Editor's thought: John 13:1 tells us that, about to offer His body as a living sacrifice to rescue us, Jesus was determined to FINISH (John 19:30). Jesus loved us "TO THE END". That's a loyalty-unto-death love! Jesus deserves the same from us. Authentic saving faith endures to the last breath, and is rewarded afterward with a "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21) Remember, this is family! ... where life begins... and love never ends. (Ephesians 1:5). What a travesty that many "bail" on Jesus when adversity strikes!
Scripture References: – 2 Timothy 4:1–4 – 2 Peter 3:17-18 – 1 Timothy 4:7
“I charge you in the presence of “God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For THE TIME IS COMING WHEN PEOPLE WILL NOT ENDURE sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and WILL TURN AWAY from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
“You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also FALL from your own steadfastness, being LED AWAY with the error of the wicked; but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever, – Amen.”
I have FOUGHT the good fight, I have finished the race, I have KEPT the faith”
Never before has there been a time in my life where I think more about my desire to finish well. I constantly feel the evil one, the great tempter, is working hard to get me to throw in the towel, keeping me in a state of discouragement. My condition (Central Pain Syndrome) weighs heavy on me every moment of the day, and although I do my best to rest in the sufficiency of God’s grace, I still have far too many dark nights of the soul.
I’m ready to be with the Lord whenever He says it’s my time, and until that day, I pray for the strength to do the work to which I’ve been called, and to do it well. Where I can’t ever imagine myself abandoning the gospel and my calling, we live in a day and age where many shipwreck from the faith.
Like Demas, many today have made such deep friendship with the world, that their fleshly desires take over their souls and have led them down the path of destruction. I spent an hour this evening talking with a dear friend who paroled from Folsom Prison after 25 years. He is living in a transitional living facility in Palm Desert. Doug endured some amazingly difficult years and the rigor of prison life has left many scars. Despite his strong faith in the Lord, I saw him in a state of mind that bothered me.
He’s been out of prison for several months and it was critical that he find a job at the earliest. He’s been discouraged and let down day after day, from companies that are not “felon friendly” - interviews that look promising that end up going nowhere. He’s trying to remain strong, but almost feels like the Lord has not heard his prayers and has distanced himself from Him. God has watched over Doug and His preserving grace has sustained him through many long years of prison.
My friend is going to make it because he is a man of steadfast faith. We all go through periods of time where our afflictions and adversity cause us to temporarily question the sovereignty of God. The Lord puts us through times like these in order to build our faith and to drive us to a deeper dependance upon Him.
Please keep my friend Doug in prayer. He needs to get a job for a little less than a year, at which time, he plans to move to Hawaii to be with his son and daughter. I’m confident that God will lift his spirit and that he will look back on these days of struggle, and see them as God working for Doug’s good and for God’s glory.
Forsaking Christ (what we call apostasy) is commonplace these days. Many who once walked an aisle, raised a hand, received the Word with joy, and were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have now renounced that very name! We’d all like to think that we are living in the last days. Scripture tells us that we can expect many to turn to the love of the world and to depart from the faith.
Since the apostles’ day, apostasies have been always present and ever sad. People like Judas, Demas, Jesus’s “stony ground hearers,” well-known Christian leaders of our day, and some of our own sons and daughters all too frequently forsake Christ to return to their lives before “conversion” or to some other lifestyle or worldview more appealing than the Savior’s (e.g., Matthew 13:20-22; John 6:60-66; 2 Timothy 4:10; Hebrews 6:4-6; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 20-22;).1 John 2:18-19; Jude 17-19.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to counter apostasy. This makes it a go-to Scripture for any wanting to reconnect to Christ those who have been adrift (Hebrews 2:1). The remedy for apostasy is simple: Hebrews tells those at risk of forsaking Jesus to consider Him (3:1). That’s it. Though he’ll fill in the details in the rest of Hebrews, the inspired author’s direct and brief counsel is this: “Consider Jesus.”
Spiritual Cancer and Cure
To consider Jesus is to look at and to him (12:2), to fix our thoughts on Jesus, and to contemplate all we can about him—all He is, says, does, rules, wields, promises, accomplishes, and fulfills.
Contemplate all Jesus is, says, does, rules, wields, promises, accomplishes, and fulfills.
I’m disease-and-cure-minded these days. I live these days with an incurable pain disease called “Central Pain Syndrome.” While apostasy is all around, THIS soul is not going to be defined by the temporary condition which plagues my body. I will continue my daily meditation on Christ and His Word, and not on the daily medications from a bottle. I’ve summarized the Hebrews approach like this: if forsaking Jesus is the disease, then considering Jesus daily is the cure.
As simplistic as that might sound, it’s anything but. Jesus is the soul (and, with apologies, the sole) cure for apostasy.
What Is It to CONSIDER Jesus?
To know Jesus is eternal life (John 17:3). And considering Him means to grow in the knowledge of him and to value knowing him above all else (Philippians 3:8-10; 2 Peter 1:2; 3:18). It’s to center our adoring attention on the person and work of Christ, which is precisely what Hebrews does.
To consider Jesus is to make the knowledge of Christ—in all his unchanging beauty and unchangeable glory—the center and source of our joy. We can find daily delight in him.
To remedy apostasy in our time, I commend the Hebrews cure: a consideration and contemplation of all of these qualities and more.
Apply the Cure
In that light, I offer three spiritually healing exercises for the soul on the brink of apostasy:
1. Listen to faithful expository preaching on Hebrews (start with anything by R. C. Sproul or John Piper).
2. Read through Hebrews repeatedly (5 to 10 times) and create a list of our Savior’s names, titles, and descriptors—and then explore what each one means. Jesus Christ...
● is the radiance of God’s glory, the imprint of his nature, and the upholder of his universe (1:3)
● commands the hosts of heaven (1:6, 7, 14)
● is crowned with glory and honor (2:7–8)
● is our merciful and faithful High Priest (2:17, 18; 3:1; 4:14–16)
● is the faithful beloved Son over God’s house (3:2–6)
● gives everlasting rest (4:1–10)
● learned obedience through suffering (5:3–9)
● was perfected through suffering (2:10)
● is the anchor for our drifting and drowning souls (6:19–20)
● is our refuge and hope (6:17, 18)
● guarantees and mediates a better covenant (7:22; 8:6–12; 12:24)
● continues forever (7:21, 24)
● always lives to intercede for us (7:25)
● is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens (7:26)
● is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’s majesty on high (1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2)
● offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins (7:27; 9:13–14; 10:10–18)
● writes his law on our hearts (8:10; 10:16)
● remembers our sins no more (8:12; 10:16–17)
● is the founder and perfecter of our faith (2:10; 12:2)
● for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised its shame (12:2)
● has a kingdom that cannot be shaken (12:28–29)
● promises a better home in a better city in a better country (11:10, 14–16; 13:14)
● is the Lord our helper so we will not fear (13:6)
● is in all his ways and works the same yesterday, today, and forever (13:8)
● bore our reproach outside the camp as the sacrificial scapegoat for our sins (13:12–14)
● is the great shepherd of the sheep (13:20–21)
3. Become familiar enough with those ascriptions and descriptions to include them in your prayers to the Lord:
● Dear eternal Son of God. I worship you as Lord of all the heavenly hosts; the One who tells the angels what to do and sends them forth to serve us . . .
● Dear Lord Jesus Christ, you are God’s anointed King, whose throne is forever and ever . .
● Dear Mediator and merciful High Priest and Savior. You sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high to intercede for me . . .
● Dear atoning Lord, you are our single sacrifice for sin, our helper forever, the great Shepherd of your sheep . . .
● Dear sovereign Savior—you are the same yesterday, today, and forever—I worship you, my unchanging God . . .
● Dear Lord Jesus, you are holy, innocent, undefiled, and separate from sinners—would you please help me to be like you?
Humbly learn of Christ in these ways (through Hebrews and the rest of Scripture), and then address Him accordingly, so your knowledge of Christ will grow deep and your soul will be healed of all spiritual wanderlust.
May the knowledge of Christ, in all of His unchanging beauty and unchangeable glory, be the center and source of our joy!
Fix Your Eyes
If you are on the path toward apostasy, you may accelerate if you fix your eyes on things that aren’t Christ: the failures of other Christians; evil and and suffering in the world; and, chiefly, yourself and your personal desires, doubts, fears, and questions. This gaze away from Jesus naturally causes faith to falter, just as Peter started to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused instead on the frightening wind (Matthew 14:29-31).
Hebrews is clear on the cure, and it’s a simple “fix”. "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter” of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). None of us will finish the race if our eyes are on our pain, exhaustion, prison life, and the many perils ahead on: ”the race before us.” We’ll endure only if we keep our eyes on the prize, who is also the power, and who is also the founder and perfecter of our faith.
Hebrews tells us what to do next: “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put our of joint but rather be healed” (vv, 12-13).
Is your faith weak and ill? Look to Jesus. Be headed. Run on. Finish well.
From: Fight the Good Fight of Faith / Life Journal: By Gregg Harris
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