What a day, glorious day that
will be. Good singing. All right, go back to Hebrews 12. There's a verse I thought of
in Job. Let me read it to you. Something happened to me. It
says, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep
falleth upon men and slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth
the ears of men and sealeth their instruction. It doesn't happen
very often, but sometimes it happens that I'm awakened by
a verse of Scripture. And this one awakened me in the
middle of the night. And I love it when that happens.
And I could not get it off my mind. I had another message prepared. But I took this as being from
the Lord, speaking to me through His Word. That's the only way
He speaks. He doesn't speak except through
His Word. And I began meditating on this
and was greatly blessed. And I hope you will be. Look
at verses 1-3 again. seeing that we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every
weight and sin which 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, For the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising or thinking nothing
of the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinner against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
mind. He says, we are compassed about
with a great cloud of witnesses. It's called a cloud because if
you were to gather together all the people and look at them from
a distance, it looks like just a sea of people, a cloud of people. Witnesses. A witness is someone
who's heard something, and seen something, and will tell you
what they've heard and seen, what they've experienced firsthand.
Like Peter said, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We beheld His
glory. And there's a great cloud of
witnesses, of people, millions and millions of persons just
like us, no different than us, who have heard His voice, heard
His Word, He's heard His truth. He's revealed Himself to them.
They believe God. They've heard Him. They've experienced His mercy,
experienced His grace. They've beheld His glory. And
they have experienced His salvation. People just like that. Chapter
11, the reason we read that, is full of names. And we have
looked at every single name. In fact, we've been in that chapter
more than any other. We've looked at it more than
any other because it's almost a summary of the whole Old Testament
in it, just chapter 11 alone. Sixteen names are mentioned and
it says all of them passed through. They went through every conceivable
trial and affliction and trouble that we can go through and God,
by grace, brought them through. He brought them through. They
were sinful like us. They were weak like us. They lived in a
sinful world like us. They were fearful. They had their
doubts. They were just like us. But God, in His great love and
mercy and grace and goodness, they all passed through every
trial, every trouble, every tribulation that we go through. Much, much more than we. Were
you struck as we read the last part of this chapter? Were you
struck with me what all they went through? Unless great persecution comes
upon us, we're not going to go through things like that. So
he's telling us that it doesn't matter how deep and how tough
the Lord brought them through it. Look at verses 13-16, chapter
11, verses 13-16. These all died in faith. They all died in faith. We often
wonder, don't we, I hope I die in faith. Well, they all did. They didn't receive the promises,
but they saw them afar off, and I believe we do, don't you? We're
persuaded of them. Can you say with Paul, I know
whom I believe and I'm persuaded. Can you say that? And embrace
them. Do you love what we're doing
right now, what we're reading, what you're hearing? Embraced
the promises and confessed. Do you confess this? There are
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They said, we don't belong
here. We've grown, as Paul said in
another place, like the whole creation, we've grown waiting
for the redemption, the wit of our body. Can you say that? Strangers and pilgrims. They
that say such things, verse 14, declare plainly they seek a country.
And truly, if they were mindful of where they came from, where
they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But if you'd have asked Abraham, Abraham, would you like to go
back to Ur? Oh, no. Rather dwell in a mountain
with God. Now, verse 16, they that desire
a better country, that is, that is heavenly, wherefore God is
not ashamed to be called their God. He hath prepared for them
a city. Is that true? My favorite verses,
perhaps, are verse 24. Moses. I love that story. By faith, Moses. And see if this
is you. When he was come to years, he
was about 40 years old, come to some maturity, he refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He could have been
somebody. He might have been the next Pharaoh.
But he said, no, I don't want that. I would rather, verse 25,
suffer affliction with the people of God, wander about with the
people of God, than to live in Egypt. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness."
He said he esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches and
the treasures of Egypt. Do you? Oh, he knew the reward was great. What's that? What did the Lord
say Abraham's reward was? He said, I'm your reward, Abraham. Is that you? Verses 33, and following
these, who went through such horrible, horrible trials, stopped
the mouths of lions, swords, women were tortured, My, my. Cruel mockings. Verse 36. Scourgings. Imprisonment. Stoned. Tempted. Slain with a sword. Wandering
around in goat skins. My, my. That's why it says the
world is not worthy. Living in dens and caves. Verse
39. They all obtained a good report. They were all accepted
in the beloved. That's a good report. When they
got to glory, our Lord said to them, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world." They all did. How? By faith. By faith. By faith. Do you believe, and this chapter
started with Abel, and that was by design. Abel brought blood. Do you believe that there is
one way to come to God? No. Do you believe like Enoch
that you have a desire to walk with God, to talk with God, to
commune with God? Does He speak to you? Have you
been warned like Noah? Do you fear God like Noah? Do you see the need to be in
an ark, you and your family? What about Abraham? He says,
Abraham, believe God. He's counted on Him for righteousness.
Do you believe God? I didn't say believe in God.
I mean believe God, believe everything He said. Do you? Then you will
obtain, have obtained a good report. You too are accepted
in the beloved. And when you die, you'll die
in pain. And you'll hear the Father say,
come, inherit the kingdom. So verse 1, that's why it says,
wherefore, seeing we are compassed about, compassed about, often
wondered, and you have too if our brethren can see what's going
on here, I don't think so. I don't think there's a need
for that. But the angels of God, perhaps
there are chosen ones who are chosen to be guardian angels. That would be a wonderful way.
Like the one who came to John on Patmos. He said, I'm one of
your brethren. He didn't know who it was. But
nevertheless, we're compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses,
and he says, so let us lay 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. A race. Now the reason he calls
it a race is not because we're racing against other people.
Generally, in a race or some kind of contest, you're racing
or competing with other people. This is not the case at all.
But it's a course that is set. It's called a race because it's
a course that has been set for every one of God's people. feet in this path. Okay? And He says it for us to run
this course, or this race. Run. Because it's urgent. Run. Run this race. Time is short. My, my. It's just getting shorter,
isn't it? The older you get, The years
seem like months now, don't they? And the months seem like weeks,
and the weeks seem like days. They really do. The older you
get, you think, where did the summer go? Where did that year
go? It's just a vapor in. Because
time is so short, and he says, run. Flee from the wrath to come. This made me think of Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress. And I went back and read the
first page. If you don't read the whole book again, just read
the first page. It says there was a man, clothed
in rags, with a book in his hand and a burden on his back. And he was crying because of
this burden on his back sin. And he wanted to run, but he
didn't know where to go. An evangelist came to him and
said, what's wrong? He said, I'm afraid this burden
is going to sink me down into hell. And I've been warned to
flee from the wrath to come. Flee from this city I live in.
It's a city of destruction. And so the evangelist said, see
on Wicket Gate? He says, no, I can't see it.
He said, will you see the light? Just follow the light until you
get to the gate. He said, I do. I see the light.
So he says, he ran. He ran. Ran. Let us run. Flee from the wrath
to come. Flee from this city of destruction. This is not an allegory. This
is real. The Lord spoke of destroying
this world more than anybody else. And he cannot lie. But the promise is, all those
who flee to him, all those who come to Christ, will be put in
the cleft of that rock when the overflowing scourge of his wrath
comes by. So he says, let us run with patience,
because this is not a a swift race per se, but it's
an endurance race. The old song is not to the strong
is the battle, not to the swift is the race, but to the true
and the faithful. Victory is promised through grace. We're to run with patience. This is a course that is set
before, but run nevertheless. Run. Make haste. And he says,
let us lay aside, verse 1, every weight and the sin, which does
so easily beset us. Every weight. Don't carry a... well, when you run in a race,
You don't carry heavy objects. You don't carry heavy weights. They will bog you down and you
will easily tire and you will quit before you finish. Our Lord
spoke of the cares of this world that burden us now. The deceitfulness
of riches. And accumulating these things
and keeping these things takes great effort and time, and they
make us tire of the things of God. Let me read this to you
by Brother Mahan. If you ask me what I fear most
for me and for you, I fear and tremble when I see spiritual
indifference and weariness with the things of Christ. when I
detect a lukewarmness toward the gospel. The Word of God in
spiritual books and literature are not read. Worship services,
Bible studies and fellowship with believers are neglected.
Interest in others hearing that gospel and coming to Christ begins
to wane. More attention is given to our
houses and lands, farms and jobs, entertainment, fleshly pursuits
than the matters that concern our soul. Our knowledge of Christ
becomes a thing settled instead of a relationship that is sought.
This Christian race becomes a Christian rest, our ease. Spirit of humility
of being less than the least gives way to pride, self-interest,
hurt feelings. Sweetheart love for Christ and
the things that concern Christ begin to decline. Our comfort
is no longer a person, but a profession only. Brethren, if we grow weary
in what little bit of spiritual atmosphere we have here, we're
never going to reach heaven. If we tire of Him who loved us
and gave Himself for us, When we hear of Him only three or
four hours a week, how could we endure endlessly throughout
heaven His voice and singing and praising? If we'd rather
be in the company of the world than in that blessed company
of the believers and redeemed, it's most likely we'll be lost
forever. Lay aside. The weight, every
weight, these burdens, these things that would bog us down
and keep us. And the sin, it says, that so
easily besets us. Now, I believe the sin that all
of us are so prone to is unbelief. We are flesh, and so we are so
prone to believe what we hear around us and what we see. rather than what God has said,
and we haven't really heard that we have, and what God has shown
us by the eye of faith. We're flesh and we hear, well,
look what's going on. Don't believe what you see and
don't believe what you hear, but rather believe God. And this
unbelief, Scripture says if we don't believe, we won't be established.
Unsettled and shaken by every win and everything that comes
along. I've got to bring it up. My wife and I were talking about
this upcoming election. Our God reigns. It doesn't matter
who's in office. That's just a fact. Ask Elijah. when Ahab ruled and Jezebel. Ask Isaiah. He lived through
about six or eight kings, most of them wicked, except Hezekiah
and a few others, a couple of them. Don't let it unsettle you,
okay? Trust God. Believe God. You know what? He's already determined
who's going to reign. He's already determined. He's
determined before the world began. Go ahead and vote, but the Lord's
already determined it. So, rest. If we don't believe,
we won't be established, strengthened, and settled. And faith comes
how? One way. Hearing His Word. If
we're looking at and listening to the words and the news of
men more than God, we've got very little faith. We'll be shaken. But if we're listening to and
seeking a word from Him that we might be established in this
faith, come what may. Come what may. It'll be alright. Stand it on
a rock. Come on. Faith comes one way,
people. It comes one way. Be like the
pilgrim who's running out of that city. He put his fingers
in his ears. Life, life, eternal life. Abraham
believed God. Why? Because he was always walking
with God. He was a friend of God. He was
always talking to God. James told us, didn't he, draw
nigh unto God. Abraham was always walking and
talking with God. He was always worshiping, wasn't
he? He had strong faith. Oh, he failed. Yes, he's a sinner.
But for the most part, he had strong faith, didn't he? Lot didn't act like he had any.
What was Lot doing? Living in Sodom. Accumulating,
accumulating, accumulating. Living for his family. Living
to please his wife. Living to please his children.
Living in the well-watered plains of Sodom. Making a living. Making
a life. He about lost his life. Didn't
he? Lot got caught up in Sodom. He
did lose his wife. His wife perished. See, her heart
was inside of her. Our Lord gave one of the most
dire warnings, three words, remember Lot's wife. And we live inside
of her. Lot should have believed God
and should have laid aside all that stuff. All that stuff that appealed
so much to him should have packed up his family and left Sodom
and gone back to where Abraham was in the mountains, shouldn't
it? That's where he began. Well,
that's the sin that does so easily beset us. Unbelief. We look at
all around us. We look at the deceitfulness
of riches and so on and so forth. Unbelief. He says, oh my, lay
it aside. Believe God. Trust God. And for
each of us, there are besetting sins. For each of us. Something you struggle with more
than I do. Something I struggle with more
than you do. And you know what it is. Don't you? Lay it aside. Be done with it. Be done with it. Lay it aside.
Man, this is a run with patience, a lifelong race, an endurance
race. He that endureth to the end. How then? How can we do this? It's a tough race. The human
race is a tough race. And how? How can we do this? Verse 2. Looking. Looking unto Jesus. The author
and the finisher of our faith, looking unto Jesus. Now why does
he call him Jesus? Very seldom in Scriptures do
the apostles just refer to our Lord as Jesus. But he does here. Why? because He's the God-man,
because God became a man and we're to look at Him, our substitute. He's the author and the finisher
of the faith as a man. There's nothing that gives me
more comfort and more peace than thinking about our Lord living
as a man. There was a man, What was his name? Moore. Preached the message back way
years ago, there's a man in glory. Do you remember that? None of
us will ever forget that message. There's a man in glory. He just
talked about the manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived just
like us. A man. Go back to chapter 1 real
quickly. Chapter 1. Our substitute, a man. There's
a man in glory. And that means I can be there
too because of Him. Chapter 1, verses 1 through 3,
God at sundry time and divers for different matters spake in
time passed unto the fathers by the prophets. He has in His
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, by whom also He made the world, who Christ, being
the brightness of His glory and express image of His person,
upholding all things by the word of His power." Sounds like John
Wanda. when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high."
Our substitute. Purged our sins. We can be with God someday because
we have a substitute. Chapter 3. Just look through
real quickly. Chapter 3, verse 1. Holy brethren,
partaker of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle. and high
priests of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him
that appointed Him, as Moses was faithful in his house. Chapter 4, verse 14. We look at Him as our great high
priest. Chapter 4, verse 14. We have a great high priest.
You know, people feel like they have a need to confess their
sins to men, these earthly priests. Well, it won't do you any good.
But we have a great high priest who will put away your sins if
confessed. And he's passed into the heavens.
That's where he is. He's not sitting in a little
dark booth. He's sitting in light, the Son of God. So, verse 15,
we have not a high priest cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmity in all points, tempted as we are without sin,
so we can come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy to find grace to help in time of need. He knows. Our great
High Priest knows us. He was made in our likeness.
Chapter 9. Let's look to our substitute. Look to our High
Priest. Look to the Lamb of God. Look at chapter 9, verse 11.
Christ is come, a high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption." Not blood of bulls
and goats, but the blood of God's Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. You've got to read verse
26. Christ would have had to suffer from the foundation of
the world. But now, once in the end of the world, hath He appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment. But Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look
for Him and look to Him shall He appear the second time. Let's
look to the Lamb of God. Let's look to our Savior. Chapter
12. We just looked at that. It says in verse 2, that He,
for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, went
to the cross. You know, the only reason our
Lord said in the Garden, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. He wasn't wanting to be kept back from the cross,
going to the cross. That's not it. But he was sweating
blood at the thought of being made sin and being separated
from God in the garden. And right there, we looked at
that. I remember he said, if it be possible, let this cup
right now. I'm going to die from this. I'm going to die right
here in the garden. He was so being burdened with
sin. And he did. The Lord brought him through
that. But here it says, for the joy,
I said before, Endured the cross. With joy. He did it with joy
in his heart. Knowing full well what must be
done to save his people. He willingly, even gladly, even
joyfully, he said, with great desire have I desired to eat
this Passover with you. He went through 33 years of toil
such as we will never know. of suffering and then went to
the cross, something we'll never know, went to the cross and laid
down his life for his people, and he did it with great joy. Great joy. Knowing that... Would you be put to shame? It
says, despising the shame. He was hung there naked and put
to shame, but it says he didn't think anything about it. Why?
to keep us from being put to shame. Would you endure shame
to keep her from being put to shame? Sure you would. And that's
why our Lord thought nothing of it. So we
can come boldly looking to the author, the finisher, the high
priest, the substitute, our mediator. Look at verse 2. It says, at
the right hand of the throne of God. Let's look to our Sovereign
Lord and our King. Don't go to Egypt. Don't look
to Pharaoh or Pharaoh-ess or whoever is in
power. Don't look to them. Look to our
Sovereign Lord because He is the One who is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God. He is the One that owns this
whole He's the one that rules this world and everybody and
everything. He's the controller. He's the
sovereign over all. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Is there any request too great?
Can you ask Him too much? I know you heard what Isabella
told us one time. Her mother kept telling her she
was getting too much, getting too much of something, too much.
And finally she found something she loved. She said, I want too
much. I want too much. I tell you people, I need a lot
of grace. I need a lot of grace every day. And you can't ask
for too much. He giveth more grace. And He
doesn't upbraid. He doesn't upbraid. Let's look
to our example. Look at verse 3. Consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Everything
they said against him was false. Every accusation was false. All
the witnesses were false. Everything they said about him
was a lie. Not about us. Spurgeon used to
say, Don't get too upset with what people say about you. Just
be glad they don't know it all. Right? Just be glad they don't
know everything about you. Consider him. He endured this. Why? Because that's what God
put him through. He didn't murmur. He didn't complain. He didn't defend himself. He
forgave. He forgot. He was long-suffering. He was patient. He was kind.
He was merciful. He considered everybody's frame.
Consider Him. Lest you be weary. Lest you be
weary and faint in your minds. Oh my, how He suffered. Oh my,
what He went through for us. It says in verse 4, You haven't
resisted unto blood, striving against sin. He did. Whose sin did He strive against?
Habba. So, we're surrounded by a great
cloud of witnesses, people just like us. They're no stronger,
no better than we are. They're sinful, weak, and frail
sinners just like us living in a sinful world with all the trials
and tribulations, even more. that we go through, and a great
cloud of witnesses of the grace and the mercy and the goodness
of God and the power of God and the truthfulness of God and His
promises that you can rely on. And so let us lay aside every
weight, these things. We're running a race. We're so
foolish to let vain things Get a sidetrack like Pilgrim. He
left the path into by-path meadows and he thought he was lost forever.
Don't do that. Look straight on. Look not to
the right hand or the left. Look in on Jesus. Look at Him. He wasn't taken up with anything,
was He? He wasn't taken up with anything.
Food and raiment, the cause of God, the cause of Christ, the
people of God, the kingdom of God. Look, consider Him. And look unto Him lest you be
wearied and faint in your own minds. Okay, stand with me. We are weak. We are sinful. We are prone to wander. We are so taken up with so many
things. Lord, we want to do what You
have told us to do here. We want to run this race. We want to lay aside every weight
and the sin of unbelief especially. We want to believe You and trust
You. And every sin that besets us, O Lord, presumptuous sins,
secret sins, we want to lay them aside. Lord, and we want to have
our affection set on things above where Christ is, looking unto
Him. We want to consider Him, meditate
on Him, walk with Thee, O Lord. O Lord, with man it's impossible,
but You say it, with God all things are possible. You said
we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So,
Lord, enable us to truly look to Thee, call upon Thee, walk
with Thee, talk with Thee, and speak with us, Lord. Speak to
us through Thy Word. Speak to us through the preaching
of Thy Word. Oh, Lord, help us. Let us not
be weary. and faint and fall out of the
way. Keep us by Thy grace, we pray, looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in His name we pray and
ask these things that are met here tonight. Amen.