A Word in Season: Consider Him (Hebrews 12:3)

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There are many things which a child of God might consider which, taken in themselves, would lead to the weariness and discouragement of our souls.

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There are many things in the world at large that might have that effect, when we think of the general trend, perhaps, of the societies and cultures to which we belong, away from and against God and His Word.

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There may be particular obstructions or oppressions to which we are subjected, either on an institutional or a personal scale, as the

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Church of Christ begins to face more and more in the way of persecution. There may be real sufferings and distresses of body, deprivations of freedom, that you or I are, or yet will, undergo, and we need to be aware that these things may come.

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Perhaps it's within the professing Church of Christ at large, as you see that wholesale turning away from the truth as it is in Jesus, and those who have the name but not the reality, who do not know the power of the

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Gospel, people who, having the name of Christianity, nevertheless undermine the very foundations of the faith and give a wretched name to everything that could and should truly be considered of God and His Christ.

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Or it may be within the local church. There may just be a disregard and a carelessness for the things of God.

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There may be those, again, who would have the reputation of a Christian but none of its reality, who do not know the grace of God in their hearts, and who resist at every turn the progress of the

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Gospel and the Reformation of the Church, and make the life of the faithful saints a fearful misery.

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Under such circumstances, weariness and discouragement might seem natural.

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We wonder at times whether or not the race is really worth running, if the fight is worth fighting, if this faith is worth keeping, if there's any hope, if there's any prospect, if there's any point.

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What are we to do when we're tempted to perhaps turn aside from the way and tell ourselves that we just need to rest a while?

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What do we do when we're tempted just to throw in the towel, to say that there's no point in continuing to fight this battle?

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The writer to the Hebrews has a remedy for us. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

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He wants us to remember Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God, the throne of God in heaven.

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We need to remember the hostility which he endured from sinners against himself.

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He endured it from his own people. He endured it from the nations around him. It was institutional as well as individual.

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It was an assault upon his being, his body and his soul.

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It was a sorrow and a suffering that led even to the cross and all its shame.

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The wrath of God poured upon him, the curse that he bore on behalf of his people, the disdain of the people who he had come to speak to, the declaration that he was making of the righteousness of God that they'd rejected even to the point of delivering him over to death.

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And you need to consider him. We need to think about the fact that our Saviour has walked a darker and more dreary path than any of us can ever imagine.

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We need to consider him who endured even these things. We need to consider that having endured, he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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We need to consider him as a pattern, yes, as an example of faithful endurance, lest we become weary and discouraged in our souls.

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We need to consider that he has undergone more than any of us ever will and that he triumphed in the end.

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We need to consider that he has said that he will never leave us or forsake us. We need to consider him who can have such sympathy toward us and is able to sustain us.

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Him who, by virtue of these things, makes for us a way into the most holy place and from there intercedes for us that we may stand and be saved at last.

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We must not become then weary and discouraged in our souls. And when that begins, we need to turn back and consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself and in both his example and because of his sustaining grace, find that which will lift up our hearts and our heads and keep us running and fighting and keeping the faith.