We're going to turn to Hebrews
chapter 12 this evening. Starting here in verse 1, it
says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed with so great a
cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin
that doth so easily beset us and let us with patience run
the race that's set before us. Seeing here, now he's referring
back to the end of the 11th chapter. We're not going to read all that,
but I would like you to look at verse 37 in the 11th chapter
when he's summarizing this hall of faith They were stoned, they
were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted and tormented. Of whom the world was not worthy."
Boy, that's a statement about the saints of God. This world's
not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and
in the mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these
all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the
promise. God having provided some better
thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
So seeing that all these worthies that have gone before us have
finished the course of faith here, he's saying, let us run.
Let us run. I love that. You know, we don't
lack any examples in Scripture for the life of faith. We don't
lack any examples. He calls it here a cloud of witnesses. That's what you have on the Old
Testament, people who endured all sorts of things, anything
that came their way for the sake of their God. Now, that's what
you see. These are folks that did not
have the light or understanding that we have today. Isn't that
amazing? See that here? God having provided some better
thing for us. We live on this side of Calvary.
We live on this side of the cross. We not only have the pictures,
we have the fulfillment. How much the more so should we
live this life of faith? And he says here, he's pressing
us here to an exercise of faith. Constant perseverance here and
patience under whatever we're called to endure in this world.
And that's what he says, lay aside. Lay aside every weight. Every weight. and run this race. You know, when men run in races,
and I, years and years ago, I used to do some running. It's been
a long time. But, you know, you never see people in combat boots. You never see anybody in a full
leather jacket. People that are going to run
in a race, they get down to weight. They get down to just what they
have to have to run here. They get rid of all the baggage,
and that's what he's talking about here. I'd love to just
be rid of all the baggage. And we're being told to strive
for that. You think of the worldly care
that comes your way every day. And what a load that has on you.
Worldly care. Ambition. Greed. My goodness, there's no sense
thinking you're ever going to run this race if you're carrying
that rock. Selfish desires in life here
and companions, you know, and especially sin. He says that
here. Lay aside the sin that doth so
easily beset us. Now, what does he mean the sin
that doth so easily beset us? Well, there are a number of things
that can refer to. It can be referring to just what
you are by nature, you know. The pastor talked about that
this morning. Paul talks about it in Romans
7. Let me read you this. You don't
have to turn there. Romans 7, he makes a few statements here,
talking about what he sees in himself. And, you know, I can
enter into this. I see myself as a failure. But
when I read an apostle saying something like this, he says,
we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal. I'm sold unto
sin. And that which I do, I allow not. But what I would, that do
I not. What I hate, that I do. If then
I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that's good.
Now, then it's no more I that doeth it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me dwelleth no good thing, not my
flesh." He goes on down here and he says, I find in a law
that when I would do good. There's a law that's present.
When I would do good, evil is present with me. There is a law.
Just as sure as the law of gravity on this earth. Man by nature
has a law that's in rebellion, a sinful old man. And of course, we need to lay
aside these things. We need to strive to mortify
our bodies, the deeds of the flesh. You know, and there's
a sense in which each one of us has what they call, they used
to call it a constitutional sin. Each and every one of us has
something that's particular to us that's a problem. But here
in this text, I don't think that's really what's being talked about.
I think he's talking about the sin of unbelief. The sin of unbelief. Unbelief, that's the sin you
can't run this race with. Now, the book of Hebrews was
written to Jews, and if you read this book, these people who have
been converted to Christianity, if you read this book, you'll
find out over and over and over again, the writer is bringing
up how much better Christ is than that Old Testament law.
He starts out by talking about God speaking in times past, but
here He spoke in these last days by His Son. And then he starts
talking about the angels, because the Jews had a lot of respect
for the angels. They were up on the top of that mountain that
day when the law was given. He says, there's one greater
than the angels that came. Unto none of the angels did he
ever say, you're my son. He never said that. That first
chapter. You go on, you know, they reverenced Moses. Paul starts,
whoever the writer of Hebrews was, starts talking about the
fact that this one is greater than Moses. greater than the
temple, greater than the Old Testament priesthood. Aaron and
all his sons could not touch this one who would come after
the order of Melchizedek. And all the Old Testament sacrifices,
all the pictures that you see were all fulfilled in this one.
And when he talks to these folks about laying aside the sin that
does so easily beset them, he's talking about the tendency they
had to look back to that religion that they'd come from. The reverence
they had for those things. The reverence for Moses, that's a besetting sin. A tendency
to look back to the law, to the rituals of religion as any kind
of hope. And that's what this epistle
is all about, the superiority of Christ to all these things.
And he's telling these men, don't you ever turn back. That's what
he means. And you know, we have the same
problem. We grew up, many of us grew up in religion. And we
have a tendency to turn that direction. To turn that direction. To give some credit to all those
things. We have a tendency, just like
these men, to unbelief. And what unbelief am I talking
about? Unbelief about this. Christ alone. Christ only. The pastor said that this morning.
Do you believe that what happened at the cross is all you need
for salvation? Do you believe that? Do you ever
find it hard to believe that? Do you ever find yourself turning
back away from that notion? No, I'm telling you, Christ alone,
Christ only, Christ is all. And that's what He means here.
And you can see that because the next verse He tells you to
lay aside this sin and look at the first phrase in verse 2. Looking unto Jesus. What's his
point? Looking unto Jesus. Looking unto
Jesus. Nothing else. Nothing else. Looking unto Jesus. Laying aside
the yoke, the weight of the law, anything. Anything. Carrying
anything other than this. Just looking to Him. Not looking
to your works. Not looking to your experience.
Not looking to your feelings. I'll tell you, as a runner years
ago, I found something out. You can't look to your feelings.
You ever ran very hard? You'll reach a point where you've
got to run through the pain. You just can't look to your feelings.
And here, he's telling them, looking to Jesus. And this word
looking here is only used one time in the New Testament. And
this is it. It means fixed. It means focused. It means tunnel vision. Blinders. Looking unto Jesus. That's exactly what that means.
Looking to Him as the only object. My one, lone object as I go through
this life and run this race. This One who is called the Author
and the Finisher of the faith. I love that. You know, it's not
natural for you to believe I've heard people talk about faith
as if it were something similar to... I've heard them say, faith
is like walking into a room and you know that when you flip the
switch on the wall, the light's going to come on. Oh no, oh no.
Faith isn't natural. Faith is a God-given gift. It's not natural. It's by the
grace of the Spirit that we've all been led to believe. That's
what you were quoted this morning at some point in time, for by
grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Christ is the author of our faith. He is the one who starts this
race. We start this race looking to
Him. I don't care how good a runner
you are, you're not in this race if you're not looking to Christ,
to looking to Him alone. And here in this text here, we
start by looking to Him. And we run our entire lives looking
unto Jesus. That's the way it is. Having
begun in the Spirit, will you be perfected in the flesh? Are
you going to add anything? I was reading this week in Ecclesiastes,
and it says, Whatsoever the Lord hath done, He's done forever.
He can do it forever. You know, He made the heavens
and the earth in six days. When He got done, it was done. It's not been anything created
since then. You say, well, there's been a lot of changes. We've
got a lot of buildings. There's not a building on this earth
that didn't come out of the ground He made. All the glass and all
the windows came from that sand. And all the brick and all the
mortars came from that dirt. We have added nothing to what
God created. We've done a few things with
what He made, but we've not added anything to what He created.
And I want you to know, They're on that cross when Christ said
it's finished. It was done. And we haven't added
anything to that. We just haven't. We never will. A few things can be brought up as a result of that,
but it's all in Him. It's all in Him. It's all His
doings here. I love this here. Looking unto Jesus here. And
this looking unto Him means life itself. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. Life itself. He's to be trusted
from the very beginning to the very end. Charles Spurgeon said
this. He said, you begin your life
in Christ by looking to Him as a sufferer. That's exactly how
you begin. By seeing that bloody substitute.
Bearing your sins. And you persevere in life by
looking to Him as a victor. That's how you persevere in this
life. The death of Christ was our death to sin. The life of
Christ was our life unto holiness. The shame of Christ was our shame.
And the triumph of Christ is our triumph. Now that's a fact.
We're looking to Him from start to finish. triumph in looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ here. And it tells us something about
Him. We look to Him as our pattern here and motive. Listen to this.
This one who, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him. He had a joy
that was set before Him. What's that referring to? It's
talking about the glory that lay ahead. It's talking about
the salvation of His people. His determination to save His
people and the glory that lay ahead caused Him to run this
race down here, the race that we witness in the Scripture.
And we run this life also with the same object, the glory of
God and the salvation of His people. That's why we're put
on the earth. Do you realize that? I know we
go through life and we make money and we raise our families. But
I'll tell you, when your child believes the gospel, You'll find
out why you were here. There's nothing to match this.
There's nothing. We run this race trying our best
to glorify the Father as our Lord did, who came into this
world and the first words you hear Him say is, no, you're not.
I must be about my Father's business. And the last things you hear
Him saying just before His death is, Father, I've glorified You
on the earth. And that, my friends, that's the One who is our pattern
in this race. Our pattern in this race. He's
a pattern also in motive here. Listen to this. And in endurance,
listen, He endured the cross. He endured the cross. What have
I ever endured? The ocean. The ocean of suffering
that He endured And I've never had more than a few raindrops
on my head. He endured the cross. And listen
to this attitude he had. Despising the shame. Now what's
that mean? Despising the shame. It's as
if he laughed at every hard thing that was said about him. He just
despised the shame. He thought little of the taunts
of men Ridicule, insults, beating. You see him there being beat
as a lamb, silent. Suffering without emotion. All
sorts of indignities for the glory of God, for the salvation
of His people. This one in the Bible, this one
who is my Lord, was absolutely, invincibly meek. I'm meek and
lowly. That's how he described himself. And you know, we make so much
when we go through anything. When we go through any sort.
Somebody says something about us, we shouldn't be that way. That's
what he's talking about here. Our example despised the shame. Didn't think anything about it.
when men spoke evil of him. And listen, this perseverance.
And he continued and he sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. He didn't stop running until
race was done. That's the pattern here. Never
stopped running. And we're not too either. We're
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now
listen to this. For consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds. That's what I was just talking about. You think you've
got trials and tribulations. You consider him. You consider
him. Take a look at him. Who endured
this contradiction of sinners. Study this one. And boy, I tell
you, you study him and look at him. You won't be weary. You won't
be weary. Paul says in Romans 8, 18, I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time. You know that
word reckon there is actually, it's a mathematical word. He
says I've taken all the math and I've added it all up. I've
come down to the bottom. I've drawn the line. I've summarized
it all and put the number down and I've reckoned. that the suffering
of this present time is not worthy to even be compared to the glory
which shall be revealed in us. Boy, I tell you, when we go through
hard times and let it get us down, we don't really realize
the greatness of what it is to be a son of God. Do you understand
that? It's inconceivable. It's not
entered the minds of men. The glory that lies ahead for
His people. And you've not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. You see that in verse 4? You
may have taken a little scorn. You may not have the prestige
you want in life. You may not have the respect
you've always liked or thought you were worthy of. You've lost
it for the gospel's sake. But you haven't yet resisted
unto blood. Anybody here ever bled for what he believed? No, not happened. Our Lord did. And you think about these early
apostles. I believe every one of them died violent deaths except
for John. You've forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
to him." You've forgotten. You've forgotten that everything
that you endure here is for your good. That's what he's saying.
You've forgotten. When you go through trials and
tribulations, I want you to understand, God Almighty does not love you
less. He doesn't love you less. for
the trials He puts you through. And we're not to lightly esteem
these things and we're not to refuse to submit to them. This
correction, that's what he's talking about, this discipline.
Verse 6 says, for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. He scourgeth
every son whom He receives. I grew up in a neighborhood up
north there and it always amazed me, it seemed like there was
kids in the neighborhood who could do anything and they never
got in trouble. You know what I'm talking about.
Every one of you have known people like that. And when you're young,
you assume that means, boy, they've got great parents. No, they didn't. You know, you spare the rod,
you spoil the child. And Scripture talks about such
people as hating their children. They hate them. They love themselves. They don't want to be bothered
with the responsibility. of correcting their children.
They don't want to be bothered. They don't want to get up from
the TV set and have to deal with it. But I'm telling you, the
Lord's not that way. He's going to chasten and scourge
every child, every son He receives in His house. No exceptions.
Revelations, He says there in Revelation 3.19, I'll read it
to you. As many as I love, I want in on that. I want in on that. Revelation 319, as many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. I want in on that. For if, verse 7, you endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the Father chasteneth not? Can you come up with any son
of God that the Father chastened not? He chastened His own Son.
His only begotten Son. How much the more so, just you
and I. He chastens His people. We all take part of this. And
you know what's going on. He's working the grace, the grace
of humility in our lives. The grace of love. The grace
of patience. The grace of faith. And I want
you to know, He is going to wean every one of us from this world. You can't love. You cannot be
a friend of this world and love Him. Now, I'm just telling. You're never going to serve God
and mammon. And if you're happy here, if you find your joy, all
your joy in this life, it's a bad sign. It's just a bad sign. He's weaning us from this world,
my friends, and He's making us like His Son. Now, that's the
good news. He's making us like His Son.
Verse 8 says, if you be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then you're bastards, you're not sons. That's what
I was saying a few minutes ago. Oftentimes, the ones who do not
get any rebuke have got no real father around. You know, if life's a bowl of
cherries with no problems, and it's all been one big game all
your life, you've never been rebuked, You've never felt any
shame. You've never had a belt laid
on your rear end. You're in trouble. You're in
trouble now. You're just not a son. That's
what this is saying. You're not a son. Let me tell
you something. You know, we used to sing this
song, Every promise in the book is mine. You remember that old
song? Every promise in the book is mine. Let me read you a promise
in John 16.33. Here's a promise. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. Peace is in me. In the world
you shall have tribulation." Now there's a promise. But I love this. Now you think
about this. In the world you're going to
have tribulation. That's a promise to you. And yet he says, be of
good cheer. How can that be? I have overcome
the world. That's it. All my hopes in this
One who's overcome the world I'm going to have tribulation
here. I'm going to go through it here. You're going to go through
it here in this world. But you be of good cheer. You
rejoice because Christ Himself has overcome this world for us.
I'll tell you. And peace is found in Him. That's the point. Verse 9 says, Furthermore, we
had fathers in our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence. Well, I'll tell you, in my house
growing up, you had better give reverence. When I was young, I was a young
fellow. I got a paper route when I was about eight years old.
I've been working since I was eight years old. And my dad came in
one day, walked in and he had a wallet. It was a cheap wallet.
You remember those old things that were laced up with plastic
around them, you know, with cowboys and stuff on them. He gave me
this wallet and he pulled a dollar out and he stuck it in there. Now, he knew I had money from
my paper route. He put that dollar, folded it up, and I still do
a thing like that in my wallet. And he said, that is your emergency
dollar. Now, back then, you could go
a long way on a dollar. I could be over 10 miles away
from the house needing to get home, and I could go down to
the Rexall Drugstore, stand on the corner, pick up a bus, and
go down Route 6 and drop me off. I could do that for less than
$0.50. Probably buy something to eat. So, Dad did this so that
I would always have my emergency dollar. Now, it was a wonderful
idea, but he didn't tell me at the time what his plan was. He
walked in a few months later, came in and sat down. As I walked
through the house, he said, got your wallet? I said, yeah. He
said, let me have it. I pulled it out. And I can't remember what it
was. It may have been the call of
the old Twinkies and a knee high or whatever. My emergency dollar
was gone. Now I'll never forget when he
opened that wallet and that money wasn't there. The shame. The fear. And boy, you know,
he gave me every reason to fear him. And you know, I was just so stupid
that I would go back and Six months later, he'd ask for that
emergency dollar, and I'd end up getting whooped again. But to this day, I've got emergency
dollars, you know? You're going to learn. You know,
my father was trying to teach me something, but I want you
to know the Lord Jesus Christ ain't trying to teach you nothing.
You're going to learn. You're going to learn. You're
going to learn. We reverence these fathers we
had here on this earth. We submitted to their will. We
accepted their correction. Look at this. Shall we not much
rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? How
much the more so should we be in subjection to the Father of
spirits and live? You know, I obeyed my dad out
of fear. But this is talking here about
being subject to him and having life itself from it. You're going
to live from this subjection. He's bringing this to pass. You're
going to live His correction. Acknowledging His wisdom in this
world. Acknowledging His wisdom in what
He does in all the affairs of your life. The providence of
your life. Everything is working together
for the good of them that love the Lord Jesus Christ. You write
her down. You acknowledge that wisdom,
my friends, and be subject to His mind and to His will. It means life to you. It means
life. Oh, what a text. My goodness. For
they verily, verse 10, we're comparing these heavenly things to these
earthly things. They verily for a few days chastened
us after their pleasure. They did what they did for a
few days. And I'll tell you, all that I
learned from them I'm only going to be able to use for a few days
because I'm living a short life just like you are. It's a vapor. It's passing away. I'm glad that
the wisdom He gave me and He worked to give me is something
I've got now. And I plan to use it for these
few days. He chastened me for a few days.
But I'm telling you, it all was according to His own pleasure.
But this one who we deal with, but He for our profit that we
might be partakers of His holiness. It's not just for His pleasure.
It's for our profit that He rebukes us, chastens us. You know, my
dad, as I talked about him a while ago, and your mothers and everybody
here relates to this, I got a lot of spankings I probably didn't
deserve. And I got a lot of spankings,
I didn't get a lot of spankings when I did deserve them. But
that was due to ignorance. Wasn't always done for the right
reasons. You know, I used to get a whooping if my little league
game team lost, you know. My father, you know. He didn't
know my frame. You know, the Scripture says
the Lord knoweth our frame. My father didn't know my frame.
I'm not an athlete. I wouldn't have gotten whooped
like that if he knew I wasn't an athlete. But I want you to
know, He, the Lord, always corrects us wisely. He does know our frame. He always corrects us, now you
listen to me, justly. Justly. That's why you can say, Whatever
my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it's well with my soul."
I'm telling you, it's because He corrects His children justly. He's not like us. He's not like
us. It's for our profit to make us partakers of His holiness.
What's that mean? To make us like His Son. To make
us like His Son. Now listen, no chastening for
the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. You see that there
in verse 11? This is one of the main problems
with today's religion is I hear these people and you get the
impression that believers are supposed to go through life with
a big smile on their face, just as Henry Mahan used to say, happy
all the time. But it's just not that way. Chastening
is never supposed to bring that to pass, you know. I'm probably
not the only person this has happened to, but chasing, that's
not the effect of chasing. You know, as I was talking about
being punished when I was young, years and years ago they used
to have these stupid toys. It was a paddle with a little
rubber band and a ball on it. Do you remember those? The paddle
was red and invariably the rubber band would break and you were
left with the paddle. Well, my mom got a hold of that
and she called it a red hot paddle. And guess what that was for?
And when I was real young, that worked. But you know, when a
guy gets 13 or 14 and mama hits him with that red hot paddle,
do you know what a guy will do? He'll turn around and smile.
Just smile at mama. That's a mistake. Why is that a mistake? Because
that's not the right response to chastening. And there are
bigger and better means and mama will find them. And my friends,
that's exactly what I'm saying. No chastening for the present
seems joyous. We don't go through life when
we're going through these trials with a smile on our face, happy
all the time, hoop-dee-doo and a skip in our step. It's just
not that way. It's just not that way. The Lord
chastens. You can expect there to be some
time when you're not all that happy, but you listen. Nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth. the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby." There's fruit from
this. No real reason for you to be
smiling all the time, but at the same time, there's no real
reason for you to be absolutely despondent because God Almighty
is working in you and He's producing fruit in what He's doing. The
peaceable fruit of righteousness. So look at verse 12. I'll try
to be brief here. Wherefore, lift up the hands
which hang down and the feeble knees. I love that. Stand up
straight. How often have you heard that?
Stand up straight. Don't just go on drooping through
this life here. with your hands hanging down. That's talking about your shoulders
being sloped. And knees. He says your feeble
knees. He's talking about picking up
your feet. Have you ever seen someone really so despondent
that their shoulders are down and they're just shuffling? He's
saying just don't go that way. Believer, just don't go that
way through this world. God Almighty loves you and what
He does, you just be confident of this, He does for your good.
His eternal glory and for your good and sake. You've got to
keep that in mind. He's faithful. Great is His faithfulness. His love towards His people never
changes no matter what the circumstances are. I am the Lord, I change
not. And that's the reason you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. That's the only reason. The only
reason. So don't go limping through this
life. And listen, verse 13 says, make straight paths for your
feet. Simplify your life. Oh my. Simplify your life. I love that
verse. That's what he's saying. Make
a straight path for your feet. Not just you, but for everybody
else. Encourage one another. Encourage one another to be faithful. Encourage one another to look
to Christ, to trust Him only. Encourage one another. That's
what he's saying here. To be of good cheer, whatever
may be coming our ways, to trust the Lord in every providence. Encourage one another. Make straight
paths, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. You and I can't heal each other's
problems. If a man has a bad foot, he's
got a bad foot. You can't heal his foot. You
can't heal my foot. If I'm dragging through this
life and I've got a foot that won't move right, I can't heal. That can't be healed by you.
But I'm telling you, what's he saying? He's saying, get the
rocks out of that guy's way. That's what he's saying. Remove. Make straight paths for your
feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." Clear
the rocks off each other's courses. We can't give each other new
legs, but I'm telling you we can do what we can to help all
the Lord's tried ones. Just try to clear the way for
them. That instead of being turned out of the way, what's that say?
Let it rather be healed. Maybe the Lord will be pleased
to heal them. Keep them from just shuffling
through this life with their arms down. Maybe the Lord will
be pleased to teach them to look to the Lord Jesus Christ from
start to finish. To trust Him. Have confidence
in His wisdom. I'm telling you, the older I
get, the more convinced I am that He knows better than I. That's it.