Hebrews chapter 12. I want to
just read the first four verses of this chapter. Hebrews chapter
12 and beginning in verse 1. We're going to speak today of
running the heavenly race. Running the heavenly race. 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
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 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 you be
wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto
blood striving against sin. Run in the heavenly race. Sometimes
in the scriptures you'll see that the Christian, the believer,
is sometimes depicted as being in a race. A heavenly race. Paul talked about it in the first
chapter of 1 Corinthians 9. He talked about they that run
in a race run off. And said run that you may obtain. Run that you may obtain. Of course
there is a difference in why we run our races as opposed to
why People run races on this earth. Paul said when they go
to run down here in this world, they run a marathon, or they
run the track, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. They want a blue ribbon, or they
want a trophy, or they want a check, or they want to see their name
in the paper. But Paul said, we that run this
heavenly race, We do it to obtain an incorruptible crown. An incorruptible
crown. And when Paul talked about finishing
his course, he said, I've finished my course, and there is laid
up for me a crown. An incorruptible crown. A crown
of life. A crown of righteousness that
never fades away. An incorruptible crown. And there's
another thing about running this heavenly race. Paul said men
who run races down here, just one gets the prize. They've got
one trophy for first place. Everybody else has to take the
lower steps, don't they? Just one winner. But you know
what Paul said about this heavenly race? Everybody that's in this
race gets the crown. Everybody in this place gets
a crown of righteousness. He said it's laid up for me in
that day, but not for me only. But for all of those who are
in this race, all of those who are running this heavenly race,
there's laid up a crown of righteousness running this race. Now, I don't
know very much here about this first portion of verse 1. that
we have this great cloud of witnesses. I would imagine it means one
of two things, or may mean two things. But Paul said those who
have gone before us, all in the Old Testament, they're witnesses
to us of how to run the race. They ran by faith, they ran by
patience, and they finished their course. They're a witness to
us of how to run the race. You know, you and I, we look
back in the New Testament, and we look down through the history
of the New Testament church, and how many can we put our finger
on and say, there's a witness to me of how I'm to run this
race. We look back at Abel, and he
ran his race by faith. And Noah ran his race by faith. And Abraham, and Sarah, and all
of those in the Old Testament. Paul, and John the Baptist, and
Peter, and James, they've all finished their race. And what
examples they are to us. They're witnesses to us of how
to run the race. And look over here in chapter
13. And look in verse 7. I was reading this verse yesterday,
and I thought of dear Scott Richardson when I read this verse. What
example that he was to you and to me who knew him. He says here
in verse 7, Remember them which have the rule over you. They
are your pastors. They are your teachers. They
have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering
the end of their conversation, considering their end. And I
thought about dear Scott as I read that verse. What a witness he
is. Lived to preach. Lived to preach. He is the one that I first heard
that phrase, and I just quote it myself. I don't even give
him credit for it anymore. I've quoted it so much, I just
quote it like it's mine. But I'll think of him now every
time I mention this phrase. I heard him say one time, he
was preaching on, they shall see his face. And one of his
points was, when they shall see his face, they shall worship
him with undimmed eyes and an unsinning heart. And that's what
Scott's doing this morning. He's ran his race. And he's a
witness to us on how to run. this race. The end, look where
he is this morning, considering the end of Scott's conversation. I don't know, as I said the first
portion of verse 1, we're surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses.
I don't know if they're just a witness to us of how to run
the race, or they're actually witnessing us as we run our race. Maybe both. I don't know. I don't
know. But let's consider this morning,
just for a few minutes, this heavenly race. First of all,
I want to consider this. I want you to notice the course
itself. Notice the course itself. And
notice how the apostle here uses this in the last portion of verse
1. Let us run with patience the
race that is set. Did you notice that? Let us run
the race that is set. One version says, let us run
the race that's marked out. And the Amplified said, let us
run the appointed course. So when you and I think about
a race, what do we think about? If we think about running a marathon
that is down in the cities someplace, or if we're running cross-country
or we're running track, the runner doesn't mark out his own course. He doesn't just begin to run
in any direction. But the course is already marked
out. It's already set, not by the
runners, but by somebody else. And the writer here is telling
us that this heavenly race, this course that each one of us runs,
is already marked out. It's already appointed. And who
does that? Who is it that marks out a man's
course? Who is it that sets the markers,
the starting point and the finishing line? Who does that? Well, that's
God Himself. That's God that sets the course.
He sets the finish. He sets the starting point. And He marks out the course itself. Everything that's in that course,
the hills and the valleys and the streams, the difficulties
and the obstacles, and the straight places, the smooth places, He's
already set that. He's marked that course out.
And the finish line, He's marked it out. You see, you're here
this morning and you're in the race, but you didn't set your
race. You didn't mark out your course. I don't mark out your
course for you. The church don't mark out your
course. Our dear forefathers with all
their commentaries, they didn't mark out our course. God marks
out the course. See that? It is a set, set Run
the race that's set for you. The Lord said this in Isaiah
42, I will bring the blind by a way that they know not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. We don't know what's over the
horizon, do we? We don't know what's around the
next corner. We've never run this course before.
But God knows. You see, because He said it. And He says, I'll lead them,
I'll guide them, and this is what I'll do. I'll make darkness
light before them, and I'll make crooked things straight, and
these things I'll do, and I'll not forsake them. He's marked
out the course that you and I are running this morning. The starting
point, the course itself, and the finish line. All of this
is already set, it's appointed, it's marked out for each and
every individual. Not just for the prophets, not
just for the imminent saints, but for everybody that's upon
this race. John the Baptist had a course
to run, and who set his course? God set his course. Paul had
a course to run. And who was it set his course?
He said, I'm appointed an apostle. I've been chosen to be an apostle. The Lord set my course. He said,
it's mine. I finished my course. But he
didn't set it. He didn't mark it out. You and
I don't have that prerogative, do we? That's God's business. That's our Lord's doing. So first
of all, there's a course and it's set. It's settled. Secondly, let's consider the
runners themselves. I was talking with Brother Donnie
this week. I saw him there at Scott's. And I was talking with
him. And he's a runner. Brother Donnie
Bell is a runner. Runs 60 miles. Ten miles on his 60th birthday.
He's in good shape. Looks good. And he's ran some
marathons. And I was asking him about the
marathons that he was running. And there's two things about
these marathons, these big marathons. And he said he had to be pre-registered. He got on the internet and he
had to put his name down and send it in. If you get down there
in some of those races, there's a limited number of people that
can run. They've got room for only so
many. And if you get down there and
you give them your name and your ID, and they don't have your
name pre-registered, you can't get in there. You can't get in
the race. You've got to be pre-registered. You ever go to vote, and when
you vote, you walk up there to the lady sitting there and to
the man? And the first thing you do is give them your name.
And you show them your ID. Then they look on their book.
Is your name here? Are you registered to vote? And
if you're not registered to vote, they won't even let you see the
book. You'll have to leave. You're disqualified, you see.
Now what am I saying? Well, I'm saying this. If you're
in this race, if you're in this heavenly race, You've been pre-registered. Your name has already been put
down on the book. And you didn't pre-register it.
It wasn't you that got on the internet and sent your name in,
and you didn't send it in by snail mail. Your name was on
the book long before you had a being, before time ever was. You were chosen to run this race. You remember when the Lord had
struck Paul down south on the road to Damascus, and Paul was so guilty, didn't know
what to do. He had been so deceived by his
own heart and the devil, that this Jesus was indeed the Christ,
the Son of the Living God. sought to do many things against
him. Oh, how could I have been so wrong? How could I have been
so deceived? And he didn't know what to do.
The Lord went over there and appeared to this disciple by
the name of Ananias and said, you go over there to tell Paul
that he's a chosen vessel to me. This is the course he's going
to have to run. He's going to be an apostle,
a preacher. This is what He's going to do. That's what He's
going to do. But He's already a chosen vessel to me. I have
put His name down to run this race. He's already registered. Look here in Revelation chapter
17. Old Hebrews chapter 12. Look in Revelation chapter 17. If you're in this race this morning,
or you ever hope to be in this race, it's because your name has already
been put down on the book. It has. That's not to discourage
anybody from getting in the race. That's just fact, isn't it? That's
just fact. Look what he says in Revelation
chapter 17. And look in verse 8. The beast
that thou sawest was and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and shall go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder," look at this now, "...whose names were not written
in the book of life." When? From the foundation of the world. There's a book. And in that name,
In that book are all the names of those who have ever ran this
heavenly race, or ever will run this race. They're in that book. And God Himself put them there.
Before there was anybody, before there was any runners, He put
them there. Brother Donnie said something
else about the marathons that he ran, and it was this. He said,
When you got there on race day, you had to sign in. You had to sign in. You go there
and you tell them who you are and probably give them your ID
to prove who you are. And they give you a little packet.
He said they gave him a shirt and some other stuff. And they
assigned to him his number. His number. But he had to sign
in. He had to put his name down on
that dotted line. My name is Donnie Bell. I am
now entering this race. See, you can't go down a couple
of miles on a 10 or 12 mile course and hide behind a bush and sneak
in when nobody's looking. You've got to come out and right
in the face of the person who is registering you to race, and
you've got to say, My name! And here's who I am! And here's
the proof of who I am! And you've got to do it right
out in front of everybody. You can't get secretly in this
race. You remember that old publican
there in the temple? When he was smiting on his chest?
and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. You know what he
was doing? He was registering for the race.
He was signing in for the race. Who are you? I'm a sinner. I'm the sinner. That's what he
said. Are you sure? You got any evidence that that's
who you are? I'm a sinner. I'm the sinner.
I'm the only sinner. I'm a sinner by birth. I'm a
sinner by deed. I'm a sinner by choice. I'm the
sinner. That's the way we get into that
race. We spell it out, don't we? We
write our name down. Sometimes it's hard to read because
we write it with a broken heart. It's written out with a hand
of repentance. I'm a sinner. It's dipped in
Emmanuel's blood and written in red. I'm a sinner saved by
grace. We confess with our mouth the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's nobody in this race,
nobody in this race who has not openly put his name down on the
register, confessing that I'm now entering this race. Put my
name down. I'm going to run this race. Right
here is where I begin. And there's my name. You're in
the race, or you're in this race. Is your name on the book? Has
God put it down on your behalf? And have you signed underneath
it with a broken heart? Have you told this world, Christ
is mine? And I'm now following him. Are
you trying to sneak and get in halfway down the track? And run
on to the finish line. Old Pilgrim was on the road to
the Celestial City. And he had gone a long ways.
He had got through the wicked gate. He said, put my name down.
I'm going through that gate. And he got through the gate and
went a long way towards the Celestial City. And his path went by this
wall. And he had some of these men
come tumbling over the wall. They didn't get in the gate.
They climbed up some other way, but they didn't last. They didn't
cross the finish line. You've got to start, see. You've
got to start where God says start. And there's where we put our
name down. And there's where we have our number assigned to
it. Sinner saved. Sinner saved. And there's where we begin to
run our race. Consider this now. Consider the
running itself. We've got the course that it's
set. We're pre-registered of God. We've signed our names to
it ourselves. We're openly in this race. Now
let's consider the running itself. In verse 1 he says, Let us lay
aside every weight. Let us lay aside every weight. Weights. Weights. Oh my, think of the weights.
In verse 3 he tells us that These weights are weights in our heart.
Weights of the mind. Weights of the soul. Lest you
be weary and faint in your mind. See, this is not a race that's
so much about physical. It doesn't have hardly anything
to do with the body. Just to keep it under subjection.
But this is a race that we run in our hearts. And think of the
heart weights. Think of the weight that's upon
our souls, our conscience, that sometimes weights us down. The weight of anxiety. Oh, ain't
that a weight? Anxious, weary. I talked with
a lady just last week, and I hadn't talked to her 15 seconds. And
I knew, boy, she's got that weight. She's had a weight that she's
carried for years, and how it's hindered her from running. She's
carrying a weight and a concern of her daughter that's given
her all kinds of trouble. And she's been carrying it for
a long, long time. Anxiety. Wary about her daughter. What is some weights? Oh, look
at our cares. Look at our sicknesses. Look
at our trials, our troubles that we have. Cares about our heart. Cares about our body. Family
trials. You ever have any family trials?
Boy, ain't that a weight. Man, that's a weight that will
get you down. That's a weight that will weigh up over your
heart that you can't hardly run. I mean, it's so heavy that your
heart's beating hard and your lungs are burning and your legs
are aching. You just can't hardly run the
race. Family trials. Weights. Aren't you glad the
Scripture says here, lay them aside? Let us lay aside every
weight that would hinder our running. Sometimes we think that
if we'll just worry hard enough, and if we'll worry long enough,
then we should surely affect something. But what does it affect? It affects nothing but our running.
It just weights us down and binds us to this earth. That's all
it does. Lay aside every weight. Don't you love that passage that
says, casting all your care upon Him? For He cares for you. You've got a weight. You have
a care. Are you anxious? Are you worried? Are you concerned?
Are you anxious about tomorrow? Are you anxious about yesterday?
Are you concerned? Cast your care upon Him. Roll that weight right upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Take no anxious thought for your
life. Not even what you're going to
eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear, who
you're going to live, if you're going to have a job, Take no
anxious thought of that. Oh, we burdened our young people
down with, you've got to get an education. We just want to
drive that home and drive that home and drive that home. And
even at an early age, we burdened them down with the cares of tomorrow. Lay aside all of that. Lay it
aside. Tomorrow will take care of itself. The Father knows what you have
need of. And He'll provide your need according
to His riches in glory. Free yourself from trying to
secure yourself in this lifetime. Lay it aside. Lay it aside. And run with patience the race
that is set before us. And notice this. Don't only lay
aside the weights, but lay aside the sin which doth so easily
beset us. You know, if you're going to
run a long marathon, you can't pack a bunch of stuff with you.
It'll wear you out. You'll finish the course, but
I tell you what, it'll take you much longer. You'll wear yourself
out walking, and you can't run. Lay aside the sin Sin. Sin. Oh, how deceitful sin is. I tell you, it can come to us,
and it can appear so virtuous, and we brag about it, and all
the time we were wrong. Peter said, Lord, though everybody
else forsake you, I'll never forsake you. Oh, didn't that
sound like such commitment on his part? I mean, Peter is sold
out. He is resolved. No matter what
everybody else does, He will never stop following them. But
what was that? Could that have been sin? Could
that have been presumptuous? Could that have been somebody
leaning to their own understanding? That's what the Lord told him.
Peter, you're going to be the very one to deny me. You boast
of being the strongest, but you're the weakest. Before the cock
crows three times, you're going to deny me. Boy, it was Peter
who said, lay aside all malice. Lay aside all hypocrisy. Lay
aside all envyings. Lay aside evil speakings. Has evil speaking ever beset
you? Have you ever spoken evil about something or somebody?
And boy, it got you down. I mean, sin got a hold. It was
on your trail. And it finally got in your heart.
And it came through your mouth and it got you down, didn't it?
It beset you. It tripped you up. That's the
way sin is. Lay aside every sin. It's the
characteristics of a runner to always be watching against sin
and laying it aside. Lay aside sin, the sin of unbelief. Isn't it a wonderful thing that
the Lord commands us not to doubt Him? Lay aside the sin of unbelief. Stop doubting Him. You say, oh,
but I'm looking at myself. Then stop looking at yourself.
It's not about you. It's about His faithfulness.
It's about His ability. Stop doubting. Stop unbelieving
the Lord. Lay that aside. And never doubt
him again. And notice what he says about
running. And I think this fits in here
very well. It shows us that these writers
didn't just haphazardly write what they wrote. He's just been
talking about laying aside the weights and the sins. And then
he says, run with patience. If you're going to lay aside
sin, you're going to be patient. If you're going to lay aside
the weights, then you're going to have to exercise some patience.
Run with patience. This word means a cheerful endurance,
a steady and active persistence. You just keep on keeping on.
You know, you meet a young Christian, and I thought about this myself,
and I bet every one of you thought about this. When the Lord first
saved you, you thought you was going to sprint right to the
finish line. Is this going to be, I mean,
boy, you left, your heart was beating rapid, and your lungs
were sucking in the air, and boy, you was ready to get it.
And you took off real fast. But what do you think about it
now? You look back on it now, and
what's the two words you used to describe your running? Patience
and faith. What's got you this far? Patience
and faith. Faith and patience. Waiting on
the Lord. Paul said, be followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises. No, it's
not a sprint. Boy, it's not a sprint. It's
a long race. And sometimes it's a difficult
race. And you find yourself waiting. I mean, you know where the spring
was up there. But when you got there, it's
dry. And you had to suck it up and
endear to the next frame. You was going up the hill of
difficulty and you thought there was a resting place on this steep
hill somewhere, but you didn't find one. And what did you do?
You just had to keep on endearing and endearing. and endure it
until you've got to the top. Patience. Patience. Run with
patience the race that is set before you. When you've been
clinging to a promise and it's not fulfilled, what
do you do? You wait. And you pray. And you believe. And you hope. You hope in God's ability. You
hope in God's faithfulness. And you patiently endure. Run with patience the race that
is set before you. You and I, as a little congregation,
we've been waiting patiently, haven't we? We've been waiting
patiently. We all know what we want. We
all know what we want God to do. And we've been praying to
that end. And we haven't seen it yet. But
you know something? We're going to wait on Him. We're
going to wait on Him. And we'll keep on running with
patience. Until He hears. Until He answers. If He's pleased.
And if He will. Now He tells us in verse 2, and
this is so important. If we don't get this, then we're
going to err, certainly. We're going to fail to realize
what I've been saying all along. Because how do we run? How do
we run with patience? How in the world can we lay aside
these ways? How can we lay aside sin that
helms us and bothers us and troubles us? Here's what he says. Look
at this. Looking away to Jesus. I've got a little Greek book.
I can't read a word of Greek, but it's a little translation
of how it's literally written. And I've looked in that history,
and this word says, looking away to Jesus. Don't you love that?
Looking away from what? Looking away from your weights.
Looking away from your troubles. Looking away from your cares.
Looking away from your heartaches. Looking away from your trials.
Looking away from your unbelief. Looking away from your sin and
your doubts and your fears. Looking away. To who? To Jesus. To Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. Look at this.
Who is the author? That is, He's the leader. That's
what that means. He's the leader. He's the commander. Notice this. He has run the course
before us. That's what He did. He is the
author, the leader, and the finisher of the course. And where is He
now? He is set down on the other side
of the finish line. Now, some people look at this
and say that He's the author and the finisher of our faith.
That's so. That's so. He begins faith in
you and He upholds faith in you. That's so. But I don't think
that's what The writer is teaching here. Here he's encouraging us
to run. And how he's going to do that
is saying, look to Jesus. Look at Him. The man, Christ
Jesus. He came here and He ran this
course Himself. And He finished it. And look
where He is now. He's seated at the right hand
of the throne of God. He tells us here in verse 3 to
consider Him, meditate upon Him, think upon Him, and about the
course that He's run. And He tells us some things about
Him. In verse 2, look what He says. He endeared the cross. Now think about this. The course
that our Master ran was a course where He had endeared The crucifixion. He had been up all night. They
arrested Him. We're told they smote Him in
the face. They plucked out His beard from His face. They took
Him down in the judgment hall and they whipped Him. They falsely
accused Him. They took Him to the cross and
pierced His hands and His feet and He hanged there in darkness
and in agony until finally He gave up the ghost. You and I
have never resisted to blood, haven't we? Well, He did. He did. I've never poured out
my blood. I've never sweat drops of blood
thinking about the cross. I'll never be crucified and you
won't either. But He was. That's the course
He ran. You think we got it tough? No,
consider the leader. Consider Him that ran the race
before we ever got in it. And He endeared the cross. Despising
the shame, the embarrassment and heart-wrenching shame. And you know something? It wasn't
His shame. It was our shame that He bore
in our stead. Our embarrassment. The shame
of what? The shame of our fall? The shame
of why the cross was necessary to begin with? Why was it necessary
that He should go to the cross? Because we have fallen into sin. And what about the sin? Has sin ever embarrassed you? Have
you ever felt so ashamed and naked? What about Him? Thou hast known my shame, he
said. What shame? He took our sin.
The shame of guilt that he felt upon his holy conscience. And
he despised it. Oh, he hated that. He didn't
want to take our sins. He didn't want to feel the shame
of that. It wouldn't have been natural for the Son of God to
do that. Father, if there be any other
way, let this cup pass from me. Not my will, but Yours be done. Oh, the shame of God refusing
to even look upon him. Shame. Oh, the shame he felt. He said,
I hate this. I hate this. I hate this sin
that I've taken. I hate the shame of it. I hate
the guilt of it. He despised that. But there was
no other way. No other way. Oh, man is proud,
ain't he? Man is so boastful. He's so arrogant. He thinks he's somebody. He thinks
he can do something. He thinks he is something. He
thinks God owes him something. Then go there to the cross. If
you and I want to see what we are, then go to the cross. And
there hangs the Son of God in shame. And it's not His shame. It's our shame. And He despised
it. And look what He says in verse
3. He endeared the cross, despised the shame. And look here what
He endeared. He endeared the contradiction of sinners. The
opposition of sin against himself. He said, I and my Father are
one. And they said, nah, you're not. You're not that. You're
just like we are. We know who you are. You're Galilee. You're born in sin. You're the
carpenter's son. We know you're brothers and sisters.
Don't tell us you're one with God. We know better. He told them it was His prerogative
to have mercy upon whom He would. Remember that? He said there
was a widow, a Gentile woman. And Elijah went to live with
her. And God fed her. And passed by all those other
women. Many widows. But he chose to have mercy upon
this one. There were many lepers in the
days of Elisha, but only one was healed of his lepers. And
he was saying, I will have mercy upon whom I will. And you know
what they said? We're going to kill you, buddy.
We don't like this discriminating mercy you're talking about. We're
going to take you out and cast you over a cliff. Opposition. Opposition. He yelled on the Sabbath day,
and they were angry with Him and called Him a lawbreaker. And when He was on the cross, they contradicted Him. You say
you're the Son of God? You trusted in God? Okay, let's
see you come down from the cross. Opposed Him. And who did this? Who did this? Who stood in opposition
to the Son of God? Who was it opposing Him and contradicting
Him? Sinners. Sinners. Men who were deserving of hell
were contradicting Him who came down from heaven. You're not
who you say you are. You can't do what you say you
can do. If you are, prove it to us and we'll believe you.
People are that way today. Oh, if there is a God, if there
be a God, why is this happening? If there is a God, why don't
He do this and why don't He do that? You think that changes
who He is? It done a bit more change Him
today than it changed Him back then. It doesn't. It doesn't. Let God be true in
every man of life. It doesn't affect him at all.
He is still the same Christ, still the same Lord, immutable,
unchangeable, Jesus Christ. And what did He do? He endeared
it. He endeared it. I came to do
the will of Him that sent me, and He never ceased until He
cried out, He endured it, didn't he? He
endured it. And verse 2 tells us that during his running, he
kept his eye on the crown of accomplishing the purpose of
God. He kept his eye on the finish
line, you see. That's what the Apostle is getting
over to us. The Lord Jesus Christ kept His
eye on the finish line. He didn't let these things bog
him down and weigh him down. Contradiction of sinners, the
shame, the sin. Who for the joy that was set
before him. See where he had his eye? On
the finish line. The joy that was set before him.
Redeeming his people. That's what his joy was. Someday, when He would gather
His elect people, His redeemed ones, around the throne and say,
Father, behold, I and the children. That was the joy that was set
before Him. And He kept His eye on the crown. Looking away to Jesus, who has
run the course ahead of us. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, He ran the course at its worst. It's easy now for us. Oh, we
can't compare to the course when He ran it, can we? Listen to
this. He crossed the deep gorges in
the dead of winter. In the deep snow. He forded the
rivers when they had ran over their banks. He ran the course
when the mud was thick and deep and the hills were slick. He went through the desert when
there was no oasis. There was no relief stations.
There was no water. He ran the course when there
was no witnesses cheering him on, the jeering him. He looked for encouragement and
comforted, but there were none when he ran his race. There was
obstacles thrown in his way. There was mockery attended his
running. And yet he endeared it all and
finished his course. And where is he now? He's on
the other side of the finish line. And he's restful. And he's safe. And he's peaceful. Look in a way. Look in a way. And looky there. Look at him.
Look at him sitting there. Look at Him as He runs His course.
But look at Him as He finishes and sets down, restful and joyful,
waiting until you and I finish and being with Him forever. Look
at Him. Look at Him. What does it mean to us who are
now in the race that the Lord Jesus has finished the course
already? Well, it means this. There is
nothing on our course that we'll face but that He's already faced
and overcome it. His feet has already felt the
bottom of every river that you and I will cross between here
and our finish line. You'll see His footprints in
the deepest of snow. You'll still see His lingered
breath on the coldest of days. You'll still see in your darkest
hours a reflection of the light where He's already been. And
the river of death at the end of our course will be easily
and quickly crossed. There's no boogie traps on our
course. There's no sinkholes that's going
to swallow us up. How do we know that? Because
one has already gone ahead of us and run the course. Removed every danger, every death
trap. And now we're safe and running.
And you know what bogs us down sometimes? We're not looking to Him. You
know why we let these weights get us down and pull us down
to this earth? Where we can't run, we're not
looking to Him. You know why we're sad? You know
why we're lonely? You know why we're troubled in
our soul? We're not looking to Him. Look away. Look away. Look yonder. Where Jesus, the blessed Son
of God, who has finished our course, is now sitting. And you'll see if your race don't
get easier. Let's pray. Oh, our Father, gracious
and wise and good Father, thank you, Father in heaven, merciful,
merciful Father, for sending the leader, for sending the captain
who has gone ahead of us, run the course, removed all the death
traps, all the sinkholes, filled them up, removed every boogie
trap that would pull us down, and made the course certain for
us. Even a delightful course when
we look unto Jesus. Oh, Lord, what an example You
are. Not only a Redeemer, and an effectual
Redeemer, but one who has began and ran and finished the race. We thank you this day, this Lord's
Day, for allowing us to open your Word and seek through much
weakness, much infirmity, to preach your Word to others.
And may you be your own interpreter this day We pray nothing but
what your will may be. Take your word, which is spoken
through much weakness, and use it for your eternal glory and
the good of everyone who has gathered you this morning. Thank
you for this, dear people. Thank you for their presence.
Thank you for their friendship and their fellowship. Grant us
our daily bread. Thank you for the ladies who
have prepared this food for us. In Christ our Lord's name, Amen.