Good evening, saints. Please open your Bibles again to Hebrews 12. And we'll take up where we left off this morning. Hebrews 12 and verse 3. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our prophet, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful, nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Let's pray together. Our great God, we do come once again to the preaching of your word and we ask God that you might help us by the power of your spirit. Lord, as certainly the day is long, it's been a good, rich day of fellowship and communion with you and with the people of God. But our bodies are feeling that, Lord, and our minds may be weary. So we do pray that by your spirit, you might give us strength to press into this final hour, Lord. that our hearts would be open, that our minds would be sharp, that our attention would be drawn to your word, and that you might speak, O God, to your people. You might make much of Christ this night, this day. Give us that which we need. Meet us where we are. Convict us of our sin. Shore up our assurance. Grant us all that is ours in Christ. We pray in his name. Amen. Well, this morning we were exhorted by the Word of God, that as we run the race of faith, that we were to look to that great cloud of witnesses. That as we were to see, especially as we saw there in the text, in Hebrews chapter 11, it was that great cloud of witnesses that had come before the first advent of Christ, before the cross, before the incarnation. And we saw those faithful believers that clung to an unrealized promise in the face of much hostility and suffering. They did not see the coming of Messiah. They did not see their redemption purchased by the Son of God. And yet they clung to the promise of the promised one, that skull crushing seed of the woman. We're called to look to them and find encouragement. Find grace. Find a means of lifting our weary heads when our race seems long. We're also called this morning by the word of God to look at what might be slowing us down in this race. Those things in our lives that easily can ensnare us. We were called to lay those down. Maybe the Lord has pricked your hearts. Maybe it's something that he's continually pricking your heart for. But we have that ability to sort of spurn off the spirit's work in our hearts. Might we this day lay down those weights, lay down that baggage. And we recall today by the word of God to look to Jesus Christ. We read there that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. And I believe this exhortation continues tonight, that as we run the race of faith tonight, now we're called by the word of God to consider. And just two things tonight to look to. So firstly, this evening, consider the suffering of your Lord. Consider the suffering of your Lord. Again, there In verse 3 we read, firstly, for consider him. Consider him. And I think to really feel the weight of such a passage, we need to be reminded who he is exactly. He, of course, is the only begotten son of God. He is the son of the father's love who the author to the Hebrews told us in the beginning of this book that he is the radiance of his glory and the express image of his person. John tells us that the son was in the bosom of the father. He was in the closest place, the nearest place in his arms or close to his heart. This is him who, as a man, the father looked down from heaven and said, This is my beloved son. And with him, I am well pleased. He was the only sinless man to ever walk this earth, the only man truly devoted to the will of God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his mind and all of his strength, every moment of his day. We're to consider tonight Jesus Christ, his beauty, his majesty, the grace and the sacrifice of his works on our behalf. And we're to consider then all that he endured. Such hostility, the text says. Consider with me, church, the the hostility that our Lord endured. The scorn and the disrespect of those that he came to minister to. The murderous rage that was inflicted upon Jesus Christ by his own countrymen. The mockery, the abuse, eventually his execution. Consider for a moment those men. that sat down our Lord and ripped out his beard, struck him with a rod on his head, fastened a crown of thorns that likely drove into his skull. And they put on him a purple robe and they bowed before him in mockery. Hail the king. Imagine the incredible humility of our Lord as the true king of glory to endure such humility, such humiliation. Imagine those men on the day of judgment truly bowing before that king again to their, if they did not repent, eternal shame and destruction, misery. Consider that he was pinned upon a cross between two thieves. And as he hung there, he stood on the nails of his feet trying to get his final breath, lifting up his breasts so that he could get a final life giving breath. In the last moments of his life, he brought one final soul ushered into his kingdom. And eventually he yielded up his spirit. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. Consider for a moment the men that committed such atrocities to our Lord. These were vile men, wicked men, men that were hypocrites, that these were not the common criminals of the day, men that society would probably look down upon, the outcasts, the convicts. These were churchmen. These were religious men. Often many of them were the religious leaders and the shepherds of God's people. They had all of the external trappings of God fearing men. But inside, our Lord tells us they were whitewashed tombs. They were dead as dead men's bones. And I pray as we've gathered here tonight for worship, that that doesn't describe any of us here today. An outwardly religious person that knows how to talk all of the talk and walk all of the walk. And yet inside is death. That person that may even have a very impressive knowledge of the Bible and the doctrines of the Bible that may be very well read, that reads more dead men than any other man in the church. But inside is dead men's bones. And so I ask you this night, as we've gathered here this day on God's day, do you know the Lord? Is he your Lord? and your King, your God, your Savior? Did He die for your sin? Is it your soul that's in desperate need of the gospel of His grace? Boys and girls, young men, young ladies, have you trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? We're called here to consider the suffering of our Lord. And we're to do so if we are tempted to become weary and discouraged. And I trust at times all of us are tempted to become weary and discouraged. Verse 3 says, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. We read the Bible and we see very clearly that it does not aim to minimize the reality of suffering in this world. Certainly many here could stand up today and testify to the grace of God, the blessedness of God, the provision of God, how he's met your needs in Christ, how he's come and had compassion on you, even for small things like food and water and clothing, as our Lord promises to do. How he's forgiven you of your sin and transformed your life and worked in your family and your marriage and your home. But at the same time, many could testify to much toil and strife in this world. Whether it be the darkness of a battle with cancer or the anguish of a lost child, a lost spouse, severed relationships from loved ones, being stabbed in the back and betrayed by those that we loved and trusted. And yet we're exhorted here. He says in verse four that you have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against your sin. That when we're tempted to grow weary and be discouraged, we're to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to consider the suffering of our Lord, all that he endured in our stead. Because as it says, church, you have not shed your blood in your fight against sin, but Christ shed his blood in his fight against your sin. Consider his ultimate sacrifice to lay down his life for his friends, to take on humanity and weakness and poverty, to be murdered by men that were made in his image. and to be hung on the tree that he created by his own word. Consider tonight his suffering, if you're tempted to be weary and discouraged about the season, about some dark providence. And maybe you've asked the question at some point that I think we've all asked. Where is God today? What is God doing in this hour, in this season, in my life? Where is the kindness and the love and the mercy and the grace of my God? I know these things to be true, and yet today I walk through this valley and I have no sense of God's goodness, of his nearness. We're called here secondly to consider the chastening of our father. The chastening of our father. Verse five. And have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons? My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. God speaks as sons and we're called here not to despise his chastening, his heavy blows. He scourges, we read, every son whom he receives. Now listen to what Charles Spurgeon says here. He says God's people can never by any possibility be punished for their sins. God's people can never by any possibility be punished for their sins. But we just read that he scourges every son. What's the difference? Maybe we can be confused here at times as Christians. We've sinned. We've done something foolish. We've succumbed to some temptation and we're afflicted. Life is hard. And we think that God is meeting out justice. He's meeting out punishment. He's giving us a small taste of his wrath. That he's angry at us. Spurgeon goes on. God has punished them already in the person of Christ. Christ, their substitute, has endured the full penalty for all of their guilt. And neither the justice nor the love of God can ever exact again that which Christ has paid. Punishment can never happen to a child of God in the judicial sense. He can never be brought before God as his judge and charged with guilt because that guilt was long ago transferred to the shoulders of Christ. And the punishment was exacted at his hands. There's no guilt left for you, church. And if God was meeting out some sense of justice for your sin, either in this life or the next, then that would mean that the sacrifice of Christ was somehow insufficient, that it was not enough. But he does certainly bear the rod against his sons. Amen. He does strike blows upon those he loves. So what's the difference? Spurgeon, I think, helps us. He says the rod. has been baptized in deep affection before it is laid on the believer's back. God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve us for naught, but out of love and affection. Because he perceives that if he leaves us unchastened, we shall bring upon ourselves misery 10,000 fold greater. then we shall suffer by his slight rebukes and gentle blows of his hand. God foresees the folly of our ways and he strikes blows upon our back for the purpose of keeping us from the misery before us, of chasing us and bringing us back on that narrow road. How should we think about this chastening tonight? Notice, firstly, we read that this chastening is not to be despised. Verse 5, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. There are times in the dark night of the soul Or we might be tempted to cry out, where is God? Where is God? Why will God not show up in this season? Why am I walking through this valley? Why am I challenged in this way? Why are things so hard? And our flesh might be tempted to wonder, where is God? Why does he seem so distant? And yet, beloved, in those days, God might be doing his best work. We ought to see, I believe here, this chasing as an act of God's grace. It is the corrective discipline being applied by a loving father. And it's not to be despised because it is administered for the good of our soul. The psalmist in Psalm 119 says, It was good that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. He says elsewhere, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your law. One of the verses that's cited here in our text is Job 517. Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. Jesus says in Revelation chapter three, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. And finally, Paul in First Corinthians 11 says that when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. The chastening of the Lord here is the hand of a loving father who sees the path that his son is on, who foresees a thousand miseries for his son and disciplines him that he might be brought back and spared from those sorrows. Notice next that chastening is a sure sign of your sonship, of your adoption. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? The chastening of the Lord is not something to be despised, but it's a source for us to find assurance of God's love. It is a sure sign that your father in heaven is for you, that he cares for you, that he has a concern for the good of your soul. I remember when I was young, maybe middle school age, and we had a group of boys that would ride bikes and skateboards around the neighborhood. And there was always one kid. who seemed to have all the freedom. He could go farther than we were all allowed to ride. He could always spend the night at anyone's house on any night of the week. He could stay out later than all of us. He could basically do what he wanted. No one called him for dinner. No one bothered him. And I remember being so jealous of this kid that he had it made. He had so much freedom. He could do whatever we wanted. I had to go do my homework. I had to go and eat dinner. I had a curfew. But as I look back on that young man, it was not what I thought it was when I was young. And how did this young man know that anyone cared for him? No one came calling. No one was concerned for his safety, for his well-being if he was hungry. But God assures us of our sonship through discipline, through chastening us. And notice what the text says, that no one is exempt. every son that he receives, he scourges. Richard Sibbes, sometimes called the sweet dropper for his sweet words in his little book, The Bruised Read, speaks of the chastening of God. This is what he says. He says, When a man is bruised, he is made sensible of his sin and misery. But how is it that God makes us sensible of our sin and misery. It is by God bringing some misery upon us. By God allowing or, dare I say, causing us to walk through some trial, some affliction. Sibbes goes on. That man, seeing no help in himself, is carried with restless desire to have supply from another. to find that hope in someone else. And with some hope, he is raised out of himself and brought to Christ. This is God's purpose in scourging those that he loves, that he would help us to see, have an awareness of our misery, our folly, our foolishness, that we might be made sensible of such things and be brought out of ourself and brought to Christ. We see this chastening all throughout the scriptures. who stood there boldly and proudly that, Lord, though all of them might forsake you tonight, I will stand by you even to death. And then Peter heard that rooster crow and wept bitterly over his sin. And then the Lord tenderly restored his servant. Hezekiah, in the book of Isaiah, complained that the Lord, like a lion, had broken all of his bones. that for the rest of his life he would walk in the bitterness of his soul. But then he penned these words, but you, God, have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. David was bruised by the Lord. Read in Psalm 32 as he tried to conceal his sin and cover his sin, hide his sin. He says, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. He felt the Lord's heavy hand as he tried to hide, he tried to run, but then when he heard those words, Thou art the man, that weight of his sin came crushing down. That son conceived through his sinful lust was taken from him. And yet we hear these words. I acknowledge my sin to you in my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. It is through that chastening of the father that his sons are brought back into the fold. We even read of Paul who needed the messenger of Satan, that thorn in his flesh to keep him from pride and vanity. God's heavy hand is a sure sign of of his fatherhood in our sonship. But thirdly, notice as well tonight that chastening, when absent, ought to be a warning to us. But if you are without chastening, verse eight, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers. who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit." This is a strong warning for us tonight. If you do not know, friend, the heavy hand of the Father in heaven when you sin, if you've never felt his correcting blows upon your back, if he has never, through his word, through your pastor, through a loved one, lovingly rebuked you and laid you in the dust, then the word of God says tonight that you may be an illegitimate son. If you can happily get along in your sin, And never experienced the chastening of God. How can you know that he is truly your father? Like that wayward young boy that could ride his bike endlessly into the night, no one to call upon him. The God of heaven and earth is faithful to scourge the sons that he loves. And we read fourthly that chastening is painful in the moment, yet sweet in the long run. It is painful in the moment, yet sweet in the long run. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. No one likes to be disciplined. We're not supposed to like to be disciplined. That's sort of the point, right? And actually, if you grin and bear and try to endure the Lord's chastening with no sorrow, then it will bear no fruit. Right. It's meant to be painful. It's meant to cause reflection and repentance and introspection and confession. It's supposed to be difficult. John Owen, I think, says it better than I can. He says it is our duty to take in a deep sense of his rebukes and chastisements. And if he doth design anything that doth befall us as a chastisement, it is vain for us to contend that it may not be a matter of sorrow unto us. It's vain for us to say this is not a big deal. I can endure this. And he says, for if it yet be not so, it is but an entrance into his dealing with us. If God lays the rod on your back and you say this is no big deal, I can endure, I'm okay. Owen says God has just begun to afflict you, to bring you back to himself. He will not cease until he hath broken the fierceness and tamed the pride of our spirits and hath brought us like obedient children to submit ourselves under his mighty hand. Discipline is painful in the moment. It's meant to be painful in the moment, but it yields fruit for those that are trained by it. I know for children, boys and girls, sometimes it's difficult to be disciplined and the child might ask the dad, why do I have to hurt? This doesn't seem very loving that my bottom has to hurt. Boys and girls, that short pain that is but for a moment is meant to keep you from much worse pain that might come tomorrow because of your sin. It is meant to train you away from the path of destruction and to bring you back to that path of righteousness. But how does it become sweet? How does the rod become peaceable? How does God bless us? with his scourges, some thoughts. His bruises steer us off of that wayward path that we might be headed down, guiding us back to the narrow way of Christ. His bruises set us free from self and pride by laying us low, showing us our vanity. His bruises break our unhealthy attachments to earthly passions and delights that have a way of captivating our hearts and clouding our vision of Christ. His bruises bring us back to himself, to his word, to prayer, to church, to his people, to a greater awareness of our dependence and need of him. His bruises teach us the way of holiness. They purge us of self-reliance, self-trust, self-assurance. His bruises conform us to Christ. Listen to Thomas Watson. He says, God's rod is a pencil to draw Christ's image more lively upon us. If he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, ought not the body look like its head? So Christian tonight. You know, I think of those that are raising children or have raised children or one day will raise children. Is not this task of discipline a constant reminder and teaching opportunity? I'm doing this because I love you. I'm doing this because sin will lead to your ruin. I'm concerned for your never dying soul. But do we not all need to be reminded of this as well? That that trial that you're facing this day, Christian, might be the very medicine that God has described for the betterment of your soul. Therefore, verse 12, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet. so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Our text today is an exhortation to the church. As you run the race of faith, looking unto Jesus, consider these two things. If you're tempted to be weary, tempted to be discouraged, If your hands are hanging down, if your knees are feeling feeble, he says, consider the suffering of your Lord. Consider Jesus Christ, his person, who it was that came off of his heavenly throne, that that took upon himself a nature like ours. The sinless one that suffered as a criminal and bore the angry hatred of God against sin in our place. Consider that you have not yet shed your blood in your fight against sin, but he shed his blood in his fight against yours. Consider the chastening of your father, which I might add is nothing compared to the suffering of his son. Consider how he loves you as he brings you through crosses and losses. Consider how he loves you as he lays his heavy hand upon you when you go astray. Think about that difficult person in your life in this season, someone that aggravates you, that you're struggling to get along with. Consider that they might be God's instrument of your sanctification. Consider his love to loosen your heart from this world and to prepare your soul from heaven. Consider the words of Job, happy is the man that the Lord corrects. I want to close tonight with the words of the hymn, I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow. I hoped that in some favored hour, at once he'd answer my request. and by his love's constraining power, subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair designs I'd schemed, humbled my heart, and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling cried. Will thou pursue thy worm to death? Tis is this way, the Lord replied. I answer prayers for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes of earthly joy that thou mayest find thine all in me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have not left us without a sign of your love for us. God, we thank you as the Church of Jesus Christ that we are not illegitimate sons, but that you chasten every son that you receive. God, would you help us when that discipline feels heavy and too much to bear, that we might look to the suffering of our Lord and find in Him all of the encouragement and strength that our souls need. God, would you warn any tonight that know not this scourging, that are happy in their sin, happy to break your law, happy to deny the Lord Jesus Christ by the way that they live, and have not had a sense of your scourging. God, might they be alarmed tonight for the state of their souls? Might they plead with you for the forgiveness of their sins? Might they flee this night to the mercy of God offered to them in Jesus Christ? And might they find in you a sure answer and source of salvation? We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen.