Do Not Grow Weary of Discipline — Richard Owen Roberts

Hebrews 12:1–17 and the Call to Endurance

Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse 1, and we'll read through verse 17. Therefore, seeing we also are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your minds. You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is he whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all are partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as they deemed best, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness.

Now, no chastening seems to be joyous for the present, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned from the way, but rather be healed.

Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and by this many be defiled.

Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his words. Well, let's turn our hearts and seek this King. Together tonight, let's pray. Our holy God, we draw near to you through the way which you yourself have opened, and not us.

We have no ladder to climb up to you, no moral code to scrub ourselves clean with. We have no excuses for our sin of our nature or our choice. We have, God, so often failed to give you what you deserve.

We have so often done those very things which you describe as being hateful to you. And yet, God, you have sought out your enemies, and you have provided us everything we need. We read these terrifying warnings in Hebrews, and we feel it within ourselves, God, that we are the kind of people that need those warnings.

We are the kind that are prone to drift. We are the kind that are prone to become hard and not even know it. We are the kind that become dull of hearing and sluggish. And we are the kind who, if we're not careful, would abuse grace and make it a reason for trampling the blood of Christ underfoot, and choosing a life of sin.

But, God, you have not left us the kind of people we are. Lord, you have given us your Son, mighty Christ. We've just sung about Him. The great sight of the God-man enthroned on high as our mediator, our priest, our brother and defender.

Robed again in the glory that belonged to Him before the foundation of the world. Possessing all power and all authority to do all your good pleasure, Father, and to bring every one of His safely home.

Lord, you have given us yourself, a Father, to train us and to discipline us. God, our weak faith, we thank you that you give us such wonderful pictures. Savior, Redeemer, King, Priest, Prophet, and Father.

Lord, we rest ourselves upon your sufficiency. And we ask, God, that you would stir our hearts again tonight with the provision that you've given us, so far above anything that any Old Testament saint ever had.

And, Lord, gratitude would grip us on the thought of having you, you, as our Father. And we, brought from the courtroom into the family room. Oh, God, we ask, may it stir us to not despise those times when you disciplined us.

And, God, to pick up our pace, looking at our brother, and run the race to the glory of our Savior. And, Lord, it's in His name that we ask that you answer our prayers. Amen.

Repentance and Faith as Ongoing Realities

Careless readers and careless listeners hear things such as we have been looking at in the course of this week, and are apprehensive that what is being taught means that salvation is not certain, that a person can be saved and lost.

And, of course, that is the position of multitudes. But it is certainly not what is stated in Hebrews, and not at all what any of us should believe. These warning passages make it clear that repentance as a one-time event is not true repentance.

True repentance is ongoing, day in, day out. We live repentant lives. If a person hangs the whole of their salvation hope upon repentance as something once done, forever accomplished, then, indeed, they're in for a tragic awakening, when it will be too late to do anything differently.

At the same time, these passages make it clear that faith is not a single moment of time when one hears truth and embraces it temporarily, but that saving faith is ongoing, as is true repentance. So what really we are faced with in these passages is that extremely large portion of the church that has hung their entire future upon a single act of repentance and a moment of faith.

And they are truly doomed. But all of you have been well taught by the grace of God in this church and know better. But these warning passages are still of incredible consequence because of the very reasons that we have looked at and will still look at as we continue.

The Three Forms of Personal Discipline

Now, the heart of the passage that we have read tonight deals with the subject of discipline. Discipline is an essential part of the Christian life. The passage focuses both upon personal discipline and the discipline that the Lord himself brings upon the believer.

Both parts are of very great consequence. The personal aspect of discipline, I trust you have your text open, is spelled out in three particular ways. In verse 1, first of all, we are reminded of the discipline of the cloud of witnesses.

That is tremendously consequential. Secondly, we are reminded of the discipline of the runner. How tremendously important in all genuine sporting events discipline is. Our coach here, I'm sure, doesn't want to be coaching students who are completely devoid of discipline.

He knows that undisciplined players are a liability and not an asset. So in a very significant way, personal discipline is mandatory for everyone who is involved in the life of Christ. Without it, your life is a shambles.

Your witness is detrimental to the cause of Christ and your own personal life is a series of ups and downs instead of a straightforward, ever-ascending pattern. So number one, the discipline of the cloud of witnesses.

Number two, the discipline of the runner. And number three, the discipline of the Savior. Beautiful truth here about the self -discipline that Jesus Christ exercised. And his self -discipline, as well as the discipline of the cloud of witnesses, should be for each of us a wonderful encouragement and help.

Then it moves to the discipline of God upon our lives and the very essential role that God's discipline plays in our lives. Now unfortunately, the bulk of the church does not understand the discipline of God.

Some of you came here from other churches. Some of you are involved in other churches currently. Let's think just for a moment of other churches that still have prayer meetings, corporate prayer meetings.

What is the most common request offered in these corporate prayer meetings? Well, the most common request is deliverance from the discipline of the Lord. I have yet for the first time to hear a pastor who is leading the corporate prayer meeting of the church rebuke anyone for putting in a request for relief from the discipline of God.

But they should. No prayer meeting ought ever to be tolerant of requests that the discipline of the Lord be suspended or that a person quickly escape from it. And yet that's mostly what is happening. Some of you have heard the expression descriptive of a local church prayer meeting.

I've had many pastors say to me, our prayer meeting is an organ recital. And what they mean by that is the bulk of the prayer meetings, the bulk of the prayer requests sometimes, all of the prayer requests have to do with physical things.

Sickness. Please pray for Aunt Tilly. She fell and broke her thumb. Please pray for Charles Jones. He's going into the hospital tomorrow for exploratory surgery. My aunt is very ill. Please pray that she will be healed.

The question is, where do these various afflictions come from? A number of years ago at the time of my life when I was regularly in the South among Southern Baptist churches and many times every year involved in conferences on revival with Ron and Patricia Owens, the musicians, and Henry Blackaby, who at that time was the head of the Prayer and Spiritual Awakening Commission.

We were together in a conference in Atlanta and it just seemed as if every conversation that we overheard and every person who spoke to us directly was talking about spiritual warfare. And they were blaming the devil for every adverse thing that happened in their life.

And both Henry and I were deeply distressed and we conferred together concerning how to head off that monstrous error. So the next public session Dr. Blackaby got up and gave a powerful rebuke to people who were blaming Satan for every adversity in their life.

And he said to them, if you credit the devil with every adverse thing that happens to you, where does God have any opportunity to speak to you? In the direct manner of discipline. Now all of us need to have a fresh look at the place of God's discipline in our lives.

And there are some here, no doubt, who have reason to repent of having violated God by asking him to remove something that he deliberately sent for our good. I stated in just giving you the overall summary of the plan for the week.

On Sunday at the church prayer meeting, which of course I've alluded to again this evening, that the church prayer meeting ought never to tolerate request for deliverance as the first order. The prayer ought to be, Lord, don't remove this difficulty from me until I have learned what you intended me to learn from it.

And it ought to be a prayer of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, that you obviously care enough for me to bring this affliction into my life. And if indeed you have been guilty of asking for deliverance before you have learned the intended lesson, by God himself that is cause for true repentance.

So we have this lengthy section about the role of discipline as God sends it to our lives. Then the passage moves to verses 12 and 13, which we will be looking at after a while, where there are times when there is an incredible need of renewal of strength in the facing of the disciplines that come to us.

The passage basically closes by returning again to the issue of self -discipline. And it uses an Old Testament character as a very profound illustration of an undisciplined person whose entire life was a throwaway life because he had no room in his life for personal discipline.

That's the plan that we will follow this evening. Before we focus upon the Hebrews passage, I want to take just a moment to ask you to turn to 1 Peter. Some of you have learned, I'm sure, that a major portion of 1 Peter is devoted to the subject of suffering.

Judgment, Suffering, and the Difficulty of Salvation

And indeed, it is a matter of extraordinarily great consequence. I'll read actually two passages, both brief. But look first, if you will, at 1 Peter chapter 4, starting at verse 17, 1 Peter 4, chapter 17.

For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is with difficulty that the righteous are saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. Now, years ago, before we had the plenitude of modern translations, most of us had and were pretty well stuck with the King James Version.

And I remember, as a young preacher, wrestling with this passage. And I think I can cite it at least, if not precisely, accurately close to it. For in the King James, it says, If the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

And as a young man, preaching several times a week, I felt a call to preach upon that passage. And I struggled for a very long time trying to make sense of what is meant by the words, If the righteous are scarcely saved.

Now, I was astute enough, at least, to know that it was not saying, If the unrighteous are scarcely saved, then where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? But it was saying, If the righteous are scarcely saved.

So I was trying to envision a salvation in which a person was barely or scarcely saved. And I couldn't help but feel that couldn't possibly be what it meant, because surely there's no shortage in the power of God to save thoroughly, abundantly, completely, to the utmost.

And there I was, struggling with this issue. Does that mean that you're saved by the skin of your teeth? That while you get to heaven, you just barely pass through the pearly gate? And what a relief it was for me to discover that what it was saying was, The righteous are saved with great difficulty.

But what is that great difficulty that it is speaking of? The difficulty of salvation was what Christ accomplished. He's the one that paid the great price. It doesn't cost me what it cost Christ to save.

He had to endure the agonies of the cross. He had to bear the abandonment of the Father. He's the one that paid the price. But in the context, it's clear, there is the cost of suffering. Suffering for Christ's sake.

Suffering the disciplines that God himself brings upon us. Now, if believers are having great difficulty enduring the suffering that is part and parcel of sanctification, then the question is asked, What hope is there for the ungodly?

It's a powerful matter to meditate upon and to come to a clear understanding of it. Now, I mention that because the popular teaching of the day is that God loves us and he's not willing to let us suffer.

Now, the whole of that nonsensical movement, the prosperity gospel movement, is built upon the fundamental error that God loves us and is unwilling to let us suffer, either in the realm of physical sickness or in the realm of shortage of money.

Now, they are heretics, if ever the church has seen them. But nonetheless, although the majority of Christians reject the prosperity gospel, many have been influenced by the basic error that's within that movement, that God doesn't ever cause difficulty in our lives.

He's the one who always delivers us from difficulty. But we've got to be realistic. Discipline is required. You must discipline yourself. I must discipline myself. God does discipline you. God does discipline me.

Discipline does not hint, even, that we are displeasing to God. The message of discipline is whom the Lord loves, he chastens. If you are without discipline in your life, you have cause to wonder whether you really are loved by Christ.

The presence of discipline in your life is indeed a wonderful encouragement. But turn back in 1 Peter 2, and let me call another brief passage to your attention. Chapter 2, starting at verse 18. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but to those who are unreasonable, for this finds favor.

If, for the sake of conscience toward God, a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly, for what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if, when you do what is right and you suffer for it, patiently enduring it, this finds favor with God.

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 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth while being reviled.

He did not revile in return while suffering. He uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed, for you were continually straying like sheep.

But now you have returned to the shepherd and the guardian of your soul. It's a crystal clear passage. There are times when we take a beating from others because we've earned it. Many times I've gone back to my hotel room after a meeting and groaned in my spirit because I realized that I may have spoken for an hour and 29 minutes and 30 seconds truth that I would gladly die for and 30 seconds of blubber that undid the 129 1⁄2 minutes by some stupid or foolish or erroneous or mean-spirited statement.

So when I take a beating for having said something out of order in a public meeting, what right do I have to complain? I earned it. You have earned, many, a beating from others. And then most of us are stalwart enough to accept the fact we did a dumb thing and we deserve a good licking for it.

So the question that is asked in that brief reading, what is the merit if when you deserve a beating, you take it? It's when you don't deserve the beating and yet you get it and you take it with good grace and you smile and you make no response.

You attack nobody in return. Then there's some merit in it but then at the heart of the passage that we've just read, you have been called for this purpose. All of us have been called to suffering. Now, most all of us know that at the time we truly come to Christ in faith, we are bent and we know that it is our calling to grow up in the Christian life.

We focused already this week on the passage talking about being on the bottle when we should be capable of handling solid meat. But it's very easy to overlook the fact that our greatest advancement in holiness is most likely to come when we suffer the most in the Christian life.

When we encounter some unexpected difficulty. If I may just speak in a personal vein for a moment. Maggie and I are blessed with only two children. Our son whom some of you know who is a dear guy who works with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship who has a tremendous heart for Christ and his kingdom who has six children.

Then we have a daughter who is severely handicapped. She suffers from one of these incurable brain chemistry problems. While she's in her forties, she acts like she's perhaps eight or nine years of age.

She's a sweet girl. She loves the Lord. But when she first began to provide evidence that there was something grievously wrong, she made a number of very serious attempts at suicide. Those were hard to bear.

She was in high school at the time. She became very erratic in her attendance. She would go off to school on time. But she wouldn't show up. And so she was called in for counseling. And the conclusion was your father is a religious fanatic.

And the best thing that could happen would be for you to be removed from the home and placed with the normal people, which was something of a difficulty for us to bear. Then, one day, she simply disappeared.

And we hadn't the faintest notion where she was, whether she was dead or alive. The police were searching for her. Her mother was in a constant flood of tears. Both of us were in great agony. Eventually, she was found and returned home safely.

Then a Christian man in the public health department looked into her situation and realized the nature of her disease, that she was a schizophrenic. And that her only hope was to be on medication throughout her life.

It was a terribly hard blow. Some of you have gone through similar things. Some of you may yet face in your children or in your grandchildren some of these diseases come on at the age of 15 to 16. Some of you may be facing that.

Suffering as a Means of Growth in Holiness

But I mention that to say that without any question, one of the most profound seasons of personal growth in holiness came to me as a result of our daughter's illness. I had never been aware of the fact, but I was very hard on others.

You may still think I am, but if you had known me then, you would know what I'm talking about. I had perfect health and if I had any physical problems at all, I refused to pay any attention to them. I went on about my daily labors and had total intolerance for anybody who allowed themselves to be troubled by any difficulty whatsoever.

But as a result of what happened with our daughter, I began to realize something of the hardness with which I had dealt with other people. I began to plead with God for an inner change that would not take away the directness of the approach or the plainness of speech, but that would soften me internally so that I spoke in love even if some were offended.

Soon after this event of her disappearance, I had a pastor's meeting where I was to speak about an hour and a half to two hours from our home and had to be there at six in the morning, which meant I had to leave home quite early.

I made the trip. I arrived at the meeting place. There were a lot of pastors there. Not one of them even came and shook my hand. They were all in little huddles and I felt quite absurd having made the trip and having encountered such raw unfriendliness.

After a while they called for breakfast and they rushed to the table and left me standing there. So I found an empty seat with empty seats surrounding me and sat down. About a half an hour into the meal, the door slammed.

A man raced in, sat down beside me and he said to me, put out his hand, shook my hand, told me his name. He said, I'm so sorry. I meant to be here early. Something happened last night. I'm sure you couldn't understand, but our daughter ran away from home.

We've been up all night. The police have been searching for her. They just found her. I'm so sorry to be late. It was appropriate to make a response and I was able to say to him with genuine integrity, I understand better than you realize.

Then the time came to stand before this group of pastors and to open both the word and my heart. They had treated me in a very unfriendly but when I stood before them I was moved tremendously with compassion, thinking, how many of these men are faced with difficulties equal to that of the man who came late and how many of them this morning need to hear a tender word of appeal.

I'm simply reporting God brings into our lives very severe difficulties. We can grow angry with God. We can feel as if God has abandoned us and doesn't really care. Or we can rejoice that he loves us sufficiently to allow the truly difficult things to happen in our lives so that we might make profound advancements in the life of holiness.

I believe the Hebrews warning number five is intended to help us instead of inching along forward in the Christian life to adopt a whole new viewpoint of both self -discipline and the discipline that God sends so that we might rise up like men and women of God and begin to shake this earth by the profoundness of our commitment to Christ, the depth of our confidence in him and the yearning compassion of our heart to see the world impacted by the gospel.

The Cloud of Witnesses and the Cost of Faith

So with those words as introduction let's come along now to the passage in front of us in Hebrews chapter 12 and to give focus to it. As I indicated clearly the passage begins in three realms of self -discipline.

So Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. Therefore we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Now most of you I hope recognize that those words are the summary of the lessons that we are to have learned from the eleventh chapter.

And perhaps you have already done this, but if you have not, use your imagination a wee bit. Imagine us now instead of this auditorium, imagine that we're gathered together in one of these huge European cathedrals.

And there are several layers of balconies in this cathedral. But at the very top there is a balcony that goes around the entire auditorium. And as you study the faces in that uppermost balcony you say to yourself that looks like why I believe it is.

It must be. There's Moses. And then why I wonder if that's not Abraham. I never saw Noah, but surely that looks like Noah. And you realize that all around you in that uppermost gallery is this incredible cloud of witnesses.

And they are telling us that the life of faith is worth the cost of the journey. They're bearing witness of the fact that faith does indeed mean salvation. All of those mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 paid an awful price.

Put yourself in those shoes. Can you imagine living in Noah's day and receiving a command from the Lord to build an ark. And you're in the middle of a dry plain. And nowhere anywhere around you is enough water to float a canoe, let alone an ark.

And yet it is your command to build the ark by precise instructions. And so you get busy. And your neighbors and your supposed friends come around and ask, and what do you think you're doing? And they smile.

But as this huge boat begins to take shape, their smiles turn to laughter of scorn and verbal ridicule. You are made to look like an absolute idiot. You've got to be out of your mind. You'll never float that thing.

This is ridiculous. How can you be such an idiot? And for 120 years, you labor on. You try to bear witness to your neighbors, but they just laugh at you. It cost Noah to be in that gallery of witnesses testifying to us tonight.

That self -discipline is important and does carry with it a very great reward. You know as well as I do that it takes an immense amount of self -discipline to stick with the task of that magnitude and to accomplish it against such mean-spirited and violent taunting and jeer.

And we know about Abraham, how he was called to leave his home and to go to a place where he knew not. We know something of the difficulties that he encountered. And then, having at last received the son of promise, he is commanded to take that son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice.

And we have a pretty good ability to imagine how that cost Abraham and the incredible strain upon his confidence in God. And yet, is it not both remarkable and wonderful that he went through with that command and did precisely what was told and is now in the gallery of witnesses?

How many of us have the level of self -discipline that Abraham had? Well, you see, the point is that's what God is calling each of us to. Don't for one moment think the life of faith is a breeze, a matter of ease.

No! It is a life of incredible difficulty. It is costly. But when you have met Christ and have fallen in love with Him, no price is too great to pay. Or, if you will, think about Moses found in that basket among the rushes in the river, brought into Pharaoh's household.

And then, through a call of God upon his life, he leaves the luxurious life of the palace. He leaves the riches and the fame and the pleasures of Egypt. And he follows Christ. He meets the commands that God gives him.

And by self -discipline, no, he was not perfect in self -discipline. Perfection is not the issue. Pressing forward time after time, no matter how high the difficulty, no matter how low the circumstances in your life, on and on and on you go.

And when you fall flat on your face, because you are disciplined, you immediately get up, brush yourself off, and get moving again. But all around us are countless Christians who fall and remain there in self-loathing and criticism and feel sorry for themselves and raise questions about God.

How would he let these awful circumstances occur? You could work your way through the entirety of Hebrews chapter 11 and face the issues that each of the persons named there faced and come away with this same conviction.

These words must be noted in Hebrews chapter 11. What more shall I say? Verse 32. Time would fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed gifts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.

From weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.

And others experienced markings and scourgings, yea, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were temp I mean, sawn in two? Can you imagine now? A big saw placed at the center of the top of your head, and your body cut in two, right down the center.

Every person mentioned in Hebrews 11 exercised self -discipline. To talk about being a serious Christian, and not to learn self -discipline, and to stick with it, is to speak in a nonsensical fashion.

The Runner Must Lay Aside Every Encumbrance

So the cloud of witnesses, the second part, as I pointed out to you, the runner. Let us, verse 1 again, also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Surely, a powerful picture of self -discipline. How could anybody hope to win a race who allowed themselves to grow flabby? Who did not diligently prepare themselves for that race? Who thought that the great value of a race was to enter?

What an absurd thought. No! The value of a race is to win, and if you can't win, at least to finish. And if you end up as the last one to finish, it's still better than starting and stopping. The self -discipline of the Christian life calls for the forceful action that it takes to be successful in sports.

Two things are specifically called for of the runner. To lay aside every encumbrance. Some of us don't get very far in the race of life because there are so many encumbrances in our lives. We're willing to serve Christ providing we don't have to sacrifice this or forsake that.

As I mentioned the other day, often persons obedience is conditional obedience. I'll do it if. But no, if you're going to run the Christian race, if you're going to be a winner, then you're going to have to lay aside everything that will slow you down.

Everything that will keep you from finishing well. An attachment to earthly goods may be a problem. A devotion to tennis or golf might be an encumbrance for you. No one else is in a position to tell you what encumbrances stand in your way of success in running the race of the Christian life.

The issue is, will you lay aside every encumbrance? And to talk about being a serious Christian and to be unwilling to get rid of the liabilities in your life is absurd. Now why are people willing to sacrifice greatly in order to win a race?

Well, for far lesser reasons than the Christian has for laying aside encumbrances, I personally cannot think of anything more desirable and pleasurable than bringing glory to the Savior. If by God's grace I can finish the race of my life, my great goal is not heaven.

Frankly, I'm not even interested in streets of gold. I fall down on cement that fell down in our warehouse a couple of weeks ago and lay sprawled out on the floor saying, I wonder if I'll even be able to get up.

And then managed finally to do so and was glad that nothing was broken, but I had some mighty big bruises. Walking on streets of gold does not excite me. I know God could make non-slip gold if He chose, but still I don't find that any great incentive, but the possibility of seeing a smile on my Savior's face, of hearing Him say, well done, makes me want to lay aside every encumbrance that hinders me from running the race.

And the call is also to lay aside the sins that easily beset us. There are besetting sins. There are multitudes of Christians who make no progress because they do not have the discipline necessary to lay aside the sins that beset them.

Jesus Christ as the Perfect Example of Self-Discipline

The third portion of this self discipline passage has to do with Christ. Starting at verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set 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 may not grow weary and lose heart. It's wonderful to have the example of Moses and Noah and Abraham and that other wonderful assortment of witnesses in that cloud.

But better than all of those is Christ Himself. If you're struggling with the issue of self -discipline, focus your eyes on Christ. Do you think it was easy for Christ? Have you really considered what it cost Him to provide salvation for you?

Some very powerful statements are in the portion we just read. He endured the cross. He despised the shame. I have met many people over the years who have simply given up because living for Christ brought shame to them.