Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Please turn with me to the book of Hebrews, and we're going to continue to look at what we're seeing here, and I believe this is Ms. Lillian's, one of her very favorite verses of scripture. The 12th chapter?
The 12th chapter of verses 1 through 3. Wonderful, wonderful words here of the living God, and the Lord knows, I believe, that you need to hear this again, Ms. Lillian. I did not finish this message last week, so I thought it'd be fitting.
Yes, that's good. Well, I'm just reading the first three verses, and we're going to look at the final point, and I believe it's the most important point, but hear the word of the living God. The writer of Hebrews says this, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Let's stop right there. Praise God for the reading of his marvelous, enduring word.
Amen. Let's pray. Father, I have nothing to say. I just desire to be your mouthpiece this morning, so Father, oh Lord, your servant listens. May we do so by the power and the help of the Holy Spirit this morning.
In Jesus' name I pray, and for his glory, amen and amen. Well, last Lord's Day we looked at three points, and I'd like to focus on this fourth one. The first point, let me read, if you were not with us last week, I'd like to recap a little bit of what we looked at, and I think it's very important in the introduction here to see where we're going in this message, because I think it's very important for all of us, because we live in days that seems that's very trying to the soul.
As you well know, that this world is not a friend of grace, and I believe that's one of the primary purposes and commands of Scripture that we meet as God's people together to encourage one another in the faith, to encourage each other in the Lord, and point each other to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the one that's going to get us through all of this, and in the race that is set before us, and this is a race of faith.
That's what we're talking about. The first point was the event. There is an event here. The second point was the encouragement. The third point was encumbrances, and this fourth would be example. Now, if you notice, the writer speaks first of all therefore.
The word therefore is therefore, as I always like to say, for a reason. Therefore is a very critical transition word. It offers emphatic conclusion of the previous chapter. Everything that has been said before, therefore the transition takes place, now we're going to go forward.
That's what the writer is always saying. Paul used that word quite often because it is a very critical transitional word that offers a conclusion of everything that was said before, of everything that's said in chapter 11 of all those who live by faith.
Who was those that live by faith? They were witnesses. These were the witnesses. These are the deceased people of chapter 11. They gave witness to the value of the blessing and the blessing of living by faith.
They showed us by example how they lived, and they lived by faith. All the great saints that you and I read in chapter 11 are those who lived by faith. The motivation for us for running in this race, the race of faith, is not in the possibility of receiving praise from observing heavenly saints, but looking to Jesus.
That is where the writer has taken us. Rather, the runner is inspired by giving the godly examples of those saints that sat during their lives and how they won the race. Isn't that encouraging? Like I said before, it's not like we have a great cloud of witnesses in the heavens looking down on us.
We look back at their life. That's the proper translation of this, that we look back and we see how they ran this race and faithfully how they won the race to the very end. So we have the witnesses. We see the record, and that encourages me.
That encourages my soul that I can win this race as well, and they tell us all how they overcame by faith, how they lived by faith, how they focused on God by faith. And again, it's the great crowd that is not comprised of spectators that's looking down.
It's their life that we can read about, that witnesses, that bear record. They are dead and yet speak. That's what scripture says. So that's the crowd that's comprised of spectators, but rather is comprised of ones whose past life of faith encourages us, others, to live in that way in which they lived.
Don't you love the writer of Hebrews? He includes all of us, God's people. These are the saints. Let us. Constantly, you see this in scripture. Let us. Reference to the Hebrews. Let us, who have made a profession of Christ, but had not gone all the way to full faith.
And they had not yet begun the race, which starts with salvation. He's writing again to the Hebrews, and the writer has invited them to accept salvation in Jesus Christ and join in the race. We're actually not in the race until we come to Christ in faith, in faith and by faith alone.
And once we're justified by faith through Jesus Christ and by his blood and by grace, we enter in the race. We're in the race. Like I said before, if no one's born again, if someone's not born again, they're sitting on the sidelines just observing, right?
We want to be in the race. And the only way we're in the race is by faith in Jesus Christ. And that's how we are entered into the race. Now he speaks of, that's the event, is the race. Then he speaks about the encumbrances.
The encouragement is the witnesses. The race is the event. The encouragement is the witnesses who won the race. The encumbrances, every encumbrance is, again, it's different than sin. It is a heavy weight.
It is anything that loads us down and being discouraged in this race. There's a lot of things in our lives that we can allow to load us down, to weigh us.
Down.
But what is he saying to the context here? He's speaking to the Hebrews, right? These are Jews. They're engrossed, all their lives they have been in religion, basically law, law keeping, the traditions of their fathers.
That's a heavy weight.
And you and I know that religion is a very heavy weight. Don't do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this, all this do's and don'ts, performance, how I can live up to the standard and all these things that we can allow to weigh us.
You see this a lot in our day as well. So many churches that are bound by traditions of men rather than looking to the living God and faith and looking to Jesus Christ and knowing that he has taken the load.
He has taken the law. He has fulfilled the law. We cannot, you know, how many times you see people and say, you ask them the question, how can I get to heaven? And you ask them the question, how do you get to heaven?
They say, well, keeping the Ten Commandments. Brother, we cannot keep the Ten Commandments. Jesus kept the Ten Commandments. See that's law keeping. We cannot keep, that's the standard. That's the highest standard.
That's God's moral law. No way we can keep that. But Jesus has. Jesus has kept it to the letter. Jesus has fulfilled it. And now we look to him that because as he has kept the law of God, now we are in him.
And then when Jesus, when God looks at us, we are in Jesus and we're right there with him. As heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ and it's not us, but it's Christ. Isn't it wonderful? And as we have come to know Jesus Christ by faith, when God sees us, he doesn't really see us.
He sees his son. So that he's speaking to the Hebrews here, which was in the Levitical system with that stifling legalism. It is stifling, stifling. And the athlete, speaking of the encumbrance, he would have to strip away every piece of unnecessary clothing.
The light in his load to run the race stronger and faster and that he can run the race faithfully and successfully. The outward things emphasized here is the Levitical system, not only that impede, but they entangle us.
And that's the heavy load. That's the encumbrance. And then he speaks about the sin. Now, again, I'm going to repeat myself here again. There's so many sins that are displeasing to God. All sin is displeasing to God, right?
But the main sin is the sin of unbelief. You know, I was thinking about this throughout the week. I said, God, God so hates the sin of unbelief. If you think of it, it caused a priest, John the Baptist's father, to be muted.
God muted him because of his unbelief. In the word, you think of it, that's how much God hates the sin of unbelief.
This is a priest of God.
And God, because when the angel gave the announcement, and right there, if you think of it, he did not believe like Mary. And you see, you see the parallel. Mary says, be it according to your word. That was pleasing to God by faith.
Pleased, the humble, humbleness there, but you think of it, it had to be some pride there in Zechariah's heart for unbelief. And he did not believe it. And God muted him until later on he opened his mouth and his name is John.
He wrote it down by faith. In other words, be it according to your word. God taught him a lesson. I believe that muting was a disciplinary lesson. And God disciplined him. God knows how to discipline us, too.
He can mute us, humble us, until we are to the point and say, Lord, be it according to your word. That's a great lesson. And that's the sin he's talking about. There's so many sins out there. It's the sin of pride that's mingled in with, because I think that's the worst of all sins, the most heinous of sins.
But the sin of unbelief, if you read all the way through the book of Hebrews into its context, it was because of unbelief the children of Israel did not go into the promised land. Brother Ben just wrote a wonderful article about this, how it was the sin of unbelief.
And you notice because of the sin of unbelief, they murmured, they were impatient with God, they did not believe God, they did not go forward. And where they did, they went in circles in the wilderness for 40 years.
And just right over there was the promised land, right in the distance. But they were going in circles.
They were confused.
They wandered about. And yet that generation witnessed some of the greatest miracles right before their eyes. And yet God was displeased more with that generation than any other. Well, that's the sin of unbelief.
And then the context focuses first on the particular sin of unbelief, and refusing to turn away from the Levitical sacrifices to the perfect sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I want to focus on this morning.
Now we're going to have to run this race with endurance. There's a lot that's going to try to stop us. And we cannot win this race, as you well know, by striving and pressing forward in our own strength.
It's going to have to be the strength of God. It's going to have to be the power of the Holy Spirit. The more I live, the more I'm in this race of faith, the more I recognize that this is not me. This is not my victory.
It may be my race of faith. I'm in the race, but I'm here to tell you, I'm not going to win it by my own strength. It's not going to be by my own power. It's going to be by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And to endure is going to be by God and what He has accomplished. And it's going to have to be strength. Sometimes I feel about strength, and you get to the point sometimes life can knock you down and knock the wind out of you.
And I know Ms. Lillian's had a fair share of this, and I believe that's why this is your favorite passage of Scripture. Because you draw encouragement and strength from this with the sufferings that she has gone through.
And she knows what I'm talking about. And anyone that's in this room that knows what I'm talking about here. If you've been through life's trials, the trials, the hardships, the hurts, the pains, the disappointments, the losses, the crosses.
I can keep on and on. And all this that hits you, knocks you down to your face. Now I was thinking also throughout the week about Job. About the patience of Job. The patience and endurance is the same thing.
And what I love about Job is, and let me share a little bit of what God has been teaching me throughout this week. That Job didn't have a Bible. But he had a God. He had a God that he trusted.
He had a God.
And look at all the revelation we have. But we see what Job couldn't see. But Job seen God, and that was enough. Now I'm here to tell you, if our eyes is fixed on our God, and beholding our God, and beholding our Jesus, that is enough.
I am here to tell you, that's all we need.
Jesus is enough.
And the problem with us is, our self is in the way. We are looking too much. And when the trials come, we think about how these trials are going to hurt me. We see things, and it's all in God allows these trials to better us.
We get our focus on people and other Christians, and they fall by the wayside. And we start to wonder and waver some. Or we get disappointed in life. And not to say that we are human and we are flesh.
God understands that. We're frail, but dust. But I'm here to tell you, what pleases God is a life of faith. And Job pleased God by faith. Job had his eyes on God. He had his eyes on God so much, that he knew, if you read it, he says, I know that God can do all things.
He believed in the resurrection of eternal life. He even prophesied that. He said, my flesh goes to the ground. I know my Redeemer lives. This man didn't have the revelation we had. He was an Old Testament saint.
He's another one that we can look at. But he endured. He was patient to the end. And I'm thinking, Lord, give me this endurance. By the power of the Holy Spirit. I fall on my face and I say, God, I can't do this on my own strength.
I am coming to you, O God, to help me to win this race. Not that I'm a winner, but that Jesus is the winner. He's the one. It's all about Jesus. You think about it. This race is not just that I get across the finish line to win a trophy.
Actually, the trophy is, you're the trophy of God's grace. The prize is Jesus. You think of that. This is what it's going to take.
This is what encourages us.
To win this race. The writer is going toward that. He speaks about endurance. And that is the steady determination to keep going. Jesus said that. You do not faint. You keep praying. You keep pressing forward.
You press forward. And don't lose heart. And I want to encourage you this morning. Don't lose heart this morning. Don't faint. Don't fall by the wayside. You know, here recently, a man by the name of Josh Harris.
Now he's written all these books about dating and supposedly a Christian book. Now he's saying he's not even a Christian. Well, should that surprise us? It shouldn't surprise us. There are so many people that just talk the talk.
They play religion.
They go to church.
They go to the form. And didn't Paul say, there's a form of godliness. But they deny the power thereof. What power are they talking about? Paul is talking about the power of God. And you and I know this.
Where does the power lie? It lies in the gospel. And who is the sum of the gospel? Jesus Christ. The person and work of Jesus Christ. And that's what the writer is saying.
You endure.
And the only way you can endure is keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus. That's the encouragement. We've got to be careful not to let the weight and encumbrances. And Jesus is the example. There's a lot of witnesses to validate the life of faith.
And the one example that rises above all those great saints and we admire is Jesus Christ. Those are great saints. We think about Moses. We think about Job. We think about Abel. We think about Abraham.
We think about all the patriarchs. We think about how they won. And you read the record. You read about what these men and women of God went through. But how did they win? They won by fixing their eyes on Jesus.
Just very quickly, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11. Look at Moses, for example. This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. If you look at verse 24. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He was in Egypt. He could have been the prince of Egypt. He could have been the next Pharaoh. And at that time, as you well know, a Pharaoh was like a god. Whatever he says went. But look at verse 25.
Choosing.
There's a choice that he made. Choosing rather to endure. There's that word. To endure ill treatment with the people of God. I want to go with God's people, don't you? Than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin for a season.
It's only for a season. He would rather suffer with God and suffer with the people of God. Then he says this. And how did he do it? Verse 26. Considering. Considering the reproach of Christ. Greater riches.
There's your key right there. Greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world. If you think of all this world offers, there's nothing in comparison to the riches that's found in Jesus Christ.
For he was looking to the reward. Right there in chapter 11 gives us a little hint of how this man ran the race and won it. He looked to the reward.
By faith he left Egypt.
He forsook Egypt. Not fearing the wrath of the king, he didn't fear men. He feared God. And then he says, for he endured.
Why, how?
Here it is again. As seeing him who is invisible or unseen. And then it says, by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood. So that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.
And by faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through the dry land. And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. I'm telling you. You in Jesus Christ, you got all you need.
You are on the winning side. You are going to make it because you fixed your eyes upon Jesus.
He's the author.
He's the perfecter of our faith. And notice what it says. Now he's the ultimate example. Who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Despising the shame, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He won the victory. And again, the literal Greek here in this text is look away to Jesus. Look away to Jesus. Get your eyes off the immediate surroundings. Get your eyes off the trials. Get your eyes off other people.
Get your eyes off the circumstances. And get your eyes on Jesus. Look away to Jesus. Lift up your eyes to Jesus Christ. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians 3 .18. Gaze on his glory and be transformed into the image from one level to glory to the next level of glory.
From glory to glory. Those of you who have run competitively know that you have to keep your eyes ahead. You can't run effectively looking at your feet. You can't run effectively by looking on the right.
That's what Scripture says. Don't look to the left. Don't look to the right. Keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes on Jesus. And that's what we're going to have to do, especially in the days we're living in today.
Everybody is looking here, looking there. Even as much as I love it. I love ministers of the gospel. We've got to be careful not to even look to men. We've got to be careful not to look at preachers. I mean, I love preachers of the gospel.
But they're gifts from God. It is God we look at. And they're just mere human beings. I don't care how great God used them. And I can name one by one many godly men today. Pastor John MacArthur is one of my favorites.
And he has helped me so much. And he's a gift of God. And he's anointed of God. But, beloved, it's all about the glory of God. It's about looking to Jesus. If we do start looking to men, we're starting to worship and serve the creation rather than the creator.
We have to look to God because God is the one that's ultimately to be glorified. And if we start lifting up a man, we're robbing, like Brother Keith mentioned earlier. We're robbing God of His glory. So God is the one that we are to boast in and to glorify.
Philippians 3, Paul says he fixed his eyes upon the goal. And that was Jesus Christ. So why do we want to look to Jesus? Because He's the perfect example. He's the perfect model. We don't look at people around us and say, Oh, they're a lot faster than here and this guy.
And I'm an awful lot faster than so and so. But you fix your eyes on Jesus. He's the model. He's the one. He gave us that strength. He is the originator. He is the author. He is the one that gave us the faith.
The faith that you have right now in Jesus Christ and God.
God gave you that faith. Think of it.
He is the originator of that faith. He's the one that granted that faith to you. He gives each and every one of us a measure of faith. So we need to look to Him. Hebrews 6, verse 6 of chapter 11. It says this, without faith.
I love this verse. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
So it must be faith.
True faith pleases God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. You know, you can't please God without believing in God. And what did the Father say about Jesus in Mark 1 .11? You know what He said?
He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased in Him. Now, God can't say that about us, can He? You know what I'm saying. He can't look down. We failed somewhere along the line.
We sin. We are redeemed sinners. We don't practice sinning. But we are... The only thing that does please God is the faith. And that's what I'm saying. God was pleased with Christ because He always believed Him.
There was not a moment in Christ's life that He did not slip. Or in His heart was any sin of unbelief.
Every step. Every breath.
Folks, if you think of it, we can't do that in one day. We can't do that in one hour. Our thoughts somehow wander away. And get our focus. It's just the nature of the depravity that's ingrained in us.
As much as we try. And so many people think they could live up to this in days and days. Look, like I said, if you have it already sinned, somewhere along the line, you're going to slip and displease God somewhere before the end of the day.
Do you see what I'm saying? But not Jesus. 33 years, Jesus lived. Every moment, He trusted God. Every moment, He pleased God. And now, you being in Christ, that's what pleases God. Amen. Amen. I mean, when God said, this is my beloved Son whom I'm well pleased, He meant God was pleased with Christ because He always believed the Father.
And that's why He never sinned. Jesus said it. He says, I do what the Father says. And I do what the Father shows me to do. And I do what the Father does. Whatever the Father says, I do it.
I do it.
It was perfect obedience. Beloved, this should encourage you. Because when you're in union with Jesus Christ, that's what God sees. We're moving on. We are to focus on the person of Jesus Christ. It says this, fixing our eyes upon Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus. It seems to me to indicate that we can each run our own race, but again, I can't run your race and you can't run my race. You have to run this race. Now, if I spend my time looking at you and how well you're doing, I'm liable to become discouraged in my race.
I might become defeated in my race because I'm not doing as well as you are. And then there's a heart of pride that comes in. Now, I might try to run in your lane, but I might stumble over because of my pride, and I think that I'm going to be doing better than you, and I become prideful.
We'd better watch it. Pride's a deadly enemy. I might even allow... I might get discouraged if I think the way you're running has an effect on my own race, but if I allow your failures and stumbles to hinder me, in other words, I keep my eye on you and how you're running, I'm in trouble.
And same with you. If you're looking at me, you're going to be in trouble if you're looking at me. But if we look to Jesus, we can run this race. And we have to look to Jesus. The only way that any of us can run well is for us to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus.
He's the only one that we have to run for. He is the race. He is the judge. He's the author and finisher of our faith. He gives out the rewards.
He is the reward.
And it is He who disqualifies the runners. Think about that. He calls the race, and He's the one and the only one to watch as the race progresses. So we need to get our eyes off other racers and how they're doing and get our eyes on Jesus.
Now, I want you to think of this. Not only should we keep our eyes on the Lord, the person of Jesus Christ, we are to keep our eyes on His performance. That is the key to the Christian life right there.
If I keep my eyes on the person and the work of Jesus Christ, not only just His person, but His work as well. Peter missed this at first. He got it later on, but at the great confession that he made, he confessed that, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus said, Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. My Father revealed that to you. And you think of it. When He said that, Thou art the Christ, you are the Christ, the Son, the anointed, the Son of the living God.
That was the confession right there. But if you notice, if you read the Scriptures, He turns right around. And when Jesus talks about going to the cross and to suffer, and Peter is fleshly mind, He is saying, Oh no, you are our Messiah.
You are the anointed one. You are going to set up the kingdom. The kingdom is going to come. You can't go to that cross. And Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan. And He rebuked him. Isn't that something?
Right in one minute, Peter is in the Spirit, and then he goes into the flesh. You see how fast He sinned? We could be in the Spirit one minute, and the next minute we can be right in the flesh. And you think of that.
He understood the person of Jesus Christ, but He didn't understand His work. And Jesus came for that reason,.
To go to that cross and suffer.
We've got to understand not only His person, we've got to understand His work. As we run the race, let us take courage in the fact that Jesus has already passed this way. He ran the race ahead of us, and He has completed His race.
He has won the victory. He's right now at the right hand of God. Nothing encourages me more. When I get discouraged, I start thinking about the gospel, all that Jesus endured for my sin, how willing He was to go to the cross, and to die.
What such love is that? But not only that, and that's why I love that little text, when He was in the garden, He went a little further. He went a little further. He went all the way. He went to the cross, all the way willingly to the cross, and even on the cross,.
He went a little further.
They took Him down from the cross,.
And put Him in the grave,.
And even in the grave He went a little further. And then after the grave, and He was buried, the third day He rose again. He went a little further. And then He goes a little further, and now He's at the right hand of God, and one day He's going to come off the throne,.
And go a little further,.
And then the trump's going to sound, and then Jesus is coming back, and then we're going to be victorious once and for all. Isn't that great? Jesus won the race. He knew His share of trials in the race of life, but He successfully navigated His course.
He was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was the God-man. There's a mystery here. We can't figure this out. But He's one of a kind. There's no one ever that is born as Jesus was. God in the flesh. The Son of the living God.
The second person of the Godhead. Look at what Jesus endured. I'm going to just run through this real quickly. I got this down. He was born to an unwed mother in Matthew 1, 18 -19. He was born in a stable in Luke 2, 7.
He was born to poor parents in Luke 2, 24. His life was threatened as a baby in Matthew 2, 13. His birth was the cause of terrible suffering in Matthew 2, 16. He was moved as a baby in Matthew 2, 13. He was raised in a despicable town called Nazareth in Luke 2, 39.
His father died when he was young in Matthew 13, 53 -58. He had to support his own family as a carpenter in Matthew 13, 55 -58. He had no home and no place to lay his head. He was homeless. Matthew 8, 20.
Luke 9, 58. He was hated and opposed by others in Mark 14, 1 -2. Man of sorrows now. That's what's in my mind here. He was hated and opposed by others. He was charged with insanity. They said he was insane.
Crazy in Mark 3, 21. He was charged with demon possession. They were basically just about to the point of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. In Mark 3, 22. He was opposed by his own family. Think of that. In Mark 3, 21 -22.
He was rejected and hated and opposed by the audiences who came to hear him speak. In Matthew 13, 53 -58. In Luke 4, 28 -29. He was betrayed by a close friend, Judas, in Mark 14, 10 -11. He was left alone, rejected, forsaken by all friends in Mark 14, 50.
And the record continues. He was tried before the high court of the land and tried with treason in John 18, 33. And he was executed as a common criminal by means of crucifixion in John 19. Think of it.
All that Jesus has gone through, it all, He is the perfect example for each and every one of us that runs in this race. A man of sorrows. Jesus endured it all. And all that we endure is nothing compared to what He endured.
You think of that. Now, it's incredible. But He has already won the victory. And by the way, His victory is our victory. We share in His victory. How do we know that? 1 Corinthians 15 -57. But thanks be to God, Paul said, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We've already won the victory, beloved. We may be in the battle. Victory is already won. When Jesus says it is finished, it was won.
It was paid in full.
Yes, sir.
And no wonder Paul could say, I've fought the good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. That was some of the last words of the Apostle Paul, the greatest Christian that ever lived. May that be for us as we continue to run this race.
There's just something else I want to look at in closing here. The fulfillment of remembering. There's three points I'd like for you to get here. Three points. The fulfillment of remembering. The fulfillment of reward.
The fulfillment of resting. Let's look very quickly at the fulfillment of remembering. When discouragement begins to seep into your life and my life, let us remember this. What Jesus Christ has done for us.
What Jesus Christ has done for us. Isn't that enough? Isn't that enough? Knowing that He did this. That you may win. To think that He would do that for me and you is evidence of the great love that our God has for us and of His work in our lives.
That says a great deal. May I remind you that when the Lord is on your side, you have nothing to fear. That may sound like a small statement, but beloved, that's why David says, What shall I fear what man can do unto me?
That's why Luther can say in the hymn, The mighty fortress is our God, that the body they may kill, but God's truth abides still. The truth of God is going to continue. Even Paul, when he was in prison, he says, You bound me by chains.
He said, But the word of God is not bound. In other words, Paul, as great a Christian as he was, he said, You can bound me, but God's word is not chained. It's loose. You're not going to stop it.
Isn't that great?
This is what hell has been trying to do for all these ages,.
And we still have the word of God. And it's still growing.
The church is still growing. And then you've got the enemies out there. You've got the Muslims, and they want to kill the Christians, and they shed their blood, and more keep coming up.
They behead them.
They take their heads off. You know how tragic that is. And yet the Christians grow stronger and more powerful.
They say, What in the world?
We can't stop it.
That's what the religious leader said in Acts. He said, If you fight against this church, you're fighting against God. You can't stop it. So, amen. Fulfillment of remembering that when you are on Christ's side, Christ is on your side.
That's what Paul says in Romans 8 .31. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
What a statement.
So, that's what the writer says. Consider Him. Consider Jesus. Next would be the fulfillment of reward.
Reward.
There's a remembering. We've got to remember. We have a tendency to forget. You know how many times God says, Remember? Remember? Remember? Because we're forgetful. We forget. I need to be jolted. My memory needs...
I need to come back and remember where God has brought me from. Peter said that.
But there's a reward.
As I've already said, Jesus has run this race. He's paved the way for you and me. He's already assumed His place in the Father's right hand. He's taken His position in the right hand of the Father's power.
And He's there, sat down on the right hand of God, signifying power, signifying that His work of salvation was finished once and for all. May I remind you also that when the clouds of discouragement begin to gather on the horizon of your life, that what Jesus enjoys this very moment is also yours and mine.
His heaven is our heaven. His glory can be yours. Heirs of God enjoy heirs with Jesus Christ. His place would return to take us home someday. And He's coming back as the world would not even think of that He's coming back one day.
May we think about that as well. There's fulfillment in all that. There's a reward. We must keep our eyes on that reward. Next would be the fulfillment of resting. Resting. Even as you and I run this race, there are times when our steps, we grow heavy,.
We do get discouraged,.
Our pace slows down, we get weary. Don't you get weary? I get weary. Depression can hit us. Discouragement can hit us. There's a lot that surrounds us in this temporary world that has a tendency to knock the very breath of life out of you.
But again, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 4 .9. Hebrews 4 .9 says this, So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Then He says this in verse 10, For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His.
God rested on the seventh day after He created everything. Now a lot of people may think, well, God got real tired. No, God doesn't get tired. You know what that rest means?
He took delight in it.
He took pleasure in it.
After He created everything and after on the sixth day He created the crown of His creation, which is Adam, God sits back and He says, Now I take delight in everything I made. And it was very good.
Perfect.
Until sin came into the world. Once sin came into the world, everything went haywire. Everything went down and God even had a plan for that.
Hallelujah.
He already had the plan made out because He knew what was going to happen. People talk about man's free choice and God's determined decree and all this. And I say, look at it. It's right there in Scripture.
Man fell. God already had the good news. He already had it all planned out. There's a lot of things I don't understand. I'm not saying I know all things here, but I know this. The more I stay in this book, the more I rest in His promises, the more I see that God, You've got it under control.
Help me to keep my eyes on that and keep my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So don't let discouragement get you down, beloved. If you're battling it today, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,.
Who for the joy,.
He ran it with joy and He won the race. There was a joy. There was a reward before Him. There was a prize. You always keep your eyes on that future reward because what we're going through now is only temporary.
It's only for a season. We also must keep in mind, be sober about this as we've been going through James. Everything we say, we're going to give an account for,.
But not only what we say,.
What we do and why we do it and why we say it. So I want to say, that takes my face to the ground. I said, Lord, help me to check my heart. Whatever comes out, that's there. I mean, God, deal with it.
Sanctify it.
Kill it.
Lord, help me. Paul says he was laid hold of Christ for the prize. He wanted to be like Christ. In other words, he said,.
I laid hold of Christ.
Because He first laid hold of me. And for that reason,.
He pressed forward.
There's even the struggles there.
But joy is there.
The victory is there. That's guaranteed. Win the race. We must win the race because God calls us to triumph in Christ. And Paul said to the Corinthians, we will receive a crown of life, a crown of rejoicing, a crown that's waiting for us in this world.
And we look around and we see so many people defecting, falling away from the faith. And you think of it. I think of myself saying this so often.
I said, Lord,.
What if everybody just fell away?
Would I fall away?
You think of it. That's what Peter and the apostles were faced with. And Jesus said, are you going to go away also? Peter said something wise. He said, Lord, where are we going to go to? Where are we going to go to?
And then he said the key right here.
He said, Lord,.
You had the words of eternal life. Jesus is the reason not only for our existence,.
But for our eternal existence. Our eternal salvation.
May we not get discouraged and allow discourage to knock us down, but to keep our eyes on Jesus. He's won the race.
Look what He's done.
Look at it.
He went into the jaws of death. You know, let me tell you, I was listening to the biography of Harry Houdini, one of the greatest escape artists ever. This man was pretty incredible. They said he was cunning, really, because he knew how to, and these tricks he did, and it's really a matter of the eye and stuff, but he knew how to store keys in places no one could ever think of.
He could actually swallow the key and regurgitate it. If they put him in a trunk that's locked with keys in the water, which people, it defies imagination how did this guy do this. And he did it. He would literally swallow keys and they would search him over for the key.
It was inside. What are you going to do, cut him open? Well, he could regurgitate that key and take the key out and then unlock his way out. He was a tremendous escape artist. And they said when he died,.
And he made a vow.
I think he said something like this. He said somehow him coming back from the dead and his wife, they had seances back then. They were very superstitious and they gathered around. There's something demonic about this too, but they kind of waited after.
They had a seance trying to bring back his spirit. And Houdini said he's going to bring himself back from the dead. Boy, they were calling out and all this. About the only thing they heard was thunder.
I personally believe that was God thundering saying there's no one else that's defeated death but Jesus Christ. Harry Houdini did not come back. He could not, the great escape artist could not bring himself out of that grave.
But there's one that did. His name is Jesus. All of our hope, all of our trust, all of our everything that we do and our goals and our ambitions and all of our dreams, it cannot be in this world. It's going to pass.
It's going to shift.
But there's one that's not going to shift. It's going to be steadfast and that's in Jesus. He's defeated the grave. He went into the jaws of death. He went there and he took the stinger out of death. That's why I like what John MacArthur said.
He said all death can do is usher us into the presence of God. It welcomes us to God. Death is not the end, it's the beginning. But so many people in this world, and if you notice the way sinners live, they think about the past.
They think about the past. They live in the past. But beloved, the past is gone. Now we go to the future.
We go ahead. We go to the reward.
We live for Jesus. Amen. Amen. May we do so by God's grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful time and this message. Lord, would you penetrate this in our souls and burn it and brand us into our souls.
How important it is that we run this race with strong faith. Lord, help us not to waver. Help us to trust in your word this morning, Lord, setting aside anything that would encumber us, weigh us down, load us down from the past and the sins that surround us, and anything that would hinder us from running.
Keep our eyes, Lord, focused on Jesus. Help us. How important it is to gaze, to be gazed in our soul of Jesus Himself. The gaze of our souls on Jesus Himself. Realizing that He realized no matter what we suffer here, even though it's not as severe as His, it's not unto blood such as His was.
Yet it's painful for us to go through it, and we need to keep our focus on the fact and the truth that it is for Him, for us,.
That there will be a day.
When we will be enthroned in glory and receive that eternal reward. We desire with joy, O Lord, and help us to increase our desire. Only you can increase our desire, enlarge our heart with the joy to run the race in a way that will be consistent with those who have run before us.
So, Father, thank you that we belong to this great host of witnesses. We're part of the family of God. We're part of the army of God. We're part of this great mass of witnesses, this great cloud of witnesses that have proclaimed the blessing of life and faith.
So, Father, we thank You for that, and we do give You the glory in Your Son's name and for His sake and for His glory. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.