Hebrews chapter 12. We are moving along today to the 12th chapter of this glorious letter of Hebrews. This letter that was written to the weak and wavering, struggling Hebrew saints. Saints that had begun strong, but now, as they received this letter, many had, some had fallen away, and some of the others were in a state of reeling to and fro, kind of one foot in the faith and one foot out if you will. But if I could state the obvious about this letter for us as we begin this morning, these Hebrew saints no doubt had and would yet endure many horrific things, things that we can't even really imagine, things that would absolutely war inwardly and outwardly against their newfound faith. That is the reality of their life, and we know that by history. But realize the instruction given to them here, the encouragement, the persistence of this letter tells them, and it tells us as well, saints, that come what may, whatever may come, this faith in Jesus Christ is worthy to be endured and to be fought for. Whatever may come into our life, it is worthy to be endured, patiently endured, worthy to be fought, fought again instead of fought for. This faith of Jesus Christ is worthy of the death of self. It's worthy, and whether that be spiritually or physically, it's worthy. This faith that is in Christ is worthy of that. In other words, there is no price too high to be paid. No price too high to be paid for this blessed privilege of owning this faith. Here, talk to us and describe in a word, really, this Savior. There is no price too high. Know Christ to be high, too high to be paid for this blessed privilege of knowing this Savior. That's how great Christ is. That's how great the Lord Jesus Christ is. That's how great your and my God is. That's how great this faith that is in Him is. Because I will repeat what I said last week. This faith is so great this faith that we've been learning about, this faith that is being clearly revealed to us in God's Word. It is so great that without it, we cannot, it is an impossibility to please God. It is an absolute impossibility to please or to be accepted by God without this faith. But with it, with this faith, it is impossible not to please. That's how great this faith is and the God of this faith is. May it please the Lord to give and to build and to strengthen this faith, His faith in us. Today as we come to chapter three, chapter 12, I want us to read verses one through three together. Beginning in verse one. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about, but so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. First this morning, number one this morning, I want us to consider the doctrine, the teaching of what we have just read, the teaching of these three verses at its core. And I want to do that by hearing other parallel and supporting passages in God's Word. But first I want you to hear the amplified rendering of these verses we just read here in verses one through three. Here it is. Now, this is mine, on the heels of what we have just seen in chapter 11. Therefore, then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony of the truth, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance, unnecessary weight, and that sin which so readily, deftly, and cleverly clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, looking away from all that will distract to Jesus, who is the leader and source of our faith, giving the first incentive for our belief, and is also its finisher, bringing it to maturity and perfection. for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Just think of him who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against himself. Reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials. so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and thinking in your minds. You see, the doctrine, the teaching set forth here in these first three verses of chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews are the same doctrine, the same teaching that Christ taught in Matthew 16, 24. And it is this teaching, it is this truth. He said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." It's the same doctrine, the same teaching that the Apostle Paul taught widely about in his epistles, such as in Romans 6, 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Also, in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. He also taught the same truth in Philippians 3.12. Listen to what he says. Not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended with Christ. The reason Christ has called us, has apprehended us, has called us to be his own, brothers and sisters. Listen to what Paul says. He said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall will even this unto you. He also spoke of it in Titus 2 in verse 11. It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope in the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ who gave himself for us, and listen to this, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify us unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. The apostle Peter also spoke on this teaching, this doctrine, in several places. I'll give you a couple of examples. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 1, he says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. How do newborn babes, we have several of them here, how do they desire milk, the milk, they desire it with all they have, that's what they do, that's how they desire it. You keep it, keep it from that one back there in the corner, she'll throw a fit on you like you ain't never seen it before. You think that little thing ain't going crazy. That's how you're to desire the sincere milk of the Word. Why? Saints, that's how we grow. It's not time that grows us. It's the sincere will of the world. He says, if so be ye have tasted the Lord's graciousness. And then he continues in verse 9, he says, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal creation, a holy nation, a peculiar people. that ye should show forth praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times past were not of evil. You were not of evil in times past. We were not of evil in times past, but are now the people of God, which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Purely beloved, I beseech you, I beg you, as strangers in pilgrims that stand for fleshly lusts which war against the soul. In his second epistle in chapter 1, the Apostle Peter says, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. whereby are given unto us exceeding brave and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. That you, mortals, human beings, might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith. That word add is important here. The whole rest of the passage has that word add implied in it. Add to your faith, virtue. Add to virtue, knowledge. Let me put it in there. Add to virtue, knowledge. And add to knowledge, temperance. And add to temperance, patience. And add to patience, godliness. And add to godliness, brotherhood, kindness. And add to brotherhood, kindness, charity. This is a life of addition. This is the life that we've been called to. Knowledge setting still or going back is a lack of addition, adding to these things. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, For if you do these things, you shall never fall. You know, sometimes we think that last verse there means that, well, you gotta make sure you're calling the election, make sure you're saved. And it doesn't mean that, but it means more than that. We should be living like those that are saved. We should be living like the children of God. We've been called to live as the children of God, brothers and sisters. This is the doctrine proposed before us in these three verses in Hebrews chapter 12. So obviously, this is not a new doctrine, is it? No, and it's not an obscure doctrine. It's not a veiled doctrine, but it's a wide-open doctrine. It's a clear doctrine. It is a common doctrine, and it is a doctrine that we desperately need in each one of us. in my life and in your life when desperately in need. It is common, this doctrine is common to the writers of the New Testament and is the reason that it is common to all of them is because they were all led to write by the same Spirit. So the Holy Spirit, knowing the truth, the Holy Spirit knowing our true need has declared this doctrine, commanded this doctrine, encouraged This doctrine, given motivation to this doctrine, warned us for the lack of obedience to this doctrine over and over and over and over again throughout His Word, throughout the New Testament. Just like, once again, here in our Hebrew text, to weak saints, struggling saints, saints of God, just like us, He confirms this doctrine, this teaching, again to us. So here we see clearly the doctrine, the teaching that is before us. Now though, let's look at number two, the details of the doctrine given to us here in these three verses before us specifically. And I'm gonna do something a little different this morning. You know, the Bible is full of illustrations. The Lord Jesus, he was the master preacher And along with that, he was the master illustrator. The Apostle Paul was no slouch. It was either, we just looked in our Sunday school class at a great illustration. That was his work that, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that illustration, and what an illustration his week. It's amazing, those illustrations. that are in God's Word, when you see them, you should be like, he's right. That is a perfect illustration of God. It is. In some way, it was made to illustrate that truth, the reason it even exists. The Apostle Paul illustrates the Christian life through several various illustrations. He illustrates it as warfare. He illustrates it as a boxing match. He illustrates it as slavery or bomb slavery. And another good indication that he's the writer of this letter, he often illustrated the Christian life as a race, as a foot race. Such as in 1 Corinthians 9.24, he said, Know ye not that they was run and erased from all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain it. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temporary in all things. Now they do it, those that are running in a temporal race, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we, we, we do it to obtain an incorruptible crown. I, he said, speaking of himself, I, therefore, so run, not as uncertainly, so by I, not as one of the feet of the air, but I poof under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be So here, in this illustration, in this particular illustration, Paul illustrates the Christian life as a race, and it's not just a race, it's a race with a specific course. He said, I don't run as uncertainly. He said he was certain, he was intentional in the race that he was running. He took specific requirements. He knew that it took specific requirements to run this race. It took specific preparation to run this race. So this morning, I'm going to take his lead of illustration and expand upon it a little bit. He will grant me some illustrative license as we glean with the details, glean, try to glean the truth of the details out of this passage, out of these three verses. So I want to welcome you to the pre-race meeting of the 7,000th annual Race of Faith. We should all have a race manual before us this morning, and we have the race manual. We want to make sure that everybody has a race manual because we want to make sure that everybody is well aware of the course that lies ahead of us, the course that is set before us. Obviously, this race has a great history. I know that you've had some time to reflect upon the previous disciples of this discipline, men and women. blessed with great faith like Abel and Noah and Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Moses, and even some surprise entrants who ran amazing races and gained great victories. There were just no names that really just came out of nowhere to become the champions and race heroes as we know them. All of them, all of them, their plow, their vapor of life, It sure does witness and declare to us the great worth of this race. If you have took time to look into their lives, you understand that their lives speak something to us of the great worth of this great monumental race, this race of faith. And even more, it speaks to the great worth of the God who has given us such a life and such a race and strengthened them in their race unto amazing victories. Now, they are not with us here today. They're not. And they are not who we are trying to please. And these people, these five witnesses, they are not the ones that we're trying not to disappoint. But their lives of faith, they witness to us. They witnessed to us. The witness of their life. The witness of their God who used their lives of faith. The faith in the abilities that He gave them. The races they ran. They ran them to please Him. They ran them to bring Him glory. And runners, can't we see that that is the stuff of true champions? That that is the stuff. These people ran to bring glory to God, to magnify and to declare His great worth and His great name. I mean, that's the stuff of true heroes. They were indeed, we've seen the list, they were indeed faithful disciples of this discipline, the race of faith. Now, drawing your attention to the race manuals, there are also, here are some directions. We all need to see these directions. We don't want anyone off course. You'll notice in verse 2, looking unto Jesus. For all the many thousands of years of this grace, every year, in every grace, we've always had the same pacemaker. You know it, don't you? But you have to know it. You have to know him. You have to know this man, Jesus. If you know anything about this race, you know that he is the sole founder. He is the originator of this race. And not only is he the sole founder, the sole originator, but he is the only runner who has ever run this course, who has ever run this race, to perfection. So runners, you must look to him. You must look to Jesus. He will lead you. He will lead us through this course. You cannot take your eyes off of Him. I know, I know, all of you think that you will come to the point where you think, oh, I've got this. I can do this on my own. I'll do this my way. I'll run my race. But let me tell you right now, many have thought that, and many have tried to do that, but they all end up devastated. Their race actually was just a big waste of time. No, you must look to Jesus. You must run His race. He's the way. He's the way. I mean, He wrote the race, man. So He knows, right? I mean, He ran the perfect race. If anyone knows, it's Him. Speaking of which, not only does he give us clear, perfect direction by the race that he ran, but he also has pointed out and warned us of some of the distractions and deterrence, and we all need to be aware of these. First, you need to be sure that you are prepared to run. Now, I know that many of you have heard all kinds of things from various race sponsors, There are all kinds of things that you can do to run a better race, to run a quicker race, to run a more effective race, to run a more successful race, but I want to encourage you, this race is not like any other race. This race is absolutely unique. You must stick to the race plan. All of these so-called helps, they just add weight. and they encumber you and slow you down and trip you up. I remember a race team from Galatians. They were promised, they had some of these race sponsors, got ahold of them, got to them, and they were promised the end all be all to race victory. But listen, they're even in our race manual in Galatians 5 verse 1. Listen, stand fast therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I call saying to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall probably do nothing. If that's your hope, if some work is your hope, Christ will probably do nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. There is no hope for greater grace for you, if you think you are justified by the law. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Listen, he did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? Those are irresponsible judges. That's who hindered them. They encumbered them with this yoga bondage. That's who hindered the race, and he said, this is the persuasion coming not of him that called you. He's thinking that this is called coming of Jesus. That's not the exact words of the race that he ran ahead of us. No, it's not. You need to be sure that you're prepared. You need to be sure that you don't have anything that is adding weight and encumbers you in this race, because if this race is possible, there's always a better, faster way. Somebody always with a new idea, a new promotion, a new method. But this race is about that. I mean, it's called the race of faith. It can only be one. It can only be run by faith. You know, even Jesus, he had some of those race sponsors come after him. They were simply hostile against him. Contradictory, as our grace manual says here in chapter three. They were, they were simply hostile against him, but he just kept running with his race. They tried to blow those encumberments upon him, if you remember, but he just kept running his race, and he left them in his dust. I mean, just think, look where he's at today, and think about where they are. No, don't be entangled by their snare. Throw away, throw aside that stuff, and stick to this race, man. Stick to this race, man. following Jesus, looking and focusing on the faith, focusing on Jesus Christ. God wants all, beware of the sin. That sin, that sin, it will sideline you. It will end your race. It will end your race, because listen, you cannot run the race of faith in unbelief. That's the sin. That's, that's it. You cannot run the race of faith, this faith, in unbelief. I know, I know you say you believe. That's really easy to say here. Really easy to say here, but what about out there? What about out there when the race is underway? Out there when you're in the heat of the race, there's going to be great temptation and great adversity, and that's just from your own body, from your own flesh. I mean, your body's going to say, no, I can't go another step. The back half of this course, the back half of this course, You're likely to think, you're likely to begin to think that, well, there's got to be a better way. You may think, well, he just brought me out here to destroy me, to destroy me. You're likely to think, maybe I should have believed those race sponsors. That's just that old deceitful sin. That's what that is. Trying to steal your race, trying to beset you, trying to ensnare, And just in case any of you think about cheating, I think you can get away with it, not in this race. In this race, be sure you know that the only way to run this race, the only way to win this race, is to strive awfully. And that means to be obedient and follow the race man. Not what you think, not your own race, not what somebody else's race, the race man does. You see, Jesus, he ran the perfect race. You can't run a better race than he ran. I know there's a lot of people saying, this is the way, this is the way, look here, here I am, this is the way. Look at Jesus. You cannot run a better race than Him. You cannot. The proof is, is where He's at. He's at the right hand of God. God had highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name that every nation bowed to Him. He ran the perfect race. There's only one person sat on the right hand of God, the man who ran the perfect race. Look to Him. Look to Him. You can't run a better race than Him, no matter what you or anyone else believes or tries to promote. So leave, you better leave that unbelief behind. Follow the book. Follow Jesus and believe His book and trust Him. He's the truth. He will not deceive you. He will not deceive you. So that's the directions here and the distractions and the deterrents here. Oh yeah, really serious now, folks. This is the race. Understand, this is the race of dedication. The race of dedication. If you're not dedicated, if you're not committed by faith to this race, you will not finish. You will not finish. This is not a sprint. It is a race of endurance. It's a marathon. So be prepared. This race is a race. It is an exercise of patience. It is an exercise of patience. You're going to have the wind in your face the whole way. And you must endure. You must be dedicated. The race man wants us to have confidence in what the race is. The race man doesn't try to hide this from us. He tells us very plainly, this is the race of endurance. This is the race that you have to be committed to. The race of faith. Matter of fact, I'm just going to tell you to see the word race here in verse 1. We get a word from that. In our English language, it is the word agony. Agony. That says it pretty clearly, doesn't it? This race can truly be an agony of faith. An agony of faith. I remember, you remember Jesus' race, don't you? How did He agonize? Not only by the whole of those race sponsors who hated Him, but remember what He did on that part of the horse called the cross. Remember what he did there? Oh, how he suffered. He literally gave all that he had. All that he had. His race was so epic. His race was so monumental. He so far exceeded everyone else. Men despised him for it. I mean, many are ashamed of him even to this day, but it didn't matter to him. He gave everything. He was spent. He spent and was spent. He gave everything so that He might run the perfect race for us. So that we might have this race of faith. I mean, without Him and His race, we would have nothing today. Without Him and His race, there would be no race of faith. But because of Him, and because of His perfect agony of faith, here we are. Here we are with Him. Here we are with his race before us, the example, the witness of his race before us, the example, the witness of all these other races before us. But here's the thing. Here we are with him and his race before us, and you know what? Because of him, we get to run the same race as him. We get to run the same course. Wow. What an honor. What an honor. So listen, let's honor him. Let's honor his great sacrifice by running a faithful race. Be prepared to patiently endure. Run according to these rules. Focus on Jesus. Don't stop. Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't stop. Many obstacles here to trip you up. Be focused. Look to Jesus. Don't stop. Don't give up. I know It's going to be hard, it's going to be agonizing. Literally, you're going to have to totally surrender and kill yourself out there. But it will be worth it. Suffering, the agony, will be nothing compared to the glory that awaits us. Speaking of, finally, let me tell you about the dividends. Let me tell you about the prize. If, if you continue, If you endure and run to the end, if you don't stop short, you will receive the greatest and highest praise. If you keep your eyes upon Jesus, if you run His grace, you will receive the greatest and highest praise. Now, some of you might be tempted to stop at the Pearl of Gates. No. No. Run on. Run on through the gates. Some of you might want to lay down on the streets of gold. Don't do that. Don't do that. And be sure, do not stop for a rest at the Mansions. No. I almost forgot. I know many of your loved ones will be here on the finish line. You must keep running. You must confirm you're not to the Christ yet. You've got to turn that last corner on the glory way. Then you will see it. Then you will see it. Then you will see the throne of God Himself. There you will see Him and your dividend and your prize, your reward. You know what it is? It is the same as Jesus. You're going to share His all-glorious, most glorious reward. It is glory above glory with the highest pride. God Himself. God Himself, saints. God Himself, runners, will personally receive you with a great acceptance carding. God himself will clothe you with a robe of righteousness and give you a ring of grace and a crown of life. God himself. Don't worry. There'll be plenty of water there. Living water flowing from out from under his throne. And there'll be plenty of rest there. Don't rest now. Now is not the time to rest. There'll be plenty of rest in that time called forever. We'll have rest. So thank you for attending the pre-race meeting this morning. We hope that we covered the details sufficiently. So in closing, just a few words lastly of deduction. What does this really mean to you and me? It means just what it says. Just what this illustration illustrates. Saints, by faith, run. Run this race. Get out. Get up. And run this race. Throw aside everything that encumbers you and weighs you down like your great list that we all build that makes you greater than everyone else. Throw those things down. You know what we often do? We often try to blow ourselves up. It's like putting everyone else down. But we're like this. You're going to learn about this tonight. We're all like this. We're like this. If we blow ourselves up, blowing yourself up doesn't do anything. It just puts them down. You're still in the same place. It doesn't help you. It just makes you think you're better. That's what we do a lot of times. We blow ourselves up here. We can be better than everybody else by putting someone else down. May the Lord help us keep us from that. We have to run this race, this race that has set before us. We have to run the race of the saints of old. It's not a new course. We've seen that this faith is the same faith that it's always been. It is the faith that is in Christ. It is a well-trod course. There is no new thing under the sun. How many times in scripture does the Lord remind us and encourage us that whatever we have before us, someone else has endured it before we have. However hard the race may be, someone else has endured that agony. Many have endured that agony long before we have. There is no new thing under the sun. Run the course that the Lord Jesus Christ built and perfected with His own blood. Someone has said, we all rejoice, or at least we say that we do, that soon we will be with Christ. But shouldn't we also rejoice that we can live like Him today? That we can run His race. That we can run like Him today, right now, through faith. Shouldn't that cause our hearts to rejoice? Oh yes, we all say we want to get to heaven! Well, if we really want to get to heaven, for heaven, then surely we'll esteem a great privilege to run the race that the one we're going to in heaven ran to get there. Surely, we will assume a great privilege and a great honor and check ourselves and make sure that we're on His course. Surely, we'll consider that the greatest honor of this life. If we say our greatest desire is to be with Jesus in Heaven, if that truly is, then our greatest desire now ought to be doing what He did before He ascended to Heaven. glorifying His Father, living in perfect obedience to the will of the Word of God. Christ says, I did not come to abolish the world. I came to live it. What does that mean? I came to obey Him in perfect obedience. That's what I came to do. Should that not be our greatest desire? Yet we say that our greatest desire is to be with Him. And by the way, when we are with Him, what does the Scripture tell us that we're going to be? Like Him. If we want to be with Him and want to be like Him, isn't it nonsense then not to want to be like Him today? It's simple nonsense. The Saints get on the course, get in the race, run by the book, run in the footsteps of the King. Don't be hindered. Don't be encumbered. Here's one. Don't be a hindrance to others. Don't encumber someone else. And you know and understand, and this is back to that lifting ourselves up to put other people down, or trying to, thinking that we're lifting ourselves up by putting other people down, we are not competing against one another in the race. Do you understand that? We are not competing against one another. You don't go back and you look in the book of Matthew where the Lord said, the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first. He was dismissing that competing notion. Remember the sons of the mother, Zebedee's sons, James and John, came and said, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom, make it where my sons sit on your right hand and your left. And then the other apostles sitting by there heard that, not to say that they hadn't thought the same thing. But only one of them had another strong enough to go and actually ask for it. But then they were outraged that those sons and daughters of the first group, the last group of the first group, he was dismissing all that competition, that inward competition. No, we're about helping, encouraging, edifying, getting us through the race, carrying one another if we need to, bearing one another's burden. when we need to. We're running together for the highest prize, and there's enough of that prize for all of us forever. If we will believe and run God's race of faith to the saving of our soul, there is enough of that prize for all of us forever. So runners, as they say on the mark, get set, Go. Brace. Run. It's brave, brave. Brace for death. May the Lord bless the someone I choose for my own declaration of good work.