Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 for
a few moments. Men have what they call today
the Hall of Fame. There's Kentucky Hall of Fame,
Sports Hall of Fame, Military Hall of Fame. Hebrews 11 is the
Lord's Hall of Fame. believers, men and women who
believed God down through the centuries. I left off the last
time I preached at Hebrews 11, 28. I want to read, beginning
with verse 29. By faith they passed through
the Red Sea, as by dry land which the Egyptians were saying to
do, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were encompassed about seven days. By faith, the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when
she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more
say? Time would fail me. to tell of
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, also, and Samuel, the
prophet, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, Out of weakness
they were made strong. When I am weak in myself, I am
made strong by faith in Him. Waxed valiant in fight, turned
to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised
to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection
hall taking us on a visit through this hall of faith. He names
many, many, many of these believers, but not all of them. He says
in verse 36, and others, unnamed, unknown, only by God. I know my sheep, he said. I know
them. Matters not if others do not
know them, I know And others had trial of cruel mockings and
scourgings, gave over bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned,
they were sawn asunder, they were tested, tempted, they were
slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Verse 38, Of whom this world
was not worthy. What does he mean by that, of
whom the whole world is not worthy of these believers, these men
and women of faith? Well, John felt that way in the
presence of the Lord Jesus. He said, and he's quoted in all
four epistles of all four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, whose shoes I'm not worthy to
bear. And the world, the world made
up of the proud and the famous and the intellectuals, they are
not worthy of these people. That's what he said. They are
not worthy to bear the shoes of these who believe God. Another
thing he may mean by this, of whom the world is not worthy,
is the whole world is not worthy of one of his shoes. The whole
world is not worth one of his people. And then over in, I found
the scripture in Isaiah 57, I want you to look at here in reference
to these people. Prophets of God, preachers, believers,
elders, and others, just look, the believer,
man or young person who believes God, in his day, who believes
God, like Enos, who walks with God, who looks to Christ, who
is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, who is willing to
stand and be counted for Christ's sake, willing to die for whom
he believes and what he believes. Well, it comes time when they
do die. These all died in vain. They all died, they died believing
in God, they died trusting him. And the world is not worthy of
them. They are in the world for a time, and like our Lord, the
world knows them not. He said the world knows you not
because the world didn't know me, and they don't know him that
sent me. But Isaiah 57, verse 1, says,
"...the righteous perish, the believer dies, the prophet dies."
and no man lays it to heart." When God removes each one of
his faithful people, believers, not many people take notice of
it or think anything of it, or move much by it. Well, he's
dead. Yes, he is. The righteous perish
and no man lays it to heart. No man really sees the significance
of it. And merciful men are taken away.
God removes them, like Bill Clark recently has been removed. Many
here, faithful men, godly men, courageous men, women, believe
the gospel, counted even the greatest sacrifice as their common
duty. And listen to this next line.
Merciful people, men and women, are taken away, and nobody considers
that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Have we ever thought about this,
that God takes his people away as an indication that some trying
times are coming, some evil times are coming, some dark days are
coming? That's what he's saying there,
of whom the world is not worthy. Of whom the world is not worthy.
The righteous man dies and nobody puts too much significance upon
it. And the merciful, the believer,
dies and they don't consider this could be a sign of dark
days to come. Look back at my text in Hebrews
11, verse 38, "...of whom the world was not worthy. And they
wandered in deserts, mountains, and damns." Why are such great
people in caves and damns and deserts? Why are such merciful
and significant people of whom the world is not worthy, why
are they Why aren't they in places of prominent recognition? Well, in most places and circles
like their Lord, they are not wanted, they are not welcome. They depress people with their
message. They are not wanted, they are
not welcome. It's all right for them to stay in the church and
in their pulpits or in their religious circles, and we'll
tolerate them and profit by whatever we can profit, but we don't want
to be bothered with them. Let them stay in the dens and
the caves and the mountains and the deserts and places like that,
because they're not welcome and wanted among the powers that
be. But verse 39 says this, here
is the marvelous thing about this business of faith. There
are two things here in this verse. And all of these believers, from
Enoch, Abraham and others, from Moses and Elijah to the Rahab
All of them, and these are all, not just the prominent ones, but the unknown,
unnamed ones. But they are believers, they
have one thing in common, they believe God, they believe God. They believe his word, they believe
his gospel, they believe his son, they believe God. They are
not ashamed of the gospel. They will stay in the deserts
and the mountains. They'll stay unwanted and unwelcome, but they
believe God. That's all right. That's all
right. They believe God. And here are the two things about
them. Number one, having obtained a good report through faith.
A good report of whom? Not this world. Not this world. The world doesn't give a hoot
for what they believe or what they're saying or what they preach.
This good report from God Let me show you that. They obtained
a divine approval. That's what this is. A good report
is approval, divine approval. Look back at chapter 11, verse
2. Verse 1 and 2 of chapter 11.
Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen, and by it the elders obtained a good report.
By faith they obtained a good report. Verse 4, "...by faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness he was righteous, God testifying of his guilt." divine approval. The world doesn't
agree with you, God does. The world doesn't care for your
message, God does. The world doesn't think much
of you, but God does. That's why that's a good report.
By faith they obtained a good divine. Thou hast found favor
with God. That's the reason Paul could
say confidently If I please men, I'm not the servant of Christ.
If I please God, I'm not the servant of men. Yes, sir. Isn't that right? The second
thing about this faith in verse 39, they obtained a good report
by faith, all of them. And they received not the promise.
What does that mean? They believed God's promise regarding
the Messiah, although they didn't see the fulfillment of it. They didn't see the fulfillment
of it. The Lord Jesus came after all these people were dead. But they believed him through
his words, even though they didn't see the fulfillment of the promise. But verse 40 says, God having
provided some better thing for us, that they, these Old Testament
believers, without us, should not be made perfect. In other
words, they had Christ in promise. We have Christ in person. They
had Christ in picture and type. He came to this earth, lived
and died and rose again in the flesh, and the types are They
look to and believe on Christ who was to come, their righteousness,
their atonement. We look to Christ who has come,
suffered, bled, and died, and will come again. And they will not be perfected. Oh, we are perfect in Christ
now. Our legal standing, our righteous standing, our acceptance,
We are accepted in the beloved, we are perfect in Christ. He
has perfected forever them that are sanctified, but we are not
yet conformed to his image. We are not yet perfected in glory. So they, these Old Testament
believers who look to the Christ who would come, along with us
who look back to the Christ who did come, we will be perfected
at the same time, together. Not they without us, or us without
them. But we will together be made
perfect when he comes again. Ephesians chapter 1, listen to
this. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10. Ephesians 1 verse 10, that is
the dispensation of the fullness of time. He will gather together
in one all things in Christ, Abraham and you, Moses and me, Jacob and the Mexicans and Africans. He'll gather together in one
all things in Christ which are in heaven now, which are on earth
now. But in Christ's blood, we are
perfect before God. as they were, but at the marriage
feast, the bride will be complete. That's when we shall be perfected
and conformed to his image and together sit down with the Lord. Let me show you that in Revelation
19. And it's the same faith. It's faith,
believing the promise, believing the Word of God. Not depending on signs and feelings
and wonders, but believe in God. The promise wasn't fulfilled
in their lifetime, but they believed God. Abraham believed God, that
what God had promised, God was able to perform. And we believe
God. And they're not perfect without
us, and we're not perfected without them. We'll be perfected together.
Look at Revelation 19, verse 6. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, as
the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah, the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come. and his
wife had made herself ready." Who is that? That's all believers. The church in the wilderness,
the church in the desert, the church in Iceland, the church
of Old Testament believers, the church of New Testament believers,
everybody in the bride with the wedding gown on. The bride, the
wife, had made herself ready, and to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen. clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints, old and new testament. And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."
Oh, that's the day of days. That's the day when he comes.
We shall see him as he is and we'll be like him. And all together,
they, not without us and us not without them, but the whole of
every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven, the bride,
the Lamb of God, the bride, shall be glorified together, perfected
together. I can't explain all that, but
I know that's what it's talking about. Believe in God. Now, verse 1
of chapter 12, wherefore seeing that we are encompassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses, that's just all these folks that
have gone before us. What is a witness? A witness
is a person who's seen, who's heard, who's experienced a sight. And we're all witnesses of the
same thing. John says, I've seen him. I've heard him, my hands
have handled him, for his witnesses. Well, we're surrounded by witnesses,
all these people here who believe God. And somebody says, well,
they're all watching us. I beg your pardon. They're not
witnesses of us and what we're doing. They're witnesses of him
and what he's doing. Their interest is no longer upon
this earth. They've seen the Lord. They're in his presence. They're
witnesses of Christ. They know the word of the promise.
They know the faithfulness of God. They know the sufficiency
of the blood. They know the vanity of this
world. They know the riches of his grace. They've finished their
course. They're exalted, and they're
his witnesses. And seeing we're encompassed
about with so many examples of faith, examples of faith, witnesses
of Christ, proof of his glory, revelations of his kindness in
Christ. Let's do two things. Let's lay
aside every weight. Let's read this whole verse here
now and come back to this. Let's lay aside every weight.
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let's run with
patience the race that's set before us." Paul was a fellow who used illustration,
athletic illustration. On one occasion he said, I don't
fight as one who beat at the air, shatter boxes. I have a
real enemy. I don't fight as one who pretends
to fight. I'm in a real fight. And he talks
about this running a race. Now, let's look back at 1 Corinthians
9. I believe it's 1 Corinthians
9, talking about this race. And he says in 1 Corinthians
9, 24, about people running a race at the Olympics. Know ye not that they which run
in a race run all? But one receiveth the prize,
so run that ye may obtain." We're in a race. We're running to obtain
a prize, to finish the race, to win the crown. And every man
that striveth for the master is temperate in all things. Now,
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, we an incorruptible crown.
That's when he said, I therefore so run, not as one uncertainly,
not so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep my
body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I preach
to others, my bicep become a castaway. He said when a man runs a race,
he doesn't wear galoshes and an overcoat and carry a sack
on his back. He lays aside everything that
will hinder him. from running the race, from doing
his best. He lays aside every weight, takes
off the hat and the back sack and the shoes, as little as possible,
so that he can run a good race. And we're in a race, it's set
before us by God. It's set before us, the race
that's set before me. My course, Paul said it when
he came to die, he said, I finished my course, my course. I fulfilled
my ministry. I have completed the dispensation
God gave me. So we have a race. We're not
competing one against another. We're not trying to outdo anybody.
We're running as if we ran alone. I'm running my race, my course,
my stewardship, my dispensation. God gave me that race. And it's
a long one. It's a long one. It's a difficult
one. He didn't say it would be easy,
but he that endures to the end shall be saved. And Paul said,
you need patience. Back there in Hebrews 10, verse
36, he said, now, you need patience. You have a need of patience.
And after you've done the will of God, you might receive the
promise of God. You need patience. God sets this
course. It's long and difficult. It's got an end. He that endureth
to the end shall be saved. And we need patience to run it.
So let's lay aside those things that hinder this race. activities, those things that
come between me and Christ, that cloud his face and that hinder
my spiritual growth, lay them aside. And then he said, lay
aside that sin, the sin, the sin. What is the sin? That's
what the Pharisees asked our Lord. What's the greatest law?
What's the worst sin? What's the worst sin? Well, what
is the sin? This sin that doth so easily
beset every one of us, what is it? Come on, what is it? Unbelief.
That is it. Unbelief. They could not enter
in because of unbelief. Take heed, there be found in
you an evil heart of unbelief. There is the granddaddy of all
sin, not believing God. There's the blessing of all blessings,
there's the curse of all curses. The blessing of all blessings
is to believe God. The most unhappy state is unbelief. Let's lay it aside. Seeing we're encompassed about
with so many examples and witnesses of Christ and proof of his mercy,
we've got, of course, a dispensation of stewardship.
So let's lay aside these things that hinder it, hinder that fellowship. And this unbelief, let's lay
it aside, and verse 2 says, let's look to Jesus. That's what all
these folks we've been reading about, by faith, they look to
Christ. And you notice this looking unto Jesus is present tense? I hear people on television,
particularly religious people, talking about, I got saved. I
accepted Jesus. past isolated event and occurrence. Faith, my friend, is a state. It's coming to Christ. It's believing
Christ. It's trusting Christ. It's looking
to Christ and always looking to Christ, and ever looking to
Christ, and never quit looking to Christ. It's looking to Christ
and not to my deeds, the best one or the worst one. It's looking
to Christ and not to my brethren, the best one or the bad one.
It's looking to Christ, not to the law, not to the church, not
to the preacher, not to the prayer, looking to Christ, looking to
Christ. Keep on looking. Trusting, keep on trusting. Coming,
keep on coming. Resting, keep on resting. Well,
who is he? Well, let's read this verse.
This is good. Look, this is great. This is
magnificent. Look, looking unto Jesus, number
one, the covenant Christ. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He planned it. He purposed it. He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He's the author of
our faith. He's the beginner. He's the finisher
of our faith. We're complete in Him. He's Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end. He's all of our faith.
He's the object of our faith. The covenant Christ. And then
the crucified Christ, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross. The crucified Christ, man of
solace, acquainted with grief. Endured the cross. The scripture
said he was made flesh and dwelt among us. Took upon himself the
form of a man. and was obedient to death, even
the death of the cross, bearing our sins and shame. And then
the complete Christ, listen, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, ignoring the shame,
the shame of the cross, the shame of our sins. He bore all our
sins in his body on the tree and ignored the shame of it. He's the complete Christ, and
we're complete in Him. And then the enthroned Christ,
and He sat down right there at the right hand of God. That's
the one to whom we look, looking unto Him, the covenant Christ,
the crucified Christ, the complete Christ, the enthroned Christ,
the coming Christ. And I'll tell you this, verse
3. You know, I can give you three words. In three words, I can give you
the secret of peace, the defeat of fear, the joy of rest, the answers
of doubt, perfect strength in trial, comfort in death, and
hope for eternity, looking to Jesus. Isn't that right? That's really
all I need to look for him. I'll find in him all I need. My weakness is made strong in his
presence. Now, verse 3, this is what he's
saying here. When you grow weary, when I grow
weary, and we do, weary with the way, When we grow weary with the way,
when we grow discouraged with the burdens, when the trials
are heavy, when opposition is great, when tears come more often
than joys, what should we do? Verse 3, consider him, consider
him, Christ. who endured such contradiction. Can you imagine the contradiction
he endured? We talk about listening to the
people with whom we work, and our righteous spirits, like lots,
are distressed by what's around us. But you think of his righteous
spirit. When he, the holiness of God,
stood in the cesspool of human flesh. When he, the very glory
of God, stood surrounded by the shame and wretchedness of mankind,
when he, the wisdom of God, the perfect wisdom of God, listened
to these fools. Fools. Every word that they said
was foolish and ignorant and stupid, as far as he's concerned. When our way grows weary and
tiresome, consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be weary and faint in
your minds. When we get weary and kind of
faint and say, it's too hard, it's too hard on me, look at
verse You've not yet resisted under blood, striving against
Satan, his kingdom, and sin. We haven't yet really paid the
price, have we? Nothing compared to him. Our
way is easy. Our burden is light compared
to his. Our conflicts, our trials, our
enemies have cost us. I'm ashamed to even mention it,
aren't you? We've not shed any blood. We
haven't gone without very many meals. We haven't spent many nights
in the mountains, no place to lay our heads. We haven't been
spit upon. We haven't been nailed to a cross.
We haven't died. In fact, we ain't done nothing. size of it. So when you get down
here where we feel like we're swimming against the tide, just
remember him, consider him. To find salvation, to find life,
to find peace and joy and rest, look to him. To encourage you in your trials
and troubles, consider him. And let's look at this a moment.
Have you forgotten, have we forgotten what Solomon wrote over there
in Proverbs chapter 3? Have you forgotten the exhortation
that speaketh to you as unto children? My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord. The ways of God are mysterious. The ways of God are not our ways,
but the ways of God are perfect. And don't faint when you're rebuked
of God. We're children of God and children
have to be taught, corrected, disciplined by the Father. For whom the Lord
loveth, he'll chasten and he'll scourge, he'll chasten and discipline
and correct every son whom he receives. Now, if you endure
this chastening and this When God's pleased to correct us or
discipline us or send us trials, he's dealing with us as an all-wise,
loving, heavenly Father for his glory and our good to accomplish
his purpose. So verse 7, if you endure this
chastening, remember God deals with you as a son. What son is he whom the Father
has chastened? There's not a son in this building
today. wise son, a God-taught son, that's
not thankful for his father and mother's discipline. There's
not a one here, there's not a wise young man here, a young woman.
Not one. It won't save. When I was growing
up, my dad and mother, they cared, they loved me. And they withheld
some things from me that I thought I ought to have and took some
things away from me I didn't want to give up. And they're
chasing me and made me obedient, and they made me respect adults,
and they made me obey them and do the right thing. And I thank
God they didn't turn me loose like a wild ass is cold, and
I wind up somewhere else. And you and I, when God deals
with us in these troubles and trials, he's dealing with us
like you dealt with your sons. And there's not a father here
that He doesn't wish he had the wisdom of God to deal with his
children. Now if you be without chastisement, if you be without
trials, you're not, you're a bastard, you're not one of God's sons.
You just write that down. Now verse 9, look at this, this
is interesting here. We've had fathers of our flesh
who corrected us and we gave them reverence. Sometimes it
was a little, sometimes it was a little bit I'm sitting down
on the inside, I stand up on the inside, I'm sitting down
on the outside. But we still give them respect. Yes, sir.
And no, sir. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Heavenly Father and live? Thy will be done. Yes, sir. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I don't understand it, but thank
you. I know you understand, because
he says in the next verse, these earthly fathers, for a few days,
they didn't have us long, until he was about 18, 17, and they
chastened us according to their own pleasure, that is, their
own wisdom, which was imperfect. All of us will admit that. They
chastened us and corrected us to make us good citizens, but
they did it, their wisdom wasn't perfect, Their ideas were not
perfect. They're not perfect. They did
it according to whatever wisdom they had. They did the best they
could. What they had to do with, they did the best they could. But God, for our profit, to make
us like Christ, that we might be partakers of his holiness,
everything he does in our lives is right. You can write that
down. But he won't do, he won't suffer
you to be tested any more than you can stand. And he won't give
you anything that's not necessary. Every strife is necessary. Every
disappointment is necessary. Every heartache is necessary.
You don't understand, just like I didn't understand my dad and
my children didn't understand me. But I did what I thought
was right. God does not what he thinks is
right, but what is right. Always, always perfect. Now, no chastening, verse 11,
for the present time is joyous. Don't say it is. It's grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards. That's
the time. That's the good time, afterwards.
Oh, boy, afterwards. Afterwards. It yieldeth the peaceable fruits
of righteousness afterwards. It yields sweet and precious
fruit. Turn to James 3 a moment. James chapter 3, verse 17. The wisdom is from
above. The wisdom of God in all these
things is pure, peaceable. gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy,
and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace. God deals with his children when
the trial is over as the sweet, peaceable fruits of righteousness walking with him. So I close
with verse 13, verse 12. So lift up your hands, after
us talking to all of us, lift up your hands that droop and
hang down, lift them up, from despair and doubt and praise
him. Straighten up the feeble knees that cause us to fall and
stumble and walk by sight, not by faith. Make straight paths
for your feet. Don't wander and roam in the
wilderness of doubt and confusion and new ways and intellectualism. I'm tired of all the new revelations
these preachers are getting. The new tricks they're trying
and the new gizmos they're inventing and the new directions and new
day, new life. Wait a minute. Ask for the old
paths. Make straight paths for your
feet. Stay away from confusion and
doubt and humanism and intellectualism. Ask for the old ways of faith
and trust in the Word of God, the way of the cross, the doctrines
of Christ. Lest that which is lame about
you, the weak believer, the impressionable believer, the wavering believer be turned
out of the way. He's looking to you. He's listening
to you. So make straight path for your
feet. Don't wander around down left field somewhere in these
different inventions of men. Why do men feel that they can
improve on the Word of God? Why do we ever consider that
we have better food for men than the bread from heaven? Why do we ever think we can bring
men to saving faith by feeble methods and carnal means, when
thy people shall be willing of the day of thy power? Preach
the word. My word will not return void.
Teach the word. Call me unto the word of God.
It's faith in the word of God that pleases God, the promise
of God. So make a straight path for your
feet, the path of faith in God's word,
in the doctrines of Christ, in the way of the cross. That's
for the healing of the nations with the word of God. To me,
what we've been doing the last few weeks is just essential. What did he say? What he said is what I want to
hear, don't you? All right, let's sing a closing
hymn, number 228, My Faith Hath Found a Resting Place.