But I'm grateful that we can share the struggle together, for sure. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12, and we will read one verse, still verse 1, and then we will begin, we will pray, and then we will begin our message. Hebrews 12, verse 1. I could almost, by this time, quote it to myself. I pray that might be the same for you. Hebrews 12, verse 1 says, 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. Let's pray. Father, again, it is our distinct joy and privilege to gather our hearts and minds together today. We thank you for the opportunity of the Lord's Day that we have to set aside the concerns of the world and the distractions that are out there and sometimes even here in our minds. We thank You, Father, that Your Spirit has called us together. And as we heard, and we're reminded so wonderfully this morning that You saved us, not so that we could just simply go our own ways and do our own thing, but you saved us so that we would be one together, and you keep us for that purpose, you guard us for that, and as we have been thinking the past couple of weeks, you yourself have set to perfect us in this, to make us one, and to keep us as we run the race together, as we step into eternity, that you can say with absolute certainty, and you will, and we readily acknowledge, joyfully acknowledge that you say you have not lost one. Lord, I pray that you would press upon our minds the wonder of your grace in keeping us, that there is a race before us that must be run, but ultimately it is dependent upon what you have already done for us in Christ. And it's his sacrifice. And it was his endurance that secured for us perseverance in this life. May we rejoice at that. May we praise your name and glorify you in the things that we put our minds and our hearts to in this life, knowing that this is true. We love you for Jesus. We thank you for sending Him, that He is the wonderful, perfect, undeniable substitute, the sacrifice for our sin. who made every provision that must be made. You fulfilled it, you kept it, you've done the work, and we love you for it. May our hearts resound in worship to you, be in our thoughts, be in our minds, guide us, help us to ask the kind of questions of ourself that would reflect a concern and a love for the race set before us, and for the Savior who has secured us in it. We love you and ask these things because of Christ this morning, amen. Begin with a quote from C.S. Lewis, and let me be careful to read it. I don't want to miss a comma here that would make it sound strange, but he said, we are, not metaphorically, not as a picture, but we are in very truth, a divine work of art. We are something God is making, and therefore something with which he will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. What a wonderful statement. Let me read it again. He says, we are not metaphorically, but in very truth, a divine work of art, something God is making. and therefore something with which he will not be satisfied until it has a certain character." And we hear the wonder of that statement, the beauty of what Lewis says there, echoed, or rather Lewis is echoing, I'm certain, what he read and understood from the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, which says this, that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The word there for workmanship in the Greek is the word poiema, which literally could be translated artistry. And Paul says there that we are an artistry, a work of art created as a special, a spiritual creation for that very purpose, that we would be God's artistry, we would be His handiwork, and that we would go forth and do good works to the glory of His name. In other words, if we were created as a work of His hands, then we continue to be a work of His hands. God is not finished perfecting us, as we've heard, reflected in this passage in Hebrews. He is perfecting us together with those Old Testament saints and many more saints who are yet to be born again. And he is doing so as his artistry, his workmanship. And then certainly Philippians 1.6 is echoed here in the words of Lewis. As Paul wrote, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." And those two thoughts from Paul are part and parcel. They fit right in with the subject that we're looking at in this passage in Hebrews 12. Endurance, perseverance, and assurance. And as we start our thoughts this morning on the rest of chapter 12, verse 1, let us keep that in mind that the work that God is doing is dependent upon His own power and His strength and every provision that He's made for you and I as His children. And again, it was wonderfully reflected this morning in the discussion that God is keeping us. He keeps us. He has caused us to be born again and made us His children, and He keeps us, and He watches over us, guarding us, and preserving us. But He does so as an aspect of His artistry in us and what He's making us to be. He's causing us to hold fast and perfecting us until the day of Christ Jesus, the day that we see Him in person, face to face. In fact, that last verse there in Philippians 1, Paul says, this is my confidence in writing to you. I know it will happen. I know it is being done, and I know God Himself is doing it to us and to you, and He's doing it to us together. So let us be strengthened and encouraged. Let us share in joy and fellowship together, because this is true. So I think it wonderfully fits right along with what the writer of Hebrews is saying there in verse 1. And last week we looked at those three P's that we talked about, the three words that stuck out. that God is perfecting us, that God provides for us, and that God is certainly providing. He promised, rather, and He is providing for us and He is perfecting us. We want to take it a step further this morning and follow the writer's argument. Verse 1 says, again, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, he says, this is the basis for what we're saying here. The testimony, the words, the Scripture that bear witness of God's work in these Old Testament saints is the same that is at work in you, which is why he says in the latter part of verse 1, let us also Let us also, this is a wonderful allusion to the fact that this work of perseverance is a cooperative endeavor. We cannot run the race of the spiritual life separated from other believers. We cannot run the race of the Christian life on our own. There is a great sense that we need not only the witness and the authority and the guardianship of the church, other believers in the local atmosphere, but we need the testimony of those who have gone before us, as well as the recognition of those who are yet to come. That there is a host that God is saving. That there is a host that He is perfecting as His workmanship. We are not alone in this and we should not see ourselves alone, but rather we need to understand that the work of perseverance, persevering in the race set before us is a cooperative effort. It takes all of us. And I know that I'm saying that to people that are aware of that fact, but we need reminded of this truth, don't we? We need to be reminded that we can't just lay off fellowship with other believers. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by the concerns of the world around us, even though they be legitimate concerns. We must endeavor together to walk this race of faith until the end. The writer implies that those men of faith, let us, those men of faith who have preceded us, and he has in mind those who read and hear this message, and also the writer himself. He includes himself. It may be helpful to remind us that this is probably not a letter, but a sermon. that was written to those churches, those Christians who had been scattered in the latter days of the Jewish temple worship. Certainly they were people who had some teaching under their belts. And this sermon would have been circulated and read and taught and considered and thought upon by everyone who saw its value, who would be every believer who had access to it. So it's wonderful to me that the writer here, when he says, let us also, let us also, he includes himself. I'm in this race. And you and I increasingly need to remind ourselves, we are in this race together. And we have a great body of wonderful witnesses through the Scripture who testify to us and encourage us to hold on, to hold fast, to keep running. We're in this race together. It is a cooperative endeavor. Now let me hasten a few words down before I get to where I think I need to be and bring forward the word race itself. He says, 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. And we'll say more and maybe come back next week or the week after and add to what we're saying here. But John Popper points out very helpfully that the point of the verse is run. The point of the verse is run. He's encouraging. He's strengthening. But he also, not in a discouraging way, reminds us that we're running a race. And this is something that we need to be sober-minded about and thoughtful about. I would send you away this afternoon to reread this verse and the following verses and to consider where what I'm about to say is showing up in your life and how you see it showing up in your life as endurance. Because the word race in the Greek is the word agone. Now, that may not mean anything to you. Well, maybe this will. It is the Greek word from which we get our English words agony and agonize. They come from this Greek root. It could best be described as engaging in an intense struggle. That's probably the simplest, most pointed way to say it. If we're in agony, then there is something that is prodding and pointing and is questioning and moving us and causing us to rethink and re-see things from a different perspective. It's used only six times in the New Testament, and it's translated in these ways. One time is conflict. Two times, rather, as fighting. or warfare. One time it is translated as opposition. Here it's translated as a race. And the last time it's translated as struggle. So race is about the most positive you can get out of it, right? There's war, there's opposition, there's fighting. And as much as your mind can run thinking about those words, all of those things are going to enter into our perseverance as we run the race together, aren't they? Yes. It's part of the picture that he's giving to us. And if you think about it, it makes sense. A race is a struggle, isn't it? A race is not easy. A race is difficult, particularly a long marathon type race that's long distance that requires you to measure yourself, to guard your distractions, to keep pushing on, to push yourself on. Races are not easy. It's one reason I don't run. I don't even like thinking about running. I did all that in high school. I've got it out of my system. There's no part of me that looks back and says, yeah, I'd like to go back to that. Not in the slightest. But much less to run long distance. I could probably think about that, but only a short moment. Only a short moment. The race that is set before us, and it is a race that is set for us, And that phrase itself has in mind that we're not surprised by anything on the course. We can see it. We know what it is. We have the examples of the Old Testament saints. who would readily, were they standing before us, could speak to us and say, and this is what you'll encounter, and here is what you'll see, and this is the way the race will run, but it's a race, nonetheless, and agonizing that has been set before us. suffering that we must endure. And I really do want to go back and say something more about this later, because the issue of suffering in the Christian life is such a central theme. Now, the issue of suffering in all of life is a central theme. A lot of people would have us think that the world out there that's lost and has rejected Jesus is just fine in their life, that there are no difficulties. We know different, don't we? All of life encounters struggling. The question is, how are we going to encounter it? How are we going to face it? I'm kind of distraught from time to time when I look at the headlines in the news and I see, maybe it's just there's more news or more access to it, but there are more and more reports of young men and women who are coming to the end of their hopefulness in their life and they're ending their life. And I understand that part of it is our consumeristic, hope-promising, and hope-non-delivering society that we live in, that everything must be perfect in its experience, in its appearance, or it is worthless. I understand that that's going on, but it puts the finger on where the need is, doesn't it? People need the hope of salvation. They need to know that struggling is not for nothing, and the only way that suffering is made something, is made real, is made of substance and value in our life, is if we see ultimately the suffering of Jesus Christ on behalf of our sins. They need to know there's freedom there. They need to know they cannot escape suffering in this world, but it can mean something. And it can mean something only through yielding to Jesus Christ, to the work that He did perfectly on the cross. That's the hope the world needs to hear, in part. So I'll come back to that later. Let me read for you a story, an illustration, that puts the perspective on this race. because it's a race that's set before us. We are running it together. It requires all of us to run together, but it is a race that must be run, and it is a race that must be won. The story is told of John Stephen Aquari. I hope I'm saying that correctly. He was a marathon runner from Tanzania who finished dead last at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. No last-placed finisher in a marathon ever finished quite so last, as the writer of this Little snippet said, he was somehow injured along the way, along the running, and he hobbled into the stadium with his leg bloodied and bandaged. It was more than an hour after the rest of the runners had completed the race. Only a few spectators were left in the stands when Aquarii finally crossed the finish line. Later, when he was asked why he continued to run despite the pain of his injury, Aquari simply replied, my country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me here to finish it. And what a wonderful perspective on the work that God has begun in us and on the work that running The race to win is for us. We're not here to just say, hey, I participated in the games. I was there at one point. We are here, as Paul says, not just to run, but to run so that we win. Because eternal life is at stake. Salvation is at stake. We are here to win, to finish, regardless of what we encounter along the way, knowing, my friends, that God is keeping us by His own power. The verse goes on to say, let us also... One of the great things about Hebrews 11 is that all of these heroes of faith, they finished. They finished. Most of them. are without name, unknown to us. Some are famous, but most of them are unknown, as will be the vast multitude of those who run this race and finish it. Let us finish the race, he says, also, in other words, as they did. Let us also run. Let us run in such a way that we persevere, focusing on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they having not seen Him yet, us now looking back at His finished work. Let us also. Let us also run in this way. Now, the race. We've jumped ahead, let's go back a little bit. The race consists of three things very easily discerned in the passage that I want to point out to you in three words. The first word is the word encumbrance. The second word is the word entangles or entanglements. And the third word is the word endurance. A wonderful alliteration there, E-E-E. encumbrance, entanglements, and endurance. So let's reread the verse and then let's explore what's before us. What does the race consist of? He says, 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. He goes on to say in verse 2, as part of the perspective and part of this practice of running, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So he gives us there how. How do we face? How do we endure? How do we do these things that we're being called to do? The word encumbrance is a word that means simply a burden or a weight, a bulk or a mass. And there's several ways that we can look at this. Of course, we're talking about in the context the Greek games, the Olympic games, what we would call them, the ancient games. And it's well known, widely known, that to run in those games, and really any competition, everything that works against our running is cast off. Everything that works against our performance Everything that stands in the way of our making headway, getting farther along down the track, being able to see the distractions that are here or there, all of that is cast aside. It's well known in history that those who ran in the games in ancient Greece ran, if not totally naked, almost totally naked, so that they could have the least resistance in their running. That's what's being described here. But we also need to keep in mind that he's not necessarily talking about sins here. They're encumbrances. Every encumbrance that we encounter is not necessarily sin. We may make it sin, but he's simply alluding to things that hinder us. So discernment is necessary, isn't it? and a certain perspective and a certain vision and a certain outlook on what lays in front of us as our motivation must come into view if we are to successfully endure in the running. Spurgeon says, we cannot win if we are weighted down. The pace will have to be very swift, and we cannot get to it or keep it up if we have weights to carry. Unloaded, we shall find the race taxing all our powers. As it is, weighted, we shall be doomed to failure. He's absolutely true. I don't know if Spurgeon was a runner or not. I doubt it. I don't think that's described in his biography. But he's right, you can imagine someone out on the track, it's field day, and they're in the blocks getting ready to run, and the runner has in each of his hands a 20-pound weight. The outcome of that race would be almost, you could just say, well, he's not winning. He's got to get rid of the weights, and then maybe he could win. That's what's at play here. Now I understand, and you probably are aware of this as well, that part of athletics is training, isn't it? And sometimes that extra weight is necessary. Sometimes it helps us, it sharpens us, it strengthens us. You watch professional baseball and you see guys with rings on their bats and they're swinging. They're getting resistance. and their practice is being sharpened by the weight that they carry there, but they don't take that out to the home plate, do they? No. Or weightlifters who add weight upon weight to the point that they stress and they strain and they must push with all of their might and focus and push out the distractions. Those things, in some way, are helpful. as encumbrances, but that's not really what he has in mind here. But here's what I want you to see, and I'll probably say more about this later. The encumbrances that would stand in our way, we need to understand, we're told to lay them aside, but they do play the part of that very thing, sharpening us and strengthening us and helping us to run better. But it's interesting to me, he tells us, lay them aside, lay them aside. And I think there's a reason for that, we'll mention that in a moment. But listen to what John Piper has said, commenting about this, the quality of our life as we run this race. He says, the race of the Christian life is not fought well or run well by asking what's wrong with this or that. In other words, by looking at the prohibitions, don't do this, don't do that. One writer had pointed out the difference between grace, the let us of the grace, and the do not of the law. The let us of the grace can only happen if the work of the law has been finished, completed, and kept in Jesus Christ. And now grace enables us, not as a prohibition, although those are important, but that's not primary. The let us, we're being called to here. John Piper went on to say, he says, The life of the Christian life is not run well by asking what's wrong with this or that, but asking, is it 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? That is a wonderful biblical perspective on how we need to be thinking about the culture around us, the culture of our homes, the culture of our families, the temptations that we face, the things that come into our life that may be good things, but if we are not careful, if we are not paying attention to the course that we're running, looking to Jesus, they can become primary, ultimate things and lead us astray. That is so helpful to me. My tendency, maybe yours as well over the years, has been to look to the prohibitions. Do not do this. Do not, do not, do not, do not, do not. when the better question to ask is, does this help me follow Christ? Don't ask, is it a sin? It's not a bad question to ask, however. But ask, does it help me run? Is it in the way? Is it an encumbrance? Don't ask about your music. Don't ask about your movies, your parties, your habits. What's wrong with it? Don't ask. That, but ask rather, does it help me run the race? Does it help me run for Jesus? I mean, think about it. You cannot fulfill verse 2, fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and carry the baggage of known sin in your life. One has got to go, one or the other. And if you look to Jesus Christ as your motivation for running the race, your only help, your only hope, your only desire, your only motivation, then you have got to lay aside the encumbrances. And that's a wonderful way to ask it. Does this help me get to Jesus? Do I see Him more clearly here? Or when I hold on to this thing that's holding on to me, does he grow dim? Do I find it hard to find the contours of his face, the beauty of his heart? Because I want this thing so much. Encumbrances lay aside the weight, he says. The second word, the second E is the word entangles. And this word entangles simply means, well not simply actually, it's translated in other places, in many places, besetting sin. It has with it the idea of something that is standing around us and skillfully surrounding us. I think there's actually a word play going on here in the verses. In verse 1, the first part, he says, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, since they're at every point of the compass around us, we must also be aware that there is sin that is also standing around us, that it so easily entangles, besets us, weighs us down. Now he's talking about sin in itself. And how many times have we encountered this struggle in our life? A hindrance to the race, oh yes. But I hope we see one that has been dealt with. It's part of the reason that he mentions the suffering of Christ in the next verses is so that we have that vivid picture in our mind that when we come to struggle against entangling sin that wraps itself around us along the course of the race that we have some remedy to look to. Look to Christ. He's paid for this. He's dealt a death blow to this sin. And yes, your heart may be attracted to it, and your heart may be longing for it. Look to Christ. He is the remedy. And lay it aside. Psalm 18, verse 23. I think Thomas Watson, the Puritan writer, used this verse to point this out to us. He says, And this is the second part, the latter part of the verse. Psalm 18.23 says, And I kept myself from my iniquity. There is a real sense that along the course the racecourse set before us, we must as well keep ourselves from our iniquity. We must guard against it. As God is guarding us in Jesus Christ, we must also be on guard, pay attention to the race, and lay these things aside. Thomas Watson is very helpful in this area. He says, How shall we know This is not a thing I like to dwell on, but it's necessary. How shall we know what our king or darling sin is? For some of us, that's all it takes to just ask that question. How will we know what that is? It comes readily to our mind. Oh, yeah, there it is. I know. I know. It's that one that just like a bad dream keeps coming back and gnawing at you. It's like a bad smell that you can't get rid of. It's just there, but you've got to deal with it. And if you don't deal with it, if you don't keep yourself from your iniquity, then you will become entangled with it. And you will, heaven forbid, lose sight of the prize and depart the course and be shown to be a rank unbeliever. Thomas Watson has a number of ways to identify this. I'm going to read quickly because we need to move on, but he says this. If you want these, I can give them to you later. How shall we know what our king or darling sin is? Well, here's one way. The sin which a man does not love to have reproved is the darling sin. When we are confronted about whatever the issue may be and we despise the reproval, there is a besetting sin. We don't want to be corrected. And how dare you correct me? That's my issue. There's a darling. Another way is this, the sin on which the thoughts run the most is the darling sin. He said, whichever way the thoughts go, the heart goes also. Guard your thinking. If you find your mind resting again and again and again and again upon one place that beckons you, then run to Christ. Run to a brother. Leave it behind. Lay it aside. Wherever the thoughts go, the heart goes. Luther said it this way, what the heart enjoys, the heart explores. Guard your hearts. And if need be, go and confess to a brother. Why do we not make use of this? Why do we hold on to the struggle and not go and confess and allow our brothers and sisters to come alongside and help? Another way that we know the darling sin is the sin which we find hard to resist. That's the darling sin. John Angel James, another great thinker and writer on this issue, ask these questions. What is it? Is it an unsanctified temper? Is it an impure imagination? Is it a proud heart? Is it a vain mind? Is it a taste for worldly company? Is it a proneness for envy and jealousy? Is it a love of money? Is it a tendency to exaggeration in speech? Is it fondness for pleasure? Is it disposition to argue, to divide, and to backbite? We have become in the Christian church, I think, I hope not here, but far too easily satisfied to speak in generalities about sin rather than putting the name to the sin. Name them before God. He is not shocked. Name them before God. He is not offended. Well, He is, but He will not turn you away. I don't want to hear about that. I can't handle that. He will point you faithfully again and again to the blood of His Son, the scars in His hands and in His feet and on His brow and on His back. It's why those scars are there, so that you may be free. You are my workmanship in Christ Jesus. Thomas Watson says a few more things. He says, the darling sin may be known when men most defend it. That's the beloved sin. The sin that we advocate for and dispute over is the besetting sin. Have you ever been to a point in your life when you have been arguing, trying to defend what you know is sinful? I have. There is a danger of besetting sin. And then the last one that I had record of is the sin we find most difficult to give up. Ouch. The sin that we find most difficult to give up is the beloved sin. But it must be fought. You see, sin is just that entangling setting like nets that your legs have become wrapped up in and just can't quite get loose of. You want to, you know you need to, but it's just there and it feels as if it's got you. Sin is entangling. Sin is cumbersome. It does weigh us down. But you must realize part of looking to Jesus Christ is this, that you remember that sin, though it does cling closely to us, though it may still appeal to us, it is no longer a basis for condemnation for you and I who are in Christ Jesus. even though we may feel that to be true, remind yourself there is not a sin that condemned you before that the blood of Christ is not covered, washed away forever. And when you come back with the strong understanding and the strong resting in this truth that that sin no longer is my authority, my Christ died for that sin, it is defeated, go away. What a glorious, glorious truth. And yes, we encounter suffering along the race that we're running, but we have Jesus. We have Jesus to look to and not just to say, oh, wasn't he lovely, but he's here, he's in me. And though I am weak, I will falter, I will fail. He cannot, he never will. He is insurmountable. He is overwhelmingly good, overwhelmingly just, overwhelmingly loving. And the very fact that He has suffered on the cross in our place is a balm and a medicine and a remedy that is priceless and that the world does not have. Sin, though it clings closely, is no longer a basis for condemnation. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We must remind ourselves that if that's the case, if that is true, and it is based on the authority of Scripture, then be reminded, sin can be laid aside. The very thing we are being commanded to do as part of the race we're running, lay it aside. Take it off. like a garment that hinders the race, take it off, lay it aside. And so many other places in Scripture, Ephesians 15, Romans 15 rather, Ephesians 4 and Ephesians Verse 4, 22 and 25 in Colossians 3 and James and 1 Peter chapter 2, we are encouraged, exhorted, commanded to lay aside, to take off, to put off sin. So there must be some power to do that, right? Yes. If condemnation has been removed, if Christ is in us, the hope of glory, and the command is given, lay these things aside, then we are empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to lay them aside. They must be laid aside, in fact. You can't get to the finish line and say, well, here I am. I've got a few bags in tow. Could you have room for these things? They must be laid aside. They must be done away with. And to further encourage, we must, you must expect that we will lay them aside in this life. Lay them aside. Put them away. Now, this is interesting and encouraging to me, and I pray that you see it. The word or the phrase, lay aside, has with it the meaning of, it faces two ways. It is to put something away from its normal location, to put something away Or as one commentator said, it signifies a departure from a former acquaintance. I like that. It is to depart from what you used to be, what used to characterize you as. It's in, actually, and this is the part where I started getting excited a little more so. The Greek is in the aorist tense, which means it has a definite time that it was done and finished. I think I've got that right. It's almost like our past tense in English. It had a beginning point, it is done. Now, you may be thinking, okay, now you're contradicting yourself. Lay aside and keep going and pressing on, but this is in this form. And you may ask the question, rightly so. Then if this is true that we've laid aside these things, they're seen as laid aside, then why do I continue to face them? That's a great question to ask yourself as you're running the race of endurance. Why do they keep coming back to me? The simple answer is this. They come back to you, you deal with them again because you are being perfected. Because you are being perfected. And part of being perfected is this, that you realize that you practice increasing and full dependence on God in this race. They are. If there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, if that's true, and it is, if that is true, we cannot be condemned for these things any longer, then there is a sense that they are put aside from us. Paul says in Romans 8 again, and who can bring a charge against God's elect? No one. God is the one who justifies, and the one who God justifies, that is, declares to be righteous based on the work and the power of His Son, the death and resurrection of Christ, the one who He justifies, no one can bring a charge against. We almost have this catch-22 where we're We're finished with this, but then we have to continue going on with this. But it makes sense to me now. When you fail, when I fail, In this race, when I get my eyes off of Christ and look at besetting sins, I'm tempted, I'm dragged away, I become neglectful, tired and weary, whatever it may be. When I fail, God, by His Spirit, through His Word, or through a brother in the church, causes me, He forces me to turn and to increasingly look back to Jesus and the work He has done, knowing that this is not dependent upon my performance. My life, the running of this race, I'm called to run it. I'm commanded to lay aside encumbrances and entanglements. is ultimately, finally, fully a matter of faith and my dependence on the finished work of grace that is at view in verse 2 and has been at view through the entire book of Hebrews. So when he says, lay this aside as a done deal, that God's grace allows us again and again and more and more to lay aside, lay aside, and look ahead to Jesus. That is the only way this race can be run, the only way it will be won. Look to Jesus. Lose dependency upon yourself and become fully dependent upon Christ. Lay aside anger. Lay aside bitterness. Lay aside malice. Lay aside adultery. Whatever. Lay it aside. And look to Christ. But the only way you can do that is to look to Christ. Look to Him. And this is part of His artistry. Part of the beautiful tapestry of the work of our life is this very interaction between the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the people of God, and our fight against sin. Or I could say it this way, as I draw this to a conclusion. The laying aside of every encumbrance and the laying aside of sin that entangles is hard to do, but they are the race. They are the race. The agony, the pain of running, the training that God puts us through, the discipline, are for these very things. to lay aside encumbrances, to lay aside sin that entangles, and to endure, to run, to run and not quit. They are the race. We are commanded to do those very things in the middle of the race, aren't we? Yes. It's not as if we go and we do some training here, we do some training there, and we try to gain some muscle and lose some whatever, and then we come to the race. No, we're in the race. If you are believing Christ to save you, if God's caused you to be born again, called you to Himself, you're in the race. So laying aside encumbrances, laying aside sin that entangles is done in the race because they are the race, really. And even more than that, to go further than that, they are going to be done as we run, but the race is the thing, isn't it? The race is the thing. And the third word that we come to is the word endurance. The word endurance means to be arranged under, in the Greek is to be arranged under, or to abide under, to keep at it, to keep going in the place that you're at, the race that you're running, the station in life that you're at. It has with it the picture of patient, enduring perseverance and steadfastness. One writer has said this, that the great challenge of endurance, the great challenge of perseverance, is to yield the ordinary days to God. That's so true, isn't it? To yield the ordinary days to God. We have our mountaintop experiences in the life of Christ, don't we? We love them. We bask in them. We want to stay there on the mountain. One thing about the Mount of Transfiguration is the beauty of the startling, life-changing picture of Christ there on the Mount of Transfiguration is that they left the mountain. They couldn't stay there. They said, we want to build a tabernacle here. We want to, ah, this is great. But they had to go back. And what did they go back to? They went back to the crucifixion. And what did they go back to? They went back to persecution, and struggle, and agony, and anxiety, and fear. They went back to the everyday life as they encountered it. And it's hard to yield to God the ordinary days of our life. It's hard to make them days of obedience and days of faithful following. And as this writer went on to say, one after another, after another, after another. But he is so right. The race that we run is not simply a mountaintop here and a mountaintop there and a mountaintop there. Oh, and we had a little bobble there. No, it's a course. It's one way. It's one course. It encompasses all of life. Paul Tripp says it this way in, I think, a wonderful way. He says, you live your life in the utterly mundane. And if God doesn't rule your mundane, then He doesn't rule you, because that is where we live in the mundane. How true. The writer goes on to say, or he says it, I'm out of order here, but he says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. I have a few things just to read very quickly. John Popper comments this way, he says that the strong exhortation to run with endurance does not come out of the blue. This is the point of the whole book. Endure. Persevere. Run. Fight. Be alert. Be strengthened. Don't drift. Don't neglect. Don't be sluggish. Don't take your eternal security for granted. Fight the fight of faith on the basis of Christ's spectacular death and His resurrection. Wonderful words. He says this is the only way the race can be run. And again, I say, this is how we are confronted with our sin in the midst of the race and are able to continue on. Every time the sin and the temptation arises, we turn and we look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, and we put off sin and we persevere. So we can joyfully say, I've already said this, but I'm going to say it again. We can joyfully say, porn arises in our mind. Christ has defeated that. Anger arises in our minds. Christ has defeated that. Adultery, Christ has defeated that. Despair, Christ has defeated it. Hatred, Christ has defeated. On and on and on and on. Christ has defeated them all. And they cannot be brought against us. And I finish with an illustration that I'll read to you. Well, it actually goes with something I'm leaving out. So I'm going to stop there. You see, the Lord who saved us as a spiritual creation of His, a work of His artistry, a beautiful poem that He is writing, has not only done that for us, saved us, but as we saw last week, He has made every provision for us that we need. to run in such a way that He's calling us to run. And all of it points over and over and over again to Jesus, doesn't it? Yes, it does. That God would promise us the greatest gift we could ever have, Jesus. And then give us Jesus to help us run the race. and to complete the Course. What a great God we serve. What a wonderful Savior He is. And how good He is. And how loving and how kind. And how beautiful. Let's pray together. Father, we are grateful once again to You for Your grace, Your kindness, and Your beauty. And I pray that what's been said has not been amiss, but will be taken to heart, and will be used even as we endeavor to run this race together, to cause us to hold fast, to cause us to look with abandoning love and desire to Jesus, because He is worthy. And it is in His name that we pray. Amen.