All right,

Introduction and Context of Hebrews

you can turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. As I mentioned last week, I'm not here next Wednesday. There is no Bible study next Wednesday evening. That's November the 5th.

We just finished Ruth last week, so the Lord willing, on November 12th, we should start 1 Samuel. Tonight we're going to look at a text we have looked at before in our Wednesday night Bible study. I know I've also preached it on the Lord's Day. It is specifically Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1.

It's a call to perseverance. It's a call to endurance in the Christian life. Basically, the argument is that the people of God in this context, in this particular setting, were being tempted to turn back from Christ specifically and to go back to the old covenant system. It's written to Hebrews.

These are Jewish Christians. These Jewish Christians that were living prior to the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 would no doubt have gotten a lot of pressure from family members, from friends, from business associates, persons telling them they ought not to forsake the temple, they ought not to forsake the priesthood, they ought not to leave off those old covenant ceremonies. Rather, they should abandon this Jesus, the Nazarene, and come back to Moses. Well, this is why the author takes up his pen and he writes to them.

And one of the means by which he shows them that they ought not to turn away is to set forth the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does that in the first several chapters. Christ is superior over the prophets, over the angels, over Moses himself. Christ's priesthood is superior to that of the Levitical priesthood.

In fact, Christ inaugurated and brought to pass the New Covenant. The New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is a better covenant built on better promises and it affords a better hope. So all of these arguments serve to encourage the people of God not to turn back.

And then in chapter 11 what he does is he sets forth many of the Old Covenant persons that demonstrated a life by faith in God Most High. And so the author is appealing to them with persons that they were very familiar with and knew much concerning. The author is telling them, his audience, to be like those Old Covenant saints. that believed God. They walked by faith.

They were justified by faith, and they walked according to faith. So that's the bulk of Chapter 11. And then as he gets into Chapter 12, the focus is still the same, but he expands it a little bit further, and he gives the command for the believers to run, to run the race that is set before us. And then he gives various incentives as to why we ought to do that.

In verse 1, it's this great cloud of witnesses. That's an incentive for us to run the race. Secondly, the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 2 to 4. Run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

In other words, when we live the Christian life, when we walk according to the will of God, we don't do it in our own strength. We don't do it according to our own desires or our own will, but rather we are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And then the third incentive as to why the believer ought to run with endurance is in verses 5 to 11, the father's purpose for his children. So

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1–11

I'll just pick up reading in chapter 12 at verse 1, read to verse 11, and then as I said, we'll focus our attention this evening on verse 1.

The Cloud of Witnesses

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him.

For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. excuse me, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful.

Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So as we approach this particular verse,

The Believer's Race

we want to look first at the believer's race, verse one, and then the believer's incentives, verse 1b to verse four. Though I think we'll only get to that first incentive, that great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. But notice the text. The command is given toward the end of verse one, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

That's the emphasis, that's the point, that's what the author wants the reader to get. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now we must understand that this isn't running a race in order to be saved. Remember, as we saw on Sunday, we do not do things in order to be saved.

Rather, God saves us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, and it's from that vantage point that we then enter the race and we run with endurance. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Our hope does not depend on our ability to run the race. Our hope depends upon the doing and the dying and the rising of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are justified freely by His grace. Sanctification necessarily follows, to be sure, but ultimately our entrance into heaven isn't going to be because we were good runners. Our entrance into heaven is going to be because Jesus died, and Jesus rose, and God, by His grace, justified us freely. We need to make sure we understand that.

The author is writing to Christians, or those who profess saving faith in the Lord Jesus. We would never tell an unbeliever, you just need to run with endurance, and then perhaps God may save you. Now this comes To Christians, those who've been saved and freed from their sins are told to persevere. They're told not to turn back, not to apostatize, not to forsake the God who has called them by His grace into His marvelous light.

So we need to make sure we're aware of that. Now let's look at the believer's race.

The Duty Stated: Run the Race

First, the duty stated. Let us run the race that is set before us. This is a recurring theme, as I've already mentioned, in the book of Hebrews. And you can turn to these texts.

Chapter 2 and verse 1. It's important that you understand the context in which Hebrews was written. I've already mentioned it. It was written prior to the destruction of the temple.

There was still a Levitical system, there was still a priesthood, there was still sacrifice going on. And Jews who were converted under the Lord Jesus Christ were getting pressure to forsake Jesus and go back to that temple system. And so many times the author emphasizes the need for perseverance. or endurance. And though we may find ourselves in a little bit of a different circumstance, we don't have a temple, we're not being tempted to go back to, but we all have issues and sins and difficulties and trials in our lives.

So every admonition and every call to endurance and perseverance here is equally appropriate for us in our current situation.

Perseverance Texts in Hebrews

Notice in chapter 2, verse 1, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Note the implication. If we don't give earnest heed to the things that we've heard, we will drift away. What does that tell us about the importance of God's Word?

What does it tell us about the importance of Bible study, the importance of preaching, the importance of listening to sermonaudio.com or listening to your iPhone as the man reads the passage or your tablet or your computer? or whatever it may be. Notice, there's not a lot of options here. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. You see, you're either going forward or you're going backward.

Many times, Christians want to stagnate. They want to kind of sit in this place of, well, I'm not really fired up, but I'm not really cold either. I'm just kind of in the middle or in between. Well, that's not the way we're supposed to be.

We are to give them more earnest heed. That means we are to obey. We are to do what God's word says. We don't have the option as believers in Jesus Christ to say, I've heard what God says, I hear what his demands are, I see what his law requires, but you know, I really don't want to do those things.

That's simply not an option for us. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, because if we don't, it is inevitable that we will drift away. If we are not seeking to honor God, if we are not pursuing those things that God is pleased with, We are going backwards, and that is a dangerous place to find oneself. Look at chapter 3, verse 12, appeals to the wilderness generation.

Verse 12, after citing Psalm 95, verses 9 to 11, he says, Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. What happens when unbelief settles in? There is a departure from the living God. You see, again, you don't have a little bit of unbelief and everything's going to be okay.

No, unbelief is a bad thing. It ultimately yields a departure or an apostasy from God. Verse 13, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Four, we have become partakers of Christ, notice, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

Again, the idea that the book of Hebrews is presenting is not a works righteousness. It's not a if we do this then we'll be saved. The idea is that by grace you are saved. And a manifest evidence of this is that you will persevere to the end.

A manifest evidence that you have come to the Lord Jesus Christ is that there will be sanctification. there will be fruit. It may not be as much as you would like. It may not be as much as your neighbor. It may not be as much as somebody in your church, but fruit there will be, and there will be an endurance, and there will be a perseverance, and there will be a going forward.

Now, that doesn't preclude the fact that sometimes there's a going backwards. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we stumble. Sometimes we have issues.

Sometimes we have challenges. But by the grace of God, we get back up, his spirit indwells us, we persevere and we go forward. This is what the author is emphasizing to the people in his generation. Notice in chapter 4 verse 1, therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

And then 414, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, notice, let us hold fast our confession. You confess saving faith in the Lord Christ, hold fast to it. Don't let it go. Don't be one of these limp-wristed Christians that walks around all feminine and sensitive, but rather be a man of God.

Be faithful. Be earnest. Be those who stand for the Savior. Do not let go of this confession of faith.

Chapter 10, verse 23. Chapter 10, verse 23. Notice what the author says. Let's just back up to verse 19.

This is something of an implication of the whole. Specifically, the high priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is reported in chapters 5 through 9. Now notice, chapters 5 to 10, 18, now he draws implication. Therefore, based on the reality that Christ has done this, based on the reality that you're participants in the new covenant, based on the reality that you have been washed in precious blood, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.

This is what we have, this is what he's explained in chapters 5 to 10. And then three commands, or three imperatives, or three things are given to us on how we are to live. So notice again, verse 19, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. Someone has once explained this, I think Owen, perhaps in his Hebrews commentary, the new and living way.

New there refers, or the new there is freshly slaughtered. It's not the typical word that is used for new. It's freshly slaughtered. With reference to the bleeding of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's as if he was freshly slaughtered.

In other words, the reality of his sacrifice is such that we live in light of it each and every moment. of each and every day. By a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, notice verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We are to draw near to God based on the priestly work of the Lord Jesus and the better promises of the new covenant.

What is our benefit? What is our duty? What is our responsibility? To draw near to God.

Isn't that a glorious command? Oh, you Christians, you've got all these commands. Yeah, we're told to draw near to God. You Christians, you have all these commands.

Yeah, we're told to rejoice always. You Christians have all these commands. Yeah, we're told not to murder people. I mean, imagine that.

I mean, it's just a caricature. The commandments of God, according to the Apostle John, are not burdensome. And in this instance, we're to draw near to God, notice, in full assurance of faith. Notice the second imperative here, verse 23.

Let us hold fast, there it is, the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. Hold fast the confession. Don't let it go.

Grip it. Hold it. seatbelt onto it, whatever you have to do, do not defect, do not depart, do not turn away from the living God. Verse 24 is the third imperative, or the third command, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

Notice why some would believe that the Apostle Paul wrote this epistle. Note the Pauline triad or the three virtues that Paul so often indicates in his writings. Faith, hope, love. Faith, hope, love.

Embedded right in the text before us. These are Pauline virtues that he sets before his readers and his audience or his hearers all the time. Faith, hope, love. But the thing I want us to see is the necessity for us to hold fast.

Do not let go. Notice in chapter 10, verses 35 and 36. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. Some would say, if you believe in a sovereign God, you believe in the God whom you preach, on Sunday, this God who by grace saves you through faith and that not of yourselves, then why these warnings, or why these imperatives, or why these commands to endure?

Because that's one of the means that God's ordained in His sovereignty and in His decree to keep us in the path, to keep us on the straight and narrow. I may truly never actually believe that my son is going to shoot heroin, But I might warn him against shooting heroin because that is a means to hopefully keep him on the narrow path so he doesn't go out and shoot heroin. You see, God gives us commands that are legitimate in his sovereignty according to his plan and purpose to hedge us in and to keep us on the straight and narrow. So when we get to chapter 12 verse 1, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, it is one of many calls to perseverance in the Christian life that the author sets before his hearers.

The Athletic Image in Paul

Again, just to compare some other Pauline writings, 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27, uses the same sort of an athletic image. or a metaphor. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? You know, there's an emphasis today, at least in some places in education, and you see it sometimes in sports, especially with little kids. Well, it really doesn't matter if you win or lose, you know.

As long as you show up and you breathe and you just stand there wearing your uniform, you've done as great as anybody else. Paul doesn't think that way. Paul doesn't tell you to enter into a race not to win. Paul tells you to run the race to win.

I'm not saying we mow people down and we knock them over and we, you know, step on their heads and do whatever it takes. That's not the point. But brethren, we need to adopt the winning mentality when it comes to the race that we're in. Again, not winning the way the world celebrates so that we can get money and accolades and all that, but we are in the Christian race.

We gonna give up? Are we gonna say no? Are we gonna just slide by? Are we gonna just say, forget it, I'm gonna coast?

No! The Bible doesn't give us that. Nowhere in the New Testament are you told, you know, just meander about, you know, just hopefully you'll fall into heaven after you get to that place. Now, do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Get up in the morning and run the race in such a way that you may obtain it. Have no truck with sin. If temptation comes, if evil solicits, if sinners entice you, take Solomon's advice.

Do not consent. Proverbs 110, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. When you want to run the race to win, you don't consent. When you want to run the race to win, you don't go with wicked men.

When you want to run the race to win, you guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Notice what he goes on to say, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, Paul was what in his life other than an apostle? Anybody know?

How did Paul make his shekels? Tent maker, that's right. Where do you think he might have gotten some work? At athletic games, at athletic competitions.

They would certainly need tents, wouldn't they? For some sort of cover, if it was really hot, you'd need a tent to stand under. If it happened to rain, we all know here, it'd be nice to stand under a tent. No doubt, Paul was familiar with the athletic games.

Something similar to the Olympics, though probably not on that same scale, to be sure. But notice what he says here. He knows what is true. If he was out building a tent or putting up a tent and he's watching these athletes, he sees how they live.

They don't stay out on Friday night drinking. to the point of drunkenness. They don't eat, you know, two hands jamming everything they can find into their mouth. No, look at what he says, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. They watch their diet, they watch their rest, they watch their workouts, they do everything they do so that they can finally tune their bodies in order to run the race to win.

They don't get up at 4 a.m. and go running around in the dark and, you know, eat vegetables, you know, five times a day and do all the, you know, in bed at 8 o'clock and never having any fun so they can go lose races. They do those things so they can win. Now note the implication that Paul draws in 1 Corinthians 9. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown.

You know what you got if you won the Olympics then? You got a little wreath, a laurel wreath that you'd wear on your head. I don't know if that's called a wreath. Maybe it isn't.

That thing that's round, it's pieces of green stuff that they put on your head and you'd probably get front row tickets to the show. Not the movies but, you know, the dramas or the plays or the comedies or whatever it was. You were a hero. You won.

Look what Paul says. They do what they do. They're up at 4 a.m. And I'm just guessing here, probably athletes don't always get up at 4, but they're in bed by 8.

They don't get drunk. They don't eat, you know, garbage. They're not two-fisting soda pop and eating pizza and doing all that stuff. They're regulating all these things and they do it for a perishable crown.

They do it for something that doesn't last. They do it for something that isn't going to be here tomorrow. Sure, they made a record. They won the gold.

They're going to be there for at least a time. But the next day, can you tell me anybody who's ever won a gold medal, well, maybe Cam Can, passed a year ago or two years ago. As good of an accomplishment as that might be, it's perishable. Look at what he says.

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable. What's his point? They're going to get up at four. I'm not saying everybody, don't go home and say, Butler said I got to get up at four tomorrow, honey.

He's going to read my Bible and pray and buffet my body. If you want to do that, that's fine. But I'm not saying that's it. I'm saying if those men are that disciplined to win a perishable crown, Paul's point is we as Christians ought to run the race in such a way because we are going after an imperishable crown. and then notice how he relates his life.

Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Philippians 3, 12 to 14, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." You see the reference to sovereign grace? He doesn't say that I may lay hold of that which I deserve because of the way that I'm running this race. That's not what he says.

I lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. It's because Christ Jesus has laid hold of Paul that Paul now runs in such a way to lay hold of the prize. That's grace. It's not works.

Paul is never telling anybody to run in order to be saved. Paul is always telling people, run because you've been saved. And this is conduct fitting to the new man in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the emphasis in the passage.

Notice what he goes on to say. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended But one thing I do, read Lloyd-Jones on this passage, it's fantastic. One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. If you looked at Paul's life on any given day, that's what you saw.

Whether he was talking to brethren, whether he was in the back of a synagogue, whether he was in a prison cell, wherever he was, if he was making tents, this is what defined him. Pressing forward. Going forward. Because Christ had laid hold of him.

And the emphasis in the scripture is that when Christ lays hold of a man or a woman, that man or woman runs for Christ. It's a beautiful thing.

Obstacles: Weights and Ensnaring Sin

Back in Hebrews 12, notice the obstacles that we need to lay aside. See, it's not just let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. I mean, that in and of itself would require something. You've got to get up early, you've got to regulate your diet, you've got to watch your intake, you've got to make sure you're in bed early.

Yeah, that demands a lot, but you know, Our race is fraught with difficulties. Notice what the text says, beginning in verse one. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. And the sin which so easily ensnares us.

See, it's not just a matter of run the race with endurance, but, we gotta get rid of this stuff. You gotta lay aside this weight. And with reference to this weight, not everything that is a weight is necessarily a sin. Not everything that is a weight is necessarily a sin.

Notice there is a distinction. Lay aside every weight, one, and the sin which so easily ensnares us. There could be something in our life that isn't necessarily a sin, but it's a weight, and it keeps us from achieving a particular goal. I'll use the obvious reference.

If I wanted to be a distance runner, I'd have to lose some weight. If I wanted to be a powerlifter, I'd have to gain some weight, so it kind of swings both ways. But if I wanted to go out and run a marathon, I'm going to have to lose some weight. That's just the bottom line.

You're probably thinking, he probably should anyway, right? But you see, this is the point. Not everything is necessarily a sin, but it can prove to be a hindrance. Matthew 13, 22, now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word.

And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. Now, the cares of this world, does any of us live carefree? No, certainly we have cares. We have to think about, you know, tomorrow I've got babies that need milk.

That's a care. But when we are overcome by that care, Riches, as we saw in our studies in 1 Timothy chapter 6, the possession of riches is not necessarily a sin, is it? Just because you're a hard worker, God prospers you, and you do well, and you end up with a decent bank account, that doesn't necessarily imply sin, or else Paul is wrong in 1 Timothy 6. He tells Timothy to command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but to give to those, be willing to share.

So you see, riches in and of themselves are not necessarily a sin. But if we are choked by that, it becomes a weight. It becomes an encumbrance. It becomes something that we should put off so that we can run this race with endurance.

The Christian engaged in this race may need to lay aside some things, friends and acquaintances with whom he once sinned. You may not be able to put them on your back and run with endurance this race because they might be, you know, putting horrible things in your mouth. No, you can't run like that. You can't run with a big weighted vest on you.

You've got to take it off. You've got to part with those things that bring hindrance to the race that you are running. If something doesn't help you to God, then get rid of it. If it's not something that promotes the things that the apostle enjoins upon us, then get rid of it.

So those are the weights that weigh us down. But then, there is the sin which so easily ensnares us. It's sin that so easily ensnares us. Can y'all relate to that?

Does sin work hard to get its mitts around us? No, not typically. It so easily ensnares us. We've got to be on our guard.

We've got to be watchful and prayerful. Peter, James, and John are with the Son of God in the garden and they fall asleep. Jesus says, the flesh is willing, or the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We need to appreciate that.

Exhort one another daily while it is called the day, lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, same sort of emphasis there. We need to make sure that we understand our propensity. I hope when you sing 400, you don't say, boy, I don't know what this Robert Robinson is talking about.

I've never felt this. prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love, is what Robert Robinson writes in number 400. Do you read that and say, wow, I don't know anything about that? Or do you go, yeah, unfortunately, God, that describes me all too well, prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. Paul the Apostle affirms this in his own life in Romans 7.

Paul the Apostle affirms this in the life of the Christian in Galatians 5. the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit lusts against the flesh. These two are contrary to one another. This is the reality. We have an on-board GPS that inclines us to evil.

And we need to be careful. We need to watch and pray. Galatians 6.1, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Shame on us if we come to a brother who's struggling in a particular sin and we do so with pride or self-righteousness or some manner of judgmentalism.

No, brother, let me help you up. I know my own heart, my own inclination, and my own propensity to do the very same thing. Let me pick you up and carry you for a time. Don't have this spirit of this attitude of, well, I don't know how you could ever do that.

If you know your own heart, you should never say that. We should know how somebody can do what they do. I make this illustration with kids and their parents and kids. Tell your kid, I don't know how you could ever do that.

Really? Have you ever read the Bible? Have you ever considered anything of the doctrine of total depravity and total inability? Where do you get off telling your child, I don't know how you could ever do such a thing?

Brethren, that is hypocrisy. The writers in the scriptures acknowledge that sin easily ensnares us, and we need to be on our watch. We need to be prayerful. We need to be on guard.

Philip Hughes commenting here with reference to the Hebrew Christians. One of the chief problems with the Hebrew Christians to whom this letter is addressed is that they have set out on the race, but after a good start, 10, 32 to 34, are now slackening in the will to persevere. See, this is where I think the big difficulty lies. We can start well.

We got to finish well. The only way to finish well is by keeping well. Right? It's not just about the start.

It's not just about the finish. It's about that middle mile. That's where it really matters. That's where we need to be persevering and enduring.

We need to take seriously the long haul nature of Christianity. Most of us are not going to get converted and drop dead. Most of us are not going to get converted and then Jesus returned. Most of us are going to get converted and have a period of time between conversion and we go home.

What is that time called? It's time for perseverance, it's time for endurance, it's time for running the race. It may not be razzmatazz, it may not be exciting, it may be ordinary, it may be humdrum, but that's where the battle is fought and won. It's just the way it is and the reality of it.

So he says, they are now slackening in the will to persevere. Their effort is decreasing. Sin is holding them back. They need to recover their intensity or purpose to shake off the sluggish mood into which they have fallen, to regain their confidence and their competitive spirit.

Look at chapter five for just a moment. Chapter five, specifically at verse Verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And then he says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection, of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

And then dropping down for just a moment, notice what he goes on in verse 9. But beloved, that apostasy passage has a genuine meaning. That's not our discussion tonight. Back down to verse 9.

But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name. in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Have you ever met somebody that says, you know, when I first got saved, we were out witnessing and we went this and we did this and we did that. Why did you stop? What happened? Why?

What? Did Christ change? And I'm not saying that defines Christianity. I'm not saying everybody has to go out and pass out, you know, 100 tracts a day if that's how you started.

So therefore, in 35 years, no, no, that's not what I'm saying. But you know, it's almost like people get content with, here's what we used to do. Now I'm just kind of a slug, and I'm going to fall into heaven because God's nice. Now God is nice, and you probably will fall into heaven because God is nice.

But that's not the way that we are supposed to live. We are to get to it and not be sluggish in our Christian life.

The Manner: Endurance Specified

Go back to the text in 12.1. Notice the manner specified. He says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let's see here.

Therefore, we also sin, I'm sorry, yeah, there it is, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now, the text doesn't say with joy, but the rest of the Bible means with joy. There's an endurance, a joyful endurance that is specified in the scripture. We are to endure, we are to persevere, but we aren't to grimace while we're doing it.

What are you doing, you Christian men? Well, I'm enduring. No, it's not godly. I'm enduring.

I'm persevering. God's grace is good. He's kind. He's merciful.

He's gracious. I want to run this race. It's a blessing. It's a blessed thing.

It's something that I want to be about. I want to do. The endurance that is enjoined upon us is the same endurance that is fleshed out in chapter 11. You don't have to ask the question.

What does he mean with endurance? Just go back to chapter 11. Look at, say, verse 32. What more shall I say?

For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah. Did any of those brothers endure? Yes, every single one of them endured. Many ways we're better postured now to go through this particular passage in just a moment because of our study in the book of Judges.

Also of David and Samuel and the prophets. Did David endure? Did David persevere? Did David go forward?

You know, there were periods and times in his life and certainly he was sluggish spiritually, but as a general rule, and if you look at the tenor of his life, he was a man that lived in the fear of God. Now notice in verse 33, who through faith subdued kingdoms. worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to fight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.

You see, when we get down to 12.1, it says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Don't say, well, you just don't know what my life looks like. You don't know how hard it is for me to endure. Are you being sawn in two?

Are you wandering this world clothed in sheepskins? Are you wandering this world living in caves? I must confess, I think that would be a harder situation to endure in than an air-conditioned car and red lights on Wellington. I really think there's a contrast that we ought to appreciate.

So we can't say, well, you just don't know how hard it is. What do you mean I don't know how hard it is? Isaiah the prophet was sawn in two. I mean, this shouldn't happen to any human being ever.

But to the prophet Isaiah, I mean, that somebody could put a saw on that man and cut him in half is absolutely insane in my estimation. The man who wrote Isaiah 53 was sawed in two, and I'm going to grumble about my endurance and my perseverance? Brethren, Hebrews 11 serves as a beautiful illustration of God's faithfulness to His people. The same word that is given to us in verse 1, let us run with endurance is the same word applied to Jesus in the next verse.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. You see, the joy that was set before Christ was obedience to his father, the glory of his father, and the salvation of all those whom the father had given him, the bringing of many sons to glory. That was the joy set before the Lord Jesus. So in order to get to the joy, he endured the cross.

He went through that shame. He went through that suffering. He went through all of those things in order to secure his father's glory and in order to secure the salvation of us. So if you want to know what endurance looks like in 12.1, look at those brothers in the Old Testament, and then look at the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then look at your life and say, wow, maybe it isn't so tough to endure and to persevere in my situation as it was for the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief. O'Brien rightly points out, the race is not a sprint, but a long distance race requiring resolute determination. Resolute determination. I think if we culled all these passages together, that would be an excellent explanation.

Resolute determination. Those who are justified freely by the grace of God, those who by grace have believed on the Lord Jesus, those upon whom Jesus has laid hold up, will resolutely, with the resolute determination, press onward to that heavenly prize. So that's what's going on in terms of the believer's race.

The Believer's Incentives

Now notice, the believer's incentives. I've already mentioned there are three. The first is the cloud of witnesses, the second is the example of Jesus, and the third is the purpose of the Father. You want to, you know, look at these other ones later, but notice verse one.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." Remember, he just wrote chapter 11. Shouldn't scratch your head and say, what's he talking about? Who are these witnesses? These witnesses are all the men he just spoke up, and women.

All these people in chapter 11 is this great cloud of witnesses that surround the believer. It's a beautiful thing. Consider some of the situations that we find in Hebrews chapter 11. Again, think about your faith in the context of your life.

Sometimes we say, well, it's so difficult for me because my family is really irritated. Or, it's difficult for me because you don't know the kind of woman that I'm married to. Or, it's difficult for me because I'm married to a dead bee. It's difficult for me because my parents are there.

You know what I mean? Maybe you haven't heard that. Sometimes people blame their lack of sanctification on circumstances. I know that sounds weird, but people do that.

None of you, I'm sure, but some people out there who name the name of Christ blame other people for their lack of growth and grace. Did Abel have a happy home life? Did Abel have a happy home life? No, Abel did not have a happy home life.

Hopefully Abel Butler will have a happy home life, but Abel I did not have a happy home life. I doubt on the spur of the moment, on a whim, Cain just took a rock and bashed Abel's head. There was probably already some disdain that Cain had Abelward. There was probably already a detestation for his brother before he went out, and I'm just guessing, smashed his head.

Abel lived by faith and persevered. This is in Hebrews 11. Enoch, consider Enoch living at those days. 365 years he lived. And he walked with God.

And the text is very specific. And he had sons and daughters. That's a challenge right there, isn't it? For any of us who are parents, isn't it hard to be faithful when you're constantly stressed with kids?

How many kids do you think Enoch had in that time frame? Probably had a lot. You want to hear a good sermon on that, listen to Albert N. Martin on the life of Enoch.

Enoch walked with God and was not. He lived a long time being a faithful man. He had no one. Have you ever heard the argument, it's so hard to be holy because it's such an ungodly world.

Oh, it's just horrible out there. And I'm not suggesting it isn't. We murder babies, we let men marry men, and women marry women, snorting things up our noses, whatever. All that stuff is out there.

But Noah managed in the midst of a society that is described as exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence. He just kept pounding away on that arc. being faithful, persevering in the midst of a godless society, you see? So all of these persons here in chapter 11 is the cloud of witnesses. You got a difficulty in your family?

Hey, there's Abel. Maybe he can be a boon to you. You struggle with working in a godless place, in a difficult place? Think about Noah.

I mean, there was a faithful man in the midst of a godless society, managed to persevere. You've got Abraham. Sometimes people say, you know, it's so hard to be holy because I feel like I constantly am meeting up with these tests and these trials and these difficulties. None of us have ever woken up and had God say, take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, trot him up to Mount Moriah, lay him down, tie him up, and put a knife in his heart.

None of us have had that test. And none of us will get that test. You see, we can't blame everything else. We need to run with endurance.

If we think that these tests or trials are somehow inhibiting us from being holy, we certainly misunderstood the Bible. Because God does these things for those whom he loves, not temptation to sin. Not solicitation to evil, but there are instances and times where God does send various trials, because trials produce patience, according to James, in James chapter 1. What about Sarah?

An impossible physical demand. An impossible physical demand. You're going to have children, Sarah. God, don't you know physiology?

You made me. Don't you know that things stop working after a certain... An impossible physical demand. She's faithful in the midst of it.

And again, when you look at the characters in the Bible, they're not spotlessly faithful. They're not perfectly faithful. There's some, you know, hiccups along the way, but the tenor, the overarching description of their lives is one of faithfulness. That's why they're in Hebrews chapter 11.

You got Moses in the Exodus. You think you've got a lot of responsibility at work, and I don't want to minimize that. There's business owners. It's probably tough, but you're not Moses leading the children of Israel across to the promised land.

I mean, Moses himself said, Lord, I can't do this. This is difficult. By God's grace, he persevered. You got Rahab the harlot, whom Davis calls the shady lady of Jericho.

Here she was a pagan living in Jericho. She proselytes into the nation of Israel. She ends up marrying who? Salmon, good.

And they give birth to who? Boaz, the Goel, the kinsman redeemer who marries Ruth, and they have Obed, and Obed has Jesse, and Jesse has David, and thus we have the messianic line. So Rahab, in the midst of a horrible situation, comes out of darkness into marvelous light and experiences the blessing of God in tremendous ways. You've got Gideon, Gideon was this strong man of faith, wasn't he?

No, he wasn't. He needed the fleece twice. He needed it tested twice. Remember when God told him to go and tear down that altar in his hometown?

When did he go? Brought daylight so that he could tell everybody that he was here in the name of Yahweh? No, he went at night. But he got the job done, didn't he?

You see, these are real people in real situations doing what God has called them to do, and they do it faithfully. They don't necessarily march in with their faces painted and say, yeah, we're here to just deal, you know, deal it out to you, but they get it done. You've got Beric. Remember Beric?

He asks the prophetess, I want you to go with me. If you don't go with me, I'm not going to go. It's not an admission of cowardice. It's rather a desire for the presence of God Most High.

He does. He leads the armies of Israel into victory. But God, nevertheless, gives victory to jail when it comes time to pound Sisera's head. You've got Jephthah.

Jephthah was a godly man. I know that I explained him in the literal way. He is in the book of Hebrews. He was a man of faith.

He did not do everything perfectly, but nevertheless he did what God called him to do, and he did it effectively. And then there's Samson. who has become a near and dear hero to me, certainly a man of faith." Now he is the one that walks down the street in broad daylight and says, I'm just going to take care of business here. So there are men like that that he uses. Then there's David.

There's Samuel, there's prophets, there's triumphant heroes, there's suffering saints. You see, all of these people are the great cloud of witnesses that we have surrounding us.

What a Witness Actually Does

Now when we ask the question, what does a witness do? The wrong way to approach verse 1 is to think that what we have here is that we are the runners down on the field and that there is this amphitheater type structure and all these witnesses are up there. You've got Abel, you've got Noah, you've got Enoch, you've got Samson. You've got Gideon, you've got Jephthah, and what they're doing is they're sort of cheering us on.

They're sort of rooting for us. They're sort of encouraging us along the way. That's not the way the text is supposed to be understood. The function of a witness, you call a witness into a courtroom not to be a spectator.

You call a witness into the courtroom to be a witness, to give evidence, to make testimony. So what the image is, is that we've got Abel, we've got Enoch, we've got Sarah, we've got Rahab, we've got Moses, and they're all witnessing that we have a God who's faithful, a God who is just, and a God who sustains his people. they're not witnessing to their faithfulness, they're not witnessing to their goodness, they're witnessing to the goodness of God Most High. The author is saying since we have this great cloud of witnesses, every one of them to a man, every one of them to a woman with the common report that God is faithful, He will not leave you, He will not forsake you, having that for your surrounding theater there, you run with endurance. The emphasis of these witnesses is that faithful endurance to the end is possible and that God himself is faithful and he will sustain you.

They're not up there rooting for you, they're not up there cheering for you, they're up there testifying to you that your God is indeed the faithful one who sustained them, who kept them, who got them from point A to point Z by His grace.

Witnesses from Scripture and History

There's several others in the Bible. Jacob, Jacob in Genesis 35, 3, then let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make an altar there to God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the day which I have gone. Isn't that beautiful? Those are witnesses you ought to listen to when you're reading your Bible.

You're struggling with an issue. You're having difficulty in a situation. You're having problems resisting a temptation or sin. Listen to Jacob when you read Genesis 35.

Yes, it's nice to read Genesis and learn the creation account. By all means, read Genesis for the creation account. But in many respects, that's a small portion of Genesis. The rest of it is about four men.

And the lives of those four men witness and testify several great lessons concerning God and his mercy. You're dealing with issues and you hear Jacob say, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have done. Or Moses' statement in Deuteronomy 1.31, remember? Plains of Moab.

Moses is preparing the children of Israel, or is preparing them to cross the river Jordan and go in the land of conquest, or land of Canaan. And God says, through Moses, concerning the wilderness days, the days that they thought God had abandoned them, by the way. If you go back and read the section in Deuteronomy 1, the children of Israel concluded in the wilderness that God left us. Or even worse, God brought us out here to kill us.

That's how they concluded. Here's how God interprets the same event. And of course, we believe God's interpretation over grumbling Israel. God in Deuteronomy 131 says, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the way that you went until you came to this place.

You see, they looked in the wilderness. They said, God left us. Or worse yet, God brought us out here so he could slaughter us. God said, you missed the point.

I picked you up and I carried you through the wilderness the way that a father does. You see, these are witnesses you and I need to pay attention to. This is testimony we need to listen to. When we're running with endurance the race that is set before us, we're not just knuckling under, gutting it out.

We're listening to faithful men and women all around us who are saying, run because your God is faithful. David in 2nd Samuel 4, 9, But David answered Rechab and Banna, his brother, the sons of Rimeh and the Barathite, and said to them, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity." Isn't that beautiful? He's redeemed my life from all adversity. What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

We believe our God will spare us. But even if He doesn't, we still will fear Him. Isn't that great? That's not some charismatic, God's going to do whatever we tell him.

No, we believe God will spare us. But if he doesn't, we still worship him and love him. That's faith in the furnace, brethren. You can't ever say, well, you don't know the troubles I'm having.

Nobody's chucked you into a furnace to burn you to death. Thankfully. Micah the prophet, 7, 1 to 7. He laments because he's it.

As far as Micah's concerned, he's the last one. Society has completely disintegrated. There's no friends close to him. The family has disintegrated, and yet Micah finds comfort in his God.

Habakkuk the prophet, the same sort of thing in chapter 3, 17 to 19. Paul the apostle. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Certainly when you're looking at Abel and Enoch and Rahab and all that, you better see Paul up there and you better listen to what Paul's testimony is. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing. And then you could go through church history subsequent to the death of the apostles, and look at Foxe's Book of Martyrs, for instance, and locate those men and those women up in those stands. We could think of modern-day persons that suffer for the cause of Christ, those who are in prison. What do they testify, typically, if they're faithful?

They say, God sustains me. That's the emphasis in the text. They're not up there saying, run, Cam, run, Jim, run, Jonathan, do a great job. No, they're all saying run because God is faithful.

Run because God is merciful. Run because God is worth running after. That's how these witnesses function in verse one.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us close in prayer and ask God to help us to run with endurance. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, we thank You for its clarity, and we pray that You would give us grace and a desire to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Thank You for this great cloud of witnesses, not only populated with the people of the Old Testament, but our New Testaments as well. and then 20 centuries of Christ's church and people who have testified consistently in life and in death that God is faithful. Lord, help us to always remember this most valuable lesson and help us always to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

We ask that you would go with us now and watch over us. Again, we pray for those who need prayer in our congregation, that you would look with favor upon them, and we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture References

• Genesis 35:3
• Deuteronomy 1:31
• 2 Samuel 4:9
• Psalm 95:9-11
• Proverbs 1:10
• Micah 7:1-7
• Habakkuk 3:17-19
• Matthew 13:22
• Romans 7
• 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
• Galatians 5; 6:1
• Philippians 3:12-14
• 1 Timothy 6
• 2 Timothy 4:7-8
• James 1
• Hebrews 2:1; 3:12-14; 4:1; 4:14; 5:12; 5:14; 6:9; 10:19; 10:22-24; 10:32-36; 11; 11:32-33; 12:1-11