Ansell, David: How To Run The Christian Race

Now, a further reading from the New Testament, from the Epistles of the Hebrews, chapter twelve and the first thirteen verses. Hebrews chapter twelve and the first thirteen verses. Hebrews chapter twelve. Therefore, Therefore. we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields repeatable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is laid may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Well, now I try to be what we might call a topical preacher. That is, I tend to try and speak about something that is actually going on at the present time. And if you don't know what's been going on in London in the past fortnight, well, then you obviously live on a different planet. I saw a sign, uh, I was going to Copthorne Chapel a couple of weeks ago, and uh, I saw a sign, Olympic Torch Relay delays, seek an alternative route. But you see, there is only one route for God's people, and that is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is no alternative route to God. There may be alternative routes on the roads, but there's no alternative route to God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. The Bible says there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, if you have your Bible and turn to Acts twenty twenty four, here we have the Apostle Paul saying this: Nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy. So that I may finish my race with joy. Now Paul is, uh, going to Jerusalem, and in verse twenty three, the Holy Spirit speaks to him that there is going to be chains and tribulations awaiting him. That's why we prayed just now for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. You see, we have it so easy in this country, can't we? Don't we? We can come here on Sunday night, no one will hinder us, no one will stop us. We don't have to lock ourselves in. We don't have to change values every week or change times or days so that the authorities don't know that we are meeting. We can put a board up in the front of the building that says that you're here every Sunday night at half past six. and we actually have the protection of the law. If someone was to come in now and interrupt my sermon, they could actually be prosecuted under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act of eighteen sixty. Did you know that? See? Such is the freedoms that we have in this country, but not so for all our brothers and sisters. And if you read the Christian press, no doubt you will read of the persecutions that are going on in various countries of the world. And the Apostle Paul experiences these chains and these tribulations that await him. And we may have, uh, difficulties in s- some respects because we, we are a Christian. We may be criticized by, uh, fa- family that are not Christian or, or work colleagues who, who are not Christian a- a- and so on. But the Apostle Paul says, I do not count my life dear to myself that I may finish my race with joy in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to equate tonight the Christian life with the race. Now, I do apologize if other preachers here over the past couple of weeks have been on a similar theme, being the, uh, Olympic Games. I don't know what, uh, other people have been speaking about, uh, about here, but may I turn your attention now to one Corinthians and chapter nine and verse twenty four. One Corinthians nine verse twenty four. It says, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Now in the, uh, athletics that's been taking place in London, only one receives the gold medal. All run, but one receives the ultimate prize, the gold medal. And of course, every athlete has to put in a tremendous amount of training, a tremendous amount of effort, a tremendous amount of discipline in order to receive that gold medal, in order to receive that prize, and we are to run in such a way that we may obtain it. So do we need training in the Christian life? We may say, well, I've been a Christian for loads of years, loads of years. Do I need training in in the Christian? What do we mean by training in the Christian life? These athletes, as I say, will have been training under great discipline every day for months before these games, uh, took place. I understand we had some of them down here at Broadbridge Heath. Uh, they were, they were training here for, uh, a few days. I'm not quite sure which country they, they came from. But our training is the study of the Word of God. Regular, systematic study of the Word of God. And that's why it's important, if you can, you get here to your Thursday night meeting, because there you will receive training and teaching in the Word of God. Prayer, again, is a form of training that we get to know God, we get to know him, we can speak to him, and we can seek his guidance. All these things are important if we are to win the ultimate prize. Now, maybe in a few months time or a few years time, the London Olympics will be all forgotten. It'll be all forgotten. Their award, their medals, if you like, in a sense, are perishable because it'll be all forgotten. At the moment, they're all in the papers. You see every day the pictures of the gold medalists in the papers. Uh, News twenty four has been dominated by nothing else for the past fortnight. If you have a watch the news, twenty four hour news channels, nothing else but the Olympics. It seems that nothing else has been happening anywhere else in the world except that. But it'll all be forgotten. But you see, the prize that we will get is totally different. It talks about a crown here. They do it to obtain a perishable crown. Now, something that perishes, it it sort of rots away and it sort of disappears, doesn't it? If something perishes. But we will obtain a imperishable crown. We one day will get that ultimate crown, and that is we will be in heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, unless, of course, he comes in the second coming before that. So we should be training ourselves daily in reading the word of God, in prayer, in getting along to, uh, worship and, uh, study meetings as much as we can, so that we are training for that, to win that imperishable crown. Tremendous, isn't it? What God has in store for his people. God has great things in store for us. Heaven is a wonderful place. I think I preached a sermon here ages ago. I can't remember because I don't keep any kind of record, but I preached a sermon here on the subject of heaven. Where is heaven? What is heaven? What's it like? Who goes there? Et cetera, et cetera. Heaven is a wonderful place full of God's glory and grace, the old hymn says. And that's the ultimate crown that we will get. We will be with him in heaven. In one, and this training then is so important. One Timothy four seven says, reject profane and old wives, uh, fables and exercise yourself rather to godliness. Exercise yourself to godliness. The athletes exercise themselves to win those medals. We are to exercise ourselves to godliness. Now, there is a, a bit of a danger, and that's, uh, let's just look at that in Galatians chapter five and verse seven. Galatians chapter five and verse seven. It says, you ran well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? Let me just check that out in the New International Version, because I think that might just bring it out a little bit, uh, better. Galatians chapter five and verse seven. It says this in the New International Version, and I think this puts it over much better. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? Here are all these athletes, and I'm amazed by the little bits I've seen on the news, the speed at which they actually run. Incredible speed. I couldn't do it. Incredible speed they run, don't they? And, uh, but as they're running, the person in the front, suddenly someone may overtake him and may cut in so he doesn't get that gold medal. That can happen in any sport, I guess. It can probably ha- happen in motor racing. If you watch motor racing, they're all racing around the track, and the guy who's in the, in the lead, someone else overtakes him and cuts in. It can happen in horse racing. It can happen in any kind of race, I guess, that someone can cut in and prevent that person who's in the lead from winning the race. And so Paul warns the Galatians, you were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth. Now, what can cut in to our Christian lives? Remember, let's equate the race with the Christian life. What can, who or what can cut in to the Christian life? Well, it can be things of this world that can cut in and spoil our testimony and our Christian life. Now, these may be, uh, may be things that aren't necessarily wrong in themselves, but they they can cut in and, uh, prevent us from completing that race or or running that race. It can be worldly entertainment. It can be worldly pleasures. It could be other philosophies that, uh, people embrace that can cut in and prevent them from running that race, such as disbelief or atheism or falling into some kind of sin. These are things that can cut in and prevent us from, uh, completing, uh, that, that race. So we need to be very, very careful, don't we, in, in these particular matters, that we are doing God's will, and we are not allowing other things to cut in and pre- prevent us from, uh, completing this race. I just want to turn to one other scripture. We're not going to be very, very long tonight, and that is found in, uh, two Timothy chapter four. I'm gonna read it from the, uh, NIV again. Two Timothy chapter four and verse seven, where the Apostle Paul says this: I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Are you fighting the good fight? Being a Christian isn't easy. In this secular world in which we live, it can be quite difficult to live the Christian life. There are all sorts of distractions. There are all sorts of temptations that can come our way. There are all sorts of difficulties that can arise. But are we fighting the good fight? Will we finish the race? Will we keep the faith? Are you keeping the faith? Is your faith strong? Is your face- faith consistent? Do you waver? Do you doubt sometimes? Yes, that can happen to any of us. We may doubt God as because of some reason or other, because of something perhaps that happens that isn't very pleasant in in our lives. But God knows all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose. So will we finish the race? Will we keep the faith? And I would just urge you tonight, in these day- days, difficult days in which we live, in these days of spiritual confusion in which we live, I would urge you to keep the faith, to keep that faith alive, to share it with others. God will bless you if you do, because he's something in store for us, you see? Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness. Now this is a crown that I said will not perish, a crown that will last forever, which the r- the righteous judge, the Lord Jesus, will award me on that day. And this verse here in Timothy, two Timothy four verse seven is a fulfillment of Paul's wishes in Acts twenty twenty four. Because here he says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. So it's a fulfillment of what, uh, he said earlier. Well now, the last reference I want to bring you, bring you concerning the race is in Hebrews chapter twelve. Therefore, it begins in chapter twelve, we are also surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Yes, you're not on your own as a Christian. You're not on your own. You are surrounded by other people here tonight who know the Lord Jesus Christ, other people who perhaps worship elsewhere in the town, and we are part of a great worldwide family of believers. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight, those things that can cut in, in our race, in the Christian life. Let us lay aside every weight, things that can distract us, bring us a- pull us away from God, and the sin that so easily ensnares us. That word ensnare is quite a strong word. We can so easily be ensnared by sin. It's so easy. But the Bible says if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But he says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So we've got to endure, we've got to keep going, we've got to keep the faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So as we live the Christian life, as we run the race with that crown of righteousness to be given to us at the end, let us look to Jesus. Look to him, not just on Sunday nights at half past six, but tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Wednesday, throughout the coming week, throughout the future. Look to Jesus as you run that race, as you live that Christian life. 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So we've heard a lot in the last fortnight about races, about athletes, about gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals, but there is, as we run that race, as we keep the faith, let us run that race, let us run it with endurance. Let's keep on with that faith and look to Jesus. That's where we've got to look. Not to man, not to man's ideas, not even to the church's ideas, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let's pray, surely. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the race that is set before us. We thank you for the Christian life. We do pray that everyone here is on that Christian life, is on that journey, on that race. If there's anyone here who has not commenced that Christian life, not commenced that race, we do pray that you will speak into their hearts tonight, that they might turn to you for salvation and find salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, through his death upon the cross. To our Father and our God, bless us as we run the race. Help us to keep the faith. Help us not to be distracted by man's ideas or other philosophies, but help us to keep the faith, to look to Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. We ask it in his name. Amen.