CONSIDERING THINGS
Rodney Brown
Hebrews 3: 1, 2; 12: 1-3; 13: 7, 8; 10: 23-25
What comes into the scriptures that I have read is the matter of considering things. We are reading Hebrews locally and have read Hebrews 3 where we are exhorted to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. In looking at that scripture, profitably, a week or so ago, it occurred to me that I had not considered that enough and that there are things that always bear consideration. It is very easy to find your mind and your energy taken up with things that are not in themselves wrong but are not profitable. If Scripture tells us to consider something, you can be sure it is worth considering. If Scripture exhorts us to consider things, it is because there is benefit for us and glory for God as we do so. I have to say that I have not considered things sufficiently but I can say that if in any measure we do make time available, and the Holy Spirit helps us in doing so, it is never time wasted. I cannot say that about anything else that I use my time for. But in considering the Scriptures, considering the theme of the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus, and considering what is precious to Him and His saints, those with whom we are set, and the testimony, I think there is profit and there is blessing and not just for time, but it will have a result in eternity because we are in a time of formation, and formation does not come about by reading about current events and being taken up with them; that is not going to result in “an eternal weight of glory”, 2 Cor 4: 17.
Benefit and profit come from considering what is of interest to God, and that must be what relates to the Lord Jesus Himself. So, I am simply setting this out because I know there is benefit in doing so and that it is profitable and a positive exercise for us all. And it is uplifting when we do make time and prove the Spirit’s help in doing so. It is uplifting to be engaged with the things that we were engaged with in the reading and to realise that they are ours, that they belong to us. The Holy Spirit makes them real in our hearts. We talked about what yet awaits us in a coming day, but the Spirit is “the earnest of our inheritance”, Eph 1: 14. That is, He gives us the benefit and the experience in some way, a foretaste of it now, and He does that in an adverse scene, and, as we lay ourselves open to the Holy Spirit, all these things are so.
So, we are exhorted to consider these things, and it is an exercise for me to make sufficient time available to do so. We benefit from being together. We consider things as we are together, but I think the intention is that there should be consideration of these things in our personal lives, in our private time, that they should so lay hold of us that we form habits, good habits. We have read of a habit that is not good, “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”, but there are such things as good habits, and we can set ourselves for these things, and that relates to considering things rightly. And the enemy hates when we do that. The enemy wants to engage us with things that we can explain away, that are legitimate, where we think that there is no harm in them. The enemy will gladly let us engage our minds with these things and really, in considering, it is our minds that are essential. They are the way to our hearts, but we need to think on things. Paul could say, “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things”, 2 Tim 2: 7. The Holy Spirit, who Himself is God, and indwells believers, can help us in these things. He does not force these things on us; we need to make way for Him. Everyone here, I trust, knows something of what I am talking about. The Holy Spirit loves to open these things up. We had a reference in the reading to John 16 where the Lord Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, “but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”, v 13. Elsewhere in John 16 the Lord Jesus says, “he receives of mine and shall announce it to you”, v 15. Well, if we are not considering these things, we are not going to get the benefit of them, but there is great profit in being engaged with these things.
You might say that the present day is a difficult day and there is a lot to take our attention, and so there is. I was reading something in relation to this. This is something that a brother said in service, ‘He, the enemy of our souls, is making the world as attractive as possible. All kinds of astonishing things are being developed to hold our minds and to anchor our souls in this poor scene so that we might not be heavenly in our outlook though we have been called with a heavenly calling. When do you think that was ministered? 1951! Do you think that brother would have any idea about the ‘kinds of astonishing things’ that hold our attention? This has been the enemy’s work from the beginning of time. The exercises that we face are different. The exercises that you have will be different from the exercises I face or have faced when I was your age, if you are younger than me, but essentially it is the same exercise. 1951 is some time ago. I wonder what these ‘astonishing things’ were! I do not think we would find them too astonishing now, but nevertheless Satan would try to take our minds away from the things of God, rob the saints of our heavenly portion, our heavenly calling, engage us with things down here rather than engaging us with Christ where He is in glory. That is where the Spirit is ordering our gaze; that is where we are going to spend eternity. Does it not become saints, believers in the Lord Jesus, to make time to consider things that are profitable, that fit us for that day? We have been called with a “heavenly calling”.
I want to speak about three things we are to consider: our calling; our confession; and our conversation. The calling is a tremendous thing, which lifts our view to what we were discussing in the reading. That is what our calling relates to, being “conformed to the image of his Son”, Rom 8: 29. It does not involve us in things down here but has its effect down here, and we will come on to that. What a calling it is! It is described in the Scripture where we have read as “the heavenly calling”. It is also described elsewhere as “a holy calling” (2 Tim 1: 9) and as “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Phil 3: 14. It does not relate to this scene. It relates to a scene of blessing where the Lord Jesus is, and we are to “consider” our “calling”, brethren. When did you last “consider your calling”? I would challenge myself as to that. Is it sufficiently attractive, is it sufficiently central in your life, that you consider it as you should? I am sure many here are further on in this than I am, but I would just seek to stimulate interest and encourage the saints to go in for the things that God has prepared for us, “prepared for them that love him”, 1 Cor 2: 9. If your affections are engaged in these things, you will find the time to go in for them. It is easy to be diverted, and it is easy to stand up here and speak about them, but the test comes on Monday morning with the pressures of work or whatever other reason I find to divert me from these things. Obviously, we have to find our way through here, but I would seek to engage us with what is heavenly because it is profitable; it is beneficial; and there is blessing in it; but more than that, that is what God is looking for in His people at this time.
So, our calling: it says, “there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born”. But God has chosen certain things that the world thinks nothing of. Well, that is a test because we do not like to be held in low esteem by the world, but the calling dignifies persons. The calling dignifies me and it dignifies you, and what blessing there is in meeting together where we have been set, in our local places with those that are called saints, that is, saints by divine calling. It dignifies persons, and engenders respect. We spoke about that in the reading, how things that we were engaged with have an effect horizontally, that is, among the brethren, between one and another; but what blessing it is to be engaged in these things. Well, God may have chosen a certain way to make these things known. It does not say there are not any wise; it says, “there are not many wise according to flesh”, but, dear brethren, we are not looking at this in relation to flesh or the world’s view. We are looking at it from the divine side, and the calling relates to what is heavenly and eternal, and it behoves us to be engaged with that.
In Hebrews we have something about the calling in chapter 3. “Holy brethren” - there is the dignity that the calling confers on persons - “partakers of the heavenly calling”. So we partake in it; we have fellowship together in it; we enjoy it together; we were partaking of it in the reading and enjoying what was coming in, relating to the Lord Jesus where He is because that is where our heavenly calling relates to, the Lord Jesus where He is.
We have to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus”, that personal name. Is that not attractive? Does that not warm your heart that such a One, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” is Jesus, the One who suffered, the One who died, the One that you have come to know, that loved you and gave Himself for you? That blessed One is “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. So, it is a “heavenly calling”; it is a high calling; it is a “holy calling”, but “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” relates to how that is worked out down here. The “confession” relates to earth, but we have “such a high priest”, as it says elsewhere in Hebrews (chap 7: 26), to help us in that. So, the Apostle sets out God’s mind as to things and the High Priest maintains us in relation to what the Apostle sets out. “The Apostle and High Priest” for us is Jesus; it is the same Person. Moses was the apostle and Aaron was the high priest for the children of Israel, and at times they did not act as one. There is no suggestion of failure, clearly, with our Apostle and High Priest. The One that we are considering is Jesus. Mr Raven says the Apostle is like the revelation of God and the High Priest is our approach in response. Many here will have heard that the response is equal to the revelation. It must be so because the Apostle and High Priest is Jesus; it is the same Person. He maintains things in perfection; He has made these things known; He has come out from God with them and set them out authoritatively. Think of Him inaugurating things as the Apostle! He has done so. He has set out the thing in its perfection. But then the High Priest, the same One, He ensures that the response is equal to that. He maintains the saints at the height of their calling. We were reminded of that too, another of Mr Raven’s statements, that the Apostle maintains the calling at its height and the High Priest maintains the saints at the height of their calling, vol 16 p44. Are you conscious of that? These might appear to be complicated things but, essentially, as you rely on the Lord Jesus, He can help you in these things, help you understand, and as we consider Him, that is the secret of it. The ministry that has come down to us is clearly helpful, but you have to consider the Person. How attractive it is that it is all in a blessed Person, a blessed Man, and that Man is Jesus. I would seek to engage you with Him, “Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. Jesus, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”, is how we prove Him here. You might say the confession is here but it is directed in accordance with the calling. The calling dignifies the confession.
What can we say about the confession? It involves what we say. We know that we have come into salvation through believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth, Rom 10: 9. Blessed matter! It really involves the testimony here, and the testimony is maintained by One who is the “High Priest of our confession”. But it is more than what we say: it is what we are. Mr Raven said, ‘I do not care for a man’s doctrine if his manner of life does not correspond’, vol 9 p483. Does that strike home? Our confession is to be in keeping with our doctrine. I am not saying that because I think that is not the case, but it struck home to me because so much has come down to me, others have maintained things through relying on “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. Things have come down to us in the Holy Spirit. What have I done with them? Have I in any way taken them on? Have I in any way passed on an impression of them to the following generation? That is all involved in “our confession”. It involves the way we are together but it involves what we are when we are not with each other. It involves what we are in the testimony, when we are out without the brethren seeing us but with “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” with us, able to help us, able to maintain things and maintain us we have resource in Him; we have resource in the Holy Spirit. That is a tremendous thing, to be able to pass through this scene conscious of our calling, because that gives colour and character to our confession if it has laid hold of our lives, and we are thankful to be in a company where this is so. But I need to be exercised that it remains the case and that there is something that can be seen that is in keeping with such a calling as this.
Well, Hebrews 12 was referred to in the reading. These verses are encouraging, particularly the exhortation to look “stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”. It does not say there ‘considering’ but “looking stedfastly” is closely aligned to that. The note is often referred to, ‘It means, looking away from other things and fixing the eye exclusively on one’, note ‘d’. Who are we to fix our eye exclusively on? On Jesus, that personal name again. It comes out in Hebrews. How attractive it is, “the leader and completer of faith”. You will never regret “looking stedfastly” on Him. He has set the matter on and completed it. What a glorious One He is!
But what has it cost Him? “In view of the joy lying before him, endured”, and that is one of the things we have to consider, “him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself”. No one has endured like the Lord Jesus. Saints go through things, and we feel for one another as that is the case. Body feelings are extant among the saints, and we are glad of them and we feel for each other and we rejoice with each other. Often body feelings come to light when persons are facing exercises and difficulties. Well, in any difficulty we can “consider well him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself”. There was nothing in Him to call out that contradiction; there was nothing in Him to call out enmity from these sinners ”against himself”, but He endured, and He went through with it. There is another footnote, to “consider well”; ‘“Weigh so as to judge its value”, and sometimes in comparison with other things’. Here we are to “consider well him”. It seems to be an additional emphasis on considering, ‘Weigh so as to judge its value’. Have you considered the Lord Jesus in that light, and what conclusion have you come to? We have been occupied in the reading with heaven’s conclusion, and I know that I am addressing a company that holds the Lord Jesus in their affections.
What about the endurance of this blessed One? Have you thought about it? Think of Him enduring! The copper in the altar speaks of it, I think. Think of what He bore! Think of what He was able to withstand. He “endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself”. It should touch us in our affections, draw our hearts out in relation to that blessed Man who has “endured so great contradiction”, not on His own account but because of me and because of you, and so that God may have His desires in those that are His. “That ye be not weary, fainting in your minds” almost implies that if we do not consider things as we are enjoined to in the Scriptures, we will lose appetite to do so. We will become “weary”; we will faint; we will not be maintained in energy and in life, the requisites for the enjoyment of things here and the enjoyment of our heavenly portion, our heavenly calling. I can say from experience that obviously this is so. If I do not think about the Lord Jesus enough, it is not that my mind becomes weary, but, as occupied with other things, I am faint and I am weary and I cannot find the time or the energy or the desire to look into spiritual things. Well, it needs a fresh look at “him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself”; so He is the answer to this weariness and fainting. He would maintain us in life; He would maintain us in reality; and it is encouraging when we come across other believers that we walk with, and sometimes that we do not, that have this life and are happy to speak about it. I was stopped in the street in Glasgow last week by a woman who gave me something. She did not say much, and I looked at it and said, ‘Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus?’. She said, ‘Yes, He makes me live’. What an encouragement that was; so the Lord Jesus makes us live, gives us life, quickens us in our affections after Himself. What a blessing it is! And as we consider Him “well”, we have the wherewithal not to be weary and not to faint in our minds.
The next scripture is in chapter 13: 7. I am not sure if there is too much of a difference to be made between the “confession” and the “conversation”. Again, the footnote ‘n’ says, ‘conduct,’ ‘manner of life’. This relates to leaders that have led and are no longer available, who have been taken to be with the Lord. There is another reference to leaders, who are current leaders, v 17. We were reading Hebrews 4 last Lord’s day. It speaks there about “the word of God” being “living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword”, v 12. The hallmark of leaders in the context of this chapter here is that they “have spoken to you the word of God”. What a blessing has come about as a result! It is not just that they ‘have spoken the word of God’, but “they have spoken to you the word of God”, almost as if it is that “living and operative” word that has had entrance and divides in the way that we read of in Hebrews 4. We have known persons like that, and we have benefited from teaching that has come down to us. We have benefited from written ministry, which also bears this stamp of speaking to us the word of God. If you are reading ministry in the Spirit, you can feel your affections being engaged and a quickening touch coming in. The ministry could have been written long ago. I have quoted from ministry that was given in 1951 by a brother that I had never heard of before, but that spoke to me. That is what the word of God can do, and those that speak “to you the word of God” have your blessing in mind. Sometimes it may be that you do not want to hear it. I know I have been like that, but I can tell you I am thankful now for those “who have spoken to you the word of God”.
That is one thing, but then “considering the issue of their conversation” - their ‘conduct’, their ‘manner of life’ - “imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and to the ages to come”. There are persons that have gone before and there are brothers and sisters that we can still take account of and they are not all older than ourselves, speaking for myself, that not only speak to us “the word of God” but we can “consider the issue of their conversation”. So, what is “the issue of their conversation”? “Conversation” is not simply what we say: it is our ‘manner of life’; so, what issues from the manner of life of such persons? Well, it is what we can take account of. I probably could not tell you a great deal about what some person said, although I could recognise that it was the word of God when I received it, but I can tell you about their manner of life, and their manner and the spirit in which they conducted themselves, and the piety that marked them and that is a test.
We had a word locally on piety a month or two ago, and it was a real test because it is something that I can say has marked generations that have gone before. It is to mark every generation. It is not something that is not fashionable anymore; it has never been fashionable; but there have been generations that have been marked by this, and it comes down to us as to our ‘manner of life’, to persons that are my age, to persons that are younger than me. What does our ‘manner of life’ tell about what motivates our life and what makes us live? What does it tell about Jesus Christ? What does it tell people when we are here in testimony about Jesus Christ, the One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and to the ages to come”? Our life and our calling relate to Him, and we will be like Him, and this is the time in which these features come out.
Well, very briefly, in chapter 10, we “consider one another”, and I appreciate what was brought into the reading about receiving “one another” (Rom 15: 7): that phrase again. We are in a company where we are comfortable with “one another”, those with whom God has set us. Would that there were more, but we are thankful for those we have. Well, we are to “consider one another for provoking”. It is easy to provoke in the wrong sense, but here we have “provoking to love and good works”. I did not have anything in mind about “forsaking the assembling of our selves together” but just to get to “but encouraging one another, and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near”. That in itself is an encouragement, and we can engage each other with these things, but we are to “consider one another”. What a joy it is to do so, with those who have been dignified by the heavenly calling. We all have the same calling in that sense. We have to “consider one another for provoking to love and good works”. Have you been the recipient of this, beloved brethren, beloved brother, beloved sister, young person? I can certainly say that I have been, and it has an effect, a formative effect. It has an effect of not only drawing us closer together, but it results in what is pleasurable to the God and Father who has set it all on because if we are “provoking to love and good works”, where do we see “love and good works” exemplified but in the Lord Jesus Himself? And what pleasure He afforded to heaven.
“And by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near”: there is not long left in this dispensation; the day is drawing near. What a day it is going to be! In the waiting time we have been given one another to consider. We have been given so much to occupy us positively. It is precious to heaven, precious to the Lord Jesus, and the enemy is set dead against it, but we have the resource here to be sustained. “The Apostle and High Priest of our confession” is more than a resource: He is the One that is our life. May we go in for these things! May we be encouraged, and may we set ourselves to encourage one another and to provoke to “love and good works”, encouraging one another as that day draws near.
May it be so and may the Lord bless the word!
Linlithgow
27th September 2025