Good morning. Greetings. A couple of things. I was just told that Carl and Jennifer just had to evacuate their home in Thousand Oaks and the fire is right up to, close to their property. Is that right? Is that what I'm hearing right? I don't see. Anyway, so they're in the Lord's hands. in a very acute way. So we'll be praying for them. So greetings go out to many people who are probably, I was told by those who are traveling and so forth, that they're going to be watching online today. So they're kind of here with us electronically. And maybe even Steve and Wendy, who are at their anniversary, there are two hours behind us. So it might be a little early for them. It'd be 8.30, 8.40. So maybe they're with us too, so we hope so. Let's stand together as we read from the word, and I've got, let me see if we're live online here. There we go. Let me read the word together that we're going to be spending some time on. We're gonna be here and there, but this is our, main verse that we're going to be dealing with. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and what it does in our hearts and how it equips us even as we read it today and as we expound upon it and as we trust you to make application in our lives. We just pray that you would bless it and that you would bless our time that we spend in your word. In Christ's name, amen. Be seated. You forgive me, I'm suffering one of these colds that, it's the kind of cold you get rid of the cold and you feel better, and yet it lingers in your throat for a number of days. The book of Hebrews was written to a church that was getting old and was settling into the world, losing maybe its wartime mentality, and it was starting to drift through life without focus, without vigilance, and without energy. The writer says their hands were growing weak, their knees were feeble, and it was just easier to meander kind of with the crowd than to run the marathon. And so you see this over and over in Hebrews along the way. For example, in Hebrews 2, 1 and 3, the writer says we must pay close attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? So into the church had crept this disease of drifting and neglecting and people were growing careless and they were spiritually lazy and negligent. And then in Hebrews 3, 12 through 13, he warns again, take care brethren, lest there be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God, but encourage one another, day by day, as long as it is still called today, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. He has heard that some are no longer taking care, and so he encourages them to do that, and they've begun to have this false sense of security in their faith. a false notion that nothing really huge is at stake in their small group meetings, or whether they meditate on the Bible, or they take time alone to pray or to fight sin, and they assume all will be well, and Hebrews is written to teach them otherwise. That's the weight of what we see there. In fact, in Hebrews 5.12, the writer says, though by this time you ought to be teachers, You have need, again, for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk and not solid food. You see, they had had a profession of faith, but they had gone into this passive coasting mode. But God intends that every saint be moving forward in strength and wisdom, holiness, courage, and joy. from being away from being consumers as we use the term today, to being producers, from being taught, to being teachers. And so a final illustration in Hebrews 12, the writer says, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, this kind of this picturesque language of knees and feet, so that the limb, which is lame, may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. So he's talking in images here of their spiritual condition, weak hands, feeble knees, crooked paths. And that's the condition of the church that he was speaking to. And it was probably a number of churches that he was speaking to in Hebrew since it's more of a general epistle. That's the background of Hebrews 12.1 where then he says, and you can see it over here, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. This command doesn't come out of the blue. It's something he's been leading up to. So, this is the point of the book. Endure. Run. Fight. Be alert. Be strengthened. Don't drift. Don't neglect. Don't be sluggish. Don't take your internal security for granted. Isn't that interesting? Fight the fight of faith on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection and live out your faith the way the saints of Hebrews 11 did, not by coasting through life, but by counting reproach for Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. So if you got a chance, I know in the Monday email went out to read through Hebrews as many times as you could this week. And I hope you maybe took an opportunity to do that. It's rich in illustrations of faith. And that's where he's come through doing all these illustrations. And we'll have time to go through a few more of those here. And so the main text, the main point of this text is to run the race with endurance. Everything else supports this, explains it, or gives motivation to it. So run the race. I said before, you don't stroll, don't meander, don't wander about aimlessly. Run the race with a finish line and everything hanging on to it. Run as it is a race. To this end, verse 1 on 12 is really interesting. Not every encumbrance which is a sin, but every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles us. Think about how radical it is that we must not only lay aside entangling sins, but every encumbrance, that is every weight or obstacle, things that in themselves may not be sins, he says, lay these encumbrances aside. I remember as a young man growing up in the, I was a teenager in the late 60s and the 70s, And I recall hearing great preachers and speakers at camps and conferences that challenged us to this kind of unencumbered living. And this was kind of revolutionary. And it was almost a parallel to the radical days of the 60s and 70s, which I was so much a part of. We had moved over in 1967, right in there, Oakland area. And I had, as many of us did in that era, I had naive parents. And me and a friend who were in the ninth grade decided to take a bus and see what this hippie thing was. So it's 1967. What was that? That was the summer of love. And we were just hanging about in Haight-Ashbury. We just wanted to see the sights. And it was a grand old experience. We didn't get in any kind of trouble, but it was quite a quite a thing to be, say, I was a part of that thing. But that was, there was a parallel thing going on, which was the Jesus Movement at the time. That's what they called it back then, was the Jesus Movement. And it was this sense of being radically sold out for Jesus, as opposed to kind of this nominal Christianity that probably had taken place up to this time. So you had the Calvary chapels getting their start in that era. In Modesto, I was part of a group we would meet at the House of Carpets downtown on, or down in McHenry, and we had a Bible study sitting around on rolls of carpet down at, I think it's called, what's it called now? Something One, Carpet One, or whatever, still there today. And so there was this idea of living radically for Christ, and it was a countercultural movement. And what it did show me was that the fight of faith, the Christian life, is not fought well or run well by just saying, well, what's wrong with that? Or is this behavior or habit in my life really that big of deal? It was, is this behavior or habit in my life in the way of greater faith and greater love and greater purity and greater courage? and greater humility and greater patience and greater self-control. It wasn't, oh, is this really a sin, but does it help me run the race? Is it in the way? And that really needs to be our focus today and not lose sight of that intensity maybe that you experienced when you came to the Lord. God still calls us to be intent and to run the race. And so I commend you to that. I think the wrong thing is asked is, well, you know, is this music okay? Or is this movie maybe, how about these parties? What's wrong with it? Ask, does it help me run the race? Does it help me run for Jesus? So Hebrews 12, one is a command to look at your life, to think hard about what you're doing and get ruthless about what stays and what goes. It's kind of like David opened today. Same idea, wasn't it? Are we really serious? Are we just kind of in the middle coasting? So, in the beginning of this section, therefore, we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. The therefore is referring to the last chapter where he has reminded readers of the many examples of faithful saints that have gone before them. And he calls them a great cloud of witnesses. Not so much as they are serving as spectators in our lives somewhere, and they're up there watching us as spectators. That's not what's going on. And they aren't a cheering section in that sense either, but they have borne witness to the life of faith that can be lived out. And in that way, they are a cloud of witnesses to us that life can be lived in a life of faith. They have borne witness, they have testified to, and they have even commended to us the faithfulness of God and looking forward to a future reality. of grace and strength and every resource that we need. So he goes on, he says, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race set before us. Now, let's jump back to Hebrews 11, one through seven. And here we see this description or this even definition of what faith is and then a description of what faith does. He says this, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. conviction of things not seen. That's our encapsulated definition of faith. It's probably one of the best that we have in the word. For by it the people of old received their commendation. Now watch this word because it appears a number of times in the ESV and in the original. It's the same root word. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, he died and still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. Whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Second part of the definition. Whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and He rewards those who seek Him. And by faith Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. So there's a couple definitions that are given in this section. First of all, he said faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So the weight of this verse here is it's future-looking. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, looking towards the things hoped for, the things not seen, and later down in verse 6 he says, for whoever would draw near must believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him. So future looking again, and it's not talking about a reward as if a reward for something I do. So I do this and I get this. But it's more of a sense that it is a rewarding thing, that it is real and a tangible, rewarding place to be, to put your faith in God and to seek Him, that there is substance to that and it is rewarding. It does not disappoint. Our faith in God rewards us and it doesn't disappoint. Now, the word that I pointed out that appears several times here in this section is, and is usually translated as commended, is imartirethysin. And it comes from the word martireta, which is where we get martyr, right? Martoreto, and here it's E. Martorethison. It's been a long time since I studied my Greek. Here the word is translated as commendation for verse 2. For by it the people of old received their commendation or witness. So same root word, and we see it again in verse 3. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. And it says he was commended. And so this word means to witness and to testify. So, he gave witness and he testified to by his works what was true about God. And it says his sacrifice was commended as righteous, or you could say it gave witness to his righteousness and faith. It gave credibility to his righteousness and faith. And then it says God commended him by accepting his gifts. So we aren't told of what the nature of his sacrifice was as compared to Cain's. But we can conclude that somehow his offering was offered to God in faith. And that was his commendation, that it was offered in faith, as opposed to Cain's, which was not accompanied by biblical faith. They both gave offerings, and they both gave an offering to God. but it wasn't in biblical faith. Now Enoch was commended or metamartyratai as pleasing to God. In other words, his life gave testimony. His life was a martyr. His life was a witness to having pleased God. And so at the end of chapter 11, and I'm skipping over all these other saints, at the end of chapter 11, after you're giving an overview of the various ways that the Old Testament saints lived out their faith, The writer concludes here in verse 39, And all these, although commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. It was future faith, and even future beyond the grave. So, not in the sense that God is commending them per se, that they were commended, but their actions were giving testimony. They were giving credibility and witness and commendation to their faith. In every generation, those saints are giving commendation to us. They're this great cloud of witnesses giving witness to us that faith works and it is rewarded. I think there is an application here that that we can apply, the belief of the heart and mind is definitely an essential ingredient, faith. If your theology and your understanding is wrong, you can have faith in the wrong things, and that's what we have in cults, and that's why they aren't saved unless they have an understanding of who it is they have faith in. But The belief of the heart and mind is so essential, but it's not all of faith is. True biblical faith is always something that we live out. It always has something that becomes part of what we live. If your faith does not reshape your life, it's not true faith. Faith is not just an intellectual ascent to a body of truth. We have come through times in the church, and even in modern history, where of easy believing, going forward, saving a prayer, going to a prayer room and praying with somebody, and the big Billy Graham evangelism, even in the heyday of those, thousands of people would come forward, but where were they? a month or year later. They weren't around. But there was a debate in the church, are these people really believers? Well, I would say if your faith does not reshape your life, it's not true faith. I'm afraid that oftentimes, even in evangelical academic circles, that's what faith looks like. But real faith radically rearranges your life, and that's why Hebrews 11 focuses on more what people did with their lives than it does the details of their theology. Faith is deeply theological, but it's much more than that. So, I'm going to mention a few illustrations there. As the writer of Hebrews defines faith, he immediately gives several examples of how real faith in God transforms the way you live. Now, first, faith, I think, redirects and recaptures the worship of our heart, and we see that with Cain and Abel. faith redirects and captures the worship of our hearts. Secondly, it produces in us a heart of obedience that we see in Enoch. It said he was pleasing to God, so he lived out a life, and how he lived his daily life, so that God was pleased with him, and he was metamorphosized, he was taken away, and he was no more. And then thirdly, faith causes us to submit to the calling of God, and we see that really succinctly in Noah and Abraham. they submitted to the calling of God in their life. And let's think about it. Everyone's life is shaped by what he worships, by the rules that we obey, and by the life calling that we give ourselves to. True living biblical faith causes you to submit all three of these areas of your life to God. And ultimately, they either commend us, or give witness to, or give testimony of whether we have a living faith, or we don't. So, our application, I think, for that one is, what would others conclude? More importantly, what would God conclude about how I worship? About how I obey the word? About how I live out God's calling in my life? How I invest my time, talent, and treasure? Do those things commend you to God, and do they commend you that you're living out your testimony of faith? John MacArthur used to say, I believe, Who's John MacArthur? Tell me if I'm wrong. John MacArthur used to say, give me your checkbook, and I'll tell you what your priorities are. Give me your checkbook, and let me look through it. Now, how many of you carry a check register anymore? Does anybody carry that around, a little check register? A few of you do, right? But give me your checkbook register, and I'll tell you what your priorities are. Because our priorities are there, aren't they? Where we spend our money and where we invest ourselves. Faith is forward-looking. The writer labors with multiple illustrations to see how this fleshes out, what it looks like. And every time, it's an example of obedience. It fleshes itself out. It's not just a belief or conviction or theology, going to the right church, reading and listening to the right things, holding the right convictions, speaking the right things. It's so easy to look the part. for a season, but the real test is the duration. When the tests come, how does it look? Living it day in and day out, and that's where we see real faith. And so in Noah, he engaged in years of ark building to prepare for a flood on the earth, which he didn't know what that was, and he didn't know what an ark was. And I'm sure he was, he endured ridicule from his peers. He was looking forward to what God told him that he was going to do, even though he couldn't understand what that was. With Abraham, he was called out not knowing where he was going. Can you imagine? He had grown up in this area with all his relatives, in a tribal type of environment, and he's called out. There's no maps. There's no GPS. And he's called out to go, to be a sojourner, to become a nomad living in tents. That's what Abraham was doing. And it says he was looking forward to the city whose designer and builder is God. He was looking forward in faith for future grace that God would provide for him no matter where he went and what he did. And even in the blessing of children, the saints were commended for their faith and future grace. There's some neat verses later in this passage. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. He knew God would do great things. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. And by faith, Joseph, This is what's amazing. At the end of his life, so they're in Egypt, right? This is before the captivity, basically, and before they were enslaved. Joseph says at the end of his life, he made mention of the exodus of the Israelites that he knew God would do to bring them back to their home and gave directions concerning his bones. And he knew God would do what he said he was. And sure enough, what happened when they left Egypt? Packed up his bones and took them with him on the exodus. Somebody had to carry those all the way to the promised land. Can you imagine that? Besides the tabernacle. Moses was commended for leaving behind the royal and sinful lifestyle as a son under Pharaoh, and chose rather to endure the mistreatment of the Israelites. We're told he was looking forward to a reward, and by faith he left Egypt, he kept the Passover, sprinkled the blood on the door, led Israel out. And so forward-looking faith and future grace works itself out in how we worship, and how we live in obedience and pleasing God, and how we live out our callings, our vocation, whatever that is that God has called us to. And so, astonishingly, get the right keyboard here. Astonishingly, this is what Hebrews 11 says. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having, am I on the right verse there? No, I'm not. I'm missing a slide. I'll just read this to you. These all died in faith, having not perceived the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles in the earth. For the people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland, If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. So, forward-looking faith that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him, a rewarder in the next five minutes, the five hours, five days, five thousand years, that God will provide all things that we need. So, how does forward-looking faith, like these saints who lived believing God and looking forward to what God had for them, What does that have to do with the admonition in chapter 12 to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us? How does it help us to run with endurance the race set before us? And how does it sanctify us? How does the process work to get us from there? Is it just trying harder or is there something there? I like how John Piper connects some of these thoughts when he identifies faith, this faith with bleeding in the promises that we find in his word. He says, this is a quote with John Piper, my conviction is that unbelief in the promises of God, that is future grace, the promises of God for future grace, is what sustains the life of sins we struggle with. I'll read that again, my conviction is that unbelief in the promises of God is what sustains the life of sin that we struggle with, because it's a battle for faith in future grace. Because it goes something like this, is God really going to supply everything I need to live for him, including contentment and joy and all that I need? So battling unbelief is another way of saying living by faith in future grace. that is going to be there. The unbelief that I'm talking about is failure to trust in the promises of God that sustain our radical obedience in the future. And so these promises refer to what God plans to do for us in the future. And that's what Piper means by future grace. It's grace because it's good for us, and it's totally undeserved, and it's future and that it hasn't happened, but may in the next five hours. the next thousand years. And for Christians, the promises of God are spectacular, and they relate to our immediate future, our near and far future, and our eternal future. So I'm just going to give you a few of those. So let me see. So let me read through just a number of these. My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Future, grace, and provision. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Psalm 23. No good thing shall he withhold from those who walk uprightly. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41. All things are yours, the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's, 1 Corinthians 3. For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, Romans 8, 28. I am with you always, even to the end of the age, Matthew 28. Neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8 38. So many more are in scripture and are in the Bible to sustain our faith in God's future grace. The ultimate gift at the end of them is God himself. Christ died not mainly to make things go well for us, but to bring us to him that we might have him. That's God's big goal for us. Christ also suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. That's his goal. He's going to provide all things, but he wants to bring us to himself. I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And that's where the Lord wants to bring us, into that frame of mind, and that looking for what he has for us. The final, best, highest, most satisfying gift of future grace is seeing and loving and enjoying God himself, being satisfied with all that God promises us in Christ. That's the essence of faith and future grace. It treasures Christ as the one whose blood and righteousness provides the foundation for all future grace. And it treasures all that God promises to be for us in Christ. And we see this finally in Hebrews 11, 13, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but they having seen them and greeted them from afar and have acknowledged that they were strangers and exiled on earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one, Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." Isn't that an amazing faith that we see demonstrated there? They're not only looking to the future provision that God has throughout our lives, but they were looking forward to another city that God has created or is preparing for us. So this faith is the power that severs the root of sin, because sin has power because of the promises it makes to us. It has promises too. It talks like this. If you lie in your tax returns, you will have extra money to get what will make you happier. If you look at pornography, you will have a surge of pleasure that is better than the joys of a clear conscience. If you dwell on this offense, it will soften your sense of woundedness and help you cope better than anything else. If you pass on this morsel of gossip, it will bring you insight and understanding. These are just some random examples. No one sins out of duty. We sin because we believe the deceitful promises that sin makes to us. We're motivated to grab hold of those things that we think will meet our needs or give us happiness or give us some joy. But the promises of sin are lies. The Bible warns that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin because it is a lie and it appeals to our perceived and felt needs. So battling and fighting for faith and future grace means that we throw against the promises of sin, the promises of God. And in this way we do what Romans 8, 13 says, by the spirit put to death the deeds of the body. I had a slide up at the beginning of the service, John Owen sums it up, he says, be killing sin or we'll be killing you. We kill sinful deeds before they happen by cutting the root of their life, the lies of sin, and we do this by the spirit as we apply the promises of God. In fact, I'm gonna take those promises and put them in the Monday email. I got to thinking about this Monday or Tuesday, and these are great to have. And so I took these and put them into my prayer journal, and I've been looking through those every day as I go through before my prayer to look at God's promises. And I would encourage you to do the same, but I'll send those out. The gospel of death and resurrection is not only the core, but the foundation of all the, promises of God. So last slide here, and this is a fantastic verse, Romans 8 32, and this is the point of that whole logic. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, did all that He even gave his own son for us. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? If he gave us the most dear and valuable thing, Jesus Christ on the cross, how would he not give us everything else we need too? And that's the point there. All things, the fulfillment of all of God's promises, are guaranteed by the Father, not sparing His Son. Or to put it another way, all the promises of God are secured for us because God sent His Son to live and die, cancel our sins, and become our righteousness. And as we hold fast to this Christ-centered gospel truth with all its promises, and we bank on it in every situation, we sever the lifeline of sin by the power of superior promises to the promises that sin gives us. We pursue holiness not to be accepted by God, but because we already are. This is the way Paul put it, I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. So I invite you to engage with me in the battle against unbelief in the promises of God. And I invite you to fight the fight of faith and future grace. And I invite you to rejoice that we can fight this fight, not as though it doesn't matter, but knowing that it matters infinitely and that God is with us to the end. Be not dismayed, for I am with you. I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Let's pray together. Father, Thank you that you have equipped us in every way imaginable to fight the fight of faith, to know that you are a providing God who gives us all the resources that we need, help us to see sin and deceit for what it is, lies and lying promises. We pray God that you would take your word that you would put it into our hearts, that you would take the promises that we have in your word and that we would meditate on those in such a way that we fight sin and we put the promises of the enemy to death with your better promises and your better way. We thank you that you are gracious and merciful and providing God. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.