Straight Steps for Saints

If you have a copy of God’s Word, please turn to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Again, just publicly thank Rev. Wagner for preaching last Lord’s Day in my absence. I trust it was of help to you.

Hebrews 12. We continue our series in Hebrews, making her way, slowly but surely. We have entered into a section that is perhaps one of the most key portions in understanding afflictions and understanding our Father’s loving discipline that is behind those afflictions.

We come now to a couple of verses where there is strong and direct exhortation to endure, which has been the word I keep using, the importance of enduring. It’s in the passage, so we keep pressing that. And as you endure, it calls certain responsibility to you. In order to endure, there’s exhortation. If you want to endure, here’s what you need to do. And if you do this, not only will it be part of what God uses in sustaining you, but it’s going to be a blessing to others. It’s going to be used in the life of others as well.

So verses 12 and 13 will be our focus, but we’re going to read from verse one. So let’s read Hebrews 12, verse one and following. Let’s hear the word of the Lord.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 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 that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure 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 are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”

Amen. I trust the Lord will bless the reading of His Word. And what you’ve heard is the Word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen. Let’s pray.

Lord, give us now ears to hear. What a difference it makes when the Spirit of God opens our understanding to the Word. What a difference when our natural slothfulness is overcome by the life-giving strength and energy of the Spirit that we might attend like Lydia to the things that are spoken. That which is true, utter today, let it have lasting impact. Let it bring forth lasting fruit. That which may be erroneous, not according to thy will, gladly we resign to be as chaff in the wind. But we pray now that the Spirit of God might come. Fall upon us, O God. We invite, we beseech, we call upon the Spirit of God that much of Christ may be made that He would be beheld. Our hearts will be moved more toward Him and conformed in more likeness to Him. Come in power, save, restore, feed, and nourish the souls of all of us here, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Weariness is a real experience. It drains our strength. That’s universally the case. There’s no one immune, no one who escapes these realities. And in times of affliction, walking straight becomes a task. Indeed, indeed, it can seem impossible. To really walk, to continue forward bearing the weight of a trial can seem impossible.

Now, if you have gone through such a trial, a trial of such weight where you feel crushed, then you will understand what I’m saying. This pressure was upon at least some, if not many of the Hebrews. Going back in what we’ve covered, we know they already had dealt with reproach, loss, and there is a temptation to quit for all sorts of reasons that we’ve covered many times. Just the threat and the pressure, the feeling of isolation from family, the persecution for believing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah promised and hoped for, the material loss, the frustration.

And sometimes you have to sort of put yourself into the scenario where it’s like Job’s experience with his wife, where he knows what is right and he’s trusting God, but because of the pressure and because of what’s going on, even your longtime trustworthy spouse is starting to speak in a way that is actually discouraging and dissuading you in the path that is right. So much there that is true in the world. When pressures come, everything was fine. Job’s wife, for example, was not putting pressure to abandon his faith when things were going well. It’s the pressure of the affliction.

But the Father’s chastening, as we have been learning, is what is producing the peaceable fruit of righteousness, but it’s not being produced without pain. And so when you come to verse 12, it begins, “Wherefore, wherefore?” God’s discipline, his fatherly instruction is aiming at your holiness, but it brings pain. And here’s what you need to do. Here’s what you must do in the pain.

The charge that is given in verses 12 and 13 certainly is drawing from Isaiah 35. And I want you to turn there for a moment just to see, because at times when there are either allusions or direct quotations from the Old Testament, you must understand that when the text is spoken that the context also ought to be in view.

And so in Isaiah 35, the prophet here is speaking of a coming day, and really the chapter bridges from the first coming of the Messiah to the second coming of the Messiah. You have this active, ongoing, progressive blessing of the Messiah’s work and His rule and His reign. I’m going to read from verse 1. It refers here to even the wilderness and the solitary place are glad for the people of God. They’re glad for the people of God because of what’s coming upon the people of God has a benefit even to the wilderness and the solitary place. So, let’s read from verse 1.

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon: it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

It’s tremendous encouragement to the effect and influence of Messiah in His work, coming in His first coming, right through to the experience, the lasting impact, even eternally, upon the people of God. And it’s from this section, from this portion, that the Apostle draws when we come to Hebrews 12, verse 12. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.”

So, I want you to keep that in mind, because these believers, again, are being encouraged to point back that what they’re going through is under God, and the encouragement they need can come from even Old Testament passages that signify that in the coming of the Messiah, though there be great hardship and a context of great difficulty, that God will come and bring deliverance.

Now, the specific emphasis, of course, for example, that you see there in verse 4 of Isaiah 35, I’ll just read it to you, that “God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.” It’s showing that there’s opposition, there’s attack, there’s discouragement, there’s pushback. And God is going to come and help. And there are people discouraged. Now, in Isaiah’s day, that was true. They were discouraged. And they’re giving this hope of God coming. He is going to come. And the language then given points to that day when Messiah would come and cause all these blessings to flow, leading into even the eternal state and the blessing that is laid up for the people of God. But here’s the point: Divine intervention is assured.

The encouragement to these enfeebled believers is that God will come. Now, the language, as you have it explicitly there in Hebrews 12 verse 12, is of an exhortative framing. It’s, don’t quit. Keep going. And the context again, of course, is Christ Himself, He has walked this path, He has gone before, and He presses them with urgency, language that is calling the believers to be decisive in ongoing obedience. Don’t give up now. Don’t quit.

You may feel paralyzed by what you’re going through. You may sense what it is to be disheartened and discouraged. Your morale has taken a hit, but here is the remedy. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet.”

So, child of God, the word to you is keep going. And we want to see how we’re encouraged to keep going from the language that is before us today.

Straight steps for weary saints, that’s the title, straight steps for weary saints. And we’re going to see three primary heads, that which deals with strengthening and straightening and safeguarding. Strengthening, straightening, and safeguarding.

Verse 12, you see the strengthening. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” The force of the grammar, its construction, is calling those Hebrews to do something for themselves. It’s not focused upon them lifting the hands of others, but their own. Lift up, that’s the sense. It’s not put in that language. It’s not, “Wherefore lift up your hands which hang down,” but that’s the sense of it. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down.” Here’s what you need to do. “Strengthen the feeble knees.”

But the question of course comes, how? How am I going to do that?

So in this strengthening, there are a couple of things. First, dependence on God’s grace. Dependence on God’s grace. When it says, “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees,” there has to be a recognition of the grace of God to enable us to do this. The verb to lift up, as it’s put there, is in the aorist imperative. So it’s calling for a decisive act. It’s telling us, here’s what you must do. These are the same limbs that are described in verse 1. “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Use those limbs, moving forward in the Christian race, going patiently in a forward trajectory.

But as the apostle looks upon them, he can see from the body language that the limbs are weakening. The arms, because of their posture and where they’re being held, are showing fatigue. So this is why it’s relevant for us to understand where he’s drawing from in Isaiah 35, because when that is given, when the prophet is saying, if I just go back and read it, “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them,” the next verse tells us how they are to be strengthened. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come.”

Your God will come. You’re not on your own in this race. You’re not fighting this battle independently. You eradicate fear not by just saying, I’m going to be courageous, but by filling your mind with what God has promised to you. He is going to come.

So that’s important, I think, so that we don’t misunderstand and just read this text as hammering you with duty without a sense of how in order to fulfill it. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” The apostle drawing from Isaiah, this is how it’s done. Encouraging people. Behold your God.

Does that sound familiar? It should. Verse 2, “looking unto Jesus.” That’s how the prophet or the apostle began the argument. I made that point. Now before you get to what he is exhorting and how he’s applying, he is telling them you need to look to Jesus Christ. And the prophet did the same thing. In encouraging the weakness and the fragility of the believers, he encourages them, behold your God, fear not, behold your God. And that’s what the apostle has done, looking unto Jesus. That’s the key. You can’t disconnect it. He’s not just saying to them, lift up the hands which hang down. He’s not just giving them some command severed from the looking unto Jesus.

Now that’s, again, key. It’s really key. Because if you isolate verse 12 and verse 13 and you just layer on the command, then you go away just gritting your teeth, and when we come to the final prayer, you say, Lord, just help me to try harder. And that’s not the prayer. Help me to keep looking to Jesus. Impart to me the grace you have promised through your Son.

These believers needed to understand that what they were going through was being used by their heavenly Father as gracious discipline. He is teaching them. And their Savior, the Lord Jesus, had already carved the path before them. He’d endured the cross. That’s the model.

And how did He do that? I mean, how did our Lord Jesus do it? How did He overcome the physical weakness? How did He continue to the very end and to the cross? How did He do that? The little clause, we go back to Hebrews 9 verse 14. Don’t ignore this, because it’s just mentioned, but it is packed full of significance. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,” through or by, with the enablement of, with the endurement of, with the strength of? That’s how he did it.

Our Lord Jesus, who trudged through all the attacks and the onslaught of opposition that came His way, as He set His face as a flint to go to Jerusalem, understanding what He needed to endure, having some comprehension of all that was awaiting Him, knowing and telling His disciples that He is going to suffer many things at the hands of evil men. He goes there and he is sustained by the Spirit.

Now, he is brought to a point where you think of what he experienced. You know, he’s had a sleepless night where he’s been mistreated, beaten. I mean, they punched him and they beat him there, the religious leaders, after they arrested him. They throw all their questions and bring the witnesses to try to accuse him for this, that, and the other. And they’re punching him, asking him to prophesy. Who did it? Prove yourself. That goes on all night, until finally he’s dragged out in the morning, brought before Pilate, where eventually, through the scrutiny of Pilate, he ends up being scourged. An act which, on its own, resulted in many of its victims dying. Who didn’t have the sleepless night, didn’t have all the abuse that led up to it, didn’t have the agony of Gethsemane.

Our Lord Jesus endured all of that leading up to a scourging that often resulted in the death of people. And then he was told to bear his cross and make his way out of the city. And even there, he didn’t give up. He kept stepping, but such was the feebleness of his frame. The Roman soldiers probably thinking, if we keep going at this rate, it’s going to take all day. They point to a man, Simon, call him over, help this man.

Our Lord was broken in body, utterly broken. And yet, those hands, which as it were, were on the cusp of hanging down, those knees, which were about to buckle, kept inching forward to save your soul. He endured the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is what we are to keep in mind when we read the exhortation given to us in verse 12.

Discouragement is not neutral. To let your hands hang down is to neglect the very duties that faith requires. You are to have a resolved trust in God and to continue doing deeds of love to your neighbor no matter how weak you feel. That was Christ, resolved trust, a breaking point, and still love to His neighbor, love to you, love to me.

It’s weird to take that example, which has all been laid out before us before we come to verse 12. And if we take the discouragement we’re going through as an excuse to let our hands hang down, we say, well, I’m going through all this, I’m gonna let my hands hang down. We do a disservice to ourselves and to others.

We can sometimes treat discouragement as a reason to be pitied. But Paul sees the discouragement and he corrects it. He doesn’t let it linger. He doesn’t allow it to marinate. He doesn’t let it go on unchecked. He sees the discouragement, or if it were, as it were, the outward fruit of the discouragement. The hands are hanging low. And he checks it. He doesn’t let them just wallow in self-pity about what they’re going through. He says, no! Lift up the hands which hang down.

Passivity, when weary, is sinful. Taking a passive posture, leaning into a carelessness, a spiritual slothfulness, is sinful. And in a culture, beloved, listen, in a culture which trumpets a form of self-care that circumvents responsibility, the apostle calls you to duty.

So when we’re discouraged we are not to retreat into self, we are to give ourselves afresh to the provision of God’s grace, looking unto Jesus. We’re going to look there. When I see Jesus bearing the cross after all that he experienced and going to Calvary where he’s going to be crucified, do I have provision? Is there provision for me to wallow in self-pity about what is going on in my life? And the answer to that is resounding, absolutely not.

So there’s dependence on God’s grace. The grace that sustained Christ will sustain you. There’s also diligence in service, diligence in service.

The knees, of course, are key, aren’t they? The knees may buckle, and then you fall. But when you read the construction here in the original, “lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,” it’s in the perfect passive. Perfect meaning it’s something that’s happened and is still prevalent, still there. And in the passive, it’s something that has been acted upon them. So the feeble knees is a way, the construction of it is to depict this sense of the pressure of the affliction.

In some way, if you can follow me here, the apostle understands that the weight that is on, and why the knees are feeble, something has been layered on you, piled on you. He doesn’t ignore it. He sees it. He recognizes it. He acknowledges it. And these feeble knees, they’ve been made feeble by something that’s happened to them.

Now, you know this feeling. When everything’s going well, you feel strong, you feel invincible. Trials press on and things don’t go according to plan. And you begin to feel the weakness. Knees of course are crucial for movement. They are to run, “let us run with patience the race.” You’re not going to do much running if your knees give way. So they need to be strengthened. These feeble knees cannot be permitted to continue this way because it jeopardizes the calling. It jeopardizes what you’re meant to be doing.

So we are to understand then there’s a diligence that’s called upon here, that we are to keep going forward, and how are they going forward? Well, it’s not just, the Christian life is not just going forward in the sense of, I keep existing until the Lord takes me home. There’s more to it than that. Forward movement is forward movement in service. The Christian is always looking to serve in some way, to be an encourager and to contribute something to the kingdom, to render to the Lord that which is due in praises and in service.

And so you can’t be moving forward by doing nothing. There’s a sense in which forward movement implies a sense of ongoing service in various ways, as you are given opportunity and you have ability. And so we’re exhorted in Romans 12 to not be slothful in business, to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Slothfulness or lack of fervency will hinder the service to the Lord, service that is rendered unto the Lord or in the name of the Lord for the glory of the Lord. And so we are to learn again the importance of keep going on, keep pushing forward.

The running the race is running the race as we speak the gospel to people, and do deeds of kindness to others, and serve our brothers and sisters, and do our duty to our family, and so on and so forth. It’s not just, I’m going to exist until the Lord takes me home. That’s what everyone does. Everyone exists until the Lord takes them. But running the race is believing in that belief active, being seen actively.

So the temptation, and this is important, because the temptation you have when you’re discouraged is to sit back and to pull back. Now, circumstances can be such that things change that force you to pull back on things, and that is legitimate. But there’s a difference between legitimate pulling back in order to do something else, that providence is saying, this is what’s important in this season of life, and willingly pulling back just to take a break, as it were. And we need to assess it in our own hearts before God what it is that we are doing.

The double image here that we have of hands and knees summons a whole self-resolve. The exhortation, again, the structure of the grammar here is exhorting them. Lift up the hands which hang down. There’s no option here. There’s no wiggle room. This is what you must do. Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees.

So we are to confess our discouragement if it has resulted in pulling back. We are to reject the feelings of self-pity. We are to renew our resolve before God to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, Ephesians 6.10.

If you take time to go and read the confession, Westminster Confession, Chapter 18, Paragraph 3, you will see how our assurance is in some ways connected to our ongoing obedience to the Lord. You see how it’s brought together carefully and scripturally there, and I think it’s important for us to see that. If we want to know what it is to be a child of God and living in the joy of the Lord, there is a call to obedience. But it’s not just empty obedience where we’re just trying our best. It is going back to verse two, it’s looking to Jesus, it’s seeing him endure, it’s having our hearts filled by what he has done, it is beholding your God, in the language of Isaiah 35, and that motivates you, that carries you forward. That is a source of your strength. And the Holy Spirit will come to you and help you in this.

So there’s strengthening. There’s also straightening. Straightening, verse 13. “Make straight paths for your feet,” or even paths, if you have a margin. Even paths. Straightening.

What is a straightening? Well, it’s patterned after Christ’s steps, isn’t it? Many see the apostle drawing here from Proverbs 4.26, and that may be the case. If you go to Proverbs 4, you may wish to turn there. I’ll read from verse 25. It was interesting as I turned there and I was reading over it, and just looking at the language, Proverbs 4.25 says, “‘Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.’”

So what Solomon does is he addresses the eyes first, and then he addresses the feet. Let thine eyes look right on. Ponder the path of thy feet. And so there’s a sense in which that’s what Paul has done in this chapter, hasn’t he? He first addressed the eye, didn’t he? Look unto Jesus. And now he’s saying, look at your path. Look at your path.

Because if you look at Jesus, you see his path. “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.” You look to him, your eyes behold that, see that, and then you look at your own path and you ask, am I walking as he walked?

This is how we make sure that our path is the way it ought to be, to be straight or even. Straight paths. Make straight paths. Make. What does it mean? In the present imperative. Keep on making. Keep on making. You just don’t set a path and then chart a course and you’re always there. You have to keep on making. You have to keep making adjustments. All right? You don’t get to have a Tesla self-driving Christianity, right? You’re not gonna get that. You’re constantly making. Keep on making. Straightening. Evening.

The word paths here has the idea of what you see with the ruts of wheels, of wagons, they carve a certain path there. Make these straight ruts, as it were, these even ruts. And so when you think about that, you’re carving a path, in one sense you ask yourself, well, am I carving a new path? Am I carving my own path? Am I making my own way in the world? No, that’s not the idea. Again, you’re looking to Jesus. He has already gone before you. He has carved those ruts, as it were, especially in the context of dealing with affliction, dealing with hardship, dealing with difficult providence. He has carved that path. He has endured the cross, and you’re to just keep on in that path.

Oh, how many of our sorrows would be diminished or eradicated if we would just keep this in mind. When Peter writes in 1 Peter 2, verse 21, he says, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example.” See how there is both their substitution and the example of the believer? He suffered for us. He stood in our place. He bore the guilt. He was made a curse for us. Our sins were laid on Him. But also leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.

So the straightening is patterned after Christ’s steps. Make straight paths for your feet. You don’t just make it up. You don’t invent it. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That’s the objective. I’ve said it many times, people trying to figure out what’s God’s will for my life. And I understand, I understand that. I’m trying to figure out in some challenging seasons what is God’s will for me right here. And in some cases it may be obvious because one option may be completely wrong or many options may be sinful and one option is legitimate. This is your only option, take this option. Sometimes that’s the case. But those are the easier ones. There are other times where there’s legitimate paths before you and you’re not sure what to do.

I’ve said this before, I say it again, it bears repeating because you forget it and I forget it. The objective of the Christian, as I’ve said many times, stay in the shadow of the shepherd. Too often we’re looking at the decision, trying to figure out the decision, and as we’re doing that, we’re actually neglecting what we’re meant to be doing as believers. We’re taking our eyes off Christ. And so we’re trying to make this decision, but we’re not in prayer, not reading the Word, we’re not worshipping, we’re neglecting means of grace.

And this is why Lloyd-Jones, people come to that great 20th century preacher – he had this opinion, probably wouldn’t go down, it probably wasn’t appreciated in his day, it was even less so in our day, but when people would come seeking counsel from him, like, I need to talk to you, I have this thing, this decision, I need counsel. And he’d be aware of their tardy or inconsistent attendance at church. And he would address that first. “Attend all the meetings.” And they had two services on the Lord’s Day like we do. They had their midweek meeting. I think they also had a Friday night meeting as well. His point was basically, get under the public preaching of the word, the worship of God, get under that. And if in a month you still have the problem, let me know. Because he believed that God would address through his word. And the serious mind who says that the problem is resolved not by a man, but by God. There is God I need in this. It’s my eye upon him that I need. That so much clarity descends.

God puts this mist around people who ignore him. They can’t see. They don’t make the right decision. They don’t know what to do because they’re ignoring the one who carves the path for his people. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” In other words, give yourself entirely to God in all the ways that you can, and you’ll find that the mist begins to dissipate.

Make, keep on making straight paths for your feet. Keep following Christ, but also prepare to do the Father’s will. Not only patterned after Christ’s steps, but prepared to do the Father’s will. “Make straight paths for your feet,” your feet. Feet mark direction, don’t they? And direction decides its destination. And believer, you must look at your feet. Where are they? Where are my feet now? Are they where they should be? Before you’re taking steps forward and making decisions in life, you need to see, where are my feet? Are they planted firmly in the will of God? Are my feet on the Word?

This is where I am this morning. I am on this Word. Right square, four square on this Word. And every step I take, I want it to be in accordance with His Word. That’s the Father’s will. That’s what Christ did. That’s how He fulfilled and procured your redemption. That’s how He saved you, by doing the Father’s will. The offering of himself. And so this is the example that is for us.

And so you need to be looking at your feet and asking yourself, am I allowing my feet to stand in little things that are damaging me? Am I standing in forms of entertainment? Am I standing in friendships? Am I standing in schedules and secret thoughts and allowing other things that come where my feet do not belong? The Father’s will says, you don’t belong there. Get out.

It is good to remember that straight paths are the product of a surrendered will. Straight paths are the product of a surrendered will. That’s how Jesus carved the straight path. He surrendered his will to the Father’s will, “do his will, obey his commandments.” Everything he sought always to please him was his own expression. And when you do that, then the paths will be straight as it was for Jesus. If you have twisted thoughts, it will lead to twisted paths. Even in how you think, I mean, this whole passage is addressing how we think about God, isn’t it? We’re seeing the persecution, we’re seeing the difficulty, and we think, God has forsaken us, God has abandoned us, and that’s a twisted thought. But he is straightening out. If you believe that persecution means God has abandoned you, your steps will falter. If you imagine suffering is always punishment and not, at times, fatherly discipline, you will turn aside.

And so make sure you’re being fed from God’s Word. You have to reject the cultural narratives that so often are at play in our world, victimhood and feeding the self, therapy without God’s truth and so on. So the way this is instructed, or constructed rather, “make straight paths for your feet.” This is encouraging us then in a straight way. It requires long obedience. And it’s fulfilled by simply going back to the well-known verse where Jesus told you, “I am the way.” I am the way. So how do you do that? How do you straight paths your feet? Jesus is the way.

Then safeguarding, finally safeguarding. The last part of verse 13. “Lest, here’s a concern.” So you have something to do, you have to get yourself where you need to be, “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” Concern, there’s fear, there’s a legitimate worry that that which is lame be turned out of the way.

So again, the language shifts from self-exhortation to a sense of, it’s still self-exhortation, but it comes with a sense of corporate responsibility. It’s turning from directing the exhortation to self to the implication to the corporate body, that you need to do this for fear that that which is lame may be turned out of the way. You’ll have an impact on others, a negative impact on others, those who are lame. And so the crooked rut that you carve out becomes a track that a brother who’s limping falls into and is detrimental to.

And we live in a day where everything’s individualized and I’m going to do it because it’s what I believe and what I think. And we kind of privatize our faith. And it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks or whatever. I’m going to do my way and do what I want. And the apostle speaks bluntly to that. No, no, no, no, no. Your decisions, which result in your actions, have an impact on other people, and some of them are lame, and you’re gonna have a negative impact on them.

So your pace and your progress in the Christian life has an impact on others. If it’s good, it’s gonna be positive. If it’s negative, then it’s gonna be negative. So there is then here a protection for the weak, “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” Protection for the weak. Believers must walk straight, not only for self, but for the sake of the struggling believer.

You think about it. When you’re, when you’re in some, in proximity to danger, I’m just coming up with this. So a bear’s coming after you, right? You don’t say to yourself, well, I’ll just stick out my arm and let the bear chew my arm, and then the rest of me will be fine. I can escape, I’ll be fine. You don’t think that way. You think holistically. You think, I don’t want any bear latching onto any part of me, right? You think of the self, the whole. The whole body must be preserved.

And too many believers, that’s kind of the way they think. As long as I’m fine and I’m safe, then that’s all that matters. But the church is a body. We are members of a body. And we might say, well, I’m not the arm, so I’m going to stick out the arm and let the arm be chewed. It’s not going to affect me. That’s not the mind of the Christian.

So we’re to protect the weak, that which is vulnerable. And so this affects all sorts of things. I’m gonna quickly run through a number of matters just to feed your thoughts for your own meditation. The various ways in which we can cause the lame to be turned out of the way. I mean, that’s an awful thing to think about that. You have lame people and they’re turned out of the way. I dread to think of the discovery of ways in which I may have in some way impacted the lame to encourage them out of the way. I’d rather think of it.

Harsh, careless speech. Sarcasm, gossip, belittling comments that are said, quote unquote, in jest. Crushing a tender conscience with the things that we say.

Treating worship lightly. Neglecting the Lord’s Day. I remember saying to some of the young people in Calgary, of course your congregation there that was, for years it was 20 people, or even less, maybe about 15 people, and most of them were all retired. And the young people start coming in, I would say to them, because sometimes they were a little, they weren’t always there. Some of them were not always there at every Lord’s Day service. I said to them, look, you have really low-hanging fruit to be an encourager here. This is really low-hanging fruit. Just show up. Because these saints, for years, all they have looked about is gray heads. That’s all they’ve seen in the church. And just your presence fills them with gratitude and thanksgiving to God. You’re an encourager just by being here. This is low-hanging fruit, just show up.

But when we don’t show up, it’s not just the lack of encouragement we give to those who are more consistent and disciplined. It is the example we set then for others. We want people to believe that we’re godly and we’re sincere. But here’s the Godly and Sincere. You’re making yourself out to be Godly and Sincere, and then you don’t show up. It basically says the Godly and Sincere can check out.

Indulging in liberties without love. It’s basically Rev. Wagner’s sermon last Lord’s Day morning. No regard to the conscience of others.

Bitterness and unforgiveness, holding grudges, cold shoulders, unresolved conflict, impatience in our counsel, dismissing their doubts and questions, because we forget what it’s like to be weaker, to be halt, to be lame. We forget that. As we look at young people, and sometimes the older generation can use real harsh language about them because we didn’t do that when we were their age. But there may be other things. They have very selective memories. So we’re impatient with them.

Neglecting the weak. Not being perceptive to their suffering, to their grief, to their isolation.

Complaining under trial, making excuse for it, grumbling against God’s providence, teaching the weak, what? That God is not sovereign. He doesn’t care for his people. Your actions may inflict more harm than the bruised reed and the smoking flax. You converts, struggling saints, tempted souls, the way you speak, your hold, all of your life, all of it is communicating something that either leads to looking unto Jesus or away from him. This is for us all.

“Support the weak, be patient toward all men.” 1 Thessalonians 5. There’s also the purpose of healing, not only protection for the weak, the purpose of healing. “But let it rather be healed.” Let it be healed.

So, there’s a call here where healing can be expected and anticipated through your life, through your obedience, through your pursuit of Christ. Isn’t it amazing that the way I help others isn’t always just by direct help? There is that place for sure. But as I keep my gaze on Christ and follow him in all his ways, there is a knock-on effect of encouragement to other people. And that means that you can be an encourager even without necessarily always knowing it. That you’re just the outflow of your life, of the Spirit moving in you, will bring healing to others.

Go back to what I said, mentioning the text I took last Lord’s Day, “death and life are in the power of the tongue,” just even there. That you can either be a physician or an executioner with the little member, healing people, or inflicting more wounds. The culture of the church, the spirit of the church is to heal one another. Let us heal one another. That which is lame, that which is halt, tempted to turn out of the way, let us follow these straight paths. Let us lift up our hands, let’s strengthen our knees, so that that which is lame, instead of being turned out of the way, is healed. That’s what we want, the weak healed.

So as we close, go back to Isaiah 35 in your mind. The prophet saw this day, God revealed him this day, that through the work of the Messiah, the lame are going to leap, the blind are going to see, the ransomed are going to return with songs. And we’re in that in an already not yet sort of way. There is the work of Christ now.

Think about it. What are you spiritually without Christ? You’re lame, you’re halt, you’re blind. And what does he do? He gives sight to the blind, he strengthens the weak, enables them to walk to the glory of God, and that’s what you’re enjoying, by his grace. And so the prophet sees this day, and we are now living in that day that he saw. We are enjoying the reward of Christ’s sufferings, as it were, that having made atonement by his sacrifice. You’re healed, and you have a new man in Christ, and you’re able to walk by His grace in newness of life.

And so even through the afflictions and the trials, we’re able to discern that these things, these hardships are just these light afflictions, which are but for a moment. Oh, what perspective it gives to us, because we see it in Christ. But He endured all the suffering. How then can I estimate my own sufferings? That they are light afflictions because I see what Christ endured. I see His suffering and be made a curse for me. They are light afflictions and they are but for a moment.

And I communicate that to the body. My whole attitude and frame, and young believers, our own children see that, they see this spiritual strength, this Christ-given tenacity, because again, it’s not in your character, it is through Him. Behold your God. He will come. And in your affliction, believer, hear me now, in your current affliction, behold your God, He will come. Do you believe it? He will come.

Oh, may God help us to see Him. Let’s bow together in prayer.

Are you saved? Are you born again of the Spirit? You assess your life, does it look like the Christian life? Who holds the reins of your will? Is it God or is it you? Who dictates in the decisions you make? Is it His word? Or you’re playing fast and loose with what the Christian life is all about. Are you always arguing for a leniency towards yourself, making the Christian life as easy and convenient as possible? If that is your tendency, you may not even be saved.

Seek Christ, he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. His death is for the weakest, his death is for the guiltiest. If you trust him today, he will save you and wash away all your sins.

Lord, we pray, bless thy word. We ask that thou wilt help us. Deliver us from weakness. The kind of weakness that is not what you call us to. Certainly there is a weakness we are to understand. That thy strength would be made perfect in our weakness. But we don’t want the kind of spiritual weakness that is not only detrimental to ourselves, but jeopardizes the life of others. For the sake, therefore, of our children, the believers that we live and serve with, our wider community, and the glory of God in the church, we pray, keep our eyes fixed on Christ. May we draw from Him the strength we need. May the power of the Spirit so inflame our hearts with spiritual enablement. that we walk in these even and straight paths that keep us fixed on our Saviour.

Hear our prayers and keep Thy Word abiding in our own hearts. Drive away the fowls of the air, we would seek to steal it even in this moment. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God now and evermore. Amen.