is chapter 12 and if you would stand with me please as we read together the word of God.
I'll actually begin in chapter 11 verse 39 and then read through Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3.
These, that is to say all the aforementioned Old Testament saints that have been mentioned in the prior 38 verses, these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross? Scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So reads the word of the living God. Would you be seated, please? Over the last couple of weeks we have come to understand something of great importance to our spiritual lives and that is of all the people who have lived throughout the comprehensive sweep of human history. We are among those who bear the distinct privilege of living in the new age or rather as we have come to term it in our study of the book of Hebrews, the era, the epic of fulfillment. Now friends, this is no novel idea in the book of Hebrews. I would remind you that at the very outset of this letter, the writer defines our time as the last days, distinguishing the days in which we live from those that might be termed, I suppose, the former days, the earlier days. And if you recall, it is here now at the end of chapter 11 where the author alludes to that event which serves as the ultimate dividing point between these two great times. That dividing point is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now friends, to be sure we are to understand that the saving work of Jesus Christ is a unifying event. It is by the means of the cross that all of the people of God from all of human history are made perfect. Verse 40 tells us that very thing. Both the saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the new pressing right down into the present including all of us have been saved together by the work of Jesus Christ. This is something we really need to appreciate, beloved, and that is that one of the glorious accomplishments of the cross is that it has unified the people of both testaments into one. But what is also true is that in a very real sense, the cross has divided the people of God. As we discovered last Lord's Day, where a believer lives in relation to God's great saving act determines the measure of privileges he or she experiences. Now to be sure those who lived prior to the coming of Jesus Christ were people of the promise. They experienced the salvation that was full and that was complete. But though they possess the benefits connected with the promise, beloved, as we discovered, they lived with the very real limitations that were associated with non-fulfillment. Verse 39 told us these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. We, on the other hand, living this side of the cross are no longer people of promise but people of fulfillment. God's great promise to provide a Savior who would deliver us from sin has come to pass in Jesus Christ. As a consequence, we now possess privileges that are infinitely greater than anything our Old Testament thoroughbars ever experienced. Ours is the epoch of the better plan. We live in the time of fulfillment enjoying all of the incredible blessings that are distinct to this new covenant era. However,
just because we live in the era of fulfillment does not mean that faith is no longer a commodity that we need to exist, that we need to survive, that we need to continue in the Christian life with. My friends, the Christian era is a composition of both the now and the not yet of fulfillment. In other words, while the last days have come, it is not yet the last day. For those of you who like to think theologically, eschatology has been inaugurated but not consummated. Now, what do I mean by this? Very simply. Every blessing God has ever intended to grant to us throughout all of eternity has been purchased for us in the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. Jesus has secured all of the blessings of the new age, but you see, friends, there is an interval that exists between this glorious accomplishment and the ultimate consummation of it. For those of you who recognize these terms from the Second World War, it is the difference between D-Day and V-Day. The cross in all that accomplished was D-Day, that moment when the decisive conflict was engaged and won. V-Day is the day we confidently anticipate when what was settled on D-Day becomes a totally fulfilled reality. D-Day, V-Day. The already, the not yet, the Christian era exists between these two days, which means that as Christians, though to be sure we are the possessors of infinitely greater privileges than any of our Old Testament counterparts, we too must still live by faith if we are to successfully persevere to the end in our Christian profession. You need faith every bit as much as Moses did. I need faith every bit as much as Abraham and David did. And so what is authentic faith? We have asked ourselves from time to time. What is real authentic faith? You would think that such an elementary question would not need to be asked of people in a setting like this, but the fact of the matter is beloved people have such strange ideas where faith is concerned. We've come to discover that faith is not a nebulous kind of religious sentiment that lacks anything definitive. Faith is not the experience of being enraptured by certain kinds of religious emotions. Faith is not even merely the acquisition of orthodox expressions of the truth. Faith may encompass some of those kinds of things. Faith may express itself in certain kind of emotional ways, and faith certainly is predicated upon an understanding of certain orthodox views of the truth, but the fact of the matter is faith is infinitely more than that. Faith is much more practical. Faith is much more life-influencing. Faith is a much more life-shaping thing. And it is Hebrews 11 that has helped, I hope, forever to determine our understanding of faith. We've come to understand, beloved, that faith is our righteous response to revelation. The faith presupposes the giving of the word of God, the telling of the word of God, the understanding of the word of God, the granting of the promise of God, faith in reaction to that promise, then clings to that promise and shapes one's life in accordance with that promise. It is our righteous reaction to the truth of God's word. When we call people to faith, we don't call people to faith in a vacuum. We call them to revelation. Faith is not a passive disposition, evidenced by mere verbal ascent. God, help us to get beyond that. Faith is an active, vital, energetic compulsion to trust God, which is placed inside of us by God's own gracious operation.
What have we seen again and again in Hebrews chapter 11 that real faith performs,
acting on the basis of faith, Noah built an ark, acting on the basis of faith, Abraham left his homeland, acting on the basis of faith, Moses turned his back on the pleasures of Egypt, acting on the basis of faith. The Red Sea was crossed. Jericho was conquered. Goliath was toppled. The mouths of lions were closed over against everything else we might say of faith beloved. We must not miss its single most important defining feature and that is that God granted faith is a performative thing. And I can tell you this morning speaking quite personally. This is an issue that God's been setting before my own mind and conscience in recent days. For all of your talk art, will your faith perform? Will you serve me when your desires are at cross purposes with mind? Will you surrender your greatest desires to my will? Will you seek your ultimate satisfaction in satisfying me? I can tell you from experience beloved, it is a lot easier to preach about faith than it is to live according to it. But this now was the very heart of the issue as we come to chapter 12 verses 1 to 3. You'll note that verse 1 begins with a very strong transitional word, therefore or in this case what might be better translated consequently. Well you don't begin a new idea with the term consequently. It's a word that tightly connects together chapter 11 with now this first paragraph in chapter 12. In fact there ought not to be a chapter break here at all. This is one of those places beloved where our English translators have done us a great disservice. We need to always remember the fact that the chapter breaks in verse designations where the invention of men not inspired by the spirit of God. And this is the terrible one. Kevin Shay said to me last week after the morning sermon, what a dumb place to put a chapter to vision. And he's exactly right. You see all of the historical recollection of chapter 11 is designed to lead us to the very contemporary exhortation in 12, 1 to 3. And to highlight this even further you can see the shift in the author's focus. In fact you can feel it. Go home today, take 10 minutes. Starting Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, read through chapter 12 verse 3 and you'll be able to feel it for yourself. In chapter 11 the author almost exclusively uses the third person. He, she, they. We come to chapter 12 and all of the verbs. Now appear in either the first or second person. Look at it. Since we are surrounded by such a great part of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders. Let us one with perseverance. The race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Verse two, second person, plural, you consider him who endured such opposition so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You feel the shift, the transformation in emphasis. The one that I tell you that to say this that the driving ambition of this author is not historical. It's pastoral. It's personal. It's about you. It's about all of us.
And as is obvious, I'm sure you saw it while we read it. As he now speaks to us, he does so in a manner that is very common in the literature of the New Testament. He likenes the life of faith
to an athletic contest. Do you realize how often the Bible does this? The Olympic Games had already had a profound influence on first century culture in the Middle Eastern world. It is evident because this kind of picturesque metaphorical language appears all through the New Testament scriptures. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said to the elders of the Ephesian church? He says, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race. There it is. And complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. There was that athletic metaphor. Verse Corinthians chapter nine is another. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Running such a way is to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the Games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. Now what's interesting is right in the middle of his paragraph Paul mixes his metaphors. He's been talking about the running of a race. Now it begins to talk about a boxing match. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. As Paul looks at his own Christian life and his own pastoral ministry, he talks about it in terms of a race and then in terms of a boxing match. He says to his young disciple Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. And then finally on the eve of his own martyrdom beloved, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, this epic imagery, imagery you see, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day over and over in the scriptures the Christian life is likened to an athletic contest. And why is that the case? Not because that imagery stresses the idea of competition primarily. Listen to me beloved. But because it so obviously highlights the idea of strenuous exertion against forces that intentionally work against us both internally and externally. If you have ever been an athlete of any kind, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Today there will be football players that will face off against each other on a football field. And one team will attempt to make progress. And what will they be met with immediate resistance? In that case, external to themselves, 11 other players who will seek to resist any kind of progress they attempt to make. On the other hand, for the prior week, they dealt with all of the internal resistance that goes along with being an athlete. The alarm goes off. I don't want to get up and exercise. I don't want to get up and push that iron. I don't want to get up and run those laps. I don't want to get up and do those pushups. The Christian life is a race of the most strenuous kind. There are forces, beloved, both internal and external to us that are not near passive observers of our efforts to run the race of faith, but that actually strive against our completion of it. And so if we are to finish this race successfully, it will necessitate the straining of every spiritual muscle we possess according to the grace God supplies. And at times this will even take a violent quality to it. Now what the writer does in these verses is very simple. He exhorts us to run the race of faith. Look at the last phrase in verse one. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Now friends, don't get lost in all of the surrounding words. This is his big idea. This is the present imperative. Let us run the race. Run the race. You said, Lord, what about all of the other stuff that's here in these three verses surrounding all of that? Well, my friends, everything that surrounds this one command serves to tell us how to run the race. And that's what we'll talk about next Lord's day, how to run the race. For this morning, however, I would simply like us to consider the implications of the Christian life as a race. In fact, there are three implications to which I would like us to give our attention this morning. If the Christian life is a race to be run, then such a thing will one involve strenuous exertion. Two, it will necessitate steady perseverance. Three, it will assume divine providence. I know this sounds exceedingly simple to you, but we can't let this slide by unnoticed beloved, because what I'm about to say to you runs in such counter direction from what the vast majority of the evangelical Christian world is telling us today with regard to the Christian life. I want you to listen very carefully. If the Christian life is a race to run, then such a thing will involve strenuous exertion. It's very interesting here. The word that has translated race, let us run with perseverance, the race. We don't even need to get beyond that. The race is the word argon from which we get our word, agony, agonize. Or by itself, it is a term generally speaking that refers to a struggle, a fight, a labor, a trial, a hardship. And by and by, over time, it came to be used as an athletic contest, a fight, a wrestling match, a boxing match, a race, any kind of athletic event that calls for vigorous exertion against some form of resistance, the agon, the race.
Now, beloved, this is the metaphor the inspired author uses to speak of the Christian life.
He could have used many other metaphor, the argon, the agony, the race. My point is this, if his description is accurate, then the way great portions of contemporary evangelicalism define the Christian life is dead wrong. To compete as an athlete requires diligence, discipline, self-sacrifice, preparations that can be grueling and painful and strenuous and agonizing to the contrary, beloved. When I often hear people speak about the Christian life today, I'm hearing things that are coming out in all together different kinds of terms. You walk into a typical Christian bookstore and the messages that hit you right in front of your face are things like self-fulfilled. Health and wealth, peace and prosperity, life enhancement, self-esteem, fulfilled families, realized potential. It's not the sweat and smell of a gymnasium. It's the indulgence and leisure of a tropical resort. And as Christians, we have been so profoundly infected by that disease that we think we deserve. So fulfillment, life enhancement, leisure and prosperity. But that's not the concept of the argon, the race, the agony, the argon implies blood, sweat, tears, hardship, exhaustion and pain until the finish line is crossed. Now friends to be sure, there is a rest about the Christian life. Jesus says, are you weary from sin? Burdened in heavy laden from the guilt of sin that condemns you, come to me and I will give you rest. Rest from what? Rest from all of your attempts at earning salvation by your own religious and moral efforts. And so we say with great joy to all of you who are here, who are not Christians this morning, come to Jesus Christ and find relief from the all consuming burden of your sin. The rest of eternal salvation is found in Jesus Christ. But beloved, this rest does not exempt you from the race. To the contrary, it puts you in the starting block. The gun fires, you're off running in the race of faith and it isn't long until you realize that you are running direct in the face of the fierce gales of the world, the devil and the remnants of your own indwelling sin. Three powerful forces of resistance that will seek to impede any progress you attempt to make at times it seems almost violently so. Are you engaged in the race? Then if you have those occasions, beloved, where it seemed moment by moment by moment, all you could do was cry out to God and say, if you don't keep me, I will send myself into eternal perdition. Have you felt the fight? The words of Jesus himself speak to the nature of this struggle. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, beloved, never ever will we be able to accuse Jesus of failing to be honest with us about the nature and demands of following him. And how intense will this struggle get at times? If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. The writer tells us in verse 4 of Hebrews 12, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Have you forgotten your brothers and sisters? It's easy to do. Have you forgotten that the Christian life is a race involving strenuous exertion? Has the enemy of your souls beguiled you into believing that authentic Christianity is nothing more than a religious means to self-satisfaction, life enhancement and personal fulfillment? V-day is not yet here. Don't let anybody persuade you to the contrary. The race is on and you are in it if you are a Christian, the race of faith involves strenuous exertion. Always be wary of a Christianity that promises you heaven here and now. Distrust yourself at this point. Secondly, if the Christian life is a race to run, then such a thing will necessitate steady perseverance. It will necessitate steady perseverance. Look at what the text says and let us run with perseverance, with endurance, the race, marked out for us. The Christian life is not a wind sprint. The Christian life is not a drag race. It's not a 100 yard dash. And yet, friends, have you been a Christian long enough to notice that there are many people who appear to start out the Christian life with a bang, but fail to finish the race? Man, they're big talkers. Right in the middle of ministry. Right involved. Mixing it up. Where are they today? Some are gone altogether. Others are here, but totally neutralized in their influence.
Started out great, but after about 50 yards, their legs begin to weaken. And after about 70 yards, their mouths become cottony. And about 90 yards, their chest begins to heave, and by the time they reach the 100 yard mark, well, they've pulled out of the race all together. You see, that's the very thing. The writer of Hebrews was fearing for these Hebrew Christians. They had heard the gospel from those who had been eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ and in turn, they confessed faith in him. They had started out so well. The race had begun, but with the reality of persecution, heating up all around them, they began to think it more expedient to forsake Jesus Christ and to return to Judaism. This pastor wants his people to know that turning from sin to Jesus Christ in faith is not the finished line. It's the starting gate. The Christian life, the Christian race begins with the new birth and doesn't end until we die. The distance to be covered in this race is the totality of our lives as Christians. You see, however, the emphasis here is not so much on speed, although the exhortation is to run the race, not lolly gag. We'll talk about this more next time. But the emphasis is not so much on speed rather on stamina. I would remind you that the concept of perseverance is mentioned in each of these three verses. Did you see it? It's hard to miss the author's main idea. He mentions it in every verse. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him, here it is, endured the cross. Verse three, consider him who endured such opposition. Perseverance is his concern. In this race, one writer has said it this way, it is the lack of stamina that distinguishes the would-be contestant from the successful athlete. In the Christian race, which is not a short sprint, but a long-distance contest, there are no prizes for those who do not persevere to the end of the course. Jesus says it like this. He who stands firm to the end will be saved. The Hebrew writer, beloved, has already addressed this issue with us. He said back in chapter 3, we have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
We gladly, resoundingly acknowledge the doctrine of eternal security. However, you've heard me say this a million times, the moment you take part of the truth and make it the whole truth, you end up with a complete untrue. Eternal security is half the issue, but what the Bible is equally emphatic about is that authentic Christians will persevere to the end, and where there is no perseverance, it's not that somehow God has lost the security of that person, it's that God never had that person to begin with. Beloved, I can't say it any more simply, it's not enough to start the race, starting the race does not qualify a person to receive the prize, only those who break the tape at the finish line get the crown, only those who finish get the prize, not those who start. You've read Pilgrim's progress, the Christian life is not a wind sprint demanding breakaway speed, it is a marathon that necessitates steady perseverance. My friend Kent Hughes tells the story of a fellow by the name of Bill Broadhurst, I want you to listen to what Dr. Hughes says. In 1981, Bill entered the Pepsi Challenge, 10,000 meter race in Omaha, Nebraska. Surgery 10 years earlier on an aneurysm in the brain had left him paralyzed on his left side. Now on that misty July morning, he stands with 1,200 live men and women in the starting line. The gun sounds, the crowd surges forward, Bill throws his stiff left leg forward, pivots on it as his foot hits the ground, his slow plop, plop, plop rhythm seems to mock him as the pack erases into the distance. Sweat rolls down his face, pain pierces his ankle but he keeps going. Some of the runners complete the race in about 30 minutes, but two hours and 29 minutes later, Bill reaches the finish line. A man approaches from a small group of remaining bystanders, though exhausted Bill recognizes him from pictures in the newspaper. He is Bill Rogers, the famous marathon runner who then drapes his newly one metal around Bill's neck. Bill Broadhurst's finish was as glorious as that of the world's greatest, though he finished last. Why? Because he ran with perseverance. And what is perseverance? It is that determination, unhasting and unwesting, unhurring and yet undelaying which goes steadily on and which refuses to be deflected. Obstacles will not don't it, delays will not depress it, discouragements will not take its hope away, it will help neither for discouragement from within nor for opposition from without. It is the steadfast endurance which carries on until in the end, it gets there. If the Christian life is a race to run, then such a thing will one involve strenuous exertion, two necessitate steady perseverance, and thirdly now,
perhaps most thrilling of all, it will assume divine providence. Now what do I mean by this?
What does the author say? And let us run with perseverance. The race for I'm so glad I'm a Calvinist means it means that the race has been appointed for us. That the race has been prescribed for us. Now friends I want you to listen very carefully here. On the one hand there is a sense in which the race you run and the race I run is the same race. We all who are Christians have the same commands to obey, honor your father and mother. We all have the same prohibitions to heed, let no one wholesome word proceed from your mouth. On the other hand we must also recognize that the course we are given to run will bear peculiarities and distinctives unique to each of us. For some of us the course given will be relatively straight. For others of us the course will appear to be nothing but twists and turns. Some of our courses will seem all uphill while others will appear to be unendingly flat, all or long, some or longer. I may not be able to run your course and you might feel mine to be impossible if you knew all that it entailed, but here is the point. We both can finish our races because they have both been personally constructed by Jesus Christ himself for us. My race your race is nothing less than an expression of divine providence. John Owen tells us this race is not what we fall into by chance. It is not of our own choice or projection but it is set before us. He that sets it before us is Christ himself who calls us unto faith and obedience. Now I don't know about you, beloved, but this gives me exceedingly great comfort that to know whatever I am to endure however painful it might be that it is all a part of the race that Jesus Christ has perfectly prescribed for my life and therefore with his grace I can finish it even when I think I can't. This is the Christian life. Don't give ear to the siren voices that call you to something other than this, friends. Young men, young women, you need to come to understand this and appreciate it here and now. The Christian life is a endurance race to be run. It is a violent fight to be fought. It is a costly war to be waged. To be a participant in this race will involve your strenuous exertion. It will necessitate your steady perseverance but through all of it, the blood, the sweat, the tears, through all of it, you can be absolutely certain that your course is no accident but an expression of God's perfect plan and purpose and providence in your life. This morning we call you to enter the race. Next, Lord's Day with God's help will seek to understand how He wants us to run it. Don't miss it. Tahoe ain't that great. Let's pray together, shall we? Our Father, please hear our prayers for those who are not even yet in the race. Be merciful to them. They know nothing of this agony,
nothing of the fight. They're on their own path going their own way. I pray that you would be merciful to them, Lord, and you would help them to understand that this race is the race that leads them to heaven, that there is only one path to the Father's house. O Lord and God, I pray that there would be people today who would turn from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. That they would experience the wonderful rest that comes at being freed from eternal condemnation and the pressure of vainly attempting to earn our salvation. But Father, as a result of our time together today, they now understand that the Christian life is not a garden party. May they come to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to take up His cross and follow Him. But Father, I pray that Your Spirit would work so profoundly that in the midst of having an understanding of what's involved that this very day, they would come to you, knowing that there is no eternal life to be found from any other source. And Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here now in front of me, who with me are in this race. There are those of us, O Lord and God who have found ourselves distracted. We've become comfortable. We've found a way to live the Christian life. We think, apart from any resistance, we've come to believe that, well, we don't need to be overly committed and over serious and out of balance about things. And so the fact is we know very little of this agony we've spoken about today. We know very little of this strenuous exertion that's involved in running the Christian race. I pray, O Lord and God that you would be with such brothers and sisters and persuade them that they are not living the Christian life unless they're moving forward.
Thank you for the forgiveness that we can find. Teach us, I pray, as we gather together next Lord's day, how to run this race. Father, please produce this in our lives. We love you. We are thankful to know that our respective races have been ordained by you. And so whatever struggles we go back to this afternoon, we can know that we face them not by accident, coincidence, fate, but that they are a part of the course you have set for us, and that with your grace, we can finish the race. We love you and adore you today. In the great name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.