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Once again, we have an opportunity that we never want to take for granted, to open up the infallible, inerrant, inspired, authoritative and all sufficient Word of the living God that he has given to us. And this morning, we come to Hebrews chapter 12 in our study of that epistle. We will be examining the first three verses, and I've entitled my discourse to you "Running the Race of Faith."

May I remind you that the author now, of this epistle, has finished defending the deity of Jesus Christ through a very extended argument that he is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the final high priest, and now the writer is making his final appeal to his audience, to avoid apostasy, avoid falling back into Judaism, where you feel comfortable and succumbing to the temptation to continue to cling to the Old Covenant and the laws and the ceremonies and all of those things, and rather embrace the new covenant that has replaced the old.

And so chapter 12 is largely an exhortation to these Jewish believers; warnings and instructions that will also be sure to speak to each of us, to all who have a heart that is open and who have ears to hear. Let me read the passage to you, Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse one,

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

"fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

"For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

This is a fascinating passage that is packed with very practical truths that will help us on our spiritual journey. And truly, the Christian life is a journey, and here it is illustrated with the metaphor of race. In the original language, it is literally the word: agōn." We get our word agony from that. This is the agony race. This is probably speaking of a race like a marathon that requires every ounce of energy. So the analogy here is that the Christian life, the race is a race of faith, that is sometimes an agonizing race. It is a long race that takes us all the way through to the end. It is a race that God has set before us, as you will see.

Now, the context here in the minds of the first listeners would be the Isthmian games of Greece. They were very familiar with them. They also had other Olympic events, but this was the one that they would have been aware of, and they would have been aware of the athletes and the ones that that did various things, the ones that had won various titles. In fact, those people were greatly praised and given lots of advantages in the culture. They were given many times lots of money and houses and so forth. But Paul used similar imagery in First Corinthians 9:24, where he talked about running in such a way as to get the prize. And again, in Galatians 5:7, he spoke of the importance of "running well," of not being "hindered" by those who would have you disobey the truth or hindered by those that would present a different counterfeit, artificial gospel. And our culture is filled with that today. And in Philippians two and verse 16, Paul was so concerned that the saints would "hold fast," he said, "to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain and labor in vain." So the imagery the writer uses here would have been very familiar and very practical to those early readers, and certainly it is to all of us.

Now, most all of us know from personal experience what it is to run a race. We might not win too many races, but we know what it is to run a race. We know the importance of not being weighed down with excess clothing or heavy shoes or even a heavy body. We understand the concept of being in shape and training. We understand the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Remember that little commercial they used to put on television when the Olympics would come along. And I'll elaborate on more of these things in a moment. But here, the Christian life is likened to running a race. In other places, it's likened to a war, and it has very similar parallels here, but here he's speaking of our Christian life as a race.

Now, again, the context in the church - the early church - they had both true believers, Jewish people, that had come to a saving knowledge of Christ, and they also had what you might want to call "almost believers." They weren't quite there yet. They weren't fully convinced, and they wanted to continue to add law, and the works of the law, to grace. Jesus wasn't necessarily enough. And so, they didn't really believe in faith alone, in Christ alone, grace alone, and so forth. And they had others that were in the church, that were kind of hanging around the edges, and they weren't quite sure that Jesus was the Son of God, this carpenter's son from Nazareth. And some in the church, therefore, had never wholeheartedly committed themselves to Christ. They weren't fixing their eyes on him, they were fixing their eyes on their own traditions and their own righteousness, their own works. And I believe these are the primary ones that are being addressed here in this passage, though it applies to all believers. But anyone claiming any sympathy toward Jesus Christ in those days, would be subject to persecution from their family, from their friends. The cost of discipleship is very high. So they'd be tempted to give up, to fall back into the comfort zone of Judaism. So the inspired writer here is exhorting them not to do that. Stay faithful. Trust God. Take him at his word. Faith being, of course, the subject of the previous chapter. So he's saying here, "let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us."

Now, some other preliminary remarks before we look at the text closely. He is not speaking about competing with other believers in some kind of spiritual race so that we can outdo each other. This isn't an ancient version of the Dove Awards, okay? Ours is a race of faith, not of works. So he's speaking of a race against our own flesh that would hinder us, that would impede us from serving Christ and honoring him and enjoying him. He's speaking of our misplaced priorities, and often they are innocent things, even praiseworthy things, but nevertheless, they impede our ability to run the race of the Christian life. He's speaking about a race against Satan's temptations that might prevent us from finishing well. He's speaking about a race against Satan's world system that is in opposition to God. We see it in our culture. We see it in in false religions. Sometimes we see it in our family, in our friends; those things that would bombard us, all of the immorality and the false philosophy and all of the garbage that we have to endure. That's what we are running against, shall we say. And here he provides three categories of exhortation to help us run this race of faith. He tells us, number one, who we should imitate; number two, what we must jettison; and finally, why we must run. And I hope this will be helpful to you. That is certainly the Spirit's intention, to speak to each of our hearts and to bring conviction and repentance where necessary, as well as comfort and encouragement.

So who should we imitate? Notice the beginning here in verse one, he says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us." And of course, this is a reference to the enduring faith of the example set forth in the previous chapter in chapter 11. Now this is not referring to spectators in a stadium that's watching us run. I remember hearing a preacher one time saying, "Be careful, Noah is watching you. Abraham is watching you. Moses is watching you, because it says, right here we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us." Folks that's not at all what it's talking about. What a ghastly sight that would be for people in heaven to be watching us. Ao much for no more tears in heaven, right? My word, and often you hear people talking about a deceased loved one. Oh, I know that she's up there right now looking down from heaven, and I know she's smiling on us right now. Folks, that is nowhere to be found in Scripture. All right? The saints in heaven are fellowshipping and worshiping the Most High God. They're not concerned about us. They're basking in the ineffable glory of the living God; living in a place beyond time and space. They're not watching us.

So this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us are witnesses of God's faithfulness. These are people that are witnesses to the power and the mercy and the love of God, and they are the ones that we should imitate. They are our examples of faith. Therefore, he says, "Let us 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's saying, "Let us run like they did, with unwavering courage and confidence, because faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen." And those folks, of course, ran with perseverance. They never gave up, regardless the cost. You will remember Noah heard God, believed God, and obeyed God without question, without hesitation. We read how Abraham, in the previous chapter, left everything He trusted in God's promises. He beheld those promises through the eyes of faith, and he acted upon them. Moses, the text says, was one who was willing to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, rather than "to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; for he was looking for the reward."

By faith they conquered kingdoms, the text says; performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. It goes on to say that others, "experienced mockings and scourgings, yes also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground and all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised." In other words, their faith was not in the immediate fulfillment, but it was faith in the ultimate fulfillment based upon the promises of God. So dear friends, what a cloud of witnesses that we have surrounding us. Those in heaven and some that are right here in this worship center, men and women of faith.

But notice our supreme example is the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in verse two at the beginning, it says, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith." I love that little phrase, "fixing our eyes on Jesus." Have you ever noticed the close-up camera shots of elite runners right as they come off the blocks, if you haven't, the next time notice their face, notice their eyes. They are riveted on one thing, and that is the finish line. You ask them, as I have, and they will tell you that they have in their mind's eye, crossing that line first and experiencing the indescribable joy of victory when they come off those blocks. They're not looking around side to side, looking at other runners. They're not looking behind them. They're not watching their feet. They are absolutely focused, and that's the idea here.

As we run the race of faith, we've got to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our example as we are going to understand more this morning. He ran for the joy set before him, and for the exaltation of being able to be seated at the right hand of the Father, and we too run for the same prize, for the joy of exaltation, when we will receive from God the reward for glorifying him on this earth.

Now I might add that we don't exert ourselves here in order to win heaven, right? We've already got that, all right? That just part of God's gift of grace to us. We exert ourselves to run a race and live a life of faith in order to gain a heavenly reward for faithful service, and also to experience the ineffable joy of the glory of God; and we'll discuss that more in a minute.

Now, I want you to notice what the writer says here, the inspired writer, about Jesus. Notice he is called the "author of faith." Author is from a Greek term that can be translated "one who originates," or we might say, a pioneer; but it also refers to one who leads. And I believe that's the primary emphasis here. In fact, the same word is rendered "captain of our salvation" in Hebrews 2:10. And in Acts 3:15, it's rendered prince - the prince of life - and both of those passages speak of Jesus being a leader.

And so our precious Savior is the leader of all who have faith and all who, by faith, will follow him throughout redemptive history. And he is the supreme example for us to imitate. And this can be confirmed, I think as well, by the Spirit's use of the personal name Jesus, rather than his title of his office, which would be Christ. He speaks of Jesus, the emphasis, therefore, being on his humanity; the one who was born in the likeness of me, that he may live and die for men and in all things, live a life of faith that we can follow. And so we need to fix our eyes on him who is now seated at the right hand of the Father, in all of his glory; the one who has gone on before us as the originator of our faith and the one who is our supreme example and our leader.

You will recall that Jesus, while he was here, depended solely upon his Father for every need. By faith, he resisted and overcame all of the temptations that were thrown at him. In John five and verse 30, he said, "I can do nothing on My own initiative." Can you imagine Jesus saying that? "I can do nothing on My own initiative." Kind of humbles us, doesn't it? He says, "as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." And indeed, as we read in Philippians two, he "became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

But he's also called not only "the author," but "the perfector.” Or you could translate it "the finisher of faith." This is a term that means one who brings to completion. His faith in the Father was completed on the cross, was it not? When he said, "It is finished." And with the apostle Paul, we can say, "For 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." So he is the one who began and completed this very difficult course of faith that has been set before each of us to run, so he is our supreme example.

Notice verse three, he says, "For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Now, the Greek term "consider" is a mathematical term, and it really signifies the idea of computing by comparing certain things together in their due proportions. In other words, it means to form a just and an accurate estimate by comparing two things. And in this context, it's drawing the analogy between Christ's sufferings and ours. And you can see how disproportionate that is, a great gulf between them. The great English Bible expositor, A W Pink said this, "Weigh well who He was, the place He took, the infinite perfection of His character and deeds, and then the base ingratitude, the gross injustice, the cruel persecution he met with. Calculate and estimate, the constancy of the opposition he encountered; the type of men who maligned Him. The variety and intensity of His sore trials and the spirit of meekness and patience with which He bore them. And what are our trifling trials when compared with His agonies or even to our desserts? Oh, my soul blush with shame because of thy murmurings." I love these old English writers. They have a way of speaking to my heart, don't they you?

Obviously, there is nothing that we ever have, or ever will, endure that can compare to the agonies and the injustices that the Lord Jesus Christ endured on our behalf. Well, dear friends, when you grow weary in the race, when you fall and you stumble and you struggle, when you see others trying to impede your progress, when others, you might say, who are spectators, are booing you and trying to trip you up, consider Jesus. You must consider Jesus so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You've got to keep your eyes fixed on him, looking unto him constantly, submissively, obediently, with utmost confidence in what he has done, what he is doing, and what he's going to do. That's the idea. My friends, we can never run this race of faith apart from his power, and his power is available to us when we live a life of faith and obedience, and one that's lived in communion with Christ. That's exactly what Jesus did. Only then can we say, with Paul, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul said in Galatians 2:20, "I've been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me." So this is who we should imitate.

But secondly, he speaks of what we must jettison, what we need to get rid of, what we need to throw overboard. And it's really kind of in two categories, things that slow us down, and then things that cause us to forfeit blessing. Notice, first again, he says in verse one, "Let us 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." Now, the Greek term for "encumbrance" is one that speaks of mass or of weight. In the context here, he's saying, get rid of everything that gets n the way, every impediment. In fact, it's really a Greek word that overlaps a meaning with the more common biblical metaphor of a stumbling block. You need to get rid of those things. I have spent, on a number of occasions, many weeks in the high altitudes of the Rocky Mountains. And I know what it is to strap on a backpack. And you learn very quickly, and those of you that have done this know what I'm about to say, every ounce counts, right? I mean every ounce, especially when you get up and there's just no oxygen. Every ounce counts. I had a friend in California who was an Olympic runner. He ran the 400 meters and the 400-meter hurdles. In fact, he won a bronze medal in the 400-meter hurdles. And I remember on different occasions, talking to him about his training and different things. And I remember one time asking him, "What's the hardest thing about being an elite runner?" And he said, "Staying focused, man, staying focused and disciplined." And he talked about training and diet and sleep. I mean, it was rigorous. I remember him saying, "you can't over train, and you can't under train." You've got to maintain the proper weight. He said, "one extra pound could cost me the race." One extra pound. I remember him telling me that. You know, you kind of suck in your stomach a little bit after that, right?

And he was talking about how you got to stay focused mentally. You got to stay alert. Don't get distracted and so forth. Well, this parallels the kind of discipline that is required in living the Christian life. And most Christian people are undisciplined, kind of in every area of their life. They get saved, and then they just kind of waltz around through the Christian life. They have no focus. They're not exerting themselves. So they don't effectively and successfully run the race of faith. So one of the things he's telling us to do here is you've got to jettison anything that weighs you down. Get rid of excess baggage. And a lot of times they're innocent things, but they impede your progress in living lives that is pleasing to God and that will result in the forfeiture of temporal joy, this side of heaven and also eternal reward.

Folks, think of the things that sap your energy. Things that make you ineffective that divert your attention away from faithful obedience to the Lord. Things that really prevent you from bearing the fruit of the Spirit. I think about that a lot. The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. For the fun of it, I thought about what the opposite would look like, and I wrote it out. Here's the opposite of that list: a person who is selfish, sad, frustrated, impatient, unkind, cruel, unfaithful, insensitive, and ruled by their fleshly appetites. You know anybody like that? Yeah, we all have that at times, don't we? But when that's the pattern of your life, guess what? You're carrying way too much weight, spiritually speaking. You're unable to run the race of faith, and you're getting tripped up by various sins and so forth.

Now the Jews carried the excess baggage of tradition and their culture temple worship, with all of its beauty and all of its pageantry, magnificent music and all of the regalia of the priests and the sacrifices and the ceremonies; and so running a race of faith in Christ alone was very hard for them to understand. And worse yet, they were weighed down with legalism. They wanted to hold on to the Old Covenant laws. They believed that this was the means by which the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant could be appropriated. So they wanted to hang on to all of that. You remember in Galatians four and verse nine, Paul addressed this very issue when he confronted the Galatian church. He says, "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?" Why would you do that?

You will remember that the Judaizers came out of all of this type of thing. They required the Gentiles to be circumcised. Christ isn't enough, you need to be circumcised as well. And they imposed various forms of ceremonial law upon the Gentiles and obviously upon themselves. They believe that this was kind of the regulative guide for Christian life within that covenantal relationship, and so simply trusting Jesus for salvation wasn't enough. You had to have grace plus works, faith plus works, Christ plus works. And of course, legalism always provides the illusion of spirituality. It's kind of a way for us to keep track with how spiritual we are, right? That's what ends up happening. To convince ourselves of how pleased God must be with me, because, after all, I do these things, and I don't do those things. That is hideously offensive to a holy God. It frustrates grace, and many believers today are encumbered by a form of legalism.

In fact, Paul described this in Romans 14, under the heading of "weak faith." You may recall in that context, you had Jewish believers coming into the church that simply couldn't abandon the regulations of the Old Covenant. They had these dietary laws; all these laws concerning how to obey the Sabbath and offering sacrifices in the temple. They had all of that from their background, and then the Gentiles that were in the church had their baggage as well. They had come out of all this pagan idolatry with all of its blasphemous rituals, and they felt that any contact with anything that remotely related to their past, including eating meat that had been offered to a pagan idol and then sold in the marketplace, anything like that was dishonoring to God and would defile them. And so they wouldn't touch those things. And so their weak consciences held them to what we might call non-essentials - superfluous, unnecessary, unimportant rules and regulations. And so their faith was not strong enough to enable them to perceive their full liberty in Christ. And folks with weak faith are so afraid - and we have people today that struggle with that, maybe some of you - they're so afraid of committing some religious offense that they surround themselves with self-imposed restrictions and often rigid family regulations that tend to produce either rigid conformists or total rebels. But nevertheless, this is the type of stuff that can weigh you down. I've known people, for example, who would never let their kids play on Sunday, because that's the Lord’s Day and that's their conviction. Or I remember a guy who came out of kind of the Rock and Roll culture. He would never go to a church that had a guitar. It was a strong conviction that he had. I know women that will never wear jewelry or shorts or slacks, because that's worldly. I know men that would never wear jeans or a collar without a shirt, because that's worldly. And so you have all of these types of things that people can add to their Christian life.

By the way, while folks like this may be kind of odd and hard to be around, mature believers are exhorted very strongly in Romans 14 not to pass judgment upon their opinions. In verse one, it says, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions." And yes, the weak are prone to irritate, but the strong are prone to judge, and both are wrong, and both can lead to pride. And so we need to guard ourselves against those types of things. But my point with this is just another example of the types of things that can encumber us in our race for faith. And for the Hebrew believers, their excess, false religious stuff was what was holding them back. And for many believers who have, for example, weak faith - a weak conscience, with all of their self-imposed restrictions and odd preferences - those types of things can weigh you down. You simply cannot effectively serve Christ and celebrate the freedom of his grace when you're in bondage to those kinds of things. And folks like this typically, even though they don't see it, other people do, and other people are uncomfortable with them. They're so far apart from even the mainstream of evangelicalism that people don't want to be like them, or just kind of see them as odd. But whatever it is, these are the types of things that can encumber us. We need to lay them aside. And we all have things.

But before we leave this command, I want you to think about the appointed course that God has set for us to run. Notice at the end of verse one, he says, "let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us." First of all, just a comment about the term "endurance." We know that that "endurance" is derived from Christ as we live in sweet communion with Him, and as we stay focused on his person and on his will. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." But notice also this course that "has been set before us." I want you to notice that this means that this isn't a course that can be run in just any way. We have been given an appointed course, "the race that is set before us." And I was thinking about this, that course can include so many things, let me give you but a few. It is a course, sometimes of persecution, like with the people that first read this letter. In fact, Paul tells us in Second Timothy 3:12, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Not might, but will be,  persecuted. Jesus said, the world's going to hate you because it hated me.

It's also, at times, a course of suffering. Second Timothy two, beginning verse three. Paul says, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." He said, "No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."

Sometimes it's a course that requires self-denial. You will remember in Luke 9:23 Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." And yet, in our culture, we're a culture not of self-denial, right? We're a culture of self-indulgence.

So we're encumbered with the excess weight of so many things, like, for example, materialism. We spend more than we should on entertainment, on eating out, on hobbies, houses, whatever. We got so much stuff, we now have to go rent these places, you know, where you can put all your extra stuff. Isn't it amazing, these things are popping up everywhere. And as a result, we get into financial debt. See how the spiral begins to work? We owe. We owe. We owe. So off to work we go. And then we're so involved with all of our work and trying to make ends meet, we have no time to instruct our children, to train them in the discipline of the Lord and so forth. We aren’t able to worship the Lord as good stewards and invest in the kingdom, giving to the church and so forth.

And another part of that course that we are to run is the course of evangelism. Isn't that part of the race? Isn't that what God has set before us? Jesus said in Matthew 28, "Go and make disciples of all the nations" He tells us, we are "to baptize them." We are to "teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." So I would ask you, are you sharing Christ? How is your discipleship coming? Who are you discipling? Anyone? When was the last time you presented the gospel to someone? Are you teaching your family to observe all that Christ has commanded you? Well, if the answer is, you know, I'm really pretty bad at all of that because I spend all my time and my energy and my resources on things like my kid’s athletic endeavors, right?

You see, and by the way, I'm not saying those things are bad, but many times our priorities get so out of whack that living by faith, trusting and obeying God and things like evangelism and discipleship, that's just simply not a priority because you're weighted down with all this other stuff in your life. Some of you are weighted down by Facebook or by your workouts at the gym, or by your hobbies. You're pursuing your career, you're working overtime. And these things may be innocent, some things are even praiseworthy, even necessary at some level. But folks, they can be eternally inconsequential, and they can weigh you down from running the race that God has set before you and cause you to forfeit blessing and eternal reward. Things that that distract you from running the race of faith that dampen your zeal for the glory of God. And frankly, most Christians will live their life and never really make much of a difference for Christ because they were too weighed down by all of the silly stuff of life.

Notice what else the Spirit says. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Now, we can understand the analogy here. No runner is going to wear clothes that restrict his stride. That's going to going to trip him up. I've never seen an elite runner running with his shoes untied, right? I mean, we understand all of that. And here we see that what can entangle us is the sin. Now there's the definite article there in the Greek. It may be referring to a specific sin, and for this audience, that would perhaps be the sin of unbelief, of doubting God and living by sight rather than faith, mixing law with grace, all that type of stuff. But I wouldn't want to press that too far. It can also refer to, frankly, any kind of sin that keeps us from running the race of faith in such a way that we are fixing our eyes on Jesus and running that race that he has set before us, personally.

Recently, I was reading some Facebook posts that Nancy showed to me. Sometimes these are really interesting, and there were several professing Christian women discussing spiritual things, especially as they related to a very popular evangelical female teacher that's all over everywhere these days; one that's becoming increasingly heretical with things that she says. And it was obvious, as I read this, that these dear ladies were so deceived. They lacked biblical discernment. They were living in a fool's paradise. It's almost like everything they said could be refuted from scripture, but they were speaking as though they had such authority. And these were things that were validated by what this other lady was teaching and so forth. And I know, on the basis of Scripture and from years of shepherding people, that the things that they were embracing are going to bring them into all manner of misery, because they're deceptions, and they can't see it.  Folks, there's the kind of sin, if you want an example, the kind of sin that can entangle you, so you're not going to run the race properly.

They were victims of what Paul said in Second Timothy, three, six, "Those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." You see there, as you might say, would be the sin of being careless with the Word of God. Paul tells us that we are to examine everything carefully. In First Thessalonians 5:21. And in Second Timothy 2:15, he says, "Be diligent." By the way, the Greek term for that means to make haste, to be zealous, to be greatly concerned about something. And what is that? "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth." Then he says this, "but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness." That's exactly what was going on there, and it goes on all the time. Of course, there are a host of sins that can entangle us. I mean, there are so many lists. I think of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:19, he gives a list: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. And folks, I want you to ask yourself, Am I really even in the race? I hope you are.

But then ask yourself, am I exerting every ounce of my energy running this race of faith, or am I slacking? Am I slowing down? Am I accumulating all kinds of extra things and being distracted with things that prevent me from running in a way as to receive the reward? Can I honestly say that I deny myself certain things, for Christ's sake, with no secret desire to kind of come back to them; and certainly, no sense of pride or desire to flaunt them, to parade them, for example, on Facebook. Or am I really the hero of all my own stories? Folks, our hearts need to be captivated by the sacrificial love of Christ on our behalf, so much so that we are willing to gladly drop everything to serve and to worship him. To get rid of anything that displeases him, that hinders our effectiveness in serving him, that dampens our zeal for God's glory and then causes us to forfeit current blessing and future reward.

Listen to the Apostle Paul's testimony First Corinthians nine, verse 24 he says this, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?" So he says, "Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore," and I love his testimony here, "I run in such a way, as not without aim..." in other words, I'm not just wandering around here in the race, I've got a specific direction. I know where I'm to go, what I'm to do. He also says, "I box in such a way as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." Folks, does this describe you? Do you run for the prize? Are you exercising self-control? Are you disciplining your body? By the way, the term "discipline" in the original language is from a term which literally means "to hit under the eye." Fascinating thought.

So what Paul was saying here is, I habitually land a knockout punch to any bodily impulse that might prevent me from serving Christ and dishonoring his name. I'm simply not going to allow that type of thing in my life. Folks, that's how we are to run the race. Dear friends, be careful. Lay aside the sin that entangles you, that trips you up.

So we've seen who we should imitate and what we must jettison. Finally, why we must run. I've alluded to it. Notice verse two, again, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now, remember, the writer here is speaking of the agony race; a race like a marathon, and no normal person - and I hope I don't offend anybody here - but no normal person could possibly run a marathon just because it felt so good, just because it's so exhilarating. No, you run it because you want to gain the reward.

So what motivated Jesus to run his race? To ultimately suffer and die on our behalf, and thus be our example and be our encouragement? Dear friends, he ran, it says, "for the joy set before Him," and so he would ultimately be able to sit down at the right hand of the Father, "right hand of the throne of God," it says.  And what was that joy? What was the joy that he was looking for? Dear friends, it was the exhilarating joy of glorifying his Father, having done all that the Father had asked him to do, obeying his will perfectly, as well as, he himself, being exalted as the Savior of his bridal church, as the redeemer of all that the Father had given him in eternity past, and which the Son will one day give back to the Father as a reciprocal expression of his love.

He ran for the joy of exaltation that he would receive for doing the will of the Father. He spoke about this in John 17, and verse four, he said, "Father, I glorify you on the earth having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, and the glory which I had with You before the world was." Can you imagine what that would have looked like and been like? I can't imagine, but someday we'll know, right? When we enter into the presence of his glory.

Folks, this was the course that he had to run. That was Jesus' agony race, you might say; to bring glory to the Father, to fulfill his will perfectly, all the things that the Father had set before him in the everlasting covenant. O child of God don't miss this. Here we see what sustained our savior in the race. Jesus trusted his Father completely. He obeyed him perfectly. He lived and he died in the enjoyment of that which was set before Him. And this is why he ran.

May this be said of all of us, because folks the life of faith, oh my it may be difficult. It can be agonizing at times, but o, when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, when we consider him and when you consider the joy that will be ours when we enter into his presence, we're able to go on, by his power. You see, the life of faith is one that is lived in in total dependence upon God, in joyful communion with God, in humble obedience to God, in utter confidence in all the unseen promises of God. We have present joy because we anticipate all that will be ours through the future promises that God has given us. Can you imagine the promise of God's reward when we hear him say to us, according to Matthew 25:21 "Well done, well done. Enter into the joy of your Master."

Folks, think of just the reward you will receive for evangelism. You ever thought about that? Paul described his converts as his quote, "joy and crown" in Philippians 4:1 and his quote, "hope or joy or crown of exaltation" in First Thessalonians 2:19. I mean, what a joy that will be to enter into heaven and see people, some that you may not even realize you impacted, but people that came to Christ because the Lord used you as his instrument of righteousness in bringing them to faith.

We all struggle like the apostle Paul. We are to forget what is behind and reach forward to what lies ahead, pressing on, he says, toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In fact, he told Timothy in Second Timothy 4:8, that he was looking for the reward in the future. He said, "In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who loved His appearing."

O child of God, we run the marathon of faith today in anticipation of the crown of righteousness. A crown that we will one day cast before the throne of God, and we will say, according to Revelation four and verse 10 and following, "Worthy art Thou our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power."  "Yes, but pastor, it is so hard. You don't realize what I've got going on in my life right now. Do you realize what he has done to me and she has done to me, and what my boss is doing to me? Do you realize my physical condition? Do you realize all of these things?" I'm sure I don't. But dear friend, I can tell you this, if you will fix your eyes on Jesus, he will sustain you. And also look away from all those things that distract you. Get rid of whatever excess baggage you've got, whatever sin that's entangling you, jettison all that stuff in your life; and when you do, God has promised that you "will not grow weary and lose heart." Take him at his word. Take him at his word.

Some of you are there today. You've grown weary, you're losing heart, you've slowed down the race. Some of you have lost interest. You've been so distracted with other things, you're like a little baby, you show them a key and oh, they want this, and you show...oh, they want this. Your eyes aren't fixed on Christ. You're not running the race God set before. You just wandering around in your life. Some of you are spiritually fatigued. Some of you have, maybe even just given up. I plead with you to look at this text; meditate on these great truths and apply them. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will what? Grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. My how they speak to each of our hearts. May we, by your power, through Christ, through the Holy Spirit, run a race of faith that will bring you great, great glory, and certainly bring us great joy when we enter into your presence, when we cross the finish line. And Lord, may we all collapse when we cross that line. May we exert every ounce of energy to the praise of your glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.