Text: Heb 12: 11-17
Date: December 26, 2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
John Newton
wrote this song:
I asked the Lord that
I might grow
in faith and love and every grace
Might more of his
salvation know
and more earnestly seek his face
Twas he who taught me
thus to pray
and he I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in
such a way
as almost drove me to despair
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 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 schemed,
blasted my gourds and
laid me low
Lord, why is this I
trembled to cry
Wilt thou pursue thou
worm to death
Tis in this way the
Lord replied,
I answer prayer 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 seek
thy all in me!
Subject: Joy After Chastening
Hebrews 12: 12: Wherefore lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees;
The word “wherefore” refers to what came before this
verse. The Hebrew brethren were being
chastened, disciplined, corrected by our heavenly Father. God mainly chastens through his gospel
through the word. But God also uses
trials. He uses our brethren, offenses, sickness,
persecution and many more things. Sovereign
God can use anything in his creation. He
is the Lord of hosts. Brethren, when you
suffer in your life, always consider the chastening hand of our heavenly
Father. Learn what God is teaching
through our suffering.
So the writer is giving reasons not to be discouraged
when we are chastened. Seeing that we
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, seeing that the Author
and Finisher of our faith endured the cross and is now set down at God’s right
hand for the joy set before him, seeing that God the Father only chastens his
children whom he loves and that for our profit and seeing that after the grief
and sorrow of chastening, God always produces fruit in the children he
chastens—that is the joy set before us in our trial.
Every sinner suffers trouble
in this world. What is the difference
between the child of God and the reprobate who suffer? The
unregenerate only sees himself as not getting what he wants—he only thinks
himself unlucky—he never considers God. But
God always makes his child profit from his chastening.
Hebrews 12: 10…he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11: 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.
God our Father always
makes his child profit spiritually from God’s chastening hand: this fruit is
certain because it is of our heavenly Husbandman who never fails to yield fruit
in his child. If I suffer trouble, the
joy set before me, is that afterward God shall bring me to Christ’s feet, to
partake of Christ my Holiness, my Peace, my Righteousness.
Having chastened me, God
who sanctified me—by his electing grace, by his redeeming grace, by his
regenerating grace—God who formed Christ my Holiness within me—God who made Christ
unto me Sanctification shall make me follow Christ, walking in holiness.
God the Father by his
chastening hand shall bring me to behold and bow to Christ my Peace once again. He shall make me behold Christ alone made
peace for me with God by his precious blood.
God in Christ reconciled me and all his elect to himself. He shall keep me following Christ my Peace and
thus make me a peacemaker in my dealings with men
After chastening, God
shall make me behold Christ is my only Righteousness. He shall make me behold that it not by my works
of righteousness I have done but by Christ’s righteousness alone that I have
fulfilled the whole law of God and am accepted of God forever
Divisions: So seeing all these encouraging truths, the writer gives
three exhortations:
1) Keep running the race looking to Christ—Hebrews
12: 12: Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13:
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of
the way; but let it rather be healed
2) Do not
distract others in the race instead look diligently to Christ—Hebrews 12: 14:
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord: 15: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God;
3) Run to the throne
of grace and obey Christ’s voice—Hebrews 12: 18: For ye are not come to [Mt
Sinai] but to heavenly Mt Zion…25: See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from
heaven
Proposition: These three exhortations are the peaceable fruit of
righteousness God produces in his child through chastening.
KEEP RUNNING THE RACE
Hebrews 12: 12: Wherefore lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees; 13: And make straight paths for your feet, lest
that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed
One, the fruit God
produces through chastening is produced by God effectual commanding us to lift
up our hands and our feeble knees.
If my hands are
hanging down then I am not running with patience the race set before me. I am
ready to quit. This is often the reason
God chastens his child in the first place.
Troubles and weights make us personally grow weary, tired and dull of
hearing. We sometimes turn from looking
to Christ. We begin to be turned off the
race course. Without God’s preserving grace, we would stop running the race of
faith entirely.
Therefore, God sends
the trial to chasten his child to make us keep running the race with patience
looking to Christ. But the chastening is
grievous at first. Our hands hang down
and our knees are even more feeble due to the trial. Job had strengthened his brethren. But when
the trial came to him he was troubled.
One of the so-called friends said to Job,
Job 4: 3: Behold,
thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 4: Thy
words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble
knees. 5: But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee,
and thou art troubled.
By this, by making us behold our weakness, it is one way
God makes us behold that our strength to lift up our hands and knees is Christ
alone. Paul said,
2 Corinthians
12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me.
Therefore, when God has made us behold our weakness, Christ
commands his child effectually in the heart, “Lift up the hands that hang
down and the feeble knees!” He does
this through the preaching of the gospel.
Then with the command comes the strength. For instance, the man with withered hand
could not stretch forth his hand until Christ commanded, “Stretch for thy hand”
then he stretched if forth. Lazarus was
dead and could not come out of the grave until Christ commanded, “Lazarus, come
forth!” then he that was dead come forth.
Then by Christ overcoming
our weakness by Christ’s Strength, God brings us to give all the glory once
again to God. We cry out,
Habakkuk 3:19
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet,
and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
At last, when God does this for his chastened his child,
he uses his corrected saint to speak the truth from painful experience to our brethren
when they suffer trials. God says to us
concerning our brethren who are in trials,
Isaiah 35: 3: Strengthen
ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4: Say to them that are
of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
When that word is blessed by Christ, the same thing that
he did for us in our trial, God does for our brethren in their trial.
Isaiah 35: 5: Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. 6: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of
the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert. 7: And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be
grass with reeds and rushes.
During the trial we lose sight of Christ because we are blinded. We can hear because we have become spiritually
deaf. But when God gives us sight again,
once more we behold Christ the Way, Christ our Holiness.
Isaiah 35: 8: And an
highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the
unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein. 9: No lion shall be there, nor
any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but
the redeemed shall walk there: 10: And the ransomed of the LORD shall
return,…
This way is only for those Christ has made holy. Only those redeemed by Christ are called into
Christ the Way. Those Christ ransomed by
his precious blood are set free from our bondage and drawn into Christ the Way
by faith. And notice to which mount we run
to. It is the same heavenly mount our
text reminds us to run to.
Isaiah 35: 10: And
the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Our text says that no chastening for the present is
joyous, but grievous, but afterward, God makes us flee to Christ with songs and
joy and gladness and the sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Two, God commands us to look to Christ and he mortifies
our flesh. God commands his child, “Make straight paths for your feet” How do you run a straight path? When
I was in middle school my grandfather taught me how to till a straight line in my
garden. He taught me to look at a single
tree in the distance. Do not look to the
right or left or behind you. Only look
to that one tree. When I finished the row
it was straight as an arrow. We run this
race looking to Christ alone. That is
how we make straight paths for our feet.
Proverbs 4: 25: Let thine eyes look right on, and let
thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26: Ponder the path of thy feet, and
let all thy ways be established. 27: Turn not to the right hand nor to the
left; remove thy foot from evil.
Before the correction, we were looking to our brethren
beholding their sins. We were looking to
ourselves away from Christ. Usually, we justify
our own sin by judging our brother’s sins. We take on many weights and sins which turn us
out of the way. It is impossible for a
believer to mortify his flesh and put off this old man with his sins. But by making me look to Christ, God mortifies
my flesh. The Spirit of God makes me lay
aside all hindrances: the weights, the sins, the self-righteousness and
self-exaltation over my brother. These
were besetting me, turning me out of Christ the Way. But God’s chastening hand turns me to behold
Christ and by this God mortifies my flesh and grants repentance to put off
these things.
Hebrews 12: 1: 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, 2: Looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith;
Three, by making me behold Christ, God makes me love and
care for my brethren. God makes me see
that my sins are causing my weak brethren to stumble. So to keep the lame—weak brother—from being
turned out of Christ the Way, Christ says to the one he chastens,
Isaiah 57: 14:…Cast
ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way
of my people
God makes me lay aside every weight and the besetting sin
and run looking to Christ. By turning me
to Christ, by granting me repentance and strength to cast off the works of my
old sinful flesh, God makes me a witness for my weak brother like that cloud of
witnesses from the past. Our Redeemer makes
his corrected child someone that my weak brethren can follow as I follow Christ—"lest
that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”
Brethren, it causes great shame if during this race we put
a stumbling block in the way of our weaker brethren by our sins. God makes us put away the weight and sins
because they not only beset us but they also beset our weak brethren.
And to you who are looking to the offenses and sins of
your brethren rather than Christ, if you do so then you will be turned out of
the way. Turn from looking at the sins
of your brother and look to Christ alone.
By this, God makes both believers come to our great Physician who heals
us—"let it be healed!”
DO NOT DISTRACT OTHERS IN THE RACE
Hebrews 12: 14: Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15: Looking diligently lest
any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up
trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16: Lest there be any fornicator, or
profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Again, the Spirit of God speaks effectually into the
heart of his, commanding us to look diligently to Christ. This entire passage tells us to run the race
of faith looking to Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith. Christ is our perfection of
faithfulness. He has already run this
race and is our only righteousness and holiness before God. It is only by Christ that we are given faith
in the beginning. He is the Author of
our faith. Likewise, it is only by
Christ that we persevere unto the end in faith.
He is the Finisher of our faith.
When God teaches us to follow peace with all men, it is
by bringing us to the feet of Christ is our Peace. As we look diligently to Christ we behold
that is our Peace with God. He alone
brought us into friendship with God from our state as an enemy by our wicked
works. Likewise, it is Christ’s grace to us that
gifts us with the fruit of the Spirit.
The Spirit makes us follow Christ’s example. By all this, Christ makes us peacemakers with
all men.
Matthew 5:9: Blessed
are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
When God teaches us to follow holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord, he makes Christ sanctification unto us. We rest in Christ our Holiness. Christ is that holiness formed in our new man,
without which no man shall enter glory and see God. God chastens us to make us partaker of his
holiness—of Christ our Sanctification.
By God’s grace making me look diligently to Christ my Holiness, his
blood purges my heart so I see clearly. Christ
gives me the grace to walk in holiness and godliness with all men from a pure
heart.
Matthew 5:8: Blessed
are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Remember, he is writing to brethren persecuted by vain
religion. He is telling them to follow
Christ that they might follow peace even with their persecutors. We are to make war with sin, not with men; we
are to make war with sin but not with our fellow worms. If we use the sin of our brethren to justify
our sin in warring against them then devil has won the day!
But if I am not looking diligently to Christ from whom
all grace comes then I certainly will fail of the grace of God. Do not misunderstand, the grace of God
never fails. He chose his people by free
grace so that nothing will cause him to cast us off. Christ justified his people before the law so
that justice demands he lose not one.
The Spirit of God regenerated us and the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. The grace of God
never fails! It is I who fails of the
grace of God. I must come to the fountain
of all grace or I will fail of the grace of God and my sinful flesh will reign. Listen to this contrast of the grace of God given
from heaven and the sensual fleshly fruit of one who has failed of the grace of
God.
James 3: 13: Who is a
wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good
conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14: But if ye have bitter
envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15:
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16: For
where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17: But
the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without
hypocrisy. 18: And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace.
When, by the grace of God, we look to Christ for all salvation,
we hear and behold Christ in the gospel, we are constantly at his feet in the
word, and we are at his feet in prayer asking more grace then Christ
strengthens our inner man and mortifies our sinful flesh. But if we
look to our flesh—to the sins of our brethren, to our offenders and how
they have offended me, if we dwell on the offenses and make our fleshly wants our
focus—then our sinful flesh reigns, making us fail of the grace and
graciousness God gives his child. Rather
than peace, we make war—doing so we distract our brethren from looking
diligently to Christ. Rather than holiness,
we follow strife and envy and division—doing so we distract our brethren from
looking to Christ. If we are his, Christ
will correct us through painful chastening.
But if not, we will prove it by being totally overcome by our sinful
flesh.
Esau is the illustration—"lest any root of
bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest
there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat
sold his birthright.” This wording
is like that found in Deuteronomy 29, which tells us the sin is turning from
the LORD our God to idols.
Deuteronomy
29:18 Lest there should be among you
man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the
LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be
among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
Our sinful flesh is the root of bitterness. If we look away from Christ to our brother’s
sins and to our fleshly wants we feed the bitter root of our flesh until it
springs up and troubles us. Esau looked
to his brother and became covetous of something his brother had—a bowl of meat. Esau looked to himself—his belly, his lusts,
his feelings, his wants, his desires—rather than Christ! Therefore for one moment of gratification—he
traded Christ for one morsel of meat.
Some professing
believer says, “I want that career!” But God says it will cost you
Christ, cost you your brethren, cost you your family. It costs too much! Will you trade Christ for that one
morsel? “I want that house, car and
stuff!” But it will take you from
the gospel, from Christ, from brethren.
It costs too much. Will you trade
Christ for that morsel? “I want those
drugs and alcohol!” But it will cost
you Christ, cost you your brethren, cost you your family. It costs too much. Will you trade Christ for that carnal morsel?
Brethren, weeds grow slow. Slowly, they cover a wall then another then windows
then the door then the whole house. If we
do not look diligently to Christ, slowly this root of bitterness will spring up
until at last we are defiled and we trade Christ for one morsel of meat. The devil is subtle. Our flesh is deceitful above all things. We must continually look diligently to Christ
or we will be beguiled before we even know it.
RUN TO MT ZION AND OBEY THE VOICE
Hebrews 12: 18-22: For ye are not come to [Mt Sinai] but to heavenly Mt Zion…25: See that ye
refuse not him that speaketh [from heaven]
God even commands his chastened child teaching us where
to run to and whose voice to obey.
Christ has redeemed his people from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. Believer, we
are not under the law—we have not come to Mt Sinai. We have come to Mt Zion. We have come to Christ Jesus, the Mediator of
the new covenant, who blood declares our completion and our righteousness in
him.
Hebrews 10: 19: Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20:
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil,
that is to say, his flesh; 21: And having an high priest over the house of God;
22: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water.
Hebrews 4: 15: For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. 16: Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need.
As God draw us near in prayer to his throne of grace, God
commands his child effectually in our heart, saying, “See that ye refuse not
him that speaketh from heaven.”
May God now speak this command in the hearts of his
children who are suffering under the chastening hand of our heavenly Father. This is the peaceable fruit God always
produces. This is the joy after
chastening!
Amen!