When You Feel Like Quitting

Hebrews 12 is where we are. I come to consider verse 3 this morning with the Lord’s help. My hope as we consider God’s Word, at the very least that you will understand as you leave here this morning the importance of how being intentional, or I might say more to the point, intentionally thoughtful about Christ and His sufferings, it leads to a more robust and steadfast Christian life.

So it’s not just that you profess to be a Christian, but an intentionally thoughtful manner of consideration of Christ, and that leads to more of a robust spirituality and a steadfastness in how you live the Christian life. So if you want to be stronger, you want to be more faithful and more resolved and more steadfast, then this text has truth for you and for me.

Hebrews 12. Verse 1: “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.”

Amen. We’ll end the reading there at the fourth verse once again. And what you have heard is the eternal word of the living God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen. Let’s pray.

Father, please help us. Thou knowest that man does not inherently possess the ability to hear from God. That is to say, our nature is such that we are cumbered, and we need the Spirit to be at work. We need for Thee to remove scales from our eyes, for Thee to soften the tendency of our hearts to become hard. So we come as a body today at this juncture of our meeting and ask now that we would not miss what Thou art saying to us. Oh, guide us in our minds and our thoughts. Help every believer make the connections that need to be made. Grant that those yet in their sin and unbelief, they too may be able to draw the line of what God is saying to them and hear from God today.

We come to this table and we want the Word to propel and fan our vision of Christ, to enable us to see Him in the bread and in the cup. So grant, oh, grant help from heaven. Revive us, Lord. Revive our hearts. Give us Thy strength. Cause us to see that crucified Redeemer, that we might behold the Lamb of God today. Give help now, we plead in Jesus’ name. Amen.

There are certain things that people may quit that have really not much in the way of any significant consequence. Young people here may at times quit a game. And so if you quit the game, it doesn’t have all that major consequence. It might be a board game, it might be a video game or any kind of game. Quitting it might not have any major ramifications.

But there are also things that men quit that do have devastating effects. Someone may quit a job without having a replacement. And the consequences of that can be catastrophic. People may quit on a marriage unjustifiably, without biblical warrant. And again, the consequences are catastrophic.

The Apostle Paul, as he addresses the Hebrews in what in times past we have presented, what seems to me anyway, to this preacher, to be a sermon that is recorded as he makes his exhortation is dealing with the fact that there are some who are struggling in their walk. There seems to be an air of danger that is lurking, and he is addressing that. He’s addressing it theologically, which he has done with profound insight. He also comes to give those practical, direct exhortations that are necessary to those who profess faith in Christ to help them along the way.

Their circumstances are challenging, the opposition is real, and the flame of their zeal, at least in some, may be flickering and in danger of petering out. And we’ve said this in recent times, maybe you’re there. Maybe you are there. You come to God’s house and you feel that waning strength of soul. And there’s that sense within you of quitting or diverting or in some way giving up, however it may look.

There may even be some who have already within their souls given up. Though outwardly I see and everyone else sees the same habits and practices, yet the soul has, as it were, caved. The mind already has given in.

And so, the apostle addressing those facing discouragement, facing persecution, maybe experiencing spiritual fatigue, he comes to them not with novel psychological insight. He doesn’t come telling them, oh, it’ll be fine, it’ll go away, because it might not. He comes to them with an exhortation, verse 3, “consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

Last time, two weeks ago, we looked at verse 2 as looking unto Jesus, and we considered especially these things, these aspects, “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.” And he goes on then with that similar vein of exhortation. Consider him.

And that’s what we want to do this morning. I titled the message simply, “When You Feel Like Quitting.” When you feel like quitting.

Now, three heads. There’s a command we’re given, there’s a conflict we remember, and there’s a crisis we seek to avoid. Those will form the primary ideas of what we will see from this text with the Lord’s help. So, open your Bible, pay attention, and note with me, first of all, there’s a command we’re given, “for consider him.” That’s at the head. Consider him.

The Greek word for consider is unique in the New Testament. It’s not used anywhere else in the form that we have it here, and it has almost an idea of being a mathematical term. It’s very rational, has this idea of reckoning, of counting carefully, of drawing comparisons, of careful estimation. It’s a focused, precise, deliberate, intentional looking and examining of a matter. So it’s not passive.

And we read in our English translation, consider him, it’s not just this passing thought. It is deliberate calculation. It is not vague. It is exacting. The Spirit of God is exhorting us through the Apostle that we are to look carefully, examine precisely, give attention intelligently and deliberately and intentionally to the things that we know that pertain to the Son of God.

And of course, the reason for this is in light of their own context. It’s not just to make for themselves the ability to write a paper or an essay on the sufferings of Christ or the personal work of Christ. At this point of the epistle, he is driving at the practical implications of what a consideration might mean for them.

Naturally, they are going to draw comparisons with what Christ went through and what they’re going through. Naturally, they’re going to see how viewing their Savior with that careful, deliberate, intentional way will help them as they see the struggles that they are going through. And this then is what you’re to do as well.

So as I was preparing this message, the thought struck me that in some way this language that’s at the head of verse 3 is very helpful for those who tend to be, let’s say, because we all have our dispositions, tend to be a little less on the emotional bent to those who are more rational, logical, and reasoning, looking for arguments to convince them of certain things.

Again, and that’s just the way we are. We’re very different. Some tend to be more emotionally driven. And there are certain things that come to us and are presented before us even legitimately that touch us, move us emotionally and propel us and help us in that way. And other things are much more rational and deliberate and logical. And this word then is actually leaning into that tendency of some to be more along those lines.

You’re not those who are wired to easily weep over a matter. The Apostle is saying to such, I want you to take and harness that logical aspect of your mind. I want you to harness that capacity you have. I want you to embrace that and see how that will help you and propel you forward in your faith.

I think that’s helpful because some who see others who are more emotive and easily moved, they say, well, maybe there’s a problem. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. And maybe I’m not growing the way they’re growing, and I’m not understanding as much as they are understanding. And there’s a danger there, a comparative danger, where every person starts looking at Luke 7 and seeing that woman weeping and wiping her Lord’s feet with her hair and her tears and so on. I have to model exactly the same thing.

Now, there are lessons there. There are lessons of appreciation and gratitude that apply to everyone. But how that is expressed, how that looks in the individual life, we are not about acting and pretending to be like that woman. We can learn the lesson, and we should learn it deeply. But we may not ever be so emotive, so publicly expressive.

The Word today is encouraging particularly to you that you can grow, you can advance, you can continue to progress in your Christian life, leaning into your tendency, but it requires the intentionality of taking the capacity you have and focusing upon the person and work of Christ in a deliberate fashion.

The command that is given here, looking unto Jesus, of course arises from verse 2, or rather the considering of Christ arises from the looking unto Jesus in verse 2. But it’s a movement, isn’t it? Looking unto Jesus, consider Him. In some way you could look from a distance, but you can’t consider from a distance. You might look at the language of verse 2 and say, I see Him there, afar off. But the language of verse 3 tells you to get up close. Pay attention to the details. Focus in on all the particulars. Take in all the information. Pull it all together. Assess it all carefully. Don’t just vaguely look unto Jesus.

So the Apostle here is narrowing in. Yes, we’re to look unto Him, but we are to consider Him. We’re to embrace the effort, the challenge of closely looking at the Lord Jesus.

Now this then is the apostolic encouragement to those facing persecution. How do you help a people who are being persecuted? How do you strengthen a people who are facing trial and difficulty? When you can’t take them away from the challenge, when you can’t minimize what they’re going through, how do you help them? The apostle says, consider him. This is how weary Christians finish their race. This is how those facing martyrdom endure even to the point of their death. Considering Christ.

And so this is important for us to learn as well. The Bible, in many places, encourages us to use the faculty of our minds, to use this which you have between your two ears. Sometimes we joke about whether or not certain people have anything between their two ears, and we can jest in that way, but we do. We have a faculty, we have ability of considering things. And that’s what the Apostle is aiming at, saying, I want you to use that and exercise that faculty towards Christ.

When the Apostle writes to the Philippians, he says in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” And he goes on then to give details concerning Christ, about the humility of Christ and so on. And it takes, as he writes, he’s informing the mind to take those details to help them follow and model the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:21, he notes that “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” And that, again, by implication, is asking you to go and look at Christ, think upon Him and follow. It takes the use of the mind. It takes gathering the information, pulling it all together, and with that information knowing then what that means for you.

Our Lord Jesus also was sustained by careful consideration of the Father and how He lived His life. The messianic language you have, for example, in Psalm 16, verse 8, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” That sense of deliberate, intentional putting the Lord before him. And it leads then to a steadfastness, it leads to a resolve, it leads to the ability to carry on. And our Savior did that, He lived His life that way.

In fact, prophetically, when remarks are given concerning Him in Isaiah 42, the servant of the Lord, it says, “He shall not fail nor be discouraged.” And how is that? How could it be that the Lord Jesus shall not fail and not be discouraged? Because, for example, we have in what we said there in Psalm 16, setting Jehovah always before Him. This very intentional view. A consideration of the Father.

We go mindlessly from day to day at times, not really thinking, not pondering. It’s not that you forget Jesus. It’s not that you completely abandon any thought of Christ. But if you were to ask yourself, am I being intentional? Am I really giving deliberate thought to this? Too often the answer may be no.

As you read through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you’re being brought into a schoolhouse of perseverance. How to endure? How to keep going on no matter what. I think we overlook that. We don’t read between the lines. We don’t take time to think about it. Look at what he’s facing. Look at every difficulty from the outset of his ministry. He goes into the wilderness to be tempted 40 days by the devil, opposition, the like of which we can’t begin to understand. He returns to Nazareth, goes to the synagogue, he’s rejected outright in the most public, humiliating and awful way. And everywhere he goes, it’s just pushback, it’s just headwinds at every turn.

Now that’s not detailed for us, it’s not given over and over again, but I think then we just, he went here, he did this, he preached, he said, he healed and so on, and we just, again, we pull in the information without thinking about the constant force against him. I think that helps color in the details a little more. Be mindful of all that he was enduring and everyone who was against him. The mockery and the malice.

So that’s at the head of this text, consider him. This is really just the exhortation. Before we get to the details of what we consider and what’s expressed in verse 3, I want you to put your arms around. This is not something that just happens. I have to be intentional about it.

And in some ways, beloved, this is the reason why we come to the house of God. It’s the reason why you should attend the means of grace as frequently as you are capable. Because that’s what, if I or anyone else standing to preach to you, if we’re rightly doing our job, that’s what we’re doing. We’re putting before you, we’re helping you, we’re pulling, and I trust this is what you feel, that you sit there and you listen, that your mind is being drawn to consider, to think through, to see Christ, to ponder Him, to make the connections, and as you do so, and as a preacher’s making those statements and teaching those passages, you’re pulling the lines of your own life into it and saying, that’s what I needed. Right now, that’s what I need because of what I’m going through. Thank You, Lord, for that Word. It’s keeping me going on.

And a big part of sustaining the Christian life is the public means of grace. We don’t have to go to the tabernacle or to the temple anymore and take our sacrifices and perhaps hear a homily from a priest or a rabbi. In that way, we’re looking at the sacrifice and everything else, but we come to hear the finished work, the personal work of Christ preached so that our minds, not seeing anything, even in the Lord’s table this morning, there’s no dying, there’s no re-sacrificing. But it draws the mind to consider, to consider Him.

There’s a conflict we remember. There’s a conflict we remember. Not only a command we’re given, but a conflict we remember. “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.”

This is the heart of the command, at least in this context, in this particular passage. Considering the endurance of Christ. Again, the structure of the grammar indicates this long-term steadfastness. Something done in the past with ongoing results. And so our Lord Jesus continued, endured, was resolved through all the challenges that he faced. “Such contradiction of sinners against himself.”

So a few things to note here as we break this down a little. First, it was a personal conflict. What he endured was a personal conflict. “Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.” It’s not just generic suffering. This is suffering that was direct and targeted against him. It was opposition against him.

From the cradle, so to speak, it was so. Herod gave his pronouncement that the boys should be killed. The whole world seems then to be moved in this impulse to destroy God’s Son. And when he begins his ministry, as we’ve noted already, it ramps up. Hounded, the Lord Jesus was hounded everywhere he went. We can’t even begin to understand it. We don’t know what that’s like.

Occasionally, we may go through a period where someone or maybe one or two small handful of people have taken an issue against you. Maybe they’re spreading rumors, saying a few things. But we have never endured, I doubt anyone here has endured anything remotely close to the daily onslaught that our Lord Jesus faced in terms of opposition against Him.

The language of Isaiah 53 is not overstated. “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” What was he experiencing being despised? What was his lot to be rejected? “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1). Not like you and me, where we may, in a particular case, justify ourselves and say that the opposition I’m facing or the things that are being said about me are not true. We might say, in the specifics, what’s being said is not true. You may be able to do that. I may be able to do that.

There are other areas where we have to acknowledge If they knew about that, they wouldn’t be worried about this. They’d be focusing on that, and it would be true. But not so for our Lord. Impeccable. No sin. “No guile was found in his mouth.” And so there was no justification at all, none. And yet personally, he faced such an onslaught, coming as a bridegroom, being called Beelzebub, entering into the vineyard in order that they might slay the heir.

Accused of being a deceiver, John 7:12, a blasphemer, Mark 14:64, a lawbreaker, John 5:18, a traitor, John 19:12. And he endured it. “Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” personally, constantly attacked.

Paul notes in Romans 15 verse 3, “For even Christ pleased not himself.” It goes on then to underline this, “the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” It all came upon me, the opposition came upon Christ personally in such a way again that you’re to think about. You ought to think about it because you have believers there whom Paul is addressing and what they’re going through feels very personal.

Because the opposition is coming from family members. And the family members don’t care that there is this group of Christians who are assembling. They’re not so worried about the fact that they’re there and they’re doing what they’re doing. They’re concerned because their son is there. Some other loved one, and so the attacks become very personal. How can they get relief? By turning to Christ, who endures such contradiction of sinners against Himself, and maybe that’s where you are.

Maybe the opposition you face feels very personal, very direct, very targeted at you. There are others in the family. You look at the family and you think of all the siblings or all the other relatives, maybe a grandparent looking at grandchildren or whatever it might be, whatever the context is. And you look at how they look at the other ones. I’ve seen this, I’ve seen this where the family look and there’s one out there who’s a drunkard and a drug addict and living a lascivious and wicked lifestyle and they never say anything. They don’t like it. They prefer it wasn’t the case. But they still get invited to family events, still appreciated.

Then there’s this Christian, a believer, walking in the fear of God. Seeking to obey his commandments, gathering for public worship, trying to minister to people in need, trying to spread the gospel however they can, and they’re hated. The family members, in this peculiar, specific way, hate them, and it’s personal. It feels very personal. Consider him. He endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, wicked people opposing him.

It was also a persistent conflict, not only personal but persistent. Every day, every day, it didn’t go away. It wasn’t a sudden burst, it wasn’t a condensed opposition merely, certainly it crescendoed at the cross. But it was relentless, it kept coming, as we’ve noted already, from the commencement of his ministry particularly. The opposition of Satan, the opposition of those among whom he grew up. Everywhere he went, this constant opposition and rejection, and he endured it.

And it wasn’t against pagans, he wasn’t going to a foreign land of people who couldn’t understand what he was saying. They knew what he was saying. They professed to be followers of the true religion, of the true living God, and yet they opposed him.

This is not new. This whole experience of those experiencing their worst opposition at the hands of those who profess to be worshiping the same God. It goes right back to Cain and Abel. The two brothers meant to be worshiping the same God, meant to be adhering to the same things. And when Abel stands by the truth, and he worships God as God has appointed, as he has been taught by his father, and he comes before God in the right fashion, the right way, and God rejects the worship of his brother Cain. Cain takes it out against the one who is, as it were, prophetically communicating truth, who is exemplifying truth. He takes it out on him, slaying him.

When rebellion rises up in the midst of Israel in the wilderness, it’s not against the enemy surrounding nations. There were those conflicts, sure. But the sons, of course, rise up against the prophet, the one who’s there to minister and help them, the one who already has led and delivered them, and so on. And they reject those, and this is how it goes. And the whole pattern then is this tendency of those who should know better doing their worst in opposing those who are serving God.

When Stephen recounts his history to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7, he touches on this when he says in Acts 7:52, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” Is there any of them that God sent that you didn’t persecute? Yet now, of course, you look back and you lift up Elijah as a great man. Moses is an honorable man, you give great esteem to all the other prophets. But your fathers persecuted them. They opposed every last one of them, faced opposition.

And when God sent His Son, it is no different. When God sent His Son, it follows the same trajectory. Only for Him, it is persistent. It never goes away. It’s this constant opposition pushed back against them.

So, these Hebrews, at this time at least, most of their opposition was coming from those who were of their own similar background. They were coming from Jews. They were the ones that were mounting the most difficult opposition at that time, and their minds are going, well, why would they turn on me? Why don’t they understand? Why don’t they believe Jesus is the Messiah? Why, why, why? Consider Him!

Who were the sinners who gave such opposition to the Son of God? Who were they who kept pushing back against His message and threatening His life and finally crucifying Him on the cross? The driving force, the energy, the hatred, the animosity was being propelled by those who professed to worship God. The persistent opposition came from his own, and so they can draw again the lines to be encouraged.

And sometimes believers, to this day, you face something like this. Some of you will know what I’m talking about when I say that at times it can be easier, depends on the context and the environment, but sometimes it can be easier to be a Christian working in a completely un-Christian environment where there are no other believers. And you’re the only one. And you think to yourself, that sounds awful. Sometimes that’s easier than being in a place of employment where there are a few other believers who like to misunderstand, misrepresent how you’re living before God.

Now, if you’ve never gone through that, God bless you. But I’ve been in both contexts. And there were ways in which at times it was much easier to be in a place of employment where you felt like you were the only one. And you’re presenting the truth. And you understand why people don’t appreciate it or maybe support it in every way. But when you get into an environment and there are a few other Christians there, And you happen to say something or you’re asked, you’re not even trying to be contentious, you’re asked questions.

You sit there having lunch together, people talk, topics come up. Something comes up about music. I don’t listen to that kind of music. And instead of saying something like, I respect that, I understand why, the Christian, may I turn around and start saying, oh, you think you’re better than everyone else. That’s not what you said. But that’s what they take from it. And it can be very challenging.

Our Lord endured persistent conflict, personal, persistent, but it was also peculiar. The conflict he endured was peculiar. It was unique. The contradiction of sinners against himself, the opposition, the pushback, the trial, the difficulty was peculiar for him. Isaiah 50, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” He’s going through this experience of peculiar challenge and hatred that makes its way to his judgment before the Jewish leaders in the middle of the night condemning him, them dragging him out before the Roman governor first thing the next day by whatever means they can to force his hand to execute him.

No matter what opposition, no matter what pushback Pilate came up with, “I find no fault in him” trying to navigate by, well, this is, you know, it’s Passover, it’s our habit that one should be released unto you, trying to, in every way Pilate’s trying to shift around, and every angle they face of opposition, they turn, forcing, in a certain sense, not absolute, Pilate still had autonomy, but there’s that sense of him trying to force his hand to put to death Jesus Christ.

And he goes through all of this being completely innocent, enduring it in a fashion which it’s said of him that “he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53). And oh, what a path he trod there to Calvary. Making His way, bearing the guilt of your sin and mine. None of it justified for Himself. He didn’t do anything. He lived perfectly. He obeyed His Father entirely. His whole hope and desire was to be obedient, but that obedience led to death, even the death of the cross.

And so there he is being the only one persecuted, who had no fault, the only one opposed, who had no sin. And he had done his life for us, the just for the unjust. It was a peculiar conflict. Because all that these individuals, all that they were facing, they were not perfect people. What you face, you’re not perfect. Christ was.

We want things to go smoothly. We want this life to be easier. Those words come to mind, we sing them. “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize, and sailed through bloody seas?”

Why do I imagine that I should avoid all suffering? Jesus warned, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Essentially what? the Apostle Paul is doing is, in this text, he’s saying what Jesus just said there in John 15. If the world hate you, what do you do? “Ye know” your mind should go to the fact that it hated him. You’re using your mind. The world hates you. You don’t just stand there and go, oh, it’s an awful thing. I’m struggling here because the world hates me. No, do take your mind and turn it and consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. You know that it hated me before it hated you.

Finally, there’s a crisis we seek to avoid. There’s a crisis we seek to avoid. “Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” That’s the danger. That’s the crisis that he is moving them around, shepherding them around. They’re in danger of falling off a cliff, falling into a precipice, destroying themselves. And he is taking his language and his argumentation to shield them. Ward them away, “lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

So he’s asking them to use their mind in the consideration of Christ to strengthen it so that it does not become weary and faint. This is a real danger, people quitting. Quitting, it’s the most heartbreaking thing to see people quit in the Christian life. I will never get used to it. I hope I never get used to it.

The word translated weary. It’s that idea of someone like a runner, because you have this context of a race, verse one. So it’s like a runner who collapses with exhaustion. The word faint is like loosening the grip. Things are getting slack within the soul. So there’s this sense, the danger of exhaustion and loosening the grip, as it were. The Apostle’s fighting against that, the danger of that, the potential crisis of that.

“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24). The thing, we want the life to be easy, but we want to be strong. One of the ways we get stronger is by facing adversity. And how we face adversity is strengthening ourselves by the consideration of Christ.

So this is what you’re to do. God is going to bring challenges into your life. He has done in many of your lives, I have no doubt. You’re maybe going through it right now, and for others you will. It’s just a matter of time. And so why? Why is God doing this? Well, He wants you to be stronger. And the way you get stronger is by the consideration of His Son.

When Paul writes to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 3, it’s one of his earlier epistles, he writes there in 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 3, “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.” We’re appointed. This is all part of it. It’s all part of God’s perfect plan, His ordering of our steps, His governing of your life. He appoints the danger. He brings it.

You say, but that’s a scary thing. Like He’s putting the very thing that might cause me to fail. But His people, His people, they don’t fail. This is the thing. You don’t. Because you keep looking unto Jesus and you consider Him. And you, legitimate, Christ-loving believer, here this morning, there’s something in you that says, yes, yes.

And you look for sermons that help you to consider Him. You’re not interested in me getting up. I mean, part of you might be. Get up and talking about 10 steps to, you know, peaceful married life, you know, or something like that. You know, just psychological and practical things, you know, and that has its place. Like, there’s a place for pragmatic, practical instruction, a little bit of advice here and there, and you put scenarios and you say, imagine this, and here’s what you should do, and so on and so forth. There’s a place for all that. But the preaching of the cross, That’s where the spiritual strength is given.

The Holy Spirit is given to lift up Christ, to put Christ in our view, for us to be strengthened by looking to Christ. And we ought never to make any apology of the constant focus and the regular presentation of Jesus Christ and His person and work because the Spirit says, that’s my subject and that’s why I make them strong. Paul knowing that, consider him.

Oh, you might consider martyrs. That’s fine. Go read the martyrs. Go read the suffering saints of old. Go ahead. They may furnish in some fashion encouragement to your heart. We have this list in Hebrews 11 of these believers. But in each case, the whole point is where they got their strength, what they were looking to. We’re not to focus on the cloud of witnesses. We’re to focus on looking unto Jesus. That’s what the Spirit uses.

And so, yes, know your history. Account it. Teach it to your children. The saints of old who endured tremendous hardship and kept going on. But the Spirit of God says, my subject, the means whereby I make believers strong is Christ. Consider Him.

“Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind” (1 Peter 4:1). Equip ourselves by looking to Christ, lest we be wearied and faint in our minds. Oh, so much could be said here, but let me close.

The temptation to quit is real. I make no apology for emphasizing this in the recent messages as we’ve progressed through these opening verses of chapter 12 and even in Hebrews 11. Because it’s a real thing. Satan wants you to quit. He wants you to quit. He wants you to give up. He wants you to stop on good courses. On honorable paths. He wants you to try to justify it the easier way. He wants you to try to reason why it may be better for you to remove yourself from this hardship. Consider him.

Oh, Christian, consider him. Think of all that he went through. Our worship, essentially, our worship of him is meaningless unless it is coupled with perseverance. Our worship of him is meaningless unless it is coupled with perseverance. I know I draw these lines together, but it’s the human relationship that makes the most sense in our minds, that pulls us all together. You can’t say you love your spouse and quit on them. It’s meaningless. It’s meaningless. If you say you love Christ, there has to be, coupled with it, the perseverance, whatever he has appointed.

“Our light affliction.” It’s not light, but the reason why Paul says it’s light is because he considers Him. That’s the only way you can weigh it that way. It’s light, it’s a light affliction. How is it a light affliction what I’m going through? Because my mind isn’t so much focused on what I’m going through, it is focused upon what He went through. And when I return to assess my own, it is light. “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

That’s what we’re going to do now. Not just in the sermon, but when we take the bread and the cup, you’re going to consider Him. And you’re going to think about your sins that made the cross necessary and you’re going to lament over those things. And so you should lament over your sin. But you’re also going to rejoice. Because he has no regret in what he suffered. He does not look down and say, well, that was a waste. No, no. He rejoices in the power of his suffering to make you to be justified before God, cleansed of all your sin. He delights in the fact that you’re forgiven.

So we walk out of here having considered him no longer weak, no longer faint and wearied in our minds. May the Lord make it so. Let’s bow together in prayer.

O Christian, look unto Jesus. “He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” And there He pleads your cause. There He presents the argument for your pardon. And here we remember Him. Let us consider Him. Find the light. Oh, what relief to the bruised soul.

Lord, we pray, grant us the diligence, the interest, the follow-through to rightly and regularly consider Christ. Let us ponder the opposition he faced. Let us rejoice in the sacrifice he offered. Grant that we would be a people who are mindful, thoughtful, and thereby strengthened. To keep going on. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for all that Thou hast done for us. May that gratitude be reflected in all our thoughts as we sit around this table of remembrance. Come Holy Spirit, help us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.