There ought to be an aggressiveness to the Christian life. There ought to be a competitiveness to the Christian life insofar as you fight against weakness and indolence and laziness and ignorance and sin. To be what God wants you to be, get in this thing. First of all, come to Christ, get over the fence, get in the race and when you're in it, man, run it. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You may know what it's like to dust off some old running shoes and work on getting back into shape.
Though at first your pace may be slow and your endurance poor, you start to see improvement as you stick with your training and over time you get stronger and stronger. With that imagery in mind, stay here as John MacArthur looks at the parallels scripture draws between running a race and living the Christian life. It's a practical lesson from John's continuing study titled The Power of Faith.
And now here's John. If you'll turn in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12, I want to talk to you about the first four verses. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 4, one of the great texts in the Bible, one of the most familiar, one of the simplest really, and yet one of the most profound. And I really just want to remind you of some very wonderful truths and wonderful realities that flow out of this great text. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
And we'll stop right there. Now you have in this brief text a figure of speech. The Christian life is likened unto a race. When we studied in seminary about how to teach and how to preach, and they do teach that there, believe it or not, they used to tell us, and it's been reaffirmed by many others who have taught speech, that you best communicate through the use of figures of speech or analogies or similes or metaphors, those things that make up figures of speech.
A figure of speech is saying something in another way, by an illustration, by a simile, a metaphor, whatever, an allegory. The Bible uses many such figures to speak of the Christian life. Since the Christian life is an abstract thing in the sense that it's a word from God describing a spiritual thing and not a physical thing, it needs to be given some physical identity so we can better understand it. And so, for example, in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and in Ephesians 6, Paul describes the Christian life as warfare and he talks about the armor of the Christian and he talks about being a soldier of Jesus Christ. And in Ephesians chapter 6 also, Paul describes the Christian life as a wrestling match and says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. And also in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 26, he describes the Christian life as a boxing match and he says, I don't shadow box, I don't fight as one that beats the air. And then in Romans and many other places, Paul talks about the Christian life as a form of slavery, that we are the bond slaves of Jesus Christ. In 2 Timothy 2, 6 he describes the Christian life as a farming operation and he says a hard-working farmer is likened unto a faithful Christian who works diligently to plant his crop and then waits to see God give a harvest. In Romans chapter 7, God likens the Christian life to marriage. He says your old marriage partner, the law, died and you're married to a new partner, Jesus Christ. And in many, many texts in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit likens the Christian life to the relationship between a father and a son.
We are often called the sons of the children of God. But one other one, and that's the one that appears here in Hebrews chapter 12, is that the Holy Spirit has likened the Christian life to a race...to a race. And this is a very common metaphor in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 24, Paul says, I run that I may obtain. He says the worldly runners run to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible. And so we are striving to be temperate, to control our bodies, to strive for the mastery, he says, that we might run to win. And in Galatians chapter 5 he reminds the Galatians, you used to run well, who has hindered you. And in Philippians again in chapter 2 and verse 16 you have the same idea, talking about running. He says, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain. And he talks about running later on to Timothy.
In 2 Timothy chapter 4 he says, I fought a good fight, I have literally run my course. So the Christian life then likened to many things is also likened to a race. And that's what we want to look at as we examine these verses.
I want to give you several items here. I'm going to give you just some points in sequence to help open the passage to you. Number one in Hebrews 12 verse 1, the event...the event. And we'll start with the event. Let's begin at verse 1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now what is the event?
The event is a race. The writer of Hebrews is calling on the reader to get in the race and run it. Now I want you to notice just two words at the bottom of verse 1.
They're the words, let us...let us. One of the problems that you have in Hebrews in trying to interpret the book is to determine who the us's are in Hebrews. I remember when I was a student in seminary, my professor when I studied the book of Hebrews was Dr. Charles Feinberg. And I wrote a paper for him in that class basically on who are the us's in Hebrews.
To whom does he refer? Is it the us of Christians or is it the us of Jews is basically the question. And in most cases it is the broadest interpretation that really he is saying it is the us's of all who are reading of a Jewish heritage. There's no doubt in my mind that the author of the book of Hebrews was Jewish.
Beyond that there's a lot of doubt. I don't know who it was, but he was Jewish. There's also no doubt that he was writing to Jews, that's why it's called to the Hebrews. And so the whole analogy of the book is built around an understanding of Judaism. And he is commonly referring to his readers in the sense of their Jewishness rather than in the sense of their being saved necessarily. He calls, for example, the Jewish reader, brethren, brethren, brethren. And when he wants to distinguish the Christian, he calls them holy brethren.
So there's a distinction. So the brethren in Hebrews and the us's of Hebrews can encompass the total Jewish audience to whom he is speaking. Now that brings us to understand this then, that if he is saying let us run the race and it is the broadest possible interpretation of his readers, we must understand who his readers are and they fall into three categories. There somewhere was a little congregation of Jewish people, some of whom had come to Christ.
And he is writing this letter to them. So you had then, first of all, some saved Jews, some Jewish Christians, some people who had really given their heart to Jesus Christ, but they began to experience some tremendous pressure from their Jewish relations, from their friends and their family and the whole thing began to pounce in on them and they were really starting to waver even though they were saved and they were beginning to go back to the old customs, keep some of the old feasts, make some of the old sacrifices, hang around some of the old priests, go back to the old temple standards and they were beginning to fall back into Judaistic patterns to try to get some social acceptance even though they were saved. So the book is really written to these Jewish Christians primarily to tell them not to fall back into those old patterns of Jewishness, but to take their stand for Christ. And that's the major thesis of the book. He says you have a better covenant, you have a better priest from a better priesthood with a better sacrifice which constitutes a better offering with better results and all of that than the old. And that's basically the thrust of the whole book.
So that's the first reader. But there's a second group of Jews who are intellectually convinced that the gospel is true. They are intellectually in their minds convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. But they have never received Christ because they're still hanging on the fence here. They're afraid to go over because they are afraid of what they see happening to the ones who did, you see, of being alienated from their society, ostracized from their Jewish heritage, turned into outcasts and traitors and whatever else.
And so they are hesitant to make the commitment. So periodically dotting the book like exclamation points throughout Hebrews are warnings to those sitting on the fence. And he'll say, come on, don't fall back. Don't turn your back on Christ.
You know this is true. Come all the way to the promises. Come all the way to perfection in Christ. And very frequently when he does that, the term let us is used in Hebrews. So the idea of let us is a call to the second category of Jewish people who are intellectually convinced the gospel is true but won't make that commitment for some personal reason. And then, of course, the third element of readers would be the plain old antagonistic Jews who aren't convinced and aren't saved either. Now, first of all, primarily I would just say this.
Let us has reference to group two. He is calling on those Jews intellectually convinced and saying, look, you must come to Christ. Get in the race. The Christian life is a race and you've got to be in it. You've got to be on the track participating.
Come on, get in the race. And secondarily, he is saying to Christians, if you're in the race, would you please run it? Because there are a lot of Christians just flopped all over the track. And we like to get them going.
So you have a primary indication and a secondary. Primarily he is inviting people to make a commitment to Christ. And you know, it's very easy, I think, to sit on that fence. There are people who come to Grace Church, I know, who come and they sit and they listen, they hear the Word of God. They probably are intellectually convinced that it is true. They probably have even gone so far as to have some of their doubts removed in reading certain things to defend Christianity. Perhaps they have counseled with people, talked with their friends, and so forth, and they really know it's true, but for some reason they won't get in the race, you see. And maybe it's because they're afraid of the peer pressure that's going to come from their family. Maybe some of them are even Jewish and they're afraid of the ostracizing that occurs. Maybe some of them are afraid they're going to lose their friends. Maybe some of them are afraid they're going to have to give up the girl they're living with.
Some of them are afraid of the moral consequences, or some of them realize if they do that, they've got to clean up their act down at the business. And for whatever reason, they're sitting on the fence and the Word of the Holy Spirit to them then and now today is, hey, get in the race. Get in the race.
And He'll show you the reason why in a minute as we go. But the first thing is, the event is a race and the only people in it are Christians and so He's saying, get in the race. And to the Christian He's saying, when you get in it, would you mind running it with some endurance? The race is the Christian life. You know, the Christian life is a race.
It's not just sitting in some great sanctified pillow waiting for the rapture. That isn't the point. We are called to run a race. Now you'll notice the word race in verse 1, let us run the race, is the word in the Greek agon from which we get, guess what? Agony. That's the Christian life.
Join the agony. This is a marathon and that's what He's saying. And He's saying we have to run this marathon with hupomone in the Greek, which means endurance. This is an endurance race.
This isn't a short spurt. The Christian life is a commitment to run with endurance to victory. It demands discipline. It demands a certain kind of rigid care. It demands a self-sacrifice, a self-denial.
It demands all these things, but it's nothing like a passive luxury. There is a mentality in Christianity today that wants to make Christianity sort of like a really...just like some kind of a happy-go-lucky gig. You know, you're a Christian and you just kind of flake away, see? And then you hear people say, well, if the Lord wants me, I'm available. You're available. Well, how nice. The Lord just hasn't shown me anything.
I'm certainly available. That's not the Christian life. We're not to ride around on flowery beds of ease. There's a strenuous self-sacrifice that demands hard training and discipline. It isn't easy to be a Christian. It is the life of a soldier. Paul comes to the end and says, I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race. There must be a sense of commitment. The Christian...it isn't any different for me. I don't...you say, well, you're a mature and you know the Bible and the Christian life must be just roses for you.
Guess again. All the same temptations. You think I get up every morning and say, oh, I get to study the Bible again today. I get to go to work and, oh, I can do...I can parse verbs for the next two hours and do my Greek study. You think that's a great joy every day? It's a discipline. It's like anything else. It's a discipline. And because I desire to please God, and most of the time more than myself, although there are times when I don't, but because that's my greatest desire, I've learned to discipline myself to get to the goal that I set for myself and that is to do that which pleases Him. But it's a discipline. In fact, Amos said in Amos 6, 1, woe unto them who are at ease. It's not a good place to be. There ought to be an aggressiveness to the Christian life.
There ought to be a competitiveness to the Christian life insofar as you fight against weakness and indolence and laziness and ignorance and sin to be what God wants you to be. Get in this thing. First of all, come to Christ. Get over the fence. Get in the race and when you're in it, man, run it. Run it. We don't need a whole lot of flaky Christians lying around the track.
It just muddies the water and confuses the issue. You say, well, how long is the race going to last? Well, it lasts until you die. Paul says, I finished my race and now I'm ready to be offered. Notice the word patience there in verse 1.
It's the word, as I said, means endurance. It's a long race. You know, that's a whole different thing.
That takes much more training. You know, in high school I was basically a baseball player in the spring season, but I could run fairly fast and so whenever they had a track meet, they'd always come and get me and take me to the track meet just to run the 100-yard dash. And I never trained for it, I just would go with the track team whenever they had a meet if we didn't have a baseball game and they'd just stick me out there and I'd run it. And so that was great. I didn't mind that. You run 100 yards, it's over with.
And once in a while I did well enough so that I enjoyed it. But baseball was my first love. But one day we got out there and the guy who was supposed to run the 440 got sick. And so they said, okay, MacArthur, you run the 440. I had never run a 440 in my life, I was in the 10th grade. And I only knew one way to run, fast as you can run.
See? So I didn't have any idea about pacing. So they put me down there and we were down in some big high school in L.A. running this big thing.
I think it was a triangular meet or four schools or something. And I got down to the blocks and man went out, gun went out, I was out of there. And by the time we hit the first turn I was like 15 yards ahead. And I said, this is snap. You know, people in the crowds, in the stands were thinking, this guy's a 10th grade Olympic material, you know, this is fantastic.
Look at this guy. I'm out by 15, 20 yards coming around the first turn. I went down the back straps feeling great, you know, just great. And about halfway down the back stretch, something started to be funny with my legs, you know. I started getting these little funny twinges in my legs and by the time I got into the next curve, I had no feeling in my legs at all. And I was trying to get one leg in front of the other. They were wobbling, I was getting a headache. And, you know, I never forget it because I went down, I went down that last straightaway and I'm telling you, it seemed like eternity trying to get to that tape.
One guy went by and another guy went by and the other side and I just fell over the tape and I think I got third place and I was out. Nobody told me that it was different when you had to run like that, see. And I think in the Christian life there are plenty of people who can go over here and there. But, you know, it's carrying the thing from the start to the finish with consistency that brings ultimate victory, see. And that's what God is after in the Christian life.
You see, Paul says to the Ephesians, in having done all to what? Stand. He doesn't want everybody dead flopped out at the finish line. There's got to be endurance and endurance takes discipline.
You can't come out on Saturday and run a 440 like that. You've got to train for that and discipline yourself and teach yourself what sacrifice means. And that's the kind of thing that God wants of us, self-disciplined Christians who can run a race that demands endurance.
Now in 1 Corinthians 9, I would call your attention to it. Verse 24, know you not that they who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize. So run to win.
Run to win. You know, I just don't feel that I see enough of that in Christianity. I get upset in my heart at Christians who don't want to win, who aren't in this thing to the best of their ability, to be the most excellent that they can be. You know, I challenge you, if you're a Sunday school teacher, be the most excellent teacher you can be. If you're leading a Bible study, run that thing to win, you see. If you're a housewife, be the most excellent that you can be.
If you're on the job, give the most excellent work that you can give. That's the only way to live the Christian life. Well, you know, it's easy for us to float along, so easy. I fight that all...you know, basically I'm just a mouth surrounded by a body. My mouth works better than anything else. And I can get up in front of an audience and pretty much just carry it just with my mouth. And that is a temptation to me and through the years I have had to learn to discipline my mind so that when my mouth is open, something significant occurs. But that's the discipline of excellence that I demand of myself. I don't know where your gifts are individually or what it is that God has called you to do or where He's placed you, but I'll tell you one thing, do it to win it. There's no other way to run.
There's no other way. Every man, he says in verse 25, that strives to win is temperate. That means he doesn't have any indulgence.
He never breaks the training rules. Well, you look at an athlete and they are unbelievable how they train. It's incredible how they work to attain what they want and they do it, he says, to get a corruptible crown, a laurel wreath on their head that fades and it's gone. But we, an incorruptible, how much greater should be our commitment. Sometimes a pastor will say to me, you mean you study the Bible every day for five or six hours? And I'll say, yes.
He says, unbelievable. And I say to him, you know, there are plenty of athletes who do that four or five or six hours a day to attain what they want to attain. And I think that the kingdom of God is infinitely more important.
That's no big deal. I should give more because God is seeking excellence. And he says, you have to be temperate. That is, you have to say no to some things.
You got to cut yourself off from the world and the flesh. It's like 2 Timothy 2 where he says, endure hardness as a good soldier. And then he says, and a good soldier does not entangle himself with the affairs of this life.
Can't. You know, like a guy going in the army. He's got a few weeks to get stuff ready and man, then he is in the army and that is all he is, is in the army.
Nothing else because the army wants to win. And so it is that we must commit ourselves to excellence and to win. Boy, it would be so great if Christians in the world just then had that kind of commitment as Paul did, to be excellent, to strive to master his body, to strive to master his mind, to strive to master his gift in order that when he worked for God, it was with excellence and he was victorious. So the event is a race and a race means somebody's going to win. God wants every believer to win. If you're not a Christian, get in the race.
If you are, run to win. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson from Hebrews chapter 12 is part of his study here on Grace to You titled The Power of Faith. Now this race that is set before us, the living out of the Christian life, as you said, John, it's a race that requires discipline. As you've counseled people in your church about how to cultivate a disciplined spiritual life, or maybe as you've counseled your children and grandchildren, what sort of practical advice usually tops the list? I think, again, it takes us to this category of faith. I would say to my youngest grandchildren, as I would say to my oldest children, trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. And more and more, I think trust is the purest form of worship. Real worship is defined by trust. And along with that, I would add the word contentment. If you believe, and you must if you understand the scriptures, that God is in control and that he is doing everything for your good and his glory, then you have to trust that and be content in whatever situation you're in. And that's exactly what Paul said.
I've learned to be content, whether I have little or much, I've learned to be content. I think that is the purest form of worship. I trust the Lord, and I'm content in his will for my life. And that shows up certainly in Hebrews chapter 11, because these people had circumstances that many people would have been very discontent to find themselves in. So if your faith is the pure faith and the growing and confident faith, coming along with it is contentment, accepting what God provides, because you know it's for your good and his glory. If you haven't ordered your study guide on the series The Power of Faith, do that today. It covers that amazing eleventh chapter into chapter 12 from the book of Hebrews.
It's a perfect companion to our current series. Salvation is by faith, and it's critical to recognize what genuine faith is like and how it behaves. It's also critical to live out your Christian faith with endurance, and that requires discipline, and that discipline comes from trust and contentment.
The author of Hebrews spells out what it takes to live a God-honoring life of faith. It's all there in the new study guide, and again, this is the ninth volume in our relaunch series. Great tools to use with a group or for your personal reading and devotion. By the way, The Power of Faith study guide is 240 pages and available only from Grace To You and affordably priced.
Thanks, Jon. And friend, this study guide really is a substantial resource. It covers all 10 sermons in The Power of Faith series. You get the full outline of each sermon, plus there are helpful questions for kicking off discussions with your Bible study group. And of course, you can use the study guide for your own devotions.
It's also great for that. To order The Power of Faith study guide, just contact us. The study guide costs $9 and shipping is free. To order, call 855-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. Again, each chapter in the study guide includes thoughtful questions that can facilitate discussion for your small group or during family devotions. Again, to order the new Power of Faith study guide, call 855-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. Now, if you were encouraged by today's lesson, if our online resources have helped you prepare for teaching at your church, or if someone you know has come to faith in Christ because of the teaching he or she heard on our broadcasts, we'd love to hear that story. Email us here at letters at gty.org. Again, letters at gty.org. Or you can drop a note in the mail to Grace to You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Join us again tomorrow as John wraps up his study, The Power of Faith, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, here on Grace to You.
