Hebrews 12

Verses 1-4. The weight is something outside; the sin that besets is something inside. The weight is not properly a sin; neither is the sin what people call their " besetting sin:" it is the whole principle of sin in you. Some things are much more easily recognized as sins than others are. It is not only Amalek that we have to meet, but Balaam, too. The Israelites got the victory over Amalek, but they were borne down with Balaam. Nothing does so much harm as the social element; so the wise woman says, " Forsake the foolish, and live; " just the opposite to Balaam, who says, Come into our company. Worldly society is intolerable to the true soul; the world cannot do you any good, and it does do you much harm; whereas, the company of the Lord's people should always be agreeable to you; for, though there may be failure in them, yet there is always Christ in them also. The more I walk with God, the more I draw out what is of Christ in you. Supposing you were all diamonds, and I brought a light into the room, how you would all shine! The difference between a piece of glass and a diamond is, that the glass lets the light through, but the diamond absorbs It. Christians should be all diamonds.
Well, what is a weight? Anything that hinders me; for instance, music. If I find it a snare, I throw it aside, just as I would a cloak that was in my way, if I were running a race. Whatever hinders a man from running, is a weight, for this is the race.
Paul was pressing on to the goal. I believe he saw it at his conversion. He saw the mark then, and he ran on to it ever after. If you say you cannot see your goal, I say, you cannot go to it then; and, what is more, you cannot race until you can worship. Worship is, that I am in spirit in my Father's house; racing is, that I am going home to it.
The race here is, in principle, the same as in 1 Cor. 9; only there the apostle is talking more of the way he has trained or disciplined himself for the race, rather than of the race itself. The point of that passage is, " Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." You must be a self-denying person. That is laying aside the weight. It is always so: after knowledge comes temperance. For every bit of divine knowledge that I get, I grow more temperate, more self-denying; I want less than I used; I give myself less gratification than I used. One can excuse a person who knows but little in a great many things; but we lay aside everything that we may go on; and the more we get on, the more we have to bear. The cross was the greatest trial, the greatest suffering, that could possibly be brought out. It is not redemption here; it is the martyr side of it only that is looked at. I need not say it is the same cross. But, just as if a horse can go over a six-barred gate it can go over a two, so, if you can bear the cross, you can bear anything. As to what he says of being a " castaway," it is, that he was writing to those who made much of their gifts. He says, if I stood upon my gift, I might be cast away; I do not go upon that ground at all. The believer can be subjected to very severe judicial treatment here; and that comes out in the chapter we are on. God says, I do not see you in the flesh at all; so you come into the holiest; but the flesh is in you, and, if you do not judge it, I must tear it from you; and that is where chastening comes in.
The Lord is always put first in everything; as it says in John, " When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them." It was " for the joy that was set before him." We can understand something of that joy; the martyrs had it at the stake; Stephen, no doubt, was full of it when he was going to the Lord. And we have not yet died; we have not all been martyrs yet.
Verses 5-11. It is extremely interesting how he brings in chastening here; not at all as we think, for we generally think chastening to be something very much out of the way, but the very pelting of the stones on Stephen was freeing him from the flesh, and setting him forever in the presence of God. And so persecutions and troubles here, they set us free from the flesh. Chastisement is too often connected in our minds with punishment; it is not so much that as correction. It is martyrdom, if you like; not retiring to have a happy evening to our days.' You are to lose the flesh; there must be the cross; so it is " mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;" there is something that must be got rid of; the flesh must be torn out of us in one way or another. It may come to special sins, but it is the whole thing that you have to get rid of. Thus we never can say we have got beyond the need of discipline. The chastening in 1 Cor. 11 is confined wholly to the body, because the believer has been eating and drinking unworthily. Here in Hebrews it is much wider. It is not simply punishing: He corrects you for something that would hinder you from running the race. Jonah might have said, why should you have let me get into all this trouble and affliction? Well, I gave you full instruction; it was because you would not bow to the word, and therefore you got the blow, If Paul had not had the flesh, he would not have needed the thorn; it was preventive. To Laodicea it is, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." God always speaks before He chastens. The Father's chastening has to do with everything; " If ye call on the Father, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."
Chastening may have to come upon you for failure; still, wonderful grace! if you be exercised thereby, you get all the good of it, just as if you had been walking righteously. In three ways my body is dealt with; first, governmentally, that is on account of my forefathers. I may have a sickly body because of the wickedness of my grandfather. In this the Lord gives me His sympathy. Secondly, on account of my own failure. In this I have exercise of heart and conscience. And thirdly "for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death." That is a distinct honor; a decoration won in the Lord's service. I think the persecution of the present day is the opposition of believers. A man who is faithful will have very few friends. The more exclusively you are set for Christ the fewer friends you will have; every one will be shy of you. The character of the present day is, be good friends with every one.
Verses 12-14. Go on steadily and follow peace and holiness, or more properly sanctification. Verses 15-17. Esau gave up his place in the inheritance. Verses 18-24. This is what we have come to. All this is what is connected with man. In chapter x. we get what we come to on God's side; here it is what is connected with our own side. It is everything as it now stands at this moment: it is not the future; it is not what you will come to. There are eight things mentioned; the " ands " separate and determine them.
Verses 25-29. He is going to shake everything. If we give it up now we shall have manifold more; if we hold to it, when everything is shaken we shall be shaken too.