962. Run the Race

There are some significant elements in the book of Hebrews that's actually shrouded in mystery. It's a mysterious book. But what it has to say to us is not only clear, but the value for the Christian today is significant. Because it was written especially for those who are struggling with their faith and are on the brink of giving up and turning away.

The book of Hebrews was written for spiritual apathy. We have to press on. We have to be persevering. We have to run the race. Today on The Daily Platform, Dr. Steve Pettit, longtime evangelist and now president of Bob Jones University, is continuing a study series entitled Run the Race, which is a study of the book of Hebrews chapter 12. If you would like to follow along in the study booklet, you can get one on Kindle or you can order a printed copy from the website thedailyplatform.com.

Would you please take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12 this morning, I grew up enjoying almost every imaginable sport as a child, as a teenager, and even as an adult. I've always thoroughly enjoyed things that involve swimming or kicking or shooting or passing or catching or lifting or hitting or blocking or tackling.

I've played on soccer teams, football teams, baseball teams, basketball teams, swim teams, and even a golf team. But there is one sport that I have never had an interest in participating in, and that's track and field, where the primary activity is running. If you have a body like mine, you'll fully understand because I have very short legs and I run more like a penguin than a horse. And in running a race, the goal is to beat the people around you. It's interesting to me that when the Bible describes the Christian life in a sports terminology, it speaks of running a race. 1 Corinthians 9 24, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that you may obtain. 2 Timothy 4 7, I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And this morning as we read Hebrews chapter 12, we find the writer here is describing the Christian life in a race metaphor. Let's look at Hebrews 12 verse 1 this morning. It says, 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. Last week we began our series and we talked about essentially the big picture of the book of Hebrews.

We looked at its setting, the time frame of it, when it was written, and then we really talked about the style and how it's like a two beat song. Where you have this exaltation of Jesus and you end up with this wow factor. And then you have this exhortation to be faithful to Jesus and you have this whoa factor.

The wow and the whoa put together. And basically throughout the first 11 chapters we essentially have this combination of exhortation and exposition and exaltation of Christ. And now we come to Hebrews 12 and basically this is the practical application of the book.

And that's why it begins with the word wherefore because he's looking back to everything he has said. And now he's telling us what we need to do. He says you need to run the race. So three simple questions I'd like to ask as we try to unpack this one verse this morning.

First of all, what is the race? Let us run with patience the race that is set before us and simply define the race is a description or it is a metaphor of the whole of the Christian life. It is the entire Christian life of faith. And just like a race has a start and a finish so the Christian life has a start and it has a finish. When does the Christian life actually begin? Some people that grow up in a Christian home have a tendency to think that if they've grown up in a Christian home then that must make them a Christian.

Well if you grew up at McDonald's would that make you a french fry? Growing up in a Christian home, growing up in a garage doesn't make you a car. Growing up in a Christian home doesn't make you a Christian. When do you become a Christian? Hebrews 10 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promise. The Christian life begins when there is a confession of your faith. When there is an act of personal trust in the promises of God's salvation through the death and the life of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 4 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Getting saved involves a confession of faith. So let me stop here and ask you, have you made a personal profession of faith? I grew up in church.

My dad was a deacon and a Sunday school teacher. At the age of 12 years old I went through a confirmation class. And I confirmed my belief in what the church taught.

I acknowledged it. But I did not put my personal faith in Jesus Christ as a result of hearing the gospel and a conviction over my sin and my need of Jesus. I didn't really get saved until I was 19 years old. There are many people who grew up with a head knowledge of Jesus and they'll confess their belief in Jesus.

But there's a big difference between the head and the heart. And it doesn't become real to you until you put your personal hearts faith in Christ. That's when the Christian life begins. But just like a race, a race has to be run. It starts with faith, but it continues with faithfulness. And you can't start the race and then stop it.

Once you get in it, you're in it. You start the race with the purpose of finishing the race. So what is the Christian life? It begins with faith in Christ.

That's justification. And then it continues on throughout your life, the race, through what we call sanctification. And that is a race that involves activity.

It involves you investing effort. It's interesting that the Greek word for the word race is the word Agon. Can you think of any word that is an English equivalent to that, like agonize or agony? I look at some of the courses that our students have to take and my first thought is agony.

Like calculus, one, two, three, and four. I mean, I couldn't imagine the extreme pain that that brings to my mind. Some of you look at Greek and you think agony. And yet the word Agon is more than pain. It's actually the idea of being in a great contest like the Olympics.

And is there pain involved? Is there agony involved in getting in shape for the Olympics? Of course. But the pleasure that you have from winning far exceeds the pain you have from getting in shape. The idea of the word Agon then is a heroic struggle. And the Christian life is that. It is a struggle.

It is an Agon. But it is overcoming something that will come to us in the future. And it is challenging. The Christian life is not a jog. It's a race. It is strenuous. It is exhausting. It includes, for example, the pursuit of holiness and striving for personal Christ-likeness.

It involves the resistance of sin. The Bible says, run that you may obtain. Every man that strives for the crown, the mastery, is temperate in all things. How many times in the course of a day do you have to say no to what your flesh screams out to say yes to? You are self-denying yourself.

You're saying no to yourself. The idea of running the race is the idea of what is intentional. It is commitment. It is dedication. It is sacrifice. It is pushing through the pain.

It is being disciplined. But the Agon also involves not only the idea of sanctification of personal holiness, but it also is the idea of being involved in the advancement of the Gospel in the world. And there's an Agon to that. There's an Agon of planting a church or going to a mission field and starting a work or being involved in spreading the Gospel. There's an Agon to that. Paul says in Colossians 1, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereinto I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

Paul's talking about his Gospel work. And there's sacrifice and there's dedication and there's an Agon. But with that, that is a part of the race.

So all of us as believers, if we're saved, if we are true Christians, then we should be striving in our life to be holy and we should be involved in the work of God, the advancement of the Gospel, taking light into darkness and taking the message to deliver people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. So the race is to be run. And then let me say the race has to be run to the finish. You see, if the race is the whole of the Christian life, it starts in the past. When you get saved, you run the race.

But then there's a future to that. And that is we faithfully run the race and the race is not completed until you cross the finish line. Where's the finish line?

Well, Paul said it. I fought a good fight. I finished the course. I've kept the faith.

He's talking about the fact that he was getting ready to die. The race is done and the race is won when we are faithful to the finish. So let me ask this question. Which aspect of the race is the most important? The start? The finish?

Or the run itself? What is the most important? Maybe I should ask this question.

Are they all of equal value? And the answer is absolutely. Because salvation is an indivisible whole. You cannot chop off justification from sanctification. And you cannot chop off sanctification from the ultimate entering into glory, our glorification.

It's a, God looks at it as an indivisible whole. And in order for you to qualify for the reward, you have to get into the race, you have to stay in and run the race, and you have to finish the race. You have to run to the end in order to win. You can't win if you don't finish. And if you lose, that is you don't finish, you lose everything. You say, are you saying, are you talking about losing your salvation?

My answer is absolutely not. I'm talking about proving your salvation. Because the authenticity of genuine saving faith is proved in your faithfulness.

It's not salvation you earn, but it proves that you are a genuine believer. So, he's telling us to run this race. So that leads me to the second question, and how is it that the writer inspires us? Everybody needs to be motivated.

We all need to be fired up. And in the opening phrase, the author presents a very strong image to inspire us. Look at what he says in verse one. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. The writer's intention here is to challenge Christians through a couple of images, and it has both a positive and a negative motivation. And by the way, in life we need both. In our classes, we have a positive motivation of a high grade, and we have a negative motivation of not failing. And we need that.

A battery has a positive and a negative pole. So what is the positive inspiration that he gives us? Look at what he says. He says, Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. There are two pictures here. The first is a cloud of witnesses, a dense, thick cloud. Now this is not a single cumulus cloud that is perched up in the sky behind a sea of deep blue and a shining sun. But it's the idea of the entire visible sky is blanketed with a dense, thick covering of clouds. If you have not seen that in South Carolina, it's obvious you're not from here. Because when the storms come, it's all gray above.

What's the picture here? Think with me a moment. We have a great cloud of witnesses.

You know what that means? That means that we have not a handful of people that are in heaven, but we have a thick cloud of people who have run the race, and they were faithful to the Lord, and the race is over, and they stand for us as witnesses. How many of you have known anybody in the last year who has died, and they went to heaven? Raise your hand.

Yeah, look around. We had people who were teaching here at Bob Jones University last semester who over the summer went to heaven, and now they are part of the great cloud of witnesses. They ran the race. They were faithful to the race, and they're in glory. And you know what he says? This is an inspiration to us.

These people have been faithful. What does that tell me? It tells me the race is not as long as we think it is. I know you're young. You're 18, 19, 20 years old. You think you have your whole life in front of you, but you're going to blink, and you're going to be 30, married, and you're going to have three kids. And you're going to blink, and suddenly those kids are now graduating from high school, and they're thinking about going to college, and of course they're going to come to Bob Jones University. And before you know it, you're going to be a grandparent, and before you know it, you're going to have more aches and pains than you ever imagined in your life at 18 years old.

And suddenly you're going to start finding out that your friends are passing away, and you think life is really long-notched, really, really short. And we have a great cloud of witnesses who have run the race, and they've been faithful. But not only do we have a cloud of witnesses, but we also have the picture here of a jam-packed stadium. That is a stadium. Notice he says we're in a race, and the idea of a race is you're racing in a stadium.

For example, in ancient Rome, the Colosseum would seat up to 65,000 people. And the stands are jammed with spectators who are watching the race. Now I don't think the writer here is suggesting that they're looking in heaven from us, at us down here as we're running the race. I think we're looking to them as a testimony to their faithfulness.

Why? Because in Hebrews chapter 11, he's just finished a whole list of people who ran the race and they were faithful. We call chapter 11 the hall of fame of faith. And so we have these witnesses, these people that have gone before, and they're like a stadium that are packed, and that we are down on the field, and they are cheering us on, and this great inspiration is set before us that if they did it, then we can do it. We run the race, we finish the race, and we win the prize.

This little clip I'm going to play for you was sent to me this week from a friend of mine. He's an assistant pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, New Hampshire. His name is Ben Lamphere. And Ben just finished doing a half marathon.

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13 point mile run. And here he is at the finish line as they're cheering him on. Ben Lamphere! Go Ben!

Cool. Now how many of you would like to come running into heaven and all of heaven is there to greet you? That's what I think of when I saw that race. Folks, we're running in a race. We have inspiration. We have heaven before us.

We have people who are standing there cheering us on as we are running, not this half marathon, but we're running this full marathon because life is a full marathon. So he gives us this positive inspiration, but notice secondly, he also gives us a negative punch. At the end of chapter 11, the writer makes an observation. And notice what he says in verse 39, that these all, who's he talking about? He's talking about everybody in chapter 11 and who are these? These were Old Testament saints. And what does he say about them in verse 39? Having attained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided something better for us.

What is that all about? Well in chapter 11, the writer's making this observation that Old Testament saints received divine approval. They went to heaven. But they did not receive the fulfillment of the divine promises.

You say, what do you mean by that? Well, in the Old Testament, what they received was not a completed message. In other words, the Old Testament was pointing forward to a better day, the coming of Jesus. So they lived before Christ.

And so everything that preceded the coming of Christ was not as great as it was after Christ came. And in the Old Testament, the saints were blessed people, but they were limited people in their relationship with God. For example, they did not have access into the presence of God. If they went into God's presence, they'd be killed. They did not experience full freedom from a guilty conscience over their past because they had to offer continual sacrifices and it constantly reminded them of their sin. They didn't have the power to change their heart because they didn't experience new birth, regeneration with the Holy Spirit living inside of them.

And yet here's what he is saying. They basically, compared to us, were handicapped. But they still won the race because they were still faithful. It's sort of like somebody who wins the Olympics with a prosthesis. You know, if somebody ran the Olympics and they won the Olympics, I mean, we cheer them on. But what if they ran the Olympics with one good leg and they still won?

We would be blown away. And here's what he's saying. In spite of the disadvantages of the Old Testament saints, they still received God's approval because they were loyal and they persevered in their faith. Hebrews 11, 13, they all died in faith. In Hebrews 11, 39, they received not the promise, but they were faithful.

So what does he say in verse 40? It says that God has provided something better for us. That is, we are living in a new and better day.

What is that better day? It is the coming of Jesus. It's that He's come and died on the cross so that now all our sins can be forgiven. He has come so that now the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. He has come that now we have access into His throne room of grace and we can go to God at any time in our life and pray. In other words, to put it very simple, we have it better.

And all saints are living in an advantaged position. It's the difference between using a typewriter and using a computer keyboard. There is a difference. And what you have today is so much better than what I had when I came to Bob Jones 40 years ago and I had to sit there with a typewriter to write papers. Now I still typed and you still type. We still get the papers out, but you are better advantaged. Now here's the punch. That these in chapter 11 did not experience the fulfillment of the divine promises in their lifetime and yet they ran the race and they won the reward. And here's what He's saying to you and I.

This is the negative. If you and I have all these advantages and we don't prove ourselves to be faithful, then we are the biggest losers. Losers.

Big loser. So we're challenged that we have before us these people who have been faithful because God has given us everything necessary to live the Christian life. If you don't live the Christian life faithfully, it's because you did not appropriate the advantages that God has given you. And that leads me to the third and final question and that is what is the reward? What is the reward that we get? Well we know this, that victory is not determined by who crosses the finish line first.

It's not the issue. The question is really who finishes? Because the reward, some would think maybe the reward here are crowns in heaven and I believe the Bible teaches us about crowns in heaven. I don't think that's what Hebrews 12 is teaching us. I think the reward for us is that we actually go to heaven.

We actually enter into glory. And as we began in faith and we run in faith, we finish in faith, we persevere to the end. So that's what Hebrews is about. It's about the perseverance of the saints.

And right here we have a little bit of attention. Because the Bible teaches the preservation of the saints. For example, it says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and I give them to them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Bible teaches us that God preserves us. We are chosen in him before the foundation of the world.

We are safe and secure. We are justified in Jesus Christ and we stand before him righteous. And if God does not condemn us, nobody can condemn us. So we're preserved. And yet we have this race we have to run. We have to persevere. And we have to be faithful. And the perseverance is the testimony of our faith.

If we persevere, it's the proof that we have been preserved. And it almost seems like it's two opposing truths and yet the Bible's filled up with them. Like how can God know everything and yet we'd be responsible? Or how can the Bible be perfect and be written by imperfect men? Those are two truths that seem to oppose one another. And it can seem like that, but not really.

Because it will definitely be understood in eternity. It's sort of like standing on a railroad track with two rails, one over here and one over here. Maybe you're out west so you can see the rails as far as the eye can see. And you're standing there and you're looking out and you see these two rails that are right next to you.

But as far as the eye can see, inevitably, what do those two rails eventually do in your eye? And eventually what? They come together. And ultimately in the Bible we have these antinomes, these laws that seem to oppose one another. And ultimately they will come together.

And where do they all come together? When we are in heaven and we have perfect knowledge. God has put us in a race.

It is an agon. The focus is not on pain, but the focus is on the reward. And the reward for all of us who are faithful and persevere and believe and trust is that one day, by the grace of God, we will enter into glory. And we will be in His presence forever. If you're looking forward to that day, would you say amen? God bless you. You are dismissed. Copyright © 2020, New Thinking Allowed Foundation