As Randy said, I'm going to be
preaching from Hebrews chapter 12 concerning the subject of the
race set before us. But I want to go back to 1 Corinthians
9 for a little bit by way of introduction. There's some things
there that need to be explained. I know some preachers say they're
not in the explaining business. You know it never fails to amaze
me a preacher gets upset I'm not in the explaining business,
and then they explain it for about an hour. You know so Whatever
they're going to preach. Yeah, but I just want to keep
things in context. It's what I want to do often
in the Bible the Christian life is described as a race that we're
in and Sometimes it's called a walk. Sometimes it's called
a race. Sometimes it's called warfare.
It's all of those things. And all of those things are appropriate.
But just look at the first two verses of Hebrews 12. He says,
wherefore. Now wherefore means that what
he's going to say is based upon what he had said before. It's
like a therefore, wherefore, why, or for this reason. seen
we also are compassed or surrounded about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, and a witness there is like an eyewitness, and he
says, let us lay aside every weight, every burden, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience,
patience means endurance, the race that is set before us, And
how are we to run that race? Verse two, and I quote this verse
quite often. 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 is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Now those two verses
are what I want to deal with. But go back to 1 Corinthians
9. You know, Paul, he's speaking about his being called and equipped
in the gospel ministry to go to the various places that he
went to preach the gospel. And he preached to all kinds
of people. He preached to Jews. He preached to Gentiles. All
kinds. He preached to the weak. He preached
to the strong. And he says up here, he says
in verse 20, under the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the
Jews. To them that are under the law, he's really talking
about the same people there. To them that are under the law,
as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the
law. To them that are without the law, that'd be like the Gentiles,
as without the law, being not without the law to God, but under
the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without, to
the weak, verse 22. became I as weak that I might
gain the weak, and I made all things to all men that I might
by all means have, save some." Now, there's several things there.
Paul is not saying that when he got into the ministry or when
God put him into the ministry, he adopted the philosophy of
when in Rome, do as the Romans do. That's not what he's saying
at all. He's not saying that when I preached
to Jews, I became as a legalist, like what you said, Randy, that
he didn't do that, did he? In other words, if I go into
a church and they preached freewillism, then I'm gonna preach freewillism.
No, that's not what Paul's saying at all. When I'm in a church
and they preach the sovereignty of God, I'll preach, no, he's
not saying that at all. Simply what he's saying here
is this, that he was disciplined in his mind and in his preaching
to use language and words that these people would understand,
at least with the physical ear, what he was saying. I'll give
you a classic example. When Paul stood on Mars Hill
in Athens, Greece, you know he didn't say anything about the
Old Testament as far as mentioning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Now
why didn't he do that? Well, because those people wouldn't
have known who he's talking about. They weren't the followers of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See? He preached to them, those
Greek philosophers and religionists, in a more general way concerning
the creatorhood of God and brought it down to the gospel of Christ,
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and what that meant.
So he's saying, I preach to the Gentiles like I'm a Gentile. And if he'd gone into Jerusalem
or when he went into a Jewish synagogue, he'd quote Old Testament
scripture. Just like he did in Rome, you
know, when he talked about the Jews in Romans 9, 10, 11. So
that's what Paul's saying. He said, I just used language
that they would understand. But it didn't compromise the
gospel for anybody. And in that sense, he was a disciplined
preacher. And that's where he goes into
verse 24. He says, know you not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize. And what he's talking
about is the one who finishes the race. He's really not even
necessarily talking about the one who wins. This is not a competition.
See, I'm not in competition with Brother Jim and Brother Randy
and Robert and Tim and Mark and Leon and Felton. I'm not in competition
with you. This isn't a competition. But
he's just simply saying that the Lord kept him faithful in
the gospel to bring him unto the end. Now, if he quit, what
does that say about Paul? What does it say about anybody
who quits? In other words, turns from the
faith. Apostatizes, as we say. Well, they didn't even do it
to begin with. So he says the prize, and he says, so run that
you may obtain. And that's what we're doing.
What do we want to obtain? Well, we want to obtain final
glory, don't we? We've already obtained salvation.
Christ has accomplished that. Our goal is sure and certain. We're not running. We'll look
at verse 25. Every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible. Now he's comparing himself to
an athlete, like in the Olympics that's been going on. If you
want to win the Olympics, the race, you've got to train for
it. You've got to discipline your body. You've got to discipline
your mind. And that's what Paul's saying.
Now he's not talking about working his way into salvation. Because it's God who saved him
and put him on this race. He's not talking about salvation
by works. And he's not talking about final
glory based on our works. You know, a lot of people say,
well, we're saved by grace, but then you've got to work your
way in order to make sure. That's not what Paul's saying
at all. And he calls this crown that we're striving for incorruptible. Well, that's the incorruptible
crown of Christ, his grace, his righteousness, everything. It
can't be corrupted. You know, when I was a boy in
junior high, we used to have track meets, and I had a blue
ribbon. I don't know where it is now. It's probably dust. It's
corruptible. But the crown we're striving
for is incorruptible. It's eternal life and glory through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he
says in verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, not
wondering if I'm gonna win or not. I run with confidence. I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day." That's
how he ran. And he says, so I fight, not
as one to beat it there. I'm not a boxer, you know, shadow
boxing here. This is not a pipe dream. This
is not just pie-in-the-sky religion. This is not an opiate, as Karl
Marx called it. This is real. But he says in
verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.
I discipline myself. Now, we can talk about discipline. Discipline, the discipline of
a believer is not opposed to grace. And why would people be
afraid of discipline? Now I'm not talking about just
whipping somebody or a discipline committee. If we ever as a church,
if we need to discipline one of our members for whatever reason,
we'll do it biblically. But he's talking about our own
personal discipline. We're disciples of Christ. And when I preach, when I study,
I discipline myself to make sure that I tell you the truth and
that I glorify God, exalt Christ. And I discipline myself in other
ways. You know, if you set aside a
time to read the scriptures or to pray or anything like that.
You discipline yourself so as to walk according to the word
of God, to his glory. You want to honor him. So that's
what Paul's saying. He's not saying I'm working to
get righteous so that God will smile down upon me and say, you
did a good job, Paul. You remember before when Randy
Redder, he said, well, if I preach the gospel, I still don't have
anything to glory in. You know what he's saying there,
don't you? I'm a preacher. Listen, think
about Paul the apostle. And how God used that man in
such a great way. Isn't that something? I mean,
it's amazing to me. But he said, I still don't have
anything in myself to glory in, to boast in. Because it's all
about Christ. This is to the praise of the
glory of God's grace. So he said, I keep my body, verse
27, keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that
by any means when I preach to others I myself should be a castaway
or disqualified. And what he's simply saying there
is this. I don't wanna just preach to you words that don't mean
anything to me because you like to hear them. You know, we got
enough preachers in this world today who are telling people
today what they want to hear and what they like to hear, but
not telling people what they need to hear. And that's what
Paul's saying. I'm preaching to you from my
heart. This is the message that God has laid on my heart. I'm
not just up here going through motions. This is worship in spirit
and in truth. This is not just coming to church.
This is worship, this is praising God, this is giving thanks to
God. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for
making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. And we persevere
in the faith. Now that's what this book of
Hebrews is about. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
12 now. The theme of the book of Hebrews is, as many preachers
have said, three words, Christ, is better. I like to put it in
a different way. He is better, better than anything
the old covenant had to offer. He's a better priest, high priest,
he's a better tabernacle, he's a better sacrifice, all of that.
A better surety under a better covenant. But I like to put it
this way, not just that Christ is better, but Christ is all. You might say that he's the best,
you can't get any better. And that's the theme of Hebrews.
And what's happening to these Hebrew believers, that's why
it's called Hebrews, is they're going through a lot of trials
and tribulations. They're being persecuted over
the gospel. It was a tough time to live as
a believer. Real tough. Some of them, it
was so tough that they just fell away from the truth. Hebrews
6 and Hebrews 10 deals with that. They just quit, they stopped.
And they turned against it to please their families and their
friends. And the one whom they claim to believe and rest in
at one point in time, they now claim to hate and despise and
call him a blasphemer. Even as Paul wrote, who I believe
Paul was the human instrument to write Hebrews, but a lot of
people don't, but it doesn't matter, it's God's word. But
even to the point, as Paul said in Hebrews chapter 6 and 10,
they were trampling underfoot the blood of Christ. Now right now, we say, I'm saved
by the blood of the crucified one, don't you? Look to the Lamb
of God, the blood of the Lamb. That blood is precious, isn't
it? That blood is His righteousness. That's the same thing. You know
that, don't you? The righteousness of God, that's His blood. That's
His obedience unto death. The meritorious, the meritorious
work of Christ that gives me a right standing before God and
as the fruit of that gives me eternal spiritual life to believe
in Him. That's precious. Now what if
I'd get up here next week and say, that blood doesn't mean
anything. That blood is just useless. That blood was just
blood of a man. Now that's apostasy. And that's what was happening
to these Hebrew Christians. It's what happened to a lot of
believers back then. First John deals with it. Remember,
he said, they went out from us, they were not of us. Had they
been of us, they would have no doubt remained with us, but they
went out from us, that it might be manifest that they never were
of us. See? So they never believed it. So God has saved us by his grace,
and he set us on the road to salvation, which is a sure thing
based upon the merits of Christ, to receive a crown that's incorruptible,
and we cannot be taken off this road. We cannot stop if, if God
put us on it. Now religion can put you on a
lot of different roads doing a lot of different things, but
that's not what this is talking about. And so what happens here
in the book of Hebrews, in order to encourage believers not to
quit, not to faint, not to give up, not to be undisciplined,
he goes back into the Old Testament and he starts with a man named
Abel. A man named Abel. Now I personally believe that
Adam and Eve were believers. I believe God brought them to
faith in Christ. But you know the first actual
example of a true believer that God gives us that he states it
that way is Abel. Abel was righteous. Cain wasn't. Why was Abel righteous and Cain
wasn't? Because of the grace of God.
And you know in Hebrews chapter 11 he goes up through and he
talks about Enoch, he talks about Noah, Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Enoch walked with God. Who walks
with God? Sinners saved by grace, justified
based upon the righteousness of Christ. And he talks about
Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Talks about
Abraham, David. And then he talks about some
who are unnamed. Listen to what he says about
some of them. Verse 35. He's talking about women back
then, believing women who received their dead raised to life again
and others were tortured. You see that? Verse 35 of chapter
11. They were tortured. Tortured by unbelievers. Why
would God let that happen? Huh? I don't want to be tortured,
do you? Well, it was for their good and
His glory. And he says, not accepting deliverance.
In other words, all they had to do was recant. And they'd
get out from under that torture. Now, you know and I know, when
God saves us, we're not superhuman. And you know and I know that
if we were under the torturous hands of unbelievers, we would
all forsake Him, at least in word, unless God preserved us. Isn't that right? And it says that they might obtain
a better resurrection. They didn't accept deliverance
from that torture unto physical death because they knew they
were going to glory with Christ. That's an amazing, that's martyrdom.
Verse 36, others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Well, we've been under some cruel
mockings, I know that. I haven't been whipped with a
cat of nine tails, they say. Yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment,
verse 37, they were stoned. You remember Stephen? They picked
up rocks to stone him, and those weren't little pebbles you find
on the beach. They were sawn asunder. You know
what that means? That means they were sawn in
two. Most scholars believe that's what happened to the prophet
Isaiah. They were tested, tempted, tested,
that's what he said. They were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They lost their
homes, their bank accounts, and there they were. Being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, and look at what he says in verse 38.
Of whom the world was not worthy. Tortured by an unbelieving world,
and the world was not even worthy of these people. These trophies
of God's grace and glory right here, isn't that something? They
wandered in the deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves
of the earth. Verse 39, and all these, these
all having obtained a good report through faith. What is a good
report through faith? Well, we can state it a lot of
different ways. I always like to state it in
my favorite hymn. Here's the good report through
faith. My hope is built. on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
And these, they didn't receive the promise. Now what does that
mean? That means they weren't living after the fact of Christ's
death in history. They were looking forward to
it coming. That's what that means. They
had the promise of salvation by grace, but it was a promise
of the future to them. And yet they died for it. They
were tortured for it. I don't mean to belittle what
we've all been through, but we've had it easy. We look back upon
a historical fact, and it is historical fact. I don't care
what these agnostics and atheists say. Christ, the Son of God,
came to earth and was born of a virgin, lived and died on that
cross, was buried and arose again the third day. It's a done deal
for us. It was for them, but you know
what it is, it's a lot easier to believe on something that's
a historical fact than it is to look forward. Of course, you
know as well as I do, if the Lord convinces us of it, the
ease or the difficulty of it means nothing. Verse 40, God having provided
some better thing for us. That's us. That they without
us should not be made perfect. If that's talking about the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ, what he's
saying is they're just like us. Same salvation. He may be talking
about final glory. So he says, now here's the text.
Wherefore, for this reason, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, You see that? Here it is, the witnesses to
encourage us. We're foreseen. We also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses. That word witness
is the word which we get the English word martyr from. A martyr. We have a lot of witnesses. First
of all, mainly we have the witness of the Holy Spirit within us.
Who? By the witness of the Word of
God. Why do I believe what I believe? Because it's in this book. But we have the witness of God's
people, sinners saved by grace. And you know some of these that
he mentions in Hebrews 11, they were exposed not only for their
accomplishments, which were by the grace of God, but we saw
them warts and all, didn't we? Go back to Noah, Abraham, David. I hear some preachers talk about
Abraham as if he never had a moment of doubt. Wrong. He listened to his wife and went
into Hagar, didn't he? And there are other problems.
Remember when he went into Egypt, he lied about it. He said that
Sarah was his sister because he didn't want to be killed. Abraham was a sinner. Well, so
am I. So are you. And with David, King
David, he mentions King David in the Hall of Faith. Well, David,
oh man, he never had a moment's doubt. Never tripped up at all
in this race. Oh, better go back and read about
David. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. That's what David wrote. In thy
sight have I did this evil. But their witnesses for us, they
endured by the grace of God. God-given faith in Christ by
which he preserved them. So he says in verse one, wherefore
seeing we're encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets
us. The sin that so easily overtakes
us. Now, a lot of people Preachers
would tell you, well, we all have different sins that we have
problems with, you've got to find out what your sin is. That's
not what he's talking about. You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about a specific sin, he's talking about unbelief.
Doubt. One old preacher said this, he
said, you know the old man, you have the Bible, the old man and
the new man, he said, the old man is dead. And he's crucified with Christ.
Now what does that mean? That means we cannot be charged
or condemned, charged with or condemned for our sin. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
has risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, making
intercession for us. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without works. That's who we are. But we still retain the vestiges
of the old man. What is that? The Bible calls
it the flesh. And nowhere does the sinful flesh
prove its remaining influence and corruption and contamination
as it does in the sin of unbelief. Doubts that would hinder us in
our walk, in our race, our run of faith and perseverance. And so how do we discipline ourselves,
as Paul said? We fight it. We're in a warfare. Right now I'm in a warfare. You
are too, if you're a believer. You've got a warfare within,
in your mind, in your heart. It's called the warfare of the
Holy Spirit against the flesh. We've been given life. And we're
running the race. Sometimes we just want to sit
down quit don't we somebody disappoints us somebody or we disappoint
somebody Somebody makes us mad or we go through a trial and
It burns us down. Just oh, I've never been through
one like this. I Think that I have been through
the hardest trial that any human being can go through But you
know what? I don't know that for sure. I'm
not God I There may be something else coming that's worse. And when we go through those
trials, we have our moments. We're like old Job. Lord, it'd
have been better if I had died. Wished I'd never been born, Job
said that. Oh, that Job now, he didn't have
a moment's doubt. Good night. Read the book of
Job. Now he had those three miserable
comforters who came and tried, we're going to figure this thing
out, Job. Let's look at it. What's wrong? What are you doing
wrong? You've got to be doing something wrong. God wouldn't
treat you like that. Of course, the implication is
we're doing everything right. Self-righteousness. So there
you have it. And Job, at first, he started
out well. He didn't let them get to him. But boy, later on,
he started justifying himself. Well, that's us. Lord, if He didn't keep us, we
wouldn't be kept. So He says here, let us run with
patience. That's endurance. That's perseverance. You remember over in Romans 5,
let me just read this to you. He talks about how we glory in
tribulations. That's our testings, our temptings.
Now we don't glory in the pain, I hope you don't, or try to,
I think you'd be lying if you did. But we glory in these tribulations
for this reason, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
that's endurance. And patience, experience, that's
maturity. And experience, hope. That's
the certain expectation. of salvation. And it's all based
upon the fact that when we were yet without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. So there's the race. It's a race
not of works oriented salvation. It's a race of grace. It's a
race of faith. And how do you run it? With patience.
Endurance. Remember what Paul wrote over
in Philippians 2? In verse 12, he says, wherefore,
my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
in fear and tremor. Work it out? Is that work salvation? No, read the next verse. For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. That's the race of grace. And then verse two tells us the
whole story about this race. the ground of it, the power of
it, the reality of it, the surety of it, and it's just looking. You know when they run the hundred
yard dash or the hundred meter, they have one thing in mind,
that finish line. That's us too, in the race of
grace and faith, but what is the finish line? Look at it,
looking unto Jesus, God our salvation, Jesus Christ, who is the author
He's the beginner, He's the origin. He's the one who started this
whole thing in my life, in your life. You didn't start it. It
wasn't some preacher standing down here begging you to accept
Him as your personal Savior. He started it all. He worked
out the salvation on the cross in His redeeming work when He
shed His blood and brought forth an everlasting righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. And He gives
life to as many as He will. That's right. And you know what? He finished it. Now, He finished
redemption on the cross. He put away our sins. He finished
the transgression, made an end of sin. He brought in everlasting
righteousness. That's finished. But there's another finishing
that He's doing. And he said it this way in John 6, 37. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose
nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. Salvations of the Lord in its beginning, in its continuation,
and in its final culmination. Look to Jesus Christ. Don't look
within yourself. Look, the lost religionist looks
to himself, his experiences, his attainments, his decisions. The legalist looks to the law
and finds a way that he can measure up, which is wrong. The Pharisee
looks at everyone else and considers himself righteous based upon
the comparison. The agnostic and the atheist
look to the world and to the measure of their state by their
circumstances. But the true children of God,
we look unto Christ. Isaiah 45, look unto me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the world. For I'm God, there's none
else. Who is God? A just God and a Savior. And
on what basis? Well, in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel say, I'm justified, I'm righteous, I'm washed by
the blood of Christ. Look to the glory of His person.
Who is Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh.
Look to the power and value of His finished work. We stand before
God in the righteousness of God Himself imputed to us. which
we have been brought to receive by faith. Look to His position
with the Father. Look here. It says, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him, what was that joy? The glory of His
Father, His own exaltation, and the salvation of His people. What did He do for that joy?
He endured the cross. What is it I'm enduring at the
present time? What is it you're enduring? What
did Christ endure? The cross. What a death. What a suffering that was. And
he did it not for himself, he did it for his people. For his undeserving, wretched
people like us. That's what he did it for. Despising the shame, he didn't
enjoy the pain, and later on he calls it a contradiction.
Think about it. Sinners. who don't deserve to
even live, murdering the Lord of glory. And of course we know it was
an act of the Father, wasn't it? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Wow. But look to his position, he
said, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of God, of the throne of God. He's set there, and why is he
sitting there? Because the work is done, and he's ever living
to make intercession for his people. Look to Him to return according
to His promise. He's coming back. He's coming
back. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher. Don't you love that? If you're in Christ, you'll finish
the race. And you know why? Because He's
already finished it. Is that a good way to put it? It's already
finished. You're not running to earn your
salvation. You're running, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. You're not running
to earn yourself a righteousness by your works, which God will
smile upon. You're running because Christ is your righteousness.
You see what I'm saying? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith.