It's good to be with you again.
She was singing that. This very day I was asking Him
to wrap His arms around me. It's a wonderful thing to feel
the presence of our Savior. But I tell you, there's often
times I want to feel more than just His presence. I really want
to feel His arms around me. I'm thankful for His grace in
sending His Spirit, Comforter, to come and instruct us and keep
us. I pray, Lord, give me grace to
preach this message to you. Take your Bible and turn with
me to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. entitled this, A Race to be Run.
A Race to be Run. Now, in preface of these verses,
I'm gonna look at verses one and two, but in preface of this,
the apostle in the previous chapter, it's necessary for us to see
this, in the previous chapter, he gives us a very extensive
list of those saints who went before us. And by this, what
he does is shows us the nature of true God-given faith. Now if there's one thing a believer
desires more than anything else is to know this. Is my faith
real? Or am I deceived? Now what Newton
said, "'Tis a point I long to know. "'Oft it causes anxious
thought. "'Do I love the Lord or no? "'Am I his or am I not? "'Is my faith real?' This hall
of faith is intended by the apostle through the Holy Spirit to show
us the nature of faith. And so you take each one of these
men who went before us, and the first one he mentions there was
Abel, and Abel looked to the offering of Christ. Well, is
that not what true faith does? True faith looks to the offering
of Christ. Enoch shows us the necessity
of faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Every believer understands that.
Noah's faith reveals this, that we all seek an ark, we seek a
refuge. Faith runs to the refuge, which
is Christ. Abraham's faith, he trusted God
regardless of human reasoning. God said, offer my son, offer
your son. Reason said what? That just doesn't
sound reasonable. He didn't care. Faith obeys God. Faith trusts God. True faith. And we read in verse
13 that all these died in faith. True faith always endures unto
the end. If it is God-given faith, it
will always endure. True faith willingly suffers
the loss of this world. Moses forsook Pharaoh and Egypt
and rather suffered with the children of Israel. True faith
would rather suffer. with the children of God than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. True faith does suffer the loss
of these things. True faith moves us to walk through
the Red Sea on dry ground. Those Israelites went through
the Red Sea by faith, trusting God. This is what we do. Christ
is that solid ground upon which true faith walks. And we walk
through and the justice of God does not and cannot touch us. He removes our sin and we are
safely walking through undesigned. True faith sees this. Now seeing
all these saints obtained a good report, Paul says, yet they did
not receive the thing that they, Look for, they look for the coming
of Christ and yet they did not, they were not able. He says in
verse 44, God providing some better thing for us. And what is that better thing?
Now they, listen, they had vision. They had miracles. They had things
that we will never see in this life. I mean, can you imagine
the miracle of the Red Sea? Deliverance from Egypt, deliverance
from all that. They had a lot of miracles, but
God provided something much better for us. Now, what is that better
thing? Well, it's not a better salvation.
Don't listen to anybody tell you that the Jews had a lesser
salvation than we. No, they had the same salvation.
They were saved by grace through faith. They received the same
spirit. They received the same new nature,
the same birth. They were washed by the same
blood of Christ. They were chosen by the Father,
same as we are. And what is this better thing?
Well, friends, you got it right in your hands. You have the full
revelation of Jesus Christ in your hands. This book is all
about Christ and you see it from beginning to end. They didn't
have that. They had glimpses and shadows
and types and pictures. You have the full revelation. You have a better thing. And
so then this better thing is we enjoy God who in sundry times
and in divers manners, that's how he begins the book. God in
sundry times and in divers manners spake to our fathers by the prophets. Have these last days spoken to
us in a better way. What is that? By his son. He
has spoken to us by Jesus Christ. And he says this, that without
us, that not apart from us, they should be made perfect. In other
words, They were made perfect, but not without us. We're made
perfect just like they are. And what the Lord said, he said,
they shall come from the east and the west and sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And you, you Jews, you're not
going to get in. These saints that went before
us, they were chosen, redeemed, and quickened by the Spirit.
They believed in Christ. So having seen then the true
nature of faith, the true character of faith, Paul says this, wherefore,
in our text, look at that. He says, wherefore, now that
you've seen the true nature of faith, and you've seen that they
were saved the same as you are saved, and God provided some
better things, he says, wherefore, see, Also, we are compassed about
with a great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin that does so easily beset us and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. 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 sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now here tonight,
I want to set forth a picture of this metaphor. The apostle's
going to use a metaphor to describe the believer's life in this world. It is a race. It is a race. And if you were to imagine a
Greek Olympian race, the first thing he's going to show you
is the spectators, the crowd. What is this crowd that he's
going to show you? It is that great cloud of witnesses. Those examples of faith that
went before us are a great cloud of witnesses that cheer us on,
that encourage us to continue. Then he's going to show us the
course of our race. This race that we are running
is something that is set. This race is something that is
set by God specifically for us. It is a race and it's set. It's appointed. Then he's going
to tell us how to run it. He says, lay aside every weight. lay aside the sin that does so
easily beset us. Run with endurance. Run with
patience. Well, how do you do that? Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So let us see this
evening the race that's to be run, the race that must be run. Now, we're going to see the crowd
first, those cloud of witnesses that encompass this race, which
it alludes to spectators at an Olympian competition. Those saints whose faith we have
just read about, who have believed unto the end, those who have
already finished their course are now in glory, but their example
remains. Their history remains. See that
as we run the race set before us, their record, their trials,
their temptations, their failures, their sins, their victories are
all left for us as examples. Surely they are meant of the
Holy Spirit then as their examples are to encourage us. Encourage
us. They're encouraged us to continue
and endure. You that believe in Jesus Christ,
this race that we run is weary, it's tiring. This race
that we run is to be endured. We must all endure unto the end. and seeing that they were kept
by God through the midst of their weaknesses and infirmities, even
so we have hope of the same. We have hope of the same. Go to 1 Thessalonians. Look over
1 Thessalonians chapter five. Look at verse 23. This is Paul's
prayer at the end of this. book, he says, and the very God
of peace sanctify you wholly, completely, perfectly. You know
what my prayer is for you? That God would set you apart
so much that you would be holy, that the God of peace would save
you completely. That's his prayer. Isn't that
what you want? You that believe and want to
be saved completely, don't you? You don't want to be partially
saved. You want to be wholly, completely sanctified by God. And I pray, God, I pray, God,
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that as you endure
this race, that you'll finish. I pray that you'll finish in
faith. You began this race in faith, right? You are running
right now by faith, and I pray that God would preserve you until
the end of it. Isn't that your prayer? God,
keep me, please. Don't let me run to my strength.
Keep me to the end. Don't let me fall, don't let
me fall short. What's our hope that that's going
to happen? Look at that next verse, I'm so thankful. Faithful
is he. That's your hope. That's my hope
he'll keep you. That's my hope you'll endure.
He is faithful that calleth you. Has he called you? Listen, he
also will do it. He'll do it. I like that at the
end of Isaiah chapter nine, he said, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. Government shall be upon his
shoulder. Responsibility of your salvation rests upon this child
born, this son given. And he's gonna be wonderful.
He's gonna be called wonderful, he's gonna finish it. Counselor,
mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And you
know what it says next? He said, and the zeal of the Lord shall
perform it. How do you know you're gonna
finish it? How do you know you're going to finish this race? You
don't, often times you don't feel like you're going to finish. I know you don't. Faithful is he to keep you. He called you, didn't he? He'll
do it. He'll do it. Now how do you know
that? Find one he didn't. We have a
great cloud of witnesses that went before us. How do you suppose
you'll endure to the end? How do you suppose that Abraham
endured? How do you suppose Isaac endured
and Jacob endured? These men walked around in the
wilderness, promised a people, promised a land, and they never
saw it. How do you suppose they endured? God was faithful. How do you
suppose David endured having sinned, whose house was ruined,
marred forever by adultery and murder? How do you suppose he
endured to the end? How do you suppose he said, though
my house be not so with God? There's many of us gonna say
that. On our deathbed, we'll look at our house and we'll say,
oh, what a ruin. What a ruin is my house. Although
my house is ruined, yet God hath made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things and what? Sure. You can say that when you're
dying. You can say that on your deathbed,
though your house is ruined. Though I've not run like I should,
I know this, I'll finish because he's faithful. David found that,
and so will you. These cloud of witnesses are
put forth. Now, these men of faith, they
sacrificed, they suffered the loss of all things for Christ,
even because they were kept by the power of God. That's why
they were able to do it. And I'm a believer. Do these
cloud of witnesses not encourage you? When you read of their faith,
does it not encourage you? When you read of their failures, God left their failures. He exposed
their whole life before us. You suppose Lot wanted anything
like that said about him? You suppose David wanted everybody
to know what he had done? Why'd God do that? Because you're
just like him. You and I are just like him. They made it. And so as I see
them in glory, I have hope too. I have hope because he was faithful
to keep them. He'll be faithful to keep me.
There are a cloud of witnesses as they cheer us on. They didn't
make it in their power and I won't make it in mine. They'll make
it because he was faithful and I'll make it because he's faithful.
Now then the race. Now let's look at the course.
The course, he says that there's race. Go back to your text now.
We have a great cloud of witnesses. He said, lay aside every weight
and sin that does easily beset us, let us run with patience.
What? The race that is set before us. He uses this metaphor of
a race. I lost my digital problems, excuse
me. We have this race and he says
it's set before. It's a metaphor. I don't have
many metaphors used in scripture concerning Christians, aren't
there? We're soldiers. We have a warfare that engages every
day within ourselves. This is just another one of those
metaphors, a race, an Olympic race. Now, you that are participants in
this race, you did not stumble onto this race course. You didn't
accidentally come upon this track. No, you were called to it. You were quickened by the Holy
Spirit and you began running this race by faith in Christ. But I want you to know this,
that you were called to this race and that this course that
God has for you has been set. That's what it says in our text.
It says, the race that is what? Set before us. Now listen to
this translation. This was a very, very exhaustive
translation. It says this, let us run with
patient endurance and steady and active persistence. The appointed
course of the race that is set before us. The appointed course
of this race. This race you are running, this
life you are living is appointed of God. And each course is individually
set. It is individually set. Each
course that we have as a believer, it is full of hills and valleys,
full of obstacles. and difficulties. It's full of
sorrows and griefs with joy and triumphs. This course is skillfully prepared
and designed by our great God and Savior. It's appointed. You were chosen
by God, loved by God, given to Christ, saved by Christ, called
to faith, and now you're running the course He has set for you.
And I want you to know where this course is. Where are we
running this course? You know, you hear that? I heard
that song. Sherwood played it the other day. It's a higher
plane that I have found. Lord, plant my feet on higher
ground. Is that how you feel you're running?
You're running on higher ground? Like God set us way up here and
we're running on this celestial plane. No, this course is right
here on earth. This course is set up right here
on earth. And it's directed by divine sovereign
providence. This table, he said, thou prepares
a table before me in the presence of my enemy. This race is to
be run in this present evil world. That's why the race is so painful. That's why the course is so hard,
because it's in this world. This world is set against us,
isn't it? They despise us. They hate our
gospel. They despise our Lord. Our Lord told us that, didn't
he? They'll hate you. Our Lord was honest. He was just good.
He can't lie. He was honest. They'll hate you. They hated me before they hated
you. So as we run this course, we should not expect it to be
easy. It is a hard course. It is directed
by divine providence and the map of this course, the light
upon which we run this course is the word of God. The Word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. If we desire to
know how we are to run this course, the Word of God is our total
source of faith and practice, isn't it? It's our total source
of faith and practice, the Word of God. So our course is set
by God in this world. It is A race that all believers
must run, it is required, and listen, it requires great effort,
constant striving, and relentless endurance. Have you found your race to be
hard or easy? The believer's race is always
hard. It's always a path of suffering. Paul said this, I press toward
the mark. of the high calling of God. What's
the mark? What's the goal? What's the end? Christ. I want Christ. That's what I want. It's not
heaven. It's not golden streets. It's Christ, that's the mark.
That's where I'm pressing to. I want Christ, and if we want
Christ, we are going to press. We are going to struggle. The
kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. I must have Christ. You must
have Christ. I must have Christ. This is not an option. I must
have Christ. If you have faith in Christ,
you know this, you must press. It is a rough race. It's a hard race. Everyone must endure it. But
I want you to be comforted in this. Listen, if your faith is
of God, you will finish. You will. You will, every one,
every one of the saints will finish this course. We through
much tribulation must enter the kingdom of God, the apostle said. It will not be without suffering
or sacrifice, yet none of our suffering or sacrifice adds to
it. You got that? All your suffering
doesn't add one thing. And listen, all your failures
doesn't take away one thing. Christ is all. Christ is all
in this race. He is the mark that we be pressed
to. You remember in Billings Progress you had Christian and
Ignorance? Remember when they met? Christian
Hopeful going to Celestial City and they come along this guy
named Ignorance. They said, hey, where'd you come from? He said,
well, I was over here, and I just come on in. He said, wait, wait,
you didn't, you didn't go through the, you gotta go through the
door. You gotta come through the door.
You got, you have a bird? You gotta come to the cross.
The bird's gotta fall off. You gotta have your scroll. You
gotta have your covenant. Oh no, I just come on in and
hope for the best. How many people do that? They
say, they're running a race, and they just stumble into it.
We didn't stumble in this race. We were put in this race. But
when they came to that fork in the road, you remember that the
Christian end, they messed up big time, and boy, they were
suffering. They'd run in circles for a little
while. And then finally, these celestial men, they came and
showed them, you need to go this way. And that way they had to
go was a straight gate, was a narrow way, and it was hard. Ignorance
comes up to the gate and he looks over there and he says, well,
that looks rough. He goes in the Broadway. Listen, God's people,
we're not going in the Broadway. We're not going the easy way.
This race is hard. It is set. It is appointed by
God. And everything that happens to
us in this race is appointed by God. This race is not accidental,
friends. And our course is not accidental.
It's designed by the sovereign hand of God. Though it's hard,
it's necessary. Believer in Christ, let us not
then mind or envy the race of the
wicked. That's a temptation. You that
run in this race, when you look at the wicked and you see how
smooth their path is, how often do you envy it? He said, fret not thyself of
evil doers, nor envy them. Envy their way. They'll be cut
down. That's what David told us. In
Psalm 37, they're going to be cut down. Don't envy them. Run
your race. that's set before you. Endure
your race set before you. And secondly, when you look at
other believers, do not envy their race. That's what Peter
did, didn't he? Our Lord said, look, Peter, they're
gonna take you, and they're gonna take you to a place you don't
wanna go. They're gonna kill you. Peter said, what about John? And Jesus said, you don't mind
John. You run your race. What if I want him to live till
I come back? What's that to you? You follow
me. This race is individual, friends. You follow Christ. Don't mind other people's races.
You know what, you think you can endure their race, but if
you had their race, you probably couldn't. They run it and they make it
look easy. but their race is probably harder than you could
possibly fathom. Don't envy each other's race
and each other's course. Run the race that is set before
you. That's what the scripture said, let us run the race that
is set before us. Believer, let us see that our
wise and all-knowing Father has set our course and let us run
our race, endure our race, and remember, This whole book of
Hebrews, I want you to understand again, the purpose of this book
was to encourage those struggling believers. These Hebrew believers
were tempted. They were tried to return back
to Judaism. They were tempted to reject the
gospel and go back to the law. And all through the book, he's
saying, hold fast your profession. Hold fast, hold fast, hold fast. Faint not, faint not. That's my encouragement to you,
believer. Don't faint. Don't quit. The way is hard. It's ordained by God. And I know this, that the mark
of true faith is this, all true faith will endure. All true faith,
you know, The apostle said this, he said, in Hebrews 10, verse
23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For he is faithful that promised.
You hold fast because he's faithful that promised. You hold fast. Saint of God, listen, don't quit. Don't turn back. Press forward. Hold fast to Christ. Cling fast to his word. He is
faithful who promised. All that he promised you, he
will do it. Hold fast. Don't turn back. Heed the warnings of God. I know
that you're tired. I know that you're tried on every
side. I know that you're tempted both
without and within to quit. You're tried, tempted by the
world, the family and friends, the lust of your flesh, all pulling
you in the opposite direction. I don't know, maybe I'm the only
one. Man, they are pulling me down to the earth. My flesh,
family, friends, all of them are pressing against us. Ought to do like Christian and
put our hands to our ears, run crying, life, life, eternal life,
eternal life. Don't listen. Don't listen to
anyone else. Believe on Christ and forsake
all. cling to him. Look at Hebrews
10 verse 38. Look at this. Look at what Paul
said here. He said, now the just shall live by faith. We're running
this race, we're gonna run it by faith. The just are gonna
begin this race by faith, they're gonna endure this race by faith,
and they're gonna finish by faith. The just shall live continually,
perpetually, constantly by faith. But, listen to this, If any man
draw back, if any man leave the gospel,
that's what he's saying. If you go back to the law, I've
seen men who made a, seem to make a good profession. And you
know what? One day they said, man, you know, I got to go to
the law. You know what that means? They
never in this race to begin with. That's not the race of the believer.
And this is the encouragement of Paul, but we are not of them
that draw back. We are not of them that draw back into perdition,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. I know the
race is hard. The valleys are low, the hills
are steep, the thorns are sharp, the sorrows are piercing, and
the way is long. It's full of snares and traps
and darts. Discouragements and pains, and
we are weighted down with the corpse of our flesh, but we must
endure. In John chapter six, the apostles,
you know, they were often confused. They just confused. They had 5,000 people. One day
had 5,000 people wanting to profess Christ. Imagine 5,000 people
coming here. 5,000 people, we couldn't even
fit them in this place, and they're holding out the door, waiting
for somebody to preach a gospel to them. You know what? Man,
stand up and preach a gospel, and the next day, all of them
are gone, and eight but 12 of y'all left. The Lord looked at them and said,
will you go away also? Know what they said? Where are
we gonna go? We got no place else to go. You
ever been there? You don't understand a thing
God's doing. You're just hurt, just full of
pain. You know what you say? I got
nowhere else to go. You know what you're doing? You're
running the race. You're running the race. That's
how we run, friends. We run by clinging to Christ
despite all the pains. And the mark of true faith is
continuance, isn't it? If your faith is, how do you
know your faith is real? I got no place else to go. And listen, if there's ain't
got no place I wanna go, I wanna Christ, I must have Christ. That's true faith. True faith
endures. Paul says in Hebrews 3, he said,
for if we may partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning
of our confidence steadfast to the end. You see the contingency
there? If your faith is real, you'll
hold fast Christ to the end. Only the elect, the called and
redeemed and quickened will endure. And our endurance is not the
cause of our salvation, Or even our faith is not the cause of
our salvation, but our salvation, our faith looks solely to Christ
as all our hope. But all who fall away, who continue
not to endure by faith, John said, they went out from us because
they were not of us. If they were of us, they would
have continued with us, but they went out from us that it might
be manifest that they were not of us. And so true faith endures. Now
how then, if you have true faith, how are we to run this race?
Now, listen, I'm gonna give these very quickly here. I know I'm
running out of time already. First of all, and I want you
to see how reasonable this is. If you're running a race, listen,
he said, lay aside every weight. If you're running a race, isn't
that just reasonable? These Olympians, you know, these
Olympians, you think the shorts that people wear now are short.
Those people stripped down all the way and ran their race. They didn't want anything to
hinder them at all. And that's what he's saying.
You got to throw away everything that hinders your faith in Christ. Lay aside every weight And I want you to understand
this, believer, this is going to happen two ways. You are either
going to willingly lay aside these weights, or God will strip
them from you. How do you know that? Well, I
have a great cloud of witnesses that went before us, and that's
exactly what happened to them. Abraham willingly left his home. He willingly offered his son
Isaac. He laid aside those weights,
anything that would hinder his faith in God. But think about
Job. Did Job willingly lay aside his
children? Did he willingly lay aside his
wealth, his self-righteousness? No, God must strip him of that. And so one of two ways this is
going to happen. We're either going to lay it
aside willingly or God's going to take it from us. But one thing
is true. We are going to lay these weights aside. We must
lay these hindrances aside. And it's just reasonable. It
would be foolish for a runner to lay weight on himself while
he's running. And so it is for us to take the
things of time and earth and put them on ourselves. To set
our affections on the things of this world is to do nothing
but to add weight to yourself. Philpott said this, I thought
it was wonderful and I keep it with me always. The hardest,
most painful wounds are always self-inflicted. How many of your wounds are self-inflicted? because you have taken on things
that God said to cast off, to lay aside, family, friends. What hinders you from worshiping
God? You ever been hindered from worship? What does it? Weights. You put on weight that
God says lay off, cast off. those things that would hinder
you from serving God and believing Christ. Cast off the riches of
this world, the things of this life, set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth. That's what he's saying, lay
aside every weight. Peter said this, seeing that
all things shall be dissolved, what manner of men are we to
be? If all of this is going to go away anyway, why are you paying
so much attention to it? Wouldn't you be able to run better
if you didn't have the things of this life weighing you down? You know you would. This is the
exhortation to runners. cast off every weight. Secondly,
lay aside the sin that doth easily beset us. The sins of this life,
lay aside. John said little children sin
not. Why? That's weight. What does
our sin do but put on the weight of guilt and doubt and fear? You remember there was a man
in Pilgrim's Progress called Little Faith. Old Little Faith, he was
right there at the gate, the dividing of the way, you know,
the straight gate and the broad way, and he fell asleep. And
these three men, guilt, mistrust, and faintheart, they came along
and they beat the snot out of him. They robbed him of everything
he had except his scroll. How often have we allowed, been
sleeping instead of running? And we've been beaten up by guilt,
mistrust, and faintheart. and robbed of our joy. Lay aside the sin that easily
besets you. Now, I know that this could be
any sin, but I want you to see that I believe it's not just
any sin, but unbelief. Unbelief. That is the root sin
that hinders every runner. If this race is to be run by
faith, then what hinders you? Unbelief. Unbelief is what hinders
us. Let us lay aside the sin of unbelief. If our salvation and evidence
in faith were left up to us to add anything to it, our strength
to finish this race, we surely might not believe we'd finish.
Now, if God left something for you to do, you might have read
that. But listen, he left nothing for
you. Who chose who? He chose you. He gave you to Christ. He made
Christ your surety. He made Christ your peace, your
high priest. For God hath made him to be our
righteousness, our wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. God made him
to be our salvation. The Spirit of God came to you
and quickened you in your dead nature and gave you life, gave
you faith. And the faith that you now have
is kept by the power of God. He left nothing for you to do. Why then would you doubt him?
I understand doubting you, but it's not about you. It's him. And so when we doubt, we're not
doubting ourselves, we're doubting Him. Our unbelief hinders us
from running this race. Lay unbelief aside. Why do we doubt? Why do we fail
to believe the promises of God who cannot lie? Why should we
trust in ourselves, trust in our weak and frail minds of corrupt
nature to trust in our works to help us to God? Why? That's
nothing but unbelief. And see for us to fail then to
run this race, he would have to fail. If all your salvation's on Christ,
and you fail, then who actually failed? He would. God said he shall not fail, nor
be discouraged. Lay aside the sin of unbelief,
and lastly, look at this. Here's how you'd run this race.
Looking unto Jesus. looking unto Jesus. The thing that has helped me
most about faith, I think Todd preached a message a long time
ago called Faith Now. And you remember messages. And
there are probably about ten messages in your life that you
remember from cover to cover, from start to finish. And that's
one of them I remember. But the main point of that message
was this. Faith in scripture is never past tense. It's never
future tense. It's always present tense. Now
why? Because faith ten minutes ago
and faith ten minutes from now will not help me. Faith now is
the only thing that matters. Do you believe on Christ? Well, how about now? What about now? What are you
doing? I'm running. That's how you run. You look to Christ for all your
salvation. And you continually look to Christ
for all your salvation. Because listen, he is the author
of your faith. Where'd your faith come from?
Who made it? You? Thank God, no. He's the author of my faith.
And you listen, he's the finisher of our faith. I'm gonna finish
this race. I'm gonna finish it because he's
faithful. You're gonna finish this race
because he's faithful. Nobody said it's going to be
easy. But the work's done. All our
running doesn't do anything to add to this salvation, does it?
He uses these things to make us grow. in faith. But truly, it's finished. I pray that Christ
would help us in this. Remember the cloud of witnesses.
You want to know how this thing's going to end? Look at all the
brethren who went before you. They endured by faith, so will you. If your faith is real, it will
endure. It will lay aside every weight. It will lay aside the
sin of unbelief. And it will always look to Christ. Because he's the author of it.
He's the finisher of it. And I like the end of that verse,
he said, and he sat down. He sat down. That gives me hope. In the midst of all of our trials
and troubles and pains, it gives me hope. Christ is my hope. I praise your hope.