Running to Win

If you would turn in your Bibles once again to Hebrews chapter 12.

I trust that all of you were able to get a handout that I hope will be beneficial. If you do have a handout, you'll see several passages that I will not have you turn to, but I'm hoping that you'll feel led to do so on your own a little bit later. But let's read the text again and then we'll get into what the Lord had to share tonight. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. Therefore, we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. By way of introduction, I want to place our text in context, and we're not going to read this, but if you would go back to Hebrews 10, 32 through 39.

It sets the stage by describing why the author is encouraging these people to run the race that is set before them, and that reason is their past perseverance. These folk being addressed in Hebrews chapter 12, 1 through 3, had gone through tremendous trial, and they had persevered. They had stuck by the stuff, by the grace of God. We not only see what they had gone through, but we find in Hebrews 11, the first two verses, faith defined. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony, faith defined. John MacArthur says the faith described here involves the most solid possible conviction, the God-given present assurance of a future reality. True faith, beloved, is not based on observation or experience, but on divine assurance, and it's a gift of God.

Not everyone preaches that, but we certainly do here. We believe that faith and repentance both are a gift of God, and thank Him for His grace in that. And then we see not only faith defined, but faith displayed. In Hebrews 11 again, verses 4 through 38 list several commendable examples of faith that persevered right up to their death as they focused on the promises of God, and the common thread that runs through each of their lives was based on conviction, courage, and consistency, no matter what the circumstance. And again, we could read Hebrews 11, and that would just jump out to you.

Very different lives, very different lives, but some commonality that we'll address a little bit later. Some showed their faith amidst glorious triumphs. Others showed their faith through grievous trials. They placed their faith in the person and promises of God when they could not understand His providence.

And isn't that the way it needs to be for us? We at times do not know what God is doing in our lives, but as we grow in our knowledge of who He is, we grow in our confidence when severe trials come our way, when severe mercies come our way. We see faith defined in our introduction and displayed, but then faith declared. Notice in verses 39 through 40 in Hebrews 11, And all these, speaking of the ones that we referred to, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. What was the promise?

The promise was the Messiah and His superior priesthood. And beloved, we can look back on that as a historical fact and we can praise God for it, but they look forward to it by faith. Considering their past perseverance, the examples given in Hebrews 11, the writer now calls his readers to join him in seriously running the race that is set before him. And I want you to notice Hebrews 12, verse 1. In light of the things that we've just looked at, he says, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And the first thing that I would have us notice is the examples from history range from patriarchs to a prostitute. And we find that in Hebrews chapter 11, we find that in Hebrews 12, verse 1. The examples from history range from the patriarchs to a prostitute. Kenneth Wiest, in his commentary, states this, That the cloud of witnesses refers to a great mass of cloud covering over the entire visibility of the heavens.

It doesn't have a form. And what he's getting at here is the host of faithful examples from the past is immeasurable. I've heard some preach and say that this cloud of witnesses is like people in stands going up.

And the more I thought about this and read different commentaries, I think Kenneth Wiest has it. What he's pointing out is the vast numbers. You know, when you think about it, why would they be watching me run a race in the presence of God? You know, I think for the first umpteen million years, we're going to be enraptured in the presence of God Almighty and the presence of Christ. The word witnesses does not mean spectators.

And listen to this carefully. Our English word martyr comes directly from the Greek word translated witness. These people are not witnessing what we are doing. Rather, they're bearing witness to us that God will guide us through our circumstances, just like He guided them through theirs. God bore witness of His faithfulness to them, and their lives bear witness to us. The second thing we would look at, not only the examples from history range from patriarchs to a prostitute, but the exhortation of those Hebrews and to us is twofold. First of all, we're to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. You know, it's amazing to me that we can take for granted the need to really get serious about running the Christian life and get rid of anything that would hinder us from doing our very best, whatever that may be.

I know of Olympic swimmers that will shave the hair off their legs and their arms just to get a tenth of a second. That is serious stuff. And what our writer is telling us is we need to be serious about this race. It's not just a Sunday afternoon jog. He's saying lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.

Lay aside every weight. Crosby in his commentary says everything that hinders our progress. This might even be something that's good in the eyes of others. But a winning athlete does not choose between the good and the bad. He chooses between the better and the best.

And I want us to get this tonight because I think it's so critical. Performance is directly tied to preparation. Performance is directly tied to preparation. Bobby Knight is a former basketball coach at Indiana. I would have to struggle to pull for America if he was coaching America in the Olympics.

That's how little I think of him as far as character. But he did get this right. He did get this right. Performance is directly tied to preparation. Here's what Bobby Knight said. The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare. Folks, listen to that again. The will to succeed is important, but what is more important is the will to prepare.

Well, could you give us an example of that? The will to prepare is getting up before dawn to have devotions. The will to prepare is to pray for God to give you wisdom and grace and strength, to have convictions and courage. The will to prepare is more important than the will to win or the will to succeed. I often told my soccer players in practice, and some of you will remember this, we pay a price when the stands are empty, so they pay a price when the stands are full.

You say, how hard? No, that's just smart. We pay a price with no one watching us so that we can play our best when the stands are full. Well, do you have a biblical example of that? It's about David the shepherd, a bear, a lion, and then Goliath.

He prepared by killing a lion and a bear with no one watching, and then he took on a nine-foot, nine-inch giant with two armies watching. The point being, folks, had he not prepared in private, he could not have been performed in public. I use that term perform carefully. The Christian life is not about performance. The Christian life, as Pastor Kaye said earlier, is about faith, as he said this morning, and yet because we love the Lord, we're grateful for what He's done in our lives, we want to live our lives in a way that would honor and glorify Him. He says, lay aside the weight, but secondly, lay aside the sin which so easily ensnares us. The sin may be any evil propensity that you have.

It could be different for every one of us. Matthew Henry understands it to mean that sin to which we are most prone or to which we are most exposed from habit or age or circumstances. Whatever trips our switch, we need to lay aside. James 1.14, James says, each one is tempted. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. When the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. And, folks, the death that he's talking about could be physical, but it could be the death of a relationship, it could be the death of a ministry, it could be any number of deaths, cessation of something.

We need to lay aside the things that tempt us, and we need to run with patience the race that's set before us. And let me say this, Satan doesn't play fair. I want to quickly give an analogy of that that is somewhat funny.

I don't mean it to be, but the very nature of it is. A cousin of mine and I went fishing for this huge bigmouth bass. He was over in our neighbor's boathouse, and you could see that fish just sitting up here in the shallow water of about three feet deep, just daring us to throw a lure in. And we tried everything under the sun, and that fish disdained everything we threw at him. My uncle was well off as far as buying fishing tackle, and he had the best of it, and that's how that fish got as big as he did. So my cousin had this bright idea, and we went up to his house and he got a spear, three-pronged spear. We put it on the end of a pole, and I snuck into that boathouse, and I told the teens I felt like Tarzan doing this, but I snuck in that boathouse and I got to the front of the boathouse and I thrust that spear down into that fish. He said, that's not playing fair.

You're right, I cheated. It wasn't going to bite on any conventional things, so desperate men do desperate things. We killed the fish, and it was struggling. I got it up out of the water and let a beller out of me, and my cousin said, be quiet, man.

It's illegal to spear game fish in New York State. Well, thanks for telling me, and what did I do? Handed him the spear. But the point is this, though, all kidding aside, Satan does not play fair.

He didn't play fair in the garden, and he won't play fair in your life or mine. He knows what buttons to push, and we have to take this race seriously. Lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.

The word ensnares, or easily ensnares, or easily besets, is a translation of the Greek word meaning readily, deftly, cleverly. Sin can encircle or cling to us before we know it, and it can make a devastating impact on our ability to run the race. The second thing that we're told to do is not only lay aside these things, but we're to run with endurance the race that's set before us. In light of Wiest and others saying that this cloud is not a bunch of saints that have gone on before watching us from there in a stadium-like setting, in light of that, I like to think of the Christian race as a cross-country race.

And why do you say that? Well, if you've ever run cross-country, it's rugged terrain. There are obstacles that vary with each individual course.

Every course is different, and you have to pay attention to what you're doing, or you won't even finish the race. And I'm going to give a personal illustration at the end of the message tonight. But even though the race is different with each course, there are some similarities that characterize every Christian's race. There are some things that are going to be the same for you as they are for me, and we have those listed in your notes.

The first is the race is personal. Like Christ, they were born into history when God ordained it for His purposes. Folks, you were born into history for such a time as this, as taken from the Book of Esther, but it's true of all of us. We're born into history when God decides. And I might add, not only were the patriarchs and the prophets and the apostles born into history when God decided, but the lives of wicked individuals that God used to bring about His purposes were also. A favorite verse of mine is Psalm 37 23. The steps of a good man are ordered or established or fixed or prepared, ordered by the Lord, and He delights in His way.

And what I want you to get under this heading, the race is personal. God equips each of us own with natural talents and spiritual gifts. He equips each of us with natural talents and spiritual gifts to run our race effectively for His glory.

And we're not going to look this up, but you can find this. Just one text, Exodus 31 1-11, talks about craftsmen that God gifted with ability in the building of the temple. And if you read that text, and it's in Deuteronomy also, but it's fantastic that God had gifted these men to make the temple that honored Him. And not only does He gift us with talents, but He gifts us with spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12, where it tells that the Spirit bestows spiritual gifts as He sees fit for the good of the church. Here's the point that I want you to get tonight. And young people, you, but really all of us, be yourself, but be all you should be. Don't try to be someone else. Be yourself, but be all you should be. Pursue excellence that is in line with your potential.

Pursue excellence that is in line with your potential. Illustration, eight men or women are in the finals of the 100-yard dash in the Olympics. One of them wins the gold. One of them comes in last place. The last place person is one of the eight fastest men or women in the world.

It's a matter of perspective. And I would convey to you that if they did their best, they were winning. So what do we want us to get out of the race is personal. God equips us as He wants you to be equipped to do His will.

And secondly, be yourself. Pursue excellence that is in line with your potential. Spurgeon put it this way when we speak of Psalm 37 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He said this, all his course of life is graciously ordained, and in loving kindness all is fixed, settled, and maintained. No reckless fate, no fickle chance rules us. Every step is the subject of divine decree. The race is personal, but secondly, the race is predestined in length. And for us believers, this is very encouraging. God decides the day this race ends for every individual. He decides. That doesn't mean that we don't use the means available to us to address sickness, like going to a doctor or taking medication. Mark it down, folks. God is in control of when we're born and when we die.

And I'll give you two texts among many. Psalm 139 16, David said, Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they were all written, The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. That word fashion means to determine or purpose. The days purposed, the days determined for me, when as yet there were none of them. Job 14 5 is speaking to mankind in general, and Job wrote this, Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass.

If you lose a loved one to death, you know, whoever that may be, don't ever think you could have done more. When God puts a period on a person's life, it's over. When God puts a period on a person's life, it's over. It's over for his purposes, and we need to bow the knee to that. Does that make it easy, necessarily, knowing that that is true?

No. But he gives us grace, and that is a truth that we can cling to. The third thing, the race is personal, it's predestined and linked, it's prioritized. It's prioritized in the lives of every commendable Christian, and we want to run the race for God's glory, and we want to give that race top priority. Listen to Philippians 3, 13 through 14, and just try to envision a runner doing this. Paul writes, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended or arrived. I haven't gotten it all together, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Can you see him pressing toward a finish line? Paul was single-minded in pressing toward the mark, and what was that mark? What should that mark be for you and for me? Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've run well.

You've done your best. That should be the goal of every Christian. Unfortunately, number four, the race is painful, and it's not just cross-country races that are painful.

Any race of any length or really even sprint, the race is painful. 1 Peter 1, verses 6 and 7, Peter wrote to persecuted Christians. He said, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.

Why? That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Beloved, there are times when the Christian race is painful.

There's no getting around it, and that pain can come in a multiplicity of ways. It doesn't have to be physical. It can be emotional. It can be spiritual. Number five, the race is progressive.

I trust that it is, and again I allude back to what Pastor K said this morning about justification and sanctification. The race is progressive. 2 Corinthians 3.18, Paul writes, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

How do you relate that to a race? Well, the bottom line is we faithfully run the race that God has set before us. He will grow us as we progress closer to the finish line that he's ordained for us. If we're faithful to run the race that he's set before us, he will grow us as we progress closer to the finish line. With each passing chapter of our lives, we are now becoming who we will one day be. I have said that I do not know how many times, countless times, to young people, and I'm afraid that it probably takes getting to middle-age crisis before we realize that's true. I am now at 71 becoming who I will one day be. The only thing is I have no idea how long that will be. So what is your point? I need to press every day as though it's my last.

I need to press to finish strong every day as though it is my last. The race is progressive. The more we exercise ourself unto godliness, the more mature in the Lord and effective we will be. And finally, the race is profitable.

Thank the Lord. 1 Peter 1, 3-5. Peter writes, Blessed be the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. Beloved, the trophy, if you will, the thing that we will receive, the honor that we will receive, whatever way you want to put it, is profitable. The best is yet to come for the believer. I have the opportunity to visit the hospital often, to visit some of our people, and on numerous occasions I have made this statement.

I don't know what people do without the Lord. They lay on their back in that bed with no hope. Most of you, if not all of you, know I had a heart attack June 21, June 20, 21, over a year ago.

Whichever one it was, you'd think I'd get it, 20 and 21, but flip-flop it either way. It's in my rearview mirror. But as I lay in that bed by myself because of COVID, it hit me. I may never see my family again this side of glory. I may never.

I was at complete peace. That does not mean that I didn't have emotion. Not as much for me.

Why? Because where I'm headed is the basis of our hope, but for my family. And yet I couldn't help but think, what do people do that don't have the assurance that Christians have, rather than confident that if I don't wake up in recovery, I will wake up in heaven? Now, little did I know when they do what they did to me, they don't put you to sleep.

They let you stay awake during the whole thing. But honestly, I thought if I don't wake up in recovery, I'll wake up in heaven. We have that promise, that profitable objective ahead of us. Then Roman numeral three, we've looked at the examples. We've looked at the exhortation of those Hebrews and das, and now the enabling that is ours in Christ. The enabling that is ours in Christ. Notice verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Christ's example of faith that finishes. He tells us, the writer tells us, looking unto Jesus. The Greek word for looking means to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something. It also means to consider attentively. It's just not, well, we know Jesus, he is our savior.

No, we're looking intently at him. We're studying what we know of him in the Bible and seeking to bring our lives into line, what we see of him in the Bible. Marvin Vinson's expository dictionary of the New Testament says the word author is made up of the Greek word meaning to lead and the Greek word meaning the first.

And when you put them together, the compound word means the chief leader, one that takes the lead in anything and thus furnishes the example. He is our example. And in our passage, it describes Jesus as the one who is preeminent in faith. It gives us a whole series of people in Hebrews 11. They can't touch his shoestring when it comes to faith. And I'll mention this later. Just think of his faith in Gethsemane and Gabbatha and Golgotha.

There's no comparison. In John 17, 4, Jesus prayed, I have glorified you on the earth. Notice this. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. He stated that in the past tense, and yet the cup of wrath still lay ahead. How do we justify the fact that he said I've finished the work? Christ's determination to finish the race strong, to finish the race strong.

Nothing but nothing would turn him back. And I'm gripped in my soul when I know that of him. I have finished the race, and yet I see him so exercised emotionally, he bleeds, as it were, great drops of blood.

I mean, when you try to put those two things together, the determination and yet the grief that he experienced, it's jarring. John 19, 30, so when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. I've finished my race. It's finished. It's over.

He bowed his head and gave up the spirit. The apostle Paul connected keeping the faith to finishing the race that sat before him in 2 Timothy 4. He said, I fought the good fight.

Notice this. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And when we speak of the faith in this verse, it's talking about the truths and standards revealed in the word of God. Secondly, under this enabling, we see Christ's enabling of true faith through his death, burial, and resurrection. Hebrews 2, 10, he's referred to as the founder of our salvation, who was made perfect through suffering. And that word perfect means complete. The ESV version refers to Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith.

And again, that word perfecter means to carry through to perfect completion. As we trust and obey, as we're in his word, as we're praying, he is refining us. More and more each day, we're being exercised unto godliness. And then finally, under this, Christ's exaltation. Hebrews 12, 2 also reveals Christ focused the joy that was set before him. Now, I copied this word for word from Marvin Vincent, and I'm going to read it slowly because it's profound, I think. And I want you to think of the joy that Jesus had in eternity past and the joy that Jesus was looking forward to as written in Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 3.

Listen to this. He said, the joy was the full, divine, utmost bliss of his pre-incarnate life in the bosom of the Father, the glory which he had with God before the world was. In exchange for this, he accepted the cross and the shame.

The heroic character of his faith appears and is renouncing a joy already in possession in exchange for shame and death. The words, is set down, are in the perfect tense in the Greek text. The idea being that he, after his work of providing salvation was finished, sat down and he remained seated. He need never rise and repeat his work on the cross for sinners.

It's a finished work. He's not only seated, but he occupies the position of preeminence at the right hand of God. In other words, Jesus is once again enjoying the glory that he had with the Father before the foundation of the world.

I don't know about you, but that, for lack of a better word, is awesome. When we think of the perfect joy that he experienced and what he exchanged for that. And then, who for the joy that lay before him, a joy he knew, he endured the cross. Number four, our final consideration tonight, the encouragement we find in considering what Christ endured on our behalf. The encouragement, Hebrews 12-3, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. The word endured in Hebrews 12-3 means to stay under or remain.

To undergo, to bear trials, to have fortitude, to persevere, to abide, to take patiently, to suffer. The struggle of running a race brings with it the temptation to slow up or quit. And if you've ever run, it's there. Way back in the day when I coached, early on in my coaching, I would start running before the guys came for practice August 1st. You know something, folks? North Carolina in August is hot.

And North Carolina in August, running by yourself is hotter. And what goes through your mind is, is this stupid? You're never going to get in the game. Why are you doing this to yourself? There's cool, clear water over here. A number of things go through your mind. But there's that temptation not to endure, but to quit. What would make you go on? A view of the prize ahead.

A view of the prize ahead. In the case of running for players to gain their respect. In the case of running for God, out of gratitude.

Out of gratitude and a desire to have the Father say, Son, well done, well done. The word hostility. I will just take you to Isaiah 50, and I do want to read this, verses 3 through 5. Consider him who endured such hostility. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Jarring, jarring text of scripture. And I want you to consider Jesus in three venues. First, in Gethsemane.

What happened there, folks? He endured emotionally like no other man. And I just lift one verse for each of these. Luke 22, 44. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. The capillaries under his skin burst because of stress, and blood came through his pores. And commentaries will tell you that you could wipe your hand across his flesh to get that bloody flux wiping on something white and it would stain it. That is stress. Jesus endured emotionally like no other man.

Consider him at Gabathie, he endured physically like no other man. Isaiah 50, verse 6, I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheek to those who plucked out the beard. That's the problem with our English translations from Hebrew or Greek. That word pluck doesn't get it done.

It's equivalent to them grabbing him by the beard and yanking it out. It was not only to inflict pain, but it was to inflict shame. He said, I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 52, verse 14, just as many were astonished at you, so his visage, his countenance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. These were people who were accustomed to seeing crucifixion, yet they were astonished at what they did to Jesus. And finally, consider him on Golgotha. He endured spiritually like no other man.

Imagine the perfect son of God saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Beloved, if some of these things that you know already don't rekindle a flame to run faster and farther, you ought to be concerned. We need to think about the fact that we don't know how long our race is. It could be done tomorrow. James tells us, boast not yourself of tomorrow. What profound inspiration to keep on keeping on is found in just two words.

Consider him. That ought to make us keep on keeping on. By way of application, I want to share an event from my past that's reminded me of this, and this is what I want you to get from the illustration I give. God expects my best and nothing less. God expects your best and nothing less. As I told the teens last Wednesday night, your best is always good enough for God. Less than your best is never good enough for God. Your best done for yourself is never good enough for God. Your best done for God's glory is always good enough. Be yourself and be the best you can be.

Here's the illustration. John Stanley was the best cross-country runner in my high school. He was one of the best in our conference. He was an average runner at best. During one practice, the coach gave us instructions to run a long, circular route with a starting line and the finishing line with the same spot. As we took off, Stanley went one way and the rest of the team started in the opposite direction. I chose to follow Stanley, our best runner, instead of sticking with the group. It soon dawned on me that I would finish the race not knowing how the rest of the team was progressing until we approached the finish line from the opposite direction.

In addition, there was no pack of runners that I could comfortably blend into as things got tougher, and they would. To my great surprise, as long as I stayed focused upon Stanley's back and tried my best to match his stride and tempo, I kept a respectable distance behind him. In spite of burning lungs, leaden legs, and the nagging desire to slow up, I was determined to persevere. Even though I could never beat Stanley, the result of doing my best that day was the best time I'd had. What was the point?

It's a physical illustration of the fact that we might surprise ourselves at what we could do. And as long as I kept focused on John Stanley and tried to match his stride and tempo, I lost to him respectively, if I can put it that way. Well, how do you make an analogy spiritually? Spiritually speaking, in Christ, we have the greatest example of finishing one's course, the greatest example.

The course may involve running opposite from the majority. The key to personal victory is acknowledging Christ as our example in all of our ways and seeking to do our best for His glory and the race He set before us. We acknowledge Him in all of our ways and give our best. We need to run our race in 2022 in such a way that when we look back at our performance, we will not have to say what might have been if I had only done this or that. Each individual, each of us, should run in such a way that we can say, I gave my best to follow Christ and I praise Him for enabling me to do so. Galatians 6, 9, Paul warns, And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.