Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast. Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. We want to talk about how bad we've suffered, verse 4.

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin as Jesus did, by the way. Looking unto Jesus. Lord, I pray you'd help us this morning. May this really help our daily walk with you and for you and in you.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. The author of Hebrews, obviously, if you're kind of somewhat new to church or whatever, we don't know for sure, who wrote the book of Hebrews. Many of us believe that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, and we know other books that Paul wrote, and there's for many reasons we think this, his writing style and different things, but we don't know for sure. So we will refer to the author of Hebrews. But I do want you to understand that in Hebrews chapter 11, we have what is called the faith chapter.

We've dug into that over the past few years a number of times. And in this chapter, we're given exemplary examples of faith. It goes from person to person to person and talks about their faith and all that they were able to do for the Lord. And by the way, we know what faith is, by the way. The Bible defines it for us, and faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For us to say my faith or, you know, we talk about here in verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That word faith means it's our system of belief.

It literally is the set of belief system that controls our life, that dictates things in our life. That's what our faith is. And the word faith itself means it's something that we don't have in front of us yet, but it is something that we believe so strongly that we believe it's already happened as if it has happened, although it hasn't happened yet.

Have I confused you yet? My faith is and will take place, although it hasn't taken place yet. I believe God's promises are true and real and sure. And so my faith, let's look at me, folks. It's not just based on Jesus.

My faith is Jesus. Now, in chapter 11, all these folks displayed faith. And why they are mentioned in this Hall of Faith chapter is because all of them spent their lives claiming promises that they never saw fulfilled. It means that they were fulfilled, but they didn't see them fulfilled on earth.

They saw those things fulfilled when they reached home in heaven. And all of a sudden in chapter 12, we find in verse 1, the word wherefore. And that means everything that you've just been told, wherefore. In other words, that means this. So it begs to differ in verse 1 of chapter 12. It says we are compassed or compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

It means we're surrounded. In chapter 11, we're given all these wonderful individuals of faith out of God's word. And then in chapter 12, it says wherefore or therefore or because of that, seeing we are compassed or compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses, who are these witnesses? And we have this debate.

It's not a debate, but we have all kinds of options that we have thought of over the years. Who are these witnesses? And some people believe that these witnesses literally are folks in heaven. And we believe maybe a loved ones that go on to heaven, that they're able to see certain things in our life. We don't know what that is.

And we don't know if they are for sure, whatever the case might be. And I like to think that maybe, you know, that my mom in heaven is able to see certain things or maybe was even able to watch her own funeral service. I don't know that.

I like to think that. But I don't have necessarily the guarantee of God's word. But we do know of individuals that work for us. Some people believe that we're in heaven, that we're able to witness some things on earth.

But I don't know. Some people believe that these witnesses are basically people on earth. We're compassed and surrounded with people that are watching us. And because they're watching us, we need to lay aside every weight and the sin which stops us so easily.

And we need to run with patience the race that God has chosen. Some believe that the witnesses that are mentioned in chapter 12 literally are all those that were mentioned in chapter 11. Because they mention all these people in chapter 11 right to verse 1, wherefore seeing we are compassed about was so great a cloud of witnesses. In other words, all these individuals that were mentioned in verse 11. But I want you to understand before we can go further in verse 2 where we're heading this morning, I believe that that word witnesses means differently than we've always thought.

Now, and I've shared this with you before, but I want to catch everybody up to speed that I don't necessarily believe that it's one of these things that there's a whole bunch of people watching us. So we need to run with patience the race that is set before us. And by the way, I don't understand why we have to be such a great example to people that are in heaven. They're already in heaven.

If you think about it. We really need to be an example to those around us. If the witnesses are in heaven, why do we need to run the race for them?

We're not running it for them. This word witnesses doesn't mean that they're watching us, I believe. I believe that word witnesses means those that have watched Jesus. In other words, we are compass or compass about with a great cloud of individuals that are now in heaven that have seen that God's promises are true. They are witness to the fact that everything that Jesus claimed is real.

There is a heaven and there is a home there and Jesus is there. And we have witnesses that we're compass about with that have watched and see that Jesus is true and real. I believe witnesses here doesn't mean they're watching us. I believe that these witnesses have watched Jesus. And dear friend, I want you to understand all these people mentioned in chapter 11, they are now witness to the fact they have seen the promises fulfilled. They know that Jesus is real. And they are now in their home in heaven. And they now can be witness to the fact that everything that the Bible says is true.

Now listen to me. You say, all right, what does that mean? Well, in verse one, it says that we have these witnesses that are there and can verify and prove that this is real, that God is right, that God is true, that God's promises are real. And he says, therefore, basically, let us lay aside every weight. In other words, they have proven me and they now know because they're in the presence of the Savior.

They now know that all this is true, that this is worth it. And so therefore, we need to lay aside every weight. We need to get that sin out of our life that would stop us from running this race. And we need to run this race with patience because all those that stayed faithful and ran their races, they are now in heaven and realize it was worth it.

So how do we do this? Preacher, how do we lay aside these weights and how do we get rid of this sin and how do we run this race that God has set for us and everybody has a different race and everybody has different things that you have to go through in life. So preacher, how is it that we do this with patience and how do we stay faithful? Verse two, looking unto Jesus. What is interesting, in chapter 11, he never says, look unto these people of faith.

Look at me, dear friend. They are witnesses now that by their faith, everything that they claimed was real, they now know is. But God never said to look at them to run our race. God says we have to look to Jesus to run our race. Do you get it? All these people in chapter 11 are wonderful people, but look at me.

They can't motivate you to run this race. If you look and say, well, Abraham was a great man of faith. I want to be like Abraham.

That's going to last a week. And you're going to find out you can't be in Abraham. You're going to think of all these people, well, they were great people of faith. I want to be like them. And we should want to have faith like that. But dear friends, I'm here to tell you, we can't be them because we're not them.

You have to be you. And so instead of us looking at individuals or as people, you and I have to look unto Jesus. That means this, you can't look at me to run your race and I can't look at you to run my race. We both have to look to Jesus in order for us to finish our race.

He gives the reasons why. Notice this in verse two. Looking unto Jesus, and I want to break each of these down and we'll go home this morning, but we need to understand why it is important for us to look unto Jesus for us to finish our race. Look at the first thing. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Now that is very, very important.

Now look up here at me. I want you to understand this. This Bible says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Do you know that there are a lot of individuals that have authored different faiths? Buddha authored a different faith. Muhammad authored a different faith. They all have different religions. They all have different things. There's a whole bunch of different faiths, religions, beliefs out there.

They have all been authored by different people. But none of them are the finisher of those faiths. They all died. They're all in a grave and their bones are laying in that grave and they're probably burning in hell right now. Because if they offered any different belief system than that based on Jesus Christ himself, they are in hell burning. Jesus is the only one that authored and finished a faith. Get this. This is what it means.

You've got to get this. Now you've got to think a little bit with me on Sunday morning. God did not author our faith. God authored creation. He created us. He loves us. Look at me. But by the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that's why in Hebrews we're told that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

Why does he say that? Look at me, dear friends. I want you to get this. The fact that he was the author and the finisher means that he's the one that created it and he's the one that proved it. Now look at me.

You've got to get this. Our faith is not a belief system about Jesus. Our faith is Jesus. Because he's the author and finisher, there's not a belief system that leads me to something. It is Jesus himself.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ. And there's no way I'm ever going to run this race unless my faith is in the author and finisher of my beliefs. And that's Jesus Christ.

Look at me, dear friends. You'll never finish your race unless you believe he's not just the author but he's the finisher. The fact that you believe he's the author and finisher of my faith means this, that I believe when I get to heaven everything he promised is going to be true. I'm going to finish it. Do you get this?

Look at me, dear friend. Author means he makes promises. Finisher means he keeps them. And he has kept everyone. And you can take it to the bank, dear friend. Listen, I have faith to believe what he said. That in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.

That's what Jesus said. He said that's real. He said there's a heaven.

He said he's preparing a place for me. And he said that when I die and my faith and trust is in Jesus Christ that I will go there. Look at me, I haven't seen it yet. I can't prove it. And if I do die, I can't come back and tell you all about it because I'll be in heaven. But I am here to tell you it hadn't happened yet and I can't see it.

But I know it's true. Because he didn't just author it. He finished it. When he rose out of the grave and defeated death, he finished that faith. Notice the second thing.

He said you'll never run your race until you get a grip on that. Notice the second thing. He says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Notice that. The joy that was set before him.

Preacher, what does that mean? Now this is the one probably, this is a little anti-climactic because we've got some other things after this. But this was my favorite. This is what just blew me away in a sense and maybe I'm the only one because sometimes you've got to be at a certain area in your life and maybe go through certain things and some things mean more to you then, I don't know.

But listen to this. For the joy that was set before him. That word set means it was placed securely. Now what was the joy that was set before him? What was his joy?

Are you looking at me? It was us. The reason he was able, look at me folks, to endure the cross was because he kept his focus on the thing that brought him joy. And the thing that brought him joy was the fact that he was going to be able to offer and purchase redemption for you and me. He loved us so much that what got him through the suffering was thinking of us. And yet while here on earth, the people he was thinking of ridiculed and they're the ones that put him on the cross. And yet they're the very ones he thought of that helped to make it through the suffering. It doesn't make sense, does it? Listen to me.

I want you to get this. He was motivated to endure his suffering by thinking of us. He endured it by disciplining himself. To focus on us instead of what was going on with him. Jesus got through it by thinking of us. The way you and I get through the cross we have to bear is by thinking of Jesus. We were the joy he set before him. He must be the joy that we set before us.

That's how we get through the race. We got to look at what Jesus did. And what Jesus did, he made it through by keeping the joy in front of him. We were his joy.

Look at me. He must be our joy. If you look to people to be your joy, you're going to quit. You'll never finish your race. But all that he went through, he went through it because he kept us as his focus. And all that you and I must go through, the only way we'll ever finish our race, is to make him our joy and to keep him as our focus.

Wow. Look at me. He looked at us instead of looking at the scourging. He looked at us instead of looking at the beating. He looked at us instead of looking at the spear in his side. He looked at us instead of looking at the very people he was dying, that he was trying to save, trying to kill him. He looked at us instead of the crown of thorns. He looked at us instead of the spit that was spit in his eyes.

All that that was going on, what do you and I do? Everything that happens around us, that's what we focus on. And that's why we're tempted to quit. And that's why we get discouraged. And yet the most suffering any individual ever went through, he kept you and me on his mind. Man, listen, let me apply this to you. The husband stays faithful to his wife by focusing on her. Do you understand that? Let me give you an illustration.

Let's say here's a person in our military, young man has a young wife and a child and he has to go off into service and he's gone for maybe 12 months, 16 months, whatever the case might be. And as he goes there, you know how he keeps faithful and stays faithful to his wife and how their love stays real and strong? He focuses on her.

Look at me. You know where a man ends up being unfaithful to his wife is when he focuses on himself. Oh, I have needs. Well, I'm hurting.

Well, I'm lonely. Well, my wife does this and I need somebody to really, you know what, look at me, dear men. You might not be a military, but I'm here to tell you the way you stay faithful to your wife is if you keep her as your focus. Where you're tempted to be unfaithful is when you keep you as your focus.

This is better than you realize, folks. Look at me, you know how you stay faithful to God? You keep him as your focus. You know how you stay unfaithful to God? You keep yourself in your focus. You say, well, I've had it rough and I got all this happened to me and this isn't fair and all these things I've been through.

You're just asking for trouble. If Jesus had done that, we'd have never been saved because he never would have finished the cross. But he kept us set before him. And dear friends, you're never gonna run your race, you're never gonna finish, and we're never gonna be what we should be unless we keep Jesus as our focus. The joy that was set before him. Once you notice this next thing, he endured the cross. I find interesting here, in Hebrews, the author mentions two obstacles. For Jesus to go from being the author and finisher of our faith to being set down at the right hand of the throne of God. There's two obstacles, the first one is the cross.

And he says that you've gotta look unto Jesus, folks, because he endured the cross. Now, what got me really excited about this one was the fact that this word, endured, is the Greek word, hupomino. Sounds like an interesting word, doesn't it?

Aren't you glad we use English and not Greek? You're like, do I have to hupomino another service at church? ["Hupomino"] Some of you totally lost me on that one, didn't you? Let me tell you what this word, hupomino, means, or the word, endured. We often look to that and say, well, I'm just gonna put up with it.

No, look at me, folks. You and I just, well, I'll put up with it when we don't have a choice. This word, endured, means to stay under, to set oneself under. And when I looked that up and found that, I was like, wow, and you just think about this, it all makes sense. Do you know at any time, Jesus could have stopped the suffering on the cross? He could have called 10,000 angels, he could have called 100,000 angels, he could have called 100,000,000 angels, he could call anything he wanted, he could have stopped it at any time, why? Because he was bigger than the cross, he was greater than the cross, and he could have stopped that at any time. But he chose to keep himself under the cross. All that suffering that he went through, he was bigger than it.

Listen, he was stronger than all the guards that beat him. He could have done this and exploded their heads. Talk about a Hollywood movie. I saw how they massacred Noah. Well, I haven't actually seen the movie yet.

I can imagine how they're gonna massacre something else out of the Bible. Look at me, he could have absolutely stopped everything. But he endured the cross, why? Because he had us as his focus, I've gotta go through this to be able to save them. And he chose to keep himself under the cross.

It's as if I choose to let somebody weaker than me beat me up. It's a word called humility. It's a word called submission. It means this, that the cross was the only way to appease the father, and Jesus decided to go ahead and keep himself under the cross.

It means to stay under, to undergo, to keep under. Look at me, I want you to get this. He chose, this is the cross that the father had laid in his path, and he chose to keep himself under it, although he could stop it at any time. And dear friend, you and I will never finish our race unless we get to the point that whatever cross that the father asked us to bear, we've gotta keep ourselves under it.

Look at me. I am blessed to pastor this church. I don't know that there could probably be an easier church to pastor.

I really probably don't. Now it's extremely hard for me sometimes. But I'm sure if I went to some other church or whatever and pastored, I would crawl back to this one if you'd let me, because I'm sure this is the easiest church in the world to pastor, because you're just the best people I've ever met. And I know sometimes you see things and you probably sense that we go through burdens or whatever, just like you do, but you see me, I don't get to see you up front, whatever the case might be. And I know sometimes they will bless his heart and I hope you pray for us and all those things. But look at me, I probably have it very easy as far as pastoring goes.

But even the easiest church to pastor is very difficult and it's very hard, but look at me. There are times that I probably feel, man, I'll do this and I'll work hard. And I feel like, man, you're ridiculed, whatever the case might be.

But look at me, dear friends. If there's any part of it that I consider that you know what, I just feel like this has been hard on me, do you know what, I could stop it at any time I wanted to. I could get right up here and say, folks, it's yours, you have it. Good luck. Get you another preacher.

Hope he'll be everything you apparently wanted. Walk out that door, get my family if they're still with me. If I tried to leave Kerwin, my wife would be like, well, I hope you make it good, I'm staying here. Look at me, I have it easy, but I could even stop any so-called suffering in Brother Joe and Miss Thorkus over the years, until you're ever in this position, you just don't know all the things you go through, emotionally, mentally, physically, all those things. And I'm gonna tell you something, I could stop it at any time. But this is the cross that God has asked me to carry.

Does that make sense? And although I could stop this at any time and go say, well, I'm just gonna go get me a little job, go somewhere and get the stress out of my life, well, I could do that at any time. But then that means I would be taking myself out from under the cross that God has asked me to bear. So you know how you and I finish our race? We determine if this is the cross God has put in my life, I must endure it, I must keep myself under it, I must place myself under it. Although at any time we could walk away from church, walk away from God's people, God knows many people have.

They're sitting at home today, maybe thinking they're spiritual because they're watching some preacher on TV because they don't like church, somebody was mean to them, they didn't like something and they got out of God's house and got away, listen, a lot of people have. But if you are going to finish your race, you and I have to be willing to keep ourselves under the cross that he has asked us to, by the way, in his word, to take up his cross and follow him, the Bible says. That's how you finish a race. You gotta stay under that cross. May I also say, look, if you will, this next thing, it says the other second obstacle. Now this is great, look at verse two. It said that he endured the cross, despising the shame. Now isn't it interesting that of all the things that happened at the cross and the crucifixion and all these things, the author here mentions the two main obstacles to Jesus was the cross and the shame of it. That means this, that the shame that the cross brought was probably a greater hardship on Jesus than the physical suffering. Here is a man that never knew sin. Here is a God that was holy hanging on a cross, naked in front of people, and all of a sudden, the shame of the cross was probably one of the greatest sufferings he had to suffer. Now listen to me, I thought this was interesting. Let me tell you about the shame that Jesus faced.

Listen to me, I don't know if you've thought about this because I certainly hadn't. Do you know that at the cross, his friends gave way in shaming abandonment? Do you know it was a shame to Jesus that the fact that these people that said they were his friends and were so-called followers didn't even show up for the crucifixion? They weren't even there.

Because they thought they might get in trouble. Wow, what faithful followers. Yeah, there were some there that really loved him. But here's all these people he's dying for and he shows up at the crucifixion and the majority of his followers didn't even show up. Second, his reputation gave way in shaming mockery. All of a sudden now he's being ridiculed.

He is the king of kings and the lord of lords and all of a sudden they're just mocking it, making fun of it. Imagine how shameful that was to him. Thirdly, I find that his decency gave way in shaming nakedness. Here's a man that had never known sin and I'm gonna tell you something, dear friends.

Any of you, probably one of the worst embarrassing fears that you and I could ever have is to be exposed, naked in public and suffering like that. Here is the savior of the world that was exposed in front of these people, spitting and ridiculing and you could only imagine the things that they said. Imagine the shame of that. I think about this, his comfort gave way in shaming torture. They beat him to a pulp. You think about this, that his dignity gave way and by the shame of this, all the beatings, he was literally these glutteral sounds and the agony that he had, the grunting and the groaning and the screeching that he must have done in his body. Imagine how shameful it was to have folks staring at you and listen to this, shame was the very thing that made one of his inner circle disciples deny him just the night before.

Oh, Peter, because he was ashamed of Jesus around the fire, cursed and swore. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you in the next episode of Kirtland Baptist Church.