Hebrews - Living by Faith

When I was in grade school and then in high school, the class that I disliked the most was gymnasium. Now, recess was fun. They turned us loose, we could run around and play and do what we wanted to do. But I didn't like the discipline and the competition in the gymnasium class, especially in junior high and high school. The reason is very simple: I am not gifted athletically.

As I look back now, I wish I had really taken advantage of it. I had one coach who really tried to make me into a runner. I could run fast, but when it came to going over hurdles, that was another matter. In one of the track meets, I knocked down six hurdles, I broke my foot, and it still gives me trouble reminding me I'm not much of a runner.

Well, you know, all of us as believers are enrolled in God's gymnasium. We are a part of an experience that the Bible calls chastening—child training, discipline. And Hebrews 12 is the textbook. We are in the race, and we are running, not competing with each other; we're competing with ourselves, and we're seeking to grow in the things of the Lord.

Before we study Hebrews 12 in detail and learn how to mature spiritually, how to make progress in the Christian race, I think it would be good for us to get an overview of the entire book of Hebrews and see where Hebrews 12 fits in. The book of Hebrews is one of three New Testament books written to explain one verse of Scripture. Now, that one verse of Scripture is Habakkuk 2:4. I'm sure you know it: "The just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:4.

"The just" is dealt with in the book of Romans. Romans and Galatians and Hebrews all quote Habakkuk 2:4. Romans tells us who "the just" are, Galatians tells us "how they shall live," and Hebrews tells us "it's all by faith." The just shall live by faith. Romans: the just. Galatians: shall live. Hebrews: by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted in Romans 1:17 at the beginning of the book, Galatians 3:11 in the middle of the book, Hebrews 10:38 at the close of the book. In other words, the Holy Spirit is saying we need to understand what it means to live by faith.

Now, you don't start with Hebrews, you start with Romans. The book of Romans tells us how we become justified. "Therefore being justified by faith," Romans 5:1. The book of Romans explains that God justifies the ungodly when they trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Now, how do these justified ones live? Galatians explains this: we live in the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit. And Hebrews comes along and says this is done by faith. In fact, over and over again in the book of Hebrews, you find that phrase, especially in Hebrews 11: by faith, by faith.

The basic theme of the book of Hebrews is Christian maturity. Now, the people to whom he was writing were really going through suffering. They had had a difficult time. They were Jewish Christians who had been rejected by their own people. Now, they had gone through terrific suffering, and the danger was that they would go back to the old life.

Now, the book of Hebrews is a book of encouragement. God wants to encourage us, not discourage us. And the basic theme is: don't go back to the old life, go on to a new life of joy and achievement. The key word in the book of Hebrews is the word "better." It's found 13 times. And the writer is contrasting what we have in Christ with what we used to have in the old life.

The great illustration, of course, is the nation of Israel. In Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4, he said, "You remember how that God delivered the Jews from Egypt?" How were they delivered from Egypt? By faith. How did they go through the wilderness? By faith. How did they enter into the Promised Land and claim their inheritance? By faith. How are we supposed to live? The just shall live by faith. That's the theme in the book of Hebrews.

He's talking about the superiority of the Christian life. We hear today that we live in a pluralistic society and therefore every religion is as good as every other religion. No, this is not true. He tells us the Christian faith is the superior faith.

First of all, we are trusting a better person: Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 1-6, the writer says Jesus Christ is better than the prophets, better than the angels, better than Moses, better than Aaron—He is the better one, and we are trusting Him. That's Hebrews 1-6.

In Hebrews 7-10, the writer says we have a better priesthood. Not the priesthood of Aaron, where the priests died and had to be replaced. Our Lord's priesthood is the priesthood of Melchizedek, who according to the record, lives in the power of an endless life. We have a better priesthood. Right now today, Jesus is taking care of us from heaven. He belongs to a better order of priests: Melchizedek, not Aaron.

Now, when you belong to this better person, Jesus Christ, and you are a part of this better priesthood, the priesthood of Melchizedek, then you live by a better principle. What is that principle? Faith. Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12, and Hebrews 13. He says we live by a better principle, not a principle of self-effort, not a principle of humanistic achievement, a principle of faith. He gives us the examples of faith in Hebrews 11, the endurance of faith in Hebrews 12, and the exhortation of faith in Hebrews 13.

Now, we're concerned about Hebrews 12, so let's look at it. The two key words in Hebrews 12 are "chastening" or "discipline" and "endurance," also translated "patience"—let us run with patience. You'll find the word discipline or chastening or correction eight times in Hebrews 12. You'll find the word endure or endurance, patience, at least four times.

The picture is that of a game, the Olympic Games. And here are the runners on the racetrack, and their goal is to win the race. There are many pictures of the Christian in the New Testament. Paul often used athletic figures to picture the Christian life. Let us run with patience, with endurance, the race that is set before us.

Now, what are the ingredients for success if you are going to win the race? There are two of them. One is discipline. You've got to be trained. You've got to be prepared. It's what you do before the race. The second is endurance. You've got to keep going. It's what you do during the race.

Now, this is what the emphasis is in Hebrews 12. He is saying what you do before the race in letting God discipline you is so important. God wants to mature us. How does He do it? Through chastening, which means child training, discipline, instruction. And we are to exercise endurance as we run the race.

In Hebrews 12, you will find that he focuses on three different aspects of the race. Notice this very carefully. It's important. In Hebrews 12:1-13, he focuses on the individual runner. And the danger here is the danger of weariness—weariness. Don't get weary. Don't faint in your mind. Did you get that now? In Hebrews 12:1-13, the focus is on the individual Christian and the danger of weariness.

Now from Hebrews 12:14-17, he focuses on the team. How we relate to one another, how we are working as teammates. And here the danger is the danger of bitterness—something coming between the runners. Then in Hebrews 12:18-29, he focuses upon the city. Now why mention a city? Because every runner had to be a citizen of a city—a free man, not a slave—and he ran for the glory of the city.

Now in Hebrews 12:18-29, the writer contrasts earthly Sinai with the heavenly Mount Zion, and he says we belong to this heavenly city, and the danger here is the danger of carelessness. Hebrews 12:28, "Let us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Notice now these three dangers: weariness, the individual; bitterness, the team; carelessness, the city. What he's saying is, when the race is over and we go home, we want to bring glory to our city.

You see, every winner in the Olympic Games was given a statue of himself to put up in his city, he was given a banquet, they gave him palm branches and olive wreaths, they would give him a special little crown that he'd put on his head, and he would bring honor and glory to his city.

Well, that's what we're supposed to be doing: bringing honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and that heavenly Mount Zion. As we go through Hebrews 12, you're going to find one thing constantly repeated: trust Him, trust Him, trust Him. The just shall live by faith, the just shall run by faith. Don't give up. It is always too soon to quit.

Hebrews 12:1, "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, and let us run with patience, endurance, the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1. How can we keep going when the race is difficult? Well, by overcoming the obstacles that we put in our own way.

Notice now, the Lord will not put obstacles in our way. We are the ones who put the obstacles in our way. The Lord does everything He can to make the race easy for us and a race that we can truly run with endurance and victory. We're the ones that create the problems.

Well, what are some of the obstacles that we put in the way that we need to overcome? Hebrews 12:1 gives them to us. The first obstacle I'm going to call excuses—excuses. We say it can't be done. Notice what he says, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." Now, he's not saying that the people in Hebrews 11 are watching us. He's talking about the people in Hebrews 11, he calls them witnesses, but not spectators.

I do not believe that the people in heaven are watching us. I do believe that the people in heaven know when a sinner is saved—Luke 15 tells us that. If there's a mother or father in heaven who at death left behind an unsaved loved one for whom they had prayed, and that person gets saved, I believe they know about it up in heaven. "There is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents." I do not believe that the saints who have gone to glory are watching us.

The word is not spectators, it's witnesses. They are bearing witness to us. One of the key words in Hebrews 11 is the word witness. These people were witnessed to by God, and they are witnessing to us. What are they saying? They are saying, "It can be done."

Now, whatever problem you have in your Christian race, somebody faced it in the Old Testament. Joseph went through unfair suffering because of his family that hated him, and Joseph says to you, "You've got family problems? I want you to know, you can win the race, it can be done." Hebrews 11 says it can be done. You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, not spectators. They aren't watching you, they're cheering you! They are saying, "Keep running, keep running, don't give up! Remember, we made it, and you can make it too, by faith."

Now, there's a second obstacle, and that's the obstacle I'm going to call incumbrances. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight."

Now, that word weight means incumbrances. Sometimes the runners would train carrying weights, the way a baseball player will pick up two or three bats and swing them around to make the single bat much lighter when he steps up to the plate. They would train with the weights, and then when they'd run without the weights, they would run fast. He's not talking about that.

He's talking about the excess weight of our lives. He's not talking about sinful things, he's talking about excessive things that can become sin and can be a hindrance to us. It's so easy to be weighted down today with unnecessary things.

In Luke 21:34—perhaps you ought to mark that verse in your Bible—Luke 21:34, the Lord Jesus warns us. He says, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting"—that's dissipation—"drunkenness, the cares of this life, so that that day," the day of His coming, "come upon you unawares."

The word overcharged means weighted down. Our Lord says, "Don't get weighted down. You're carrying too much excess weight." I am learning the hard way in my own Christian life that as I grow and run the race, I don't just drop the bad things, I have to drop good things, even better things, in order to have the best things. We deny ourselves and we take up the cross to follow Him. Get rid of the incumbrances, the unnecessary weights.

Do you belong to an organization that's weighting you down? You don't really need it. Do you have some hobby, some pastime that's weighting you down and keeping you from running the race? Is there some association in your life, some occupation in your life that of itself is not evil, but it's weighting you down and keeping you from running the race? Watch out for incumbrances.

Thirdly, watch out for entanglements. "The sin which doth so easily beset us." The sin which can trip us up. You don't run the race with a flowing robe on, you'll get tripped up. Now he says let's run this race by laying aside every weight—that's the incumbrances—and the sin which doth so easily beset us, trip us up—that's the entanglements.

Now what is this particular sin? I think he's talking about the sin of unbelief, because the whole theme of Hebrews is "by faith." He warns us in Hebrews 3:12 against an evil heart of unbelief. "Take heed, brethren," says Hebrews 3:12, "lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." Not doubt—doubt is a matter of the feelings and of the mind; unbelief is a matter of the will.

The unbelieving believer says, "I will not believe God." The Jews at Kadesh-barnea said, "We cannot make it, we can't go in and conquer the land." God says, "Yes, you can." And they would not believe, and so they wandered around for 40 years and died and left their graves in the wilderness. You see, the sin of unbelief is what tangles us up. Entanglements.

What are the sins that are tripping us up today? Now, we know what they are. Nobody has to tell us. If a runner showed up at the racetrack and the coach saw that the runner was wearing heavy boots and a long robe, he'd say, "Get rid of that extra weight, get rid of those entanglements, or you won't win the race."

Now, there is a fourth obstacle we have to be careful of. It's at the end of Hebrews 12:1. "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us," the sin of unbelief, "and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Not the race that is set before somebody else—the race that is set before us. Here we have the obstacle of encroachments. You see, each runner was assigned a lane, and you ran in that lane. And if you were worried about the other fellow in his lane, you're going to create problems. Encroachments—overstepping the line, intruding into somebody else's lane.

I often remind myself of what Jesus said to Peter in John 21. You'll recall that Peter had been restored to his fellowship with the Lord, and now Jesus said to him, "Follow me." And so Peter got up and began to follow the Lord. You find this record in John 21.

As Peter was walking along, following the Lord, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and looked, and it was John who was following as well. You know, other people are following the Lord besides us. And Peter said, "Lord, what shall this man do?" And Jesus said, "What is that to thee? Follow thou me." You see, Peter was moving out of his lane into John's lane, and this is wrong.

I think so often of that phrase: "What is that to thee? Follow thou me." I read something in a Christian magazine about a fellow Christian, and I get disturbed, and God says, "Wait a minute, what is that to thee? You follow me." God has put me in a lane, He's put you in a lane. I cannot run your race, and you cannot run my race. You and I must fix our eyes on the goal, and we must run in the lane that God has assigned to us.

You see, in the next verse of Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12:2, he says, "Looking unto Jesus." Don't keep your eyes behind you at other people, or in front of you at other runners. Looking unto Jesus. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Live by faith, live in the Word of God. Let Jesus be your example, let Him be your encouragement, let Him be your goal—to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.