In Hebrews 12, verse 1, it says,
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, martyrs. He's given us so many examples
of God's faithfulness toward those who trust Him alone. He
says, now let us do as they did. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us." The believer here
is compared to a runner in a race. There's a track over here at
Pennington High School. It's a Pennington school, private
school. It's a real nice track. And when
we lived on Lanning, right across Main Street, we lived right across
from that track. And so we would go over there
when they'd have a track meeting, me and the kids, and we'd sit
and watch the runners. We went over there one day, and
we saw this boy that was in front of us there, and we were on a
wall, sitting on this wall right by the tracks right there below
us. And he was, he had on a full jogging suit. And he would get
out there in the straightways when they weren't racing and
he'd get down like he was in the blocks and he would practice
taking off, you know. He'd come sprinting right down
in front of us in that full jogging suit. And he did that time and
time and time again and kept that jogging suit on right up
till the race came. But when the race time came and
he walked up to get into the blocks, he took that jogging
suit off. And he was so careful to make sure he didn't have anything
slowing him down. He'd shaved his legs. He didn't
have any hair on his legs either. Then I noticed he didn't have
any on his arms or anything. He was making sure there was
no weight on him whatsoever so he could run that race that was
before him. That's what we're being taught
here. The believer lays aside everything that'll hinder us
in this race. Noah laid aside any concern that
he had over what the folks around him might have thought about
him. Can you imagine while he was preparing that ark how they
must have ridiculed him? He just had to be laid aside. Doesn't matter what anybody thinks.
Abraham laid aside his land and his father's house. The Lord
said, if any man loved father or mother more than me, if it
comes down to it, We can't deny our Lord. He had to leave it
all behind. Moses laid aside fame and fortune
because he trusted the Lord instead of riches. Many of the saints
literally laid down their own lives, laid them aside, their
body. Instead of pampering their flesh
and going the path of least resistance, they laid it aside. The sin which
just so easily beset us may be some particular sin or it may
be unbelief. But we lay it aside, and here's
how we do it, by casting all our care on Him, knowing, persuaded
that He cares for us. All the past sins, all the past
dishonesty in religion or out of religion, before conversion
and since conversion, lay it aside. God says to the believer,
I remember it no more. He says to those that Christ
died for, those that, if you trust Christ by grace, He says
to you where remission of sins is. There's no more offering
for sin. So don't keep trying to do something to make up for
past sin. Lay them aside. Lay them aside. God said, I put them on my son.
Now don't you try to dig them back up and put them back on
yourself. I put them away. And the main point here is we
lay aside everything, whatever sacrifices are necessary, whatever
they are, whatever it costs you to follow Christ, pay it. Lay everything aside and follow
Him. And then verse 1 says there,
and run with patience. Run with patience. Paul said,
we faint not. Run with patience, the race that
is set before you. This race is set before us by
God. The course, the race is set by
God Almighty. If you're a believer, God set
the course. If you're not a believer, God
set your course. It's set. He determined before
the foundation of the world who He would put in this race when
He chose the people in Christ and gave them to Christ in mercy
and grace. If He's put you in Christ and
made Christ everything to you, His everlasting love, His eternal
love, knowing that His love for you is as eternal as He is. It was before time existed. And it will be after time exists. And knowing that, brethren, this
everlasting electing love will give us great patience to run
this race. God set the precise moment that
he'd cross your path with the gospel. He set that course. He determined the pastor he'd
raise up. He gave him the heart to know
Christ. He revealed truth in him in spirit
and in truth. He made him a pastor after his
own heart. He providentially directed every
step that man took and every step that you took to like that
Ethiopian unit and Philip they met out there on that old out-of-the-way
road on the old Gaza Road. And he set the time of love that
he would quicken you and give you the heart to see that all
the steps you had taken was rebellion against Him. And He set that
course that you would meet there and that dynamite would be planted
in your heart by His sovereign hand of mercy. And He would cause
you to fall on your feet and cry out to Him for mercy. He
appointed that hour. And God set every hurdle on this
course that you must run. He set every hurdle in place
and He declares plainly to us that we must suffer through much
tribulation in this race. There's hurdles that He put right
in place. And we'll come to them right
when we're supposed to come to them. Because He set the course.
He said it. The God who set the course is
the God who supplies the grace. And that's what He'll teach us
when we come to each one of those hurdles. That's why He put them
there. To teach us. I put them there.
And I'm the one that'll supply the grace for you to overcome. And God set the length that you'd
run this race. He set the length of this course.
He has appointed the hour that our race will end. And by His
grace, we'll find that the finish line is the most glorious hour
of all the hours of our lives. Crossing the finish line. That's
why Paul says we glory in tribulations also. Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, it's what we're going to need to run this race.
Patience. Run the race with patience. And patience, experience, maturity,
and maturity, hope. And hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
That boy who was racing that race, he got out of the blocks. when the gun fired, and he took
off, and he took off just as fast as everybody else did. In
fact, he was out a little bit ahead of everybody, and he took
off and rounded that first bend. And that's when you can really
tell, you know, they're all lined up at different lengths, you
know, or different lanes, and they go into that first turn,
so it's hard to tell who's fastest, you know. And he came out of
that turn, and I saw him start falling back. And I thought,
man, I had him picked. I thought he was going to be
the one that would win this thing. But he never stopped. He never looked
to the left or the right. He never looked to the course
that he was running. He was just looking straight
down the pipe. And he just kept running as if nobody had ever
passed him up. As if nobody had ever passed
him, he just kept on running. That's what we're being taught.
Run with patience. And it says here, Verse 2, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. This verse declares
to us that this race can't be won by a carnal, temporal means. It just can't be won by a carnal,
temporal strength. That's what we're learning here.
He's commanding believers in the heart through His Word to
lay aside the weights and sins of this world and look away from
them and look to Christ the Lord. That body, which you're carrying
around, it's a weight. It's a weight. And it's going
to eventually, at last, He's going to deliver us from it.
The body of sin. He's going to deliver us from
that in the very end. That's what Paul said. Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through my
Lord Jesus Christ. That's who's going to deliver
me from it. He's delivered me. He's delivering me and He shall
deliver me from this body of death. And therefore understand
this, this race is run by spiritual sight. This race is run by sight
which He gives for one purpose. It's to be looking unto Jesus. Faith doesn't behold anything
down below. Look back up there at Hebrews
11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So faith
doesn't see anything with the carnal eye. Faith sees things
with the spiritual eye. You don't see Christ Jesus with
the carnal eye, but you see him with the eye of faith. So this
is what we're seeing here, we're told here, what we're told in
other places in this Word. Not only to begin looking to
Him, but to look away from everything below and focus our attention
on Him alone. What does Colossians 3.1 say? If ye then be risen with Christ.
Are you? Are you? If you're a believer,
you are. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. Lay aside every weight and sin
which doth so easily beset us. For your dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God." And then Paul goes on there in Colossians
and he says, "...and mortify your members which are on the
earth." And he tells us what they are. But how are we going
to mortify our members which are on the earth? You think Paul's
telling us something different in Colossians than he's telling
us in Hebrews? No. Lay aside the weight. Where is this flesh? It's below,
isn't it? Where do you see it? What do
you see it with? With the carnal eye, don't you? He said, lay
aside every weight and look with the eye of faith unto the author
and finisher, Jesus Christ. Look to him. So look above, that's
how we mortify it. Are you looking to things below
for eternal life? What about justification? What
about sanctification? Or preservation? And so for mortification,
where do we look? Same place we look for all these
things. Unto the author and finisher of our faith. Above. Well, what's
meant by the author of our faith? Well, the word hour there in
Hebrews 12. Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith. That's added by the translators.
And faith does begin only when He gives it. And it is sustained
and grown by His power and grace working in us. We wouldn't have
faith if it were not for Christ who gave us faith and put us
in this race. But take out the word hour. And
we get the full meaning. Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of faith. The meaning is Christ Jesus our
Lord has the preeminence in being the first and perfect one to
run this race of faith perfectly. He's going to have the preeminence
in all things. You think one of us, our fellow brethren, is
going to get to preeminence as being the best believer? No,
he is. He is. If we could look to a
man to behold how to run this race, he's telling us look to
the God man. Look to him. Colossians 118 says,
he's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. The word beginning in Colossians
118 is translated from the word arche, meaning origin. It means the first to do anything.
The word from which author is translated here is archegos,
archegos. And it means to pioneer, one
who takes the lead in a long procession of those to follow. So just as he is the beginning,
the origin, who is from the beginning before time ever was, just as
pre-eminently as he is that beginning, so he is pre-eminently the man
of faith, the faithful one who went ahead of us. The Old Testament
saints ran this race by faith. before he chronologically in
order of time ran this race. Others lived and died and have
been raised in spirit to be with him. But the man, Jesus, is the
preeminent man of faith. In other words, we can't look
to that cloud of witnesses to learn how to run this race. We
may look to a time when Abraham wasn't running very well. Mess
us up on it. But we can look to him at all
times and see how to run this race. At all times. We're exhorted
to look to Him. And that might be that better
thing provided for us. One part of that better thing
provided for us, who live after He ran this race. He rendered
this race, He ran it perfectly, and He finished the race. Now,
verse 2 there says, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. That tells us how He finished
this race. How did He finish the race? For the joy that was
set before Him, He endured the cross. One sense can be that
word for there means instead of. Instead of the joy that was
set before Him, He endured the cross. Let me give you that now. You know where we read, for you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich,
Though he had great joy with the Father from all eternity,
instead of that joy that was set before him, he endured the
cross. Though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
rich. So he did it, he did it for somebody. He did it for people
he loved. That's why he did it. And then
the other sense is because of the joy, because of the joy of
a promised people. I quoted to you from Isaiah 53
11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and should be satisfied
by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify
many for he shall bear their iniquities. What does that mean?
He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What kept
him going? What kept him running this race?
What was this joy set before him? Seven years ago, Melinda came home and told me
she was going to have a baby. And she went along and got a little
bigger, and a little bigger, and a little bigger, and a little
bigger. And one night we were out, we'd
been down to a pond out across this big field and taking our
dog down there, me and Melinda and a friend of ours named Ken
Melton. And we'd gone down there and she just was waddling. She
just barely could get around. And we came back and we're sitting
in the house and she kind of lunged over and Made a noise
and got up and went out of the room. And Ken looked at me and I looked
at Ken. He said, you better go check
on her. I got up and went and checked on her. I didn't know
it, but Ken got up and went home. But she was in pain, travail,
bad pain. And we took her to the hospital
and she entered into a lot more pain. But as soon as that travail
ended, she saw a seed. She saw a child. She saw her
child. And joy. The joy that she, that's
what she saw the whole time she was going through those nine
months. It helped her every time she
would be uncomfortable. That's what joy was set before
when she was being carried to the hospital. That's the joy
that was set before when she was in labor in the hospital. That's the joy that was set before
him, the people that God gave him. He shall see of the travail
of his soul. He shall see his children and
be satisfied, be happy. Because of the joy of glorifying
His Father, He endured this cross. He said, now is my soul troubled.
And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. So I'll say, Father,
glorify Thy name. Because of the joy of the glory
He had with the Father from all eternity, and to which He looked
in joy again. He said, Now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. Never was another man so completely
yielded to God's will. He said, I live by the Father. No one ever so completely obeyed
God. One of the first Recorded words
we read of him is I must be about my father's business He said
the cup which my father hath given me shall I not drink it I've set the Lord always before
me He that sent me is with me Those that mocked Him and treated
Him with the venom of depravity, ignorantly and unknowingly bore
testimony to His faith in the Lord when they said, He trusted
in the Lord that He would deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him seeing
He delighted in Him. And even after bearing the despised
shame of the cross, even after bearing that despised shame of
that ignominious, that method of dying upon a cursed tree,
even after bearing the shame of every shameful thing that
depraved man could pour out upon him, and bearing the shame of
being made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him, even after bearing God's Holy indignation poured
out upon him with his last breath. With his last breath. Do you
think that was a trial? Do you think that was a hurdle?
Do you think that was a valley? Do you think that turned him
from faith? Do you think that would turn us from faith? We
know what his last word was. Father, That sounds like somebody that
believes. Father, into thy hands. That sounds like somebody who
trusts. I commit my spirit. All I got left, I give it to
you. Here it is. This word finisher
means perfecter. And at last, that's how He finished
this race. Verse 2 says, "...and He sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God." You remember
back there in Hebrews 1. Look back there with me. Hebrews
1. Who being the brightness of His
glory and the expressed image of God's person and upholding
all things by the Word of His power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. The fact that
we're bidden to be looking unto Jesus as the leader, captain,
that word captain of our salvation you find over there Hebrews 2
or 3, same word. Archego. And the word Prince
of Life, same word. The leader and finisher of faith
also denotes what He does in us as we run this race. We need
something more than a perfect example. That won't do. That
won't do. We need something more than having
somebody say to us, what would Jesus do? We need more than that. We need to know what He's doing.
that he's going to do something. So Christ has not only gone before
his own, he also dwells in the heart of the believer through
faith and it's by him that we live and run this race by faith. Galatians 2.20, Galatians 2.20,
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Paul lived by faith in the Son of God? Yes, he did. And he lived
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. David said the same thing in
Psalm 23. The exact same thing. He said, He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy
staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. They anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. David said the same thing Paul
said. The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
He lives in me. He said, Lo, I'll be with you
always. You mean just hanging around
somewhere? No, I mean in you. In you personally and in your
midst. I'll be with you. Can you be with us, in us, and
at the right hand of God at the same time? He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere
at once. He's God. Well, will we overcome
by looking to these bodies or to the hurdles in the course
or to others in the race? No. That's what we've been taught
here. We won't overcome that way. But we'll overcome by our
author and finisher lifting faith's eye above. And our hope will
enter into the veil. What does Hebrews 6.20 say? Whither
the forerunner is for us entered. we look to Him and see the object
of our faith, and the perfecter of our faith, and the finisher
of our faith, and the one who sustains our faith, and the example
of our faith. And He'll refresh His promise
to our soul, saying, to Him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even as also I overcame and am set down
with my Father in His throne. And as we move along the course,
we say with Apostle Paul, Brethren, I count myself not to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. And at that last day, we come
to the finish line. By the strength of the captain
of our salvation, through faith, we'll be able to say with Paul,
I fought the good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. Well, look
with me at 1 Corinthians 9. Well, the runner at the track
meet, did he finish that race? Well, he rounded that last turn,
and he wasn't in the lead. But you wouldn't have known it
to look at him. He rounded that last turn, and he could see the
finish line. And he tilted his head back, and
he took his hands And he turned on me like this right here. So
he was cutting the wind. And he poured on the sting. And
I mean, he went to running hard. And he come right along in front
of me and the kids there. And he was running like there
was nobody else in that race with him. He was pressing towards
the mark as fast and as hard as he could press towards the
mark. He was running. And so he crossed the finish
line. He crossed the finish line. Did he win? Did he win? Look at 1 Corinthians 9.24. And
this is the application. Know ye not that they which run
in a race run all? All of them run, but one receiveth
the prize. Yeah, he won. He won. He received
the prize. But here's the message. Run just
like he ran. So run, Paul said, that you may
obtain. Run like you. There's one prize. One prize
for one person. Run that way. That you may obtain
that prize. And run looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. That's the title of the lesson.
The author and finisher of our faith.