God's Word Not to Be Refused
(No. 3492)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 27, 1870.
"See that you refuse not Him who speaks. For if they escaped not who
refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we
turn away from Him who speaks from Heaven." Hebrews 12:25.
WE are not a cowering multitude gathered in trembling fear around the
smoking mount of Horeb–we have come where the great central figure is
the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We have gathered virtually in the
outer circle of which the saints above and holy angels make the inner
ring. And now, tonight, Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel. So far as His
Gospel shall be preached by us, here, it shall not be the word of man,
but the Word of God. And although it comes to you through a feeble
tongue, yet the Truth of God, itself, is not feeble, nor is it any less
Divine than if Christ, Himself, should speak it with His own lips! "See
that you refuse not Him who speaks." The text contains–
I. AN EXHORTATION OF A VERY SOLEMN, EARNEST KIND.
It does not say, "Refuse not Him who speaks," but, "See that you refuse
not Him who speaks"–that is, "be very circumspect that by no means,
accidental or otherwise, you refuse the Christ of God, who now, in the
Gospel, speaks to you! Be watchful, be earnest, lest even through
inadvertence you should refuse the Prophet of the Gospel
dispensation–Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who speaks in the Gospel
from Heaven to the sons of men." It means, "Give earnest heed and
careful attention, that by no means, and in no way you refuse Him who
speaks." My objective tonight will be to help you, beloved Friends,
especially you that have not laid hold on Christ–who are not the
children of Zion, who are joyful in their king–to help you, tonight,
that you may see to it.
And to go to our point at once, we shall have many things to say, and
we shall speak them in brief sentences, hoping that the thoughts, as
they arise, may be accepted by your mind and may, by God's Spirit, work
upon your hearts and conscience. There is great need of this
exhortation from many considerations not mentioned in the text. A few
of these we will hint at first.
First, from the excellence of the Word of God, itself "See that you
refuse not Him who speaks." That which Jesus speaks concerns your soul,
concerns your everlasting destiny–it is God's wisdom, God's way of
mercy–God's plan by which you may be saved! If this were a secondary
matter, you need not be so earnest about receiving it, but of all
things under Heaven, nothing so concerns you as the Gospel. See, then,
that you refuse not this precious Word of God, more precious than gold
or rubies, which alone can save your souls!
See to this, again, because there is an enemy of yours who will do all
he can that you may refuse Him who speaks. Satan is always busiest
where the Gospel is most earnestly preached! Let the sower scatter
handfuls of seeds–and birds will find the seeds and soon devour them!
Let the Gospel be preached, and these birds of the air, fiends of Hell,
will soon by some means try to remove these Truths from your hearts,
lest they should take root in your hearts and bring forth fruit unto
repentance.
Give earnest heed, again, "that you refuse not Him who speaks," because
the tendency of your own mind'will be to refuse Christ. Oh, Sirs, you
are fallen through your first father, Adam, and the tendencies now of
your souls are towards evil–not towards the right–and when the Lord
comes from Heaven to you, you will reject Him if left to yourselves!
Watch, then, I say! See that you refuse not! Stir up your souls, awaken
your minds, lest this delirious tendency of sin should make you angry
with your best Friend and constrain you to thrust from you that which
is your only hope for the
hereafter! When a man knows that he has a bad tendency which may injure
him, if he is wise, he watches against it. So, knowing this, which
God's Word tells you, watch, I pray you, lest you refuse Him who
speaks!
Think well, too, that you have need to see to this, because some of you
have rejected Christ already long enough! He has spoken to you from
this pulpit, from other pulpits, from the Bible, from the sickbed. He
spoke to you lately in the funeral knell of your buried friend–many
voices, but all with this one note, "Come to Me! Repent and be saved!"
But until now you have refused "Him who speaks." Will not the time past
suffice to have played this mischievous game? Will not the years that
have rolled into eternity bear enough witness against you? Must you add
to all this weight by again refusing? Oh, I implore you to see to it
that you do not again "refuse Him who speaks from Heaven," for there is
not a Word of that which He speaks, but what is love to your souls!
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came not armed with terrors to work wrath
among the sons of men! All was mercy, all was Grace–and to those who
listen to Him, He has nothing to speak but tenderness and loving
kindness–your sins shall be forgiven you! The time of your ignorance,
God will wink at. Your transgressions shall be cast into the depths of
the sea–for you there shall be happiness on earth and glory hereafter!
Who would not listen when it is good news to be heard? Who would not
listen when the best tidings that God, Himself, ever sent forth from
the excellent Glory is proclaimed by the noblest Ambassador that ever
spoke to men, namely, God's own Son, Jesus Christ, the once crucified,
but now exalted Savior? For these reasons, then, at the very outset I
press upon you this exhortation, "See that you refuse not Him who
speaks such precious Truth," which the enemy would gladly take out of
your minds–the Truth of God which you, yourselves, have refused long
enough already–and Truth which is sweet and will be exceedingly
precious to your souls if you receive it! But now the text gives us–
II. SOME FURTHER REASONS for seeing to it that we do not "refuse Him
who speaks." One reason I see in the text is this–see to this because
there are many ways of refusing Him who speaks, and you may have fallen
into one or other of these. See to it! Pass over in examination your
own state and conduct, lest you may have been refusing Christ! Some
refuse the Savior by not hearing of Him. In His day there were some who
would not listen, and there are such now. The Sabbath days of some of
you are not days of listening to the Gospel. Where were you this
morning? Where are you usually all the Lord's-Day long? Remember, you
cannot live in London, where the Gospel is preached, and be without
responsibility! Though you will not came to the House of God to hear of
it, yet be sure of this–the Kingdom of God has come near unto you. You
may close your ears to the invitation of the Gospel, but at last you
will not be able to close your ear to the denunciation of wrath! If you
will not come and hear of Christ on the Cross, you must one day see for
yourselves Christ on His Throne. "See that you refuse not Him who
speaks to you from Heaven" by refusing to be found where His Gospel is
proclaimed!
Many come to hear it, and yet refuse Him who speaks, for they hear
listlessly. In many congregations–I will not judge this–a very large
proportion of hearers are listless hearers. It little matters to them
what is the subject in hand. They hear the sentences and phrases that
come from the speaker's tongue, but these penetrate the ears, only, and
never reach their heart. Oh, how sad it is that this should be the case
with almost all who have heard the Gospel a long time, but who are not
converted! They get used to it. No form of alarm could reach them and,
perhaps, no form of invitation could move them to penitence. The
preacher may exhaust his art. They are like the adder that is deaf. He
may know how to charm others, but these he cannot charm, charm he ever
so wisely! Oh, see to it, you Gospel hearers up yonder, and you below
here, that have been hearing Christ these many years, see that you
refuse not Him who day by day during so long a time has spoken to you
in the preaching of the Gospel out of Heaven!
But there are some who do hear and have a very intelligent idea of what
they hear, but who actually refuse to believe it. For diverse reasons
best known to themselves, they reject the testimony of the Incarnate
God. They hear that God, the Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and He has borne testimony that whoever believes in Him is not
condemned. They know but they will not believe in Him. They will give
you first, one excuse, and then another, but all the excuses put
together will never mitigate the fact that they do not believe the
testimony of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ! And so they "refuse
Him who speaks." How many, how many here are by their unbelief refusing
the Christ that speaks out of Heaven?
Some are even offended at the Gospel, as in Christ's day. When He came
to a tender point in His preaching they went back and walked no more
with Him. Such there are to be found in our assemblies. The Gospel
galls them–there is some point that touches their prejudices,
something that touches their favorite sin–and they are vexed and
irritable. They
ought to be angry–angry with their sin–but they are angry with Christ
instead. They ought to denounce themselves, and patiently seek mercy,
but this is not palatable to them! They would rather denounce the
preacher, or denounce the preacher's Master.
Some will even hear the Gospel, the very Gospel of Christ to catch at
words and pervert sentences to make play of the preacher's words which
he uses, when they are honestly the best he can find and, worse still,
make play with the sense, too, with the very Gospel–and find themes
for loose jokes and profane and ribald words, even in the Cross!
Rolling dice, like the soldiers at the foot of the Cross, with the
blood falling on them, so some make merriment when the blood of Jesus
is falling upon them to their condemnation! May it not be so with any
here, present, but there have been such who have even reviled the
Savior and had hard words for God in human flesh–could not believe
that He bore the guilt of sin, could not admire the astounding love
that made Him suffer for the guilt of His enemies, would not see
anything admirable in the heroic Sacrifice of the great Redeemer–but
rather turned on their heels against their Benefactor and poured forth
venomous words on Him who loved the sons of men and died saying,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
And some have practically shown they have refused Him who speaks, for
they have begun to persecute His people! They have maltreated those
that sought the Glory of God, and anything that had a savor of Christ
about it has been despicable and detestable to them.
Oh, dear Hearers, I shall ask you, since there are all these ways of
refusing Christ, to see to it that you do not fall into any of them!
The grosser forms, perhaps, you would be too shocked at, but don't fall
into the others. Do not especially fall into that indifference which
has almost as much insult to the Savior as blasphemy! Is it nothing to
you? Is it nothing to you that God should come from Heaven that He
might be just in the salvation of men, and that, coming from Heaven to
be thus just, He should, Himself, suffer that we might not suffer–the
Christ of God bleed and die instead of the undeserving, Hell-deserving
sinners? Shall this be told you–pressed upon you and will you refuse
it? Will you refuse Him who speaks, Himself, in His own Sacrifice? And
in the blood which He has carried within the veil continues now to
speak–will you, will you refuse Him? Pray God you may see to it that
in no form you do!
And now passing on, but keeping to the same point, striking the hammer
on the head of the same nail, there are many reasons why men refuse
Christ. Therefore, see that for none of these reasons you do it. Some
refuse Him out of perfect indifference!The great mass of men have not a
thought above their food and their drink. Like the cock that found the
diamond on the dunghill, they turn it over and wish it were a grain of
barley. What care they for Heaven, or the pardon of sin? Their mind
does not reach to that. See that you–that you, none of you, are so
sensuous as to "refuse Him who speaks from Heaven" for such a reason as
this! Some reject Him because of their self-righteousness–they are
good enough. Jesus Christ speaks against them, they say! "He does not
applaud their righteousness, He rather ridicules them. He tells them
that their prayers are long prayers and their many good works are,
after all, a poor ground for reliance." So as the Savior will not
patronize their righteousness, neither will they have anything to do
with Him. Oh, say not you are rich and increased in goods–you are
naked, and poor, and miserable! Say not you can win Heaven by your
merits– you have none! Your merits drag you down to Hell. Yet many
will refuse the Savior because of the insanity of their
self-righteousness!
Some, too, reject Him because of their self-reliant wisdom. "Why," they
say, "this is a very thoughtful age." And everywhere I hear it dinned
into my ears, "thoughtful preaching," "thinkers," "intellectual
preaching." And what a mass of rottenness before high Heaven the whole
lot is that is produced by these thinking preachers and these
intellectual men! For my part I would rather say to them, "See that you
refuse not Him who speaks," for one Word of God is better than all the
thoughts of all the philosophers–and one sentence from the lips of
Christ I do esteem to be more precious than the whole Alexandrian
library–and also the Bodleian, if you will, so much as it comes from
man. No, it is the thinking of Christ we have to think about! Otherwise
our thinking may prove our curse. A man, if he is drowning, if he has a
rope thrown to him, had better lay hold of it rather than merely
thinking about the possibilities of salvation by some other means.
While your souls are being lost, Sirs, there is better employment for
you than merely indulging in rhapsodies and inventions of your own
supposed judgment! Take hold of this, the Gospel of Jesus revealed of
God, lest you perish, and perish with a vengeance!
Some reject the Savior from another cause–they do not like the
holiness of Christ's teaching. They refuse Him who speaks because they
think Christ's religion too strict, too precise–it cuts off their
pleasures, it condemns their lusts. Yes, yes, it is so, but to reject
Christ for such a reason is certainly to be most unreasonable, for it
should be in every man a desire to be delivered from these passions and
lusts–and because Christ can deliver us, shall we, therefore, reject
Him? God forbid that we should be led astray by such a reason!
Some reject Him because they have a fear of the world. If they were
Christians, they would probably be laughed at as Methodists,
Presbyterians, Puritans, or some other name. And shall we lose our
souls to escape the sneers of fools? He is not a man–call him by some
other name–he is no man that flings away his soul because he is such a
coward that he cannot bear to do and believe the right thing and bear
the frown of fashion!
There are others who refuse the Savior simply out of procrastination.
They have no reason for it, but they hope they shall have a more
convenient season. They are young people as yet, or they are not so
very old, or if they are old, yet still life will linger a little
while–and so still they refuse Him who speaks.
I have not mentioned a worthy reason for refusing Him who speaks, nor
do I believe there is a worthy reason. It seems to me that if it is so,
that God Himself has taken upon Himself human form, and has come here
to effect our redemption from our sin and misery, there cannot be any
reason that will stand a moment's looking at for refusing Him who
speaks! It must be my duty and my privilege to hear what it is that God
has got to say to me–it must be my duty to lend Him all my heart, to
try and understand what it is that He says–and then to give Him all my
will to do, or to be whatever He would have me to do or to be!
"But did God thus come?" asks one. I always feel that the very
declaration is its own proof. No heart could ever have contrived or
invented this as a piece of imagination–the love, the story of the
redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus! If I had no evidence but the
mere statement, I think I must accept it, for it wears the Truth of God
upon its very forefront! Who should conceive it? The offended God comes
here to redeem His creatures from their own offense. Since He must in
justice, punish, He comes to bear the punishment Himself, that He may
be just and yet be inconceivably gracious! My soul flies into the arms
of this Revelation! It seems to be the best news my troubled conscience
ever had–God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them! Oh, there cannot be a reasonable
motive for rejecting the Savior, and I, therefore, impress it upon you,
since so many unreasonable motives carry men away, see that you refuse
not Him who speaks! And may the Spirit of God grant that you may not be
able to refuse! But now coming to the text again, we have–
III. A VERY HIGH MOTIVE GIVEN for seeing that we refuse not Him who
speaks. It is this–because in refusing Him, we shall be despising the
highest possible authority. When Moses spoke in God's name, it was no
light thing to refuse such an ambassador! Still, Moses was but a man.
Though clothed with Divine Authority, yet he was but a man and a
servant of God. But Jesus Christ is God by Nature. See that you refuse
not Him who is of heavenly origin, who came from Heaven, who is clothed
with such Divine Powers that every word He speaks is virtually spoken
from Heaven, and who, being now in Heaven, speaks through His ever
living Gospel directly out of the excellent Glory! Regard this, I pray
you, and remember well the parable which Jesus gave. A certain man
planted a vineyard and let it out to vinedressers. And when the time
came that he should receive the fruit, he sent a servant, and they
stoned him! He sent another, and they beat him. He sent another, and
they maltreated him. After he had thus sent many of his servants, and
the dressers of the vineyard had incurred his high displeasure by the
shameful way in which they had treated the servants, he sent his own
son, and he said, "They will respect my son." It was the highest degree
of guilt when they said, "This is the heir, let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours." Then they took him and killed him, and threw
him out of the vineyard. You know how the Savior was treated by the
sons of men–but here is the point I aim at–it is this–to reject
Jesus Christ, to refuse Him, to refuse His Gospel if He did not speak
in it, might not be so high a misdemeanor, but to refuse Him–I don't
know how it is, but my heart feels very heavy even to sinking at the
thought that any man here should be able to refuse Christ, the Son of
God, the Everlasting and the Ever Blessed! But I cannot speak out what
I feel. It fills my soul with horror to think that any creature should
refuse his God, when his God speaks, but much more when God comes down
on earth in Infinite, wondrous, immeasurable love, takes upon Himself
the form of Man and suffers, and then turns round to His rebellious
creature and says, "Listen, I am ready to forgive you. I am willing to
pardon you. Do but listen
to Me."
Oh, it seems monstrous that men should refuse Christ! I don't know how
you feel about it, but if you have ever measured that in your thoughts,
it will have seemed to be the most monstrous of all crimes! If, in
order to be saved, the terms were hard and the conditions difficult, I
could understand a man saying, "It mocks me." But when the Gospel is
nothing but this, "Turn you, turn you; why will you die?" When it is
nothing but, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
saved," what shall I say? I cannot fashion an excuse for any of you and
if you, after having heard the Gospel, are cast into Hell, I dare not
think that its utmost pains will be too severe for so high an insult to
such wondrous love! You will not be saved, Sirs! You put from you, your
own life! You will not be saved when the way of salvation is plain,
easy, simple, close to your hand–
"What chains of vengeance they deserve That slight the bonds of love!"
I cannot–I could not–conceive a punishment too severe for men who,
knowing that their rejection of Christ will bring upon them everlasting
punishment, yet willfully reject Him! You choose your own delusion. If
you drank poison and did not know it, I could pity you–if you made all
your veins to swell with agony and caused your death–but when we stand
up and say, "Sirs, it is poison! See others drop and die–touch it
not!"–when we give you something a thousand times better, and bid you
take that, but you will not take that, but willhave the poison–then if
you will, you must. If, then, you would destroy your soul, it, must be
so.
But we would plead with you yet again. "See, see that you refuse not
Him who speaks." I wish I could raise Him before you tonight–even the
Christ of God and bid Him stand here–and you would see His hands and
His feet, and you would ask, "What are these marks we see there?" He
would reply, "These are the wounds that I received when I suffered for
the sons of men." And He bares His side and says, "See here, here went
the spear when I died that sinners might live." In Glory now, yet once,
says He, "This face was defiled with spit, and this body mangled with
Pilate's scourge and Herod's rod, and I, whom angels worshipped, was
treated as a menial, yes, worse–God Himself forsook Me! Jehovah hid
His face from Me, that I, bearing the punishment of sin, might really
bear it, not in fiction, but in fact, and might suffer the equivalent
for all the miseries that souls redeemed by Me ought to have suffered
had they been cast into Hell!" Will you look at His wounds and yet
refuse Him? Will you hear the story of His love, and yet reject Him?
Must He go away and say in His heart, "They have refused Me. They have
refused Me. I told them of salvation–I showed them how I bought
salvation, but they have refused Me. I will go My way and they shall
never see My face again till that day when they shall say, 'Mountains
fall upon us! Hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the Throne.'"
If you will not have Him in mercy you must have Him in judgment! And if
the silver scepter of God will not touch you, the Christ of God, the
Man of Nazareth, will come a second time on the clouds of Heaven, and
woe unto you in that tremendous day! Then shall the nations of the
earth weep and wail because of Him. They would not have Him as their
Savior–so they must have Him as their Judge–and out of His mouth
shall the sentence come, "Depart! Depart!"
Now I have to close with the last reason that is given in the text why
we should see that we "refuse not Him who speaks." It is this–that if
we do–
IV. THERE IS A DOOM TO BE FEARED, for if they escaped not who refused
Him who spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away
from Him who speaks from Heaven. You hear the din that goes up from the
Red Sea when the angry billows leap over Pharaoh and his horsemen. Why
is the king asleep in the midst of the waters? Why are the chivalry of
Egypt cut off? They rejected Moses when he said, "Thus says the Lord,
Let My people go." If Pharaoh escaped not when he refused him who spoke
on earth, oh, dreadful shall be that day when the Christ who this day
speaks to you, and whom you reject, shall lift up the rods of His anger
and the Lake of Fire, more direful than the Red Sea, shall swallow up
His adversaries! See you that next sight? A number of men are standing
there holding censers of incense in their hands, and there stands
Moses, the servant of God, and he says, "If these die the death of
common men, God has not spoken by me," for they have rebelled against
Moses. Do you see the sight? Can you picture it? If they escaped not
who refused him who spoke on earth, how shall we escape if we refuse
Him who speaks from Heaven? Go through the peninsular of the Arabian
desert. See how the tribes drop, one by one, and leave graves behind
them as the track of their march. Of all that came out of Egypt, only
two entered into Canaan! Who slew all these? They were all slain there
because they resisted the Word of God by His servant, Moses, and He
swore in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest. If
they escaped not who refused him who spoke on earth, how shall we
escape if we refuse Him who speaks to us from Heaven?
I might multiply instances and give you proof of how God avenged the
refusal to listen to His servant, Moses, but how much more will He
avenge it if we listen not to Jesus Christ the Lord! "Oh," says one,
"you preach the terrors of the Lord." The terrors of the Lord? I
scarcely think of them–they are too dreadful for human language! But
if I speak severely, even for a moment, it is in love. I dare not play
with you, Sinner. I dare not tell you sin is a trifle. I dare not tell
you that the world to come is a matter of no great account. I dare not
come and tell you that you need not be in earnest. I shall have to
answer for it to my Master! I have these words ringing in my ears, "If
the watchman warns them not, they shall perish, but their blood will I
require at the watchman's hands." I cannot bear that I should have the
blood of souls upon my skirts and, therefore, do I again say to
you–refuse what I say as much as you will, cast anything that is mine
to the dogs, have nothing to do with it–but wherein I have spoken to
you Christ's Word and I have told you His Gospel, "Believe and live."
"He that believes on Him is not condemned," "He that believes and is
baptized, shall be saved." Wherein it is Christ's Gospel, it is Christ
that speaks! And I again say to you, for your soul's sake, "Refuse not
Him who speaks from Heaven to you." May His Spirit sweetly incline you
to listen to Christ's Word and may you be saved tonight!
If you don't have Christ, tonight, some of you never will have Him. If
you are not saved tonight, some of you never will be. 'Tis now or never
with you. God's Spirit strives with you, conscience is a little
awakened. Catch every breeze, catch every breeze! Do not let this pass
by! Oh, that tonight you might seek, and that tonight you might find
the Savior! Otherwise remember if you refuse Him who speaks from
Heaven, He lifts His hands and swears that you shall not enter into His
rest! Then are you lost, lost, lost, beyond all recall! God bless every
one of you and may we meet in Heaven.
I do not know. I sometimes am afraid that there are not so many
conversions as there used to be. If I thought there were no more souls
to be saved by me in this place, under God, I would break away from
every comfort and go and find out a place where I could find some that
God would bless. Are they all saved that will be? You seat-holders,
have I fished in this pond till there is no more to come? Is it to be
so, that in all the ground where wheat will ever grow, wheat has grown,
and there can be no more? My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, pray God
to send His Spirit that there may be more brought to Jesus! If not, it
is hard, hard work to preach in vain. Perhaps I grow stale and dull to
you–I would not if I could help it. If I could learn how to preach, I
would go to school. If I could find the best way to reach you, I am
sure I would spare no pains. I do not know what more to say, but if
Christ, Himself, shall be refused, how shall I speak for Him? Of His
dear wounds, if His precious blood, if His dying groans, if His love to
the souls of men all go for nothing, then my words cannot be
anything–they may well go to the wind! But do, do turn to Him! Cast
not away your souls. Come to Him! He will receive you! He waits to be
gracious! Whoever is heavy laden, let him come tonight. One tear, one
sigh, one cry–send it up to Him–He will hear you! Come and trust Him!
He will save you! God bless you, for Christ's love's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 12.
Verses l, 2. Therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. Looking unto Jesus– The Apostle seems to say, since so many
look on from Heaven, and earth, and Hell, and we are runners in the
great life race, let us strip to it–let us throw aside everything that
would make our running difficult, every weight, however golden, every
garment, however richly embroidered, lest it should entangle us in our
course. And then when we have set out, let us not conclude that we have
won the victory, but "run with patience," on, on, on, till at last we
reach the goal!
2, 3. 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 at the Throne of God. For consider Him who endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and
faint in your minds. What a runner in the race He was! And what a race
He ran! While we see Him at the end of the course, holding out the
crown, let us remember that He knows all the trials of the way, knows
what pressure must be put upon ourselves before we can reach the mark.
4. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Your
battles have been nothing yet–you think yourselves martyrs? What have
you done? What have you suffered? What have you endured, compared with
your Lord, compared with the saints of old?
5, 6. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as
unto children, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when you are rebuked by Him: For whom the Lord loves, He chastens
and scourges every son whom He receives. Here is another noble reason
for patience. That same trial which, on the one hand, comes from man,
viewed in another way comes from God–and is a chastening. Let us
accept it at His hands, regarding it as a token of sonship.
7, 8. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for
what son is he whom the father chastens not? But ifyou are without
chastisement, whereofall are partakers, then are you bastards, and not
sons. You have not your Father's love–you are not recognized as an
honorable member of His family.
9-13. 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
seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward if yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby.
Therefore 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. The Apostle cheers up
those who are tried, with the reflection that the good which will come
out of their trouble will abundantly recompense them. They are not to
expect to see that good at once. It will come afterwards–not yet. No
reasonable man expects the harvest at the same time that he sows. You
must wait a while–bear with patience–have confidence in God–and all
your trials will end well.
14. Follow peace with all men. You will not always get it, but follow
it–run after it.
14-17. And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking
diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God; lest any root of
bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest
there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright For you know how that afterward, when he
would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no
place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. He sold
his birthright. He could not have the pottage and the birthright, too,
and, therefore, he chose the pottage. He must stand to it. And if here,
today, we deliberately choose the pleasures of this world, we must not
marvel if we have to stand to them forever.
18-24. For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and
that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest.
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they
that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them
anymore. (For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so
much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust
through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I
exceedingly fear and quake). Butyou are come unto Mount Zion, and unto
the city ofthe living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church ofthe
firstborn, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of All,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the Mediator
of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better
things than that of Abel.The center around which we gather in these
days is not Sinai with its thunder and its fire–it is the Cross–no it
is Heaven! It is the enthroned Savior! It is the great Mediator of a
better Covenant than that of which Moses came to speak! We gather there
and we make up a part of that vast throng that now surrounds that
center. Oh, that we, while we hear the sweet voice of the Gospel, may
lend it a willing ear and may we not be among the number of those who
reject the voice that speaks from Heaven to us in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ!
25-28. See that you refuse not Him who speaks. For if they escaped not
who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from Him who speaks from Heaven, Whose voice then shook the
earth: but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also Heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies
the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are
made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore
we, receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have Grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For
let us not think that we are not to be reverent because we gather at
the
Gospel's call. Let us not dream that God who is a consuming fire on the
top of Sinai, is less terrible under the Gospel than under the Law, for
it is not so. 29. For our God is a consuming fire.