Do Not Grow Weary

Turn with me, please, once again to Hebrews chapter 12, the book of Hebrews chapter 12.

We continue our study of this great book. And before we do so, we ask the

Lord to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, as we turn to this text of Scripture which exhorts us to faithfulness, which exhorts us to steadfastness and patience, which exhorts us to remember what you have said to us.

May you, by your Spirit, gather with us. May you lift up our hearts and our minds to understand and to make application of your truth so that you would be glorified in all that takes place in this hour.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. There have been very few people who have stood behind this pulpit in the years that I have been a member of this church.

One of those is a friend of our congregation by the name of Brother Jim Renahan.

He runs the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies over at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California.

And in preparation for this morning, I happened to notice that he had preached on this topic.

And so, I wanted to hear what Brother Renahan had to say. And so, I download the sermon.

And as I was this weekend up in Flagstaff, riding my bicycle up to Snowbowl, I listened to what

Brother Renahan had to say. And I found it so interesting that he was talking about how this text we're looking at today, beginning primarily in verse 3 and on through verse 6, talks about people who have become dispirited, have become somewhat discouraged, have become weary, and they've forgotten certain exhortations that are directed to them.

And he was talking about how you can see people who are runners and cyclists, and how they get so tired.

He starts describing these people, and I'm going, Brother Renahan, you're killing me. I'm climbing this mountain.

It's about 31 degrees, and it's very steep, and I'm all alone, and there's wind.

And he's just talking about how people can become so tired. And I just want to turn around and go back.

And I'm going to write to him and tell him about my experience in his discouraging of me as I was trying to climb that particular mountain.

But, of course, I knew there was a reason for it. And he was very right in what he had to say.

It's interesting and incredibly providential that the section that we are in here really begins at Hebrews 10 .19.

And, in fact, Brother Renahan even said, I wish I could read just all of Hebrews 10 .19 through this section because that's the context.

And where did we start in God's providence in reading from the book of Hebrews this morning, which is exactly where we had left off last time, but Hebrews 10 .19.

And if you recall what I just read, and I hope you recall what I just read, it starts, it finishes the theological exhortation and begins that exhortation to faithfulness, which then took up chapter 11 with all the examples of people, not just the greatest acts of faith, but some of the lesser acts of faith and so on and so forth.

And we saw that as we got into chapter 12, we were continuing that. And we looked at those first two verses, and we looked at them over the course of multiple times together because there's just so much there in the exhortation that is given to us.

And this next section, basically known as the section that talks about God's reproof,

God's disciplining of his children, is not some new section. It just is a continuation of this whole long context where the writer is writing to the

Christians and saying, look, this is going to be your experience in life. You are going to need to be faithful.

You're going to need to look to Christ. And then there is a slight change, only in the sense that the writer then recognizes and speaks to us about the reality of the fact that there is going to be discipline that is going to be brought into our experience and that we should not faint under this discipline, but we should trust

God in the midst of his, even his correction of us as his sons and daughters.

So, let's look at the first few verses. Hebrews chapter 12. We've already looked at the first two and we'll continue from there.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us or clings to us and let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set out before us.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author, the origin, the source and the perfecter, the completer of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despised 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 have not yet resisted the point of shedding blood and your striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which has addressed you as sons.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Nor faint when you are reproved by him.

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 with 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.

Thus, the section for our exhortation today, though as you can imagine, we will certainly not exhaust all that this text has to say in the time allotted to us.

Last time we were together, we made it through verse two. We saw Jesus seated at the right hand of God on high.

He has been exalted. He has completed his course. And we are to look to him. We are to have our eyes fixed upon him.

And so, in light of that, we are then told in verse three that we are to consider him who endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that he will not grow weary and lose heart.

Now, this commandment is that we are to consider him. This is not merely something that every once in a while we are to give thought to what

Jesus went through. But instead, the commandment is to ponder, to think through.

It requires some effort. It's not just a passing thing. It should be something that takes time.

And in fact, it should be something that's a regular part of our Christian experience is to look at Jesus and consider the hostility by sinners against himself.

Now, you may recall a few years ago, it became somewhat of a fad for a while for people to wear a bracelet that had on it,

WWJD. What would Jesus do? And I just have to wonder how often part of the exhortation that went with that particular bracelet was to fulfill this text.

And that is to consider the hostility by sinners that came against Jesus.

Now, I should mention just in passing, I won't spend much time upon it. There is a very interesting textual variant at this point.

And actually, the oldest manuscripts say hostility by sinners against themselves.

And that actually has a much stronger attestation than against himself.

But most translations don't go there because they're like, well, what does that mean? How can we even make sense of the idea of sinners against themselves?

Well, I would suggest that if we took that reading, that what is being referred to is the fact that, have you ever considered the madness, the absolute madness of the men who knowing

God's Word stood against the very incarnation of the

Word of God? When I look at, for example,

John 11, and I see Jesus saying,

Lazarus, come forth. And in my mind's eye, I see this man, and he's still in his grave clothes.

And he comes out into the sunlight. And I know it's been days since he was put in there.

This is not just for show. This is a resurrection. And the people who were weeping are now rejoicing.

And what must it have been like to have talked with him? All these things fill my mind. But what really amazes me is what

John does as soon as that happens. What does he say? Well, he describes the

Pharisees. They take counsel together how they might destroy. And I am left almost speechless at the perversity of the behavior of these men.

That's what bad religion will do to you. And the worst religion is the religion that has light, and yet by its tradition teaches you to suppress that light.

That's the most dangerous religion there is. And that's what you see here. And it just strikes me, what will it be like to be those men in the day of final judgment?

Even now, Peter says that they're held under punishment for that final day.

But my goodness, what kind of giving over to sinfulness can explain seeing the giver of life give life, and yet you then seek to destroy him.

If we were to take the reading that has the best manuscript evidence, I think that's what he'd be referring to.

To the hostility by sinners who were absolutely so twisted and given over that their hostility toward Christ was even itself a hostility toward themselves.

When you cut yourself off, is that not what the impartable sin is? What is the impartable sin?

Attributing the Holy Spirit, the one who could bring you repentance, the very activities of Satan himself. When you are that twisted, oh, great is the wrath of God against that person.

So, if we were to take that understanding, that's the direction I would go. But most translations, I would imagine probably every translation in the audience today says hostility by sinners against himself doesn't change the point, and that is that Jesus endured the tremendous hostility that existed between himself and the world.

And now that we are in him, now that we seek to follow in his footsteps, now that we have heeded the call to take up the cross, die to self, bear the cross to the place of execution, we are dead to this world.

If we are dead to this world, the world is going to be hostile to us. There is not going to be any friendship with this world.

And so, what we're being told is that it should be a regular thing for us to look to Jesus, to look to his example, because very obviously, we have been made by God to desire encouragement when we are undergoing difficulty.

Everybody knows that, for example, and again, this is within the context of the text itself, it talks about the athletic competition and girding one's loins in battle and running the race and endurance and patience and all these things.

And so, we know that when you're involved in some type of athletic competition, it's very common for you to want to look up to those who are really, really good at this.

Now, sometimes that ends up in great disappointment. Certainly, if you know my interests, we've had great disappointment over the past number of years.

There was one particular athlete who won the Tour de France seven times in a row, which is proof of the fact that you can have better living through chemistry.

And so, great disappointment came to many of us. Some of you are going, what are you talking about? Lance Armstrong is what

I'm talking about, of course. And but it's always helpful. I mean, the baseball player has his hero, that guy who can hit with such regularity.

And the basketball player is going to be looking up to the person who can make that clutch shot.

And it's nice to be able to know there are people who can do this. And so, I'm not just tilting at windmills.

This isn't something that's absolutely impossible. I have that person I can look up to. We've just been given an entire chapter of people who showed faithfulness in their

Christian lives. Why is that? So we can know we're not alone. We're not the first people who have endured this trial and tribulation, this difficulty in life.

And so, what's being said here is look to Jesus. I mean, you can look to examples of faith.

There's always going to be some kind of failure in their life, but you can always consider

Him. You can set your mind upon and think about Him who endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

There is that danger. And that seems to have been part of what the writer is concerned about amongst the

Hebrew Christians. They had started off so well. Remember what we read this morning? When they were first converted, you endured the plundering of your goods with joy.

Remember what Jesus says to the churches. He talks about the fact that they had a first love.

And yet, they had left that first love. Remember that time of great zeal, of great passion, when your faith meant everything to you.

And it's so easy over time. The constant pressure of the world, the allurement of the things the world draws you away from that first love.

Now, obviously, there is supposed to be a maturing over time. That love is to become deeper.

It's to have more understanding involved in it. And we know there are times when people express zeal without knowledge and it ends up getting them in trouble.

I have a saying, and I don't think I came up with it. I'm sure I stole it from somebody. But when someone first becomes reformed, they become the dreaded

Calvinist. We call it the cage stage, where it'd be better if they were put in a cage, both for themselves and for everyone around them.

You know, at that time, when you're running around beating everybody over the head with Arthur W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God and that type of thing, you know.

And, you know, no matter where you are, you know, the gas station attendant, have you read this book? Have you ever considered such things as superlapsarianism versus infralapsarianism?

They look at you like you're speaking in tongues, which really messes everything up. And so you all know what

I'm talking about. There can be those times, but still there's something good and proper about having a zeal and a passion in one's faith.

But I think I'm probably looking into the face of a lot of people who know what I mean.

You've walked the Lord for years, for decades. There are those times when you're in danger of growing weary and losing heart.

Growing weary and losing heart. These are people who have been undergoing the hostility of the world for a long time.

And it's a particularly pernicious form of hostility because so much of it comes from their own families.

They have been cut off from their communities. And at first, there was a joy in that, but the reality is, when you're cut off in that way, it might mean that you have to do with much less in this life.

You have to put out so much more energy just to get through a regular day. And the first few weeks, first few months, that's one thing.

But then it becomes really toilsome. And you can grow weary.

Most of you know, living here in Phoenix, right now, beautiful weather, isn't it?

Oh, just gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Next Saturday, I'm supposed to be riding in a 100 plus mile race, and they just stuck thunderstorms into the forecast.

I'm not looking forward to that. And I'm really hoping they're wrong, and frequently they are. So I still have some hope.

But you know what? I'm still gonna stick through it, even if it's raining.

I hate, I hate riding in the rain. You know what it's like to be behind somebody else and their tire is spitting water up in your face?

It's just, oh, it's not a lot of fun. It's just a disgusting feeling to get to the end of something like that, and you feel like a drowned rat.

It's just not a whole lot of fun. But you know why I would do it? Not particularly for any reason for me, but there's supposed to be like 9 ,000 people in this race, and there's all these volunteers.

And they're all gonna be sitting out there under their umbrellas with their little inane cowbells.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, yay, go, you know. And I just wanna finish it for them, you know.

So they don't just stand there and they have no one to ring their little cowbells for you. I feel really bad about that. I really would.

So I'm gonna, but you know what? About 80 miles into that, when even my best riding gear has started to let some water into my shoes, and when they get soaked every time you pedal, squirts water out.

It's just a horrible thing. It just feels just disgusting. But I'm gonna need to,

I'm gonna grow weary. I'm gonna grow weary. And there are gonna be times it's like, oh man, is there someone

I could just call to come get me and drag me back to my car? Because this is just not a whole lot of fun.

Now, the first 20 miles won't be all that bad because it's the road, you know. But it's about 80 miles in, 90 miles in.

You're getting close, but everybody knows. The halfway point is 90 miles into a $112 race.

That's the halfway point, it really is. Just mentally, why? Because you've been at it so long. And these

Hebrews have been at it for a long time now. And it's so easy.

It's one thing to get through a short, intense period of hostility and resistance to your faith.

A lot of us can get through that. You're standing up for Jesus. But it's when it's every day.

That's what I think about when I think of the Christians who live in the Middle East. Oh, the trial they're undergoing.

The persecution that is theirs. And it's every single day. There's no, there's no, no holidays.

There's no time where the society around them gives them some time off.

In fact, as most of you know, especially in Muslim countries, it's when the

Christians want to get together to celebrate something. Celebrate the birth of Christ. Celebrate the resurrection. That's when they're in the greatest danger of someone walking in wrapped in TNT.

It's an amazing thing. It's that constant pressure that eventually results in growing weary and losing heart.

The writer says, Jesus, look to Jesus. Think about Jesus.

Because you see, he never had a time off either. The world was constantly hostile toward him and his message.

Every time he spoke, he knew there were those scribes and Pharisees over there. And they're sort of sitting in the corner. And they're listening.

And they're just trying to find any word, anything he does. It's the Sabbath day. I wonder if he's going to heal today.

Constant hostility. And so, you might want to ask yourself the question, what could you do even in this coming week to fulfill this command to consider, to think upon him who endured?

He patiently endured. He put up with this. He never failed.

He never fell back. He patiently endured this sinner -born hostility so that, it's called a

Hinnah clause, in order that you may not. See, he was doing that, yes, obviously, so he had to fulfill his purpose and his calling as the

Messiah, the suffering servant. But he was also giving us an example to follow so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Because when you grow weary, when you lose heart, that's when the danger spoken of in chapter 10, which we also read just a few moments ago, comes to fruition.

That's when the person tramples underfoot the Son of God, considers the blood by which he, the

Son of God, was sanctified, unclean, commits the unpardonable sin.

In fact, it was interesting this morning before Sunday school, the pastor read through a section of the

London Baptist Confession, and one of the things he talked about, about prayer, was some people you don't pray for, and one was the one who had committed that unpardonable sin.

And that's the very sin that was discussed in Hebrews chapter 10, and that 1

John 5 refers to as well. So, we are to consider

Him. How can you do that? I'm not just saying, well, I'll sit here and I'll read this verse.

No, but maybe in looking through the Gospels, consider the various ways in which that hostility was expressed toward Jesus, and see if you cannot see application to the ways maybe you're experiencing it in your home, maybe you're experiencing in the workplace, at school, whatever your context might be.

Where will you experience the hostility of an unbelieving world?

There's a lot of it today. You dare to open your mouth and express words of godliness today, and oh, the world's going to look at you like you're the hateful person.

Hence, you might want to be thinking about how Jesus answered with wisdom the promises He gave us that the

Spirit of God would be with us to give us the answers that we are to give when we experience persecution.

So, a very practical exhortation. Consider Him. Now, in light of that warning, do not grow weary.

Do not lose heart. Verse 4 says, you have not yet resisted the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. And we have a quotation from Proverbs 3.

Now, it's interesting. I think most of us have memorized part of Proverbs 3.

Maybe in a vacation Bible school many years ago, or a Sunday school class.

But it wasn't this section, probably. It's probably the one about committing your ways to the Lord. Not trusting in man, but trusting the guidance of God.

It comes a little bit earlier in Proverbs 3, but this comes a little bit later on. Maybe it's not one of our favorite texts, because it says, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves,

He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. Now, we can see why this is not one of the favorite texts for many people.

Because it speaks so bluntly of the reality there is such a thing as discipline in the

Christian life. But notice the context in which this citation is made.

You have not yet resisted the point of shedding blood in your striving against the world?

Unbelievers? No, that's not what it said. I mean, it'd be easier for us to put it out in that context to recognize that persecution was going to be coming against the believers.

But you see, where we struggle is to recognize that the writer places this in the context of our striving against sin.

And that we as believers are involved in this battle.

This battle that is a daily battle. It is a battle that is created by the fact that our inner man, which has been renewed after the image of Jesus Christ, desires to live in holiness.

Desires to know Him better. Desires to live in such a way that He will be pleased with my behavior and my actions and my words.

But we have not yet been glorified. We still live in this fallen world and there is still that abiding sin that we struggle against.

And so, in many of our minds, we'd like to have the idea of striving against sin over here.

And then what we experience in life over here. And the two are not really connected, but in the Christian life they are.

And so, on the one hand, you have people who are just constantly introspective and they're going, oh,

I've got to sniffle today. I wonder what sin I did. Oh, what kind of sin would result in sniffling and maybe

I look down at someone or something. And they're just always trying to figure out what the direct correlation relationship is.

If I have this kind of sickness, then God's reproving me for this. And that's just all they can focus on.

On the other hand, there's, I think, more people that sort of take more of a worldly perspective.

And it doesn't matter what goes on in my life. It has nothing to do with my sin at all. The truth is somewhere in between.

You can't just glibly say, well, brother so -and -so was just in a car accident.

I wonder how he had sinned. That sort of takes us back to the mindset of the disciples.

A blind man, what are his parents? And Jesus is like, um, neither one.

God had another purpose. But at the same time, you can't skip the fact that what you have here is a striving against sin.

In fact, it's that same term. It's a term I've mentioned to you a number of times before. It's used over in Jude.

When it talks about the fact that we are called to strive for, to agonize for the ones for all delivered to the saints faith.

And we know that term, agony comes from the Greek language, agonizomai, to put out maximum effort, to agonize.

Same term that's used here. Except it is a striving against something on T, against something.

And so the assumption is that there is going to be a striving, a putting out of a maximum effort on our part against sin.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

You haven't given up life itself. What's that mean?

It seems to be calling us to a very high view of holiness. It seems to be saying to us that it should be second nature for Christians to desire to hate that which is hateful to God.

That's not really a part of a lot of modern day Christian thinking, is it? Oh, everyone is going to agree.

Oh, yes, we shouldn't sin. But then you start pushing. What should our attitude be toward our own sin?

Not somebody else's sin. That's easy. But our own sin. What should our attitude be toward that? And can we honestly say that we can look back and ask the question, how did

I strive against sin in this past week, this past month, this past year?

We're getting toward the end of the year. It's always a good time to be considering such things. It's a strong word.

And it would seem to call us to be aware of how easy it is in our world today to be lulled into a false peace.

To be lulled into an attitude of apathy in regards to our growth in holiness.

Because you see, I would suggest that you cannot grow in holiness if you are not agonizing against sin.

They seem to go together, don't they? I mean, sometimes we get the idea that, well, you know,

I've done some good deeds. I look over here and I did a little more

Bible reading this week than normal. Well, that's a wonderful thing.

In fact, we're going to see here in verse 5, there is going to be a very strong exhortation to know your

Bible. Because God holds you accountable. Very strong.

One I've never really seen until having to work through this text. It's a good thing.

In fact, again, this time of year, I'd be thinking about this coming year. Bible reading programs, setting things up, making preparations, all that kind of stuff.

We'll get that in a moment. But that's alone and improper if it is not accompanied by striving against sin.

I would suggest that they go together. They cannot be separated. And if you've called a truce in this part of your life where there's apathy, where it's like, well, you know,

I just really can't get past that. So I'm just going to put this over here.

I'm going to be happy doing things over here. God didn't make us that way. God didn't make us so we can be apathetic in our striving against sin and yet make progress in regards to holiness.

He says, you have not yet come to that point. You've had your physical possessions taken, but you haven't shed your blood yet.

There have been others who have. Seemingly, there's some complaining going on.

There's some weariness amongst these folks. It's a weariness that comes from at least the fact that they had been early on striving against sin.

And when you become weary, when you become tired, you lose heart.

You don't think as well. You don't think as well. Exhaustion does that.

I've heard the pastor many, many times, very practically exhort all of us.

Make sure you're getting enough sleep. Because, you see, the pastor recognizes that you don't take care of your body.

It's all connected. And everybody in this room knows you can want to be as spiritual as you can be.

But if you ain't getting enough sleep at night and you're absolutely exhausted, well,

God made us body and spirit joined together.

We all know how the weakness of the body can impact every other aspect of our lives.

The writer says, you have forgotten. When you become tired, it's easy to forget.

It's easy to do stupid things. I mean, I've pushed myself really, really hard many times.

And I have to be, especially since I'm normally doing it out in traffic. The semi -tractor trailer behind me does not care if I have ridden five miles or if I've ridden 85 miles.

He doesn't know. And so I may want to get over in that lane because I'm just so stinking tired.

I want to get home. But I've got to think. I've got to realize he doesn't know that.

And I'm going to be just as flattened under his front tires one way or the other. I have to think.

I have to be careful. It's so easy when we become tired, become weary, to forget.

That's what the writer says. You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons.

Now, I'm not going to be able to get the exhortation this morning, but I do want to bring out a couple of points from what normally we would just pass over because, well, this looks like an introduction, okay?

What the writer is saying is, okay, I'm going to quote from Proverbs 3 and it's going to talk about my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

Lord. We're going to look at all of that. But notice a couple of things that really struck me.

The writer assumes that we should know that these words were addressed to us.

And this is a consistent pattern in Scripture. I mean, I've pointed out many, many times. Remember what

Jesus did in Matthew chapter 22 when he's arguing with the Sadducees about the resurrection.

Have you not read what God spoke to you saying? And then he quotes from the

Old Testament, from Exodus. This is a pattern found in the

New Testament that God has given us His revelation and He holds us accountable to it.

And here it's being addressed to believers. There it's being addressed to Sadducees who are even questioning the resurrection.

The point is, God has given us His Word and He holds us accountable for the fact

He's given us His Word. There will be no excuse someday, I didn't know. There are all these other books that claim to come from God.

It's not going to cut it on the Day of Judgment. You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons.

There are some forms of theology out there that say, ah, don't worry about that Old Testament stuff.

Don't worry about that Old Testament stuff. I was watching a, I guess it was called a sermon from this fella.

I think he's from Australia. I'm not sure why anybody would have stayed in that room.

Honestly, this guy just prowls around and he just yells at everybody.

It was really weird. It was troubling. It really was. But one of his theories basically was that you start with Paul.

Paul is the ultimate authority. And you run everything through him and you don't have to worry about any of that Old Testament stuff.

It's just this weird view that a lot of people have out there.

Incredibly imbalanced, but there are a lot of people that are like that out there. But there are some forms of theology that teach that basically the

New Testament stuff, that's really God's Word. And the

Old Testament stuff is just for the Jews. It's okay to tell the kids stories about David and Goliath and stuff like that, because it's very entertaining.

But as far as really living the Christian life, there isn't much back there.

You have forgotten the expectation which is addressed to whom? To you as sons.

To you as sons. And then he quotes from Proverbs chapter 3.

And it's not the most famous portion of Proverbs chapter 3. It's not the one that most of us have memorized.

It's a sort of obscure text, but the point is, we should have known it. Now, I suppose we, of almost all people, might be able to sit back on our laurels and say, here's one that we do okay on.

Because how many times have we read through Proverbs? Now, some of you don't come to the openings on Sunday mornings, so you might not know that.

I would exhort you to do so. We meet in here, and we read through Proverbs.

We just finished Proverbs, in fact, last week. Again, and guess what?

It won't be long until we'll be back to Proverbs. And so, if you've been around here, let's see,

I came in 89, so we're kind of 20, that'll be 25 years coming this next year.

Wow. The most frightening thing about that is not how much different I look now, but that Roxy still remembers where I sat and what

I wore when I first visited here. That's the frightening part to me, personally. But in 25 years, we've probably,

I've probably heard the book of Proverbs read in here about 25 times. Because we do some of the other books, but that's up to about a year, about around there,

I guess. So, I've heard this about 25 times.

So, you know what that means? I can't go, oh, good. What it means is, boy, am

I going to be held accountable for that. Because I've heard it over and over and over again.

I can't just let it go in one ear and back out the other. I have to ponder these things.

I have to consider these things. And if you're like me, how often do

I sit there and go, well, I messed up again. And if I just remember this, and if I've read it a million times, and I've thought about it a million times, but, oh,

I didn't remember. I didn't make application. I didn't make application. So, let me exhort you.

We are getting right toward the end of the year. Believe it or not, it's right around the corner once again.

Went fast, didn't it? All I know is the older you get, the faster they go.

We've got another year coming. We've got another year coming up. And maybe you've made New Year's resolutions in the past and broken as many as you've made.

But I'd like to encourage you. There are so many ways for us to expose ourselves to God's truth these days.

So many ways. I mean, you know, when I first read through the

Bible as a teenager, you know, I had my little fold -up calendar thingy, that I had in the front of the

Bible and I had a paper text and I read it. Now, most of us, honestly, with a few notable elder exceptions, have things called smartphones.

I've got one back there. It's not a phone. It's a computer. It's a fully functional computer.

And I've got programs on there where I can say, I want to read through the Bible in a year and it will wake me up and it will display the text.

I can program it to make annoying noises to keep me awake. I mean, I can do all sorts of things with it. It's so...

I don't even have to do what I used to do where I'd have to open up a calendar and go, okay, where am I today? Okay, there's my

Old Testament reading. There's my New Testament. It'll do all that for me. I mean, we all know we really don't have any excuses.

And what's more, you say, oh, but I have so little time. How long does it take you to get to work? My phone will read it to me.

All I've got to do is listen. I mean, there's so many ways. There's just no excuses as to why we can't expose ourselves to the entirety of the

Word of God over the course of the coming year. And so you may do that. And if you do so, it's a wonderful thing.

But let me encourage all of you, even young people, take the time.

Make a commitment. Don't put yourself in the position of saying, I didn't forget your exhortation.

I had never seen it. Here was a text from the

Word of God that God had given to us specifically for our encouragement.

And the writer says, then you've forgotten. But let me remind you of it.

And here it is. And so as we have this upcoming change of season, shall we say, and we flip the calendar over, and it's,

I don't know. I've always found 2013 to be weird. And I don't know. I think it's because you go to so many hotels, don't have a 13th floor.

You know, it's just like, how did, why do we have a 13th year if you're going to skip the 13th floor? It doesn't make any sense. But we did.

And so now it's going to be a nice even number. 14, that's great. Well, let's make some commitments in 2014 to be a people.

Who, yes, strive against sin. And what's one of the best things given to us to strive against sin?

What's the greatest aid given to us? A knowledge of the Word of God.

A knowledge of the Word of God. Don't just go, well, we're reading through Leviticus on Sunday nights at church.

Yeah, we are. But that should be something that you're doing all the time.

You should be aware of the evidence. You should be aware of the evidence. And you should be aware of these texts. So, take the time. Utilize even the technology that's been made available to us.

To expose yourself, the whole counsel of God. So that what happens here becomes a reiteration.

Not the first exposure. But going, oh, yeah, I remember this section.

Make it a part of your life. The world will do everything in its power to make itself a part of your thinking.

We need to do everything in our power to make the Word of God second nature to our thought process, especially as we strive against sin.

Let's pray together. Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your

Word that you have preserved it for us. You've given it to us. You've given us your Spirit. Your Spirit causes us to desire your

Word and to understand your Word. Lord, may we not be amongst those who do forget.

But instead, may we be amongst those who desire to know your Word. And once we know it, that we remember it, that we put it to memory, and that we recognize it is so vitally important as the chief tool by which we are able to strive against sin.

As much as we love you and love holiness, may we recognize that we must hate our own sin.

We must agonize against it. Lord, teach us what that means. Teach us how to do it.

May we be very much engaged in that activity in this coming week. We pray in Christ's name, amen.