I have a lot of things up here. Before I begin, let me just take a moment and say a very warm thank you. It's really a privilege and an honor for my wife and I to be here. We are here without our four children whom we love very much and will probably love them even more after four days away from them and being up here with you. This church has had a ministry to me and to my family for quite a number of years. We've appreciated There have been occasions, Sunday evenings, when we would sneak out and miss our evening service in St. Augustine in our church and come up here and worship, slip out quietly, spend the night in Savannah and enjoy the next day. Very grateful for your church. Very grateful for your ministers and the ministry they've had to myself and many others. Very grateful for the work of your church admin person, Karen, who's been fantastic to work with. She turns up missing in a few days. She's probably down in St. Augustine. I'm also grateful for the privilege of being here and just to talk over the next few days leading up to the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning. Our church also holds the Lord's Supper in high regard and it's an exciting time to preach and then to have the supper with you on Sunday. If you were to spend any time looking at my book that I did my dissertation on, Hebrews 11 is a big part of it. So when I was told I could preach from Hebrews 11, I got really excited. It's like talking about family members whom I love dearly. So if you would, please open in your Bibles to that dearly beloved chapter, Hebrews 11. altar call already and I haven't even preached yet. I sang that first hymn with all my heart and apparently with all my voice. So before I begin to read, just to explain, I'm going to preach several times from three or four of the different cameos that you find in Hebrews 11. Tonight is an overview, and we're actually going to read the whole chapter. And if you're inclined to think, well, that's an awful lot of reading, just bear in mind that the general agreement is that the book of Hebrews is a sermon. that would likely have been read to a congregation, and I'm just gonna read from one chapter, so this is gonna be pretty easy. The Bible reminds us that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will endure forever. Now let us hear it, that we might likewise even heed it together. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old receive their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac your offspring shall be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured it, seeing him who was invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Please pray with me. Lord, we come to you now by faith, believing that you, and particularly you, Holy Spirit, inspired these words. We believe that down to the pages of history, you have preserved these words, and we believe that it is your promise even now to bless the reading and especially the preaching of your word, that faith might be worked in our hearts, that more and more our union with Christ and our communion with one another might be strengthened, and that you would receive the glory and honor that you deserve. So be glorified now, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as we look to you by faith in the ministry of your word. In Christ's name we ask all these things, amen. One of the most terrifying things for me as a pastor is the realization that people tend to live their Bibles the way they hear their Bibles preached. The way you hear your Bibles preached week after week affects the way that you not only interpret it for your hearts, but the way that you apply it to your lives. When you come to a chapter in the Bible like Hebrews 11, there are beautiful little cameos, little stages that are set one after another as the people of God are brought in, in many ways likened to witnesses that each have something to say about the way that we not only live this life, but the way in which we look to God and his promises that are revealed in his word. So when we think about Hebrews 11, it's not bad to imagine something like a courtroom setting. Something has happened in history, but not everyone is so sure. Something has been claimed and not everyone is persuaded. And in fact, the church who receives this letter has heard the testimony of the gospel and some walked in that faith for a short period of time and have turned away. And so the pastoral occasion is you have some that are clinging to the promises of the gospel in the context of affliction and persecution and others who have walked away. And the pastor author of the book of Hebrews is now reaching out to them in the particular context of their trials, their struggles, and for some, their abandonment, with a gospel plea that they would turn their hearts back to Christ because outside of him, there is no hope. As he says at the end of the previous chapter, we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but those who believe and press on to the salvation of their souls. So Lord willing, tonight will be the first of several installments that help us to increase in faith, and in particular, to prepare for the Lord's Supper, which comes in a few days. That's the runway upon which I'll attempt to land this sermon. So something has happened, claims have been made, and now eyewitnesses are being summoned to testify to the event. The author in the book of Hebrews very intentionally lines up the people and the events that are in front of us in such a way as to show this beautiful point, this is really my overall understanding of Hebrews 11, is that God is not simply witnessing to them, he's witnessing through them. They are both those who receive the promise, as well those who reveal the promise. So their part in this is both passive, they receive of the promise, but in their lives, in the providence and sovereignty of God, he has artistically designed their lives to be testimony, eyewitness living testimony of the better things that are to come and have come in Jesus Christ. So their testimony demands a response. In a courtroom, a claim is made, evidence and witnesses are brought in, and then those who hear, particularly the jury, has to make a decision. There's a pressing application at the end of this that the author wants us to arrive at together, and that is that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. There is a great reward for those who believe. It is the reward of heaven. There is a great consequence for those who fall away and unbelieve. It is the consequence of hell. The stakes that are down are those of eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. And these are living witnesses who have come to say that in Jesus Christ, all the promises of God have actually found their yes and amen in him. So I have three points here for my sermon. The problem that demands these witnesses, the procedure by which testimony is given, and then the pattern of faith. Now I'm not really a three-point outline guy in our church in St. Augustine. I almost never have three points, so if you really like three-point outlines that alliterate for your sermon, then tonight's really for you, but don't get your hopes up, it probably won't be like that the next couple of days. Sometimes they're easy to see in the text, and sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're more helpful or clear, and maybe other times less so. But what is the problem? What is the problem that occasions this letter? I said a little while ago that it's pretty much the scholarly consensus that Hebrews is a sermon. So if you're ever inclined to complain that your pastor's sermon is too long, I want you to go home and try to read the book of Hebrews out loud, quick as you go. and it'll take a good bit longer, I'm confident, than your pastor's sermon. But the sermon, known as the Book of Hebrews, is written to a church that stands on the edge of this dilemma, a dilemma that you and I engage all the time. They want to walk by sight and not by faith. They want their religion to be comfortable and accessible on their terms. They don't want to suffer, They want things to be relatively easy. Okay, so they're not that dissimilar from us at all. They want to walk by sight rather than by faith. And I think if you and I were honest, we could say with a bit of compassion, there are times when walking the walk of faith is not easy. That's exactly why we need the means of grace. We need the things that strengthen our faith because our faith is not always on a steady uphill climb. There are times, frankly, when it waxes and wanes. It ascends the mountains. It descends into the valleys. And in this context, you have a body of people, some believers and some that would prove otherwise, who are suffering. They are suffering, and frankly for them, it is too much. Their understanding is that when Messiah came, he would not only save us from our sins, perhaps just as importantly, he would save us from our enemies. The world would become an altogether easier place for them. and they would enjoy the pride of posture that they had not recently known. For them, the idea of Messiah coming was simply a comfortable gospel. But then, and rather early then, suffering began to heat up. Right now I'm actually preaching through 2 Corinthians. We're in chapter nine. And there's a parallel here. One of the things that you notice is that one of the first places that suffering begins for the early church, New Testament Christians, is in Jerusalem. The very place where Jesus was crucified, that rock that fell from heaven and splashed the water and pushed it every direction, is also the very epicenter of Christian suffering. So there in Jerusalem, there where the temple was located, there where Jesus was crucified, there you find Christians beginning to suffer, and for many, it is simply too much. For us, the idea of suffering is one of those words where you hear it, and about as quickly as you begin to think about it, we glaze over, check out, and start to think about something else. Suffering is for missionaries over in Asia or Africa. Suffering is for someone else, but Christianity, we're on the good side. God is on our side. Things should be easy in this life for those who believe. Things should be comfortable largely for those that are seeking to obey God. Those who follow him should be blessed and not suffering. And so the church is experiencing a crisis of faith. And the author's remedy is to point them not simply to the suffering of Christ, but also to that which has been endured by Christ's people. He takes them back in order to walk them forward. He reminds them where they came from so they could see again where it is that they are going. For some, the gospel will be theirs only if it comes without a cross to bear of our own. All crown, no cross is not biblical. The crown comes. but it comes after the cross. And it comes for those who have faithfully bore the cross. They have another distraction, not simply their afflictions or trials at this time. They have another distraction, which frankly is an ironic one. It is the temple for this early church. who is largely attached to the ministry of the old covenant, the temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifices. You have to remember that at this time, the temple still remains, the temple, the very emblem of Israel's religion, the temple, that place where you could go and watch as a priest would take, in a certain sense, your place with the victim, again, to take your place in their sacrifice, to take your place in this genuine sense of, ah, there it goes. You can smell the carcass burning. You can see the smoke wafting. You can have this visual sense that God is with me, that my sins have been dealt with, and that all must be well. The only problem is, however, this guy named Jesus came. And he said, you know, that thing's about to become just a building. And that priesthood is about to become an empty tradition. Those sacrifices are about to become a mundane thing of the past because the once and for all sacrifice has arrived in history. And once that sacrifice takes place, the ministry of that temple is done. Chapter eight, obsolete, ready to vanish away and be gone. But for these Jewish Christians, the temple remains. and the allure, the attraction, the comfort, safety, the history that it represents was a strong form of temptation. but Jesus has come again and he has brought something better, better not simply because it's new or it's recent, better rather because all of these Old Testament things pointed to have now been fulfilled in Jesus. In fact, I would encourage you, just do a little test here if you want. Go back and read the book of Hebrews. this beautiful 30,000 foot trip across the Old Testament, people, places, and things. And everything, every place, every person that the author of Hebrews refers to, he says of that person, place, or thing, it was pointing to Jesus, and Jesus is better. He is the better prophet. He is the better priest. He is the better king. He is better than Moses. He's better than Aaron. He's better than David. He's better than the temple. He's better than the sacrifice. He's better than the priesthood. He's better than the angels. He's better than everything because he is the word of God made flesh. The word spoke of him and has now been fulfilled in him. And so Jesus is better and it's time for them to move on. Christ has entered a better place. Now on the other side of suffering, now on the other side of the cross, he has entered a better place. Hebrews repeatedly, citing Psalm 110, he has sat down at the right hand of God. He sits because he's triumphed. He sits because his work is done. He sits because there was always designed in the plan of God a resting place for the Savior, but watch, it was not in this world. He did not sit down in this world to rest in this world. Rather, he sat down as Lord and resurrected King over this world in heaven itself. And that is where the author of Hebrews is constantly pointing our attention upward and forward to heaven. with Jesus rather than backwards and downwards, earthly, to the things of the past. So there's the dilemma in a nutshell. They wanna go back to the shadowy ministry of the old covenant, the temple, prophet, sacrifice, priests, you get it? And the author is saying, no, beloved, press forward. Press forward and upward to Jesus. And this brings us then to our second point, which is, if you will, the procedure or the prosecution. Now there's something very important that we wanna talk about here, and it's Hebrews 11.1. So look at your Bibles. I like the sound of Bible pages turning. If you're looking at your Bible on your phone, repent. Get a real Bible. This is a Bible, that's a phone. All right, we can have that conversation later. So I wanna suggest very briefly that it's important that we get Hebrews 11 verse one straight. So in the ESV, it reads like this. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things, conviction of things not seen. Now this is a very important verse. When you shoot an arrow, it matters tremendously how true and straight the thing is pointed before you let go, because once it goes, the slightest little correction here is the difference between being spot on or ten feet off when the thing lands. And so likewise, Hebrews 11 one is that moment of truth, if you will, how you get this verse in your mind greatly impacts the way that you understand what the author of Hebrews is doing. So to just highlight the mild tension, there's always in a church one or two King James holdouts. So if you happen to be someone who's a big fan of the King James version, I'll probably get a really nice email from you later tonight. Because the King James and New King James, in my view, are arguably the best translations on this particular verse. Not everything. There went that really nice email. But on this one, for sure. For the King James or New King James translates it a little bit differently. It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. This is a big difference. In one translation, you have substance and evidence, which are objective things. Those are things that you would carry into a courtroom. You need evidence, you need substance for your argument. On the other hand is assurance and confidence or conviction. Those are subjective things. And the question is, what is the author doing with these people, with this hall of faith? Are they simply those whose assurance and confidence is being described, or are they living testimonies, living witnesses, evidence of the realities of heaven and the gospel that has come in Jesus Christ? Now, again, if you do a little bit of studying on this subject, which is worthwhile, to me it was actually a pretty fun project, there's a neat little history to this thing. The Latin Vulgate fourth century had it right. In other words, it sides with the way the King James would translate it. Martin Luther might have missed it in 1517 in the German Bible that he was working on. The King James, the new King James, got it right. Our church is further south. If I said that in our church, I'd get at least one amen, but clearly I've traveled too far north this weekend. And then the NIV and the NAS and several other traditions, frankly, and the ESV, they all together follow Luther and his translation and call faith the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. What I'm arguing is that the author is saying it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Now I'm saying that today, it's Thursday. I've got four days to prove it to you, okay? One sermon tonight, one tomorrow, one Saturday, two on Sunday and Sunday school. So come back and let's work together through this little hall of faith and see the substance and evidence God is putting in front of us. So here's the point. The author of Hebrews, first of all, has already used this word, the word substance, of Jesus himself in Hebrews 1 verse 3. He is the substance or radiance of God. Jesus comes down in the flesh and he's not simply the confidence or assurance of God, he's actually the substance of God. He is the word made flesh. When Jesus comes into this world, he comes bodily and in Jesus Christ is the word, is the substance of God in the flesh. Beyond that, the author goes on to use language throughout the book of Hebrews that is very clearly legal language. His concern is less with, frankly, how people feel about being saved. His concern is much more so what is the object of their faith and are they clinging to Jesus? Are they clinging to him who is the substance of God in the flesh? How do you know that you're saved? How do you know that you're saved? Well, it's a pretty important question, right? Okay? And this is really what it comes down to. If you look narrowly and exclusively for that, for the answer to that question in yourself, it does not go so well, does it? If you simply navel gaze or stare in the mirror, we struggle. Right? But when we look away from ourselves and we look to Jesus, we find hope. We find assurance and we find confidence because he is the substance, he is the evidence of the promises of God testifying that even though we cannot do this on our own, even though we cannot accomplish the gospel, he has done it and the promises are yes and amen in him. He is the substance of the glory of God and with him comes a catalog of those who can testify to who Jesus is. the Old Testament saints, you can call them that, were looking ahead to Jesus, and by faith, they were apprehending the promises to come in Jesus, but in their lives, they were also being shaped as witnesses. So the author of Hebrews can say, look, we understand your suffering. This world is hard. It doesn't always deliver the way that we would want it to deliver. But look at the people of God, even in the Old Testament, they had so much less than you. but they pressed on by faith and they now surround you like a catalog of witnesses, like legal witnesses saying to you, press on, persevere. That is their voice and that is their testimony. So they are both substance and they are evidence, excuse me, the second word. In the Greek, you would recognize this word maybe from one book. Maybe, you might recognize it from one book. Elenchos is the word. And there's this three-volume set, Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology. Okay, and for the two of you that know what I'm talking about, that word elenctic is an old, old way of saying like dogmatic. Argumentative, persuasive, legal, if you will. Theology that is giving an apologetic defense of what truth is against those counterfeit things that are truth falsely so called, and that word, that title, elenktik, comes from the Greek word here, elenkos. So here's the point. Jesus has already been called the substance of God in the flesh, Hebrews 1.3, and the second word comes from a very clearly legal context. So the point in short is what the author is doing with these witnesses is bringing them in as in a courtroom that they can testify and then this overwhelming cloud of consistent hearty testimony is there to persuade us, to persuade us that Jesus is better that suffering is actually okay in this sense. It's part of what it means to be the people of God in this present evil age where righteousness does not yet dwell supreme, where the wicked still have a say and a sword in hand, where things like death still reign over us even though we belong to eternity. kernel life. The author of Hebrews is saying, it's always been this way. This is what it means to be a pilgrim. You are passing through, but what awaits you is better. So don't lose hope. Don't give up. Don't walk by sight. Walk by faith. Walk by faith. So you might even say it like this. If you want, and perhaps rightly so, substance in your religion, Jesus Christ is the substance of our religion. If you want evidence that the things you hold dear and believe are true, we don't even narrowly look at our experience, though tomorrow night I'll talk about creation and what it has to say, but we look foremost actually to scripture. to the Word of God, to the promises of God, not only revealed to the people of God, but revealed through the people of God to you. To you. That's the point. They are speaking to you. They are lined up. as witnesses, but their audience is you. When you get to Hebrews 12, he makes it very clear that we now are surrounded by those who have gone ahead to heaven, and yet we are surrounded by those as whose voices we can still hear, and they compel us to press on, to persevere, to keep running the race of faith. So if you want substance in your religion, in your Christian experience, the true substance is Christ himself. He is God in the flesh, God incarnate. And all the alternatives, especially the ones they were tempted to return to, are now shadows. Little kids in my house, there'll be a running theme here. You'll hear about them a few times. Shadows are fantastic. Flashlights are even cooler. And you know what flashlights do to shadows? Not only makes them, they dispel them. Because when you put the light on a shadow, what happens to the shadow? It disappears. And the author of Hebrews is saying, why would you go back to the shadows, beloved, when the light of the world has come? When the light of the world, who is Jesus Christ, has come and dispelled the shadows and the darkness that surrounds them, why would you go back? Here is your substance. It is all in Christ. God was not simply testifying to them. He was testifying through them, and that brings us to our final point, their professions of faith. Now, I haven't been able to preach through Hebrews 11 in a while. I miss it. It's like old friends. This is like that hallway in your house. Most of us have a hallway like this, where you walk down and there are these old pictures, you know what I mean, from like 4,000 years ago. But you're related to all those people from 4,000 years ago. You know, the old ones, one side of the hallway, really poor camera quality. The people look weird. It's probably just the camera quality, but who knows? They're black and white pictures. It's kind of fuzzy. And then you come down, and picture quality gets a little bit better. You hit the 80s, and everybody has an Afro. It was really good. Anyway, go check the pictures. And you get all the way down to the end of the catalog, end of the hallway, and there's bouncing baby little old you, a picture of you. And the point is, these are your people, this is where you belong, this is your family. Well, Hebrews 11 is a collage, a hallway of the family of God. And the author is describing this cloud of witnesses as those who have received testimony. Now, it's an interesting way to put it, because when he says they received testimony, it actually makes it sound more passive. It's not that they were necessarily giving testimony or commendation, they were also receiving it. And the point is, it's really both. When you go back and as we work through a handful of these little cameos, the people of God were spoken to by God. God made promises to them, but you also know, because their lives are now included in the canon of Scripture, that God was revealing things through them as well. So they are called elders or forefathers, but in a very profound sense, they were those that went ahead of us, but they were looking forward to things that would come in time with us. The end of Hebrews 11 said that apart from us, they could not be made complete. Why? Because they were looking to Jesus this way, as we look to Jesus that way, and both sides, if you will, the family comes together in him. They could not be perfected apart from Christ, we cannot be perfected apart from Christ. They belong to the family of God, even though their pictures are in black and white and somewhat fuzzy, and we belong to the family of God. Those who are alive and well today, this is one family of God, one people of God, united by one gospel from God. So it doesn't do justice to the chapter to simply say that these are people to be like. Now don't misunderstand me. These are people to be like. The whole point is they had faith and we should too. Earlier in the book, the author says that we're to be imitators of those who have gone before us and consider the outcome of their faith and their way of life. But they are more than that. They're not simply people to imitate. They're also people with voices to listen to because they speak about Jesus. They display his life and his work in their lives and in their work. Promises were made to them, and promises are echoed through them. So, I like the language of drama. Cool thing about drama, it's a little different than story. When you read a story, the story in a sense sort of exists in a book, on a page, and there it is. And there are even some kinds of plays that you can go to. And you watch the play, like at a movie theater, but what do you do during the movie, during the play? Nothing. But then there's also an interactive type of drama where you not only watch as the audience, but you yourself engage. You might have a verbal part in it. You might even get out of your chair and help to close the curtain, if you will. Well, in many respects, that's what Hebrews 11 is like. It is a drama that we don't simply watch but it's also one that we participate in. The language of participation runs throughout the book of Hebrews and elsewhere in the Bible. And the author's point is, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses that speak to us, but they call us to action. Their lives testify to the gospel and to God's persevering grace at work in their hearts, but then it calls us to participate as well. At the end of chapter 10, the author says, remember, that there was a season when your faith was more bold. There was a time when you considered identifying with the people of God and their trials as something that you were willing to do. He calls them, there's a beautiful little phrase, he calls them actually a theater of martyrdom. Drama language is not my own, it comes out of the Bible. He calls them a theater of martyrdom, as though the world was watching. And yet what did it see? But people who were looking to Christ, enduring and suffering for Christ, being formed to the image of Christ as they lay hold on Christ. That is what we have. A cloud of witnesses that testify even to us. Come now down to the end. I have a very postmodern relationship with time. What feels like 10 minutes to me It might feel like 30 minutes to you. We have a clock in our church. I have no idea why. I never ever listened to it. The moment seemed to escape. But if you come now to the end, because we'll save going through the people in Hebrews 11 one at a time when we actually are able to get there. But I want to jump now to chapter 12. This is sort of the bookend and introduction to the first of a handful of sermons. And you come to the end of chapter 12, he makes this beautiful assertion. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that's set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. You and I, beloved, are called to see ourselves as surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Many have noted this is sort of an overlapping metaphor between courtroom and coliseum. The legal side of it, very clear and obvious. At the same time, there's this running language. One author puts it so well in a nice sermon title. We are running the race of faith. And as you run, you get tired. I'm asthmatic. When I run, my lungs get weak a lot faster than many of the people that I might try to run alongside or compete with. And the author has a beautiful way of describing those who are spiritually asthmatic, as they need to focus. They need to lay aside certain things. He makes a beautiful distinction here between sins and weights. Notice the language. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. In this context, when people would run long distance races, they would strip down to almost nothing. Why? In order to run. They would strip down so there would be no friction, there'd be no extra weight, no distraction, nothing that would hinder their running the race of faith well. The author of Hebrews very rightly employs that metaphor and he says, look, you too, beloved, you and I who have our eyes fixed on Jesus are in the midst of a run and it's not easy. Christianity is not easy. Following after Christ, being faithful, is not easy. In some ways, the harder we try, the more we recognize the mountain is steep, and our legs get weak, and we're asthmatic, and we need more oxygen. The higher and more upward we go, the more we realize we're weak and we're mortal. So what are we called to do? in the light of this cloud and its testimony of the finished, once and for all, complete, perfected work of Jesus Christ is to lay aside the things that hinder you from running well. And this truly is a stroke of pastoral genius that he has these two categories. Think about this with me now. Weights and sins. Sin is a category we're quite familiar with. A little too familiar with, huh? Right? Sin are all those things that violate the word and will of God, the things that we do that we ought not to do, flip side, the things that we ought to do that we fail to do. The author says as we run the race of faith we need to lay aside all of those sins that hinder us from running well if this is a communion season for us and we're thinking on Thursday about our approach to the table on Sunday and taking a nice step back and looking at our souls to be a great time to do a little bit of introspection to contemplate as your pastor mentioned earlier what is before you in a few days and to take an inventory of your soul. Are there sins that are hindering your race? In our church, we often use the language of sins that we secretly and impenitently harbor. No one else around us may even know, but God knows. Those things with which we struggle, and then we come to the table and have that sense of, should I be here? And maybe the answer is yes, you should. Maybe the answer is no, because you've surrendered to an idol. You've stopped on the track. You've stopped in the middle of the race. But that's only the one category. And that one I think is fairly familiar and predictable to us. The second category is weights. And notice the difference. A sin is clearly defined, but a weight might actually be something that is not necessarily in and of itself sinful. In other words, there's nothing sinful about wearing a turban or wearing whatever they were wearing in the first century clothing. There's nothing sinful about wearing sweatpants, but if you're gonna run a marathon in the heat, you might wanna wear something different. Is it sinful? No, but it's definitely not smart. Gerardus Voss in a little sermon on this text says, those things that are weights, we need to readjust and either be rid of them or convert them to wings that they might speed us onward and upward toward Jesus Christ and to heaven. We should ask ourselves, what are the sins that are clearly bogging us down? But don't stop there. What are the weights, things that might not in and of themselves be bad, but could actually yet be hindering us? Some of the things that actually hinder us from running well are not explicitly in the category of sin. But while we set aside those weights and sins, notice where he points us finally and climactically, looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. These are beautiful terms. Founder, sometimes again, old King James, captain. forerunner, pioneer. This is the guy that goes first. This is the first guy in the race who carries the baton. This is Joshua who goes into the land ahead of the people. This is the captain of the army of the Lord of Hosts who deals with those enemies with which we ourselves cannot deal. And once he has gone ahead and blazed the trail, made the track clear, made the swiftest course, easy to follow, then we come. We run with our eyes fixed on one who has already ran his race and sat down as the victor. We run knowing that there's even victory for us because Jesus has already won the race. He has gone before you as the captain, the overseer of your souls. He has defeated the army of Satan. He has defeated even us. One of Christ's greatest victories is actually over you. that he has declared victory over you, your life, your heart, even those things that would hold you down. Look unto Jesus, who's not only the author or captain, the one who begins, but he's also the perfecter, the completer, the one who brings this thing to a final and happy end. This is like a great book, where Jesus is not only the author of the book, because he is, But he's also the one who enters into the story and actually fulfills the story. It's brilliant, it's beautiful, it's like a drama. He not only writes the script, he comes down from heaven and actually goes on stage, if you will, to be the one who performs the greatest act of history, the cross. He is the author and the perfecter of faith, and all the Old Testament saints were looking to them, and now they too sat down in the Colosseum, and they keep saying, on, on, go, push, persevere, but don't take your eyes off Him, because when you take your eyes off Him, the options are all earthly. The options are your feet, track, the world, all things that fail. But the one who didn't fail is the one we're compelled to keep our eyes on. He is the author, he is the finisher, not simply of the faith, he is the author and the perfecter of your faith. He is writing the story and he has not yet completed it, but he will have the victory. And so for you, beloved, who turn now to a beautiful chapter like Hebrews 11, how do you read your Bibles? With the eyes of faith? With the eyes of doubt? Gospel-centered eyes? Man-centered eyes? Do you look unto Jesus and hear his voice and see his promises? even his promise to uphold his people through weakness and affliction. And do you see the people of God as not only those who received the promise, but reveal it, who are not only witnessed to, but even now for your sakes, are being witnessed through. It's not simply some guy from St. Augustine who's come up here with something to say to you for a few days. Far more importantly, beloved, God speaks to us through his word. He speaks to us even through his saints, who were themselves looking to Jesus, even as they displayed his work, his person, his beauty, and his glory. For where is he now? But he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He is on the other side of the cross. He has finished his race, and by his grace, you and I will too. But in the meantime, until that race is completed, He sustains us through his means of grace, right? The preaching of his word, the sacraments, and prayer are the means by which weary pilgrims are strengthened for the race of faith. Let's pray. Lord, as we look to you and your word, we pause and remember that it's a privilege for us even to own and have as our own copies of your word, which we call Bibles. And yet to recognize, O Lord, that your people in time past, they did not sit down with books that they brought to the assembly of your people. Rather, they came and they listened. And they listened for a long time, believing that you had sent the man of God with the word of God to the people of God to hear the promises of God that would all be yes and amen in Christ. And we believe, O Lord, that it is true. that the way that we hear our Bibles preached is also the way that we will live them out. And so we ask, O Lord, that you grant to us ears and hearts of faith. Help us, O Lord, to be not unbelieving, but believing. Help us to rejoice that Jesus has come and will come again. Help us to believe in the Holy Spirit, that your word is not only true, but that truth is being marked upon our hearts for all eternity. Help us to see you, Lord, in the lives of the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, how you've testified both to and through your people, and might we count it a great joy to participate with them in this great race of faith. Lord, you know the weakness of our faith. That's why we're here. We're not here because we're strong. This is not the assembly of the strong. This is the assembly of the weak. who cling to Jesus and ask for grace to let go of those weights and sins that hinder us from clinging to him all the more. So these next few days, oh Lord, turn our hearts and our eyes upward and forward. Feed us with Christ from heaven and enable us even through the power of your word preach to see, to hear, and to believe in our beloved Savior. We ask all these things in his name, amen. We're going to sing together in response. I'd ask if you would take your hymnal to number 254.