The Christian life is characterized by endurance through trials, which are understood as divine chastisements meant to refine believers. The sermon draws parallels between the faith of Old Testament figures like Abraham and Joseph, and the ultimate example of Jesus Christ, who endured the cross for the joy set before him. Chastening, though difficult, is presented not as punishment but as a process of moral development, distinguishing true sons of God from illegitimate ones. By embracing God's discipline with a submissive will, believers are made morally fit for their heavenly inheritance, ensuring an abundant entrance into God's presence.
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We are here in the, going into the twelfth chapter of Hebrews. But before doing so, will you turn to Hebrews chapter ten. And in chapter ten, will you notice, after he gives that background of Old Testament, personages and shows how the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah, is superlative to all.
He says in verse nineteen, having therefore brethren confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. In verse twenty-three, let us hold fast, and in verse twenty four let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works then in verse thirty two as we have already seen and it bears reiterating after ye were illuminated ye endured in verse thirty two And the reason why you were able to endure is because you have an enduring substance.
Then he goes on and shows them how in chapter eleven these saints of old were able to endure. They had assurance. for we read there, now faith is the substance or the assurance of things hoped for, and through testing, conviction, it brought to the proof that which they were assured of, in the fact that they saw him who is invisible and they endured.
but how beautifully they endured. Would you notice in verse thirteen, these all died in faith, not having received the promises. But would you notice verse thirty-three, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, But, and these obtained promises. The former, in verse thirteen, they died in faith not having received the promises. Here, this group received promises.
Then in verse thirty-nine, and these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise. Now what is the Spirit of God trying to convey? The precious fact of their faith did not rest so much in the promises. But what they've worked to the promise is he who made them. So they embraced him. even though the promises didn't come to pass and they died in faith.
Some received promises, some did not. But it was enough that he promised. And if the person who promised made the promises of such worth, whether they didn't come to pass in their lifetime or they did, did not matter, they embraced him who made the promises. And that's what he told Abraham. Abraham, take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him up upon one of the mountains on Mount Malaya.
And Abraham did without hesitation. And as he was about to plunge that knife into Isaac, literally so, he was going to do it. The Lord said, Abraham, Abraham, now I know that you are not resting in fulfilled promises, that is in Isaac, but you are resting in me. the God who made the promise. You embraced me, see. And God honored him. Now I want you to notice we go into chapter twelve.
Wherefore seeing also we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher, the one who began, and will perfect it to the end. That is our faith. who having a goal before him, that goal was his joy.
And he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. In the tenth chapter, ye endured. because you know that you have an enduring substance then we have seen yesterday morning an illustration the illustration of it in a life in Hebrews eleven twenty seven that Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible then the greatest classic of all with regard to endurance is given in verse two.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who in the days of his flesh, having emptied himself off his glory, endure the cross. Now, I am sure you have been enlightened on verse one. seeing we also are encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses. Of course, when I was young, I thought upon the embankments of heaven, all these looked down, and they formed, so to speak, a cloud.
But the cloud of witnesses, is mentioned in chapter eleven, how they endured and died in faith. Then the Lord Jesus Christ had a goal before him, which goal he moved toward and endured, and that which would seem to a make that goal hazy, or make it, what shall I say, unbearable, as that impediment came along, which is called his cross, he looked upon it as a despicable, contemptible thing.
In other words, he looked down upon it. It was not worthy to be reckoned with. Because in the light of the glory, this was as nothing. He treated it lightly of no account. And so the Word of God tells us, for the joy that was set before him he endured. You remember in the tenth chapter, verse thirty-two, that when ye were illuminated ye endured. Here the Lord Jesus Christ, for the joy that was set before him, he endured.
And so, beloved, to the degree that we know him who loved us and gave himself for us, to the degree that our capacity of Him is enlarged within our beings, to that degree will we endure. Therefore, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, something flipped to my mind and it fled, and it was good, but If the Lord brings it back, we'll all share in it.
But here, after saying all this, giving them the proof that he is superior to angels, to Moses, to Aaron, to an earthly tabernacle, to Melchizedek, to all they of the Old Testament, and then turned them up to endure as they had in the past, than giving the heroes of faith. He again comes in with the matter of enduring.
Verse three of chapter twelve, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against themselves lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind. When he endured, he endured unto death. But in verse four, he says, You have yet not been martyred. You have not yet been to the place of death. You have not yet resisted unto blood. driving against sin.
Now he brings out this fact that in all to which they were passing, it was not because there was sin in their life necessarily, but because the Heavenly Father is pleased to chasten them. and the reason for the chastening will soon be made evident. And we can react in a threefold way in the matter of chastening. First of all, in verse three, we can faint under it.
Then we notice in verse five, we can despise it, my son, Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint. So we can, as we read here already, we can faint under it, we can despise it, or if we allow ourselves to be exercised by it, Verse eleven tells us, now no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, not at the moment, but afterward, it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Why is it afterward? Why is it not immediately? Because Before you can have fruit, see, there must be the seed that dies, then the coming up, then the root, then you have the stalk, then you have the leaves, then you have the fruit, see.
And when we are rooted in Him, we draw from Him And as the process works in our life, the fruit, the peaceable fruit of righteousness comes forth. To the degree that we are rooted, to that degree will we be fruited. And may the Lord enable us to see that the Christian life is not a hocus pocus, that immediately things come to pass, but no, God works by way of a process, moves toward a goal, and what He has done merely reflects His glory.
And how beautiful that is. So we can faint, under chastening, we can despise it, or we can be exercised by it. I am thankful that I speak to older believers, to seasoned believers, because as I look at you, I don't know you individually, but I could see a reflection of some of those things of which the Word of God speaks. I'd rather error on the side of grace than on the side of finding fault and criticizing and thinking evil thoughts with regard to God's people.
Now I want you to notice verse six, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourges every son whom he received it. Now, if there be a Christian life that has never experienced chastening in one way or another, you wonder if they belong to the family of God. For the reason that you and I, although born again, have sinned And the shortest definition of sin is what?
Out loud. Now, what did I say Sunday morning? The shortest definition of sin is I will, yes. And the will is quite active. The will is quite alive and doing well on planet Earth. So we notice, being that the will is still there, the will through the process is constantly being broken. And if there is no chastening in an individual who claims to be the Lord, that individual is illegitimate, even though he may say he or she is a child of God.
For we read, For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. For if ye undo a chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not, but if ye be without chastisement? whereof all our partakers, then are ye illegitimate. You are not sons. You belong to some other family, but not the family of the Father. So we notice, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who have corrected us and we gave them reverence.
Yes, there was a time when we did, and blessed is that mother and father whose lives were so rooted in him that it was a reflection to the children as to where their joy and their strength and their even-temperedness lay. I was over to see Mrs. Demarat, and joyfully they shared with me some of the joys, the fruit of their life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And one of their sons was a spokesman for the rest of the children. and typed a poem, which poem when I read I couldn't keep back the tears from flowing. Yes, they brought up children, and the children, although at times they did not understand, gave them reverence or honor. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits and lives? God breathed into man the breath of life.
God is a spirit. And what emanated from him, that breath that went into the nostrils and into the being of Adam was his spirit. and his spirit begat that life that was merely a form of dust. Shall we not rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits and live? Then the next verse tells us about the human Father and the Heavenly Father.
Now in that verse, verse ten, for they verily for a time chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit. Now when I was chastened, I lived at a time when morality didn't fall to the gutter. or see if it's way into the sewerage, but morality was on a higher plane. And I was young, and I obeyed. But as I was being chastened, and then after being saved and reading dispersed, I said to myself, after I became a father, what am I trying to do with my son?
I chasten him. And am I chastening him because I do not see a result that would flatter my ego? Perhaps he doesn't like what he sees in me, see. And I'm chastening him for my own pleasure because every parent, more or less, wants to see a reflection of himself in his children. The mother and father want to live vicariously in and through their children.
They want to feel that they had succeeded and they want to be proud that they were able to form their children or guide them to being like them. But perhaps the children don't like what they see. So they rebelled. But when our Heavenly Father chastens, He chastens in order to form us into His own image. And what we see of Him is perfect in every part, every dimension is equal. And there is a beautiful symmetry about his person because of his character.
Which character is held together by his holiness being absolute means that he is perfect. So when our Father chases us, it's for our highest good and not for his personal conceit. And so we see it here. Now with regard to the chastening, now no chastening in verse eleven, 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. How can I be exercised under that which is not joyous for the present, but grievous? How? By constantly saying, Nevertheless, not my will be done, but thine. And then as we go on, we notice something else. Now look, stop crouching, stop hanging your hand, or rather being hunched with discouragement.
Stop being feeble in your walk because if that be the case, then what I have said means nothing at all and the result of a negative attitude is that you will fall flat on your face and you will be defeated but rather verse thirteen make straight paths for your feet let that which is lame be turned out of the way for as soon as the negative enters the restraints of the Spirit is removed.
For when the trust is in the Lord, the restraints of the Spirit are strong and operative, where the enemy cannot find a way of entering in to pull down. But when the restraints are removed because of discouragement, The result is we would be turned out of the way. Psalm twenty-three tells us, He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake. What did the psalmist mean? I was turned out of the way.
And as I was turned out of the way, He leadeth me or brings me back into the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight. Rather, make it even. Make your paths even. How can I make a path even? the mountains shall be brought low, and every valley shall be exalted. In other words, that which the enemy would want me to look at and seem so wonderful, rather to the pulling down of evil imaginations, bring it low, and that which the enemy makes me feel as of no account.
The grace of God as I look to Him will bring it to its proper height, so that as I bring what is really evil and seems high in my estimation, as I bring it low, and that which the enemy would make me feel as of no worth in the time of discouragement, and I bring it into proper perspective, then the path is even. Then I walk straight and make straight paths for your feet. Let that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Now to go on. All of a sudden, in the matter of chastening, we find Esau brought into the picture. Now we say to ourselves, What has Esau to do with chastening? For we read here, Let there be, in verse sixteen, let there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of me sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of repentance, though he soared it carefully with tears. Now Esau is brought before us. Esau had a father. otherwise he would not have come into being. But Esau had the wrong kind of father. Esau's father had a relationship with his son on a fleshly basis. And Esau's father never chastened his son.
And if you would turn with me, hold your place here, if you would turn with me to the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis, we read this, and it came to pass in verse one, that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called his eldest son and said unto him, My son, and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
And he said, Behold, now I am old. I know not the day of my death. Now therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bowl, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Here was a man. on the threshold of eternity, still thinking of his appetite, his fleshly appetite.
He was blind, and you know the rest of the account, that he was going to bless his son Esau, whom he thought was Esau. Isaac became a man who lived after his senses. His senses guided him. Therefore he became a sensual person. And the very senses in which he rested for evidence that he was blessing Esau.
were the very senses that trapped him in the end. And when we live by our senses, we are trapped by our senses. But you and I, child of God, we have the mind of Christ. And the only way that mind can be renewed is by feeding on him. And as we feed on him, we have constantly a renewed mind. Don't trust your senses. Don't trust your human affections.
Don't trust what your eye sees or what your ear hears. or what your hand touches, or what you as a person possess, but rather trust the Spirit of God who is the author of the Word of God and be guided by it. The man who trusted in his senses was trapped by his senses. And so we see he did not trust in the Lord as he should have, a man on the brink of eternity still thinking a fleshly appetite.
Now Esau was his firstborn, and instead of chastening him, he had a relationship with him based on flesh. The reason why he didn't chasten him is because his own spiritual perception was dim not only physically, but also spiritually. Not only was he blind, but he was blind spiritually. And a man who was weak spiritually will make allowances that which the word of God does not condone.
And that's exactly what he did. He did not chasten his son. Then why bring this up about Esau and his birthright? Esau was the firstborn, and although not in an interpretation of the firstborn, Yet I want to give you an example that is mentioned in Deuteronomy. And in Deuteronomy the twenty-first chapter, I want you to notice verse fifteen.
If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated. And if the firstborn son be hers that was hated, then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn.
Verse seventeen. But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he had. Why did the Spirit of God use the writer to bring Esau in the picture? Esau had a right to the inheritance because he was the firstborn. And being the firstborn, the Lord God does everything in Old Testament times by way of illustration to show that before he will give, or the father was to give the double portion to that firstborn, it was not merely that he was born physically before another son, but
also that he had the moral requirements to receive that double portion. It was not only physical birth, but it was moral life that would make him worthy to receive that double portion. Along that line then, Will you turn with me to First Chronicles? And in First Chronicles, verse one of chapter five, chapter five, verse one, in First Chronicles we read this.
Now the sons of Reuben, and who was Reuben? Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob's line. He was the firstborn of Israel. You'll notice it doesn't use the name Jacob. It uses the name Israel. Why? Because it's conveying the fact that Jacob, before he would receive God's highest blessings, before he would receive, so to speak, the double portion over against Esau, his brother, he had to be made morally fit to receive it.
And he became morally fit when he came back to Bethel, where God first broke in upon him, and there he worshipped God and gave him the glory that should have been always his in Jacob's life. And at last he was made morally fit. So it calls him here Israel and not Jacob. And it calls him Israel by way of contrast. Why the contrast? Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel.
For he was the firstborn, that is Reuben, but for as much as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel. And the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright, that is, Reuben being the firstborn. Why Joseph the firstborn? But Joseph died, and then his sons Ephraim and Manasseh became tribes, and it was passed on to them.
Why Joseph the firstborn? It soon made evident. Look at verse two. For Judah prevailed above his brethren. He was given an honest place. Why? To him the Messiah was going to come. For it says here, For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and off him came the chief ruler. But in spite of that hard position that the Messiah was to come through Judah, the birthright was not to be even from Judah.
The birthright was still to be reckoned in Joseph. Ah, but here is the most beautiful thing that I ever read. And along that line, turn with me to Genesis. And in the book of Genesis, I believe it's the thirty-seventh chapter, turn to chapter thirty-seven. And in chapter thirty-seven, all of a sudden Joseph is introduced to us and his father makes him a coat of many colors.
And that conveys to the others that where Jacob was concerned, Joseph was his beloved, the firstborn, and yet he was young. Ruben was the firstborn that here Joseph is mentioned. You know what they did to Joseph, no doubt. But before that took place, I want you to notice, in chapter thirty-eight, the life of Joseph is cut off for the time being. And who was introduced to us? Judah is introduced to us.
And you know what happened with regard to Judah. Through chicanery and all that, he was taught a bitter lesson of not peeping the word of God nor the will of God, and his daughter-in-law being pushed aside, she played the harlot. Judah went into her, and finally it was exposed to him that his daughter-in-law was the culprit, but he said, I deserved what I got. Showing the corruption of Judah from whom the Messiah would come, all of a sudden we turn to chapter thirty-nine and the life of Joseph is continued.
But with meaning, why this interception? to show the contrast between Judah and Joseph. Judah played the fornicator or the adulterer. But when Joseph was in Potiphar's house, and by the way, you can look it up, Potiphar was a unit, even though Mary and he had an exhausted position, and they gave high positions to eunuchs in those days.
And his wife cast her eye on Joseph, and pled with him, and he resisted her, and finally she made a grab for him, and he fled, and his coat, his garment, his outer garment, was left in her hand. What is being shown, what is being shown is that that which Jacob gave unto Joseph was absolutely true, it was of God, because none of the other sons deserved it morally. even Reuben the firstborn, and Judah from whom the Messiah was to come, even he was corrupt and did not deserve it.
But morally Joseph said, how can I do this thing against my God and against my master who left all things in my hands? That is why through all the chastening through which Joseph passed, through all that chastening, he proved morally that he had the right to be the firstborn. And he was exalted not only upon the earth where Pharaoh was concerned, but before his God.
So, we notice that Joseph was given the first, the double portion, so to speak, for morally he met the requirements. Then I want to bring this to your attention, and with this I close. If you would read the Word of God carefully, you will always find, as it was hinted in Deuteronomy twenty-one, that the firstborn was usually hated. Usually hated. It was Isaac who was hated by Ishmael.
It was Esau who hated Jacob. It was the nations roundabout who hated Jacob. Israel, that is the nation, the firstborn amongst nations, and it's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ that is hated in the world, both by Satan and by the world system in which Satan manipulate all the hatred against the church who is called the firstborn. Well, why all this?
It goes within the context of being chastened. So we come now to verse twenty-two. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and what? Read it. Out loud. The Church of the what?
That's why you are being chastened, so that you will be morally fit for that highest portion that the Lord has for us when he brings us unto himself. Isn't that marvelous? We are born of God. Why are we born of God? Because we were in as being before the foundation of the world, and in the historicity of time, we came forth from God, only to go back to him.
We are the firstborn, and the reason for the chastening is that we are being made morally fit to the receiving of the highest and the best. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, blessed is thy Spirit. and oh how we praise thy spirit we praise him because without him thy blessed son and thy blessed self could never be made known to us now we pray that this morning thy people will go out rejoicing as to the greatness of what is waiting them.
And merely to have an entrance into thy presence is not enough. The reason why we are being chastened, as Peter said, is that we might have a more abundant entrance. And so we ask it that thy chastening will not cease, and that thy spirit will enable us to say constantly, Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. For we ask it in his blessed name, and for his sake, amen.