He talked about that before he
died. Verse 23, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three
months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child
and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith,
Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather, verse 25, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. Isn't that what we do? I'm not
saying we don't sin. Of course we do. That's all we
are, from head to toe. We're nothing but sin, but boy,
it sure bothers us now where it didn't before, doesn't it?
If we had our choice, if we truly had free will that we could step
away, step away from what we are in bondage in this body to,
the sin that's in this body, And that won't be put away, by
the way, until the Lord takes us out of this world. We'll be
fighting that battle until the Lord takes us out of this world.
And that's what we're gonna look at a little bit today, continuing
to fight that battle. So here we see in verse 26, esteeming
the reproach of the Christ, no, I'm sorry, 25, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a seizing, esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. Verse 27, by faith, speaking
of Moses still, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the
king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through
faith, speaking again of Moses, he kept the Passover and the
sprinkling of the blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
would touch them. By faith, they passed through
the Red Sea, and by dry land, which the Egyptians assigned
to do were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith, the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace." And then the writer goes on to
say this, and I believe it is Paul, as others do, and what
shall I say more? What shall I more say, he said?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak,
and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and
of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword
out of weakness, and were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,
turned to fight the armies of aliens. Women received their
dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others
had trial of cruel mockings and scourges, yea, moreover of bonds
and of imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, they were tempted with were slain with the sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, and tormented." These are all who have gone on that
Paul didn't even take time to write about here. All the trials
that they had gone through through faith. Verse 38, "...of whom
the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, and
in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth. And these,
all having obtained a good report through faith, Received not the
promise. Now, stop there for just a moment.
Look back at verse 1 again. I want us to understand what
this is all about. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for. That's the promises of God that
we hope for. We have a hope in us. A lively
hope. The living Christ sits on His
throne today and will not lose any. Things hoped for are the
evidence of things not seen. So back in our text over here
in verse 40, look at this, God having provided some better things
for us that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore,
because of all that we have read about, all of those who have
died, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us. You want to know what God's will
is for your life? If you're a child of God, this is it, right here.
To run with patience the race that is set before us. That's
God's will for you and I, for His people, His purpose. Now, Brother Don Porter wrote
this about that. He said, The book of Hebrews,
from start to finish, is an inspired admonition to perseverance. It is an inspired motivation
to faith, constantly holding before us both the example of
Christ as our guide and the accomplishments of Christ as our motive. In the face of trials and temptations
on every hand, we are called upon to endure unto the end and
to persevere in the faith, to go on, to keep on keeping on,
as I would put it, to go on following Christ. We must not quit. We must not give up. We must
not go back through the heresies, though the heresies abound on
every side of us. Though temptations of every kind
allure us away from our Savior, though trials come, one on the
heels of another, keep looking to Christ, writes Don Fortner,
and I say amen. Our life as believers is compared
to many things that picture the absolute necessity to the perseverance
in faith. We are in a warfare that will
not end until we have left this world and entered into heavenly
glory with Christ. We are engaged in a work, a labor,
a cause from which there is no rest until our work is done.
In Hebrews 12, it is compared to as a race, as we just read.
Chapter 11 gives us a picture of this race that we all must
run. We all must die in faith. The faith, the race, the walk
of life in this world, it's inspired by our faith in the Word of God.
We keep on keeping on because Christ has revealed unto us our
destiny. He's revealed it to us. I've
gone to prepare a mansion for you, he says. And that's exactly
what he meant he would do. Our life in this world is a race
with a starting point a point and a finishing line and a prize. You know how I can say that?
Listen to these words of 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. Know ye not that
they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Or how about this in Philippians
3.14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. Contrary to what most seem to
think, the prize is obtained not when the race has begun,
but when it's done. Look with me over at Philippians
chapter 3. Look over at Philippians chapter
3. Paul, in writing to the Philippians, beginning at verse 3, he says,
For we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit, and rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This
is important. The reason why we're starting
here is Paul is declaring that our confidence is not in the
flesh, it's not in us running the race, but it's in Christ
Jesus. It's always in the Lord. That's
what the race is all about. It's not a race to get me to
the end of the run. It's a race to keep on keeping
on after Christ. It's a race that I'll keep running,
the Lord willing, until the day the Lord takes me from this world.
That's when the race is over. That's when the prize comes.
There'll be no more sin in this body that John calls John Reeves.
I'll be free of sin once and for all. Now we think about going to heaven. And I've talked about this with
Pastor Gene. You know, he and Judy are getting
close. He and Judy are getting close. They are at such peace. Judy's
not doing well, folks. And I don't need to go into details
about what's going on, but let's just say it's not good. I don't
know how much longer she's got, but Gene doesn't think she's
got long at all. And he's not afraid to talk about it with
her, because you know why? Christ with them is their hope
of glory. Christ in them, in their heart,
is the hope of glory. The promises of God are right
here before them. And they've been running that
race all this time. They're tired. Their bodies are
finishing up. Giving out. And they're happy. They're joyful about that. My
day is coming. The promises of God are almost
mine to have forever. They have no confidence in the
flesh, but they have all kinds of confidence in their Lord and
Savior, Christ Jesus. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, writes Paul in verse 4, if any other man thinketh
that he have whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised,
Paul goes on to say about himself, the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as
touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. Yea, doubtless in all, and I
counted all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ. You ask what Gene Harmon thinks
his greatest thing in this world is, he'll tell you. My greatest
honor, my greatest privilege was preaching Christ. That's
what Paul's saying here. Everything else he did was but
done. The one thing he had that he declared honorable was the
wind that he might wind Christ. Verse 9, And be found in him
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. We looked
at that in great detail the other day. But that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith, that
I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might obtain unto the resurrection
of the dead, not as though I have already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I
count not myself 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 forward the mark, the
goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It's not he who begins the race
and runs well for a season. that wins the prize, but he who
finishes the race. It is not he who runs fast, or
even he who runs well, but he who runs to the end who wins
the prize. The race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong, as we read in Ecclesiastes 9-11. The Word of God teaches both
preservation of God's elect by grace and the preservation of
all believers in grace. Eternal security in Christ and
the endurance of faith. Now, we stand firm on this, and
I want to bring this out again. We don't want people to get the
wrong impression here. We stand firm that the Lord Jesus
Christ gives His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. All who are born of God are kept
by God. And we're thankful for that,
aren't we? Because we know that this race is not as easy as it
is, as we read here. The race is difficult. It's not
easy to keep our eye on Christ when everything around us in
this world, because remember, we see Christ by faith, not by
sight. Everything in this world that
we see by sight distracts us. It takes our minds away from
the truth of what lies in Christ. We stand firm that the Lord gives
His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. All who are
born of God are kept of God. All who are saved by His grace
are kept saved by grace of God. Not one of God's elect shall
fail to obtain eternal glory with Christ. Again, in Ecclesiastes
3.14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.
Nothing can be put to it. Nothing can be taken away from
it. And God doeth it. That man should fear before Him. Folks, there's no possibility
of failure with our God. But that doesn't mean we lay
back on our backs and just say, OK, wait to see what happens. What's next? Oh, I don't have
to worry about that. Oh, I don't have to worry about
that. In a way, we don't. But all these people who died
in faith in chapter 11, as we read, they did something. Well,
what did they do? They acted upon faith. God-given
faith. And we give God all the glory
for it. We have no problem saying, that's
not me that did that, that's God doing something in me doing
that. I remember once, before the Lord
called Kathy out of darkness, we were on a trip somewhere,
and I was, you know, up until the time the Lord saved me, called
me out of darkness, I was, I gotta be honest with you folks, I was
a jerk to homeless people. I worked in the homeless part
of town, downtown Sacramento, right there off 16th Street,
next to what was called Wino Park, and I seen the homeless
first time, first hand, for 20 years. I had an anger in my heart. Why should I give anything to
those people who don't want anything to do anything for themselves?
So when, out of the blue, I paid a homeless man for directions,
my wife said to me, she goes, You don't like homeless people,
what'd you do that for? And I don't know if you remember
that or not, but I think my comment to her was something to this
effect, because Christ in me, the Lord in me, has caused me
to do this. We can say that about a lot of
what we do today that we didn't do before, can't we? John, how
come you don't cuss like you did? I know, I make mistakes
and it comes out occasionally. I guarantee you, I smash my thumb,
you're probably going to hear a word from me you don't think
I should be saying it. Why you don't cuss him? Because
it offends my Lord. Because the one who created me
doesn't think it's a good idea for me to do it. In fact, he
tells me it's not a good idea. And I believe him. My actions
today would be exactly like they were 25 years ago if it hadn't
been for the grace of God coming into my life and doing something
about it. I give Him all the glory for
who I am today, as I give Him all the glory for everything
about my world. Our Lord cannot fail, folks.
He will not lose one of His sheep. But that doesn't mean we sit
back on the couch and say, okay, whatever happens, happens. We've
been chosen and predestinated to obtain God's salvation. You can read about that in Ephesians
1-6. The Lord Jesus Christ purchased
and obtained eternal redemption for us. You can read about that
in Hebrews 9-12. Our surety has taken possession
for us, and you can read about that in Hebrews 6-20. And we are sealed by God the
Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. You can read about
that in Ephesians 1, 13-14. Yet the Word of God is crystal
clear. We must persevere until the end.
It is written in Job 17, 9, The righteous also shall hold on
his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. We also read in Matthew 10 verse
22, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. And then Hebrews
chapter 3, 14, we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Therefore, we have managed
to persevere in faith, looking to and seeking Christ until the
end of our days on this earth. Look back at Hebrews chapter
10, if you would. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning
at verse 35. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye
have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God,
ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just
shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Amen.