Let us turn once again to Hebrews,
tonight Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and the first
four verses. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the 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, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured
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. I think it will do us good as
we look at these verses tonight to read once again what the writer
had already written concerning those to whom this letter was
originally sent. If you turn back to chapter 10,
Hebrews chapter 10, let's see what he had already written to
these to whom he sent this letter. Verse 32, but call to remembrance
the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured
a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you became companions of them that were so used. where you
had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance. Then we have chapter 11, in which
the apostle speaks of the various Old Testament elders and what
they were enabled to do through faith, through believing in Christ. Also, the last verse of chapter
11, God having provided some better thing for us. Some better
thing for us. The better thing, we saw this
last time, the better thing that God has provided for us. Now
remember, he's writing to these people, he reminded them of what
they had already endured, a great fight of afflictions, And then
he tells them that God had provided some better thing for us, including
himself along with them. And we know that better thing
was seeing the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises. Those
that he mentioned all through that chapter, they had lived
with the promises, believing the promises, had faith in the
promises that God had given, but now we live on this side
of the promises being fulfilled. And I think of many of the promises,
but especially the promise concerning the Savior, concerning Jesus
Christ, our Lord, the promise of Him coming into this world.
We live on this side of the incarnation. A little over 2,000 years ago,
the word, the eternal word, was made flesh and came into this
world, His world. And then we know we have lived
to see the life that He lived. Scripture says that He went about
doing good. I was especially thinking about
the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 5,
The apostle tells us that it was necessary that a high priest
be taken from among men. And one of the reasons was that
he might have compassion, compassion. And as you read through the gospels
and especially the gospel of Mark, it seems like we see that
over and over and over again. How the Lord Jesus Christ seen
the multitudes. How they had been with him for
several days and had no food. And he had compassion upon them. Seeing that funeral procession
and that woman, that widow, carrying her son's body out to be buried. And unasked, that woman, that
widow of Nain, she didn't ask him to have compassion. She didn't
ask for mercy. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
compassion upon her and raised her son to life. And we see that
over and over. We live on this side. What I'm
saying, the promises were, yes, that there would be a high priest
who would have compassion, who would be taken from among men,
that he might have compassion upon the ignorant I believe that's
the way the Scripture reads there, and those who are out of the
way, and that includes all of us by nature. We live on this
side. We see that yes, the Word was
made flesh. Yes, He did live that holy, perfect
life. And yes, He was crucified, the
Scripture says, in weakness. But we know that he gave his
life, he freely gave his life. But that's not the end of the
story, is it? We also live on this side of seeing the promise
that he came out of the grave. He was buried, his body was buried,
but he came out of the grave on the third day. And then, after
showing himself alive to his apostles for 40 days, I believe
it was, then, They witnessed Him ascend back unto the Father,
and as a demonstration and proof that He is seated on the right
hand of God on the day of Pentecost, He poured out of His Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, upon the church on the day of Pentecost. See, he's provided some better
thing for us. Some better thing for us. It
is true. It is true God's children will
meet with persecutions for Christ's sake, difficulties, trials, and
temptations in this world. But consider the great cloud
of witnesses. The great cloud of witnesses
who also suffered persecutions, trials, afflictions, difficulties
in this world, and they all overcame. They overcame so many things. And we must consider that great
cloud of witnesses that we would continue the good fight of faith. And there are three things I
want to point out to us in these verses tonight. First, every
believer has a race to run. If you are a child of God here
this evening, every child of God, every believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ has a race to run. The Apostle Paul used those contests
in the Olympic Games in some of his letters to teach and to
illustrate about the Christian life. Some of the writers believe
that the writer here has reference to one of what was called the
panthalon, panthalon, the word P-E-N-T, pent, pentitude, five
books of Moses, the Pentagon in Washington, five-sided, building,
the Department of Defense. And then in these Olympic games,
they had what I'm trying to pronounce pentathlon. Pentathlon. And there were five contests.
There were five contests in this game. In these contests. Five contests, I should say.
And one was a javelin throwing. One was a disc throwing. One
was wrestling, and one was a long jump, but one was a foot race. And the foot race of all of these
contests was the most difficult in that it took the most training
and the most endurance. It wasn't a short sprint. It
wasn't a 50-yard dash. a race of a number of meters. And that's the point that I want
to make here tonight. It wasn't a foot race. As the
Apostle Paul says, that every believer, the writer of Hebrews
rather says, every believer has a race to run. Now the race that
I have to run, God gave it to me. The race that you have to
run, God gives to you. He doesn't give all of us the
same race. It is God, by His providence,
that puts us in the race and marks the bounds for us in which
we are to run, in which we are to persevere with endurance,
with patience. And only God knows when each
one of us shall cross the finish line. But yes, for every one
of us who are in the race tonight, God has put us in the race and
there is a finish line. And one day we will come to it
and we will cross over the finish line. And the thing that I want,
and I know I speak for all of God's children here tonight,
All of us want to be able to say when we come to that finish
line, like Paul did, I have fought a good fight. I have finished
my course. I have kept the faith. Now, he
names two things. First, he names two things that
we should do. And we must do them, these two
things that he mentions, we must do them while looking to Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. There are things to be
laid aside. And of course, the picture here
is of a runner. And those men back in that day,
they didn't dress like we do. They had long robes on and it
was difficult to run a race. The robes would certainly hinder
a person. And so they had to lay that aside
to run the race. And the apostle tells us here
that we should lay aside every weight and the sin that does
so easily beset us. Two things he tells, we're in
a race. God has set the race for us. Each one of us have our own race
to run. God's providence has put us in
that lane in which we are in and We are exhorted to do these
two things and to do them while looking unto Jesus. First of
all, we are to lay aside every weight. What does that mean? There must be a difference. There
must be a difference when the apostle says lay aside every
weight and The sin that does so easily beset it. There must
be a difference between the two, between the weight that we are
to lay aside and the sin that we are to lay aside. As to the weight, there are things,
there are things which in themselves are not sinful. There are things
in our lives which are not sinful. But if allowed, they may hinder
us in running the race. That's what I believe he has
reference to by every weight. We must lay aside every weight.
Things that in themselves are not sinful, but if they take
over our lives, then they do harm. And they hinder us in running
this race. Now one of the things that is
often mentioned is earthly riches. Earthly riches, a weight, maybe
a weight. Look back to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter six. 1 Timothy chapter six and verse
nine. He said, but they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
heard from the faith, pierce themselves through with many
sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things. Lay aside
every weight. Wealth, riches may be one of
these weights that we should lay aside. Nothing wrong with
money. It's not money that is the root
of all evil. Some people misread that verse,
don't they? It's the love of money. I think
about Abraham, you can't read about Abraham and not realize
that he must have been a multi-millionaire, a billionaire by today's standards. A very, very wealthy man, and
yet he was a friend of God. Yet he believed God. So it's
not wealth per se, but it's a love of wealth. And of course, the
Apostle Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry. And if a person
allows their desire for wealth to get the best of them, to take
over their lives, then it's going to hinder them in their Christian
life. And it could be a number of things. A hobby. A lot of people have
hobbies. I think they're good for most
people to have a hobby, some distraction maybe, take their
mind off of their work, their job. But that hobby can become
all important and all consuming. And then it becomes a hindrance.
Fame. Many people seek after fame,
and that's all they pursue, their desire to be famous, to be known. And then, that's what the apostle
means, I believe, here. Let us lay aside every weight,
every weight. Things in themselves which are
not sinful, but if they consume us, they become a hindrance in
running the race that God has set before us. As to the sin,
now notice he said, Let us, wherefore, seeing we
also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and thee sin which doth so easily
beset us. Now there are at least three
three different thoughts as to what is meant here by the sin,
which does so easily beset us. One thought is that every believer,
every child of God has one particular sin. I think some of the old
writers who believed this, they called that a constitutional
sin. And it is peculiar to them It
is peculiar to that person. And it is not the same sin for
every believer. What may be one person's particular
sin, another person might not have any problem with that at
all. Another believer. But his problem, his particular
sin, might be something altogether different. Now that's one way
this is understood. lay aside the sin. A second way is, and I've always
taught this, this way, that it is the same sin, the same sin
for each and every child of God, and it is a sin that does so
easily beset us, and it is the sin of unbelief. But there's a third thought Others
teach that it is what Paul in Romans 7 and verse 17 called
the sin that dwelleth in me. That is the old man that exists
alongside the new nature that is created in the new birth. The Puritan, John Owen, who wrote
that great commentary on the letter of Hebrews, he made this
comment. He said, sin doth not only abide
in us. Talking about believers. Sin
doth not only abide in us. And I was speaking to someone
last Sunday after the service. Those people who are so deceived
to believe that a person can live in this world without sin.
What a deception. What a deception of Satan. When
John wrote his letter, he said, if any man sin, we have an advocate. Just before that, he said that
if we confess our sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And there is no such thing as
sinless perfection, living above sin in this world. That should
be our goal. That should be our desire of
every child of God. But we're always going to come
short. And as Paul said, the sin that dwelleth in me. The Puritan said, sin doth not
only abide in us, but is still acting. It's not dormant. It's
not dead. It's still dormant. Or it's still
active rather. Still laboring to bring forth
the deeds of the flesh. Look with me to the letter of
Ephesians just a moment. Ephesians chapter four. And these are the inspired words
of the Apostle Paul to these believers in the church at Ephesus. In chapter four, beginning in
verse 22, he said that you put off concerning the former conversation,
the old man. which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
that you put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness. Now this is not done one time. This is not an experience that
a person has. He has a certain experience and
the old man is put off and the new man is put on. No, this is
something that we are continually exhorted to do as we go through
this world. And we must continue to do both
of these things, laying aside every weight and the sin that
doth so easily beset us, how are we to do that? Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The grace, the
strength that we need to put off the old man and put on the
new man, where's that going to come from? It comes from Him,
from Christ, looking unto Christ. He, by His Spirit, gives us that
grace. The words looking unto Jesus,
think about this. As far as our experience is concerned,
our Christian experience is concerned, we begin by looking unto Jesus. That is the eye of faith. But it's not just once looking
unto Christ, it is beginning, yes, but it is a continual looking
on to Jesus. I love that verse in Isaiah 45
and verse 22 where the Lord says, look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Look, look, Unto me just like
that serpent that was lifted up upon the pole So the lord
jesus christ said the son of man must be lifted up that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish But have everlasting life those
israelites What were they to do to look? Look to that serpent
lifted up on that pole and when they looked everyone that looked Everyone who loved was healed. Everyone who believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ is saved. Brother Mahan had these four
truths about this text in his Bible commentary. First of all,
looking unto Jesus, he said, first, He is Jesus, our Savior. who was appointed and sent by
the Father to be our Redeemer, our representative, our ransom,
and our mediator. Number two, he is the author
of our faith. It is not in us to believe. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works, the scripture tells us. It is the gift of God. By His grace and Spirit, He led
us to believe. And we do believe in Him. He
doesn't believe for us, we believe. He gives us faith to believe,
that's true, but we believe. Believe, Paul told that jailor. You do it, you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Number three. He is the object of our faith,
looking unto Jesus. He's the object of our faith.
And I've said many times, the most important thing about faith
is the object of our faith. People talk about faith and people
say, well, you know, they have a lot of faith. Well, maybe they
do have a lot of faith, but if it's not faith in Christ, it's
not worth two cents. It's not. Christ is the Savior. Faith is not the Savior. Christ
is the one who died for his people. And number four, Brother Mahan
said, he's the finisher of our faith or the one who brings it
to maturity and gives us that which is the goal of our faith,
eternal life and the salvation of our souls. All right, second,
look at the example that we are given here of the Lord Jesus. Now, when I say look at the example
we are given, I always, always want to include he's more than
an example. And I do so because, you know,
there are those religious people who teach that his death was
just an example, the example theory. We know that's not true. He is our example, but he's more
than our example. He's a sacrifice. He's a substitute. He's the savior of our souls,
but he is our example. We understand that he's more
than an example. He's the one sacrifice that puts
away the sin of his people. Now, all the examples that the
writer had given in chapter 11, They're all great. You began
with Abel and Noah and Enoch and just come on through. All
of them are great, but none compare with the Lord Jesus Christ. None. Notice in verse three, for consider
him, consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself. All those examples are great,
but not one of them compares to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who we are told for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross. Now, when we read that he endured
the cross, that means more than just those three hours he was
hanging there on that tree. He endured the cross. It was
his whole life. his whole life in this world. Consider him. In the prophecy, he said, the
reproaches of them that reproach thee, speaking of his father,
the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. And all the reproaches that men
have leveled against God, the hatred and everything else, they
all fell upon Jesus Christ. And I say this to us tonight,
to have any idea, to have any idea of the greatness of his
sufferings, we must appreciate the greatness of his person,
who he is, who he is. the Son of God made flesh. What was the joy set before him?
One writer answered, and I quote, the joy of a shepherd over his
sheep, the joy of a farmer over his harvest, the joy of a warrior
over his conquest, the joy of a king over his kingdom. the
joy of a father over his children, the joy of a bridegroom over
his bride. All of that is true, no doubt
about it. But I think we should also think
about this, the joy that was set before him, the joy of doing
his father's will. Though in the volume of the book
it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. I delight
to do thy will. And no doubt also the joy of
seeing the travail of his soul and being satisfied, the joy
that was set before him. One last thing, a remedy here
for discouragement in verses three and four, for consider
him that endured such contradiction of centers against himself, lest
you be wearied. and faint in your minds. You
have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. The hymn
writer said, count your blessings, name them one by one. And that's
good advice. But the apostle tells us, consider
him. When you get discouraged, consider
him. Consider who he is. When I read
that, consider him, consider who he is. Consider what you
were and what he has made you. Consider that when discouraged,
consider who he is, what he has done and what you were. when the Lord found you as one
of His sheep. You didn't find Him, He found
you. He found you. And what He has prepared for
you, consider that. Yes, a few days of discouragement,
a few days of clouds we may go through in this world, but consider
eternity in the presence of God. I looked in Psalm 42 this morning,
and I read three times the psalmist asked himself this question,
why art thou cast down, O my soul? Are you ever cast down? Are you ever discouraged? Sure
you are. We all are at times. The psalmist
was, but he asked himself, he had enough Enough to ask himself
this question, why? Why? Why are you cast down, O
my soul? And two times he answered, hope
thou in God. Hope in Him. He's never disappointed
you and never will. And one of those three times,
He confesses his soul is cast down within him, but then he
determines this, therefore, why art thou cast down, O my soul? My soul is cast down, therefore
will I remember thee. And that's what the apostle is
saying here, isn't it? Consider him. when discouraged,
when distressed or distraught, whatever it may be, consider
him that endured so much for you and recognize that he will
only, only, only, only do thee good. That's just so. May the Lord bless this word
to each one of us here tonight. We'll sing a hymn and be dismissed. Let's sing that one that says,
looking to Jesus till glory does shine. It's called,