Hebrews chapter 12. And again, we're thankful to be here, thankful for each one the Lord has raised up and enabled to come back to His house this evening, assembled as His church. It's an honor and a privilege for each one to be here. And it's our honor and privilege. I said Sunday evening, and we thank the Lord for this, and we thank each of you, that this is a very easy church to preach to. It's just been an honor here as we're approaching our Finishing the second year that we've been here and it's like I said, it's just been I've just had freedom in the pulpit and haven't had I've been in places where you didn't have freedom in the pulpit and So we're thankful for that but Hebrews chapter 12 this evening Hebrews chapter 12 and we want to begin at verse 1 and read down through verse 15 and And this is still the subject of faith. And we hope to conclude tonight, as the Lord has given us the opportunity here, and we want to, if we were to title this, we would title it, Looking Unto Jesus. Looking Unto Jesus. So verse 1 of Hebrews 12. Wherefore, seeing 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, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and 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 or lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin. and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, or of all our partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily or truly for a few days chasten us after their own pleasure, or as it seemed good or fit to them. But he, that is the Lord, he chastens for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore? Lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." We'll stop our reading there. I'm sure that you're familiar with this passage of Scripture. I'm sure that you, no doubt, are familiar with, particularly beginning at verse 3, about how the Lord loves those whom He chastens. But oftentimes, what has failed to be brought out is that this Scripture, in its setting, is not just dealing with the fact that God chastens whom He loves. It is not a teaching, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul has a new line of thought and he just breaks off and all of a sudden he's talking about chastening. It is all within the confines. It's all within the setting of verse 1 and 2 and that's what we're going to deal with tonight. And verse 1 and 2 refer back to chapter 11. Because we have right here, and you notice, and as we look at this, and we'll get into it here in a moment, but look at this, and again, you'll notice that the Holy Spirit is likening our time on earth after a race, isn't He? Now, he likens it to a pilgrimage, he likens it to a warfare, he likens it to many things throughout the Scriptures. But here, he refers unto it as the race. And from the day that God saved you, and from the day when He will save you, you start running the race. Some folks, they're not very far from the start line. They might have been saved for 80, 90 years, but they're still real close to that start line, because they didn't run anywhere. They didn't do anything. And so we look at this and we find that it's likened unto a race, and it's likened unto no other race that we've ever run before. And so I want to look tonight at this, and again, with looking unto Jesus, and it just falls right in. Again, remember, the Scriptures are not written in books and chapters and in verses. They're written in books on scrolls and paragraphs. That's how they're written. And chapters and verses were put in for ease of reference and for finding things. But this originally was not, okay, we've got a new chapter, so he's done with chapter 11, and it's something else altogether. So often, that's the way our minds think. Oh, it's a new chapter, he's done with that, new subject. No, it runs into it. And the first thing we notice is He says, wherefore? Wherefore? And here the Holy Spirit is about to base everything that He says in chapter 12 upon what He said in chapter 11. And everything in chapter 11 is based on what He said in chapter 10. And if you remember what He said in chapter 10 was He spoke about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that saved us when He offered it once for all. So it all is referencing back to our salvation. And then he talks about, now that you're saved by faith, you need to live by faith. And he gives us a great many examples. And then after giving us the examples, he says, wherefore? Wherefore? That is based upon what I just said. based upon what God the Holy Spirit just taught us that we spent over a year studying. Here's what I want you to do. Here is the application to your life right now in 2018. It's not just written for the Hebrews back in A.D. whatever. This is for you and I right now, right here. And he says, where for? The Holy Spirit had just exhibited the power of faith in a host of illustrious examples. I mean, we saw, we read, and we marveled, and we looked at all of them. And so he says, now wherefore? I don't know, I can't recall ever going to a Hall of Fame. I know, you know, you've got football, baseball, hockey, basketball, they have all the Hall of Fames. I'm sure there's other ones and you go and you look and it's, you know, people oohing and aahing over those things. And it's kind of like just walking through a Hall of Fame and oohing and aahing and then walking out and going, you know, if you're an athlete or something and you want to endeavor to do things, you go, okay, and then you just walk away and it's almost as if you never went there. Well, here we have been given and we've seen all these examples, and now the Spirit of God says, wherefore? Here's what to do with it. And He goes on, and you'll notice here in verse 1, as we look secondly this evening, He says, Wherefore, seeing also we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every way, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So let us run the race that is set before us. And as we said, we've all entered into a race. And here we find that this is significant. This word race, as I understand it, it literally means a place of assembly. It's not ecclesia. It's not ecclesia, however you like to pronounce it. It's a different word, but it means a place of assembly, and it's a reference unto a stadium. And some say that Paul had in mind the Olympian, or where the Olympics were held, and this, that, and the other in different places, and yet we find here that the Holy Spirit is referencing a place where there is a race. I don't know what Paul had in mind, but this is what the Holy Spirit states. And it signifies a contest of athletes. And this was not a one-time usage. The Spirit of the Lord used it in 1 Timothy 6.12, and He used it in 2 Timothy 4.7, where Paul said, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. The reference is unto a race. I'd like you to notice here the language of Scriptures, and notice what it says in Hebrews 12.1. And the very last phrase, the very last clause of that verse, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Notice how it's not called a race, but the race. Again, I'm not a scholar of English or Greek or any nature of that, but the race signifies a very specific race. It's not just a race, it's the race. It's the most important race that there is. You know, we often refer to different things in life, and I've been in races, literal, physical races before. And then, you know, we use it metaphorically, and we'll say, well, it's a race for your life, or it's a rat race. Yeah, but this is the race. This is the most important race there is. It trumps all races. It's that important. because it is spiritually significant. And you know, it engulfs the rat race. And it engulfs the race for our lives. It engulfs all of that, it encompasses all of that, and when it's looked at and we see that this is the most important one, it puts all the other races into perspective. And Paul spoke of here. And it's signified and it was used in this way. I'd like to notice here some characteristics of, well, pretty much any race, but particularly the race. Because this is what Paul, the Holy Spirit is referring to. He says, wherefore? Here's what you're going to do with all this information that I gave you. You're going to run the race. You're not going to walk. You're not going to crawl. You're not going to sit down. There's no mention of any of that. He says in Hebrews 12 and verse 1, let us run with patience. I don't know about you, but I don't do a lot of running anymore. It's got to be pretty emergent or an emergency situation for that. used to do a lot but I don't anymore. But you look at this and you read that and it says let us run and you know there's a difference between walking, running, standing, sitting, crawling, lying down, going backwards, quitting, He doesn't use any of that words, or any of those words, doesn't use any of that terminology. He says, do one thing in this race, and that's run. Now, he qualifies it, and we'll deal with that later in the message. But he says, run. Run. And you might pass some people as you run. And there might be some people passing you as you stand there. But he said to run, didn't he? So we are to run this race. First of all, you will notice that the Bible tells us that this course is laid out. It's laid out. I remember when I was in grade school, we went out, Timothy John, he ran cross country and he ran track. And we went out to a golf course and they had laid out the course and I couldn't tell what was what. And the only reason I knew where the runners were going to be was because they had the stakes and they had a ribbon. It's kind of like this yellow tape, if I remember. It might have been a different color, but I remember this tape. And we got to come up to the edge. It was kind of like a fence. It wasn't much of a fence, but you got to see that. And I remember he ran by and I turned and looked at my mom and I says, when's he coming back? She said, he ain't. I said, what do you mean he ain't? He said, well, it's cross country. They just keep running. They don't do laps. They just keep running. And then I remember in school, we'd go up later on in the spring, and in Michigan in the spring, it's still winter-like. And we'd go up there, and we're outside at the football stadium, and they're running around the track, and there I am in a snow suit. And there they would run. And I never could as a young boy figure out why would you run all the way around in a circle just to end where you started? Why wouldn't you just stay there? Couldn't figure that one out. But you understand the point is the course is laid out in it. And it says in Hebrews 12 and in verse 1, Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. You see, we all have the race set before us, don't we? Every one of us who is saved by God's grace, it's set before us. And it's God who has set it before us. It's the same God who wove the threads of Joseph's life. And Joseph, as he told his brother, he says, you meant it for evil, but God wove it for good. God has set, He's ordained this course, hasn't He? And you know He's already run it, hasn't He? He's already finished His course. Look over, if you would, in 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, and you'll notice here, in verse 7, what Paul says here. And again, not everybody finishes their course. They might die, but it doesn't mean they finish their course. Because there's some folks who don't run. And you look here at what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 7, he says, I, notice this, I have. He says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. You see, he had a course set before him and he finished his course. He didn't look at Peter's course. He didn't look at Barnabas' course. He didn't look at Silas' or Timothy's or anybody else's because he was too busy running his course. He was an apostle unto the Gentiles. And that was what God set before him. And you know, Peter, he was the apostle to the Jews. And he ended up faring pretty well, didn't he? But there was a time in Peter's life when he was too busy looking at John's course. And I've referred to this time and again. Peter said unto Jesus, what about him? And Jesus said, what is that to you? You have your course. The Bible Baptist Church has a course set before it. And we need to run that race with patience. No, we find here that the course is all laid out for us. We don't need to ponder or wonder or guess. Because Jesus said, follow me. He said follow me, didn't He? He's already running. He's at the end of the course. We just need to walk, or run rather, in His footsteps. And so we find here that it's a course that's all laid out for us. It's a course that there are some who, they get off course. There are some who never get back on the course. But thank God there are those who have finished the course that He gave them. We find that when it comes to a race, not only is the course laid out, but there are intense activities. that are intense activities. There's no room for slothfulness or laziness in this race. Nor is there any room for indifference or lack of interest or concern or apathy. We live in a world today of selfishness. Well, you can't be selfish and run this race. The Bible speaks to us that it is one of intense activities. You know, there's a time when the Bible teaches us that the disciples, they were slothful and they were lazy and they had a lack of interest in the fact that Christ said unto one of them, He says, you don't savor the things of God, you savor the things of men. You see, you can't have that and run this race. Thirdly, a race, or characteristics of a race, is that this race is not only a sprint, but it's also a marathon. It's very unique. It is a sprint in the fact that it is short. It is our entire life from the day that God saved us. We stopped on the way to go out to eat with Cassie's parents, and then on the way to the airport after that, but on the way to meet her parents for lunch, we stopped and we went out to the cemetery to see the grave markers, or the headstones, the gravestones of my grandparents. And there were ones, and right next to my mom's mom was my cousin, who she passed away in high school. You will be dead longer than you will be alive, physically. And in that sense, it's a short race. And in another sense, as you run it, it's years sometimes, isn't it? I've been running it since 1999. And some of you have been running it longer than I have. But we look at this, and the Scripture teaches us that it's a sprint, yet it's a marathon. And what we do in this race has eternal ramifications. It's in this race that we'll be judged. It's in this endeavor and in this work and in this labor that we will stand before God and give an account one day. See, it's not one that, you know, No! It is one with eternal ramifications. Here in 2 Timothy 4, verses 7 and 8, we find that a crown will be given to victors. Unlike the Olympics, unlike races in school and whatnot, again, not everybody is going to get a crown. Not everybody is going to get a participation ribbon. Are they? because not everybody participates. And I'm not talking about lost people, because they're not even running this race. Because the Bible tells us, I think it was in one of John's epistles, it's in one of the general epistles that the Lord talked about losing your reward. And the Bible says here in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 7 and 8, I've fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith, henceforth, There's another one of those connecting words. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that also love His appearing. Not all people are going to love His appearing. Not all saved people are going to love His appearing. Isn't that a shame? Isn't that sad? but He's going to give out a crown to the victors. And it's not first place. Remember what Jesus told His disciples when they were arguing about who was going to sit on His right hand and who was going to sit on His left hand, and who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? And what did He say? He said, well, first of all, it's not my place to give the right hand or the left hand. And He also told them, He says, He that is least shall be the greatest, didn't He? You see, Christ taught differently than we think humanly. It's not about being first. It's not about being the fastest. It's not about being the smartest, or the most knowledgeable of Scriptures, or the best preacher, or the best church member. Because it's a course that we run by faith. It's about being faithful again. You see, all those that Paul, by the Holy Spirit, gives an example of in Hebrews chapter 11, of which the Spirit of God in chapter 12 says, Wherefore? How did they run their races? By faith. Elijah wasn't first. Paul said, I'm the least of the apostles, because I persecuted the church. And yet we often think very highly of him, don't we? The Bible says in 1 John 5 verse 4, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. See, it's faith, isn't it? Another thing about this race is that this race has a great cloud of witnesses. A great cloud of witnesses. Saints, I believe of the Old Testament, particularly these here of Hebrews 11, and no doubt of perhaps the New Testament age. I'm sure you've been in a stadium before, and you look round about, and you're just surrounded by those watching over whatever there is before them. Well, these are here as a great cloud of witnesses. And again, notice that. It's witnesses. What do witnesses do? Well, eventually they're going to testify, aren't they? That's what a witness does. I mean, these aren't just people who are cheering on. They're witnesses. At some point, they're going to give a testimony, aren't they? And I think it's going to have to do with what they saw. And boy, that ought to exhort us, shouldn't it? Now we find here that this is the race, and the Spirit of God has given us instructions for this race. He says in Hebrews chapter 12, now let's note the instructions for the race. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. He says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about and so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. So first of all, here's the instructions for the race. Let us lay aside every weight. Now, first of all, this is my responsibility and your responsibility. It doesn't say, seeing that we also are capacitive, so great a cloud of witnesses, let God lay aside every weight. It says let us. This is our duty. This is our responsibility that God has given unto us, and He has authorized us, and He has given us every single thing we stand in need of to do this. We had a young man, I remember, when we were doing our summer workouts for football in high school. And he bought a 40-pound flat jacket. And he was going to run, do all the workouts with an extra 40 pounds. That lasted about 30 seconds. You don't run with extra weight, do you? You shed it. When they came out with Nike shoes and that first swoosh that was on there, the famous runner, Steve Prefontaine, his coach showed them to him. He says, look. He goes, what's that? He says, well, it's their design. And he ripped it off. He said, it's wind resistant. It resists against the wind. He got rid of it. He said, the wind will catch on it. You have to get rid of all this dead weight. Lay aside every weight. The idea here is that we need to cast off everything that encumbers us. Now, this is in reference to things that are not sinful. And so many times we think, well, if it's not sinful, then it's okay. Not so. Not so. Because we encumber ourselves with many things, don't we? Paul said that there are things that are lawful unto me, but they were not expedient, or they did not edify, they did not build me up. So he didn't do them. He didn't partake of them. It wasn't because they were sinful, it's because they hindered him as he ran the race. Think about all the things that we use as excuses to not do what God says. Think about all the things that we have that we use as enablers to not pick this book up and read it. to not tend to the Lord's work, to not endeavor in the things, in the evangelistic endeavors of this church. Lay them aside. Because they're a weight. The reference again is not to things that are inherently sinful, but the things that bog down in the race. Perhaps family, perhaps traditions of men, perhaps national customs, perhaps keeping up with the Joneses. You remember Simon Peter, how he struggled, did he not? To the point that Paul had to rebuke him because Peter would not let go of the Jewish tradition of circumcision. Even though Christ fulfilled that one. He took care of that. To the point that he caused a rift between God's people. No, we find that we're to lay aside every weight. That's a hard one. That's one we all struggle with. Because again, there's no thing that says this is unlawful. I mean, we struggle enough with things that are sinful, let alone here now, the Lord is saying, look, it's not sinful, but it is prohibiting you from doing what you're supposed to do. You're not running the race. And then he says another instruction in verse 1, Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And I wish in our case that it was the sin, but it's really the sins, plural, isn't it? We are easily beset with many sins. The sin which subtly encircles us. One writer stated, with every one of us there is some sin we are especially prone. And I think that when you begin to think about what you're prone with, when you meditate and begin to examine what it is, you'll find it's not what you think it is. It'll be something else. You know, sometimes doctors, you'll come in and you'll present this symptom or that symptom, and they'll say, well, it's this. I know a friend of mine, he had excruciating back pain. And the doctor said, it's your feet. He goes, what do you mean? My feet are fine. It's my back. He goes, no, it's your feet. and the doc worked on his feet and all of a sudden his back pain got better. It's because everything's on your feet. You go in to see the great physician and you might be presenting with these symptoms and those are issues. But they're often products of another root. Is it a result of fear? I mean, he spoke about fear 344 times. He spoke about fear more than adultery, about fornication, about swearing, about blasphemy, about you name it. Is it pride? You know, pride leads to a whole lot of things, doesn't it? We've all got experience with those two. And they lead to other sins, don't they? These are root sins, if you would. And He says here, we need to lay aside that which does so easily beset us. This will have to be done with the self-examination in light of the Holy Spirit's leadership. I think some of us don't want to deal with that because we're afraid what we'll find. We don't want to put the time into it because it's not a quick fix. I mean, you know, and I've used this analogy before. You know, not to make light of farming or anything, but you know, they plant it, it grows, and they harvest it. But I've also been out on an oil rig. And to dig down, and to dig down, and to dig down, and to dig down, and to get the oil out, Or maybe you're digging down to get coal. Or you're digging down to get gold or silver or diamonds or what have you. Those are worth a little more than a bushel of wheat, aren't they? It also takes a little bit more endeavor, doesn't it? Well, to get down with the root of it and what's causing it, it's going to take a little more time, a little more endeavor. It might cost you a little bit more. I don't have that kind of time to put into it. I don't want to deal with it. I just want it to look nice. You know? I want it to look nice. I want to take what the Pharisees did, and that's the kind of Christianity I want to have. I want it to look nice on the outside. Well, you might fool people, but you won't fool God. We have to lay aside the sin that does so easily beset us and we will fail to do so in our own ability. Every single time. When you confront the sin that does so easily beset you, you will have to have almighty help in confronting it. And then he says, instructions for the race, Not only lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, but let us run with patience the race that is set before us. This word patience does not mean to sit down and twiddle your thumbs and wait. It means to endure. It's rendered endure in other passages of Scripture. You see, the idea of patience is to continue on the course bearing a weight. Not a sinful weight, but bearing the ruggedness of that course. I mean, you think about what some of these Olympic athletes do in order to compete, the things that they endure, the things that they go through. You think about things that first responders and military people endure to run the race that they're in. Yet we're running the race. Paul said, you ought to endure hardness as a good soldier, didn't he? He said, I endure all things for the elect's sake, didn't he? What are we enduring on our race? I mean, we're tiptoeing, trying not to get wet from raindrops because we're made of sugar and we might melt. That is the mentality of many people today. I'll run as long as I don't break a sweat. But when that happens, I'm sitting down. The ground's uneven. I'm not running here. I'm not going to belabor that point. I think you get it. But he says you have to endure. We have to run this race. There are obstacles, there are hurdles, there's a roaring lion walking about seeking who he may devour. Asaph said, when I looked at the prosperity of the wicked, my foot almost slipped. But you know what helped him? He said, when I came into the sanctuary, the house of God, I knew their end. Read that in Psalm 73. No, there are plenty of obstacles. And in order for us to lay aside every weight, and in order for us to lay aside the sin which does so easily beset us, and to run with patience the race that is set before us, He then says in verse 2, looking unto Jesus. That's it. You need to look unto Him. It says, looking unto Jesus. Do you realize the Scriptures only ever tell us to look unto Jesus? Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Remember what He told the Jews there when they had been bitten by the fiery serpent? If they would just look at that brazen serpent on the pole that was set up in the midst of the camp, They'd be alright, wouldn't they? And the Scriptures say in John chapter 3, even as Moses lifted up the serpent of the wilderness, so must Christ be lifted up. And then after, so for those of you who are lost, you have to look unto Jesus to be saved. And after you're saved, it didn't stop, did it? Because he says here in Hebrews 12 verse 2, looking unto Jesus. Look at that word, looking, not looked. Not eventually look, but looking. The constant present tense. Looking constantly. Say, I looked yesterday. Look today. Look tomorrow. Look the day after that. Look all day long at Jesus in order to run this race. Because if you take your eyes off of Him, you will sink like Simon Peter did in an instant. You will stumble and you will fall. And you will be injured severely. There is no reason for us to take our eyes off of Him. None. You say, well, I need to look where I'm going. You're going to Christ. Keep looking at Him. You don't need to take your eyes off of Him. I remember in bull riding. I tried that in high school. They said, don't take your eyes off the bull's spine. You know what happened when I took my eyes off the bull's spine? I went exactly where I was looking. Right there in the dirt. You know where you're going to go when you take your eyes off of the Lord Jesus? Wherever you're looking. What did Lot do? He looked out and saw the well-watered plains of Jordan. He said, that's where I'm going. What did Abraham do? He looked to the Lord, didn't he? Looking unto Jesus. Beloved, we have studied a great deal of men and women who triumphed. In Hebrews chapter 11, we're written for our example. Don't look to them. You look to Jesus. That's who they look to. You have had some godly examples set before you. Do not look to them. They cannot help you. Look to Jesus. In all the years of my ministry and in my life since God has saved me, I have called and asked my Father, and more and more as the days go by, I'll call and I'll ask Him something. He'll say, you need to do what the Lord leads you to. It's always been, you need to look to Him. Because there's nothing He can do. He's but a man. all your pastors, all your those who've gone before you, they're men. But this is the Lord, isn't it? This is, notice what it says, looking unto Jesus. It doesn't use the name Lord, it doesn't use Christ, it uses looking unto the Savior, doesn't it? You need to look to the Savior. looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, looking unto the leader and the perfecter of our faith, the Lord who stands at the head of the long procession of heroes. One writer stated concerning the procession, he says, look, there's Old Testament saints on this side and there's New Testament saints on this side, but at the head of them is Jesus. That's who you look to. Look to Him as our great exemplar, the One who is our great example. Now those things, the Bible says, were written for our example. And what did they do? They looked to Jesus, didn't they? I mean, you look at Abel, you look at Enoch, you look at Noah, you look at Abraham, you look at Sarah, you look at Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and his parents, and so on, all the way down until the prophets that he wrote about in those last few chapters. And every one of them You know what their example was? You need to look to Jesus. They're not a thing Samuel can do for you. Saul even allegedly had a witch at Endor conjure him up from the spirit world as some say. They're not a thing Samuel can do for you. He should have looked to Jesus. There's not a thing anybody can do for you apart from Christ. And then the Bible tells us His example is especially cheering and sustaining. No, Jesus did not draw back, did He? He exhibited the perfect trust in God. One writer said he trusted God when he was born in a manger. He trusted God as he was taken there into Egypt. He trusted God when it was time to return. He trusted God when he waited at Nazareth thirty years. He trusted God when he assumed the burden of sins for his own. He trusted God when he conquered Satan in the wilderness. By faith, he performed three years of active labor in his ministry. He endured the agonies of Gethsemane by faith. The judgment seat of Pilate by faith. The darkness of Calvary by faith. The solitude of the grave by faith. It was all by faith. It was all by trust in God. And as the writer goes on, he says in verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him. The joy. Look over in James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Notice what's said here in verse 2. I think Jesus... I just marvel. I mean, we marveled at Hebrews 11 and those people, but they all pale in comparison to Christ. I mean, they don't even hold as the expression is a candle to the Lord, do they? James 1 and verse 2, My brethren, count it all what? all joy. When? When everything is going fine? When life is exactly as you want it to be? When you get to play sovereign over your life? Is that what it says? No. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or testings. We're diverse, as you know. It's thrown around a lot today. It means all kinds. Christ had them, didn't He? He had all kinds. He didn't just have one with Satan on the mountain, did He? He had a multiple of testings. But by faith, notice that He counted it all joy. Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. There's that word endure. You know that word endure here in verse 2 is the same as in Hebrews 12 and verse 1? It's the same word. It's got a different Strong's number if you want to check me, but it's the same word, but it's in a different tense, or however the Greek does. But it's the same word. He didn't sit there twiddling his thumbs, did he? He endured, and what did He endure? The cross. What did Jesus tell us about the cross? Take up your cross daily and follow me, didn't He? I have a cross, you have a cross. Or take it up daily and run the race. No wonder we need to lay aside every weight and the besetting sins. We have a cross to carry. Then notice this, he despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What a triumphant victor he is. Then notice verse 3, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You know, it's not body fatigue. You know, it's that mental fatigue, isn't it? That you'll see athletes succumb to. Or they can't take it anymore. We had a couple people wash out in the police academy. And it wasn't that they physically couldn't take the demands. It was the mental aspect of it. And I read books. A book in particular about a Navy SEAL and he spoke about the training he went through and he says, you could look around the room when they were eating food and the people who were just deer in headlights sitting there not eating. He says, you knew they'd be done before the day was over. They'd ring out. we sometimes ring out, don't we? And he says here, consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Boy, that really, really calls us to consider, doesn't it? Because in the next verse, he says you, have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Christ did. Oh, He did, didn't He? And then in verse 12, wherefore, and again, the chastening comes in there, but wherefore? All of this, again that word wherefore, because of everything I just said. Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. I mean, the picture here is, get up, keep going on the race, look to Jesus, don't draw back. I know you're tired, I know you went through some things, I know it's been a long run already, I know today's been difficult, But look at Jesus! Now pick up your feeble hands, or rather, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight, or make even, paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. So this is what we're to do. Only by God's grace will we. That's how anybody's ever run this race. It's by grace and faith. That's it. Now, if you haven't run well up to this point, or maybe you haven't been running well lately, or maybe you've been running like it's nobody's business, keep looking to Jesus and finish the course He set before you. Because if you don't, it'll be to your own demise and your own shame. And as a church member, it is incumbent upon every member here to encourage one another in this race, to help and assist, I remember we'd be running in the police academy, and if somebody stumbled or fell, you'd go, you'd pick them up. Or those who finished first, they'd turn around and come back and run with others. So we help, and how do we help? You need to look to Jesus. And not just tell Him they need to look, but put Him in front of them. Because there might be a day where you stumble and fall down and somebody has to point you to Christ. So may God help us that we would do that.