Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Life of Faith V*

Hebrews 12: 1-3

 

I find the life of faith grows better and better every month I live.

I can truly say my life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentations and can add most heartily that, Day by day this pathway smoothes

Since first I learned to love it.

It is better and better the further I go.

Oh what a wonderful salvation!

What a perfect Savior!

The blood of Jesus cleanses me from all unrighteousness; this is my confession for today.

I henceforth take Jesus Christ to be mine.

I receive Him as a Husband to me.

And I give myself to Him, unworthy though I am, to be His spouse.

I ask of Him in this marriage of spirit with spirit, that I may be of the same mind with Him, meek, pure, nothing in myself and united in God’s will.

And, pledged as I am to be His, I accept, as a part of my marriage portion, the temptations and sorrows, the crosses and the contempt which fell to Him.

I rest in His love.

I am now writing a life of my father, for private circulation only.

As to my inward experience, I am still living the life of faith, and I have found it a very blessed life.

But after trying it for some years, I still find myself going back to the old need of the conscious baptism of the Spirit, about which my soul has been exercised so often in the past.

I am convinced that faith on our part is not the whole of our salvation.

There must be the Divine response to the heart as well.

—Journal, May 6, 187

[1]

In previous sermons we have learned that;

Faith works

Faith worships

Faith walks

Faith witnesses

Faith answers the door

Faith makes the hard choices

In Hebrews 11 we have seen at length many aspects and characteristics of /the life of faith.

/There we saw that a life of faith is an intensely practical thing, consisting of very more than day-dreaming, or being regaled with joyous emotions, or even resting in orthodox views of the truth.

By faith Noah built an ark, Abraham separated from his idolatrous neighbors and gained a rich inheritance, Moses forsook Egypt and became leader of Israel’s hosts.

By faith the Red Sea was crossed, Jericho captured, Goliath slain, the mouths of lions were closed, and the violence of fire was quenched.

So then a spiritual faith,is not a passive thing, but an active, energetic, vigorous, and fruitful one.

The /same /line of thought is continued in the passage which is now before us; the /same/ branch of truth is there in view again, only under a figure — a figure very emphatic and graphic.

*Today armed with this new information the word is run your race*

You are well equipped to do it

 

*I.

Run The Race*

The picture is that of an athlete in a marathon and he is running in a stadium filled with tiers, and tiers of onlookers who are a source of encouragement

They are not a source of encouragement just because they are there, but also because they have already run the race well

So he says therefore or in light of this information run the race

The runner is not just a traveler, He is athlete

A traveler may rest and refresh himself but an athlete may not

This is a common metaphor is scripture

*/1Co 9:24/*/ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

/

*/Gal 2:2/*/  I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.

/

*/Php 2:14/*/ Do all things without grumbling or questioning, /

*/Php 2:15/*/  that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, /

*/Php 2:16/*/ holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

/

*/2Ti 4:7/*/ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

/

/The idea is not competition but that one must strive, one must press it takes effort/

/To run is not a suggestion it is a command/

So the command is to run your race

* *

*II Run The Race Without Hindrances*

/“Lay aside every weight”/

It is the picture of an oversized or swollen mass or a tumor that is cumbersome an impedes progress, slows one down

It is very similar to a sinking ship that in order to stay afloat and save the lives aboard the occupants must throw unnecessary cargo overboard

But you have options you can try to run with it or throw it off

He say lay it aside it is around you it will consume you, throw it off

He then says “and sin”

This suggests that the weight could be something else

Look at the theme and context he is talking about faith so the thing that could hinder must be unbelief, unbelief hinders

Run the race by faith

Put off unbelief and other sin

/Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; /

/Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; /

/Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

/

* *

*III.

Run With Endurance*

Don’t crack under pressure

Don’t succumb to the trials for they will come

Don’t lose heart

Do lose patience

Hold on

This refers to the kind of character that won’t let you quit

During the time your temperament remains stable, consistent, or constant

/“If all the saints of God lived, suffered, endured, and conquered by faith, shall not we also?

If the saints who lived before the/

/Incarnation, before the redemption was accomplished, before the/

/High Priest entered the heavenly sanctuary, trusted in the midst of discouragements and trials, how much more aught we who know the name of Jesus, who have received the beginning, the installment of the great Messianic promise?”/ (Adolph Saphir).

*IV.

Run The Race Prescribed For Us*

a careful look at Hebrews 11 will show that each had a specific assignment according to the will of God

The “race” speaks not only of activity, but of regulated activity, following the course which is “set before us.”

The question may be how do you do that?

So He tells us

*V.

Run With Your Focus Fixed*

/ ////2//// //Let us fix our eyes on Jesus/

It doesn’t mean just look at Him but it also means learn about Him

So look and learn

He has encouraged us to look back, now he says look backward and forward

Fix your focus by remembering and anticipating

Look at Jesus the son of God who lived in the flesh and then look to the Son of God who is at the right hand of God

This is what Paul meant in Philippians 3:14, here is how Eugene Peterson translates in the */Message/*

“/but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus.

I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back”/

Fix your eyes on Jesus because He is the object of faith

Fix your eyes on Jesus because faith begins and ends with Him