I invite you to turn with me this morning to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews 11 as we read that chapter together and then continuing into chapter 12 as our text this morning is verses 1 through 3 of chapter 12. If we read chapter 11, beginning of verse 1 through chapter 12, verse 3, Hebrews 11 is a beautiful chapter, which I believe we may call a commentary on what is called the heroes of faith, the saints of old. And as we read it, we are reminded in just a few words with so many of these heroes of faith of all those wonderful stories of the Old Testament, which we learn already in the young years of Sunday school and how these people had faith. Hebrews 11, beginning at verse 1, as we give our attention to the Word of God. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he made his home in the promised land, like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, was unable to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand in the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instruction about his bones. By faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who was invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. And now the words of our text. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, a new year approaches once again. It comes around like clockwork every year, doesn't it? as we celebrate the new year, a week after we celebrate Christmas. And as we look ahead to that new year, I ask that you consider what it is that will be your focus. What will you focus on? What is it that you will set your heart and your mind and your will to accomplish and achieve in the coming year? And I'm sure that if we stopped to take a poll right here, right now, that we would get as many different answers to that question as there are people sitting here in this building. But this text teaches us this morning that no matter what your focus might be, no matter what your goals might be, this text teaches us where our primary focus must be. It gives us the idea of athletic competition and specifically running a race. I'm sure many of you would agree with me that it's hard to find something more exciting than a sports arena filled to capacity with a cheering crowd of fans while there is good competition going on. And this is true, of course, with all the sports, whether it's basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball, track, or any other sport that you might be involved in. But again, the text is pointing us to a race. It's not a short sprint. It's not even a literal running race, although it is a marathon. It is an endurance race, long distance race. The writer of Hebrews is trying to focus our attention on that marathon race of faith. With basketball, volleyball, track, or most any other sporting event, we all always compete against each other, don't we? There's always a winner and there's always a loser. But that's not the case with the race that the text is talking about. In the race of faith, it's not a matter of one winner and the rest losers. The participants are all believers. And Christians are not competing against each other. Instead, we are all competing for the same prize. And it's possible for every believer to be a winner. In fact, the beauty is that every believer, every true child of God is a winner. But now before I give you the impression that we run this race on our own, let me also say that even though we participate individually in a sense, we do not run this race alone. That's impossible. We don't even run the race of faith in our own strength. This morning I bring to you this Word of God, running the race of faith in the strength of Jesus Christ. The text makes it clear that our strength comes only from our Lord Jesus Christ, And in His strength, then, we find ourselves running lightly, running focused, and running confidently. Now, first of all, it's important for us to remember the context that we're dealing with. The writer of Hebrews is addressing new Christians, those who are still quite young in their faith, those who are children in their faith. But if we were to read the entire book together, it appears that these new Christians were on the verge of backsliding, going backward in their walk with Christ instead of progressing forward. Most likely they were Jewish converts who, because of the persecutions and the hardships that they were enduring, experiencing, they were flirting with falling back into Judaism. Falling back into the Old Testament Jewish customs and practices that they had left behind. And throughout this epistle, the writer is trying to encourage them, these Christians, in the faith. They are to stay true to Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is superior to all else. Because He is the one final sacrifice for sin. Because He is the one in whom there is salvation. And because He is the only way, truth, and life. And these new Christians, you see, are being guaranteed that faith in Christ will bring them victory. The race is a long one. And there are certain ways or we could say certain techniques that the believers are to follow in the strength of Jesus Christ in order to gain that victory. First of all, believers are to run lightly. Verse 1 of the text says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Now, first of all, the writer talks about a great cloud of witnesses. And he's talking about the heroes of faith that he described in chapter 11. Those we also read about. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and all the others. But there are many more heroes of faith than just those listed there in chapter 11. Those who are listed are a part that represent the whole. Boys and girls, if we had a cookie jar full of cookies and we took one cookie out, that one cookie would represent all the other cookies still left in the jar. And we are given the imagery of a cloud here to help us understand what the writer is talking about. The Greek word used for cloud here is talking about a thick, dark mass of clouds covering heaven and earth. A thick mass of heroes of faith. Included in that cloud along with all of those listed are all the saints from the beginning of time who have lived and died in faith in Jesus Christ. And I believe that we may also consider those as heroes of faith. Those are loved ones who have gone before, who died and left to us their legacy of faith. They too are heroes of faith. Now what is this faith that we're talking about? Well, chapter 11, verse 1, gives us a beautiful, familiar definition. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Being sure of what we hope for. We're not often sure about our hopes in this life, and many have a hard time believing that which they cannot see. But true faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. For those who lived before Jesus came, they had faith in the promise of Christ's coming. He is the one they hoped for. And for those of us who live after our Lord's earthly life, although we cannot see Him physically, we look to the pages of Holy Scripture, the testimony of His apostles. We look there to see Jesus. But along with the saints of the Old Testament, our faith is still being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. We hope for eternal life with our Savior, Jesus Christ, in heaven. We can't see heaven, but because of our faith, we know that it's real, as Peter calls it, a living hope. Our faith also includes those things that man cannot prove apart from the Bible. Things even touched on in chapter 11, for example, creation out of nothing, the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Elijah's ascension into heaven in the fiery chariot, and maybe most of all, the resurrection and ascension of our Savior. Man cannot prove these things apart from the testimony of God's Word. And of course, science says these things are impossible. It's why so many have a hard time believing that these things actually happen. But through faith in Jesus Christ, we believe. Now, this cloud of witnesses are not witnesses in the sense that we might normally think of. We think of a witness in a courtroom, one who has observed something and comes to give testimony to what he or she saw. And even though the imagery here is of a sports arena filled with spectators watching or witnessing the competition. That's not what these witnesses, what these heroes of faith are doing. They are not watching or witnessing our race of faith cheering us on to victory. That's what many people think that this text is talking about. And so many tell their young children when a loved one such as a grandmother has died that, well, Grandma is watching you from heaven right now. No, she's not. The heroes of faith, the saints who have gone before have much more important business to attend to the perfect worship of God than to worry about what is going on down here. People of God, these heroes of faith are witnesses in the sense that they witness or testify. They give evidence of the victorious life of faith. They are witnesses whose lives, whose works, whose sufferings, and whose deaths all testify to their own faith. They provide witness to us that living a life of faith in Jesus Christ is possible by the grace of God. They are witnesses to God's faithfulness in their lives, and they have left us their testimony spread throughout the pages of the Bible. wherever we look in God's Word, we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses. You see, the emphasis here is on what we as Christians see as we look at this cloud. And not the other way around. Beloved, with the testimony of these heroes of faith to encourage them, the Christians who are being spoken to are to run lightly. And in order to run lightly, they are to throw off everything that hinders, Or as another translation beautifully says, they are to lay aside every weight. Now think of the runner in the race again. Boys and girls, you can understand this as well. You can think about this. A runner has to get rid of the excess weight in order to run better and more effectively. And that may, of course, include excess body weight. A few extra pounds that needs to be taken off. It may include lighter clothing. If your shoes are too bulky and heavy, get rid of them and get lighter ones. Take off your warm-up outfit to run the way you're supposed to. The runner has to eliminate anything that could slow him down. But verse 1 also talks about, says to throw off the sin that so easily entangles. And this is talking about sin in general. Whatever it is that misses God's mark, that entangles us in His deadly web. Think of David and Bathsheba, particularly David. Lust, greed, lying, stealing, murder. And each time he was wound tighter and tighter, he was woven in that web of sin and deceit. For the Christian, running the race of faith, sin is extra bulk, it's extra weight that takes your mind and your heart and your soul off of the race. That sin must be taken off and thrown aside. And here again, as we visualize the runner, sin acts like the robes or the outer garments that the people wore during the days of the early New Testament Christians. And if you tried to run a race without taking that robe off, it would most likely get tangled around your legs and cause you to trip and fall. These new Christians are to run lightly, throwing off the extra weight and the sin which so easily entangles. And then they are to run with perseverance the race marked out that is set before them. we need to understand that these new Christians had had a good start to their race, but they had slacked off. They became sluggish. They were no longer putting forth the effort needed. Sin and temptation was beginning to bear them down and to hold them back. It was a tough race. And in a sense, their spiritual bodies hurt from the stress and the strain of all the persecution and difficulties that they had endured and they wanted to quit. But the writer encourages them to run with the endurance and the determination that overcomes that aching desire to quit. Beloved, this was the message or instruction for those new Christians back when this letter was written. But what about for you and me today? You see, it's no different for us today. We too are being encouraged to take comfort in the witness of the Bible and of these heroes of faith. We too are commanded to throw off everything that hinders our walk with the Lord and the sin which so easily entangles us and to run that race with perseverance and endurance. What is that weight? What is that sin that we must put aside? Jesus says in Luke 21 verse 34, But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly. And Colossians 3 verse 8 tells us, And now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Beloved, the weight that we as Christians must lay aside comes, of course, in different forms, in different shapes, in different sizes. And each one of us must take this Word of God and examine our own lives and compare the two. We can't begin to list every weight that any one of us might endure, but we can come up with a few general suggestions. Busyness. We've got too many things going on. Maybe some of you have even used the phrase as, I've got too many irons in the fire or my plate's too full. And what we mean by that, of course, is that there are too many activities that we are involved in and so often too many irons or a full plate means that we are probably neglecting those things that are really important, like the Kingdom of God, His church, our husbands, our wives, Our children. And unfortunately, most often when these phrases are used among God's people in the church, they are being used as excuses for why this person or that person cannot be more involved in the church. We need to consider carefully what things cause us to be too busy. What's on your plate? What are those irons in the fire? What is your extra weight? Maybe you have too many unimportant branches that are sucking the vital energy from where you need it most. Maybe you need to be pruned back a little bit to redirect your energy in the proper direction. But of course, this weight is often things that in and of themselves are okay, but things that can hinder the competitor in the race of faith. For example, wealth. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a blessing of God. But when it becomes your primary focus, It becomes extra weight and affects your race. The same is true with a multitude of other worldly attachments or earthly interests or even yourself. When any of these becomes your focus, when it becomes what you live for, you've got extra weight that must be thrown off. What about the sin that so easily entangles us today? Again, this comes in different ways, but maybe some general suggestions that we might be able to understand together. Think about the materials that you read. Maybe you have fallen prey to the gossip magazines by the checkout registers in the stores. While you're standing in line, you just can't help but look and grab and peek. Or maybe you are hooked on certain romance novels that have absolutely no place in the Christian's life. The TV might be a source of sin that entangles you. Again, not wrong in itself. Or how about certain Saturday night activities that hinder your ability to worship on Sunday? Or even Sunday activities that keep you from worship at all. Inwardly, you might be overconfident and arrogant about the Christian's race, thinking that this race is easy. It's no problem. I'm a good person. I do a few good things. No sweat. And this might cause you to become lazy in your Christian walk. Or how about accepting culture or the type of society that does not recognize Christianity. In fact, it may openly speak against Christ. Or what about lifestyles that contradict our Christian witness, even subtly? Lying, greed, lust. You see, anything that causes us to compromise our faith in order to avoid conflict or causing us to conform to the world is sin that easily entangles. It affects our race in a bad way. It must be thrown off. Again, there are so many things and each one of us must take this to heart and examine our own lives and compare with the Word of God. We've only mentioned a few. But these are included in the weights and the sin that must be thrown off. Well, how do you lay them aside? By confessing them to God. By asking Him to forgive our sins and remove these things for Jesus' sake because that's the only way for sin to be removed. And by asking Him for the strength to stay away from these things. As well, discipline. Personal discipline. And also the discipline of the Word of God. And then we must run with perseverance the race that is marked out or set before us. You see, beloved, the course is set. We are going to run the race either with the extra baggage or in the strength of Jesus Christ without the extra baggage. We lay these things aside only in the strength of Christ, which we receive when we focus on Him. And that's the second thing we want to look at, running focused. Verse 2 of the text says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Beloved, again, these words are for you and me just as much as they were written for those new Christians so many years ago. We run that race of faith with endurance only when our focus is on Jesus Christ. That is where our strength lies. We don't focus on ourselves. We don't even focus on the heroes of faith in chapter 11 and that cloud of witnesses, we do receive encouragement from their lives of faith and obedience, but that's not where our true strength comes from. We must fix our eyes on Jesus. And the Greek word there is beautiful. It has the idea of looking intently, gazing with no distractions. Nothing can cause you to look to the left or to the right. But fixing your eyes on Jesus. The writer describes Jesus as being the author and perfecter of our faith. Now, what does that mean? Very simply, it means that Christ starts our faith. He gives us the gift of faith. Faith comes from Him. It is a gift. He authors our faith. Boys and girls, Jesus Christ is the textbook of what we are to believe. And He is also the one who leads our faith to its proper end, to its fulfillment. He is the finisher of our faith. That is, He makes our faith perfect. And our faith is completed when Jesus Christ gives us as believers the things hoped for and the things not seen. And our faith will be brought to completion when Jesus Christ brings us into that everlasting glory in heaven. That's when our faith becomes sight. You see, it's none of us. Nothing in My hands I bring, you see. Our faith depends on Jesus from start to finish. But the text also teaches us that we look to Jesus because of His perfect example. We get our strength from Him. It is applied to us because of what He has done. What did He do? He endured the cross, scorning its shame. Death on the cross was not a pretty sight. And what's worse is we've said a number of times before that it pointed out that the one being crucified was both cursed by God and man. It was something, a punishment that was reserved for thieves and murderers, the scum of the earth. Deuteronomy 21 verse 23 says, For he who is hanged on a tree is accursed of God. And Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Now why did Christ do this? The text says for the joy that was set before Him. And that joy was not simply the glory of heaven. Remember, He had that before He came to earth. But that joy, amazingly enough, included redeeming us from the curse of the law as we just read about it in Galatians 3.13. That joy included securing for us that glorious life with Him in the presence of the Almighty God. Why did Jesus suffer the death and curse of the cross? Because He saw beyond the suffering. He saw beyond the cost to a future of redemptive blessing for His elect, for His chosen flock. He looked to the glory of God His Father. And the humiliation that Jesus suffered was nothing compared to the seat that He now holds at the right hand of God His Father. God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He enjoys that exaltation, as we said last week, that every knee will bow. Some will bow from hell, but they will still bow. congregation. When in the strength of Christ Jesus, you look unto Jesus, when you focus on Him, when you fix your eyes intently on Him, your racing speed will increase, not decrease. Your stamina will grow. It will not fade out. You will not look to the right or to the left, but straight ahead, and you will be guaranteed of reaching your goal of attaining victory. And with our focus on Jesus, then we can also run confidently. Verse 3 says, Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Now throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer has been concerned about these new Christians becoming weary and tired and discouraged. We read in chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. And chapter 4 verse 1 says, Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you may be found to have fallen short of it. People of God, Jesus suffered persecution and hostility and He endured it to the end. He is our perfect example of endurance and in the strength of His endurance, we have the confidence that we too who believe will endure. We may suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ. In fact, 1 Peter 3, verse 17 says, For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. And we read in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We must run with confidence, knowing that our suffering and persecution for Jesus' sake are only for a short time, but the joy that awaits us is for eternity. Congregation, if you don't look to Jesus, if you do not consider Jesus and what He endured, then you will not run with confidence. You will become weary and tired and scared and discouraged. Apart from Jesus Christ, you cannot finish, let alone even run, the race. The race is set before you and me. Not just in the new year, 2003, but each and every day that our Lord gives us on this earth. But we can only run in the strength of Jesus. If you are not a child of God, but think that you can make it to heaven on your own, you are wasting your time. It's a waste of time. And you are called to repent of your sins. To submit your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To believe on Him alone. To confess your sins and to lay aside the weight and the sin that so easily entangles. Because only in Jesus Christ can you be sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. Only in Him is there salvation. This marathon race of faith takes endurance. persevering in your devotion to Jesus Christ and in a lifestyle that reflects consecration, being set apart to the service of God. And in His strength then, beloved, run lightly, throwing off whatever hinders. Run focused, looking straight ahead to Jesus who not only leads us to, but also is waiting for us at the finish line. And finally, run confidently without getting tired and becoming weak-hearted so that you can say when you look back in a year, at the end of 2003, by God's grace, I tried to glorify God and enjoy Him. But even more important, so that one day when your earthly life comes to a close, in confidence you can say with the Apostle Paul, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, but not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, once again in the name of Jesus Christ and Him alone, we bow before You in prayer. We pray, Father, that each and every one of us gathered here this morning would take this Word of God to heart. We pray that You would work powerfully and effectively in our hearts and in our lives, that You would apply Your Word to our hearts and lives. That sinners might be converted. That saints would be edified. Most of all, that You would be glorified, O Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your precious Word. We thank You for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Only in Him can we stay the course. We ask for strength, both for today and for every day of life that you give us. Prepare us for that day indeed when our faith becomes sight. In Jesus' name alone we pray. Amen.