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Perseverance and Discipline - God’s and Ours
Hebrews 12:1-11
Some people have personal trainers. Loving church members have recommended I get one too. Why? Because the gym or track takes patience and discipline. But many don’t have it. It’s well-known that people buy gym passes at the beginning of the year, but stop going after a few weeks. But a dedicated personal trainer is paid to help you. You put in the work; he puts in the work. When you’re slack, he rebukes; he pushes and stretches you till your muscles burn. Now similarly, believers need patience and discipline to grow in holiness, self-denial, and faithfulness. But we do get slack. We fail to persevere and give up. But God helps us to be spiritual fit. This passage teaches us 2 truths we must know. Firstly, we must exercise discipline to persevere patiently. Secondly, God exercises patience to discipline lovingly.
Firstly, we must exercise discipline to persevere patiently. Countless people have done so. God has given us many examples to follow. 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.” It’s a cloud; a great number that persevered. But the names mentioned are a fraction. Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samuel all persevered. But not just them - many more from the New Testament and church history. Our Lord, Stephen, James, Paul, Perpetua and Felicity, Tyndale, Ursinus, all persevered. Many today persevere. And they’re all witnesses to us. To be sure, they’re not spectators of our stumbling; but witness to us of their running. And if they could run the race, so can we - “let us run.” As they were commanded and obeyed, so can we. When they were tempted, they didn’t give in. When opposed, they didn’t give up. Despite their weaknesses, they finished the race. So the command for us is to lay aside every weight to run the race. Why? They did it, so must we. They witness to us that it’s possible. Yes, we all struggle to be holy. Esther and Mordecai weren’t serious about their faith. He entered her in a pageant which included sleeping with the king. She hid her Jewish identity. But she loved not her life unto death. Abraham lied, not once but twice ,about Sarah being his wife, to Pharaoh and Abimelech. He feared for his life. But he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. Martha was bitter. Thomas doubted. James and John were the Sons of Thunder. But they all overcame. Thomas confessed Christ - my Lord and God! James was first to be martyred. John was the apostle of love.
So just as God gave them a race, he’s given us one too. He commands us to “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.” God has set this race before us. He prescribed it. Therefore, the goal of that race for us must be his goal. It’s not money or respectability, neither success nor esteem, nor position or fame. Christ’s goals for us are self-denial and holiness. And that race is difficult. We all have besetting sins. For some, it’s lust - you’re giving into unclean thoughts and actions. For others, it’s pride - you’re very sensitive; you must have your way and be right all the time. And for some, it’s covetousness - you want what you see. So for us, sanctification can be very slow. After 10 years, you still struggle with the same thing. Besetting sins are a thing. Therefore, to run this race, we must do 2 things.“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Firstly, we need patience to persevere. Living the Christian life is for the long haul. It’s not a sprint. It takes time to build spiritual muscle and strength. Holiness doesn’t come overnight. And that’s why it’s very common in our types of churches to substitute knowledge for true holiness. “I have more doctrinal precision!” But you still fight over small issues. “I’m more faithful because of what I confess!” But you’re not loving and patient with others. So yes, it’s easier to focus on knowledge. But that’s not the goal. We want Christ to be formed in us. And that takes patient perseverance. We need to deny self and renew our minds. We need to become like Christ. The word for patience literally means to remain under - to remain under instruction to run, obey, deny self, and be holy. This is God’s race for us. In the original Greek Olympics, there was a unique race. The winner wasn’t the runner who finished first but the one who finished with his torch still lit. Patience, not speed, was the most important factor.
But not just patience. We must have discipline - “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” If God has given us this race, then we must discipline ourselves to run it. This includes laying aside besetting sins. If the goal is holiness, then we need to put away our sins. And we each have areas to work on. It’s so easy to blame people. My wife is like this. My children don’t listen. My parents hurt me. We may say - “I got angry because she did this.” Others are the problem. But that’s not the right way to look at it. The problem is not always her. It’s you. If I shake a glass of water, and water spills out; what’s the reason? “Well, you shook the glass!” But no. The right answer? There’s water in the glass. If there was no water, it wouldn’t spill out. But we get angry because we have sinful anger. If there was none, we wouldn’t have gotten angry. So we must lay it aside. The Greek for “weight” is onkos, meaning a mass, where we get oncology. So your sins are tumors that must be cut away. Your anger, over-sensitivity, desire for respectability, lust, covetousness - they’re cancers. Sinful. Then there are things not sinful but harmful. Things of the world weigh us down. We indulge in our liberty. Yet we don’t use our liberty in Christ to pursue godly things. So we need to cut away these things. At a critical point, when the army of Alexander the Great advanced on Persia, they were about to be defeated. They’d taken so much plunder from previous campaigns they were weighed down. They weren’t effective in combat. So Alexander commanded the treasures burned. They complained bitterly, but it worked. Someone wrote - “It was as if wings had been given to them - they walked lightly again.” So we’re heavy and unfit, with the cancer of sins and worldly cares. Jesus said in Luke 21:34, “take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” But we can’t do this on our own. We need help.
God has given us Christ’s example. Verse 2 - “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.” Yes, many witness to us their perseverance. They ran patiently and were disciplined to cut away their cancer. But they did it by looking to Jesus. Like Moses. He was a prince of Egypt, but he looked away from Egypt to be numbered among God’s people. It affected him. He esteemed Christ as greater riches than Egypt. And Christ’s example helps us because he’s the author of our faith. We’re forgiven. We have eternal life because of him. But he’s also the finisher or perfecter of our faith. He helps us grow. We can’t succeed without his help. Peter could walk on water as long as his eyes were fixed on Christ. But once he looked at the waves, he started to sink. We’re united to Christ. When we look to him, we can press on. He was patient. He endured the cross and despised the shame. His race was tough. He had to lay aside weights. At Gethsemane, he sweat drops of blood as he set aside 2 things - his desire to live and his desire not to suffer God’s wrath. Do you know what your tumor is? Then you must despise it - discipline yourself to surgically remove it. So when we look to him, we can lay aside the weights. And what’s the result? We run the race and reach the goal. After he endured and set aside the shame, he sits at God’s right hand. He ran his race. Are we running ours? Is holiness your goal? For some of you are still on the same track. You’ve not cleared the hurdle God set for you. Until you do, you’ll be running the same lap. But if we run as he ran, we’ll overcome. Yes, sometimes we’re slack.
So secondly, God exercises patience to discipline lovingly. We’re distracted, weighed down, slow to change, and weak. Yet we don’t discipline ourselves to obey and become spiritually unfit. Sometimes everyone else sees the problem but us. As they say, the angry person is always the last to know. But God is very patient with believers. Verse 3 - “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” He knows we get faint and weary. He knows because he faced it. He went through a lot. He endured the hostility of sinners. His siblings didn’t believe in him at first - they even ridiculed him. The religious elite called him a drunk and a glutton. He endured the mocking at the cross. And he knew his disciples would face such hostility. They were a motley crew; slow to learn, argumentative, and inconsistent. They fled when he was arrested. But he showed patience. He restored Peter by the shores of Galilee. He’s patient, but he commands us to press on. Listen to the stern words in verse 4 - “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” He switched from a race analogy to a fight. It shows the Hebrew Christians were fighting for their faith. But the author said it wasn’t not that bad yet. Their fight against sin and the world wasn’t that severe. It hadn’t gotten to the point of death. They weren’t at the stage of Christ yet. He fought the fight of faith until he died. He was crucified. At Gethsemane, he was tempted to give up. He shed drops of blood. But didn’t give in. When his head, hands, and feet flowed with blood, he asked God to forgive the Roman soldiers. If he didn’t give in when he was dying and bleeding, why should we give up when we’re not dying and bleeding? Our fight hasn’t reached that stage. You’re still standing. Your cares of the world don’t compare to Christ’s at the wilderness, garden, and cross. How can you be weary and faint? Some believers like to talk about going to heaven. Why? How can you give up? Learn to take a punch. Learn to keep fighting sin. You haven’t even tasted blood yet. At Gethsemane, his struggle was so great. He asked his disciples to watch but they slept. He exercised great patience - “what, could you not even watch an hour with me?” “You’re tired?! I’m going to the cross!” At Caiaphas’ palace, Peter saw Christ beaten and bloodied. But he denied Christ 3 times. At the last denial, “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.” That patient look spoke volumes. I’m suffering and bleeding, but you deny me to escape? Beloved, God’s very patient - he only rebukes.
Many of us don’t know what true struggle is. We give in after being tempted once or twice. We’re fear being canceled, so we don’t speak up. We’re fear failure, so we miss many Lord’s Days. But no one ever held a knife to our throats. Our struggles are so tame, and yet we deny Christ. So the author has switched from encourager to admonisher - like a personal trainer who encourages and bears with our excuses, but now scolds and pushes us. Some of you struggle with besetting sins like lust. Despite knowing God’s Word, you haven’t kept your eyes or body from unclean things. You won’t discipline yourself to put it away. You come to your gym sessions eating a cream pie and expect your trainer not to say anything? You expect to treat Christ lightly and disregard worship, and get outraged when Christ’s officers say something? Or you’re easily offended, but despite constant encouragement to change, you don’t; then you’re shocked when you’re rebuked?
Christ exercises patience but disciplines. Why? God disciplines whom he loves. Verse 5 “And have you forgotten encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline. Don’t give up when he corrects you.” The Hebrew Christians had neglected God’s Word. Chapter 5 says they hadn’t progressed in faith. They were still like babies in their spiritual maturity. They were taught - “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.” But didn’t obey; so they were still anxious. They were also taught - “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” But they also didn’t obey, and still nursed their sins. Perhaps they were urged - “Repent!” And they replied, “Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow.” They were rebuked, “You must change, you’re the problem!” But they replied, “How can you say that? You’re so unloving!” Or in chapter 10, he said - “You must meet together. Judgment Day’s coming?” They replied, “It’s not coming that soon.” So they despised the chastening words of the Lord. When we do that, we won’t change. If we only want to hear nice things that affirm our sin, then we’ll continue in sin. But if we continue in sin, then we’ll experience God’s loving discipline. Why? God won’t let us go if we’re his children. Verse 6 - “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Perhaps that’s why for some of us, we experience ongoing, repeated, difficult trials. Because we won’t lay aside those cancers, God has to prune them from us. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). Trials cause us to face our sins to deal with them. But if we don’t, they’ll trouble us until we learn to triumph. Remember, his goal for us is holiness. He’s interested in that. He’s not interested in our ease. If we don’t stop being angry, we hurt those around us. If we always want our way, we frustrate our loved ones. If we always lie, we’ll never be trusted. The fact we reap negative consequences is God’s loving discipline. He wants us to change. We belong to him. Whom he loves, he disciplines. This proves we’re children. Are you experiencing ongoing trials because you neglect God’s Word? God’s dealing with you as a father with his children, verse 7. Those who live in their sins but don’t experience the struggle, are not children. Their conscience isn’t pricked. Why? They’re illegitimate, verse 8. They’re fake. If you’ve rejected God’s Word and keep living in sin, without remorse - you may not be a child of God.
Therefore, as children, respond rightly to God’s discipline. What’s our response to God’s discipline? There are wrong responses to discipline and trials. Verse 5 tells us not to despise God’s chastening. Don’t take it lightly. Some treat problems as if they’re nothing. Or they blame others. When the problems go away, they revert back to their old sinful ways. In CS Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain, he wrote - “God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Problems are meant to shake us out of comfort. So we must never take them lightly. But sometimes we take it too heavily. Verse 5 warns us not to faint when we are rebuked by God. Sometimes, we give up because we fail to respond to God’s discipline. We don’t grow in holiness.
So how do we respond? Verse 7 - endure chastening. To be patient, accept it and learn from it. I’m an angry person. I’m lustful. I’m overly sensitive. I’m the weaker brother. I’m a spiritual midget with lots of doctrinal knowledge. We’re to draw proper conclusions and correct ourselves. Proverbs 3:11 says, “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction.” If we don’t like what we’re reaping, change what we sow. God uses such situations to scourge us, verse 6 - to cane us back to form. Yes, it’s painful. Verse 11 - no present chastening is joyful, it’s actually grievous - but “nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” If you respond correctly, your faith will blossom and bear fruit, you’ll grow in grace. As verse 10 says, he disciplines us for our profit that we might be holy.
Are you having a some issue in your life? Maybe you’re not walking aright. Maybe there’s some tumor - whether sin or worldly care - you must shed. Get rid of it. That’s the right way to respond to discipline. To germinate, some seeds need to be passed through the harsh digestive tracts of birds. Or they need forest fires to prepare them to bring forth new life. This makes them receptive to the water they need to grow. Some of us are like those seeds which need such opposition to challenge our hardness. We don’t take Christ seriously until something drastic happens. He doesn’t want us to remain as seeds, but to grow into fruit bearing trees. Yes, our loving Father never lets us suffer needlessly. But he allows these harsh acids and hot fires to soften our hearts. And remember - you have not resisted unto blood. It may feel like it - but these are the author’s words. You haven’t. It’s not bad when you compare it to what our Lord went through. But this is important. Let yourself be shaken (but not broken) by your trial, so you’d look to Christ and patiently exercise your faith and set aside your sin. Remember that God is interested in your holiness.
The Lord Jesus went through great suffering for your sins - so that he would redeem you. He went through the agonies of hell all his life, but especially at the end, so that he might redeem for himself a holy people. He was whipped and scourged for us. He carried the great weight of the cross for us. And underwent a great trial of fire for us. He bled for us in the garden, at his trial, and the cross. Why? So he would redeem for himself a people. Are you a legitimate child of God? Then you must persevere and discipline yourself towards holiness. Our Lord never gave up.
1. We Must Exercise Discipline to Persevere Patiently
A. God has given us examples
B. God has given us this race
C. God has given us Christ’s example
2. God Exercises Patience to Discipline Lovingly
A. God is very patient with believers
B. God disciplines those he loves
C. Our response to God’s discipline
Conversation for Change:
1. What are clear evidences that the Lord Jesus and his kingdom are your goals today? How are you leading your family in that goal?
2. What are the weights and sins you need to shed?
3. How much of the problems you experience a result of your own lack of perseverance? Can you see God’s discipline in it?
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Mark Chen, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2025, Rev. Mark Chen
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