Hebrews chapter 12 this morning. Hebrews chapter number 12. And once again, let us stand please, as we are physically able. And we're gonna read verses one through 11. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth 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 ye be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. And let's pray. Heavenly Father, may we hear and heed the words that you have spoken to us today. May we take them to heart. May we believe them. May we embrace them. Father, it is your desire that our faith be genuine. And so thank you for instructing us about how you deal with us. And I pray your blessing today in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, it's been several weeks since we've been in the book of Hebrews together. The 19th, I was gone, the 26th, and last week was the 4th of July weekend, and we turned our attention away from Hebrews The last time we were here, our attention was on verses 1 and 2, in which the pastor has urged us to run the race that God has for us with patience, and the idea is endurance. That the life of a Christian is the life of a marathon runner, not a sprinter. In fact, to go back to Matthew 13 in the parable, of the sower, there are many people who in effect go shooting out of the starting gate of Christianity with great exuberance, who quickly turn aside from the realities of what Christianity is. Fortunately for us folks, and we do not always think of this as one of God's blessings, but God never paints any illusion picture for us about what it means to be a Christian. You will find them all over the place on Facebook and Instagram. But the Bible portrait really is somewhat different. This is a marathon. It is a race of endurance. This doesn't mean there will not be joys and delights and blessings and laughter, but it is not all puppy dogs and rainbows. In verse number 3 and down through verse number 11, the pastor now having exhorted us to run the race that God has for us with endurance, The pastor now turns his attention to the all-critical mindset of the marathon runner. I think we all understand, folks, that when it comes to things that are difficult or unpleasant, the right state of mind is essential. That diet that we keep talking to ourselves about, is never going to come to pass if our thinking doesn't change. That exercise program that we know is so essential, probably never going to be undertaken unless our thinking about it is brought into line with the realities of what it takes. Going to see the doctor or the dentist begins with a state of mind, doesn't it? With a thinking through what this could mean, what might be the end, how it could play out. It is essential that we who profess Christ think properly. about what is going on, what the Lord is doing, and what the Lord is saying to us. And so let me suggest to you some of the lines of orientation that the pastor has for us in these verses, verses 3 through 11. I want to begin, if I could, with just a little bit of a dictionary excursion here and that is on the word consider. Run the race that God has for you, that he has placed in front of you, run it with endurance for consider. It is actually, although it is the verb form of the word, it is actually the word analog. we get our word analog from the Greek. The Greek word analog actually refers to a proportion. In other words, what the pastor is saying to the people is, you've got to get the proportions right. You've got to get the calculations right. You have been called to run a marathon. It is the race of a lifetime, and I don't mean a one-in-a-lifetime chance, although that's true. To be a Christian, folks, to be a true Christian is a lifelong undertaking. For many of you, it began when you were young, maybe even in the elementary ages. For me, it began as a young adult. For others, it may have begun later in life, but it is a marathon that will last as long as you live. And it will have many components as you go through life. We were young adults and young married, and then along came children and the children grown. I was just thinking about this this morning. I have two children that have been married now 18 years. I just feel old when I think about that. And a couple of weeks ago, we were out at our son's and I said to our oldest granddaughter, do I have this right? You're going to be in 10th grade this year? And her mother looked at me and said, 10th grade? I said, I just think I need to sit down. If we don't get the calculations right, a number of years ago, I was talking to one of our men. And he was contemplating a major life decision and a move and a relocation, which ultimately undertook. And he's doing it on the basis of some calculations with reference to his business. And he said, at my present trajectory, the rent that I'm paying is going to cost me $2 million. And I went, what? You know, folks, you know this is true. I'm not a mathematician. But I looked at his numbers, and I went, you've got one too many zeros in that equation. At your present rate of rent, it's going to cost you $200,000, not $2 million. That's a big difference. I'm not making light of $200,000, just saying 200,000 is not 2 million. If you don't get the calculations right, folks, the whole thing begins to unravel. So consider, put the proportions to this. This is the race that will last a lifetime. And so says the pastor in verses three and four, don't miscalculate the difficulty that you are facing. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, which is where all of our ultimate failures originate, not in circumstances, but in thinking. Verse number four, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Do not miscalculate the difficulty of your situation. Begin by thinking about Jesus and his situation. Consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. The entire world virtually was against him. The entire system was against him. The entire government was against him. His own chosen people were against him. And it was not uncommon for his most faithful followers to be against him. All you need do, folks, is read through the gospel accounts to realize how often the disciples, the 12 men who would become the foundation of the church and the authors of the New Testament, were out of sync with Jesus Christ and what he was doing. To the point that he actually turned to Peter one time and called him Satan. To the point that he would say to them, you don't know what spirit you're of. to say on a repeated basis to them, do you believe any of this? Do you believe any of this? Consider him. The pastor is not suggesting that they are not encountering difficulty. Quite the opposite is true. You don't need to turn to it. But in Hebrews 10.32, the pastor exhorted them this way, call to remembrance the former days in which After ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions. You did suffer. Partly while ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while ye became companions of them that were so used. So they were suffering. He wasn't minimizing their suffering. And some of us are suffering. but don't miscalculate what we are experiencing. The observation is, verse number four, the standard of measurement is Jesus Christ, verses three and four, and the pastor, not unkindly, simply points out to them that they are not yet bleeding. They're not yet bleeding, they've not yet shed their blood But Christ did shed His. And He shed His completely substitutionarily. He suffered for nothing that He had done. He suffered on behalf of others. Again, this is not to suggest that our suffering is not real. The pastor will return to that. He's not saying to them, this is all a figment of your imagination. You're overstating things. That is not at all what he is saying. He is simply raising this question. Who has ever suffered more than Jesus? Who has ever been more unjustly treated than Christ? Who has ever experienced more at the hands of more people? than the captain of our salvation, the author and finisher of our faith. And whoever deserved it less than he did. And folks, if we will not keep that in front of us, if we will not keep the sufferings of Christ in the front of our mind, we will do exactly what he cautions us of. In verse number two, we will tire to the place where you let go. you will just come to the conclusion that the exertion is not worth the effort. And without getting all into this, because there's a lot of discussion about it, I think the point that he is making in verse number four, you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, is he is just simply dealing broadly with the life of a believer in this world. Folks, we sin against, we are fighting against sin in all of its forms, in all of its places. We are struggling against lust and envy and jealousy and hatred and malice and unreasonable, unrighteous anger and fears. And we are fighting those in our minds and in our circumstances and in the world around us. It is an all-encompassing struggle. But do not miscalculate the extent of your suffering. Our Savior suffered more. Secondly, says the pastor in verses 5 through 10, do not miscalculate what the Bible teaches. Verse number three, consider him. Verse number five, he have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you is unto children. It's interesting here because it's really relatively rare. There are only a handful of places in the New Testament where the book of Proverbs is directly sourced, but here is one of them. You don't need to turn to, but let me read to you Proverbs 3, 11 and 12. Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons, 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. Now, once again, before we go any further, let's pause and take a moment with the dictionary. Consider. Analog. Do the calculations. Get the math right. Get the proportions right. Chastening. If you are an educator, you're very familiar with this word. It is the Greek word pedagogy or the pedagogue. It is a word that in Paul's world, not that I, because Paul didn't write Hebrews, but in the Bible world, it is a world that describes the totality of education. Pedagogy describes what the curriculum will be. If you want to learn history, what will the curriculum be? That's part of pedagogy. Pedagogy also includes how it will be taught. How will we teach you history? What sources will we use? Pedagogy includes why the curriculum is taught. What is my goal in teaching you history? What do I want you to know? Why does history matter? That's a great question. Some of you are asking that. I'm married to a woman that would ask that question. Math, she gets. History, she goes, I don't get. I go, history's the good stuff. If you didn't have a historian, you wouldn't know anything about mathematicians. That's what we do. We write about what people have done. Pedagogy includes how it will be assessed. How will I find out whether or not you are learning the material that I want you to learn? This is all part of pedagogy. You know, folks, I mean, right, it just, it changes. There have been changes in educational technique and methodology and student assessment over the course of years. These are all aspects and dimensions of pedagogy. So here's pedagogy. It is in the word chastening. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the pedagogy of the Lord. What he is teaching and why he is teaching it and how he is teaching it and how he will evaluate it. They had forgotten that the Bible, like God himself, functions as a parent. Folks, God is not simply a really nice guy. And he's not simply some old man sitting on a throne with a stern look on his face. God is a loving parent. That's easy to forget. It is easy to forget, folks, that we are growing up in a household, and that God is our father, and that our lives consist of being instructed, disciplined by a father. That's easy to forget, isn't it? It's easy to forget. It's pretty easy to forget when you're 65 years old and you've been a pastor for almost 40 years and you realize that you pretty much come and go as you please and you answer to almost no human being on the planet. That you have achieved almost the ideal human existence. You answer to no one. You do what you wish. And then I come to my Bible and what the Bible says is, you know what? God is your father and it's his household and you're going to be instructed. You have forgotten. He is not simply our provider. He is not our supervisor. He is our loving father. And the pastor goes on to make the point that every genuine believer receives instruction from his hand. This is one of the characteristics of all true believers. Verse number eight, if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Then you are illegitimate. You are not part of the family. Because everybody gets this. There are no exceptions. We always want to be the exception, folks. I would love to have a dollar for every time in 40 years of operating a Christian school, I have had a conversation that begins with this sentence. I know the rules say but. But here's a rule for which there is no exception. All of God's children get chastised. Everybody gets instructed. Everybody gets addressed. Everybody gets taught. And in fact the pastor goes on to point out to them that this should be so obvious they almost don't even need a Bible to teach it to them. Because they've had parents They've had parents. Now you may have had great parents, and you may not have had great parents at all, but you had parents, and almost beyond any shadow of a doubt, your parents made their views known to you. Is that not true? Your parents made their views known to you. You may need to do nothing else but just think about the way they lived and you know what was important to them. Just like, by the way, your children are going to know what's important to you by the way you live. And you knew what their parents' value system was. My point, folks, is that chastening of the Lord does not consist exclusively of a formal classroom situation where your mom and dad sat you down and said, okay, today is Monday and the curriculum on Monday is how we manage the family finances. But when you grow up in that home, you will know how your parents manage the family finances. You'll be able to figure out what's a priority to them by where the money goes. And you'll know what the morals of the family is simply by being in the family. You will catch it almost by osmosis before you'll think of it in a formal setting, but it's there. And the pastor goes on to point out in verse number 10 that frequently our parents, this is hurtful, isn't it, mom and dad, those of us that have raised children, that frequently our pedagogy was really for our pleasure more than anything else. What do you want? I just want you to, I want you to go to bed. But dad, it's six o'clock. I don't care, just go to bed. Just go to bed. I just want you to sit down and stop talking. But dad, I just, no, I just need silence. But folks, God never parents like that. That's part of the point that the pastor's making. God doesn't parent like that. Our parents may have parented like that. I've probably parented like that. Hopefully you've never parented like that, but God most certainly has never parented like that. God's parenting style has never for a moment been selfish. God never tried to put you down for a nap because he was tired. This is what the pastor is arguing here. Verse number nine, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? So what's the pastor doing in the passage in verses 3 through 11? He is orienting us around the way that we think. You need to consider, you need to get these calculations right. You need to remember that Jesus, who is our savior, who is our head, who is our brother, who is the chief citizen of our country, suffered more than any of us and more unreasonably than any of us ever could have. In fact, folks, there are two or three verses in the Bible in which Bible writers, Job in particular, express the sentiment that although they are suffering, Job, for all that he has suffered, Job is aware that he has not suffered all that he deserves. And you need to remember, don't miscalculate what the Bible is teaching you, right? We know from the Lord. We know from the Lord's Word. what he thinks and how he thinks. In other words, folks, if you were to ask yourself this question, I wonder what the Lord is doing in my life? The Bible gives you the clear answer to that. We will get to that in a moment. But this should not be a mystery to you. This is no mystery to us. He is our father. He is actively instructing every child in his household about how to live properly, and if I may use the word, how to live successfully. Now if we think that what he wants above all things is for us to be rich, we don't understand our father. Or if we think that what he wants above all things is for us to be happy. That what God would never want more than anything else is for any of us to be sad. That is not so. But let us note folks that we are always children. He is always our Father, and no matter how old we are, no matter how experienced we are in this life, no matter what position we may occupy in this world, God is always our Father, we are always His children, and we are always being instructed. And there is a clear curriculum, there is a clear purpose, there is a clear explanation of the accounting And as I mentioned at the outset, folks, this should be of great consolation to us that we are not in the dark as to what the Lord is doing. I mean, I realize that individual events and components may cause us some confusion and may bring us up short, but to look at the broad picture, I know exactly what the Lord is doing. He is parenting me. So do not miscalculate the perspective of your suffering. Do not miscalculate the teaching of the scripture. And do not miscalculate the future that awaits. Verse number 10, about our earthly moms and dads, they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. but he for our profit. Now again, folks, we want to make sure we get the right perspective. God is not being critical of all parents as being flat out losers. He's making the point that parents periodically parent selfishly. I need some peace and quiet. You have to be, so you have to stop talking. I need some me time. You have to take a nap. There are those kinds of things going on in every household. You can't go out because I don't feel like getting in the car and driving tonight. But God does not do that. He is always parenting for the profit of his children. He for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, now, verse 11, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Do not miscalculate the future. Who said anything about having a good time? That's God's question. We go, you know what, I'm just not having a very good time. God said, who said anything about having a good time? No chastening for the present seemed joyous. Did your mom ever yell at you and you think, you know what, I'm having so much fun, maybe she'll yell at me again later? Did your father ever come at you with a paddle in his hand and you think, this is gonna be such a good time. I can hardly wait to do it again. No chastening, no chastening for the present is joyful. That's not the point. You don't parent for the present. By the way, if I could interject this for those of you with young children, this is one of the reasons that Solomon will say things like, don't let your soul be put off by their crying. Let not thy soul spare for their crying. Because you're parenting for tomorrow, not for today. And God is parenting for tomorrow, not for today. And let me give to you then two words in the text that are the words that describe what God would view as successful in their outcome. Right, I said that God is parenting for us to live properly and successfully in this life. What would God define as successful? When are you a success? And there are two words here that are given. One is holiness in verse number 10. The last word of verse number 10. His sanctity, His purity of moral character, His restraint from sin, the absence of sin in His existence, and therefore the absence of sin in ours, this is what God is in pursuit of. This is successful parenting. Not how happy we are, not how rich we are, not how comfortable we are, but our purity. God is parenting us for our purity. And then in verse 11, there is a second word that describes God's success. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Holiness is the absence of sin. Righteousness is the practice of right conduct. And this is a fruit, by the way, I think one of the reasons that it's put this way, right, the peaceable fruit, is that you don't need to correct this out of somebody. When God's people are doing that which is right, they don't need to be corrected out of that. They need to be encouraged in it. Don't miscalculate the future. And let me just jump down to verse number 14, folks, right? To make sure that we grasp how serious a matter this is. Verse number 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We're not talking about something that is optional in the life of a believer. Now we'll get into that when we get to that particular portion of the text, folks, but our salvation is a salvation out of our sinfulness into the likeness of Christ who is holy. It should not come as any shock to us that holiness is necessary to see the Lord. And it should not come as any shock to us that disciplining sin away from us is part of the working of the Lord. Now I am not, because the text is not dealing with the ways in which God chastens us, but it certainly does include learning the scriptures, being exposed to the teaching of the Father, and it, just as with a human, it is going to include, right, the conversations that we have with God, the conviction of our souls. It is going to include all of the things that God brings into our life that test the substance of our faith, that are not punishments, but are opportunities for our faith's reality to be put on display. Many, many things. So make sure, folks, in the course of your life that you get these calculations correct. Christianity is the work of a lifetime. We will spend our entire lives doing it. We will spend our entire lives being children, chastened by the Lord, under his instruction, subject to his rebuke. Don't get the perspective wrong. It isn't that you're not suffering. It is that none of us have suffered as our Savior has. And don't miscalculate on what the Bible is teaching us about what God is doing. We are his children and he is our Father. But don't miscalculate what the future holds. God is chastening us today with the future in mind. We don't want to lose sight of that either. Let's pray together this morning. Father, remind us again and again and again that Christianity is not just something we profess to have. It is newness of life. It is regeneration. It is the new creation. It is living as one for whom old things have passed away and all things are now new. It is understanding your work in our lives for our profit, not for our harm. It is preparing us to be worthy, younger brothers of Jesus Christ, our Savior. who suffered more than any. Give to us this way of thinking, please, in Jesus' name, amen.