Hebrews 12:1 The Exemplar of Faith. I. The cloud of witnesses is not the object on which our heart is fixed. They testify of faith, and we cherish their memory with gratitude, and walk with a firmer step because of the music of their lives. Our eye, however, is fixed, not on them, not on many, but... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:1 The Visible Church an Encouragement to Faith. I. Certainly it cannot be denied, that if we surrender our hearts to Christ and obey God, we shall be in the number of the few. So it has been in every age; so it will be to the end of time. It is hard, indeed, to find a man who gives himse... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:2 I. If man is to become good, it is, above all, needful that he should learn to hate evil; and to hate it, not alone because of its uselessness or inexpediency, but because of its inherent badness. Now here a look at the Cross of Jesus supplies the need. To those who will only open thei... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:3 I. St. Paul, in the verses of our text, gives us a plain, serious reason for frequent meditation upon Christ's sufferings. It is _not_that we may learn to see how far human cruelty and intolerance can go; it is not that we may pride ourselves on being at least better than the savages w... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:3 I. Chastisement is sent by fatherly love. There, where we are most sensitive, God touches us. The thorn in the flesh is something which we fancy we cannot bear if it were to be lifelong. We have emerged, as it were, out of a dark tunnel, and fancy that the rest of our journey will be a... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:4 It belongs to a good man to strive against sin. It sounds like a contradiction, indeed, for how should a good man have any sin to strive against? Nevertheless it is true; for as absolute goodness is not to be found in this fallen world, we must be willing to accept those efforts after... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:7 (REVISED VERSION) I. The word _endure_is no tame word. It means something widely different from insensibility, or proud defiance. Stoicism is no Christian virtue. Obstinate and contemptuous superiority to pain has no place here. This may possibly save a waste of passion in the sufferer;... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:12 Religious Cowardice.. The encouragement which we derive from St. Mark's history is, that the feeblest among us may, through God's grace, become strong; and the warning to be drawn from it is to distrust ourselves, and, again, not to despise weak brethren or to despair of them, but to... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:14 The Peaceful Temper. There are many particular duties in which Christianity and worldly wisdom meet, both recommending the same course. One of these is the duty mentioned in the text, viz., that of being at peace with others. The reason which worldly prudence suggests is the quiet an... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:14 Peace and Holiness. The two exhortations to follow peace with all men and that holiness without which none can see the Lord comprise the whole Christian life. I. The characteristic feature of the Church ought to be the spirit of peace. Christians are faithful to God, and to His trut... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:16 Profanity in the Home. In Scripture there are few characters more profitable for study than Esau. Whether we look at his circumstances, or his temper, or the line along which the tragedy of his life developed, we get nearer to this man, and find in him more that resembles ourselves, m... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:18 The Blessedness of the Christian Life. A Christian Jew is writing to Christian Jews, who stand in some danger of falling back to the religion they had abandoned. This writer is here, as every one sees, contrasting the two systems, the old and the new, the law and the Gospel, with a v... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:18 Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. In this passage are mentioned seven great and solemn heavenly realities. I. Mount Zion. Mount Sinai represents the law. It manifests the majesty of God above us as creatures, the wrath of God against us as sinners; it reveals to us God's judgment and our... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:18 , HEBREWS 12:22 Sinai and Sion. I. The points of contrast in the text are, that Sinai was the emblem of a sensuous, and Sion of a spiritual, economy, and that Sinai was a system of rigour, and the Gospel is a system of love. Sinai is represented as the mount that might be touched, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:18 , HEBREWS 12:22 Sinai and Sion. I. The points of contrast in the text are, that Sinai was the emblem of a sensuous, and Sion of a spiritual, economy, and that Sinai was a system of rigour, and the Gospel is a system of love. Sinai is represented as the mount that might be touched, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:22 Where and with whom faith lives. I. Where faith lives. (1) The life of a man who has truly laid hold of Jesus Christ, and so is living by faith, is on its inward side that is, in deepest reality a life passed in the dwelling of the great King. (2) The privilege has for its other side... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:23 Faith's Access to the Judge and His Attendants. I. Faith plants us at the very bar of God. "Ye are come to God the Judge of all." (1) Here is a truth which it is the office of faith to realise continually in our daily lives. He would be a bold criminal who would commit crimes in the v... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:24 The Messenger of the Covenant and its Seal. I. God's revelation to us is in the form of a covenant. The promises of the covenant are, full forgiveness as the foundation of all, and built upon that knowledge of God inwardly illuminating and making a man independent of external helps,... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:25 Refusing God's Voice. I. We have here, first of all, the solemn possibility of refusal. It is possible for Christian people so to cherish wills and purposes which they know to be in diametrical and flagrant contradiction to the will and purpose of God, that obstinately they prefer to... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:26 The Shaking of Sinai and Calvary. I. That voice of Sinai was a shaking of earthly things. How were nations dispossessed? How were thrones tumbled into the dust? How was the course of human history and human life changed or directed by that shaking of Sinai? And so with the shaking vo... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:27 Things which cannot be shaken. In this remarkable verse the writer goes to the heart of the philosophy of religion and of history. He declares that through the ages runs one ever-increasing purpose, and this purpose is the will of God. I. It is said that when the King of Prussia vis... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:28 The Immovable Kingdom. Consider the immobility of the kingdom which we receive and the service which citizenship in this kingdom requires. I. The immovable character of the kingdom of God. Even a careless observer and superficial thinker will not fail to recognise, in the midst of al... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:28 The Religion of the Day. In every age of Christianity, since it was first preached, there has been what may be called a religion of the world, which so far imitates the one true religion as to deceive the unstable and unwary. The world does not oppose religion _as such._It has in all... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 12:29 I. In the word "fire" there is the idea of purity, which belongs as an essential quality to the element itself. It is not possible to conceive of flame as impure. The material which is being consumed may be impure, the smoke which proceeds from the flame may be thick and black and suf... [ Continue Reading ]