From Greenville, South Carolina, we present Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. We welcome you to this broadcast of Let the Bible Speak, featuring the recorded messages of Dr. Alan Cairns, Minister Emeritus of Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina. On today's broadcast, Dr. Cairns continues a message entitled Running Through the Pain, the last in this series on Hebrews chapter 11. Dr. Cairns will be with us shortly. Before he comes, we invite you to enjoy this devotional thought from C.H. Spurgeon's collection called Faith's Checkbook. Today's devotional asks the question, what sanctifies our offerings? The text is found in Leviticus chapter 4 and verse 7. And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord. The altar of incense is the place where saints present their prayers and praises, and it is delightful to think of it as sprinkled with the blood of the great sacrifice. This it is which makes all our worship acceptable with Jehovah. He sees the blood of his own Son, and therefore accepts our homage. It is well for us to fix our eyes upon the blood of the one offering for sin. Sin mingles even with our holy things, and our best repentance, faith, prayer, and thanksgiving could not be received of God were it not for the merit of the atoning sacrifice. Many sneer at the blood, but to us it is the foundation of comfort and hope. That which is on the horns of the altar is meant to be prominently before our eyes when we draw near to God. The blood gives strength to prayer, and hence it is on the altar's horns. It is before the Lord, and therefore it ought to be before us. It is on the altar before we bring the incense. It is there to sanctify our offerings and gifts. Come, let us pray with confidence, since the victim is offered, the merit has been pleaded, the blood is within the veil, and the prayers of believers must be sweet unto the Lord. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's hand. And sinners plunge beneath that flood whose soul the guilty stirs. Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ When sinners march beneath the flowers of their guilty stead ♪ ♪ The dying thief rejoiced to sing that fountain in his day ♪ ♪ And then, may I not, alas, be washed all my sins away? ♪ ♪ Wash all my sins away ♪ ♪ Wash all my sins away ♪ ♪ And there may I, though loneless be ♪ ♪ Wash all my sins away ♪ O'er this big, stately town lies silent in the grave. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Christ the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 7.14 the Lord said, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. If ever there was a time when believers in the Lord Jesus Christ needed to pray, surely it is now. The moral condition of our land and the apparent powerlessness of our churches cry out for God's people to seek the Lord earnestly for revival. to encourage true Christians in this urgent need to pray. Let the Bible Speak is pleased to offer, free of charge, copies of a powerful message by Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest Christian leaders and thinkers this country has ever produced. The title is typical of Edwards' time, a humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. Don't let the title put you off. This is a message for this hour. In a 20-page booklet form, Edward's sermon calls upon believers to unite in earnest prayer for God to come in reviving power upon His Church. The great revivals of history have always come as the result of fervent prayer, sometimes on the part of just a few Christians who were burdened to seek God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in revival power. That power is still available for those who will seek it seriously. To obtain your free copy of this message, you may call our toll-free number 866-877-LTBS. That's 866-877-5827. If you wish, you may email info at faithfpc.org. That's info at faithfpc.org. Or you may write to Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. That's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. Ask for the message, Edwards on Prayer. and we'll be happy to send you a free copy. StSq2 2.60 so so you Today, Dr. Cairns brings the next portion of this, the final message in his series of studies in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The text is found in verses 4 through 13 of chapter 12, where the Apostle reminds his readers that they have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. The emphasis is upon believers not giving up in the face of persecution, opposition, or difficult circumstances. The Bible makes it clear that Christians face many obstacles as they seek to live for Christ. There are things to be resisted, such as the world, the flesh, and the devil. This constant demand for resistance causes the believer pain. Yet believers have consolation in their pain because we have a word from God. In speaking of the character of our pain, Dr. Cairns reminds us that behind all of it is the hand of a sovereign God who often uses affliction to chasten his children and to conform them more to Christ. The text also leads us to the conquest of our pain, which is found in exercising ourselves according to the word of God. Now, to continue this message running through the pain, here is Dr. Cairns. Peeing does not sanctify of itself. What purifies and sanctifies is the faith that sees in our peeing the hand of our Father in heaven molding us in the image of His dear Son. When through the suffering and the anguish and the conflict, you can see the hand of God, the Father's hand, educating, molding, guiding, guarding, directing, making you into the finished product, when you can see by faith, Lord, this is for your glory, and this is ultimately for my good, and even though it's hurtful to me now, it is to make me the man God wants me to be. That will have a sanctifying effect. We live and are sanctified by faith, not just by pain. And then in verse 11, he shows that the results the Lord is working to produce in us make the temporary pain bearable and even welcome. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Now, let's get this. There are some people who want to be more spiritual than the Bible. I've heard mystical people who almost court pain and affliction. And they talk about embracing the cross. Well, yes, I'm all for embracing the cross. But I find here that Paul is not one of these super spiritual mystics who finds some sort of a perverse joy in pain. He says, now no chastening for the present seems joyous. It's grievous. It brings grief. It hurts. It's not welcome. That's what Paul's saying. Nevertheless, afterward, and it will not last forever. Sometimes when you get down into a valley, you think you'll never get out of it. Sometimes a dark cloud comes over, you think the sun's obscured forever, but the sun of righteousness is still shining. The clouds will be riven, will be brought from the depths to the heights. Afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby. This is the result that the Lord is working to produce within us, the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And even though the affliction in itself may be hard to bear and it's grievous and not welcome, when you keep that in mind, the Lord is going to bring me out of this. And the Lord, when he brings me out of it, is going to give me the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And he's going to strengthen me thereby to serve him all the better. When you realize that, you'll be able to endure with happiness, the pain, and the affliction. The final thing in verses 12 and 13 is the application of it all, the conquest of our pain, how to conquer it. He says, wherefore, this connecting word is a very strong word, based on all that I've said, put it now to good use. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. This is running through the pain. Now, at the moment, some of us are like these Hebrew Christians. We're weary, we're weak. Notice the word that he uses in verse 13, we're lame. Some of us are not really running, we're stumbling along the race of life. We're halting. We're maybe stopping as often as we're moving. We're lame. It's a very laborious and painful progress that we're making. Sometimes we wonder if we're making progress at all. We're lame. But listen, Paul has a word for us here. This is faith in operation. This is running through that pain. He says, first of all, in the light of all we have seen, strengthen yourselves for your duty. Notice the words taken from Isaiah 35 in verse 3. Lift up the hands that hang down. Lift them up. May mean have the idea of bang them up. If joints are sore, then bandage them up, but whatever needs to be done gets strengthened for your duty. Don't let anything get you to give up doing what you ought to be doing for God. When you don't feel like praying, He's saying strengthen those drooping hands. Strengthen those weak knees. Because when you don't feel like praying, there's not a moment in the day that you need to pray more. When you can't get anything out of the Bible, there's not a time when you need to be going more to spend time in the Bible. Strengthen those hands. Strengthen those knees. Look at what we have seen. God's hand is upon you, a Father's hand. He's educating you. He's cutting away the flesh. He is forming you after the image of Christ. He's allowing you to resist and to strive and to feel the hurt of doing that. But claim His fatherly protection and His fatherly grace. Get down on your knees before God and get strength to do what you want to do for God. The second thing, remove any causes of stumbling. Charlie provided me with the ideal illustration this morning of what he said when I gave him the wrong psalm, the wrong words for the tune. That's just one bump in the road. That's exactly what Paul is talking about here. I don't think that he's saying make straight paths in the sense of a Roman road, that there are no curves in it. Actually, that would be a very difficult thing to do. I think the straight here is the idea of level. Just as you would have found great difficulty in singing version two of the 100 Psalm to the tune number 15, so you would find great difficulty in walking with God, walking the Christian life with so many bumps, so many obstacles that we allow in our path and in our lives. Paul is saying, remove any causes of stumbling. In other words, don't tolerate the things that you know are going to hurt. Don't tolerate the things you know are going to trip you up. Don't give place to the devil. Make not provision for the flesh. make even paths, strengthen yourself for your duty, remove the causes of stumbling, and recover the fitness that you've lost by faith in Christ. Notice what he says, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. There's healing for our lameness. Now, how is it to be healed? I think verse 11 gives us an insight into this. He says that the Lord's chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby. Chastening has its results in those who are exercised thereby. The word exercised is a reference to gymnastic exercise. and an emphasis on training. When we accept the pain, as an athlete accepts the pain, say, of the weight room or of the practice track, to train us up, to exercise us in spiritual strength, then the lameness will go, and we'll get healed. Now, what is this exercise? Turn back to chapter 5 and verse 14. Here's the answer. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. This exercise, if you read this verse in context, is an exercise in the word of God. It's getting into the deep things of God. Paul is lamenting to these Hebrews, this is your trouble. He says that the time has come that you ought to know so much that you're teachers, but you have need that somebody teach you again the very basics of the gospel. Why is it that so many Christians are stumbling along? Why is it that so many Christians don't have the spiritual power to do what they ought to do, to live as they ought to live, to overcome as they ought to overcome? Because we have never grown up, we're still skidding along on the surface of the Word of God. Paul was writing to people who had been saved a few years, and he's saying, you yet don't know the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ? Man, I know preachers that don't know anything about the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ. I know preachers who have lived their lives and have never made any more than a passing reference to it in all their preaching. It's not important anymore. But Paul says it's important. He says there are the depths of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. There are the glorious heights of his majesty and his exaltation at the right hand of God. There is the conjunction of the blood shed on earth and the blood pleading in heaven, and if you don't understand it, you'll not have the power to live for God. That's what he's saying. You're lame, you're halting, but there's healing power in the word received by faith. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. We hope you've enjoyed and benefited from today's program. We're here as your servants for Christ's sake. If we can be of any further help to you in the things of the Lord, we invite you to contact us. If you would like to receive our booklet, Separated Unto the Gospel, a booklet that sets forth the beliefs and standards of the Free Presbyterian Church, You may have a copy free of charge simply for the asking. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. That's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Our email address is info at faithfpc.org. That's info at f-a-i-t-h f-p-c dot o-r-g. If you would like to learn more about the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, or if you'd like to see if there is a free church in your area, we invite you to visit our website, www.fpcna.org. That's www.fpcna.org. On behalf of Dr. Alan Cairns, this is Charles Kelsch saying, thank you for listening and inviting you to join us again as we Let the Bible Speak.