Good morning. If you have your
Bibles, please turn to the book of Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Our subject this morning is going
to be on faith. The title of the message is The
gift of faith from Christ. We're going to evaluate Texas
verses 1-3, chapter 12. We're going to start there with
reading verse 1. God's written word says, Seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lie aside every
weight and the sin which do us so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us. looking unto
Jesus, the offerer and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endeared the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endeared such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds." He starts
out here in verse 1, he says, wherefore. Originally, the Bible
was not put into chapters, so for us to understand the wherefore,
we need to, if you would, turn back to chapter 11, and I want
to read verse 1 and 2. It says, is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it,
the elders attained a good report. What are the things that we hope
for? Every born again believer, God's elect, every one of us,
our desire is that one day to be in the presence of our Lord
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. and to be with Him forever. And
not only to be with Him, to be able to worship Him, and to praise
Him, and honor Him, and love Him with a pure, sinless heart. And that's our purpose. David
said in Psalms, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Now, you know,
where we stand at today, that seems like that's an impossibility.
But God's Word is absolute truth. It's absolute truth. And if you
will, if you have your Bibles, keep the place here and turn
to 1 John 3. This is the hope and the desire
of every believer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will come
to pass, because there is not anything in this world or in
heaven that can hinder the work of the Lord. It says here in
chapter 3, And this is such a blessing when we get into it. Faith is
such a blessing. It's a gift from God. A lot of
people think that that's something that they attain on their own,
but it's not. God gives us that gift to believe.
I thank Him so much for that. Listen to this. He says, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Wherefore, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Now listen to this. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not appear yet what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. for we shall see Him as He is. And that is such a blessing.
That is such a blessing. If you will, go back to your
text. Saving faith is a gift from our
Lord and it gives us confidence in God and in His Word. Faith is believing in God and
that is not only believing in God. There's a big difference
in believing in God and believing God. and his people believing. If you will, look at Isaiah 46,
verses 9 and 10. Verse 9. of Isaiah 46. It says, remember
the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
that my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. If you will, turn back to your Text, it says, we're foreseeing
we also are compassed about so great. A cloud of witnesses let
us lie aside every weight. and the sin that doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is before
us." You know, we say that this gift is a gift from God. If you don't care, if you would,
turn to Galatians 2.16. We're gonna see where we get
our faith from. A lot of people, as I said, they
think it's something that they do. We don't do anything for
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. But
in Galatians 2 verse 16, concerning our faith, it says, Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, but we might be justified, how? By the faith of Christ and
not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And then it says in Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and not
yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. So we have nothing, we have nothing
to boast about. Let's go back to our text in
chapter 12, verse 1. Wherefore sin we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lie aside every
weight and the sin that do so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. At the top of
my Bible here, it says examples of faith in the fathers of old
time. If you will, turn back to chapter
11, and we're gonna look at something right here. We're gonna look
at some of our fathers of old time. It says in verse four,
by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain. In verse 5, it says, by faith,
Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Verse 7,
it says, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. It says in verse 8, by faith,
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receipt for an inheritance, that he obeyed. And it goes on
and talks about Isaac and Joseph and Moses and David and Rahab. And in verse 13 here of chapter
11, it says that these all died in faith, not having received
the promises But having seen them afar off, and was persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. It's no different today. We are
strangers and pilgrims on the face of this earth. But these
people here, they were looking forward to the Messiah coming.
And they knew that in the Messiah that they had eternal life. The
Messiah is the same word as Christ. It's just in a different language.
And they were looking for him. But all of these cloud of witnesses
that he talks about right here, they're all of God's elect that
has went to be with God. Hebrews 11, 16 says, but now
they desire a better country. Don't we desire a better country?
They desire a better country that is heavenly. Wherefore God
is not ashamed to be called their God. For he hath prepared for
them a city, they have witnessed first hand, and they have seen
the power of our God, the mercy, the grace, the faithfulness of
our Lord. Now, if you will, look at verse
1 again in our text. It says, and let us run with patience
the race that is before us. It says, let us lie aside every
weight. What's he talking about here?
Anything that hinders our worship of God. and serving Him, and
praising Him, and spending time with Him. Anything is the way. You know, Paul often uses athletic
terms, and he considers the journey through this world for the Christian
as a race, you know, and we're there to keep our eyes on Christ
Jesus our Lord. We're to keep looking to Him.
This is probably a poor example, but I'm gonna, Tell my age here,
when I was a kid, I was raised on a farm. And we didn't have
tractors, we had murals. We put the harness on that old
mural, and his duty was to go from one end of that road to
the other. And when we put the harness on, we'd put one over
his head. And over his eyes, they were
cups of leather to where that horse couldn't see nothing over
here, nothing over here. Only thing he could see was the
end of the road. And that's what we need to do
as Christians is to keep looking to Christ each and every day
of our lives. He says that sin that so easily
beset us, we all have particular sins. The old man has not been
eradicated. We had the new man, but we still
have the old man, and we live in a world that's full of sin.
Sometimes we have sins that is harder for us, that causes a
greater temptation to us, but we are to lay those sins aside.
And then it could also be the sin of unbelief. But anyway,
the Lord gives us saving faith. That's why we are to keep looking
to Christ. He also gives us persevering faith. When I'm talking about
persevering faith, we live in a hostile world and there's things,
and we know this, there's things that we face every day that challenges
our faith. And Paul says, let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. And every day we have
to keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus. And what Paul's talking
about here is running a race of faith. And he gives a good
example of that in Philippians 3a, if you don't care to turn
over there. And we're talking about persevering
faith here. Beginning in verse eight, he
says, yet doubtless, and I count all things but loss. 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 and be found in him, not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. But 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
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I
had already attained, even were already perfect, but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Listen to this. 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 toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." If you will, turn
back to your text. Says, wherefore, sin we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, as their
sanctity went before us. Let us fly aside every way, that's
everything in this world that takes our eyes off Jesus. and
the sin which so easily beset us, we still have the old man
in us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Faith is looking to Christ at
all times, yesterday, today, tomorrow, the next day, every
day of our lives. We need him each step of the
way, each moment of the day, because as I said, we live in
a world that hates the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If
you would, look at Isaiah 45, 21 and 22. It says in verse 21,
Tell ye, and bring them near. Let them take counsel together,
who have declared this from ancient time, who have told it from that
time. Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior? There is none
beside me. Listen to this. Look unto me
and be ye saved in all the ends of the earth, for I am God and
there is none else. We'll go back to our text and
we'll read verse 1 and 2 again. Wherefore, seeing that we are
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lie aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience this race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who, for the joy was set before him, endeared the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Paul says in Romans 16 and 17,
for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For wherein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but
just shall live by faith. What does it mean here when he
says from faith to faith? What he's saying here is we go
from one degree of faith to another. It is so important that God's
people, that they grow in the grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to spend time with Him. We spend time
with Him talking to Him. That's in prayer. We spend time
Him talking to us. That's reading His Word. It's
so important that every chance we get to get under the preaching
of the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, that strengthens
our faith. We have two natures in us. We
have the physical nature, and then we have the Spirit of God
living in us. He's saying here that we go from
one degree of faith to another. Growing in grace, we need to
keep looking to Christ every day as our prophet, our priest,
our king, and our savior. As we live in this world, we
realize how fragile we are, and we're faced with things every
day. And the Bible says, put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to withstand in the evil day and have done
all to stand. But we realize that. And the
Spirit that's in us, He is our refuge. Christ Jesus is our refuge. He is our strength. And it says
that He is a very present help in trouble. It's important to
grow in faith. But there's one thing that we
must never forget, that it is not our faith that saves us.
It's not our faith that causes us, helps us to persevere every
day, but it is the object of our faith. And that object is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thank Him for that. But
faith comes from the Lord that saves us, and He gives us strength
to overcome the things that comes into our lives each and every
day. If you will, hold your place
here and go to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1, chapter 1, verses 8-12. This is Paul speaking. He says, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partakers. of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God, who have saved us, listen to
this, who have saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. He says, Weren't I appointed
a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles? Now listen to
this, for the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. I thank the Lord for His faith.
We'll go back to our text now. Looking unto Jesus, He is the
offerer, He is the sustainer, and He is the finisher of our
faith. And we must keep looking to the
person, the work, the sacrifice, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says for us to set our affections. Here's the reason he says this.
He says for us, because he knows. Job said, the man that's born
of a woman, his days are few and full of trouble. But the
Lord says to set your affections on things above and not on things
of this world, for we're dead to this world. And our life is
hid with Christ in God. And then right here in verse
two, he says, for the joy that was set before
Him. Christ knew the pain and the
suffering that He was getting ready to face, but it was a joy
for Him because He was going to redeem His people from their
sins. Christ Jesus is their substitute. All of our sins was laid upon
Him. And He stayed on that cross for
nine hours. And he went to the tomb for three
days. And God raised him from that
tomb the third day. And right now, he's sitting on
the right hand of God, making intercession for the saints. I thank God for that. We need
him every day. You know, we are so blessed. to know we have the Word of God
before us. We're so blessed to be able to
go to the throne of grace anytime that we want to. We're so blessed
to be able to go into the presence of the Lord. He say, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that has passed under the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hope after our profession. Not
only that, We have a high priest that has been touched with the
feelings of our infirmities. He knows what we go through.
He knows personally what we go through. And he tells us to come
to the throne of grace that we may attain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. And I don't know about you, brothers
and sisters, I need him every day. I need him every day. If you will, look at verse three.
It says, for consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your
minds. Sometimes in this life, we get
discouraged, we get tired. Sometimes we get overwhelmed
with things that we're faced with. And all we need to do is
just take for a moment and think about what our Lord went through
for us. None of us has suffered the affliction
and the shame and the hurt that He has. He endured it all, and
His Word is such an encouragement to us. If you would, one verse
that blesses my heart so much, whenever I get down and out and
I get discouraged, And some of you may do that, but when I get
discouraged and I get to thinking about the Word of God, get to
meditating upon Him, thinking about what He's done for me,
it lifts my spirit. Every time I do that, it lifts
my spirit, because I get my eyes on Him. And he gives us that
faith, and it's important for us to stay close to God. And
one of my favorite verses, I have many, and we all do, but one
verse I go to almost daily is this verse right here. And we
know that all things work together for God. to them that love him
that are called according to his purpose. It says all things. It don't just say all good things,
all things. It doesn't matter what we go
through in this life. All things work together for
the good. It's not a blanket list to every
son of Adam. It says to them that love God,
And that's a blessing to him. And I love what the Lord said
in Joshua. You know, I'm talking about persevering
faith here and going through hard times. It says, be strong,
be of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for
the Lord thy God is with thee, wheresoever thou goest. He's
right here in our hearts. And that's such a blessing that
gets us through, that gets us through the things that we face
in this life. And I thank God for his saving faith. If you
will, just for a minute, turn to Romans 8, and I'll finish
up. When we get down and out and
get discouraged and sometimes get thinking about leaving, we
got to remember that we live in a world that is full of Antichrist. and false teachers, and we live
in a world, this is not our world, we are pilgrims in a strange
land. But in verse 35 of Romans 8, listen to this, and this is
the absolute truth for God's elect, and let it sink deep into
your heart. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall cribblation or disgrace
or persecution or famine or nakedness or pearl or sword As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Now, in all of these things,
we are more than conquerors through him, Christ Jesus, that loved
us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. As we go through
this journey of our life, and we come down to the end of our
life, Paul said this when he was getting ready to be executed.
He said, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Not only
is it the hope and the desire of every believer to be with
Christ, to live with Christ, to be like Christ, but it is
also to die in faith. All of those people
that we talked about in Hebrews 11, they all died. but they wasn't like the ordinary
person. They died in faith and that faith was in Christ Jesus.
Their rest and their peace was in Christ Jesus and Him and Him
alone. I'm finished.