Hebrews chapter 12, and I do ask for your patience as certainly better, much better than it was last week, but still a bit of a lingering cough there. But Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to read there verses 3 through 17. If you're able, please stand for this reading of God's holy word. Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 3. This is God's word. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. where he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. As for the reading of God's holy word, you can be seated. We're going to attempt to take a larger chunk this morning of this letter to the Hebrews, as the verses that we've read really do make up a single unit of thought. And as we proceed, let me just remind you of where we are in the context as we recently made our way through that wonderful and most memorable of chapters in chapter 11 that chronicles the faith of God's people with selections from redemptive history. And that chapter not only showed us their faith, but if you remember, it showed us how they endured, some of them through extremely difficult circumstances. And then we open chapter 12 and saw that rising above that great cloud of witnesses that we found in chapter 11, Rising above that is the one that we are to look to supremely, our Lord Jesus Christ. As verse 2 said, we are to look to Him, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the forerunner, the pioneer, and also the one who brings it to completion. He is the supreme pattern, the supreme pattern of faith and of faithful endurance, even more so than that great cloud of witnessing saints that we saw in chapter 11. And so as He is the pattern of our faith, but also the one who perfects it, who brings it to completion, We're to look to Him to endure. We're to look to Him to continue in the race. We're to look to Him to ensure that we cross the finish line. Looking to Christ is absolutely necessary for remaining in the race that is before us, the race that we're called to run. And that idea of a race, it seems now, is to be there. in our mind as we move on in these verses and as we have read again and again about endurance and about discipline. So no doubt that imagery of the race is to continue to be there as we proceed. And as we proceed, the author, he wants us to continue in the race. He wants to endure in the race. He wants us to finish the race. And so he has for us some exhortations, encouragements for us as we run the race. This is how you are to run. Yes, we saw looking to Jesus, but now he has more to say to us. And as we consider these exhortations in verses 3 to 17, I want to, this morning, I want to summarize them around this thought that in order to continue in our race, We're to consider our Savior and remember our identity. In order to continue in our race, we're to consider our Savior and remember our identity. So let me show you what I mean by that before we dig in here. We are to consider our Savior, that's what we're told in verse three, but we're also to remember our identity that we'll begin to see in verse five, that we are God's sons. We are his children. And we need to know this as we endure, as we face difficulties, that we don't forget it. And then he sums it up in verse 12 with, therefore, considering God's Son and remembering that we are sons, is what gives strength to us. It is what puts strength within our bones to continue in the race, to continue running. And so that's really the main idea. In order to continue in our race, we are to consider our savior and remember our identity. We could say it this way. We're to consider God's son and to remember that we are God's sons. And I want to further summarize these exhortations with three words. So we'll see this thought under three points or three headings this morning. It is, as we run the race, first we are to consider in verses 3 and 4. We are to remember in verses 5 through 11. And we are to pursue in verses 12 to 17. Consider, remember, and pursue. So let's look first at this word consider. You see that in verse 3. who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. So as we run the race, and he's told us in verse two, looking to Jesus, or verse one, rather, to run the race with endurance that is set before us and look to Jesus, he now says again, look to Jesus, in verse three. Consider. Consider him, of course, that is Christ. Consider is to think upon. to muse upon this one who suffered all of this hostility at the hands of sinners. Christ is to be, again, at the forefront of our minds and of our eyes, the one who endured the cross, as we saw last week, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. If you remember from chapter 10, the recipients of this letter themselves had suffered mistreatment the plundering of their property, there were those that they knew who were in prison that they visited. And so when they first came to believe in Christ, they had suffered some form of persecution, but though they have struggled, and we've seen this, yet their struggle, in verse four, was not yet to the point of shedding their own blood. But there is a potential for that. Because they're united to, one, who's, the one they're united to in Christ himself, the one that they trust, the one that they believe in, the one whose name they're called by, is the object, the true object of the hatred of those who oppose them. That through them, they are objecting to, hating Christ. And so there is the potential that it could come to this, that they would shed their own blood for the sake of Christ's name, for being tied to him in that way. And this is how they're to endure. They're to look to the one who has shed his blood, who has suffered such hostility from sinners, and they're to do so so that they don't grow weary or fainthearted. In other words, there is a way in which looking to Christ keeps you in the race. Looking to Christ and remembering all that He has suffered keeps us from growing weary or fainthearted so that we are prepared to throw in the towel. Looking to Christ prevents that. His pattern is theirs. They're there to remember that. What they are suffering is like unto what He has suffered. No, of course, not in the sense that they would be atoning for sin. They could never do that as He did, but that pattern. of endurance that that leads to the right hand of the Father, endurance that leads to God, that path, remember, that Christ as the forerunner, the pioneer, the trailblazer has gone before them. He is taking them along that path. They they know where it is heading. And so they can't run this race, they can't continue on that path apart from riveting their eyes to Jesus Christ. You must look to him. So for you, Christian, when hardship comes, when the race is painful, when there are obstacles that seem insurmountable, I don't know if we can get over this. I don't know if we can get around this. And it seems in God's providence the only way is through. This is where you're to remember that you're not in uncharted territory. that even though it looks as though there is a wall that you cannot penetrate, that you cannot pass through, you're to remember someone has already gone through, that there was a trailblazer, that he's gone, as it were, to hack all the weeds and the bushes, and he's gone before you. And He is taking you by the hand and He is leading you on this path. And this path leads, He tells you where it leads. To where He is. To the right hand of the Father. You see, you cannot go about it alone. You cannot go about it in your own strength. You cannot go about it in the dark. You cannot go about it apart from having your eyes fixed upon Christ. In two consecutive verses there, He has told us to have our eyes on Christ. In verse two, looking to Jesus, and now in verse three, to consider Him, to emphasize that truth again. So consider, consider is the first way to summarize these exhortations. The second word is remember. We see this in verses five through 11, remember. Now, consider is explicit as far as being an exhortation. But there is also an exhortation that is implied at the beginning of verse five. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? So when he asked this question rhetorically, have you forgotten something? He is necessarily saying, I don't want you to forget this. Or in other words, to turn it around, remember. He said to consider explicitly now what is implied here is that you remember that the Lord himself addresses you as sons. This is key. Remembering this is key to your endurance. Just like considering Christ is, so now remembering, remembering your identity in the Lord. How does he address his people? This is a quotation from Proverbs chapter three, where he says, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Nor be wary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son. Whom he receives. So you're not to forget here. This is what you remember, that the Lord addresses. And treats his people as though they were his own children. And we see this as far back as the book of Exodus, don't we, where the Lord calls Israel his firstborn son. We see this, of course, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son, eternally, of the Father. And we see this in that He has given us, given it to us to be called the children of God, so that we are adopted into this family, having God as our Father, Christ as our elder brother, And so even though they are called to endure, they're not to think that the Lord has abandoned them, but they're rather to remember that this is the path of God's children, the path of discipline. The Lord disciplines the one He loves. He chastises every son whom He receives. And my son, God says to his people, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. We can be prone to forget this, though, can't we? As we wonder why we are experiencing what we are experiencing, as we might be tempted to ask, has the Lord abandoned us? I can remember personally years ago during a season that I did not understand what I was experiencing or why I was experiencing the circumstances that I was experiencing. I didn't understand it. I didn't know the answer to it. At this point in my life, these were the most difficult days I had faced. And there were passages that speak to God's sovereignty. I knew he was in control. But this very passage, these very verses reminded me not only was God in control, but that he loved me, that he was good, that he is wise. It didn't seem that way. But I had to come back and base my understanding, I had to submit it to the Word of God. The Word of God that tells me that, no, I did not have all the answers, but I did get this answer. The Lord was treating me as His own son. He had not abandoned me. I was under His discipline. Now, of course, during those times, and I know many of you have experienced so many like this, but you don't know why. You don't have the answers. Your understanding is limited. You're weak. You're finite. It's not always what you would do, is it? God treats his son this way, I don't know if I would treat my son this way. So it may not, in our weakness and in our limited understanding, it may not be the most wise or loving thing, but it is. It is the treatment of God's sons, and in the midst of all of our questions, In the midst of not having as many answers as we want, we can be sure of this answer again, that the Lord disciplines those he loves. That he treats his people as his sons, but here is this, don't miss this in what we've seen throughout this letter. He has come to show us, hasn't he, that Christ is the forerunner, that pioneer, that trailblazer. If you remember, we referenced it last week in the same context, but back in chapter two, verse 10, we referenced chapter two, verse 10, which says that Jesus himself, the son of God, was made perfect through the things that he was called to endure. And the purpose was so that he might bring many sons to glory. Do you see the connection between the pioneer who is the Son of God and the sons of God. That not only is God treating His people as sons by calling them to endure, but He is treating them as He has treated His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that path is the way to glory. That path that the Son has blazed, that path of endurance that we are called to go on in our race, in our discipline, that is how those many sons through the unique and only begotten Son come to glory. Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. He is treating you as sons. He is treating you after the pattern of his own son. Well, the author now takes this analogy of a father and a son and he applies it from the lesser to the greater. We might be led to think if we are under the discipline of the Lord that he has actually turned his face away from us and he is against us, but the opposite will be the case. He says in verse seven in the last part, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. So it's not discipline that should cause us to doubt if we are God's children. It is actually a lack of discipline that should cause us to wonder if we are bastard children. A lack of discipline would be a sign that we are not the true children of God. But the presence of discipline here is a sign that the Lord is caring for us as a father does his own beloved children. And so, again, he reasons from the lesser to the greater. He says it's actually an unloving father. It's an unloving father who fails to discipline his children. but decent fathers, good fathers. We remember our earthly fathers for their discipline, and of course, there are exceptions. There are some that we cannot say that their discipline was good. But it is a general truth that decent fathers, imperfect as they are, as flawed as they are, that they did what they thought was good and what they thought was best for us in their discipline of us. And we respected them for it, he says again in verse nine. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. In verse 10, they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. And though they were flawed, though they were imperfect, though they were sinful. Generally speaking, we understood that what they meant was for our good. And so if that is true of earthly fathers, then how much more? Verse nine, shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? Of course, the discipline he goes on to say is In the moment, it seems painful rather than pleasant, but it yields something? The end result is something good? How much more the discipline of the Lord and the children he receives as his own sons? Now, the word discipline here is in a general sense. Now, the idea of what we typically think of discipline, right, is negative. You're going to come under discipline. That's usually not a positive thing. And certainly that is included. The word chastisement is used as he quotes Proverbs in verse six. The Lord chastises every son whom he receives. There is that negative side that's included, but the term is more broad. It includes the general, the whole, the positive aspects of discipline as well. And we refer to, if we speak of church discipline, again, we think of negative things. We think of censures. But we're all under church discipline in the broader sense. In the preaching of the word, as the Lord reproves and rebukes and exhorts us. We ought to think of our lives in that broad, general sense as being under the discipline of the Lord. Yes, sometimes we come under His fatherly displeasure. But there is a positive part of discipline as well. And the term that is used here for discipline, I think it's used in like seven consecutive verses. It's the word where we get our term gymnasium from or a gymnast. And so you have that idea of training. That's the more broad understanding of it. We are being trained by the Lord and it is leading us to something. You know, essentially everything that is worthwhile requires some form of discipline. Whether it's your vocation, whether it's your studies, learning to play a musical instrument, or becoming proficient at any skill, being good at a sport or some, whatever it is. You're going to have to put in the work. You're going to have to be disciplined in it, in the discipline of deliberate practice. Shall we not much more? If we've been subject to the discipline of earthly fathers, if we would discipline ourselves through deliberate practice to become proficient in a skill, shall we not much more benefit from the discipline of our Heavenly Father who seeks our good? And what is the result? If you look at verse 10, it is that we may share His holiness. In verse 11, it is so that it would yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness, so that just as you were putting yourself to a deliberate practice to learn a certain skill and you would hope to be, at the end, to see the fruit of that. So the Lord's discipline leads to holiness and righteousness. That is the fruit that it yields. And this is much greater than those earthly skills. This is much greater than that earthly discipline of our earthly fathers. They did what seemed best to them. The Lord, who is all wise, this is what seems best to him. And it is, again, in order to mold us after the pattern of his own son. And so under the Lord's discipline, he is addressing us and treating us as sons. His purpose, his intention is to conform us to the likeness of Christ so that we begin to bear that family resemblance. Some of you may be being disciplined by your earthly fathers. You have taken on that. You bear that resemblance of not only physically, but his mannerisms and his habits and the way you've disciplined your own children. Maybe you've continued in that. Maybe it's your work ethic that was instilled in you. But your heavenly father is bent. on conforming you to a family likeness, not of the family to which you were born, but of the heavenly family, that you would look like more and more His Son, Jesus Christ. So consider. Remember. Then the third exhortation we find is. We'll sum it up in verses 12 through 17 with this, it is pursue. This is him telling us to keep going, really, in light of these things that he's told us, considering Christ and remembering that we are God's sons. He's treating us in that way. This is what gives strength to our pursuit. And so he says in verse 12, therefore. Therefore, we know that's an important word, right? I saw something this week that said, someone said, dear preachers, we all know what the word therefore means. Sincerely, everyone. We use that, it's a cliche, ad nauseum now, you know, you see the word therefore, let's see what it is therefore. But it is a signal word, right? In light of all that's being said, this is what you are to do. In light of considering Christ, in light of remembering that we are God's sons, this is how we are to run. And so he follows again with this series of exhortations to lift your drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees, make straight paths for your feet, strive for peace and for holiness. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. See to it that a root of bitterness doesn't spring up and cause trouble. See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. a series of exhortation. Again, he is drawing, as he has so often throughout this letter, from the Old Testament. He is, when he tells them to lift their drooping hands, to strengthen their weak knees, to make straight paths for their feet, to put in place what is out of joint, so that it's not a hindrance to their running. These are words from Isaiah, their encouragement to the saints in all times and places. He is saying, let these things be strength for you, to know how God is treating you and looking to Christ to endure before you. And so let these things, therefore, give you strength, help you to go on, enable you to stay in the race, keep on running. And as you keep running, he says, you need to run in a way that is striving here. Again, in verse 14, the word striving has the connotations of that struggle that he spoke of in verse 4. And your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. This is not a sprint. It's a marathon would be to underestimate what is being said here. Strive for peace and for holiness. Peace with one another and holiness is, that's our course, that's the highway that we're on, it's the path of holiness. And we're to remember that apart from holiness, no one will see the Lord. Sinclair Ferguson put it this way, no holiness, no heaven. Remember, those who are of faith, it is a living faith that endures and pursues holiness. And so we're to strive for this, for ourselves, but also for others. Strive for peace with everyone. There is a joint harmony that is here. We are to see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. We have obligations toward one another as the body of Christ. And not only to consider our own interests and our own holiness, In other words, we're to not only to ensure that we keep running, but we're to do our best by God's grace to see that others keep running. And don't quit along the way. And then tells us we're to be on guard against the root of bitterness that might spring up. If you take your eyes off of Christ, if you forget that God is dealing with you as sons, you forget that God is good, you forget that you're under His fatherly discipline, you're prone to doubt His love and His goodness. You can easily see how a root of bitterness springs up. We believe that our circumstances are the reality, grow bitter, and that's a hindrance to our finishing the race. We'll say more in just a bit about what that root of bitterness actually is biblically. But then the final thing here is that he tells us that we're not to be sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. Esau sold his birthright for a single meal. Of course, you remember Esau, Jacob's brother. He was, he thought, on the brink of starvation. What is my birthright as a firstborn son good for me? So he sells it to his brother, which fulfills what God had already said, the elder will serve the younger. And through Jacob, the promisee continues. And what do we read about Esau that immediately after that, he took foreign wives that were a great displeasure to his parents. And so there is this note of sexual immorality that he is marked by. And what is true of Esau is that though he regretted selling his birthright, even coming to the point of tears over it, he never found true repentance. The author tells us and reminds us here. And what is this? What does he insert Esau here? Why does he speak of this root of bitterness here? The root of bitterness comes from Deuteronomy chapter 29 and in verse 18, and I won't ask you to turn there for the sake of time, but just you have there this this person. who is described in these terms in Deuteronomy 29 verse 18. This is after God is reminding his people that they came out of Egypt and that they are not to go back to serve those idols of silver and gold that they found in Egypt. But in verse 18, he says, Beware, lest there be any among you a man or a woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. This is the person who walks in presumption of sin. This is the person who turns away from the true and living God in favor of the gods of Egypt they have left behind them. Esau, a man who despised, rejected his birthright, who went the way of immorality and rejection of God's covenant, and could not find repentance. If you put these together, you see that these are themes that we've been seeing throughout Hebrews. In chapter 6, in chapter 10, he has warned us about those who would turn away from the living God. who would apostatize and find no opportunity and impossibility of ever repenting and returning to the Lord because there would be no more sacrifice for sin. If you turn away from Christ, if you turn back to the old covenant worship and rituals and sacrifices and ceremonies and priesthood, you are cutting yourself off from salvation, from Christ Himself. And it all was to be said that there was a line, though we don't always know where that line is, there was a line that once crossed, it would be impossible to return. But he wants us to keep running, to continue in the race. And in order to continue in the race, we are to consider our savior and remember our identity, consider God's son, and remember that we are his sons. This is how we run with endurance. Consider. Consider Jesus and all He was called to endure. Rivet your eyes upon Him. A sufficient, strong Savior to bring about the completion of your salvation. showing us through all of these chapters how Christ is sufficient, how He is adequate to bring us all the way home. But also remember, as you're called to endure in the race that God has given you to run, He does so under His own fatherly discipline. He has adopted you into His family. And so when you're tempted to give in, when you're tempted to throw in the towel, when you're tempted to Turn away like an Esau or like this this bitter root of one who would be tempted to turn back to the gods of Egypt. He says, let the consideration of God's son. And the remembrance of yourself as one of God's children. Let that give you strength. Let that give strength to your knees and make straight paths for your feet and and lift your drooping hands so that you might run. Because the only way to finish is to stay in the race. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Christ and your. Your purpose that you have brought about in him and for the assurance that as your own