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Savior, come, thy Saints are waiting, waiting for the nuptial day. Thence their promised glory dating. Come and bear thy Saints away 183.
Savior, come, thy sins are right.
You could consider Hebrews chapter 12.
We need to have our focus on the Lord and we do have that in this chapter and also.
It deals with the question of his discipline in our lives, which I think we have to recognize.
That we all feel and the proper response.
Suggest that chapter. Maybe somebody else has something else, but I wonder if that might be profitable.
United chat on the table. Very helpful. Hebrews chapter 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 does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience a race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
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Lest you be wearied, and faint in your minds, you have not yet 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 he endure chastening. God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if he be without chastisement? Whereof all our partakers, then are ye ******** 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 for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth A peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lain be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligent diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.
Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for you know that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For you're not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
Where they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven.
To God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to the Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
That you refuse, not him that speaketh. For if they escape, not who refused him that spake on earth. Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consumer liar.
Epistle to the Hebrews is Paul.
Some argue against that, but.
In Acts Chapter 9.
When Ananias is sent to Paul, Saul at that time still.
He hesitated, but the Lord told him in verse 15 of Chapter 9. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles. He was the apostle of the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.
That children of Israel is fulfilled when he is writing the Epistle to the Hebrews and it's very interesting in the order given in verse 15. That's how Pauls life of service took place and but also at the end of Hebrews.
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There his reference made.
To Timothy in verse 23.
Knowing that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.
You know, you don't have to know much about the New Testament to know that Timothy was a fellow laborer of Paul. So Paul is the writer to Hebrews, and he had developed beautifully.
In the book of Hebrews, how the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament was a type and shadow of.
And he's the Son of God, He's the Son of Man, and he's our high priest and all of these wonderful things that are developed in Hebrews. But now here in chapter 12, after he had referred to all those witnesses who had lived by faith in the Old Testament, he directs their attention and our attention.
To the one who is above all, you know the Lord Jesus. Looking unto Jesus the author and completer of our faith, you know it's a wonderful thing to be occupied with what God did through Old Testament Saints, or even what He is doing through Saints today, but we must never forget that.
The Spirit of God wants our attention to be focused on the person of the Lord Jesus.
Not to make too much of man, you know, so looking unto Jesus.
We do recognize with joy what God is doing and has done through his servants in the past, but there's nothing like looking unto the Lord Jesus, and that's what the Spirit of God would want us to do today.
That's perhaps why the Apostle Paul's name doesn't even appear in the epistle. He was the apostle to the Gentiles, like you say, but the the Jews.
Were so stumbled by that fact that he would go to the Gentiles, that it seemed to be a hindrance to them to consider what he had to say. So in the Epistle to the Hebrews the only apostle mentioned is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the third chapter he is the Apostle. And Paul, who we believe wrote the epistle, is not even mentioned. He's hidden.
And when we consider the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ, brethren.
Why do we want to get occupied with people brethren, as gifted as they may be? What could they be in comparison with this glorious person?
Referred to his address yesterday, we won't take time to turn to it, but in second Peter 3 and verse 16, which would indicate that Paul wrote this epistle, there's this unique expression here that we find four times in the word of God in the second verse that goes along with what you're saying. Looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, we find that expression twice in the book of Acts and twice in the book of Hebrews.
And it really bears the thought of the the one who originates something. And so in Acts 3 he's called the originator of life and they they are charged with killing the originator of life. Man says they're looking for the origin of life. The origin of life was here on this earth and they hung him on a tree. And then in Acts Chapter 5, he's the originator of Israel and he's he's seen as the originator of Israel.
And they killed the very one who is going to be the one that originated the whole nation. I'm using the perhaps the expression that maybe best gives a sense the word. And then in the second chapter of Hebrews Here we find that the captain of our salvation is was made perfect through sufferings. And so the one who is leading us in this pathway of faith, and who this multitude of witnesses bear testimony to as to the truth of.
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This pathway.
He There's nothing that the Lord is going to expose us to that He was not exposed to himself.
He's the originator of the pathway and here he's the leader. The as we find in this 12Th chapter, he's the author and finisher of faith. He started the pathway and he's going to finish it.
Taking up the book of Hebrews 2 to realize that Christ is presented to us as to where he is now. This is the fourth time in this epistle that the Lord Jesus is presented to us as a man at the right hand of God.
Because that's what true Christianity is. Christianity sets us in relationship to the Lord Jesus, not as he was here in this world when the disciples and others knew him, but it sets us in relationship with one who has glorified God on the earth and is now seated at the right hand of God, because the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary.
And in Hebrews, it's not so much the work that's taken up. It is, but not so much the work, but the results of the work. It's not where the Lord Jesus was. Here is a man in this world. It's where the Lord Jesus is now. And it's helpful to get that outline. It's helpful whenever you take up a book of scripture to get an outline. And perhaps we won't turn to it, but I'll just mention in passing the three previous times that we have in this epistle.
The Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God in the first chapter, he seated having made the purification for sin.
We find him there, presented to us as the one who made the worlds. And I believe it's more than just having purged our sins, as the King James indicates. But Mr. Darby says, having made the purification for sin, because when man sinned in the garden, not only did man come under the curse of sin, but the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain. The whole creation, every level of creation, to this very moment feels the effects of sin and the curse.
But isn't it wonderful, brethren, to think there's a day coming when this world is not going to feel the effects of sin the way it does now? Even the trees are going to clap their hands in that day. The animals aren't going to prey on one another, and there's one that's going to rain in righteousness.
Then in the 8th chapter you have him seated again, and there he seated as our high priest, the one who is now in heaven as a priest. He was not a priest on earth. He couldn't be. You ever read of the Lord Jesus going into the temple and offering a sacrifice? No. He was from the kingly tribe of Judah, the tribe of Judah, the Kingly tribe. He was not from the priestly tribe of Levi. And so you never find him on earth functioning as a priest.
But Brethren, having returned to the Father, now he's there, functioning as our great High Priest. And as those chapters indicate, he's living for us, entering into what we pass through and praying for us every hour of every day. Then in the 10th chapter, he's seated there, having offered himself as the supreme sacrifice. And there it's more in connection with our being brought into blessing by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified you ever doubt your salvation.
Just look up and see where the Lord Jesus is now. God has seated him at his right hand, the Lord Jesus having offered himself as that supreme sacrifice. He's forever sat down there, and I want to say this carefully and reverently if God were to refuse me now.
Availed myself of the finished work of Calvary. He would have to refuse his own dear son and that's impossible. That's the security in which the believer stands before God in Christ. And then we come to this chapter and here he's seated for the 4th time and rather here he's seated as the object for faith. It's not so much that it's that he's the author and finisher of our faith, but as Neil said, he's the author and finisher of faith.
The Lord Jesus is the only one who, as a man, began and completed the path of faith and perfection. And having done that, now God has set him at his own right hand as the object for you and for me and brethren, This is what we need in the days in which we live.
We need to lift our eyes above man, above dear brethren, and thank God we have many, dear brethren, but we need to lift our eyes to Christ. He's the object, and if our eyes are on him, we're going to be preserved in the path of faith.
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And it's very important to realize that there is a man in the glory and we sometimes sounds like a high and lofty truth. And what is the bearing of that? I just say this that a dear friend that worked for me, he later went on to become a pastor and his son was killed. And I just sought to comfort him. And I just said, won't it be wonderful to sit down with him and see him in the glory and recount the ways of God with him? And he looked at me and he said, well, we really know each other in heaven.
And, you know, I think of that as we sit in a room like this and as we sat in the dining room to realize that there is a real man in the glory and that we're going to be real people in the glory. When we lay the body of a dear brother is going to body, is going to be laid in a grave. And it said, moreover, shall my flesh rest in hope that that body is going to be raised, it's going to be changed, and we're going to see each other again. And there is one now, a real man with a real body and the glory, and he is the object of our faith.
And it to spur us on because it's taking up, as our brother Bob has pointed out to us in bringing out this chapter, that there's chastening, there's correction, there's difficulty in connection with this pathway and you sometimes wonder where is it going to all end? It's going to end in the glory.
And there's not going to be 1 Saint of God missing when we get there. Now, though there were 1000 here, I doubt that it represented every Christian and even in this city of Pella, and we see things in a fractured, in a broken state. But we see despite all of what we go on, we're going to see everything complete. We're looking to where he is. And as our brother Jim has brought out that we stand in the exact same acceptance that Christ sits in now in the glory.
And it's a comfort, and it would help us to suffer any little bit of correction that the Lord may have for us now in this scene.
As first verse sets before us a runner.
Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, maybe. The thought is that's of course what you had in the 11Th chapter, that they're looking on to see how we're running the race. Let us lay aside every weight a runner doesn't clothe himself with a lot of heavy garments. He sets aside every weight so that he can run the race effectively. There's so many weights, they're not necessarily sins, because he goes on to say.
And the sin which does so easily beset us. But there are weights, things that are not necessarily sins, but their hindrances to running the race effectively. And so anything that is a weight, anything that would tie us down here, well, you can't say, well, that's wrong, that's sinful. But is it? Is it going to help me in the running of the race which will end in glory? And so it's a wait. And then the sin which does so easily beset us.
We're living in a country that is thoroughly materialistic and there's so much that is being presented to us, especially the young people nowadays, that is positively weightful and also sinful.
Sinful would be even worse than weights.
The sin which stuff so easily beset us and let us run with patience The race that is set before us now you've got to have an object when you're running the race. You have to look straight ahead onto the goal to the end of the race. Looking unto Jesus, there's the object, the author and finisher of faith. The word our shouldn't be there. It's the path of faith as it has been said to us. It's the path of faith that we're running.
And we have an object before us, and that's the Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before him.
What was that joy to be back with the Father? If he loved me, he would rejoice because I go to my Father and he's there now that he had that object set before him, the the Father in in the glory. He was soon to be there, and he's there now.
And so we have an object set before us, and that's the Lord Jesus, and he's in the glory.
Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross? He looked beyond the cross to that time when he would be back in the heavens with his Father. He despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him a wonderful to consider the one that went through all the the trials of the way, and none of us has gone through what he went through.
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Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be cleared and faint in your minds. So if we consider what he went through and where he now is, we're on the same path that he was on. And he had an object in heaven, We have an object in heaven as well. What a wonderful portion to start with, and with these clouds of witnesses.
I I just had the thought. I don't know if it's a correct one, that they may be looking down to see how we're running the race. I don't. That may not be a right thought. But they're there. The Old Testament Saints, they they were men of faith and now we're running the same path of faith. We want to make it very clear that our brethren are never given to us in Scripture as the object for faith. Now they are to encourage us and in the chapter before where we have this cloud of witnesses.
We have a long list of those who lived by faith for God's glory and triumphed against all kinds of odds and difficulties despite what was going on, despite the darkness of the day showing us, given to encourage us that we can live for God's glory no matter what the hindrances or no matter how dark things are. But isn't it remarkable that as soon as that list ends, and it's a tremendous list of?
Men and women and young people who lived by faith in in the Old Testament. But as soon as that list ends, he takes our eyes from them, he says. Is it where those aren't the object for faith? They're given to encourage you, but they're not the object. Now I'm going to lift your eyes from them to the open heavens and show you one. And as I said earlier, only one Whoever began and completed the path of faith and perfection.
He's the object now, brethren, we're thankful for those who, even in our lifetime, who have encouraged us. And it does say of those who've gone on before, whose faith follow. But they are not the object for our faith. And why is it so often we become discouraged or even turned aside from the path?
Well, it's like the Psalmist said. I've seen an end of all perfection, brethren. If we're looking for perfection in the flesh, we're going to be disappointed.
We're going to see an end of it. And maybe that's one of the great lessons that God has been teaching his people in recent time. You say that brother let me down, but I'm sure that brother or sister will never disappoint me. I'll be careful. There's only one object for faith, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, thank God for dear brethren, but, oh, brethren, let's get our eyes on the man in the glory that's going to preserve us.
Tell us what some of the weeks are that.
We encounter in this race that we're on.
To answer the question that was raised, the scripture is clear that in the intermediate state between death and resurrection, nobody knows what's going on on earth with their loved ones. We find that in the book of Job. But in Revelation 5, the glorified Saints, they are rejoicing in observing what is going on on earth, that there are those that are saved out of every kindred tongue and people and nation.
They are observing in the glorified state. They are able to look down at the present time his sons come to honor and he knows it not. Is what we find in the book of Job. I thought the scripture is plain that in the intermediate state there is no possibility of knowing what's going on with our loved ones on earth. But in the glorified state, yeah, because the question has come up between meetings as well.
So I think it would be good to just turn to the scripture and read it. It's Job 14.
Now just to get the context, in this chapter he's talking about those who've departed him. In verse 10. Man Dieth and wasteth away and where is he? And that's the whole context of this chapter. But then just notice he sums it up in verse 20. Thou prevail us forever against him and he passes.
Thou changes his countenance and sendest him away. This is the man that has passed from this scene. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not, and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. I've thought of it in connection with my father. He's passed on. He's absent from the body and present with the Lord. He's not occupied with what his family is doing on earth. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not. They're brought low, and he perceiveth it not.
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He's not occupied with what's going on here in this world. He's occupied now with Christ and Christ alone.
Let's read Luke 16.
Let's read Luke 16 so that we get both scriptures verse 25.
Verse 24 He cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, That's a rich man that was suffering, And send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in my lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comfort in our tormented.
And beside all this between us and you, there is a great gulf. Fix so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from fence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would ascend him to my father's house. For I have 5 brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham saith to him, They have Moses, and the prophets, Let them hear them.
And he said, They father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead, that passage in in the that was read.
Doesn't really have New Testament light here. Now these that are mentioned in Luke 16 are not in the in the resurrection state, they're in the disembodied state.
But they knew what was going on down here. At least they knew about this rich man, knew about his brothers, and he wanted them not to come to that same place of torment. I just suggest that I don't want to dwell on this point because I don't think it's that important. But what do you say about that?
Pardon. Into it. What? It doesn't say. It knows. He knows that he has brothers. Yeah, but there's no way of communication. That's not possible. And so let's not read into it anything that is not said. Those who have died, remember that they have relatives on Earth that are not safe. But there is no way of communication, and there is no way until in the glorified state.
They can actually observe what's going on on Earth. That's from Revelation 5. Very plain.
If they don't have any way, why did he suggest that someone to be sent there?
Well, the answer is they have Moses and their prophets. Nobody can be sent. That is very plainly taught. They need to go to the scriptures. That is the answer for them. They have to bow to the scriptures. They will not believe that even though if somebody comes from the death, there is no hope given that anybody is going to be sent from the death at this present time of anyone departed.
To get back to our chapter, the question was raised about weights. And I think it's helpful to see the difference between weights and not so much these sin, but sin that does so easily beset us. And I think it's good It's been already alluded to, but Chuck has raised the question again as to what the difference is.
And let's think of a race in connection with the Olympics or some athletic event at school or wherever it is, and a man goes out, a runner goes out to run a race. And before he runs the race, the officials of the race realize that he's got, and this is ridiculous. But Will, for the sake of illustration, they realize that he's got lead weights in his pockets, the pockets of his uniform, and one of the official steps up to that man who's just ready to run the race.
And he says, Sir, you can't run the race with these lead weights in your pocket. And the runner might turn to him and say, but I've read the rule book, and there's nothing in the rule book that says I can't run this race with leg weights in the pockets of my uniform. Oh, but the official says it's just understood. If you it might be true that there's nothing in the rule book that forbids you to use these weights. But, Sir, don't you realize that if you wear the take these weights with you?
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They're going to hinder you in running the race, and the official may not be able to stop the man, on the basis of some rule in the guidebook from running with those weights, but he brings before him how foolish it is, and the runner would see immediately how foolish it was to have something that was going to hinder him in running the race and brethren. I believe there are many things, and it may vary from culture to culture, the things that are weights here in North America.
May not be the things that our weights to our brethren in the islands or in South America or some other corner of the world, but those weights are things we allow in our lives where maybe we can't turn to a scripture and say this is wrong on the basis of this scripture, but we realize that it's hindering us from focusing on the object. The prize, the prize is always Christ and the Christian race, and it's going to hinder us in some way from running the Christian race.
Then of course there's sin. Those things that Scripture very plainly brings before us. Those things that ought not to be characteristic of a Christian, those things that we ought not to take up with in our Christian lives, because we can turn to Scripture and we find that this is definitely sin. And so it's these two things, weights, something that's not wrong in itself. It might be sports, it might be taken up with something that.
Has to do with even natural things. But if it comes between me and Christ from following the Lord and running the race, then it is a weight and I'm to lay it aside. And so that runner after the official remonstrates with them and he says, now Sir, I can't tell you that you need to lay those weights aside before the starting gun. But the the runner, he thinks about it and he says, Oh yeah, the officials right, this is not going to help me to run the race.
And so he reaches into his pocket and he lays it aside, throws it on the sand at the side of the track, and then when the starting gun goes well, he's got nothing to hold him back and he can run with with endurance the race. Now just let me follow that up by saying talking about sin.
Suppose now the runner. He's laid aside these weights, but now when he runs the race, he breaks one of the rules. Is he going to be, even if he comes in ahead of the other runners, is he going to obtain the prize because he broke one of the rules and the official says you broke one of the rules? I'll show you right here in the guidebook. And so we see this when he takes up things in a way that we can understand. And that's why often the Christian life is likened to a race or an athletic event.
Because there's two things in connection with the race. One, we need an object. The athlete always has the prize in view. And secondly, he has to run according to the rules, setting aside anything that's going to hinder him. But I want you to notice this too. Let us run with patience, or Mr. Darby translates it, endurance. You know, brethren, the Christian race is not the Sprint, it's not the 100 yard dash.
And there's brethren here this afternoon that have been in the race of faith a lot longer than I have, and I'm sure they'll confirm that it takes endurance. It's lap after lap. It's hurdle after hurdle to run the Christian race. Now, no doubt we're just about done. No doubt the Lord Jesus is just about to come, but if we're going to run for God's glory, it's going to take energy, spiritual energy and endurance.
Comment on the three different scriptures. I'd like to make a short comment on that. Luke 16 At the end of verse 29. Let them hear him speaking about Moses and the prophets. That's God's word. When I was troubled about my soul and wanting to be saved, I asked God to appear. I asked him to move a curtain. I asked him to do something that I knew he was real.
He would not do it for me. The word of God is complete and finished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Any that are on this side of death have the word of God. It is full and complete. Let them hear him. I never forget the first time I saw a building that had a one way mirror that reflected you could see through it from the inside out, from the outside you couldn't see in. That's exactly what I think of when I read Luke 16. Also great golf fixed. Everything on this earth that I can look at is not fixed in God's way.
We cannot comprehend it. For something to be fixed by God, it is eternally fixed forever and forever and will never be changed. And that is the key to the other backside, the half of the mirror in God's passage here, when you look at Job, there are three things about Job, very intellect, and three things that he was studying. He wanted to know all that or where I might find him. Then he said, can man be justified with God? And then in the passage that our brother read, he said, if a man dies, shall he live again?
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The first one, oh where I might find him was was answered in the birth, the carnage of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second one, can a man be justified? Was answered in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the third one was answered in Excuse me, If a man die, shall he live again in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Job was a very intellect. I'd like to turn back to heroes now in the passage. And there is 2 exhortations that we may look at together, possibly, Lord permitting, here.
In chapter 3 and verse 6.
Of Hebrews 2 Exhortations. Yes, we have to lay aside those ways. But tell me the positive things of what I can do after I've laid aside the negative things. OK, tell me the positive things to help me go onward. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we if we Here it is hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm until the end. The end of what? The end of our race?
Race began on the first day we got saved and it's going to begin end on the day that we are either taken up or that we pass away. Yes, we may have a lot of little short races in there, but it's one long eternal race till the day he's done using this. Brothers and sisters, the 2nd order to exhortation is chapter 6 and verse one. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, here it is let us go on unto perfection, not laying the foundation of repentance from dead works and the faith towards God. Here we have maturity leaving behind the milk and the baby food and going on into maturity. So we have hold fast confidence all the way to the end.
And then we have the second part here. Let us be mature. And that is the positive things that we can do while we are running the race to the end. Now, what are we to keep our eyes on? We're to keep our eyes on Jesus in the word of God. Of course. It's always a singular eye. It's never a double eye. It's not plural. It's AI, the Lord Jesus Christ, with one eye, a spiritual eye upon him. If it's physical, they wander, don't they? The spiritual eye has to be on Christ. That's what we wanted to see this morning.
The one whom we love get that spiritual eye on him, and then he is the originator and the finisher of our faith. For the young ones in our audience, let me say this. God gave him the glory when he gave him a name above all other names, and he gave him the glory when he raised him up from the dead, when he gave him the glory of the name above all other names. It is a name, a singular name above all other names. And that name of our Lord is Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, One name above all other names when you go back into Isaiah Chapter 9 and verse six. We have many titles there and we have another title here. The author and the finisher of our faith and titles are descriptive of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the originator and the finisher, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Isn't he of our faith?
There's maybe some help too. And Mr. Jordan.
In connection with this word, witness and witnesses used in two senses. I may be at a street corner and I witness an accident. I look on at it and the police asked me, well, what happened. I'm a witness. But there's another sense in which I may drive a particular brand of car. And you say, Neil, is that a good brand of car? And I say I can vouch for this car. I've never had any problem with it. I bear testimony to the quality of that. And that is what Mr. Darby says is the bearing of this word witness.
We may be in a difficulty, and it's often been a comfort to the Saints of God, and I've often thought of it. Do you think if you met Joel, we've referred to Job and the glory and say Job, don't you wish that you'd missed all that trouble in your life?
What's he going to bear? Witness? What's he going to tell you? He's going to say listen, it was necessary and I'm glad I went through it. If you see Jacob and you see Jacob and you say Jacob, you leaned halt. You worshipped, halting with a dissolated hip, perhaps on your staff. Don't you wish the Lord hadn't dislocated your hips so you wouldn't have limped through life with a dislocated hip all those lives? He said to me. Oh, brother Neil, he said I had a lesson to learn, and I'm so thankful that the Lord dealt with me there and dislocated my hip.
I believe that's the sense in which this cloud of witnesses, and it's a great comfort to know there's no circumstance, there's no experience through which we are going to pass through in life in which we will not find the example of a St. that passed through a similar experience and to know how they ended it in victory or perhaps in disaster. And so we are accompanied about by a great cloud of witnesses who can bear testimony. There are those that bear testimony to the disasters we have here.
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With with Esau that sold his birthright for a more for a bowl of lentils, and we see the weeping and the sorrow in connection with it. And many a young person has gone out of these meetings and done something and really ruined their life as a result of it, and they'll bear testimony to the sorrow of it. The Lord may restore the years that the canker weirmouth eaten, but they say they were eaten by the cankerworm nevertheless. And there are those old brothers you see, and you look at them and you say are sisters.
And you just see, written all over their face, the worthwhileness of walking in communion with the Lord. They're witnesses to this.
What teaches by example as well as precept? And I might just say in connection with what you've said that that's why it's good when we're young to read those Old Testament stories and New Testament as well, and to familiarize yourself with the life of men and women and young people and children that God brings before us in His word. It might not mean a whole lot to you at the time, might be just an interesting story, but if you store up your mind with those stories, the Lord can bring them back as you go through the circumstances.
Of life. I'm thankful that my parents read the Bible, read those stories to us. Thankful that I heard them in Sunday school as a boy, heard them in the meetings as I grew up as a young person. As I say, it didn't mean a whole lot to me at the time, but God teaches, as I say by example. And whenever you go through a circumstance of life, try to go back in the word of God and find a person that was placed in a similar situation. I say that because I heard a person say one time. Well, young people have to sow their wild oats, so they know that by experience the result of it.
No, brethren, that's not true.
God has given us these stories to show the result of, on the one hand, sowing wild oats and living for self. On the other hand, he gives us examples of people who lived for God's glory and triumphed by faith and walked by faith, and were faithful to the Word, showing us the fruit and blessing of that.
That's how we learn. Oh, it's true. Sometimes we do have to learn by experience. If we don't learn by precept, an example, sometimes God has to learn to teach us by experience. And we look back and we say we're thankful for those experiences. But God doesn't want to have to teach us by bitter experience. He wants to teach us through His word. And so He's given us this great cloud of Witnesses. Go back and familiarize yourself with their lives.
Notice a little difference between that cloud of Witnesses and the Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of faith. That's it's like a new race brethren. It's a different it's different than anything that was ever before. Go back and read the last two verses. Let's read the last two verses of the 11Th chapter in reference to this Cloud of Witnesses says and these all having obtained a good report through faith.
Receive not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us.
That they without us should not be made perfect. All these examples in the Old Testament.
That are listed here in Chapter 11. They didn't get to the end of their race in one sense. They they died, yes, in faith, but they didn't receive what they were trusting to receive and they still haven't got it. They won't get it until the Lord raises them. And that's the same time. So the Lord Jesus, he gives us a whole new ending to a path of faith. He opens up a new path for the for Christianity.
By going into death and rising again and ascending up into heaven, having gone through the whole life here in perfection as a man, that's where he ends up. And that's where our race ends too. That's our goal. That's what we're striving to to go to, to obtain, walking by faith along the way. But the Lord Jesus was the first one that entered there.
And opened up this whole new goal, new ending, heaven and the Father's house.
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Where the Lord Jesus trod and has ended up. And so this was different than anything that a godly Jew would have ever hoped for in reading the Old Testament. It's totally new, and it's really the cornerstone of Christianity that brings us into this career of following a man who walked on earth in all his perfection.
Temptation, trial difficulties, obstacles all around. He did it. And now the the, the what's going to help us? We've been speaking about those weights and sins is getting the eye on the Lord Jesus. And those weights will drop off, whether they're lead or whether they're gold or or whether they're blue ribbons, whatever, they'll drop off, lay aside every weight.
I would suggest that a primary weight is the weight of unbelief. I believe it opens the door for sin, and unbelief is really what gets us into trouble all the time. Just believe this word, you know, the man who asked the Lord for help said I believe help my unbelief, and that was a good prayer because the Lord can do that.
But he can't, as apostles wanted, increase our faith. He can't do that. Faith of God is not a question of quantity, quality, You have it. But it's unbelief. That's a weight that really hits us all at times, isn't that the phrase is the easily besetting sin of the first verse there?
We.
The the article, the definite article is there. So I think the apostle is thinking of a sin. And if we go back to the third chapter we find those who didn't enter into blessing because their sin of unbelief. What they did was they said they were nice grapes but God can't bring us into the enjoyment of it. Now we have the contrast between what our brother Doug mentioned. Our brother Doug mentioned that they received not the promise.
But if we go back into the 13th verse of the 11Th chapter, we see that, and I'll read it, all these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were in enjoyment of the promises, even though they hadn't received them. Now that's because they 'cause they they had faith. But here we see The easily besetting sin, I believe, is unbelief.
It's a statement that we often show us a making our hearts that we see something, that that we see our Christian blessings, but we don't enter into the enjoyment of them. And the real reason is because we don't really trust God to act according to His word, those that acted in faith. Abraham, as the Lord said so my Diane was glad. What did he see? Well, God had promised it so therefore it was as good as done, and Abraham lived in the enjoyment of it.
Then we get the contrast. Those in the third chapter of course who said, well, they're nice grapes live, but they they didn't enter into that promise because they they, they, they, they discounted that God could act in and and then bring them into the enjoyment of those promises. A previous chapter, it was all about faith, wasn't it? And and that's the sin which does so easily beset us. It's the antithesis unbelief as you say that's your unbelief. I still want to know. I want someone to to name for the young people, for all of us, name some weights.
Is being overweight await?
Is eating too much awake? Is working too long to make the extra dollar awake so that I don't have time with my family?
I've I've got other objects before me. We don't want to go away from this reading that well, I don't know what a way it is. It's something that hinders me in the Christian pathway. There's a lot of other paths in this world. I'm talking about the Christian pathway. We have an object and that's Christ.
And anything that hinders that, you are saying that it will drop off. That's not what the scripture says. Lay aside every weight. It won't drop off. You have to lay it aside. You have to say no. The say say, well, we're going to have some fun tonight and we're going out and do this and that and they come to your house and right at the time which you set aside in in in your life to spend time alone with the Lord and read His word.
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If you say no, I can't do that because that would.
That would hinder me in my path and I'm trying to give some illustrations of what.
Our weight might be, we know in the natural world you're talking about.
A runner that has some lead in them. But if the rule says you can't have any weights when you run this race and then you have a weight, then you violated the rules. You're disqualified. That would be stupid to to put a weight on if you're really wanting to win the race and when we get occupied with things of time and sense and things of this world.
A better home and a better car and 1000 different things, Better clothes. They could be weights. They could be weights. So there are other illustrations because we just we've got so much. That's Laverne in the in the nursing home. And I go through the house and I said where did we get all this stuff? Where did we get all this stuff? We can't wear all these clothes and all these shoes and I mean.
What's wrong with us? What's wrong? I'm talking about me. Us. We've got weights, things that we don't need, and if we wouldn't have those, we'd have more money to spend on the Lord's things and to help others who are in need. Well, thank God you have shoes. You know, actually, whatsoever things you do, do them heartily as under the Lord and not under men.
Wear the shoes gloriously and heartily. I don't think an extra pair of shoes is a weight.
10 or 20 pairs well, wear them to the glory of the Lord.
We wait for you.
Let me emphasize that what might be a wait for me is not necessarily a wait for you. And we ought to know in our own conscience what is a weight which slows us down in our race of faith.
In Genesis 11 and 12 Concerning Abraham.
And it says about him in the 12Th.
Chapter in the first verse now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy Father's house, unto a land that I will show thee Now if we go back into the 11Th chapter, says in verse 31. And Abraham and Tara took Abram his son, and locked the son of Aaron his son's son, and Sir AI.
His daughter-in-law, his son Abraham's wife. And they went forth with them from ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan. And they came unto Heron, and dwelt there.
Now they stayed there until Tara died, and then after Tara died.
Then Abraham proceeded with what God had told him to do. So his own father was awake until his father died. But Abraham didn't proceed at all in what God had told him plainly to do.
Carrying out the will of God, didn't it? Yeah, many times it's our friends that can be the weights in our life. And I remember speaking as a young when I was young, I I had friends that were in the the camp and they were Christians. And I used to think, well, you know, at least they're Christians. They're good clean friends, but they became weights if you want to go on in the things of God.
And then the truth of God, if they're not going to go along with you, you have to give them up. And there are other things that are peculiar to young people. And I suppose one of the greatest things is sports, and it's the competitive sport. And it's those things that are out there where they set up before the young person, heroes and and so forth, and somebody to to to emulate. And there are.
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The John says that all it is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of the life.
Are not of the Father, but they are of the world. And the world passed away in the luster of but they that do the will of God abide forever. And so it's those those things that are in the world, whether they be clean or whether they be dirty, it's still the world.
And those are things have become hindrances. Now I know young people that will say, well, there's nothing wrong with going and watching a good hockey game, a good baseball game and stuff like that. And I got nothing against hockey or baseball. I like it myself. But to go out there and allow that to be my entertainment and to get to sit in the seats where they sit and to be occupied with the things that the world is, is occupied with because they have nothing else.
Why is it then that I should go out and occupy my time with those that hate Christ? And so many of those things are for young people especially? I know I was there and I used to have. I used to belong to a car club and I used to have my own vehicle, my own car that I built up and so forth. And and those were things that occupied my time. And at the same time I was trying to go on for the Lord, but I there was a hindrance.
And my friends were those that were occupied of the same things. And there are young people sitting here that are that love to have cars, and there's nothing wrong with a car but these things we can use for the Lord, but don't let them become a idol. Those are weights that will drag you down and prevent you from going on and increasing the things of God. I finally came to the point in my life where I had to say goodbye to all those ones. I had to tell them why I could not go on with them any longer.
Because they just were not willing to go on with me in the things of God. And so I I say there's a room full of young people here, and there are many things I know that I was occupied with that I thought, there's nothing wrong with these. They're clean, you know, And at least I'm not going down into Skid Row. I'm not getting occupied with smoking and drinking and carousing and so forth. And so I thought I was OK. But you know, there are. Those things were kind of the clean side of the world.
But it was still the world. And so those, I believe, are weights. And we have the Spirit of God within us. And I can't tell you what is a weight to you, and you can't tell was a weight to me necessarily. But we have the Spirit of God within us to tell us and to guide us. And if we really do will to know his will, we shall know what they are and he will guide you. And so everyone of us has to have that individual exercise.
Do I want to go on with the Lord in my soul as A and and grow in the things of God? Or am I just content to go along with the clean side of the world, go to meeting and try and and fit in as best I can, but at the same time I'm I'm tampering in the things of the world.
And wonder why do I not grow in my soul? That is the key to it, I would say, and the light of what you just said. One of the worst ways that we face young people face is evil companionship.
The sounder says I am a companion of all them that fear thee and love thy precepts, evil companionships, corrupt good manners. And if you say well, I'm doing it to help them to find the Lord and that be very careful, be very careful lest they bring drag drag you down to their level.
You can't bring them up to yours if they don't have a new nature, but you can be brought down to their level because you've got an old nature.
So important to 35 in the appendix.
Spreading fraudulent by the Son of God, all the sorrows they are feeling, felt by him upon the road. All the darkness, sorrow come around and from within all the joy and all the time he passed through.
35 in the appendix.
Is between us. You're the one that suggested the passage, and then you get cut off the first time you spoke up.