This brings me to my address for this morning:
“Run the Race; Make Straight Paths for Your Feet”
Hebrews 12:1-13 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, 2 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. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 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; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 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? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. NKJV
Hebrews 12:1-13 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, 2 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. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 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; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 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? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. NKJV
My Christian friends: Theodicy is a term rarely heard of except in the times of war and pestilence or, as we now have today, in a time of a pandemic. Theodicy belongs to a strange branch of theology concerned with the defense of the attributes of a good and righteous God against the objections that result from all the physical and moral evil perpetrated in and on the world. Theodicy was first coined in French by the German mathematician, scientist, theologian and philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz, who was well known in Germany’s age of enlightenment. Theodicy comes from two Greek words meaning God and Righteousness.
I again saw this word used on Facebook last week as someone mocked God in view of the Corona virus pandemic. For such a rationalistic person, it was evident that there is no just God who looks after His creation to do good; but, if perchance there is a God, he not only allows evil to take place but must also be evil. The Deistic movement, where God created the world and then left it to its own recourse, was a natural conclusion for religion. However, our text this morning says that we should not be “discouraged” when the Lord chastens us; but the word more commonly means not to “faint” when we are rebuked by the Lord.
The Christian can easily become faint-hearted when he thinks that he is only to become a statistic only to be placed among those who become ill or among those that are counted as dead. When the believer wearies of this life and questions why God allows His children to suffer and die then it is when weariness sets in and the believer’s faith wanes. This is indeed very dangerous to faith when he does not remember what God’s Word says about being chastened as a son whom the Father loves. This is the same situation as when Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.” Therefore, a Christian can easily become “faint-hearted” or “discouraged” when he is rebuked by the Lord.
Our text begins with the exhortation to lay aside every weight, and especially that one particular sin that might easily beset you, in order to run the race with endurance. But unlike the familiar aerobics class that has a tangible goal of reaching and sustaining a certain heart rate before the end of the session, scripture makes it clear that the Christian is in a continuous spiritual race, running toward the goal that St. Paul states he is pressing on to grasp. As Philippians 3:12-14 reveals, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Like the stronger, natural heart you might hope to achieve by doing aerobics, the new heart that you have been given as a born-again Christian needs spiritual conditioning. In our liturgy, we sing the offertory, which are the words of David in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
If then the Christian is to run the race of endurance, he must have a heart that is conditioned to perform such a task. Serious athletes of this world won’t smoke or drink to excess; they also will watch what they eat and work-out their bodies on a regular basis. Although these things are good in caring for the body, which is the temple of the God, no physical activity will do the Christian any good in making a spiritual heart strong in faith. Therefore, I suggest that Christians partake in spiritual exercises that I believe are patently Biblical.
In spiritual conditioning the Christian’s heart one should reflect on Church history and study the heroes and heroines that have received the victor’s crown and now rest from their labors. The first phrase of Hebrews chapter 12, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” is a summary of what preceded it in Hebrews chapter 11; hence chapter 5 begins with the word “Therefore”. In days gone by it was those who had finished the race, those who have gone to their heavenly reward, who were counted as saints and heroes of the faith. For sure it was they who lived by faith. It was they who were enabled to endure the hardships because they were given new hearts. It was they who exercised their new hearts while running their race among tribulation and persecution. It was Jesus, their Teacher, who was with them with His spirit, leading them on with great perseverance.
Our spiritual exercises begin with looking back upon and meditating on these particular biblical people. They were in no sense of the word supermen; that’s not what landed them in the pages of Hebrews, chapter 11. No sir! These were special people because their hearts were conditioned to do what they did by faith! All these Bible-type people in Hebrews chapter 11 were ordinary people, sinners of the likes of you and me; but their hearts were spiritually conditioned thru faith in Christ to believe the promises of Gospel and to walk in ways of Jesus.
Christians with strong spiritual hearts are not those who roll in the isles, neither laugh uncontrollably in miracle-working charismatic churches; nor are they those who seek a return on any “seed offering” planted in the ministries of TV prosperity gospel preachers. No, no, no. These people, whose hearts are spiritually conditioned, are they who trust in the Lord no matter what befalls them, either good or bad.
Christians with strong spiritual hearts are not those who roll in the isles, neither laugh uncontrollably in miracle-working charismatic churches; nor are they those who seek a return on any “seed offering” planted in the ministries of TV prosperity gospel preachers. No, no, no. These people, whose hearts are spiritually conditioned, are they who trust in the Lord no matter what befalls them, either good or bad.
The miracles that the men and women received by faith in Hebrews 11 were tempered with the great witnesses of those who did not accept deliverance and endured mocking, torture, great affliction and death that they might receive a better resurrection. These were they who were especially conditioned by the Lord not to be faint-hearted. Their hearts were of the same things that the hymn writer, Horatius Bonar, penned, “Thy way, not mine, O Lord, However dark it be. Lead me by Thine own hand; Choose Thou the path for me. I dare not choose my lot; I would not if I might. Choose Thou for me, my God; So shall I walk aright.”
So the most excellent way of conditioning your new spiritual heart begins by lifting it up to Jesus, “the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Friends, the heroes and the heroines of faith in the Old Testament looked forward to the time of Christ but now you yourself have that author and finisher of your faith giving you the example, and so your eyes are to be fixed on Jesus. Our Lord not only had conceived of and had designated the course you are to run but, in His own human nature, He is the One who completed the course and now gives to you that spiritually conditioned heart to follow Him without fainting. Those who refused the promise given with this new, spiritual heart must take heed to the warning in Deuteronomy 20:8, when Moses had this to say to those men of Israel that were weak in heart: “The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’”
If you have seen the 1953 Luther film (that was nominated for 2 academy awards), you realize the doubts and many hardships the monk had, then he read Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith”, and Luther’s spiritual heart gained strength and courage. By faith Luther wrote his 95 theses; by faith Luther burned the Papal Bull that condemned him as a heretic; by faith Luther mocked being burned at the stake or being killed as the Pope declared him to be an outlaw.
If you have seen the 1953 Luther film (that was nominated for 2 academy awards), you realize the doubts and many hardships the monk had, then he read Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith”, and Luther’s spiritual heart gained strength and courage. By faith Luther wrote his 95 theses; by faith Luther burned the Papal Bull that condemned him as a heretic; by faith Luther mocked being burned at the stake or being killed as the Pope declared him to be an outlaw.
Another way to spiritually condition your heart is to accept being disciplined by the Lord as one of His dear children. Hebrews 12:4-8 reads: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.’”
If then, Christian, you find yourself being disciplined by the Lord; it is only because God loves you as His child. It is at these times that your heart is being conditioned so when you need to bear the cross of Christ in times of persecution or even a pandemic you can endure suffering and even death for sake of you Elder Brother Jesus Christ and for His kingdom that you diligently sought.
Do not be misled, however, the times of persecution in the shedding of the Christian’s blood for the kingdom of God will never be like those Jihadists for Islam. For the Christians who suffer death and persecution do so out of true holiness and righteousness in loving both God and neighbor because of their testimony for Jesus. And it was this same Jesus who, in humility and righteousness, rode into Jerusalem this day in history in order to begin His passion that culminated in the shedding of His holy blood for all sinners so that they might become the righteousness of God in Him.
If then, Christian, you find yourself being disciplined by the Lord; it is only because God loves you as His child. It is at these times that your heart is being conditioned so when you need to bear the cross of Christ in times of persecution or even a pandemic you can endure suffering and even death for sake of you Elder Brother Jesus Christ and for His kingdom that you diligently sought.
Do not be misled, however, the times of persecution in the shedding of the Christian’s blood for the kingdom of God will never be like those Jihadists for Islam. For the Christians who suffer death and persecution do so out of true holiness and righteousness in loving both God and neighbor because of their testimony for Jesus. And it was this same Jesus who, in humility and righteousness, rode into Jerusalem this day in history in order to begin His passion that culminated in the shedding of His holy blood for all sinners so that they might become the righteousness of God in Him.
It is sometimes disheartening to hear Christian pastors give funeral sermons for people both young and old who suffered much before they died. It is sometimes disheartening because you rarely hear a word about Jesus’ sufferings and death, and His redemptive merits in whom their hope was to be anchored. Grace, peace, and love cannot be achieved without Christ; the goal of heaven and eternal life remains a hopeless thing without Jesus! Seneca, a Roman philosopher and political leader, a contemporary of St. Paul, once said, “Eyes will not see when the heart wishes them to be blind. Desire conceals truth, as darkness does the earth” This quote encapsulates America’s religious institutions as opposed to the Christian faith revealed to us by the one, true God.
Be alert, therefore, and condition your hearts spiritually by emulating the saints that went before you; be alert, therefore, and do no reject the discipline of the Lord who loves you as His own dear children. Luther once said, “If you do not want to have the Gospel or be a Christian, then go out and take the world’s side. Then you will have it as a friend and no one will persecute you. But if you want to have the Gospel and Christ, then you must count on having trouble, conflict, and persecution wherever you go.”
Pray that you may faithfully confess Jesus Christ before a world that despises the meaning of the cross. And follow Christ’s example that, in such spiritual exercises, your hearts will be strengthened as you run on straight paths until that Day when you can triumphantly proclaim, as Paul did to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Amen.
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