Two thousand years ago, think about this. God sent His only Son into the world. His eternal, divine Son. Into this world to make atonement for our sins. To reconcile sinners to Himself. And in Him we have a true, eternal, glorious, heavenly rest. The first readers, first recipients of this epistle or sermon, whatever it really was when it was first sent to this church comprised of Jewish Christians, they'd received that truth. They'd believed that truth. But they had two things working against them. One was the Hebrews who had not believed in Christ were always trying to pull them back. Come on back. You don't want to believe that. And then there was the persecution, first by Jewish unbelievers of Jewish believers, and then, of course, by the middle of the first century, by Rome. And so the author of Hebrews wrote to these first century Jewish believers to exhort them to persevere in faith in Christ. To resist the temptation to fall back into Judaism. To exhort them to trust in God and His promises. He's shown them a number of things, but he's warned them, pay close attention to the gospel. Don't drift away from it. If you drift away, you risk falling away completely. If you continue in disobedience to God, you become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. He repeated the warning in the earlier chapters of Psalm 95. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. When you hear Him speak, receive it. He's exhorted us all to encourage one another daily so we won't be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. He's reminded them of those Israelites in the wilderness who, though they had seen the miracle working of God, they'd heard His voice when He spoke. But when they arrived at the promised land, they didn't trust Him. They said, we're not going in there. Those giants are too big. But He's also shown us many Old Testament saints who did believe God. Who did act in obedience to His command. Who acted in faith. Who trusted in His promise. And so the writer's shown us faith in worship through Abel. Living by faith. Faith in obedience, the obedience of Noah. Faith gaining victory, David. And faith in suffering. And it's that latter point, faith in suffering, that the writer addresses in our passage here this morning. Trials and suffering are a theme I know you feel you hear me talk about far too often. But I only talk about it because we preach verse by verse through the Bible. And it keeps coming up. God wants us to understand why this is. And that's why this passage is here this morning. But make no mistake, trials and suffering are an essential part of Christian life. Christians are called to share in Christ's afflictions. So let's look with that background at our passage here this morning. Hebrews 12. And I think we're going to go ahead and read the first three verses again as we covered last week. And we're going to read through verse 13 this morning. Hebrews 12, 1, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, those Old Testament saints, surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us or besets us. and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. And you've forgotten, or have you forgotten, some read it, the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Don't faint when you are reproved by Him. And look at this. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? for they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline, for the moment, seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak, and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Lord, thank You for this Word. I pray, Father, You will impress this Word deeply in our hearts. Give us understanding of Your purpose in our life. of the way in which You work in our lives. In Christ's name, Amen. So we've seen the courage and the fortitude of the Old Testament saints to overcome hardships, evils, even persecution, martyrdom. And in every case, we see it was the work of faith. It's faith that's at the bottom of this. By the gift of faith, we know the truth. God's opened our eyes. We trust in God and we patiently wait for that day of glory because of faith. And we're equipped to endure suffering. I know sometimes it seems overwhelming, but we are equipped by God the Holy Spirit to endure whatever comes our way. Suffering, persecution. As we look forward to that day of glory. That's the key here, isn't it? Fixing our eyes on Christ. and the glorious eternal reward that has been won for us by Him. We look around us, we look at our own circumstances, and we sometimes wonder, why are all these things happening to us as individuals, as families, as a society, to us as believers in Christ? Why is all this happening? And you know, virtually all of the New Testament writers tell us there will be difficulty and suffering in the Christian life. This isn't just an isolated passage. And all of the New Testament writers exhort us to patiently persevere in the face of our trials. This is what the Christian life is. Here, the readers of Hebrews have been encouraged to run with endurance the race set before them. just as had those witnesses that we had met in the Old Testament and who he had recalled in chapter 11. The Holy Spirit's message in those first three verses was, run the race to glory with endurance. Don't just get on the bus and say, tell me when we're there. No. Everybody, every one of us must walk up to that finish line. Throw off the weights that encumber us. Fix our eyes on Christ and run that race. There are no spectators in this race. But even having done that and laid aside the weights, the things that weigh us down, the sin that besets us, We still have need for endurance. We still have need for patient perseverance. We still must press forward knowing that the destination for those who persevere in faith is eternal glory. And we must always be mindful that the life of faith isn't a sprint. We can't end it at age 60 or 50 or 70 or whatever it is. It's a long distance run. And we must run with our eyes fixed on eternal, heavenly, spiritual things. With our eyes fixed on Jesus. He's the one to whom we must look as we go forward. Our eyes fixed on the sure promises of God. Look to Jesus rather than at our circumstances and the things of this world. Now Christ is given to us as an example here. Now we're not like Christ. We're not Christ. But He paid the price of the cross and endured it all by thinking of it as nothing, by esteeming it lightly. He looked to the joy set before Him. You wonder, how did He endure that? He looked to the joy set before Him. And He's our example in that. The reward of endurance is victory for Christ, the eternal kingdom, and the salvation of the likes of us. For the believer, the reward is God Himself. And so the writer exhorts us to consider Christ who has persevered, who endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that while we're running this race, we won't grow weary. We won't faint. We won't lose heart. That's a challenge in the face of trials that are going to come to every true believer in Christ. There is no way to escape this. For them, it was persecution that was coming. He's writing this letter to people who are about to face either Nero or Domitian or one of those wicked rulers in between the two. Philippians 129. Take these words in. Words of Paul. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. And the word granted speaks of a gift. You've been given a gift. You will suffer for His sake. Experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me." Paul was suffering as he wrote that letter. He was in prison in Rome. Romans 8, 17. We are fellow heirs with Christ if what? If indeed we suffer with Him. We can't just walk up to some pastor and apply for an exemption. We can't do that. If indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. And then Peter, who wrote a great deal about this, 1 Peter 2.21, look at these words. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. Jesus is shown here to be a model of perseverance. The writer exhorts us. Fix your eyes on Him. Follow Him. What He did. What He will do. Consider Him who by patient perseverance endured what He endured. It's an act of love. In His humiliation, the world was very hostile to Him. We think we live in a hostile world. We do. but the world was very personally hostile to him. And he endured, setting an example for his people to follow. Focus on him, and his trials will strengthen his true followers. If we stay focused on him, that will strengthen us in our sufferings and in our trials in this life. Every time we look away, it's like Peter when he fell into the water. When he was fixed on Christ, he could walk on water. When he looked away and looked at what he was dealing with, wind, waves, he fell. So the whole tone of this letter and the many warnings and exhortations that we've seen in it to this point, it shows us that these initial readers of Hebrews were in danger of shrinking back. That's why this letter was written. They were in danger of shrinking back from Christ, from His church, probably because of persecution for the most part. And we also sometimes find this race to be difficult. And that's why God has preserved this word to apply it to us. So verses 4 through 13 flow from really what is a pastoral concern by the writer of Hebrews, who we still don't know who he is. That these Christians did not rightly understand the difficulties that they were experiencing. And I suspect that's true of us frequently as well. He shows that their true struggle was not against Roman persecutors, but against sin. That's what he says here in verse 4. You've not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against... He doesn't say the Roman persecution. He says in your striving against sin. It hasn't gotten that bad yet. But in chapter 10, you can turn back a page or two. Beginning in verse 32, we learn that these early readers These people to whom he's writing had already endured, and look at the words, a great conflict of sufferings. They'd already endured suffering. Some had been made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and some had even had their property seized. He's not writing to people who've had a cozy and cushiony life. He's writing to people who've had their property seized. But it was vital that they realize and that we realize that God is sovereign. These sufferings only happen because He permits them to happen. And because sinful men want suffering to happen. But He permits the trials and sufferings of this life. Why? Why does He do that? We've declared our belief in Him. We've professed our belief in Christ. We've professed our belief in the gospel. Isn't that enough to bring our sufferings to an end? What's the answer? The answer is no, it's not. Because He's not done with us. Not by a long shot. He's not done with us the day we make a profession of faith or join a church. He's not done with us even though we truly believe. even though we're truly reborn. His purpose, folks, was not merely that we believe and have a glorious eternity. There's something that He wants to have happen and will happen in between. His purpose in all those He has called to Himself is to make us like Jesus Christ. Anybody who's been fully conformed to the image of Christ, you can rest assured your suffering is over. That's what he's doing, though. And one way he does that is to discipline us through sufferings, through chastisements, as the King James calls it. At its deepest level, our warfare is not against persecutors or against governments. It's not against foreign or domestic terrorists. Our true battle So we've got to pull back and go back to the basics here. Our true battle, the one that matters most, is our war against sin. What those first century Jewish Christians were really striving against, and what we strive against, is the sin in ourselves. which we must overcome, which we must destroy. You see, we forget that. We're Christians now. We're okay. We've got the promise of eternal glory. And so we tend to lose sight of the fact, wait a minute, we are about the business and to be about the business of being conformed daily to the image of Christ. Well, you know who didn't forget? God didn't forget. He didn't forget, and He's not going to let us live at ease until we're conformed to Christ. He's going to try us in many ways. And He's usually, at least often, going to use the hands of sinful people as His hand, as His sword. We strive against the sin that's wielded against us by others and the sin within ourselves. See, we can't stop that battle. Martyrdom had not yet come to these people. It hasn't come to us. But for them it was coming, and soon, for some of those who would refuse to renounce Christ. See, the Romans would go around and gather up copies of Scriptures. You had to turn in your Scriptures, or you would be persecuted, maybe executed. That was one way they went about this. And those who would not hand them over, they would be martyred. For the first readers of this epistle, sin would win if because of fear of execution, of shedding blood, they would abandon the faith. That would be the victory of sin. But sin would be defeated if they held fast, even in the face of a bloody death. Now the writer's message is that though all may not be persecuted to the death, all believers will suffer in this life and with God's permission. This is God's design. So what's the purpose of all this suffering of His people that He allows? Doesn't He love us? Well folks, He disciplines those whom He loves. That's what the writer shows us in our passage this morning. He looks back to the Old Testament Scriptures. And He really poses a question. Have you forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons? Go back and pick up your book of Proverbs, Christians. My son, don't regard lightly, don't despise the chastisement, the chastening of the Lord. Don't faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. Every son. Those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. Quoting from Proverbs, Job 5, Psalm 94, Psalm 119. We see that to think lightly of, to despise, to disregard the chastening of our Lord is a great and sometimes fatal mistake. And all these things we endure and go through are part of this. It has a purpose. It is for our good. You know this is coming out of the Word of God, not out of some idea of my own head. Because who would make this up? Who would seek to find this? But this is what the Scripture tells us. And there's a difference. You know, for evildoers, God judges them. But He's not dealing with His people as an angry judge. He's dealing with His people as a loving Father. This is, of course, the example for all earthly parents. Discipline of children is a good and necessary thing to teach them good and godly and right conduct. Godly discipline is always loving discipline. It's always intended only for the good of the child. It has no motive of anger. But God's discipline is not the same as His wrath. which is poured out on all unrighteousness, on all wickedness. His discipline, now hear this, is an expression of His love. What you're suffering is an expression of His love because He wants you to be like His Son. He's working to make us godly. That's the purpose of His chastening of us. Look at Psalm 94, 12. Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, that you may grant him relief from the days of adversity until a pit is dug for the wicked. And Revelation 319 to the church at Laodicea. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent. You see, the real danger is if the Lord withholds His discipline. The real danger is when the Lord has finally had enough of a sinner's rebellion against Him and gives Him over to the sin He craves. This is what Romans 1 teaches us. This is what's happened in America. Ancient Israel failed to respond to God's discipline. He turned away from them and they all fell in the desert. God's able, make no mistake, to prevent persecution and suffering. He's able to protect us against it. But when He doesn't, it's for our good to help us grow. James, look at James 1-2. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces the very thing the writer of Hebrews is looking for in us, endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 1 Peter 1, 6, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. Why? So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now for the first readers of Hebrews, there was a very real and present danger of backslide. The writer feared that they were thinking, you know, this Christianity just isn't worth it. It's too much trouble. It's putting me in too much danger. And he asks, had they forgotten the word which God has spoken? That's the question. Have you forgotten what God said? He disciplines whom he loves, forgetting what God has said, ignoring what God has said, twisting God's Word to suit our sinful desires. What do you think that does? It opens the door to falling away from Him. That's what it does. And here the writer exhorts his readers, don't see the threats of the unbelievers. or even persecution as evidence that your faith is somehow misguided. Remember what God has said. He disciplines whom He loves with hardship. To treat the words chastisements or chastening lightly means to fail to appreciate and understand what the Lord is doing. in His sons and daughters, and for His sons and daughters. Clearly, this is not the way human beings look at suffering. I understand that. But it is how God looks at it in terms of His sons and daughters. To desire to be rid of His chastening, of His reproof, really amounts to a desire to be rid of His wisdom and His guidance. He's the molder. We're just a piece of clay. He's molding us. He didn't stop when He opened our eyes to the truth. Verse 6 here, we have two terms. Discipline, or the King James uses chastening. Both are good. And scourge. Scourge is a different word. They have different meanings. The word here for discipline or chastening is the word paidoi. It means to train children. The second term, scourge, mastigoi, refers to whipping. The Lord lashes or scourges every son whom He accepts as a son in His family. John Owen has an interesting take on this. It's kind of a take that's based on Job's experience. He sees this scourging, which is something different than disciplining, as a particular blessing for some who are specially chosen to it and to special blessing. Job received extreme chastisement. But he also had abundant blessing in the end. Well, whether Owen's right or not, chastisement in its severest form is strong evidence of one's sonship. See, God either judges or He disciplines. Sometimes they look alike. But for the child of God, we know what He's doing. So this is why God allows persecution in this life for Christ's sake. It corrects us. It drives out the sin that is in us in order that we may become true sons of God in every sense. So the message is this, however painful it might be at the time, this chastisement is necessary in order to rid us of the sin that so easily entangles us. That's what he's doing. and to produce in us what the writer calls the fruit of righteousness. Now look at verse 7. It's for discipline that you endure. I'll explain that in a moment. God deals with you as sons, as with sons. And then he asks, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And what he means here is that we must regard our hardships as His discipline. Sonship and fatherly chastisement invariably go together. As I've said, there's just no exemption from this. And no prudent earthly father would allow his children to go on without correcting his faults. Neither would God's children be exempt from His correction. So discipline, trials, sufferings are all blessings from God. Though for us, it's difficult to see them in that light. And if you ask, how can we know that our sufferings are His fatherly discipline and not His judgment? Well, look at verse 8. If you're without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children. You're not sons if you're without discipline, if you're without chastening. And it's unbiblical to think that all people are true children of God. John 1, 12. It's only those who believe in His eternal Son who are given the right to become children of God. Only those born again of His Spirit are His children. Romans 8, 15 through 17 here. You've not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. You've received a spirit of adoption as sons. One must be adopted as a son. We're all born creatures of God. We're not born sons. The Spirit Himself, the Holy Spirit, must come and testify to you that you are a child of God. If, by the way, verse 17, we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. So the discipline of God is one way we can know we are His sons and daughters. This is why we have reason to rejoice. James said, count it all joy. This is why. Because the discipline, the sufferings, are the assurance that you are His child. It's confirmation that we are His. See that? I smiled when I said that. There's joy in this. Christians must realize that our hardships are a token of our Father's love for us. And they're the means by which He's training us to be perfect sons. To make His point, here in verse 9, the writer reminds us that discipline is also the way of loving earthly fathers to teach children to grow as they should And, you know, while earthly fathers do it imperfectly, God always gets it exactly right. Our earthly fathers disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not also respond positively to the discipline of God? Now our way of responding to hardship is, Lord, why are you doing this? That's what we do. We don't give thanks. We still got some sin in us. We don't have a divine outlook on things. But really at root, we sometimes find it difficult to thank God for our trials because we don't always recognize our trials as His discipline. Or we don't understand the reason we're being disciplined. That happens quite a bit, I suspect, in all of us. We don't understand. We can't connect the discipline to some particular offense we've committed. But in all those cases, regardless of what it is, we overlook the fact that we are sinful people. We're still sinful people who sin even in our best moments. That we are people in whom God is constantly at work. He doesn't stop when we've had a couple of good days. Only a couple hundred sins the last couple of days, so he takes a break from disciplining us. It doesn't work like that. He's constantly at work in us, conforming us to Christ. When we were disciplined, whether at school or by an earthly father, it was almost always for a particular offense, right? We knew what we had done and why we were being disciplined. But God's discipline doesn't always work that way. There's not always this clear one-to-one correspondence between our wrongdoing and God's discipline. God doesn't always discipline us that way. His discipline is necessary because of who and what we are. And that doesn't change. That's always the case. We're always unrighteous sinners. We who've been born again by His Spirit, by His grace, are not yet conformed to Christ. So this work goes on. It isn't dependent on how well we did any particular day. God's discipline is the means He's using regularly, daily, to keep us on a right path and conform us to Christ's likeness. And, you know, we may not think we need the ongoing discipline of God. I won't ask for a show of hands. But God knows better. He knows better. We think maybe that when we have an intellectual grasp of the truth, when we know that we're unrighteous sinners saved by grace, that the work of His discipline is over. But there's something far more important to God's discipline than providing us simply with the knowledge of our own righteousness. The purpose of God's discipline, as is the case of a father's discipline on earth, is to change our behavior, to change our character, to change us. The purpose of His discipline is to transform His sons to be like Jesus Christ. To destroy that arrogance and pridefulness that's in every one of us. To transform us into people who are humble and loving and giving, like Jesus Christ. That's what He's doing. Now, when we've achieved total humility, total love for God and our brothers, He won't have any need to discipline us anymore. He's training us with this. So it doesn't require that we have a one-to-one. It isn't God pays us back every time we do something wrong. If He did that, He'd be slapping us all day long, every day. Because our motives are never entirely pure. Verse 10, the writer says it this way, He disciplines us for our good, look at this, so that we may share His holiness. What is that? To share His holiness is to be entirely separated from sin. That's where we're headed here. Our Father disciplines us to sanctify us, to separate us, to set us apart from sin. That's why verse 4 says what it says. You haven't resisted the whole way and you're striving against sin. That's what this is all about. Separating us from sin. After He's called us to Himself, after He's given us new life, He does not desire to see us continue in sin. No. The very moment of our new birth, our separation from sin begins. But it doesn't end there. It ends when He calls us into His presence. His disciplinism means that he employs to accomplish this purpose, though, of separating us from our sin. Because the only way anyone can be presented to God is without spot or wrinkle. That's it. Every one of God's children, those born again of His Spirit, will be presented to Him without spot or wrinkle. So we've got to get from here, where we are, to there. And we know we can't do that by ourselves. So He's doing it in us. And you might say, well, can't He wait until it's time to bring us up? Well, I suppose He could, but He's not. Ephesians 5, 25, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. 1 Peter 1 14, As obedient children, don't be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. We just don't get to go into His presence the way we are. We may be tempted to think, hey, I've been saved. I've been rescued from eternal darkness. My eternal destiny is secure. What's wrong with a few sins until that time comes? No, no, no. God's desire is that we grow daily in righteousness. And anything, including suffering, including persecution, that brings us closer to God and to godliness is good. It's good. It's hard to argue with the logic of that, isn't it? If it brings us closer to God and godliness, it is good. Verse 11, he says, look, at the time we're undergoing God's discipline, it's often very difficult for us to rejoice in it. For us to see this good that it's producing. It's often painful. Usually unpleasant. But, and this is the point, the fruit of discipline is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Something very good happening when we persevere through suffering. Psalm 119, verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word. Psalm 119, verse 71. It's good for me that I was afflicted. Well the psalmist knows this, that I may learn Your statutes. And look at what Jesus said in Matthew 5.10 in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say falsely all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad. There's that word again. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Luke 622, blessed are you when men hate you. And you understand God is using this as His discipline. The hatred of men toward believers. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day! Leap for joy! For behold, your reward is great in heaven. Woe to you who are rich! You're receiving your comfort in full. You know, if chastening seemed joyous to us on a purely human level, it would not accomplish its purpose. It'd fail of its intended purpose. But what we see in these Psalms and with Jesus' words, grief, when it's blessed of God, is medicine to our souls. It isn't until we see the effects of medicine that we realize it was good for us. Though it seemed unpleasant, maybe at the time it was taken. in the good that is brought forth by the medicine of divine discipline." The medicine of divine discipline is called the fruit of righteousness. That's what comes forth from this medicine. It quiets the heart. It soothes the soul. It brings an inner peace. the peaceful fruit of righteousness, as the sinner is transformed into a faithful child of God. And if you want to know what this fruit of righteousness looks like, look at Galatians 5.22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. In Colossians 3.12, Paul writes, So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And what the writer of Hebrews is showing us, what the proverb showed us, is that the discipline of God is the way He molds us to these characteristics. And we think, you know, it's hard as it is to rejoice in suffering. There were some in Scripture who got whipped and beaten. And what did they do? Look at Acts 540. the apostles. They took his advice. After calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then released them. And look what they did. They went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. They kind of got it. They understood. Well finally in verses 12 and 13, the writer again exhorts us, we must not grow weary. This is always a temptation. We must not faint under his chastening. He feared some of them were becoming discouraged. That they may become too weak to endure what was coming. But He's shown them how to rightly see their sufferings and what is the right response to them. He says, persevere, endure, take action. He looks back to Isaiah 35 in verses 3 and 4. Verse 4, Isaiah says, Be strong, fear not. You see the enemy. in all of this that we've talked about this morning. It's fear. It's despair. It's discouragement. Don't despair in your trials, he tells us. God's doing something wonderful in you. This requires that we trust God, folks. This means faith in Him. Belief in what He's saying. He exhorts them, He exhorts us to exert ourselves vigorously as nothing will weaken us more or discourage us more than to fail to see and understand God's grace in our adversities. I believe this passage can change our lives and give us understanding of why. That question we're always asking, why, Lord? He says, I'm doing it for you. Failure to rightly understand why God allows persecution can lead people away from God. Where is He? They say. Where is He? We have to trust Him. He's never failed to keep His word. We have to trust Him knowing He's all wise. And that He desires our good. That He's always faithful to His own Word. And that He is able to do all that He's promised. This race is long. I'm not suggesting it isn't. And it's not easy. We are certain to meet difficulties, opposition, temptations all the way along. So let us always remember that the reward at the end of the race is in every way worth every pain, worth every hardship. And let us also remind ourselves, look, this gift of faith not only causes us to believe, but it empowers us with the courage we need, with the patient perseverance we need. The great means of our preservation is faith. The great means of our preservation from danger and growing weary and fainting is faith. It's fixing our eyes on Christ, who He is, what He's done. The witnesses we met in chapter 11. The reason we love that passage, that whole chapter, is because those witnesses testify to us that faith will carry us and every true believer through any trial. Job's not mentioned in chapter 11. But Job did not understand why God was allowing him to suffer as he did. Did not understand it. Didn't like it. But you know what? He trusted God. In the midst of his suffering, he trusted in God's goodness and he trusted in God's faithfulness. He underwent great suffering with the expressed permission of God, as we read in the first couple of chapters. And here's what he said in the midst of his great suffering. Chapter 13, verse 15, Though he slay me, yet I will hope in Him. Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him. Well like Job, let us also trust in Him. Always. James assured us. Chapter 1, verse 12, Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let's take a moment, consider these things. Consider the love of God for us. And then we will come to the table of our Lord.