Okay, well we come now to start
looking at Hebrews chapter 12, and I've entitled the message,
pretty obvious why, The Race Set Before Us, The Race Set Before
Us. So let's set the message in its
context of the rest of the epistle. You see, the Hebrews, the Jewish
Christians, the Jewish believers, to whom I believe it was Paul,
was writing, they, I think, had wondered, they began to wonder
if Paul's gospel of Christ and Christ alone had strayed too
far from Jewish traditions, from the faith of the patriarchs of
Abraham and Moses and all of those, had strayed away from
Levitical temple worship and the Levitical priesthood and
the animal sacrifices and all those sort of things. And the
resounding answer of Paul in this epistle to the Hebrews is
no, not at all. Paul's gospel hadn't strayed
from that. Paul's gospel, in Paul's gospel,
God had fulfilled everything that it pictured. How? In the
Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled everything in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was he. the fulfillment of
the pictures. He, Christ, God in Christ, it
was He who was the fulfillment of the pictures, who had saved
His people from their sins and given them a hope of glory, a
confidence of glory. And to him, his true people down
the ages, the patriarchs, had always looked for salvation from
sin's curse. They didn't look at those animals
dying and think, oh, that animal's blood has satisfied God as far
as my sin's concerned. No, only insofar as they by faith
looked to the Lamb of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Hence Hebrews 11 is all those
that you revere, you Hebrew Jewish believers, they all believed
the gospel of grace. They hadn't seen it, it hadn't
come, they received not yet the promise in reality, they still
only had the picture, but nevertheless that's what they looked for.
They always knew truly, the true believers, that it was the blood
of Christ. It was the blood of the promised
seed of the woman. not the animal's blood that would
make peace with God for sin. Christ was, Christ is the mediator,
the surety of a better covenant. A better covenant is not focused
on a physical pile of stones in Jerusalem, it's focused on
heaven, on eternity, on heavenly reality, not the mere earthly
picture. And all God's true Israel, for
as Paul says, In Romans chapter 9, they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. They are not the Israel of God
who are just Jewish by ancestry. No, all God's true Israel are
all those who have the same faith as Abraham. So if you're a Gentile
and you believe as Abraham did, on the basis of how God would
save his people from his sins. You are part of that true Israel
of God. They have lived looking by faith
to the fulfillment of that which they were seeing in Old Testament
days. And the cloud of witnesses were compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, says verse 1 of chapter 12, that cloud
of witnesses testified to that truth. They lived by faith. The just, Habakkuk, the just
shall live, the justified ones shall live by their faith. And
again, it's quoted three times in the New Testament. I think
it's three times. They lived by faith. It's quoted at the
end of chapter 10. The just shall live by faith, by that gift of
God, which is the sight of the soul to see eternal reality. Though we live in a world in
opposition to the truth of God, we live waiting for the time
that God has left us here for that eternal inheritance that
he has promised us. We steadfastly trust the promises
of God. Why do we trust the promises
of God? Because God cannot lie. We can lie, but God cannot lie. So let us, all God's children
in the flesh on earth, follow their, that cloud of witnesses,
their example of faith. We have to live whilst believing,
whilst having faith. We, all of us, all of the people
of God, have to live for a while on earth. We have a life in this
flesh. And that's my first point. Life
in the flesh. God's people were chosen before
the beginning of time. No question. Scripture is absolutely
clear. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. The salvation that was given
to us before time began. Chosen before time began, but
born in sin into this world. quickened, made alive in time
by the Holy Spirit of God. These are God's people. Regenerated,
given a new life, you must be born again. Regenerated, taught
of God. How do I know that? Because the
scripture says, all his people shall be taught of God. They'll
all be taught of God. Given faith to see the truth
of God. Given faith in their hearts,
the faith of God's elect to see and not understand and not find
it easy in the flesh always to accept what they see, but by
faith in the soul of the regenerated man of God, in that believing
person, to see the truth of what God has said, that he has chosen
a people by grace from the foundation of the world, before the foundation
of the world, and brought them to believe. And he gives those
people a heart to believe in. You know what it is to You know,
you can mentally agree to something, but to have your heart, your
affections, your emotions warmed and focused on it, a heart to
believe, and a goal to attain. What's the goal? It's eternity.
It's the kingdom of God. What did Jesus come preaching?
He came preaching the kingdom of God. That's our goal. Eternal
bliss. This world is a veil of tears.
But there is a paradise of bliss. A paradise of bliss. It does
not yet seem, it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. We can't
imagine what it will be like. But it will be glorious. It will
be bliss. And that's our destiny. And God
puts in the hearts of all his true people a real affection
for that state, for that time, for that promise to be fulfilled.
live in this world he prayed in John 17 that we be kept from
the evil he said I know you're not going to take them out of
the world but while they're in the world keep them from the
evil and each one each one of this multitude that Christ has
redeemed each one of the multitude that God in electing grace called
from the before the beginning of time they're in this world
for a time according to God's will and for each and every individual. So you could say that the penitent
thief dying on the cross next to Jesus as he was dying on the
cross, he probably lived in this flesh as a believer for no more
than a couple of hours. And then you've got the Apostle
John at the other end of the spectrum, who maybe was called
by Jesus in late teens, early twenties, something like that,
and we believe lived probably to about 95 years old. They're
to live, all God's people are to live in alien territory. For this world that we live in
is truly the kingdom of Satan. He usurped it by the fall when
Adam ceded all of his viceroyship of that kingdom over to Satan.
It's his world that we live in as believers. And there's a race
that is set before us. A race is a course. There's a
course of life in the flesh set before us. And it's God that
has set that course. Just rest in that. You know,
things don't just happen. There used to be a hymn or a
chorus, wasn't it? Things with God don't just happen.
Everything by him is planned. And to believe that, is such
a comfort to the soul as we go through the worst storms. As Paul, on his way to Rome,
went through that storm and all the sailors were convinced they
were going to drown. But Paul was settled and calm
because he knew nothing could happen that God had not ordained
and was not controlling. For each one of us, it's different.
For each one, some have a life of relative ease with very little
going wrong. Others have the most severe trials,
severe trials. Some of you listening now are
going through severe trials. It's all difficult. Why is it
difficult? Because if you're a believer
living in the flesh in this world, then you have two natures. You
have that, sinful nature, that fleshly nature with which you
were born, the natural man, children of wrath even as others. But
God has put in you by the new birth His Spirit. So there's
the flesh and the Spirit, and as Galatians 5 says, the flesh
wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And
the one bears the fruits of the flesh and the other the fruits
of the Spirit. And it's a fight, it's a fight. This life, this
time, whatever the Lord has ordained for us, it's a fight. And so
Paul says to Timothy, in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12, about
this race, this course that is set before us, this life, he
says, Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal
life. It's a fight. He says elsewhere
in Ephesians chapter six, he says in this life, it's a wrestling
match. It's a fight constantly, but
he says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We wrestle not
against the physical things around us, but it's the kingdom of Satan,
it's principalities and powers. It's the things that oppose the
kingdom of God. And the opponents of the kingdom
of God are Satan and this world and the flesh that we live in
while we're believers on this course, on this race. And this
flesh has a sinful nature and sinful desires. And it's always
there battling against the spirit which loves the righteousness
of God and seeks to obey the law of God. It's a race requiring
effort. If it's a race, You're never
in a race for an easy time. A race requires effort. It requires
patience. It requires perseverance. It
costs you. It hurts. You ache afterwards. All these things. There's a cost.
Jesus says, which of you sets out to build a house without
first counting the cost and doesn't set off if the cost is too great?
When you watch the Grand Designs program, you see far too many
people that do not heed that because they set off on these
elaborate projects and then discover they cannot afford to finish
them. There are many who think the Christian life is an easy
life. There are many mere professors
of faith in Christ who are at ease in this life. God said via
the prophet Amos, Amos 6 and verse 1, Woe unto them that are
at ease in Zion. Woe to them, because the life
of faith in this world, in this sinful flesh, is not easy. It isn't easy. Woe to them that
are at ease in Zion. This world, with its passions
and its allurements, is constantly pulling against the desires of
the Spirit of God in the heart of the believer. It's a life
A race that we must run in accordance with the rules. Look at 2 Timothy
chapter 2 and verses 3 to 5. Let me read these verses to you.
This is Paul speaking to Timothy about the hardship of the Christian
life. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for
masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. We
run this race according to the rules, the rules of doctrinal
discipline of the true faith of God's people, and only those
who are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Only those run
this race, truly, and only they obtain the finishing prize. For
the prize is not for winning, but for finishing the course.
The prize is that prize of the eternal city, the celestial city. So what can we do? Look at verse
one. Look at verse one. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth easily beset us
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Let's maintain a consciousness that we're not alone. There's
a cloud of witnesses that has gone before. I'm not sure we
can draw any doctrinal clear teaching about what people in
heaven can see of life on this earth and their consciousness
of it and their observation of it. I'm not sure about that at
all. Maybe some are wiser about these things, but I don't think
it's particularly clear in scripture. All I do know is that I cannot
reconcile observing the sin of this world with the bliss of
sinlessness in heaven. But never mind. It's good for
us to view it as if this cloud of witnesses that have gone before
are like, he's talking about a race, he's talking, you know,
the ideas of the Olympics and of and of competition and the
crowd there cheering people on. Maintain consciousness that a
cloud of witnesses has gone before. They've attained glory, which
is our goal. And think of them cheering us
on to complete. As I say, I'm not sure how absolutely
solid that is in terms of its perception of what it's like
for people who are in glory looking down on the things of this earth.
But we have this cloud of witnesses that has gone before. walk in
their footsteps. And then secondly, let us lay
aside every weight. The person that's going in to
run an Olympic race, looking to win whatever distance it is,
will not carry a sack of weights on them. You know, in horse racing,
the really good horses, they weight them down a little bit
to make it a bit of a fairer race. But we're to cast off hindrances. What hindrances? What hindrances? Lay aside every weight. What
does he mean? Lay aside the discouragements of life, the things that will
distract from the goal of following Christ, the things of career. Yes, we have to be responsible.
This isn't a call to opt out of life altogether, but you draw
the line where it becomes so intrusive that you lose sight
of that which is really your goal. Cast off the hindrances
of possessions and grasping more and more. Cast off and avoid
enticements to sin and internal... I'm sure that's what it means
where Jesus said, if your eye offend you, pluck it out. If
your hand offends you, chop it off. And internal distractions
of the mind and of the heart. This is why Jesus said, when
that rich young ruler came to him, that it's hard for the rich
to enter the kingdom of heaven, because they're so distracted
by the good things of this world, the things that their sinful
flesh loves. And then he says, the sin, cast
that off, the sin which doth so easily beset us. What's he
talking about there? I'm absolutely convinced he's
talking about that one sin above all other sins, which is the
sin of unbelief. Unbelief. It's not that particular
habit or distraction that you have. It's unbelief. Cast it
off. Remember in Hebrews 4 verse 6,
we're told that the Israelites, from their wilderness wanderings
from Egypt to the promised land, they could not enter into the
promised land. Why not? because of unbelief. They wouldn't believe God. And
then, look, let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Keep patience, waiting for the Lord. It might be short, it might
be long. We don't know, we cannot control
it, but all the time rest in the fact that our time is in
his hands. Happy to rest in his perfect
timing. Job said this, Job 17 verse nine,
the righteous, the one made righteous by the redemption accomplished
by Christ. The righteous shall hold on his
way, shall just keep patiently going. But look, above all, run
with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. How to run the race? Looking
unto Jesus, with a gaze fixed on Jesus. You see, What is our
end goal? He is the end goal of believers. Here, we have periods of sensing
the presence of the Lord and the blessings of the Lord. But
there, when we're in his kingdom in eternity and this world is
ended, There will be nothing to distract. There will be nothing
in the way. That's the end goal, is the presence
of God, the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our God.
The best motivator to keep going, you know if you're doing a project,
I managed lots of projects during my career, but always the best
motivator to keep going was the end point, the goal of the project. Why are we doing all of this?
Because doing all these things will get us to that end point.
That was the motivator. What is the goal for the child
of God? The goal for the child of God is to, and so many think
the goal is things in this life. They're fleeting, they're passing.
The goal of the child of God is to be in the eternal presence
of him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our creator. who is our
saviour, who is our master, who is our friend, all things that
he said he was. We are exhorted to look unto
him. We're exhorted to consider him,
verse three, for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself. Consider him, to think on him,
to meditate on him, to look to him. So let's do that for a while,
if we can, this morning, and answer some questions. Who is
he? What has he done? Where is he
now? Who is he? He is the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the alpha and the omega,
the beginning, the cause, and the end of it all. And is that
not exactly what God is? He is our God. It doesn't say,
run the race set before us, looking unto God. And the reason it doesn't
is because no man has seen God at any time. That's what John
1.18 says, no man has seen God at any time. God said in the
books of Moses, he said, he that sees me, no man shall see my
face, for he that sees me shall surely die. But God is manifested
to flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ. so that we have these words.
You see, no man's seen God at any time, but the only begotten
Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known,
He has manifested Him. He is God manifested to the flesh. I know we've thought of these
things a lot in recent weeks, but this is the pinnacle of gospel
truth. This is the pinnacle of the purpose
of God, that we might know God and be in Him and enjoy Him forever. In John 14 verse 9, having said
that he alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and they
said, well, show us the Father. And he said to his disciples,
he said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How can
I see the unseeable God and live? I see him when I look at the
Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. He is the eternal God, manifested
as a man. He is God manifested as a man. To see Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, is to see God, and yet seeing God still
live. still live. He is the Word of
God, John 1, verse 1. He is the Word of God. He is
the mind of God, declared to us. He is our great God and Savior. Jesus is our great God and Savior,
Titus 2, verse 13. Our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. He is our Redeemer God. Let's go back to the Old Testament,
before he was born, in Isaiah 43, and verse 10. Listen to these words and tell
me if this is not the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, our God in
eternity, speaking his truth. He says this, ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may
know and believe me and understand that I am he. that Jesus amongst
us is God. Back in chapter 40, say unto
the cities of Judah, behold your God. When Jesus came to earth,
say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Believe me that
I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. Even I am the Lord, and beside
me there is no Saviour. God is our Saviour, Jesus is
our Saviour. I have declared and have saved,
and I have showed, when there was no strange God among you. Therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. Is that not God saying perfectly
clearly to us that He is our God? Thus saith the Lord. Verse 13, yea, before the day
was, I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
I will work, and who shall let it? Thus saith the Lord your
Redeemer. the Holy One of Israel. For your
sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought down all their nobles
and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. I am the Lord,
your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is looking unto Jesus in him,
in that body that they sat with in that upper room, that they
went with him on his ministry, that they sat around him and
heard him teach and saw him. In that body, in that man, dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of the Godhead bodily
in him. He is the creator. Who made all
things? God made all things. He made
all things. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our God, made all things. John 1 verse 3, having said that
He is the Word of God, and nothing was made, he says in verse 3
of chapter 1, he says, all things were made by Him, by the Word,
by the Lord Jesus Christ. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was nothing made that was made. If there's a created
thing, he created it. So when the Jehovah's Witnesses
tell us that Jesus is not truly God, but he is a creation of
God, they cannot square that. I had a Jehovah's Witnesses years
ago, I put that text to him and he was completely flummoxed because
they can't deny what it says. He made all things and without
him was not anything made that was made. In Hebrews chapter
one, And verse two, speaking of God's son who has spoken,
God's spoken by his son, by whom also he made the worlds. He is our creator, looking unto
Jesus. He is our creator. Look at Colossians
chapter one and verse 15. Colossians chapter one, speaking
of him who is the image of the invisible God. You can't see
God, but he's the image of the invisible God. The firstborn,
the beginning force of every creature, the creator. For by
him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth. visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and before Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. He is God. When we speak of Jesus
and looking unto Jesus, He is our God. He is Jesus, Jesus,
Savior. The angel said to Joseph, Take
Mary to be your wife, for the child that is conceived in her
of the Holy Ghost, call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save
his people from their sins. Two verses on in verse 23. His
name shall be Immanuel, fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah said
in Isaiah 7 14. He said, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Immanuel,
that's the Hebrew. Immanuel in the New Testament,
E-double-M, Immanuel. A man born of a virgin woman
who is God with us. That's what Matthew tells us.
What does it mean? God with us. He is what Isaiah said again
in chapter nine and verse six. He is the child that is born
unto his people. The child. The son that is given. The one who bears the government
of God over the universe. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. Whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.
And upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order
it and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
to whom we look. Run the race, live this life
in this flesh, live this life of faith in the flesh. looking
unto our God. How do we look unto God? We look
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who
Isaiah saw in the temple. In Isaiah chapter six, we read,
in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says this, I saw
the Lord in the temple. He had a vision of God in the
temple. And if you turn to John chapter
12, And verse 39, sorry, verse, well, you have to read the whole
passage. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says in verse 41, these
things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. When
he saw his glory in the temple in Isaiah chapter six, he is
the one that Isaiah saw. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ
before he came to this earth. He is the God, Jesus is the God,
whom the Israelites tempted in the wilderness. You know, in
Numbers 21, they were murmuring against Moses, and why has God
brought us out here, and murmur, murmur, murmur, and God sent...
poisonous snakes amongst them and bit them and many of them
died. And that's when Moses had to make an image of a serpent
and put it on a pole and whosoever looked at that image would not
die. And they tempted God in the wilderness. But if you look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse nine, neither let us tempt Christ as some of
them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. They tempted God,
they complained against God, but it was Christ that they tempted. That's the New Testament clearly
stating that. He is God who purchased his church
with his own blood, as I think I've said every week for the
last four or five weeks. Acts 20 verse 28, God who purchased
his church with his own blood. How? Only in the person of a
man with blood, precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. He is the beginning and the end,
the alpha and the omega. He is God. You know, the Jews
knew this. When in Jesus's ministry, they'd
be saying, who is this man? What's he doing? And he would
say to somebody, your sins are forgiven you. And they were horrified,
blasphemy. He's claiming to be God because
only God can forgive sins. He claimed to forgive sins because
he was God who could forgive sins. He is the only one. He is the one to whom every knee
shall bow. Isaiah 45, speaking the words
of God, every knee shall bow to me. Let's just turn it up
quickly, Isaiah 45. Verse 23, I have sworn by myself
the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not
return, that unto me, unto God, every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall swear. And then in Philippians chapter
two, Jesus, he's given him a name which is above every name. that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. He's the preeminent
one whose name is above every name. The one who walked the
earth as a man. It says in Isaiah without comeliness,
Isaiah 53, there is no physical attractiveness. He didn't walk
around as the artists of old portrayed him with a halo around
his head. Without comeliness that we should want him and admire
him. But he displayed power. He displayed
power over demons, over the principalities and powers. He displayed power
over diseases. He said a word and the diseases
were gone. He worked miracles of creation.
That man that was born blind, he made him eyes out of clay. Food, he displayed power over
that. He fed 5,000 on one occasion
and 4,000 on another. He made out of so little. He commanded the storm, peace,
be still. And the weather, calm down. And
who is this that says to the weather and controls it? He even
controlled death. Lazarus, come forth. He was worshipped
by angels, we read in Hebrews 1, verse six. He was worshipped
by doubting disciples. Thomas would not believe until
he saw him. And when Jesus reappeared in
that room and he said, Thomas, come here. and showed him his
hands and his side. And Thomas, what was the reaction
of Thomas? He fell to his knees in awe and wonder. My Lord and
my God. He called a man before his eyes,
his God. And by the saints in glory, all
shall worship him. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. What has he done? I'll be very
quick. He laid his glory aside for a while. He clothed himself
in his children's flesh for the purpose of suffering death. For
it is only by death that the justice of God is satisfied.
The soul that sins it shall die. And he became that man of sorrows,
of Isaiah 53, that in the place of his people, as the substitute,
as the one in whom we were placed in eternal union, subject to
fleshly temptation yet without sin, declaring God's truth having
come down from heaven, preaching God's kingdom, manifesting grace
and truth, not law, grace and truth, the grace and truth of
God to sinners. He endured, look at verse three,
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself. What contradiction of sinners?
His humble birth, there was nowhere. for him to lie down in comfort
in a hotel room. It was a humble stable. He grew
up in a poor family, the family of a poor carpenter, barely scraping
together enough. He grew up with opposition and
persecution from the religious authorities, from his kinsmen,
the people of Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff to kill
him, from the Romans always resisting temptation unto blood. He always
resisted temptation, yet without sin, but he was obedient unto
death. He was obedient unto death, as
it says in Philippians. He endured the cross. Look there. For the joy that was set before
him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, being made the sin
of all of his people, that entire multitude, so as to pay its debt. thereby redeeming his people.
For you know, as Galatians 3 tells us, cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. That's the curse. But, verse 13 of Galatians 3,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? by He
Himself being made that curse in our place. He bore it in His
own body on the cursed tree, so that His people, He who knew
no sin having been made sin, that His people might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. And He finished it. And look,
verse 2, is set down. at the right hand of the throne
of God. He's finished the work. It's completed. Every single
one of his people will be saved. This is the will of him that
sent me, he said in John 6, 39, that of all the Father has given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last
day. Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you one
who submits to the will and the word and the truth of God? You
shall be raised up at that last day, not one will be lost. Why
has he done it? Why has he done it? Verse two,
for the joy that was set before him, for the joy. that was set
before him, for the just salvation of his elect multitude, the joy
that sustained him in all of his soul's trouble and sorrow
and agony. The joy that sustained him was
the joy of saving his people from their sins, of lifting his
people from that horrible pit of sin and setting their feet
upon the rock which is Christ, It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why? Because it achieved the
accomplishment of the joy that was set before him. He is a just
God who will not overlook sin, and yet he is the savior of that
multitude chosen in him. He is just and justifier. And
that's why we read Psalm 24 at the beginning. Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors. For the
King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He accomplished
salvation. And it says it again. Lift up
your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.
And the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. Here he is for the joy
set before him. Here he is with that multitude
that he saved from their sins, chosen in him before the foundation
of the world and redeemed in time and taken to be with him
that none might be lost. And so he says in Isaiah 8, 18,
behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me. Behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given me. Consider Him.
Consider Him. He is our God. He is our God
manifest. He is our Savior, always before
us in this life, however long or however short it might be,
always with Him before us. let us run this race set before
us. In all the trials, in all the
troubles, in all the doubts, in all the fears of this life,
this race set before us in the flesh, for as long as he determines
for each and every one of us, let's strive to walk in his steps,
keeping him in view, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Four, how are you going to keep
going? He said, I'm not strong enough.
You're not. How are you going to keep going? He has promised.
He has promised. Philippians 1 verse 6. He that
has begun a good work of salvation in each child of God, he shall
complete it. He shall complete it. He shall
not fail unto the attainment of eternal glory for all his
people.