The Faith that Runs

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 to 3 is our text for this morning We spent the last 35 weeks looking at Hebrews chapter 11 We will not spend 35 weeks in Hebrews chapter 12 Okay, but those 35 weeks we taught you what it meant to live by faith What does it mean to trust and obey the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to believe absolutely in all that God says that you might behave accordingly to all that God says? That's what Hebrews 11 is all about And truth be told, the first three verses of Hebrews 12 could be a part of Hebrews chapter 11

So you could say this is number 36 of chapter 11 if you want to, but it carries with it the whole tone of faith and belief and the quintessential leader, Christ himself, who lived a life of trusting and obedience to his Father in heaven And so as we look at the race of faith, we've already seen the reality of faith in chapter 11, this now is the race of faith

How do you endure all the way to the end? How do you keep on keeping on? What is it that motivated these people in Hebrews chapter 11 to go all the way to the end when they did not receive the promise of the new covenant, the promise of the coming Messiah? What kept them moving? What kept them going? How do they stay trusting in the Lord all that time that they might finish the race completely? Because the race is endured The race is finished by those who enter And so the writer begins with talking about we or us because he's addressing a Jewish audience

And when he uses the word we or us, he's talking about the Jewish audience in general When he uses beloved or brethren, he's talking about the Christian Jews, those Jews who embrace the Messiah But when he uses the word we or us, he's talking about Judaism in general, those Jews that are present in the room who are listening to this letter as it is read, that they might follow the Lord And so if you're a Jew and you're a believer in the Messiah, then you need to have these principles in your life to endure all the way to the end

If you are a Jew and you're listening and yet have yet to embrace the Messiah, you need to enter the race of faith and follow the principles that I'm about to give you Hebrews 12, 1 to 3 reads as follows

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Now, the writer of Hebrews uses a metaphor of a race

And all throughout Scripture, there are different metaphors that the writers use to help us understand the Christian life, whether it's warfare or whether it's the branches and divine, whether it's, well, there's a myriad of things But the one about a race is used quite frequently by the Apostle Paul In fact, he says over in 1 Corinthians 9, these words, verse number 24, he says very clearly, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? But only one receives the prize Run in such a way that you may win Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things

They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified So he talks about the race He talks about the discipline of the race He talks about beating his body into subjection, lest he become disqualified in the race of faith He goes on later in Philippians chapter 2, verse number 16, and says these words

He says, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory, because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain When he runs the race, he doesn't want to do it in vain He wants to do it with a purpose He does it so he can honor and glorify the Lord Paul, at the end of his life, 2 Timothy 4, as he's about to die, says that his life is being poured out as a drink offering That he has already run the race He's already been engaged in the warfare And now he's about to finish it all

And now there lays up in store for him a crown of righteousness, not just for him only, but for all those who love his appearing So he knows where he's going, but he has fought the fight He has run the race He's about to finish that race And so, what are the principles that the Lord of Peoples gives us, that we might not grow weary and lose heart? That we might be able to run the race effectively, the race of faith that is set before us So important. I'm going to give you five words this morning, five words that will introduce to us five principles that will help us to run effectively

First word is investigation Second word is separation Third word, determination Fourth is fixation And fifth is consideration Okay, five words Very familiar passage of Scripture The first word is investigation It says, The first of all needs to be an investigation Investigation of who? Of what? Well, these witnesses that surround us Now, I know that many people think that these witnesses are looking down upon us and that we're in this arena running this race and they're looking down cheering us on That's just not the case

In fact, this is where people get the idea that your loved ones who have died and gone on to glory are looking down upon you. I got news for you, and I'm going to disappoint you this morning They're not looking down upon you In fact, they don't even care what you're doing They're in glory All right? They're with the Lord Their mind is not set on earth It's in glory They're in His presence At the right hand are pleasures forevermore, right? They're in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ There's no remembrance of things that have happened on earth

That would be a sinful remembrance, and there's no sin in heaven or remembrance of bad things in glory It's all about the praise and honor and glory of God So all your loved ones, your grandparents, your father, your mother, your aunt, your uncle, Billy Joe, Billy Bob, whoever it is, they've gone to glory, and they're not even thinking about you All right? There's nowhere in Scripture is that ever seen

So this cloud of witnesses are not witnessing us, but they are witnesses to the trustworthiness of God to take them through difficult times that they might run their race effectively all the way to the end So there needs to be an investigation on our part as to what it is about them that made them the kind of people that they were And we spent 35 weeks investigating them Now, we just scratched the surface

You can go all the way back in the Old Testament and read about these people and do an in-depth study of them, which would be a good thing to do because you're studying the Scriptures to realize who these people are, what they've done, how they've lived their lives, so you might follow in obedience as they did They trusted and obeyed amidst difficult circumstances How did Abraham learn to trust the Lord when God said, take now your son, your only son, and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah? But he obeyed He trusted and obeyed

How did Noah trust and obey when God said, build an ark because it's going to rain, when he'd never seen rain Do it in the middle of a desert where there are no trees, but build the ark because it's going to rain and destroy the world It took him 120 years

How did he endure for 120 years? How did he do this? How did he endure all the ridicule and all the rejection of those around about him? For 120 years, how did he do that? How did Moses' parents and how did Moses himself not fear the king's edict? How would they live a fearless life? They were people who lived trusting and obeying their God because they believed everything he said absolutely and behaved accordingly That's what faith is That's the reality of faith And they were able to enter the race of faith and finish it all the way to the end simply because they believed what God said

So for us to do that, there needs to be an investigation Investigation of all those witnesses that have gone before us, that have lived a life of faith How important is that? How important is it for us to be able to study the Scriptures, to understand what the Bible says, and to realize that these people lived great lives? Romans 15 verse number 4 says, these things in the Old Testament were written for our instruction, that through encouragement and perseverance of Scripture, we might have what? Hope Our hope comes because we read about these people We understand what God did in their lives

There needs to be an investigation of these witnesses That's number one Number two, there needs to be a separation. A separation from my weights Investigation of the witnesses and a separation from my weights and all the sin that so easily besets me That's what the writer says He says it this way He says, let us lay aside every encumbrance or weight and the sin which so easily entangles us Therefore, we can run the race But there needs to be a separation Now, you know and I know that sin is a hindrance to our running the race well and finishing the race, right? We understand that We get that

Whether it's a sin of immorality, sin of idolatry, sin of love of money, sin of gossip, sin of pride, whatever the sin may be, it will always hinder our race But that's not what he's talking about He's talking about a particular sin He's not talking about sins He's talking about the sin Definite article Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily besets us What's the sin? Well, the sin in context is the sin of unbelief Unbelief in who God is and what God did Unbelief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah

He's already proven to them through the first ten chapters that Christ is better than the prophets He's better than the priests He's brought in the new covenant He's the fulfillment of the new covenant So it's better than the old covenant So he's already shown them who the Messiah is Well, unbelief, that's the sin that keeps you out of the race Now, we know that every sin comes about because I don't believe. I sin because I don't really believe what God says. I sin because I believe that my way is better than God's way, that I can be satisfied a different way than what God says

So I sin. I do my own thing. I don't believe in what God says So we know that behind every sin is unbelief in terms of what God has stated in his word But the unbelief in the context is the unbelief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah They came to die for their sins, ushered in the new covenant promise, and that everything they hoped for was rooted in Christ himself

But what about the weight, the encumbrance, the weights? You know as well as I do that when you run a race, you got to get rid of all the excess baggage, right? If you watch the Olympics, you know that they go out, they warm up in their sweats, but they take their sweats off because they have to run these little skippy little shorts that are really, really light, right? And these tank tops that are basically see-through, and they're very, very light because they don't want any hindrance, any encumbrance, any weight, any bulk, anything that's going to handicap them from running as quickly and as fast as they possibly can

So the writer of Hebrews says, look, if you're going to run the race effectively, you have to lay aside every encumbrance, every bulk, everything that's going to weigh you down to keep you from being all that God wants you to be The weights are not sin The sin can be a weight, but the weight is not sin He differentiates between the two

So what are the weights? Well, if I'm a Jew in those days, right, and I'm listening to this, that which weighs me down are the rituals of Judaism, are the ceremonies, all those things, all those shadows and all those types that pointed to the substance. I've got to lay those things aside and embrace everything they pointed to as my Messiah because they will slow me down They will weigh me down But if I'm a Gentile like we are today, what becomes the weight for us? What hinders my race? Well, there are a myriad of them

But let me just give you a few, OK? So I can meddle for a little bit, right? Procrastination is a weight Did you know that? Procrastination is a weight Putting things off, you know, what I do today, what I can do tomorrow, right? So I just put it off Procrastination can become a very heavy weight in the race of faith It hinders my ability to keep on keeping on It can discourage me Why? Because the longer I put things off, the longer I put off my responsibility to get things done, right? The greater the responsibility comes And so I've got to get it done

The lack of discipline leads to that, right? A lack of discipline is a very heavy weight around our lives An undisciplined life is, as Vance Hadner used to say, is just not worth living But even beyond that, just think about all the things that weigh us down Relationships Good relationships can weigh you down Did you know that? When I was in college, I was a senior, and there was an incoming freshman, and she was from California And she was one of the court of women who were up to be the rose queen, right? She was one of those women, right? She was stunning

She came as a freshman to the college I was at And her brother was my age, and we were friends, and we lived in the same dorm together And she began dating a young man who was a sophomore in college And we thought that this was a match made in heaven, you know? She was a beauty queen, and he was athletic and good looking It wasn't me. I know you think it's me It wasn't me, okay? And so they got together, and they started dating, and we thought for sure they were going to get married And after about eight months, they broke up

So one day I went to her, and I said, Arlene, what took place? What happened? How come you broke up with this guy? She said, you know, my heart's desire is to be on the mission field And his wasn't And I realized that because God had called me to missions, and I'm going to do that, and his isn't, there was no sense in us dating anymore, because he would become a hindrance to that ministry And they both broke off the engagement, or not the engagement, the relationship You know, that was a mature decision as an 18-year-old freshman, realizing that she knew God's call upon her life

And later on, she walked the mission field She met a guy They got married They have children today, and God has blessed them immensely But she realized that this other person, who was a great man, who loved the Lord, right, was a hindrance to her future ministry And they broke off that relationship It's very important If you date an unbeliever, right, that unbeliever becomes a hindrance to your walk of faith, right? And as parents, we need to be able to guide our children in their relationships We'll say, no, this is a no-go This is not good for you

We can see things that maybe you don't see because we've been around the block longer than you've been around the block This is not a good relationship Because if you marry that unbeliever, right, now you're unequally yoked What fellowship had light with darkness? Now you've entered into a sinful relationship But yet, you have to realize that before it ever gets going, that can be a very big hindrance in your walk with the Lord. A good relationship can hinder We talked about this on Wednesday night Peter, the Lord, Peter wanted to thwart the mission of Christ by going to the cross

And Christ said to him, get thee behind me, Satan Because Peter didn't have in mind the purposes of God He only had in mind his purposes And so we have to be very, very careful How about this one? This is a good one Your cell phone Now see, now I'm getting really down to the nitty-gritty Your cell phone can be a big, big weight in your race of faith And we don't even know it We don't even get it. I have seen the tops of people's heads more now than ever in the history of mankind Because people walk down the street like this, you know You go to Disneyland, they're all like this

They all stand in line, they're all like this So I can see the top of their head, but I don't see their eyes anymore because they're always looking down, they're on their phones Always, always, always on their phones It's unbelievable to me But our cell phones, I think you ought to have a cell phone. I really do But we've got to be careful about social media and how it engulfs us and takes our eyes off of that which needs to be happening It can become a very big hindrance to our walk of faith, right? Listen, your cell phone and social media has depleted interpersonal relationships

Has destroyed interpersonal relationships We think we have a relationship with somebody because we share an Instagram with them, although we've never met them We think we're good friends with them No, you're not You don't even know who they are But we think that's our best friend because they respond to what I say on Instagram You see, our relationships are so superficial today We don't pick up a phone and have a conversation with people We text them, we email them We don't interact anymore

And all of a sudden, our whole walk of faith is becoming a burden because of this one thing hanging around our neck, which is simply a cell phone It can distract us You get up in the morning What's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? You've got to check and see if anybody contacted you in the middle of the night, right? Who has texted me? Who has emailed me? Who is interested in me? So we check our phone First thing we do in the morning, right? We don't get up and say, Man, I've got to check the Scriptures

What does God have to say for me today? No, I've got to check and see what somebody else has said to me today through email or text or tweets or whatever else people are going to communicate with me by, right? We've got to be very careful about those things because they hinder our walk with the Lord You can see how easily those things can distract us when you have people emailing you all day, texting you all day, trying to communicate to you all day You're always on your phone

When you have a meeting, okay, in your office, okay, what I do is I take my phone off my desk and I put it in my backpack so when I talk to somebody, if someone contacts me on my phone, I don't know Because I don't want that person to think that someone on the phone is more important than they are So I want to talk to them without any distractions Now I'm saying all this simply because it's so easy for us to be so enraptured with that little phone that we hold in our hands that it's occupied all of our time, all of our attention, almost so that we can't live without it

What would happen if all those cell towers went down? People would go ballistic They wouldn't know how to live, right? They wouldn't know how to use a pay phone We don't even have pay phones anymore, right? They wouldn't know how to use those things But it's just the way it is But we have to be careful about those things that hinder the race of faith Anything that's going to distract me from the purpose that God's called me to do to honor Him and to glorify His name that's going to keep me away from the Word of God, keep me out of the Word of God, I've got to be careful of

Your cell phone is not sinful, okay? It can become a very sinful habit, a very bad habit You've got to be careful of, right? I think you all ought to have cell phones. I think you ought to be able to be contacted. I think that's important But that which is a virtue can become your greatest vice You've got to be very careful about that It can become a huge hindrance in our race of faith simply because it distracts us from looking at the things we need to look at and studying the things we need to study and investing in the things we need to invest in Very important

So there needs to be, number one, an investigation of all these witnesses Number two, there needs to be a separation of whatever weight that holds me back from running the race effectively and the sin which so easily besets me Remember what Paul said? He said in 2 Timothy chapter 2 that no good soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this world so that he may please his commanding officer The affairs of this world are not sinful They're just the everyday things that we do No good soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this world

In other words, he doesn't get so involved in doing the mundane things of every day that he loses his purpose in life That's another way of saying laying aside all those weights that so easily entangle us that weigh us down Because a good soldier doesn't want to be involved in so many things that are extracurricular that he can't do the thing that God's called him to do He wants to please his commanding officer So anything that keeps you from pleasing your commanding officer is weight Make sure you let that, set it aside Or at least discipline yourself in how you deal with it

Watching TV, that can be a weight Right? I could list many of them for you, but you've got to separate yourself from those things if you want to run and not grow weary, not lose heart An investigation, a separation Number three, a determination. A determination of my will Look what the writer says He says, Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us Run with endurance That Greek word, hubomone, which means to bear up under pressure

You've got to be able to bear up under pressure, right? It's so important to realize that pressure is pleasure We don't like pressure, but it's the most pleasurable experience you could ever have because you have to trust the Lord through it Pressure is pleasure And so pray for more pressure so you can live a life of pleasure Understand this, that pressure that comes, all the people in Hebrews 11 lived pressure-filled lives Right? All of them did That's why some of them are sawn in two We saw that last week Right? Some of them died by sword They died in excruciating kinds of ways

They were rejected They were isolated Talk about pressure They all faced pressure Every one of them did Abraham, Moses, Rahab, Sarah, Isaac, Abel, Enoch, Gideon, Barak The list goes on and on Every one of them faced pressure Right? But they rose to the occasion because they trusted and obeyed They believed in what God said and were able to follow through on what God said And they lived lives of immense pressure

So many times as parents, we want to free our children from pressure. I guess I'm a bad parent because I want to put my kids in the most pressure-filled experiences possible. I want them in there. I want them to face the fire. I want them to understand that in the midst of pressure, this is where you shine So I'm looking for ways to put them in the most pressure-cooked place I can possibly put them because I want them to rise to the occasion. I don't want them to live cozy, comfy lives Cushy lives That does them no good

It doesn't prepare them for life because life is filled with all kinds of pressure It could be financial pressure Right? Economic pressure It could be social pressure It could be temptation that comes your way That kind of pressure There's always pressure in your life But those who run the race of faith are able to bear up under that pressure The word for race is where we get our English word, agony Okay? They endure the agony How do they do that? By believing what God says The race is not a little, you know, jog through the park

You know, when you go running, you know, and go jogging, I don't know why people do that, but they do. I never understood. I belong to Joggers Anonymous, right? So every time the urge comes up, you know, I just call someone until the urge goes away because I don't understand why people jog They run nowhere But they just run They just keep running and running and running, and I don't understand that But that's what they do And more power to them because I can never do that But people who run in the race of faith, they're running to obtain a prize They're running fixed on a goal

They know where they're going, right? And they want to attain that goal And they are determined that no matter what the pressure comes their way, because it's going to come from every angle, right or left, up or down, front or back, it's going to come And they're going to run that race effectively because there's a great determination of their will They are bound and determined because they've already separated themselves from those things that will deter, detract, or deflect them from running effectively

And they've set aside every encumbrance, and they've focused in on those people who have already run the race of faith They might see the example set before them And they are now bound and determined to fulfill all that God has set And that's what they want to do is the determination We live in a society where people are not determined to do the things of God nearly as much as they used to be

We are determined to do things that are temporary and don't have eternal value, and we become passionate about the things that don't matter and passive about the things that do matter instead of passionate about the things that do and passive about the things that don't And so there needs to be a determination of the will that's able to bear up under pressure because I really believe what God says, and therefore I want to obey all that He says And then fourthly, there's the fixation, fixing your eyes on Jesus Maybe your text says, looking unto Jesus It's a fixation, totally fixed on one person

That's Christ Himself He says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith He's the originator He's the author He's the leader He's the supreme one, right? He's the one where we get the gift of faith from, and He's the one that lived the ultimate life of faith, right? Remember Hebrews 11 6, without faith it's impossible to please God, right? So Mark 1 11 says, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased Why was God the Father well pleased with His Son? Because He lived a life of trusting obedience He lived a life of ultimate faith in His Father above

You see, that's so important So here was the author, the perfecter, the finisher, the one who was able to complete it all the way to the end So there needs to be a fixation upon the person and work of Christ Himself Look unto Jesus Paul said in Colossians 3, Set your affections on things above, not on things below You know, there's a reason when in a horse race, horses have blinders So they can't see to the left or to the right of them When you run, you run fixed on one goal, the goal in front of you

You don't look to the right, you don't look to the left, but your goal is right in front of you and your eyes are fixated on that goal Same is true with the spiritual realm We are fixated on the Christ We are focused so much on Him that we cannot keep our eyes off of Him because once we lose that opportunity, we are distracted You ever talk to your kids? You know, your kids are out playing and one of them gets in trouble So you call them in, right? You call them in and you want to talk to them And they're doing this Uh-huh, yeah They're looking over here Uh-huh, yeah

But they want to be over there, but they're looking at you here, but not really looking at you They're looking over there And you want to say, Hey, right here, pal Look right here And they're like, okay, uh-huh And they just can't stop looking over there They are not fixed on you Why? Because they want to do what's going on over there You want them fixed on you so they understand what they can and cannot do You want their eyes glued to you Christ wants our eyes glued on Him, fixated upon Him But we want to run the race, kind of looking over here

What about that guy? What's that guy doing over there? What's going on? You know, and sort of fixed right on Christ Himself that we might say He is the author He is the perfecter of our faith We want to follow Him because He is the leader of all things So there is an investigation There is a separation There is a determination There is a fixation And then there is a consideration The Bible says these words

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy 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 has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart Consider Him It's a mathematical term We sit down and add up all the facts, look at them, come to a conclusion Consider Him There needs to be a great consideration of the Christ He endured such hostility But you know what? You need to consider His passion Consider His person

And consider His position Where He is today Consider His person Who He is All He endured All the hostility He faced He never wavered He was true to the end His passion What was His passion? The joy that was set before Him He endured the cross What was the joy that was set before Him? Hebrews 2 verse number 10 That He would redeem many sons for glory He was looking to redeem His bride Right? This was the joy that was set before Him He knew that through His death on Calvary's cross, many people would be redeemed And those who were redeemed would be His bride And that was the joy

That's why the crown of joy, the crown of jubilation, is about lost souls coming to saving faith That one of the crowns we receive in Gloria is a crown that centers around the fact that we've shared the gospel with others and they've come to saving faith in Christ The crown of joy The crown of jubilation And the joy that was set before Christ was that there would be many, many sons brought to glory That was His passion And then we consider His position He sat down at the right hand of God the Father Wow, what a position. A throne that you and I one day will sit upon as well

Revelation chapter 3 tells us that we will one day occupy that same throne with the Son of God because we are heirs of God and join us with Christ That's His position He'd been elevated to the highest position The exalted, living Christ because He is the author and perfecter of our faith Our whole life should be a consideration of what He endured and how He endured it. A consideration of the joy that was set before Him. A consideration of the passion and person and position of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ That's what the Lord wants us to do Consider Him above all else

Look at Him and see what He did and follow Him That's why Hebrews 12, 1-3 should in reality be a part of Hebrews chapter 11 Because it's the ultimate conclusion of what it means to live the life of faith He did And as we engage in this race every day, there is this constant reminder that we need to look into the lives of those who have already ran the race Investigate them They're in the Scriptures They're there for you to study And once you study them, you've got to get rid of all those things that hinder you running effectively Those things that are dragging you down

Those things that are good, but not best If it's not best and it's only good, maybe you should lay it aside so that you might run effectively And the sin which so easily besets us, the sin of unbelief And then after that, be determined to bear up under all the pressure It's going to come Oh, it's going to come It's going to come in waves at times But are you going to be able to stand strong because you've seen how others before you stood strong? And how you have let go of all those things that have hindered your running the race of faith

You do that when you fix your eyes completely upon Jesus Christ our Lord Who He is and what He's done Consider Him, who endured all that hostility And yet where is He now? He's at the right hand of God the Father in glory That's our Lord We consider Him May God give us the grace to run the race of faith Let's pray Father, thank You for today The joy that You've given to us in Your Word You truly are a great God and You alone are worthy of praise We thank You, Father, for all that You've done

Please, please, Lord, as we leave this place, if there's someone here who is yet to enter the race of faith, may today be that day For those of us who are already in the race, encourage us, Lord, to remain steadfast and movable Focus completely upon the Christ Send our affections above and not below that we might run the race effectively for the glory of Your kingdom And to You, come again as You most surely will In Jesus' name, amen.