Well, good afternoon. It's a blessing to be back here at Grace Fellowship again for another service in the afternoon meeting. Alright, thank you sir. We had a good lunch, did we not? I'm turning again to the book of Hebrews. You have your copy of the scriptures. I'm going to read a few verses from the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews. I appreciate this fellowship and this church. Your kindness to me, to us, through the years. We've been coming here quite a number of years now. And it's always been a blessing to fellowship with you people here. I appreciate Brother Ingram and his faithfulness. as a pastor. Let's keep on keeping on. That's what we've got to do. Reading from chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews, continuing somewhat in the same vein of thought as this morning's message. The first word in this text is the word wherefore. The word wherefore occurs 12 times in the book of Hebrews 12 times wherefore The word therefore occurs 15 times wherefore and therefore Now both of these terms are conjunctions, connective words. Something has been said before, and this is being said in light of that. So since we're starting in chapter 12, and this is the very first verse, we are left to believe that What is talked about in chapter 11 is what this is said in light of. You could begin like this. Because of what I said to you in chapter 11, this is where we are. In chapter 11 he's been talking about the life of faith hasn't he? And some in chapter number 11 have escaped being burned in fire, some have escaped the mouths of lions, some have performed all kinds of things, but some other people have not escaped. Some of the others that are mentioned there have not done as well as some have. But I want you to notice verse 39, chapter 11, having a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. And that word perfect was one of the words we talked about this morning. Evidently, There are some things that will not be accomplished in the world to come until the rest of us get there. They without us should not be made perfect. Now I want to just call your attention to an old, old song. Some of you have never heard, some of you did hear. In the little church where I grew up, we used to sing a song at times called, When All the God's Singers Get Home. Oh, several of you have heard that. And that's the general idea. Now God has more than people who sing. He has people who do a lot of things, but since that's a song, One of these days all the God's Savior's going to get home. And the choir will be complete then. We'll be ready, if you can still use this earthly term, we'll be ready to go to church then. Because all the choir's going to be there then. I like the thought, do you? I like the thought. Alright. Wherefore, wherefore, in light of that, now you notice, You got different results in the life of faith. There were some of these people in Hebrews 11 had some pretty serious failures in their life. But they didn't become a failure because they failed at times. They didn't become a failure. They got up and went on. I forgot the exact quote. I should have copied it early this morning. It's been a long time since 6. I was reading in devotion this morning about a quote from Winston Churchill and he was giving the definition of success. Hope I can remember enough to get the punchline. But he said success is going from one failure to another failure without losing your enthusiasm. Amen. Boy, I stomp my toe and stumble a lot. Do you? Sometimes I find myself getting up or trying to get up more than I do anything else in the Christian life. But it's not losing the enthusiasm for the journey. Just keep getting up. I want to tell you something. A fella that keeps coming back and getting up never loses a fight. God's looking for some folks that can't keep down. You may whip them but you can't keep them hooked. They keep getting back up and the fellow keeps getting up after he's been knocked down and he just keeps getting up and getting up and getting up and coming on. He'll get somewhere after a while. I think that's what Churchill had in mind. Alright, let me read a little. Wherefore seeing we, now who are we? Church, believers, we're in the same group as these people have been walking by faith. That's us. 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. 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. He hath not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. I will talk to you about this text, just for a few minutes. I won't be a long time at it, but just a few minutes. I've got two or three points that I want to make with you about the text and we're going to leave just before anybody goes to sleep. Now, I want to just, let me give you three words. Let's use this word, preparation. Preparation, that's a good word, isn't it? That's a good Bible word. If you're fixing to do a job, you've got to do some preparation to do it. And it's true, if you intend to go to heaven, you're going to have to prepare. You can go to hell without trying. And the fact is, you can go to heaven without trying. You go to heaven trusting. But the point is, preparation is necessary. You won't automatically wind up in heaven. You won't accidentally wind up in heaven. But apart from Christ, people do face eternity in bad shape. There's some preparation here. Twice the term let us appears in this text. You see that? Let us. That's the first part of the text. He said let us lay aside every weight. And then he said let us run. How many times is the phrase let us used in Hebrews? You ever count them up? Twelve times in the book of Hebrews. That phrase appears. Lettuce, lettuce. Somebody asked a young Christian, said, what do you think the theme of the book of Hebrews is? He said, oh, that's a lettuce book. Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce. You got two times lettuce. And then you have the word looking. Looking, let us, and then looking, looking. Then look down in verse 3. You have the word lest. Lest. I'm just putting my finger on some key words. I would say let us denotes preparation. Looking denotes priority. If you're going to run, you better look where you're running instead of looking at who's watching you run. You spend too much time looking at the crowd and what they're doing, you're going to get them in a mess. Looking, that's your priority. And then last is your precaution. Alright, the general idea of this verse is that of the Christian life being compared to a race. A race. Now, in preparation, let's try to dig in a little bit. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Who are these witnesses? Are they the people that are around us now? Or are they the people that have gone before us and proved to us this race can be run? See, I think that harkens back to chapter 11. Now, this word witness is an interesting word. The word used here in this verse is the word martous. That's the same word used in Acts chapter 1 where Jesus told his followers, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. Martus. Now, There's another word in your Bible, and I'm fixing to show it to you. Turn to the book of 2 Peter. There's another word that has the word witness in it, but it has something to go with it. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 16. The text reads like this. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were, what's the next word? Eyewitnesses of His Majesty. What's the difference in witness and eyewitness? Well, it's a different word in English, it's a compound word made up of eye and witness. The Greek word for witness is martous, that is somebody that can give convincing evidence of something. Because of experience, they can tell you, this is the way it is. An eyewitness is somebody that has literally seen. And the Greek word here is the word apoptes. Which is the same word, we get our word optometrist, optometry, ophthalmology, people who work with eyes. Now, where did Peter become an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus? Why, one morning Jesus called Peter, James, and John. He took them to Mount Hermon, and the Bible said he was transfigured. Aha! Boy, they met with Moses and Elijah. What a wonderful experience that was. That's what he's referring to. Verse 17 of 1 Peter chapter 1 will tell you that. Now, what I'm trying to get you to understand is, Hebrews chapter 12, this is my view of the text, if you hold a different view, that's okay, I'm not going to argue with you, but I don't think the text will support a different view. This does not mean that Our daughter, Miss Sue and I, has a daughter that's been gone now for 13 years to heaven. Our parents have gone to heaven as far as we know. You have people that have gone to heaven. This does not mean people in heaven are looking down at you knowing everything you do, seeing every move that you make. That's not what it means. They are not witnessing to what you're doing, but what they did is witnessing to what you're trying to do. Am I making any sense? I promise you something. As a young Christian, what you want to see is an older Christian having some of the same struggles you have to show you, hey, this thing can be done. Right. Amen. Right? This thing can be done. This hill can be climbed. This battle can be won. You don't have to stop where you are. You can pick up and you can go on. Back in the horse and buggy days, a fella got real scared, weary, going around the mountain. And he got off, he said, I better get off and walk. And he didn't walk very far and he found buggy tracks. He said, Lord, hell, I'm going back and getting my buggy. This thing can be done. I'm going to come on and do this. I like that. I think if you'll find the ground that you're walking on, if you'll look, there's some footsteps that tell you, hey, this can be done. Now that's my point. Preparation. What do we got to do in preparation? Let us, hey if you're going to run a race there might be some things you need to let go. Let us lay aside. Now there's some people in this building, might have been a while for some of us, but there's some people in this building at times, maybe have been known to lift a few weights. Some look like they may still be doing it. Probably some of us will be better off if we still do it. One of the last strokes I had, I fell flat on my face doing push-ups in the middle of the floor. I hadn't been prone to do too many push-ups since. But anyway, what I'm saying to you is this. If you're going to run a race, it's alright to lift your weights and do your push-ups and all your exercises, but you don't carry the weights on the race track, do you? Right. Amen. True. A weight in the Christian life does not have to be something that is necessarily sinful. It can actually be something that is neither sinful nor righteous. It can be a neutral thing. I tell you what, how many of us have found out in life that good can be the enemy of best? If you're satisfied with good instead of aiming for the best, you probably won't ever get to the best. And best can get to be the enemy of good. It's not just a battle between right and wrong. It's between being your best and doing your best for the glory of God. You don't have to do good as somebody else does. You just have to do your best. And I believe this race, Jesus is worthy of your best. Absolutely, all right? We're doing good. So if you find something in your life that would be a hindrance or is a hindrance to the life of faith and running this race, lay that aside. Lay that aside, all right? And then he said, Let us lay aside every weight, and then he got down, and the sin. See he separated that out. Now sin is never neutral. Sin is always negative, sin is always bad. Somebody said between good and evil there can never be common ground, there will always be battleground. I think that's true. So if there is a sin in your life that so easily besets you, what does the word beset mean? Hinder you, hamper you, make you less than you're better. He said, lay aside that weight, lay aside that sin. Now, those are two negatives, but then he gives a positive. Let us run with patience. Patience. I think we can interpret that word patience like this, endurance. Endurance. I read one time in a book that I have at home about Christopher Columbus when they sailed and looking for a new world. Somebody is said to have discovered his diary. And they were so interested to find his diary, what he wrote in the diary as they sailed for the New World. It had his name on the outside, dates on it, and all of this kind of stuff, and the place they left from, and all of that. And every day, every day, every day, every day, they got to thumbing through the book, and here's what it said. Sailed on. Sailed on. Sailed on. sailed on. Hey, we get home, sail on. I mean, we're right back where we were this morning, I'm just preaching a different text with the same sermon. Sail on. You say, well, we may not get there with all the pastors we started with. You might, you probably won't. From time to time, for whatever reason, you're going to probably lose some cargo, lose some passengers. But hey look, you've got to buckle up your belt and sail on. Keep the sail up into the wind. Let us run with patience, endurance, persistence. Just keep on. The race is set before us. Don't get distracted. Alright? Looking unto. Looking unto. Who does he say we're looking unto? Jesus. Well, who is Jesus? The author. The finisher of our faith. Aren't you glad Jesus isn't a quitter? Friend, He came here for the cross, and He took it all the way to the hill, and then He lay down on it, and He died for you and for me, and then He got up out of the graveyard for you and me, and He has ascended, and He is this day at the right hand of the throne of majesty on high. He is not a quitter, He's a finisher! Amen! One of the last sayings that he said on the cross, the last saying was, it is finished. I don't know about you, but I don't want to leave behind unfinished ground. Unfinished task. Looking unto Jesus. Now you see, that's where our priority has got to be. Looking unto Jesus. Who? For the joy, now that's interesting, the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. You see that word endure comes up. Endured the cross, despising the shame. It's tragic that our world seems not to know any shame anymore. That's a fact. Have no ability to blush or to be embarrassed or to be ashamed. Hey look, there was a lot of shame about the cross. A lot of shame about the cross. You think about that. But, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And text says He did that for the joy that was set before Him. You see the joy set before Him is parallel with the race that is set before us. You see, if you stop running the race today as a Christian and get discouraged because you're in a rough spot in your life, I wonder if that might affect somebody else that's watching you, and they may never get saved if you pull out. Now you think about that. Think about these children running around this church. Beautiful little children, bunches of them, and you're blessed to have bunches of children. A lot of churches don't have any children. You're blessed to have them. And you're trying to teach them the way that they ought to worship, and how they ought to respect the house of God, and what they ought to be in the Christian life. And I commend you for that, but hey! The joy of seeing these come to know the same Savior you've come to know ought to be enough to sit before you to keep you in the race. I'm going to tell you the joy of Jesus was not to crown the thorns. The joy of Jesus wasn't His nakedness being exposed to the world. That was the shame that He despised. And I'm going to tell you, the nail-pierced hands and feet were not the things that were joyous, and the spear in the side wasn't joyous. But I tell you, what was a joy to Him, He knew that if He'd go through with that, down the road, there'd be the likes of you and me and others that one day would hear about what was accomplished on that cross. Hallelujah! We come out of darkness into light and be saved by the wonderful grace of God. That's the joy that was set before Him. And that joy caused Him to endure what He despised. Hey, you can put up with a lot of things you'd rather not have to put up with if you can see the joy of seeing somebody come to Jesus. Think about that. Alright? Preparation. Priority. Looking unto Jesus. Okay? Verse 3. Precaution. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, Lest you be weary and faint in your minds. You have not resisted under blood, striving against sin. None of us today have resisted evil to the degree that it has cost us our life yet. Right? True. Jesus went that far didn't he? Yes, his resistance to sin and to evil cost him his very life. So he said, consider him that he knew. Such contradiction of sinners against himself. We got a lot to run for haven't we? A lot to live for. Preparation. Do you need to take care of anything today? You got any weights? Got any sin? Need to be confessed? Put away? Are you absolutely focused upon Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith? Can you look ahead and see joy will come ahead? Weeping may endure for the night, but joy is coming in the morning. Keep looking forward. and keep considering him. Focus. I mean, preparation is vital if you're going to be in a race. Ain't no question about it. Priority is vital. But precaution is as well. Don't get to looking around at what somebody else is doing. Keep your focus. Keep it on Jesus. Keep on right. I saw this little one a while ago. She's asleep now. She thought these others going to do something she wasn't in on. Friends, she was laying them down, coming across here. Now, you wouldn't want to see me run that fast, because I can't see that fast. Buddy, she was making time coming across to get there. She wanted to be in on that. Boy, if we could see that kind of enthusiasm in the race. Praise God. What somebody else does or don't do is not going to stop me. I'm heading this way. That's my message. That's all I want to have. I just preached it twice. Two different places for each same message. That's what they intended to do. I think that's what today's about. Friend, listen. There's a lot of race left to be run. You're on the right team. Just keep running. Keep running. Joy will come. And one of these days, when we're finished, we can sit down and reflect and be glad. Dr. V. Raymond Edmond made this statement. I'm going to end with this quote. He said, it is always too early to quit. May God bless you is my prayer. Thank you Brother Clay for letting me come today.