or daughter, but not for a believing father or mother,
or a believing son or daughter. If any man loved father or mother,
son or daughter more than me, he's not worthy of me. And he
didn't. He didn't. He didn't. Now, he
endured this contradiction of sinners from religious folks.
I don't suppose folks get more religious, more wise, more quick
to tell you what they know about God than when the truth is set
forth to them. Poor people become an authority
when you tell them the truth of what this Bible said. You
let a believer begin telling someone how that Christ opened
their eyes and gave them a new heart. You let a believer say,
I thought I was saved, but now I see Christ like I've never
seen Him. Now I've been turned from that which I thought was
salvation to Christ who is my salvation. This work is a work
of God's grace. of the irresistible grace of
God who quickens whom He will. Let a new believer begin to say,
I see that Christ accomplished my redemption. I was told all
those years that somehow my act of believing made His blood effectual. But I see now that when I was
an enemy to Him, He put away my sin. I see that when the Scripture
says, He by Himself purged our sins and then sat down. It means
when He sat down, my sins were purged before I ever knew Him.
So I didn't reconcile myself. I didn't make atonement by my
faith. I didn't justify myself by my
faith. My faith was given to me as the
gift of God to behold God who justified me. That's what justification
by faith is. It's not that you're justified
by your act. That's what this God-hating,
sinful, religious world is teaching. They can water it down that way
and say, well, there's still one thing that you can do to
justify yourself. There's still one thing you can
do to make yourself righteous by your believing. And a man
goes, well, I walked an aisle and I accepted Jesus and I made
my decision for Christ and my faith has saved me. That's not
God-given faith. God-given faith says, I see the
faithfulness of my Redeemer, how that He came and nothing
could turn Him, and that He earned a righteousness for me, and it's
mine because of what He accomplished. That faith beholds Him, Christ
who justified me. And when you start declaring
that to a sinner, those who never bother to open their Bible at
all, And those who are so religious that every other word out of
their mouth is church this and church that. Like those in Jeremiah's
day who the Lord said they believe lying words. And all they say
is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord. That's all they talk about. And he said, and
they don't know me. When a man hears you declare
the truth of who God is and what Christ has done for you and in
you, and it strips him of his strength and gives God all the
glory, That man who can't be forced into a pew, along with
a man who's so religious he can't be forced out of one. They will
all of a sudden both become authorities on God's Word. And the Lord Jesus Christ endured
the same contradiction. Look at John chapter 8. John
chapter 8. the Lord came to the religious
multitude, to the Pharisees and Sadducees, and He simply set
forth the Gospel to them. And John 8, 31 says, Then said
Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My
Word, then are ye My disciples indeed. And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now, there was some
there didn't believe him and listen to him. They answered
him, well, we be Abraham's seed. I am Abraham's son. And we're never in bondage to
any man. How sayest thou you shall be made free? I've always
believed God. I've always trusted him. Brother Scott Richard said, that's
a little too long. That's a little too long. How is it that thou sayest, ye
shall be made free? These are religious folks now.
These are folks who stood for Jehovah. They're standing for
God's name. How is it you say we'll be made
free when we've never even been in bondage? You've never been
in bondage, you'll never be set free. You've never been seen
the captivity of your sin, you'll never be set free. Jesus answered
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin
is the servant of sin. That's what they were saying.
We don't commit sin. Oh, we did back before we converted,
but now we don't sin anymore. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. And if the son therefore shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you're Abraham's
seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place
in you. I speak that which I've seen
with my father, and you do that which you've seen with your father."
They answered and said unto him, Abraham's our father? Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham. You
know what Abraham did? He saw Christ's day and believed
Him, trusted Him. That's the work Abraham did.
When God said, sacrifice your son, and his son said, well,
what about the law? What about the law? It says we've
got to have a lamb. He said, I ain't coming to God
in the law, son. I'm coming to God in His lamb.
God will provide Himself a lamb. I trust Him who will provide
Himself the Lamb." That's the works Abraham did. But he says,
But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You
do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be
not born of fornication. We have one Father, God. And
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, you'd love
me. What's he saying? He's saying God's not their Father. Would love me if God were your
father for I proceeded forth and came from God neither I came
of myself But he sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Because you cannot hear my word Ye are of your father
the devil God loves everybody don't he? That's a mighty way, that's a
mighty curious way of expressing it. To tell somebody, you are
of your father the devil. And the lust of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and a bold not
in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar and the father
of it. And because I tell you the truth, here's why they wouldn't
believe him. Because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Let me tell you this, I said
it Thursday night. Religious folks and immoral rebels
of God are in the same boat. And they become the authority
on who God is. And every word is in defense
of their great I am. But the difference is, their
great I am is not the believer's great I am. When they say God
is love, they're not confessing that herein is love, not that
we love God, not that we were helplessly defiled, wretched
before God Almighty, enemies of God in our minds by wicked
works, and that it took God laying down His life for me and dying
for me and coming and revealing Christ in me before I would ever
behold Him and long for Him. That's not what they're saying.
What they're saying is God is love. They're saying, I am deserving. I am. deserving for God to love
me. I am deserving of God to accept
me based on who I am. That's exactly what these religious
folks were saying to the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham was our
father. Don't you know who I am? I'm
a son of Abraham. Don't you know who I am? I'm
not a sinner. Don't you know who I am? I've
never been in bondage to anyone. Don't you know who I am? God
said, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I am. We've got to go back further
than you. We've got to go back further
than me. We've got to go back further than your father Abraham.
We've got to go back so you behold that salvation is of the great
I am, the Lord God Almighty. And here's how they reacted.
Look down at verse 59. John 58, 59. Then took they up
stones to cast at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. So do we think it's strange when we endure a contradiction
of sinners and the folks who are doing it are religious folks?
They did it to Him. They did it to Him. But here's
when it hurts the most, though. Here's when it hurts the most.
to endure a contradiction of sinners at the hands of our own
brethren. Now, I'm not saying that Christ's brethren can ever
reject the Lord. They can't. We're kept by Him.
We can't fall away. We're kept by this power of the
Spirit of God. But so often we're so full of
unbelief, so full of unbelief. And even the Lord's own were
this way. He endured this. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the Father, and it will suffice us. Jesus said unto him,
Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us
the Father? This was his brethren. Peter denied Him three times.
And the sheep were scattered when God the Father unsheathed
His sword of justice on our shepherd. They went to the four winds and
deserted Him. And even after His resurrection,
He said to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands,
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side, and be
not faithless, but believing. So if we disappoint one another,
we need to consider him, don't we? And know his brethren disappointed
him. They disappointed him. But we
know our brethren are in his hands. He'll keep us. He'll keep
them. Have you endured a contradiction
of sinners from your government? We live in a land where we can
worship God as we please. Believers in other nations aren't
that free. But our Lord suffered this as well. Joseph and Mary
fled to Egypt because Herod the king sought to kill Jesus when
he was first born. He sought to do it so badly that
he had all the kids two years old and under to be killed just
so he wouldn't miss him because he was after this one. And the kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. He endured this contradiction
from His cradle to His cross." And it's called here in our text,
in Hebrews 12, verse 3, such contradiction. Such contradiction. It says here, "...Ye have not
yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. If we're going to
enter into what contradiction, what great contradiction, this
such contradiction that our Savior endured on our behalf, we've
got to consider that what He endured was due to His elect being such a contradiction of
sinners against His holy nature. This is why He had to go to the
cross. He hath made Him to be sin for us. He hath made Him
to be sin for us. That's how bad a contradiction
our sin, my sin, you who believe, this was how bad a contradiction
your and my sin was toward Him. He had to be made sin, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
When He was in the garden, it says He was in an agony, and
He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was, as it were, great
drops of blood falling down to the ground. This one who knew
no sin was in an agony because of the cup which he was given.
That cup was filled with the sin of his people, which he who
knew no sin was made to be. Sin is contrary to God, who is
holy, so holy that before God could be just in punishing our
Savior and our place, He had to be made sin. And likewise, before He could
make us to righteousness of God in Him, our Redeemer had to pay
our sin debt. That shows us how great this
contradiction of sin and of sinners was against Him. Before God could
even receive us, His Son had to come in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemn sin in the flesh. His Son had to
be made sin. He had to send His own Son to
do this. for His justice to be satisfied.
That sin had to be paid for before He could ever look upon us or
receive us. That's what a contradiction of
sin we are to Him. And when we behold the agony
He suffered in the garden, it shows us this contradiction.
And there's more to it. Look at Matthew 27.27. I'm going
to take a little longer here, but I want you to see this. When we behold the inventions
of sinful treatment that we used in hatred against Him, we behold
how awful this contradiction was to Him who knew no sin. Look at Matthew 27, 27. Then
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall
and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped
Him. That's enough. This is all uncalled
for. The people have yelled, crucify
Him, crucify Him. What else needs to be done? You
want to take Him to the cursed tree and hang Him on the cursed
tree? What else needs to be done? This is the sin of contradiction
that was against Him. Well, let's strip Him. and put
on him a scarlet robe. And when they had planted a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right
hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying,
Hail, King of the Jews. And when they got finished mocking
him, they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the
head. And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe
off from him and put his own raiment back on him and led him
away to crucify him. Look at verse 36. And sitting
down, they watched him there. Hung him on a tree. And we sat down and just watched
him. Like it's just a good sporting
event. And they that pass by reviled
and wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyed us the temple
and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be the
Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief
priests. The chief religionist mocked
him with the scribes and the elders and all the religious
elite of the day and said, he saved others, himself he cannot
save. Oh, our religious folks, they
wouldn't do that today. They're all Christians. You think
the sinful, depraved heart has changed? You think the heart
in man has changed unless God's changed it and gave him a new
heart? Likewise, it says, He saved others,
Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross and we'll believe Him.
They lied against themselves. He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him now if He'll have Him, for He said, I'm the Son of God.
You see what a contradiction of sinners He endured? Look at
Lamentations 1, verse 12. But there's something else. Judge
how great this contradiction of sinners was toward Him by
the fact that in order to redeem us from sin, it took nothing
less than God pouring out His judgment upon Christ Jesus in
place of His elect. Lamentations 1.12. This is said
of my Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. Listen to
what He's saying. This is Him speaking from Calvary's
cross. Listen to what He's saying here.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? There's a bunch
of folks passing by this morning, all over this world. Is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. You
know who He's sitting there before? He's sitting there before God
Almighty. That band of evil, wicked men did nothing but what
God had before determined to be done, and what the very Christ
whom they were crucifying determined before to be done. And He hung
there on the cross between the hell of men, Satan and men, and
between God's wrath and fury. And he says, the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of His fierce anger, and from above hath He sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. He hath spread
a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. Look
here now. Be careful you don't miss this.
Verse 13, from above hath He sent fire into my bones, and
it prevaileth against them. Who is he talking about? He sent
fire into my bones and it prevails against them. Keep on reading.
He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by His hand. They are wreathed and come upon
my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered
me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. Now
look here, look, verse 15, the Lord hath trodden underfoot all
my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath called an assembly against
me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the virgin,
the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. The Lord said, He
sent fire of His wrath upon me and I've endured it. I have tread
the winepress of loam. I have endured the wrath of God
on behalf of my elect. And it has prevailed to them.
It has prevailed for them. He's poured out this upon me
and tread them down by treading me down in their place. And it's
prevailed for them. It's prevailed for them. So you
can say to those tiny kings of the earth, you vile, vicious,
venomous snakes against my Lord. I can endure your puny contradiction
against me because when I consider Him, I behold that sinful man
did nothing but what the Lord had before determined to be done
to my Savior. And he was taken spitefully by
men who rejected him, just like you're rejecting me. And he was
taken to Golgotha, the place of the skull. And at the place
of the skull, that shameful place, that place where he was cut off
out of the land of the living, that place where man would have
nothing to do with it, in that place he crushed the skull of
the serpent. He crushed the devil's head.
He purged my sin, which is the only strength Satan has. He purged
my sin, which is the power of the law against me. And the law
says now of me, because he died and I died in him, the law says
of me, I got no claim on him. He's dead. He's dead. So you
say all you want to about me. You can curse me. You can say
all you want to about me. You did the same thing to my
Lord and all your cursing and your bitterness did was put Him
on a tree and redeem me from all my transgressions and sit
Him at my God's right hand where right now He's ruling and reigning
and using even your blasphemous words against Him right now in
this moment. You can tell your enemies that. That's just how
sovereign this God is. He's so wise, He makes the wrath
of man praise Him. And the rest of it, He just constrains. His visage was marred more than
any man. His form more than the sons of
men. So shall He sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut
their mouths at Him. For that which had not been told
them, shall they see. And that which they had not heard,
shall they consider. They don't see him now. They
don't consider him now. But one day, he's going to appear
before their eyes in person. And he's going to speak to them
in person. And they're going to know. And they'll have an
eternity in total separation from him in hell to consider
him. Fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The Hebrew
writer is telling us, brethren, when you're faint and weary in
your minds, when you're enduring a contradiction of sinners against
yourself, don't fear Him that's able to just kill the body. The
worst that the enemy of God can do for a dear believer is just
simply deliver him from this body of death so he can be with
his Lord forever. That's the most you can do. That's the most an enemy of God
can do is just kill this body. So what? I've got life eternal. You're powerless. Our enemies
are powerless because of Him. Consider Him. Spurgeon said,
he who fears God, he's got nothing else to fear. Nothing else to
fear. And it makes us see that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. It makes us to
see that our light affliction is but for a moment, but it's
working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Because we're not looking at things which are seen, but things
that are not seen. We're looking at eternity. Now
here's the lesson. I want you to turn with me to
Hebrews 13. And people often ask, what is
sanctification? What is sanctification? I'm going
to give you, I think this right here is the best definition I've
seen in scripture of sanctification. I just came across this this
week and it hit me this way. Hebrews 13, 12. that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood. This is how he made us holy and
separate from sinners. This is how he did it. He suffered
without the gate. Remember he said in John 17,
I sanctify myself that I might sanctify them. He said, I separate
myself from this world completely that I might make them separate
and holy in me and laying down my life. That's what he did.
He did it without the gate, out there at Golgotha, outside of
the camp, away from all the host of religion, away from all the
host of the immoral, sin, godless rebels against him. He went out
there by himself. and sanctified His people and
made His people perfectly holy in Him. Now here's what He says
to you. Verse 13. Here's sanctification. Let us go forth therefore unto
Him, Christ our holiness, Christ our sanctification without the
count. leaving this world, leaving this
world's religion, leaving this world, the sinfulness of this
world, leaving it behind us and bearing his reproach. For here
we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. A believer
is sanctified when Christ has revealed in him that he is so
much all our holiness that he separates us completely so that
we don't want to be a part of this world anymore. All we want
to do is be unto him our holiness, for him our holiness, separated
unto him our holiness. And that's how he keeps us from
the evil. That's how he keeps us separate
from this world. He constantly reminds us, consider
him. look unto the author and finisher
of our faith. Pink said, this is the divine
antidote. Brother Henry Mahan said, a certain
cure for anxious care is trust. Trust him. Take care of all that
anxious care. And so here we see in Hebrews
12, 1, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which just
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, 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. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your minds. You want some strength? He's
our strength. We won't find it in this world.
We won't find it in this flesh. You won't find it in this preacher.
You won't find it in these brethren. Go to him. Go to him. There you'll
find all the sufficiency of grace you need. All the strength inexhaustible. Go to him.