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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
the 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, 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 prophet, that we may be partakers of his
holiness. Now, 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. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and
the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that
what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue
peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see
the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the
grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause
trouble, and by this many become defiled. lest there be any fornicator
or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold
his birthright. For you know that afterward,
when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for
he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently
with tears. For you have not come to the mountain that may
be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, and darkness,
and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words,
so that those who heard it begged that the words should not be
spoken to them any more. For they could not endure what
was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches
the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so
terrifying was the sight, that Moses said, I am exceedingly
afraid and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to
God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. "'See
that you do not refuse him who speaks. "'For if they did not
escape, "'who refused him who spoke on earth, "'much more shall
we not escape "'if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven.
"'Whose voice then shook the earth, "'but now he has promised
saying, "'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, "'but also
heaven.'" Now this, yet once more, indicates the removal of
those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that
the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since
we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have
grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, again, we thank you for
the written word of the living and true God. We know all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. So instruct us now, Lord, help
us to receive with thankful hearts these encouraging words concerning
your faithfulness, your goodness, and your mercy to your church.
And Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit, guide and direct us into
all truth, and forgive us for all sin and those things which
darken our minds. And we ask this through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, God willing, we'll
return to our exposition of John's Gospel next Sunday morning, but
it would be a good thing for us to be reminded on God's faithfulness. And that's the emphasis here,
specifically in chapter 12 and verse 1. And I hope to show you
that as we proceed. But first, just an overview of
the chapter as a whole. The people of God are exhorted
or encouraged to run the race of faith in verses 1 to 11. They
are encouraged or exhorted to renew their vitality, verses
12 to 17. They are to be reminded that
they have come to Mount Zion in verses 18 to 24. And they
are finally admonished to not refuse Him who speaks from heaven. We see that in verses 25 to 29.
And those themes take up an emphasis in the book of Hebrews. which
is an exhortation by the Apostle Paul to exhort believing Jews
to keep going forward, to persevere. The temple was still standing,
the sacrificial system was still in play, and certainly these
who had professed faith in Jesus as Israel's Messiah were being
pressured by their fellows. whether it be family, whether
it be an economy or economic trade, whatever the case may
have been, they would probably have had pressure laid upon them
to resist or reject the notion that Jesus was in fact the Messiah.
Come back to Moses, come back to the temple, come back to that
sacrificial system that you knew. So, repetitively throughout the
book, the author emphasizes the need to endure. the need to persevere,
and that is precisely what we find here in chapter 12, verses
1 to 11. So I want to look first at the
believer's race, and then secondly at the believer's health. If
you look specifically at verse 1, the main emphasis in this
section is, let us run the race that is set before us. Let us
run the race that is set before us. I know he says with endurance.
We'll look at that in just a moment. But if we were to peel out the
simple sentence, the simple statement, the simple exhortation, it is
that. Let us run the race that is set
before us. Now, oftentimes when apostles
or prophets, God, through his people, give us exhortation or
give us command, they often give us incitements or enticements
to comply with those commands. I might say to you, come to my
house for supper later on. We're gonna have a nice big pan
of sizzling fajitas. Not just come to my house, but
here's a good reason why. We just had a nice big pan of
sizzling fajitas on Thursday. Can't get it quite out of my
head. But you see, there's an incitement or an enticement as
to why you should comply with the exhortation. Come to my house.
Why? Because you're gonna eat good.
endure, persevere, press on, run the race. Why? Because God
has given you these enticements. He has given you these reasons.
He has provided this rationale. So that being the simple command,
it falls after this statement concerning witnesses, but we'll
take up that statement first. So we'll look at the believer's
race, and then we'll look at that first sort of enticement
in the second place under the believer's help. But notice the
duty. Let us run the race that is set
before us. In other words, we need to persevere. We need to go forward. We're
not supposed to be stagnant in the Christian life. We're supposed
to be fighting, not physically necessarily, but spiritually.
We're supposed to be praying. We're supposed to be watching.
We're supposed to be taking guard. We're supposed to be on the alert.
And this is an emphasis throughout, as I said, this epistle. Go back
to chapter 2 at verse 1 to see the several exhortations in this
vein. So chapter 2 verse 1, therefore we must give the more earnest
heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. See, it's
a problematic thing to drift away. So how do we avoid drifting
away? By taking earnest heed to the
things that we have heard. Notice in chapter 3 at verse
14, same emphasis, same sort of an exhortation. For we have
become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end. Now God is sovereign. God keeps
us by his power, but God also employs means. And one of the
means that he employs is that we, by grace and through the
power of the Holy Spirit, do what he tells us to do. And then
notice as well in chapter four, verse one, 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 notice in chapter
4, verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who
has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our confession. Again, they were in danger of
letting go of that confession. They were in danger of defection
or apostasy. They were in danger of relinquishing
their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or their professed faith
in our Lord Jesus, and going back to the sacrificial system
of Moses. Not that Moses' sacrificial system
was bad. It was a wonderful thing in Old
Covenant religion. But the message of Hebrews is
that the new covenant has come. It's a better covenant with better
promises because it's grounded on a better hope, namely the
life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice
in chapter 10, verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of
our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
and then 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. So that brings us to chapter
12, verse 1. Us run the race that is set before us, but it's
not simply confined to the book of Hebrews. We know that Paul
uses this imagery or this analogy elsewhere in his writings. 1
Corinthians 9, verses 24 to 27. 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. Paul is against, or at least
he's not for, participation trophies. Paul wants you to win. He wants
you to run in such a way that you win, that you are victorious,
that you use the resources that God himself has provided, namely
the word and the spirit, so that you march forward to Zion in
a manner consistent with his calling upon your life. So he
says, run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone
who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable
crown. He's speaking about the athletic
events that he knew of that were going on in his own generation,
similar to what we call today the Olympics. He saw guys getting
up at oh dark 30 and running in preparation for their meet
or in preparation for their eventual race or competition. He saw the
regimen with reference to food, their guiding or guarding rather,
their protein, their carbon take, all that sort of thing. This
stuff was rampant in the early centuries as well. He saw their
temperance and what he is saying is they do it for a perishable
crown. We get over to the church with reference to spiritual needs
and we're a bunch of sluggards. We're all just stagnant. We're
not temperate. We're not doing the things that
God calls us to do. He says, 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.
So he uses the same imagery, the same analogy, the same sort
of a vivid display. Again, he's not saying run in
order to be saved. He's saying run because you have
been saved. Run because God's grace has conquered
you. Run because you've been forgiven
of your sins. Run because you have the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. This is the impetus for our running this race that is
set before us. He says in Philippians 3 at verses
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. Brethren, I do not count myself
to have apprehended, but 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. For the Apostle Paul, he didn't
have this mentality. Well, you know, I'm an older
man now. I've done my fighting. I've done my work. I've extended
my energy. I'm going to just sort of sit
back now and settle on my knees and just glide my way into heaven.
He doesn't do that. He's a fighting, watching, praying
man. He is a faithful runner. And
he calls upon us to be faithful runners likewise. So back to
Hebrews chapter 12, the duty is very simple. The exhortation
is very simple. before us, but notice that particular
race has obstacles, or there are difficulties, as we can all
testify, right? In your Christian race, are there
ever challenges? Are there ever hardships? Are
there ever difficulties? If you say no, I will say, well,
just wait. Just bide your time, because
Jesus promised in this world, you will have tribulation, but
be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. That
was the way he encouraged his apostles in John 16, 33. He doesn't
try to candy coat. He doesn't try to pair off the
rough edges of discipleship. In fact, earlier in his ministry,
he says, you need to take up your cross daily and follow me.
And in that context, he's not saying whatever hardship might
be in your life, take up your cross meant to go to death if
necessary for your commitment and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So there are obstacles that attend
this particular run. Notice in the first place, we
need to lay aside every weight. Look at what it says in verse
one. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. Now,
because he goes on to say, and the sin which so easily ensnares
us, there's obviously a distinction. There are weights that we can
bind on ourselves that aren't necessarily sin, but they don't
necessarily help us win the race. They don't help us run the race.
I think it's this that Jesus appeals to in the parable of
the soils. He says in chapter Matthew 13, 22, Now he who receives
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, riches in and of themselves
are not sin. You're not a sinner because you're
rich. Paul tells you in 1 Timothy 6
how you're supposed to deal as a believing man or woman who
has great wealth. But it's not necessarily a sin,
but it can be a weight. It can be something that weighs
us down. The cares of this world. If you are like me and you're
a political junkie, you have to watch your heart because you
want to see what's happening. There's this somehow tendency
to continue to look at train wrecks. That's not always a positive
and helpful way to live in this present lower world. I mean,
there's enough right now going on in this world to put some
of us in a coma for years to come. There's so much stuff happening. And so what the apostle says
is that we need to get rid of those weights. Imagine a long-distance
runner, a long-distance runner. In fact, one of my brothers just
mentioned this this morning with a parallel to a real running
race he just went in. But you imagine if you're going
to go run a long race, 26 miles in a marathon, you don't put
on a weighted vest. You put on a weighted vest if
you're 100 pounds overweight, you want to walk around your
block a few times. That's a good way to get a little extra exercise.
But when you're running a marathon, you don't actually add weight,
you try to reduce weight. You don't go out there 50 pounds
overweight. You try to lose some weight before
you slosh that around the course. And so this is what the apostle
says. You're going to run this race. Don't take on unnecessary
weight. Don't make unnecessary commitments. Don't get rid of your time unnecessarily. Make sure you're focused. Make
sure you hone in on. Make sure you understand. The
primary reason for which you exist as a blood-bought child
of God is to run this race. And if there's anything that
would detract from that, he says, get rid of it, disband it, just
remove it. But then notice sin. Sin doesn't
help us run this race at all. He says, let us lay aside every
weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. All sin does hinder. Not all weights necessarily are
sinful, but all sin is necessarily a hindrance. And so the Apostle
says you've got to get rid of it. You've got to put to death
the deeds of the body that you may live. You've got to put on
the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to
fulfill its lust. You need to adopt that mindset
of our blessed Savior in the Sermon on the Mount. You need
to gouge out the right eye. You need to cut off the right
hand. You need to enter into heaven lame or maimed, if necessary,
then enter into hell whole. You see, there is this emphasis
on runners running in the way that God calls us to. And lo
and behold, he grants grace. Lo and behold, he doesn't call
us to do it on our own. He gives us the Spirit. He gives
us the Bible. He gives us church. He gives
us hymn singing and psalm singing. You might have seen me pause
after that second hymn. I was gonna say something like,
wow, isn't it wonderful to be in the house of God and getting
to extol our God in praise with a lot of people like us? Not
like us exactly, but blood-bought children. This is a means of
grace that God encourages runners so that when we leave here, we
run with endurance the race that is set before us. We lay aside
the weights, we lay aside the sin, and we pursue those things
that God Most High has said we ought to be about pursuing. One
commentator says, 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 are now slackening
in the will to persevere. Their effort is decreasing, sin
is holding them back, they need to recover their intensity of
purpose to shake off the sluggish mood into which they have fallen
to regain their confidence and their competitive spirit. Brethren,
it's in this vein that I bring this message. It's not to come
to condemn you and say, oh, what a bunch of, you know, wretched
runners in this race. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is encouraging us to renew
this vitality so that we run in a manner that is consistent
with our calling in our blessed Savior. But before we leave the
believer's race, notice the manner specified. So there is a duty,
let us run the race that is set before us. There are obstacles
to lay aside, every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares
us, but then the manner is specified. Notice, let us run with endurance. Endurance. I understand how attractive
it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then die and
go to heaven. You don't have to deal with a whole lot of hardship,
right? There's been a few in the history
of the church that that happened to. The thief on the cross, he was
converted in the 11th hour. He ended his day in paradise
with our blessed Christ. But for most of us, we get converted
and it's back to work. We get converted, it's back to
home. We get converted and it's not that society has somehow
changed. It's not the case that we now
have a prime minister committed to biblical law in the office.
There are hardships associated with the Christian life. There
is the tribulation that Jesus promised. And so the apostle
emphasizes, not only run the race, but do so with endurance. This flash-in-the-pan Christianity,
this, you know, raise the hand at the tent meeting, this say
the sinner's prayer with no fruit is the evidence that there was
no conversion. The Apostle John says they went
out from us, but they were not of us. Because if they were of
us, they would not have gone out from us. But they have manifested
that they were fake. It was a fake profession. It
was false. Not all that glitters is gold,
brethren. But gold does glitter, and therefore, we're supposed
to run with endurance the race that is set. before us. This
requires, or this is perhaps, one of the most difficult lessons
in the Christian life. O'Brien says the race is not
a sprint, but a long-distance race requiring resolute determination. Now I know what I know what it
is to be battle weary. I know what it is to be tired. I know
what it is to have that mindset. I'm not sure we can keep taking
this, but we can because God is faithful. We can because God
is gracious. We can because God has purpose
to save us. And that means not just at one
time in history, not just in the present, but he will bring
us into future glory. That is the purpose and plan
of God. So if he has purposed that, then he will provide the
means necessary so that we may run with endurance the race that
is set before us. So the duty is pretty obvious.
The duty is pretty simple. Run with endurance, getting rid
of weights and getting rid of the sin that so easily ensnares
us. Now let's look to the believer's
help. And there's three things, but I only want to focus on the
first. Notice in verse 1, therefore we also sense we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses. That'll be our focus. But then
the example of Christ in verses 2 to 4. Notice, after saying
we need to run with endurance the race that is set before us,
he points us to Christ. Now I've told you before that
in the first place Christ is a substitutionary atonement for
us men and for our salvation. The Incarnation was about the
life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ with redemptive
ends, with redemptive focus to save us from our sins. But there
are passages that point us to the example of our Savior, and
this is one of them. So he points us, after this cloud
of witnesses, he points us to Christ. Looking unto Jesus, verse
2, 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. Great example,
isn't it? You're supposed to run with endurance
the race that is set before you. And if you say, but it's so hard,
it's so difficult, I don't know that I can do it. It was hard
and it was difficult for Jesus. Hebrews 5a tells us the Son learned
obedience through what? Through suffering. And so the
Son of Man, according to His humanity, ran with endurance
the race that was set before Him. How did He do it? He despised
the shame. He despised the cross, but He
looked to that glory that was to come. And then the third sort
of incentive to run this race is the Father's purpose. And
you see that in verses 5 to 11. So the cloud of witnesses, the
example of Jesus and the Father's purpose are the three incentives,
the three sort of enticements as to why we should comply with
the command to run the race with endurance. But as I said, we're
gonna just focus at that cloud of witnesses. Now notice the
cloud of witnesses. He says in verse one, therefore
we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
Now, if we were to scratch our head and say, wow, I wonder what
he's talking about here. Who could these witnesses possibly
be? the men and women in chapter 11, okay? The persons that he
just told us, by faith, they did these things. By faith, they
persevered. By faith, they ran the race with
endurance. By faith, they went forward. By faith, they looked to God. By faith, they resisted the temptation
to sin with the people of Egypt, but counted the riches of glory
much more to be preferred. So the cloud of witnesses are
all the saints that have gone before us. The cloud of witnesses
are all our fellows, all our fellow men and women that by
grace believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and are now
in heaven. The language suggests an amphitheater. So this cloud of witnesses are
up in an amphitheater. There's two ways to interpret
this cloud of witnesses. Are they witnesses of us or are
they witnesses to us? Now the one is, they are witnesses
of us. And then the emphasis of the
text would be, run with endurance the race that is set before you.
Knowing that Abraham's cheering you on. Knowing that Enoch is
cheering you on. Knowing that Sarah is cheering
you on. Knowing that Abel and Jephthah
and Samson and Barak and David and the prophets All of them
are up in that amphitheater, they're seeing your running self,
and they are cheering you on. That's the interpretation that
suggests that they are witnesses of us. I don't believe that's
what's in view. They are witnesses to us. We're
supposed to look outside of ourself at those men and women. As we're
running with endurance the race that is set before us, as Paul
says in Philippians 2, forgetting what's behind, we reach toward
that upward call of God in Christ Jesus. But along the way, we
look at Abraham. Along the way, we look at Enoch.
Along the way, we look at Abel. Why do I suggest that that's
the way the text ought to be understood? First, the word doesn't
mean spectator. If you are in a modern court
and they call the witness, the witness doesn't sit in the dock
simply to watch the proceedings. The witness is there to give
testimony. The witness is there to give
eyewitness testimony or whatever testimony that he or she has
to offer. So they're not coming to sit in the dock next to the
judge simply to watch the proceedings to make sure they're going on.
As well, the witnesses are beholding the glory of Christ. I like to
think, brethren, that Abraham and Enoch and Rahab the harlot,
they have better things to look at than me running with endurance
the race that is set before me. And I'm not going to try to trigger
you here, but they probably have better things to do than look
at you. They're beholding the face of
Jesus. They're in the presence of the Lamb. They're in heaven. So, what do you think they're
gazing upon? They're not looking at us. Rather,
we're supposed to be looking to them. The witnesses serve
on our behalf to manifest, here's the point, the faithfulness of
God, and to show that God upholds faithful runners, whatever their
circumstances. I think it functions beautifully,
and I think the various snapshots given in chapter 11, to which
we'll look in just a moment, function beautifully. What happens
when we run with endurance the race that is set before us? If
you're like me, there's a lot of complaining, and then some
whining, and there's some sniveling. Well, you don't really know what
my life's like. I have it really tough. I've got an unconverted
family, they're not very nice to me, I live in a godless age,
I've got these various challenges, and you know, I'm just riddled
with difficulties. We try to wind our way out of
running with endurance, the race that is set before us, as if
we are the only ones that have ever faced any hardship or difficulty
or woe. Brethren, the witnesses that
are named in chapter 11 and through the history of the church are
there to testify of this one theme. God is faithful. Whatever your circumstances,
whatever your lot, whatever your trials, whatever your hardship,
know this, that when you run with endurance the race that
is set before you, God's got you, just like God had us. Now, consider in Hebrews chapter
11 the various witnesses mentioned. We have Abel in chapter 11 at
verse 4. Now, before you tell me how hard
your life is because you have a family that doesn't love you
or doesn't like you, which is a miserable condition and a situation,
by the way. If that's your issue, I would
love to pray for you in that regard. Abel's brother murdered
him. Abel's brother killed him. Abel's
brother despised him to the point where he bashed his head in or
some other way to dispatch him from this life. Which just goes
to show you as well, you don't need a gun in order to kill somebody. You can use your bare hands if
you are so inclined to do that. So Abel testifies that even in
the midst of that, God is faithful. You've got Enoch in chapter 11,
verses five and six. Enoch walked with God and then
he was not. It really doesn't tell us much
about Enoch in terms of the history in Genesis and what his life
was like, but it does tell us he lived for 365 years. And it does tell us that in the
midst of that 365 years, he had children. Now, I'm not suggesting that
children are the hardest things ever to deal with, but there's
a challenge to be had in rearing children. And yet Enoch, in the
midst of that, was faithful to the point where he was not because
God took him. Imagine being so holy that God
just reaches down from heaven and brings you up into heaven.
That's the manner that Enoch was. He walked with God and then
he was not. So in the life of routine, in
the life of the ordinary, in the life of the mundane. I mean,
sometimes we get so romantic and we say, well, if I was out
there with David on the Valley of Elah, on the Valley of Elah,
sure, I'd stand up against Goliath, but my life is just normal, it's
ordinary, it's routine. Do you mean like Enoch? He managed
successfully to live that ordinary routine and mundane life in such
a way that God brought him up right into heaven. Notice as
we continue down this hall of faith, you've got Noah. This
is especially appropriate for us in our own generation. I mean,
look at Europe. Look at the uprisings against governments that want
to impose the Green New Deal and not learning that it just
doesn't work. Sri Lanka fell. Panama's about
to fall. Why? Because they wanted to embrace
anything and everything but fossil fuels. And we see this. And people
are saying, no, we don't want you to lead us down this path.
There is great unrest. Think about the corruption in
society, abortion. We think about the decalogue.
We think about the latter half, the second table. We don't even
think about the first table anymore. We don't even begin to entertain
the thought that idolatry would be a crime, or that blasphemy
would be a crime, or that Sabbath-breaking would be a crime. But let's just
take the second table of the law. Murder. You shall not murder. These people rejoice in abortion. These people shout their abortion. These people want to get rid
of crisis pregnancy centers that are designed to help ladies who
are pregnant. I mean, this is evil. It is a
manifestation of wickedness and vileness, and it apes the father
of lies and murder himself. And then you have euthanasia.
We have all kinds of ways now to get you out of this world.
And so we see this world, it's exceedingly corrupt, and it's
filled with violence. But that's precisely what Noah
faced. And yet in the midst of it, nail
after nail, he pounded that ark together, and he did what God
said. By faith, he was faithful in
a faithless generation. Notice as well, Abraham. Brethren,
Abraham, before he came out of Ur of the Chaldeans, was an idolater,
just like his father, Terah. It wasn't like Abraham had a
come to Jesus moment in Ur of the Chaldean, and then said to
Terah, you know, I'm gonna go over here to Canaan. I think
this is where God's people are gonna, God drew him out. God
saved him. God said that in you, all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed. He had been an idolater. He had been a man committed to
false gods. You see this in Joshua 24, covenant renewal at Sheka.
There, Joshua tells us that Terah was an idolater. Well, Terah
was a father like the rest of us. If I'm gonna worship an idol,
my son's gonna worship an idol. If I'm gonna worship the true
and living God, my son, or I'm gonna exhort him to worship the
true and living God. So Abraham was a sinner, saved
by grace, and he becomes, in many respects, sort of the benchmark
in terms of justification by faith alone. He believed God
and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Him and David
serve as the examples of justification by faith in Paul's book of Romans,
Romans chapter 4. And then you have Sarah. Sarah
is mentioned in chapter 11, 11, and 12. What was her deal? You're
going to have babies, and lots of them. But God, I'm not a spring
chicken. I'm 99. These people had enough
knowledge of biology to know that what God was promising them
was a stretch. Come on, this is just not the
way. Remember she laughed? She actually
laughed at the thought or prospect that she was going to have children.
I mean, that would have been a hard one for any of us, and
yet what does she do? By faith, she embraces the promises
of God, and she becomes, along with Abraham, the progenitor
of many, many people. It's ultimately about Christ
and seed, but notice, impossible physical demands are met by our
God. Chapter 11, 20 to 22, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. They
didn't just sort of wander through life without any challenges. The book of Genesis is very curious,
very interesting. You have these macrocosmic, you
know, mind-altering events up until chapter 11. And then chapter
12, the narrative comes to almost a dead stop. And then you start
with Abraham and his family to the point where there's whole
chapters given to finding a bride for Isaac, finding a bride for
Jacob. The narrative crawls along at
that point. And what it does is that it shows
us that God's people have their challenges. They have their issues. They have their obstacles and
their hardships. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Jacob makes this observation
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 way which
I have gone. See, that's the witness you're supposed to appeal
to or look to. It's not him looking at you saying,
go, runner, go. It's you looking at him, hearing
him say, God's faithful, keep running. Don't stop. Don't shrink
back. Don't end it. Don't throw up
your hands in frustration and say, no more. And then with Joseph,
Joseph, again, if you think you've got family problems, I mean,
when they threw Joseph into the pit, Joseph is at the bottom
of the pit and he's crying out to them while they're eating
lunch. Brethren, they're sitting at the edge and they're having
a bologna sandwich. Actually, it wouldn't have been
a bologna sandwich, but they were eating. They were mowing
their lunch while their brother was in the bottom of a pit. Of
course they wanted to kill him, but then one intervenes and says,
no, let's just sell him into slavery. That's a much better
option. Well, what does Joseph learn when all is said and done?
You meant this for evil, but God overruled it for good. Genesis
50, 20. That's the point of the narrative,
brethren. That's where it goes. That's
the focus. That's the purpose. Whatever
hardship you face, whatever difficulty you have, God's faithful. He
doesn't ever stop. He is immutable. He is impassable. He is most loving. He is most
glorious. He is most kind and gracious
to his people. You've got Moses and the Exodus
in chapter 11, verses 23 to 29. Look at chapter 11, verse 23. because they saw he was a beautiful
child, excuse me. They saw he was a beautiful child
and they were not afraid of the king's command. The king commanded
the extermination of every Hebrew baby born. Every male that was
born should be killed. Praise God that his parents didn't
go with the policy of the state. Praise God for civil resistance
and civil disobedience in that instance. Praise God that Moses'
parents hid him from this oppressive regime that would cut his throat
and throw him into the Nile. Notice verse 24, by faith Moses,
when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He had everything at his disposal. He had riches,
he had wealth, he had women, he had you know, the education
system, he had everything that Egypt had to offer, and yet he
refuses this. Notice verse 25, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
passing pleasures of sin. Would we do that? Would that
be our conviction? Everything is yours, every good
thing, every good gift, all you got to do is bow and worship
me, bow and worship the state, Or if you're the devil in Matthew
4, bow and worship the devil, Jesus, and all these things will
be given to you. But notice it wasn't just mercenary
on the part of Moses. It wasn't like he was of the
school that pain is good, suffering good, let's just embrace it like
a stoic. No, there's greater joy, greater
blessing, greater provision than the passing pleasures of sin.
That's what the text goes on to say. Verse 26, esteeming the
reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt,
for he looked to the reward. So when you're running, look
to Moses and learn from Moses. Hey, passing pleasures of sin?
Notice, pleasures, but they're passing. Sin doesn't say, come
and engage in me, because I'm going to make you miserable.
We know that it does make you miserable. But initially, why
do people sin? Because it feels good, brethren. If nobody wants to admit that,
I guess I'll go on record to say it. Because there are pleasures
attached to it. Now, we know the end is destruction.
We know it's a bad thing. But there's greater riches to
be had in our blessed Savior. So you've got Moses. And there's
an instance in Moses, or with Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 1.
The book of Deuteronomy is simply a series of exhortations by Moses
to prepare the children of Israel to go in to conquer the promised
land. And so he gives them a history of how God dealt with them, and
in chapter one he traces the wilderness. Now the children
of Israel in the wilderness whined. They grumbled. They'd say things
to Moses like, we want to go back to Egypt. There were leeks,
and there were onions, and there were melons. We can kind of fantasize
about how good it was. All we have is this wretched
manna. All we have is this bread. All we have is this stuff. They
would say on occasion to Moses, did you bring us out to the wilderness
simply to kill us? Well, in Deuteronomy 1.31, he
says that Yahweh carried you through the wilderness the way
that a father carries his children. What's Moses telling you as a
runner today? God's faithful. God is going
to see you through it. Notice, he goes on to the shady
lady of Jericho. We looked at her recently. She's
in chapter 11, verse 31, but in Joshua chapter 2, Rahab the
harlot. By faith, she did this. By faith
she proved, again, civil resistance to a godless king isn't necessarily
wrong. Civil resistance to a godless
king in that event landed her in the hall of faith. When a
godless king wants to exterminate the godly people, then a godly
person stands up in their defense. And that's what Rahab the harlot
does. So if we look up into that amphitheater, she's giving us
a cheer, if she's looking at us, which I suggested earlier,
she's not, but for the sake of an illustration. And she's saying,
God's faithful. He saw us through. When the children
of Israel surrounded Jericho, what happened? Joshua chapter
six tells us, there was only one family spared that day. The
city was banned. The city was given to destruction.
The word anathema that you find in the New Testament, great,
is the Hebrew word haram, and it means devoted to destruction. There were certain things devoted
to destruction. Jericho was one of them. Don't
go in there, destroy it, and then take the loot. Don't go
in there and destroy it and take their stuff. No, everything there
must be destroyed, except for Rahab, the harlot, and her family. God spared them alive. So Rahab
testifies that God is faithful. You've got the judges. The judges
in chapter 11, verse 32. I'm sorry, yeah, verse 32. You've got Gideon, Barak, Samson,
and Jephthah. Turn to Judges 15 for one illustration. Judges 15 for one illustration
in the life of Samson. And we know that Gideon, boy,
what a great lesson he gives us, right? Gideon tells us you
don't need thousands and thousands of militarily armed men. You don't need battle conditioned
soldiers to go out and do the bidding. Just 300, that's all
Yahweh needs. He doesn't need 300, but it's
an illustration. It's an analogy. It's a description
of God's power. You've got Beric. Beric didn't
want to go into battle without first. hearing the word of the
Lord. That's the function of Deborah
in the Barak narrative. She was not a judge. She was
not a co-judge. When it says that she judged,
she was probably a judge like circuit judges. She probably
heard criminal things and gave adjudication. Barak was the judge
in terms of what judges did in the Book of Judges. They were
saviors of Israel. They were king-like men, and
they functioned in that particular capacity. So the Barak narrative
does not show us his dependence upon a woman. It shows us his
dependence upon the Word of God. He consults Deborah, who's told
to us to be a prophetess. He doesn't want to go into battle
without hearing the Word of God. So you've got Gideon, Barak,
Samson, Jephthah. Jephthah again, a noble character
that did glorious things to advance the kingdom of God. But let's
jump into Judges 15 and just focus on Samson for a moment.
It's a chapter that's filled with treachery and victory. First, Samson is betrayed by
his father-in-law in verses one to eight. You can read that later.
Second, he's betrayed by his own countrymen in verses nine
to 13. I'll just open that one up a
little bit. Judah was the tribe of Messiah,
right? Jesus will come from the tribe.
He's a lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah is the first ones addressed
in the book of Joshua or Judges with reference to conquest. Judah
is a warring tribe. Judah is the ones that go out
and get things done in terms of breaking heads and taking
stuff and dispossessing the land of the Canaanites. Judah here
is cowering in fear from the Philistines. Their problem isn't
with the Philistines, their oppressors. Their problem is with Samson,
their savior. They want to deliver Samson over
to the Philistines so that the Philistines can get rid of their
archenemy. I mean, this is one of the saddest
chapters in redemptive history. Judas should have came behind
Samson, stood behind him and resisted this Philistine threat
with every ounce of blood they had in them. But no, cowards
that they were, babies and Nancys that they were, they give up
Samson to the Philistines. Now in the province of God, that
brings us to the victory at Jawbone Height. And so we know the story,
Samson finds the jawbone of an ass and he uses that to dispatch
a thousand Philistines. Brethren, I'm not sure I could
dispatch one Philistine. I imagine by 550, I'd be pretty
tired. I can't even imagine being covered
in the blood of Philistines at a thousand. Now notice a text
that I think some people don't really like because it sounds
a bit offensive. Notice what happens in verse
17. And so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw
the jawbone from his hand and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
That was the proverbial mic drop, right? You've just got it covered
with Philistine blood. He now throws it, he drops it.
Verse 18, then he became very thirsty. So he cried out to the
Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the
hand of your servant. And now shall I die of thirst
and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? We think that
sounds a bit cheeky, doesn't it? Come on, Samson, this is
the Holy God. You shouldn't talk to him that
way. But you see, God doesn't respond that way. God gives him
water. God understands. He's thirsty. He just killed a thousand Philistines. I'm going to give him a fountain.
I'm going to refresh him. I'm going to bless him such that
he has the cooling effects of that in his body and on his soul,
and that he'll be my servant forever. So God split the hollow
place that is in Lehi. Water came out, he drank and
his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore he called his name
En-Hakor, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel
20 years in the days of the Philistines. The point is simple, brethren,
throughout his life, whether it was killing Philistines or
whether it was a need for water, Samson is able to encourage us
as one of the cloud of witnesses that God is faithful, even to
the point of bodily refreshment after a wearying battle. The
apostle goes on, he speaks of David, Samuel, the prophets,
all of those men testify to us that God is faithful. Consider
two statements from King David, one in earlier life and one at
the end of his life. Second Samuel 4.9, David says
to Rechab and Baanon, his brother, the sons of Ramon the Barathite,
and said to them, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life
from all adversity. David had a tough life, brethren. He was a simple shepherd that
had to deal with lions and bears and those sorts of things. I'm
not suggesting that was fun. But the moment the Spirit of
God comes on him in 1 Samuel chapter 16, that's when the problems
really begin. That's when Saul has animus against
him. That's when Saul hunts him down.
That's when Saul wants to get rid of him. But he not only has
Saul to deal with, he's got Philistines to deal with. What illustration
of not only internal threat, but external threat. And yet
in the midst of that, David is able to say, the Lord has redeemed
me from all adversity. But at the end of his life, subsequent
to the Bathsheba narrative, subsequent to that incident where he killed
Uriah the Hittite to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba. Remember? He owns his sin. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, I have
sinned against Yahweh. God forgave him. And so at the
end of his life, he's able to make the same statement in terms
of God's faithfulness. 1 Kings 1.29, And the king took
an oath and said, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life
from every distress. Again, subsequent to the Bathsheba
and Uriah situation. Notice the triumphant heroes
in chapter 11, 33 to 35. Notice the suffering saints in
chapter 35 to 38. History or tradition tells us
the one that was sawn into was Isaiah the prophet. I've said
this before, I'll say it again, that Isaiah the prophet met his
end by being sawn into demonstrates how wicked this world really
is. The man who penned Isaiah 53. The man who penned Isaiah
1 to 66. That man, everybody should just
say, what a guy. I mean, what a great man. What
a champion. What a beautiful human being.
The most beautiful of feet are on the prophet Isaiah. And yet
history tells us it was him who met his end by being sawn in
two. And may I suggest the health,
wealth, prosperity, gospel, or so-called gospel, has no truck
in the scriptures. This tells us the lot of God's
people. But consider, just outside of
Hebrews 11, the person's mentioned, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We know them as Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Turn to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel
chapter 3. We're coming to an end. We're
not going to go through every human being that ever lived.
that confessed faith in Christ, but if we did go through every
human being that ever lived that confessed faith in Christ, you
know what one message they could continue to give us? God is faithful. As much I know. I don't know
a lot. I don't know everything. I don't know many things, but
this one thing I do know, God is faithful. Look at this instance
in chapter three, specifically at verse 16. They're going to
be thrown into the fiery furnace for having refused to bow the
knee to Nebuchadnezzar. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no
need to answer you in this matter. You mean you're not gonna answer
the civil government? No, there's no need to, there's
no command in the Bible that I must, but we're gonna proffer
one. If that is the case, he's talking
about being thrown into the fiery furnace, you can read that in
the preceding section. If that is the case, our God whom we
serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
he will deliver us from your hand, okay. Now, we typically
stop there and go, wow, that's great. They have absolute confidence
that Yahweh's gonna deliver them. But look at what they say. This
is faith, brethren, verse 18. But if not... They don't know God's providence.
They don't know the secret things. They don't know that they should
die as a great example to other persons. They don't know that. They don't have the certainty
that God is going to throw down a whammy and free them from the
burning fiery furnace. But if not, let it be known to
you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship
the gold image which you have set up." That's faith. But if not, we only ever think
that it's going to work out. Brethren, the history of the
world tells us it doesn't always work out. The history of the
world tells us that Isaiah the prophet was sawn in two. The
history of the world tells us that the apostle Paul was ultimately
martyred under Nero. The history of the world is a
providential, under God, nevertheless, difficult place. And we need
to embrace that, and faith does. That is a statement that every
one of us should pray would be in our hearts and mouths at crunch
time. But if not, We're not going to
recant. We're not going to bend the knee
to you. We're not going to shrink back from our blessed Jesus.
We will go to the fire if that is what is necessary, if that
is what our God calls us to. That, brethren, is faith. And
what do we find? God's faithful in the midst of
that, and he does deliver them. Now, there is Micah, the prophet. I don't want to spend too much
time here. There is the prophet Habakkuk. Let's just jump into
the New Testament, Acts chapter 20, the apostle Paul. Two New
Testament examples, or one New Testament example, one from history,
then we close. Acts chapter 20. Look at what
the Apostle Paul says. Verse 22, and see now, I go bound
in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will
happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in
every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. Not
sure what's going to happen, but this much I do know, there's
going to be hardships. See, brethren, lesser men would
say, well, it's time to find a new job. I'll go work at Walmart.
I'll go golf. I've got enough retirement saved
up, don't need much. I'll go be homeless. I mean,
come on, it's a better option than every city holds chains
and tribulations for me. Notice what he says in verse
24, but none of these things move me, nor do I count my life
dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy and the
ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to
the gospel of the grace of God. 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy
4, he knows he's going to die. Not because he's had absolute
prognostications concerning such things, but he knows he's going
to die. Philippians 3, he sees the possibility. 2 Timothy 4,
he knows he's going to die. So verse 6, 2 Timothy 4, 6. For I am already being poured
out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at
hand. 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 those who have loved his appearing." So when we look
up as we're running that race that is set before us, we're
doing it with endurance, we're laying aside the weights, we're
laying aside the set, and we happen out of the periphery of
our eye, we see Paul up there. What's Paul's message to us?
God is faithful. The history of the church is
littered with martyrs. There was a man by the name of Polycarp.
Polycarp, I only cite him typically every time I preach this sermon
because what he says is pretty much representative of what the
martyrs do or say when they're in such situations. So in A.D.
155, early on, In the time of the Christian
church, Polycarp is going to be set ablaze for his crime of
fidelity to Jesus. Again, Fox's Book of Martyrs,
this is not, you know, boy, I didn't know this. You should know this.
You should read Fox's Book of Martyrs. You should read By His
Blood. You should be familiar with what our brothers and sisters
went through. Why? Because we have some sick, twisted
fascination in this? No, because we want to hear all
of them to a man tell us that God is faithful. Polycarp said
when he was asked or told, commanded, to recant. That means don't confess
Jesus anymore. If you stop confessing Jesus,
we'll let you go home. There'll be no fire for you except
at your hearth. You can have a nice bevy. You
can relax. You can hang out with your family.
Very simple, right? I mean, you're only good. You
just renounce your faith and every good thing will come your
way. Brethren, that's a temptation for the professing people of
God. Renounce your faith and every good thing will come your
way. So Polycarp says this, 80 and 6 years. Kids, that means
he's 86. 80 and 6 years I have served
him and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King
and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that
burns for a season and after a little while is quenched. But
you are ignorant to the fire of everlasting punishment that
is prepared for the wicked. He was burned at the stake and
was pierced with a spear for refusing to burn incense to the
Roman Emperor. On his farewell, he said, I bless
you father for judging me worthy of this hour so that in the company
of the martyrs, I may share the cup of Christ. What do you think
Polycarp says when you're running that race with endurance and
you catch him out of the periphery? He's gonna say, God is faithful. Therefore, having this great
cloud of witnesses, being surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight that would slow us down. Let
us get rid of every sin that would ensnare us. Let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us and let us keep
our periphery on these witnesses that continue with one refrain,
your God is faithful. Now to close, understand what
I said before. We don't run in order to be saved. We run because we have been saved. God saves us by his grace through
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He causes us to be born again,
regeneration. He gives us the graces of faith
and repentance. We believe the gospel. We turn
from our sin. We lay hold by God's mercy of
his offered salvation in Jesus Christ. We have Him, we have
His righteousness, we have His blood to cleanse us. It is from
that vantage point that we now run the race with endurance that
is set before us. So if you are not a believer
here this morning, my emphasis to you is not, go out there and
run it, do it, resist it. No, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, repent from your sins, and then, by grace, run the best
race that there ever was. Now, we may whine, we may snivel,
we may complain, but brethren, what's the alternative? The road
that leads to destruction, the road that leads to everlasting
punishment. Come to the Savior, and by grace,
run with endurance that blessed race. Let us pray. Our God and
our Father, we thank you for your faithfulness so vividly
displayed in Hebrews 11. Just these snapshots of what
you do in the Old Testament, what we see in the New Testament,
what we see in Polycarp and in Thomas Hawkes, and what we see
in all of the saints that suffered for the cause of God and truth.
What we hear of on a regular basis as we read these prayer
letters concerning churches and in other lands. Lord, you are
faithful and help us all to see that. Help us all to hold on
to that and help us all by grace to run this race with endurance,
with faithfulness and with great joy and with happiness and with
delight. And we ask this through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen. Let us close by standing
together and singing the doxology in praise to our God. It's found
on page 568. Praise Him, all creatures dearly
loved. Praise Him above the heav'nly
host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Thank you, Father, for your grace to us. Thank you for this benediction,
and God may it be the case for each of us. And may you bless
this day, cause us to call it a delight, and may we rejoice
in your loving kindness and in your goodness. And we pray through
Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Well, please be seated for a
brief time of meditation.
