Seeking the help of Almighty
God, the words to which I would direct your attention this morning
are to be found in that chapter that we read in the twelfth chapter
of the epistle to the Hebrews at verse four. The epistle to the Hebrews, chapter
twelve, verse four. Ye have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. ye have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin." So often when we read the epistles,
we have the Christian life compared to a battle or to a race or to
a struggle. That's certainly true in this
twelfth chapter, isn't it? It's a very well-known opening.
The writer speaks about the race that is set before us, He speaks
of contradiction. He speaks of striving, of resisting. It's very clear from this chapter,
and it's very clear as we read through the epistles especially,
that the Christian life is never meant to be a life that is easy
and comfortable. Look at how the apostle writes
in the previous chapter. Again, a very well-known chapter.
He gives that long list, doesn't he, of all the faithful men of
the Old Testament. He speaks of Abel, he speaks
of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But as you read
through that chapter, one thing that is very clear, that all
these men and women had in common, they all had a life which was
not an easy life. You can almost pick any example
from the chapter. And as you read through the things
that they passed through during their lives, you immediately
see that their life was not a comfortable life. Take Noah. By faith, Noah,
it says, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. You
think of the things that Noah experienced, the things that
he passed through during that flood. And not just during that
flood, but those things that happened to him afterwards. Think
of how it must have been when he came out of that ark with
just his wife, his three sons and his three daughters-in-law.
It wasn't an easy life. Again, you think of Abraham.
He was called to go out into a place which he should after
receive for an inheritance. And he had to go out not knowing
whether he went, not a comfortable position to be in. If we had
to leave our homes and go on a journey and we didn't know
where we were going to end up, well, it wouldn't be an easy
journey, would it? You think of these refugees that so many
of them are now coming from the Middle East and crossing Europe.
It's not a comfortable pathway, is it? There has to be a strong
motive to make a man do that. All these examples that the writer
gives in that eleventh chapter, they all had lives which were
lives full of struggle, lives full of difficulty. And it's not surprising that
the writer gives these examples to these Hebrews in this epistle. It's very obvious that these
Hebrews were also in a very difficult situation. If you look at the
end of chapter 10, you'll see a description of their experience.
The writer at the close of chapter 10 in verse 32, he tells them
to call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated,
after they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, ye endured
a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
ye became companions of them that were so used. This epistle,
as it says, is written to the Hebrews, to those Jews who had
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the Jews didn't, of course.
You can read through the Gospels and you can read through the
Acts of the Apostles and you can see that to many of the Jews
the name of the Lord Jesus, it was a terrible thing. And that's
still true of many today, isn't it? Many of the Jews, they are
still waiting for their promised Messiah. And if you speak to
them of the Lord Jesus Christ, really they would assume that
you're speaking blasphemy. These Jews, these Jews who this
epistle was written to, they gave up an awful lot, didn't
they? They were so often cast out by
their families, so often cast out by their friends, by their
companions. You can see a few examples of
it in the New Testament, and you can see it in church history
also. It's a terrible thing for a Jew
to see one of his friends convert to Christianity. They would call
him an apostate. They would call him a blasphemer.
They would turn their backs upon him. Well, you see it, don't
you, with that man that was born blind in the 10th chapter of John.
In the ninth chapter of John we have that description of Jesus
healing that man that was born blind. And the Pharisees, the leaders
of the Jews, they call this man to them and they say, well, how
do you explain what's happened? And when he speaks to them of
the fact that it was Jesus that gave him his sight, And when
he says to them, if this man were not of God, he could do
nothing, they answered and said unto him, thou wast altogether
born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. They'd
agreed already, it says in the 22nd verse, the Jews had agreed
already that if any man did confess that Jesus was Christ, he should
be put out of the synagogue. He should be excommunicated,
cast out, utterly rejected. These Hebrews, when they believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, they gave up an awful lot, didn't
they? And they had need of patience.
The 10th chapter, it says, ye have need of patience, that after
ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
The writer, he encourages them, doesn't he? Time and time again,
he seeks to encourage them. And he speaks to them of the
necessity of faith, of the fact that it is faith that will enable
them to live, to endure. The just shall live by faith,
he says. And then to illustrate the power of true faith, he gives
that great list in the 11th chapter. And in almost every verse, it's
by faith, it's through faith. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. by faith Noah prepared an ark,
by faith Abraham went out not knowing whither he went. It was
by faith that these men, it was by faith that these women, they
performed these things, they walked in that difficult pathway. Elsewhere we have faith described
as a shield, don't we? In the epistle to the Ephesians,
Paul gives that long list of the Christian's armour, and I
know our pastor recently has preached a series of sermons
on this. But it's striking language that he uses when he comes to
talk about faith. He says, take the shield of faith.
He doesn't say, take the armchair of faith, or the comfortable
bed of faith. He says faith is a shield. Well, what is a shield
for? A shield is something that you use in a battle. A shield
is something that you need when you're being attacked, when you're
in a difficult situation. This is what faith does, the
apostle says. It's like a shield. It's something
that we have to use, not something that we just have and we just
look at it and we speak about it and we admire it. No, it's
something that is given to be used. The Apostle, when he wrote this
epistle, he tried to encourage these Hebrews. He points them
back to what they had experienced. He points them back to what they
had believed. Right at the beginning he speaks
of the... and he proves from the Old Testament that Jesus
Christ was the Messiah. He says to them, well you have
believed this, you've believed it and it's true. God who spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. He says to them, this Messiah
that you've believed on, he is the true Messiah. It is he that
the Lord is speaking to us through. He is the brightness of his glory,
the express image of his person. He is the one who upholds all
things by the word of his power. He is the one who is now sitting
on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And he quotes, doesn't
he, in that first chapter, he quotes time and time again from
the Old Testament. Of course, the Jews would be
familiar with it. He says, look at all these quotes
from the Old Testament. These things that are written,
they are true of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, he says at the opening
of the second chapter, based on all these things that I've
said, based on all those scriptures that I've quoted to you, therefore
we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. And the theme
of the epistle really is the fact that the New Testament is
better than the Old. As you read through this epistle,
watch out for the word better. Time and time again, the apostle
uses it. He speaks of a better covenant. He speaks of better
promises. He speaks of a better country, a better inheritance. This is what he is trying to
show these Hebrews that he's writing to. Yes, he says to them,
the Old Testament was good, but the New Testament is better.
Your old position as Jews was a good position. Your new position
as Christians is a better position. He says, don't be weary, don't
be faint in your minds. This was the danger for them,
wasn't it? As they had so much opposition and so much trouble
in their lives, the danger was that they would say, well, we
were better off when we were Jews. We were better off before
we believed this gospel. It wouldn't be difficult, would
it, for them to think in that way. It wouldn't be surprising
if they were to come to that conclusion. And they wouldn't
be the first people to make that mistake, would they? You remember
that man Asaph, who wrote that 73rd Psalm. And you think of
the mistake that he almost made. He says, as for me, my feet were
almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. What was it that
had caused him to come into that precarious situation, that situation
where he had almost fallen? Well, the problem was that he
was looking at the wicked. He was looking at those who had
no regard for the Word of God, who didn't worship God, who didn't
believe in God. He looked at them and he said,
well, they seem to be so much better off than I am. He says,
I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. There are no bands in their death. Their strength
is firm. They're not in trouble as other men. Neither are they
plagued like other men. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish. He looks at them and he sees
them in prosperity. Then he looks at his own situation.
All the day long, he says, have I been plagued and chastened
every morning. Verily I have cleansed my heart
in vain and washed my hands in innocency. In other words, he
says, it almost seems to me that by believing in God and by seeking
to walk according to the word of God, I'm worse off than these
who don't do those things. He looked on outward things and
this was the mistake that he made. How is it that he was rescued
from that situation? Well, he says, it's verse 17
of his psalm, he says, until I went into the sanctuary of
God, then understood I their end. When he went into the sanctuary
of God and he started to think about things to come, then he
realized why it was that these things were happening to him.
And he realized why it was that there was this apparent difference
between the way that these wicked men were treated and the way
in which he seemed to be treated. He was being taught, he was being
chastened. That's the theme of this twelfth
chapter in the Hebrews, isn't it? The teaching of God, the
chastening of God. And the apostle, he says to the Hebrews, don't
be surprised if your life has got problems in it. Don't be
surprised if you're passing through difficulties, because these things
are there to teach you something. These things are there to show
you something. He quotes from the Book of Proverbs
and he says, 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. He compares it, doesn't he? He
compares the way in which God deals with his children to the
way in which we deal with our own children. We teach them,
don't we? We chasten them. When they do
something wrong, we punish them. It's not because we hate them,
it's because we love them, isn't it? We don't punish them just
for the sake of it. We don't punish them because
we enjoy it. No, it's to try and teach them something. Well,
the apostle says, well, it's just the same with the way that
God deals with you. He's not chastening you just
for the sake of it. He's chastening you for your profit, that ye
might be partakers of his holiness. And in this fourth verse, he
speaks of something that they hadn't yet done. You have not
yet resisted unto blood, he says, striving against sin. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. He says to them, well, there's
many things that you have gone through, many things that you have been
called to give up. many things that you've had to leave behind,
but he says there's one thing that you haven't yet done, you
haven't yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Well, surely the first thing
is that we must have a good understanding of what this word sin means.
If we're to understand this fourth verse, surely we need to understand
what we mean when we talk about sin. What does the word sin make
you think of? If we don't have a right understanding
of sin, then surely it won't be surprising if we don't really
have a good desire for salvation. It's the man who has a right
understanding of sin that really desires to be saved from it.
Just as if we had some disease, some terminal disease for which
there was no cure, and then we heard of someone who discovered
a cure. Well, we'd be interested, wouldn't we? But if we didn't
have the disease, it really wouldn't really mean much to us, would
it? What do we mean when we talk about sin? What do you think
of when you think of the word sin? Well, maybe you think of
things like adultery. Perhaps you think of things like
drunkenness or murder. These are all sins, aren't they?
All these things are against the law of God. They're all sins.
The sin of adultery is a terrible sin. The sin of drunkenness.
The sin of murder. But the Lord Jesus was once asked
the question, wasn't he? Someone came to him and they
said, Master, what is the first and the greatest commandment?
Do you have it described to us in the Gospel according to Mark? In chapter 12, one of the scribes
came and he'd heard Jesus talking to other people. And he'd seen
that the Lord Jesus answered them well. So he asks him this
question, what is the first commandment of all? What is the most important
commandment? This is something that the Pharisees
and the scribes would argue about every day. They would go through
all the commandments of the Old Testament and they'd say, well
I think this one is the most important, this one is the most
serious. So this man comes and he asks the Lord Jesus this question,
which is the first commandment of all? And we might find Jesus'
answer rather surprising, because he doesn't really talk about
things that we do with our hands, or places that we go with our
feet, or things that we say. He doesn't talk about things
that we might see other people doing. Jesus answered him, the
first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one God, is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart. and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength." This, he says, is
the first commandment. It's not so much to do with our
hands or our minds, it's something that is to do with our hearts.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. This is the first and the greatest
commandment. And surely then, whatever else we may do, and however many of the other
commandments we might keep. If we fail at that first and
greatest commandment then whatever else we do really is not good
enough, is it? Just as if we thought of the
laws of our own country and we have those laws that have big
punishments and we have laws that have smaller punishments
and if you found yourself in court accused of murder Well,
it wouldn't be any excuse for you to say, well, I did murder
him, but I didn't steal anything from him, or I didn't tell any
lies about him or slander him, or I didn't exceed the speed
limit on that day, or I didn't go through any red lights. These
are minor things, aren't they, compared to the sin of murder?
And the Lord Jesus, according to what He says, even the sins
that we think of when we think about sin, really, they are less
important than that first and greatest commandment. That first and the greatest commandment
which talks about love, which talks about our attitude toward
God. Sometimes when we think about
sin, and we may hear preaching about sin, and we may hear preachers
saying that we are all sinners, And we might think, well, that
doesn't seem quite right, because I know some very nice non-Christians,
and they always tell the truth, and they're always very helpful
and friendly, and nothing is too much trouble for them. They're
always ready to help. Surely we might think those people
are not such bad sinners as the Bible makes out. Well, you think
about it in the context of that first and greatest commandment.
If a man does not love God with all his heart, with all his mind,
all his soul and all his strength, well, however else he may be
a good person, however upright he might be in other things,
he hasn't kept that first and that greatest commandment. And
none of us keep it, do we? None of us keep it as we're born
into this world. You speak to any man, any woman,
any person in this world, and if you were able to see into
their hearts, you wouldn't find them naturally keeping that first
and that greatest commandment. You wouldn't find them naturally
loving the Lord God with all their heart, with all their soul,
with all their mind and with all their strength. We're told somewhere else in
the New Testament, aren't we, that our carnal minds are enmity
against God. That means our natural minds,
the minds that we're born with, they're enemies to God. That's
the way we're born. We're not born loving God. Sometimes
we look at children and they seem so innocent, but they're
not born loving God. None of us was born loving God. That's why when Jesus was talking
to Nicodemus, the first thing that he speaks to him about is
the need to be born again. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night
and he says to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. And Jesus immediately cuts him
off and he says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
perhaps thought that the way to the kingdom of God was just
by keeping a few of the outward commandments, and these were
the things that the Jews concentrated on, especially the Pharisees.
They looked at really what were the minor commandments, and they
said, well, as long as we keep those, then surely we're in the
right pathway. And it's easy for us to make
the same mistake. We might think to ourselves, well, as long as
we don't commit murder, and as long as we don't commit adultery,
and as long as we don't steal, or as long as we don't tell too
many lies, then we might think, well, surely we're on our way
to the kingdom of God. Jesus says, no, that's not right.
That's not right. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God. Why do we need to be born again?
Well, it's because in our first birth we come into this world
with the wrong attitude to God. We come into the world at enmity
to Him. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, except
a man experience that second birth, that new birth, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God, no matter what else he does.
This is the greatest sin. This is the most serious sin.
Again, it's not so much to do with our hands or what we do,
or where we go, or the clothes that we wear, or what we think.
It's to do with the state of our heart. This is what we mean,
really. This is what the Bible means
when it talks about sin. It's not just talking about things
that other people do. Sometimes you come across people
and when you talk to them about sin, they say, well, of course,
other people are sinners, but not me. Sometimes you might even
hear of someone, and they're walking in a particular sin,
and they're doing it quite openly, but they don't recognise it as
sin. If they see other people doing it, they say, oh yes, that
is a great sin. They might see someone else committing
adultery, and they say, well, that's a terrible thing. But perhaps a few years later,
when they find themselves walking in that same sin, they're all
defensive about it. They say, well, I'm not sinning.
This is the right way. This is what is good. This feels
right to me. Sin is not about what other people
do, and we will never desire this salvation that is revealed
here in this book, unless we have a right and a true understanding
of what sin is, unless we realize that it is not just outward things
that we need to change in. Perhaps you think, well, if I
could overcome this particular sin that always catches me out,
then I would be all right, then my life would be almost perfect. But no, it's a change of heart
that's needed. It's a new heart, a new spirit. This is what the Bible means
when it talks about sin. It's about the attitude of our
hearts. And this sin is something that we see in this verse that
is to be strived against. The apostle, he speaks of striving
against sin. It's a word that means fighting,
struggling, This word that here is translated striving, it's
the word from which we get our English word agony. Sometimes
we say, I was so ill I was in agony. It's a word that we often
use really and we don't think about what we're saying. Striking,
isn't it, that the only time that we have the word agony used
in the Bible is in relation to what Jesus Christ experienced
in the garden before his crucifixion. It says, being in an agony, he
prayed, as it were, more earnestly. That's the only time that we
come across the word agony. His sweat, it says, was as it
were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Well, it's
the same word, really, that we have here when it talks about
striving against sin. Surely the apostle is pointing
them to what the Lord Jesus experienced at that time. He's already said,
hasn't he, looking unto Jesus, He's already said, consider him. And when he talks about this
striving, we see the only perfect example of that striving there
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly. This was a difficult thing for
him. It's not right to think that
the Lord Jesus just went through these things without feeling
anything. He was a man, he was truly and
verily Almighty God. Yes, but he was a man, a real
man, body and soul. When he was there in an agony,
praying more earnestly, this was something that was difficult,
this was something that was painful for him. Well, the apostle says,
this battle with sin, it's a painful battle, it's a difficult battle.
It's not something that happens automatically. There has to be
a striving against sin, even for the Christian. Perhaps sometimes we think, well,
if I was a better Christian, then I wouldn't have so much
struggle with sin. Perhaps some of us, we thought,
when we were not Christians, we thought, well, if only I could
become a Christian, then my struggles with sin would be over. They
wouldn't really trouble me anymore. And life would be easy and smooth. Well, the Apostle says to these
Hebrew Christians, he speaks to them about striving against
sin. They still have to do it, they still have to fight with
it. It's not something that stops troubling them, but when they
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, no, sin is something that has
to be continually fought against. This is something that the Apostle
speaks of so frequently. In the ninth chapter of his first
epistle to the Corinthians, he compares this fight to what we
see at the Olympics. He's talking about the Olympic
Games, really, or the equivalent in his day. He talks to these
Corinthians and he says, Know ye not that they which run in
a race run all? But one receiveth the prize,
so run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for
the mastery is temperate in all things. He says, you look at
these athletes, how much trouble they go to in their effort to
win their race or to win their fight. They strive. They go to a great deal of trouble,
a great deal of pain, a great deal of inconvenience. Well, he says, it's the same
in the Christian life. It's the same attitude that we ought to
come into the Christian life with. Every man that striveth
for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it
to obtain a corruptible crown. They do it to obtain their gold
medal. But we are incorruptible. He
says the things that we're fighting for, they're not things that
will decay. We're fighting for heaven itself.
We're fighting for an eternal inheritance. I therefore so run, he says,
not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the
air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,
lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be a castaway." The Apostle Paul, even he, even
he looks at his life and he says, you know, I find it a struggle.
I find I have to strive against sin. Sometimes we think of the
Apostle Paul and we think of him as such a high and a holy
and a perfect example, almost, of what a Christian should be.
We look at him going about preaching and we say, well, if only I could
be like him, surely I wouldn't have any more trouble with sin.
It's not true, is it? The Apostle Paul, he so often
speaks of the troubles that he had with sin. He speaks of that thorn in the
flesh that he had, the messenger of Satan that buffeted him. He
says, my life is not a perfect life, my life is not an easy
life. There's so much to cast me down. He speaks of the sin
that was still within him. He says, when I would do good,
evil is present with me, even me, even Paul. I am carnal, sold under sin,
he says. the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which
I would not, that I do. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me." He has to strive against sin.
He writes to these Hebrews saying there's still a battle to be
fought, there's still a fight to be fought, there's still a
race to be run. He has not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. Why does he say you have not
yet resisted unto blood? Well, in the previous chapter
he's given some examples of those who have had to resist unto blood.
He runs out of time, doesn't he, at the end of that 11th chapter
and he says in verse 32, what shall I more say? The time would
fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David,
Samuel, the prophets. He says there's so many more
examples I could give you of what faith does and of what faith
is. He says the time would fail me. who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions. Then in verse 36 he says others
had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, wore over of bonds
and imprisonment, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword. He points them back to
those of the Old Testament who gave their lives Perhaps he was thinking of that
man Stephen. You remember the account that
we have of that man Stephen. He was appointed one of the deacons
of the early Christian church. And it seems he was a man of
remarkable faith and power. He went about and he did great
wonders and miracles among the people. And as a result of that
he was arrested by the Jews and by the leaders of the synagogue.
And they brought him to the council and they accused him of blasphemy.
And He gives them that long address in the seventh chapter of Acts,
but they don't listen. When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and gnashed on Him with their teeth.
But He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. He had
a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ there in heaven, standing on
the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice. They stopped their ears. They put their fingers in their
ears. They said, we're not listening. You're speaking blasphemy. They
ran upon him with one accord, and they cast him out of the
city and stoned him. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He died. There was
a man who resisted unto blood. Not a man that said, well, I
didn't realize that I was going to have to give my life because
of this. Not a man that said, well, if you're going to stone
me, well, then I'll change my mind and I'll stop teaching and
preaching about Jesus of Nazareth. And I'll stop teaching and preaching
the things that you object to. And I'll fall in with you. If
that's what I have to do to save my life, he didn't say, well,
I'll do it. There was a man that resisted unto blood, striving
against sin. He wouldn't reject those things
that he'd been preaching. He wouldn't reject those things
that he'd believed. He looked up steadfastly into
heaven. He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right
hand of God. And he resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. And he wasn't the only one, was he? There were many in the
early church who were martyred because of their faith. There
are many today who were martyred because of their faith. You have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. But surely
he's pointing them not just to those martyrs of the Old Testament
and those martyrs in the early church. Surely he's pointing
them again to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one that resisted
unto blood. See him there in the garden of
Gethsemane with his sweat pouring, as it were, great drops of blood
down to the ground in an agony. See him there on the cross crying
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There was a
man who was resisting unto blood, striving against sin. He says
to these Hebrews, well, you've suffered many things, but you
haven't suffered this. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. This is something the hymn writers
so often speak of. Charles Wesley was a man who
suffered many things. And he writes, it's hymn 1059,
he says, May I from every sin as from a serpent fly, abhor
to touch the thing unclean, and rather choose to die. There was
a man who understood what sin is. He understood the effect
of sin. He understood the consequences
of sin. He understood the cost of sin.
And he said, you know what? Sin is such a serious thing that
I would rather choose to die than to touch it. The Hebrews hadn't come there.
Not many of us have come there. Not many of us have had to resist
unto blood, striving against sin. Charles Wesley, he saw, and Stephen
the martyr, he saw that sin was something so terrible, something
that would kill them if they didn't strive against it. Now,
of course, it's true of all men that they ought to strive against
sin, whether a man is a Christian or not. It is quite right that
he is obedient to the commandments of God. It's just right. You
think of the way in which Paul speaks when he writes to the
Ephesians in that fifth chapter. He says, It's the sixth chapter. He says, children, obey your
parents in the Lord, for this is right. It's a very simple
reason, isn't it? He doesn't give a long argument
for why they ought to do it. He says, children, obey your
parents in the Lord, for this is right. It's obvious. And surely
if it's true of children that they ought to obey their parents
because it's right, surely it's true that all men ought to obey
God himself, that one who has made them, that one who has given
them life. All men have a duty to strive
against sin, but surely for the Christian the motive is much
greater, the motive is much stronger. When they consider what it cost
the Lord Jesus Christ, consider Him that endured such contradiction
of sin as against Himself. This is surely what ought to
motivate the Christian. When he's tempted to sin, surely
what he ought to set his mind upon is not just the threatenings
of God's law, He ought to consider him that endured such contradiction
of sin as against himself. He ought to have in his mind's
eye the Lord Jesus suffering there on the cross because of
sin. This is the only thing that can
give the Christian strength in that battle. Consider him that
endured such contradiction of sin as against himself. 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. Look at what he endured.
He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Well, do you find this
battle too difficult? Do you find yourself thinking,
well, I wish that I could strive against sin? Are there those
sins that seem to always catch you out, those things that you
resolve against and you say, well, I'll never do that again?
You say, well, I've sinned but I'm not going to do that again
and then no sooner have you said it almost than you find yourself
in the same sin and you think this battle is too difficult
for me. Well, he is able to deliver the
apostle Peter in his epistle. He speaks of the Lord and he
says, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
The apostle Jude when he writes in his short epistle. Look at how he closes it. He's
again writing to people who have very difficult pathways to walk
in. And he says to them in the 24th
verse, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. He
points them to the Lord. He says he is able to keep you
from falling. and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. He is the only one that is able
to keep us from falling." And this is what he promises
to do. Look at what the Apostle says in the first epistle to
the Corinthians. He speaks of God and he says,
God is faithful. God is faithful who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with
the temptation make a way of escape. A way of escape, not
our way of escape, not your way of escape. It may not happen
in the way that you expect, but he is able to make a way of escape,
and he has made a way of escape. Beware of excuses when we think
about sin, don't we? We have to beware of making excuses
for our sins. Sometimes we say, well, I couldn't
help it. It's not true, really, is it,
if we're honest with ourselves? You think of any sin that you've
ever committed. It's not true to say that you
couldn't help it. You think of that thing that you took that
wasn't yours, perhaps, when you were a child. It wasn't true
that you couldn't help it. You could have helped it. You
chose not to help it. We have to be so careful about
making excuses. Sometimes you read, perhaps,
something that someone's written. Or you come across someone that's
fallen into a great sin, and they're writing about how it
happened, and they almost seem to blame God. They say, well,
I was left to fall into sin. Well, we perhaps might know what
they mean, but we have to be very careful about blaming God
for the fact that we've sinned. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. When we fall into sin, it's not
anybody else's fault. It's not because of anyone else.
It's us that fall into sin. It's us that sin. This striving,
there can only be a true striving when there is that new birth.
This is the striving that the Apostle speaks of in that remarkable
seventh chapter of his epistle to the Romans, which we've already
referred to. There was a time when Paul really,
he didn't know any real striving against sin. You look at him
there as a Pharisee. You look at him there as one
of the up-and-coming leaders of the Jewish church, one who
was much more educated than his peers, who had much more knowledge
concerning the law of God. Now, if you had gone to him and
said to him, well, Paul, do you find that you have a struggle
with sin? I'm sure he would have said no. Of course, I don't have
to struggle with sin. I'm a Pharisee. I'm a Hebrew
of the Hebrews. But how did he find it after
his conversion? He says in verse 9 of that 7th
chapter to the Romans, I was alive without the law once, but
when the commandment came, when he really understood what the
law meant, sin revived and I died, he suddenly realized what he
was. It must have been a terrifying experience, mustn't it, when
he came face to face with the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road.
We sometimes might think about it and we think, well, it must
have been a very blessed experience for Paul. Well, it's true in
a sense, but it must have been an absolutely terrifying experience. He suddenly sees the Lord Jesus
face to face, that one who he was persecuting, that one who
he had thought of as a blasphemer, someone to be rejected and hated
and turned against. Suddenly he sees him to be the
Son of God. Suddenly he sees what the law means. Suddenly
he realises that the law is spiritual, it doesn't consist of outward
things. The law is spiritual, he says, but I am carnal, sold
under sin. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Even when I would do good, he
says, even when I have a desire to do something that is right,
evil is present with me. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. That's only true of the Christian. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. We have him described, don't
we, that description of the Christian in the first psalm. It's a description
of the Lord Jesus Christ, ultimately, isn't it? Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night. Paul says, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. I have that new birth. I have
that within me that delights in the law of God, but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. And he has to say this, doesn't he? O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? You find
yourself having to say that. O wretched man that I am, O wretched
woman that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is able to deliver. So then with the mind I myself
that serve the law of God and with the flesh the law of sin,
this conflict is something that goes on and it's something that
will go on. One of the hymn writers, he speaks
of heaven and he says, sin my worst enemy before shall vex
my righteous soul no more. That's true only in heaven. Only
in that place will there be no sin. Until then, there is this
battle to be fought. And we can only fight it with
God's help. Don't suppose that the apostle is writing to these
Hebrews and saying, well, you must independently fight against
sin. No, he says, you need help in this. That's why he points them continually
to Christ, looking unto Jesus, consider Him. That's the only way in which
this race is to be run. That's the only way in which
this battle is to be fought with the whole armour of God. You
have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Well, may
the Lord give us a right understanding of what sin is, a right understanding
of what it is to strive against it, and may He help us to consider
this verse and this chapter. Amen.