The Life Of Fairh V Series

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

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 much 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.

A spiritual faith, then, 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

He is not just a traveler, He is athlete

A traveler may rest and refresh himself 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

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