The Believer's Race, Part 3

Jim ButlerHebrews 12:3–11

Hebrews 12:3–11 presents three reasons believers must persevere in the race of faith: the example of Christ who endured hostility from sinners, the forgotten exhortation of Proverbs 3 concerning divine discipline, and the Father's sovereign purpose in chastening every son He receives. The sermon argues that suffering and hardship are not evidence of God's absence or anger, but proof of the Father-son relationship and the means by which God conforms His people to the image of Christ. Believers are called to neither despise nor be discouraged by chastening, but to receive it as the painful yet fruit-bearing discipline of a loving Father, whose corrections are light in comparison with the sins that deserve them.