Title: Hebrews 12:1-2 – Walking by Faith

By: Dan Pancake

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 the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:2 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Intro

That is a wonderful two verses of scripture, a short paragraph or two. It tells us the story of love. It comes on the heels of chapter 11. Chapter 11 is what we know to be the faith chapter. If you read that you will read all about faith, the faith of our heroes, the faith of those who have gone on before.

When you open chapter 12, it reminds us that all of these people who have gone on before us are witnesses to us. Now, some people they are like people in an amphitheater looking down on those of us who are running the race. That is not really true. They are not really looking down on us. what is true about it is that they have set before you and me a tremendous example. Their example should help you and I as we go down the journey of life. It challenges us to be better than what we could be. It encourages us to continue to go on, even though times sometimes get hard. They instruct us about what to do in difficult situations. If you read some of those people back there, it is just wonderful to think about some of their lives and what God did in their lifetime.

Faith is the wonderful thing that God allows you and I to have which is simply believing God. That is all there is to it. Faith is just believing God.

He says in Hebrews 11, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. All that is really saying is that we cannot tangibly lay hold of faith. Our object of faith is not something we can see or touch. It is just as real or more real than the things we can see and touch because our hearts have been made right in the sight of God. We have been touched by the Holy Spirit and we know that Jesus Christ is real. We know that our God is on His throne. We know that heaven is our future home. It is real. Faith is real.

Walking by Faith

This message is the second in a little grouping. I do not know how many of these I will do. Maybe two or three or forty-seven; I do not know. We are walking by faith. Walking by faith—I just want to concentrate on these scriptures that we have before us tonight. Walking by faith. What does it mean to walk by faith?

Walking with faith according to this passage tells us that when we are walking by faith that we are really in a race. The apostle whoever this was that wrote this. Some people say Paul wrote it. J. Vernon McGee says Paul wrote it. That is good enough for me, by the way. Others think it might be somebody else. It does not matter the Holy Spirit wrote it. That is who really wrote it. He says to us when we are walking by faith we are really running a race. We are in a race. He says…

Let us begin with that. Let us begin with the word “wherefore.” He says…

In other words, there are many other people who have gone before that has left us a tremendous witness. The one thing you must know when you are in this race is that all of us must start at the right place. Don’t we?

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

People have really got this confused in our age. People think that just because you think you are gong to go to heaven, just because you think you are as good a person as somebody else; that you are going in the right direction. I believe, I honestly believe there are people who are walking kind of a parallel kind of a life. They are looking in at Christians and saying, I am one of them but they are not inside. Why not inside? They did not come through the gate. The only way to get in this is to come through Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. That is the only way to get in.

Jesus is the Gate

So that great cloud of witnesses that are all around us reminds us that this walk we are walking is not just wandering through the world aimlessly. We are following somebody that is telling us, and showing us where we need to go. We are looking unto Jesus. We are following our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the gate. that is what He says in John 10:9. He says “I am the gate. If a man goes in, he shall be saved. He will go in and out and find pasture. He is the only way in. When we come through Him we go into that life in our passage that we had before us, that I read a moment ago. We get on the straight and narrow. I got to be honest with you. I wobble around some on the straight and narrow. Perhaps you do too. I am not saying that I am living in sin. I am just saying that I am doing my best but sometimes my best is not very good. I can always do better. I suppose most of us could.

Running the Race

This life of faith is a life where we entered a race. If you are going to run a race there must be a starting point and there must be and ending point. Right? I hope. If not, somebody is just going to run forever. That is what some of those marathon runners probably think is that this thing is gong to go on forever. You and I are marathon runners in this race of life. We started at the gate named Jesus Christ. We are going to end at a place called heaven when we bow before Him and crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords. In that time when we declare that He is worthy, He truly is the only Son of God. He is worthy of all honor, praise and glory; that is where it all ends. Then it all begins again. Not the race but the real life. Amen! That is where we will be.

Walking with Jesus is a race. He says, “wherefore.” So, we look around and we look back. When you see that word in the scripture, it is always a time to stop “wherefore, or therefore” stop and think about what was said just before that. Of course, he is talking about all the heroes of faith. If the heroes of faith could speak to you and I tonight, they would tell us that God is faithful. God is faithful. Our God is dependable. Our God is truthful. Our God keeps all His promises. Would you say Amen to that?

Our God provides everything that you and I need as we go down the journey of life. Through Him we can do whatever we need to do for His glory. He empowers us. He goes with us. He gives us the where withal to do the work that He wants us to do. We might come into this thing saying—I did as a preacher—I came in saying, Lord there is no way I can do it. Some of you are probably still saying that. He equipped me along the way to do some of this. He equips everybody differently to do different things for His glory. I will tell you what it is. When we get done with this thing, what you and I want is that divine approval of the Lord when He says well done. If He does that we will say it was worth it all. No matter what you went through.

Laying Aside

Then he tells us in verse 1 that this walk of faith is laying some things aside. There are some things we do not do anymore. Back years ago,…when I first got saved and we got started in the church, there were a lot of people that were telling you what you could do and what you could not do. you do not have that anymore because that is silliness. That is just silliness. The Bible teaches us that all things are lawful for us. What that means is you can do whatever you feel like you want to do, but I have good news for you. There is a lot of stuff that you are not going to want to do anymore. There might be things that you would do that some of us might kind of frown on or scowler about a little. However, that is between you and God, believe it or not. Wherefore, we get into this thing—but there are some things as we go down the journey of life that we will lay aside because they are keeping us from making progress into the kingdom of God.

Here is what I know about every believer. I know this about every believer. That what God began the moment that they got saved, He will continue to work on that until the moment you get into His presence. He is the only one that can help you lay aside some of this stuff. Some of this stuff that we have to lay aside is not easy to get rid of. Some of it is hard. It wants to cling. Some people get saved with a lot of stuff going on in their life. I will tell you what. The only way to get rid of all that baggage is to come to Jesus and let Him help you lay it aside. The walk of faith is laying some things aside. He tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily beset. The weights, of course, are the training devices. Sometimes, there are things we need put away. There are things that helped us when we were young Christians that are not any help to us as we get older and going along serving the Lord.

There are also things, what we call sinful. There are sins. Do Christians commit sin? Absolutely! All of you have committed sin at some point in your life. I hope it is a long time ago, but I have an idea that it is probably not. He tells us to lay that aside. What does he mean by laying it aside. Do not dwell on it. Let me tell you something. When you ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, the Bible tells us in 1 John 1:7 that if we are in Christ, He is in us.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

His blood washes away every sin. Verse 9 of that chapter says, if we will confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. When you bring it to him and you leave it with Him. Then I am going to tell you something. Let it go. If you can make yourself not think about it then do not think about it again. Do not ever think about it again. God does it. God is the only One that can forgive your sin and forget that you committed it. You might not be able to forget it, but do not let your mind dwell on that stuff. Lay that stuff aside; the sin which doth so easily beset. Do not think about that. Do not dwell on that. Do not say to yourself I am never going to be able to do this. Through Christ, you can do it; whatever it is God called you to do. Do not go doing stuff you are not called to do. however, if you are called to do something, I promise you God is going to equip you and empower you to be able to do that and you are going to do well at it. amen!

Then he says when we have done that—He says in the bottom of that verse; then we need to go ahead and start running. One thing I notice about Christians through the years is that they like to get in at the right place, many of them do, and they even like to get trained. However, many of them do not like to move any further than that. It is time to run church. It is time to go. It is time to get out there among the world and tell them that Jesus Christ is real. He is the only hope. Without Him you are going to die and go to hell. Therefore, start running. We are in this race, so we are walking by faith and we are in this race. Walking with Jesus also means you cannot lose sight of the leader. You cannot lose sight of him. He is ahead of us. He is the one that went down this road before us. He is the one that ran the race before us.

It says in verse 2…

He is the one that created it all. He devised it all. The author, He wrote the book, so to speak; if you want to say it like that. He is the one that began it all. Then it says He is the finisher. He is the one who completed it as well. The foundation of the world, when God created man…when man was created, God breathed into him the breath of life. That man became a living soul. God created a plan before the foundation of the world to save that man when he was created. Didn’t He? He is the One who started it all. Not only did He start the life of faith; He gave us life itself. So, we live. We live for Him. That is what it says. He is the finisher.

On Calvary the last thing He said from the cross was, it is finished. What did He mean by that? He means the plan of salvation was complete. The only hope of humanity ever being right with God was through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He said, I have completed that. Are you with me tonight?

Looking unto Jesus

So, walking this way with the Lord, walking in faith with the Lord says to us that we cannot lose sight of Him. When it talks about looking unto Jesus, it is not talking about making a casual glance; once on Wednesday and once on Sunday. Time to examine yourself or examine the Lord. It is talking about taking a real look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto Him. Fix your glance on Him. It means to look away from everything else and look only unto Him. I do not know where you were or what kind of lifestyle you had before you were saved. However, I must be honest about it. Most of us were miserable in sin. Are you with me? We were! We say this all the time, it is kind of a cliché. “I get sick and tired of being sick and tired.” I will tell you when you are in sin, you get sick of that lifestyle. You get sick of the stuff you are doing. You get sick of the stuff that you say to yourself “I am not going to do that anymore.” Somehow, you do not really have any control over it and you do it anyway. Right?

When you come to Christ, He saves us from our sins. What do we do? We just keep watching Him. What He does we ought to do. Where He goes we ought to go. What He says, we ought to say. Amen! We are looking unto Jesus. It is not a casual glance. It is a glance that is almost like fixation. You are fixed on Him. You say, “Why are Christians the way they are?” They are fanatics. They want to go to church all the time. They want to tell you about Jesus all the time. What is the matter with them? Here is what it is. We are fixed on Jesus. We are fixated on Him. It is not mental illness. It is a salvation that brings life that we want everybody in the world to have what we have. So, we are fixed on Him. We are looking to Him. Look only unto Jesus who is the author and finisher. How do we look to Him?

I have some notes here for you and we will talk about just a little bit. We look to Him in amazement and adoration. I am still amazed that He loved me enough to save me from sin. I am amazed that He knew me then and He knows me now. He still loves me! Sometimes, we are not very lovely. Amen! However, He loves us. That is an amazing thing when you think about it.

Matthew 8:27 was talking about a time when Jesus was on a ship. Do you remember that? They were scared to death they were going to drown. Jesus just got up and stilled the wind and the waves laid down at His feet. Here is what they said when that was over.

Matthew 8:27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

They were amazed! They were blown away about what Christ could do. Now, they thought He was the Messiah. They thought He had special powers. They had seen Him do some things. Listen folks. Nobody can stop the wind. Nobody can cause a raging sea to lie down flat like that floor you have your feet on tonight, but Jesus. That is when they said to themselves, “Man, He really is somebody special.” They were amazed at Him. I have been living in that amazement all my lifetime since I came to know Him as my Savior. I have been amazed.

Have you ever had God answer a prayer for you that you have been praying about? Let me ask you this? Did not He go above and beyond what you asked Him to do. I have never had Him answer a prayer that He did not go beyond my initial ask and add something to it. Why? Because He is amazing! He is just amazing.

You and I ought to adore Him. By faith we ought to walk and live our lives in adoration of this One called Jesus Christ. We ought to give Him our love and our loyalty. Would you say amen to that? People are not loyal anymore. We read this. We see that everywhere. As a matter of fact, it is evident in life that people are not loyal.

Loyalty

I read some time ago, probably several years ago now about people in a church. People used to be loyal to their church. They used to go to their church. Mom and dad went there. Grandpa and grandma went there. They go there. The whole family goes there. Right? They are not loyal like that anymore. I read that somebody could come into a church after going there ten years and all of a sudden, they do not like the color of the carpet and they say, “I am not coming here anymore.” What in the world has happened to people? I will tell you that is not the Holy Spirit that leads you away from loyalty. When you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you are going to be loyal unto Him. Who cares what color the carpet is. Amen!

We ought to give Him our love and our loyalty. He says in 1 John 4:10:

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We hear that. Mabel said a while ago. We believe her. That is not the important thing. It is not that we love Him, it is that He loved us. When we were yet sinners, the Bible says Christ Jesus died for us. In this passage he says He loved us. He sent His own Son to be the propitiation or the sin payment for us. Are you with me tonight? Somebody paid for your sins and mine. Why? He loves you. That is love. Isn’t it? We ought to give Him our love and our loyalty back. We ought to have a thankful heart all the time.

Gratitude

Gratitude is on my little list.

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

I believe—I have seen it through my lifetime. Christian people, which are normally church people; Christian people are the most thankful people on the face of the earth and they ought to be. Right? We have been forgiven the most. We have been given the most. We have the Lord with us all the time.

Then, we ought to worship the Lord. I love to worship. Don’t you? I tell you what I do not like. I do not like just services. I go and sometimes we just have services. There is nothing you can do about that. I really like it when we come together and the Holy Spirit meets with us here. Worship breaks out, real worship. I think the other services are important. I think sometimes we need to come. We need to learn. We need to grow. Amen! We need to worship. Why? It opens up that old cold heart of ours. It allows us to feel the glow and the warmth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Worship

Listen to this: Revelation 5. When you and I get to heaven, are we going to worship all the time. I do not think so. I think we will probably have a lot of things to do. I believe in heaven when we get there; there will be times of worship that are just going to blow your mind. I just really believe that. We get a scene from the Bible of a time of worship.

Revelation 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Revelation 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Revelation 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

Revelation 5:14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

Worship. Listen to this: it is not over yet. When you went through the book of Revelation I was just amazed that every time we found the four beasts, which are four angelic creatures, and those twenty-four elders; the four beasts began to worship the Lord and boy those twenty-four elders got caught up in it every time. Every time you find them falling before the Lord and casting their crowns before the Lord and saying; You are worthy Lord of all praise and all honor. The walk of faith by the way, is a walk of worship. Would you say amen? We need worship in the church corporately. We need worship alone. Amen! We need times of worship alone. Sometimes I have been on the job and worshiped. Haven’t you? I really have. I have been in my car from time to time and worshiped the Lord. I have been in the woods hunting and had to put my gun down and just sit down by a tree and thank the Lord; worship Him. You can worship the Lord wherever you are. You need those times of worship alone between you and God.

Successful

The walk of faith also means we look away from everything else in this world. There is nothing in this world that you and I love more than Jesus. Amen! He says...

We are looking unto Him means we are turning away from everything else. A lot of stuff in this world that the world considers a successful person. If you have a lot of degrees in education—I use to work with a lot of folks that had Master Degrees, Doctorate Degrees and all these things. They still pat themselves on the back. Everybody is a doctor this and a doctor that. That is silly. A doctor is a medical doctor in my mind; nevertheless, all these degrees and that is fine. That is what the world considers a success among the educated. Then there are people in the financial who have learned how to make money and they make all kinds of money. Money is good in some cases. Amen! It is pretty good in all cases. Some people really make it. In that world, somebody like Donald Trump or somebody like Elon Musk; everybody looks at them and says “Those people are a real success.” Then there are a lot of folks who have what they think is beauty. Amen! We see them from time to time. Sometimes what they think is beautiful I think is pretty atrocious these days. Nevertheless, some people really think they have it. Then fame, some people are really famous. All these things are things that the world says, “That is the thing that makes you a success.” However, you and I—that is not us.

In the church now, there are a lot of big celebrities. There should not be. There should not be a single one. I am not saying that people do not become more well-known than others, but if they are well-known for anything in the church, they ought to be well known for one thing—they love the Lord Jesus Christ and they are doing a great work for the Lord.

Listen. You and I are a success when we do one thing. We have trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and we are walking faithfully as we can toward this place called heaven. Anybody here with me tonight? Amen! We are walking by faith. There are many people trying to change our course in life. There have been many family members along the way who told other family…

I remember when I first got saved, as a young fellow; I do not know why but when I got saved, I got saved all the way. I became a fanatic. I am still a fanatic. I have not changed. How about you? Some of my family says, you do not have to be a fanatic. I do not know any other way to do it. Do you know any other way to live for Christ than living all the way for Christ? I am not saying you have to be a nuisance. I hope I was not that. I was a nuisance with the guitar for sure. I am saying “fully committed to Christ to the world looks like fanaticism. Fully committed to Christ looks like a loving child.” That is what we are. We love Him. There are a lot of treasures that try to captivate us. Also, there are a lot of personal weaknesses that we must overcome as we go. Let us just keep walking by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Walking by faith also means we are under His care. He takes good care of me. I am glad He does. The farther I go, the more care He has to take. Amen! Any people like me in this room tonight? He has to take more care of us. Doesn’t He? He took care of us when we were little. He took care of us when we were lost. He is taking care of us being saved. As we get older, He is really stepping in! amen! He brings a lot of great benefits to our life.

Bless His Holy Name

I will not read these verses but if you ever want to read some verses that will bless your heart go to the 103^rd Psalm and read about how the Lord bless my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name! Go read that for yourself sometime.

I will tell you what He blessed us with. Divine approval. That is worth more than money. Have you ever worked hard on something for someone you care about and when you were finished they say, “Thank you so much? You did such a great job!” That little bit of thanks from that individual is worth more than anything. You were doing it because you loved them. You were serving them in some capacity, trying to help. They told you they appreciated it.

I will tell you something else the Lord is bringing to us as a blessing, a clear conscious. A clear conscious is something that I never had before I got saved. How about you? There are times now when I do not have a clear conscious but when I do not have a clear conscious I know where I need to go. I need to go back and confess, and repent and ask God to forgive me. If I hurt somebody and I should not have, I must talk to them. A clear conscious in the sight of God is so very valuable. I will tell you something else He did for us. He has given us a better life.

More Abundantly

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

He put “more abundantly.” You heard this before. You are hearing it again. Abundantly means you have way more than you need. More means you have way more than more than you need. Isn’t that amazing? He says, “I am giving you life, and I am giving it to you in such an abundance that you cannot even begin to count your blessings.” To that we have to say, amen. I am almost done. Praise the Lord!

Walking with faith means He brings wonderful surprises to our lives. Do you ever read back in Lamentations, where it says His mercies are new every morning? Boy! They are! They really are! He is good to us. I will tell you the wonderful surprise change of salvation was more than I could ever have imagined. I got saved so I would not go to hell. I had no idea that I was going to get a whole new family. I was going to get a new love for the Word of God, the people of God, the church of God, and have a lot more friends than I ever had in my whole life. Anybody with me tonight? Isn’t the change of salvation a wonderful surprise? When you get on the other side of it, I got saved because I did not want to go to hell. Awe man! He just opens life.

J. Vernon McGee says that this thing as he talked about these two gates. He said one of these gates is wide and one is narrow. He said both of them are like a funnel. He said the wide gate is like a wide funnel. As you get down through it the farther you go the narrower it gets and then it leads right into hell. He said the life of the narrow life is like a backwards funnel. He said it is narrow to get into, but once you get in there, it opens up into a wonderful life. Isn’t that right? It does! It is just wonderful.

The surprise blessing of the Word of God. I love the Word of God. I love it. I read it. I hear it. I listen to other people preach it. I just love the Word of God. Why do I love the Word of God? It feeds my soul, encourages my heart, and it reminds me of the goodness of God.

Presence of Holy Spirit

There is this prize joy of the presence of the Holy Spirit. How do you know you have the Holy Spirit with you? I am glad you asked! I have a lot of stuff here I must hurry and cover. There are many ways that you know you have the presence of the Holy Spirit with you. First, you have a new nature. When you came to Jesus Christ, you got a new nature. You are not the same person you used to be. If you came to Jesus for salvation and you walk away the same as you came then you did not get saved. You had better go back. There is more to be had. Amen! When you come to Jesus, He changes everything about you. You have a brand-new nature. You then have a new desire to please God. You love God. You love His people. You love His church. You love His Word. You love everybody.

I heard a fellow say one time say about another preacher—a preacher I liked a whole lot—he said, I cannot stand that guy. Then he got saved. He said, I love that guy. Isn’t that funny how God works?

You have a new outlook on life. You have a new sense of peace within your heart. You have a desire to learn and grow in the Lord. You have a desire to be patient with people. Sometimes! We are growing in that. Amen! You want to be faithful to the Lord. You have a terrible feeling when you have committed some kind of a sin. That says the Holy Spirit is living within you. You now have some self-control. Amen! Anybody here? You have more than you are using. You got it. It is in there. Self-control, me too. Praise the Lord! You can break free of sin.

Then lastly here, you want to worship God sometimes. I am not saying you want to do it all the time. However, sometimes you just want to worship the Lord.

I remember years ago, I came into a church service where a whole bunch of people were singing and I was late getting there because of the people I came with and we got there. They were singing I will meet you in the morning by the bright riverside. Man, they were all singing. There was a about three to four hundred people in that room. Something hit me the moment I heard them singing. I mean we were walking up and I was in a hurry to get there. I wanted to get there and be in that service. It was a meeting among the churches I was a member of at that time. When they started singing—when we opened that door, that hit me. I am telling you. It was almost like I went to heaven for a little while. The idea of the thought, the joy, the wonder of worship, of hearing other people worship the Lord and then experiencing the presence of the Spirit of God. When He comes to assure you that you are doing the right thing. You are worshiping the Lord. There is nothing like it. The security of being in Christ is another one of them.

Peace

Then the last of all is that you are going to have a peace in your heart. That is a surprise. Before I came to know Christ, I did not know anything about peace. I was always looking over my shoulder; quite paranoid in some ways. I will tell you when I trusted Jesus Christ I forgot about all of that. I felt as if nothing in this world could touch me unless it first came through His hand. You know, I was right. Since then, I have had a wonderful peace. That night I got saved, I went home and slept like I had never slept before in my life. Anybody with me?

Closing

Are you walking by faith? Yes! So, I am here tonight, and I took a whole half hour to say keep going. Keep going! Do not quit! I do not care who quits. Don’t you quit. Walk a little closer if you can. The closer we get to Him the better it is.

I do not care what people say about me. They think I am a fanatic, that is fine. They think I am one thing or another, that is fine. I do care what God thinks. God says I am His child. I am not perfect but I am His. How about you tonight? Walking by faith!

Come and be saved.