Music from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJCKPSw7-6U

Presentation

Yeah, well our texas morning is hebrews 12 1 and two and we'll probably touch a little bit of verse three. So let's read our text and our sermon title. I hate sermon titles. Some horrible how the renowned crowd around is profound. I know it's lame. Anyway, Verse one. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God dove hunting. Dove hunting. I think it's by far one of the most fun things to do on the planet. It's different than deer hunting. Deer hunting. You gotta be quiet turkey hunting, you can't smell like anything. They'll see you coming a mile away hunting. You can drink your gatorade joke to your friend And those dumb birds are still going to fly. It's a community experience. And really if you've been done hunting, you know that the bigger the field the better. But the more hunters the better as well. If you have sparse hunters, those dove are not going to fly and there's nothing worse than being at a dove hunt and seeing dove across the field ah as sitting ducks, but in a large field, you can cheer one another on, you can see the double flying and cheer when someone gets one. Not unlike this is the scene before us in the book of Hebrews. It's a divine dove hunt as it were this morning. Half of our time. We're going to dig into the scriptures and then half of our time we're going to go on from there and we're going to talk about this cloud that is surrounding us. And so I'm impatient to get to the second half of the message. The author of Hebrews, he has just presented us with a who's who in the old testament, not everyone has mentioned there. He the writer says, there wouldn't be time if I mentioned everyone. Our writer says that it's as if as these saints we're just mentioned are surrounding us. They're currently surrounding us. It's as if the life were a race And these old testament. Saints that are mentioned in Chapter 11 were previous participants in that same race. But it's different. They're not our arrivals. They're not trying to take our prize. They finish their race, They form into the crowd and they cheer us on. So the writer, he purposefully calls them witnesses. He doesn't call them participants. Even though that's that's what we see each of those believers of faith ran this race and then become part of this crowd. They are now the witnesses to the event and cheering on those that remain in this race. These witnesses or martyrs is the actual word here in the original. These are the examples of faith. Some had to even give their lives like actual martyrs. We see at the end of Chapter 11, but they're not just Spectators. They are testaments to God's faithfulness and that's why it's such an encouragement to us. Therefore they hold a two fold purpose, they testify to God's faithfulness to us and they're Spectators urging us on cheering us on as examples in the faith, they become our greatest cheerleaders. But in all these examples, Jacob Isaac abraham moses everyone who's mentioned, uh those who aren't mentioned. Look at back at verse uh chapter 11 verse 39. The writer of Hebrews says, and all these having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better through their faith. Excuse me because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. In other words, the writer of Hebrews tells these Hebrew christians because remember it's called Hebrews for a reason. The writer is writing to Hebrew christians in the first century, although these old testaments were approved by their faith and they yeah, gained such eminence by their faith that we and the Hebrew christians and we by extension enjoy much more privileges than they did. How are we different? We see the entire plan of God. They didn't they saw just a tiny glimpse they had faith, surely in God, but they didn't understand the plan of salvation. They didn't understand exactly how their sins were going to be dealt with. And so the writer of Hebrews says that we actually are different because we actually saw the christ come. We even have the details of the end of the age. When we will experience full salvation, you say full salvation. Wait a minute. Do I only have half? Well, we are still in this body of sin, aren't we? Full salvation? Obviously, when we put our trust in christ, our past, present and future sins are forgiven. And then when God looks down on us, he doesn't see our sin. But he seized christ's righteousness to be sure. But when we talk about full salvation one day, what does paul say? This mortal will put on immortality, that we will discard this body of flesh and we will get our resurrected bodies and experience full salvation where we're not tainted anymore by this body of sin. This is a privilege. The old testament saints didn't know about. They had shadows of it, but we experience it and can see it. And so at the end of Chapter 11, he says, apart from us, they would not be made perfect. And this doesn't mean that their salvation depends upon um us, but they trusted God surely. But like Ephesians says they were waiting for an administration suitable the fullness of the times that is when christ comes and fulfills the law. And just as the old testament Saints, they waited for christ to come and are now blessed. There's an additional aspect where even the Hebrew Christians of the 1st century. They don't experience, they run this race, but they won't see full and complete blessedness until the end of the age like us. And so now we are currently running that race and they have become this cloud of witnesses as well cheering us on. But we're told to run. Well, it's a long and arduous race and the smallest burden over time could hinder our way. Therefore, as a runner lays aside his heavy cloak. In the first century, we were told to layaway, lay aside the sin that could entangle us and we're told to run with endurance. This is not a sprint. This is an endurance run. It is a distance run. And we're told, even though we're told about the surrounding witnesses, we're told to focus on our umpire, on the judge, on the coach who stands at the finish line, focus on him. And so hebrews 12, one and 2. It's these are these amazing verses because they point back to this witnesses that surround us and the word cloud is purposefully chosen because it's as if this cloud as we're running the clouds above us are cheerleaders. They're surrounding us because they have gone on to be in paradise like when christ ascended, waiting for the end of the age, but we're focused on our Lord. We're not focused on the clouds of witnesses were focused on our Lord, but he's not only the umpire, he's not only the judge of the event, but he's the one who stands and extends his hand for us uh to draw strength and energy to actually do uh to run the race. And really he's unique from all of these examples of faith because surely he ran the race as well. But he's unique. He has the perfect example Of faith. But not only that he is as the scripture says he is the originator of our faith. He's unlike anyone who's pictured in hebrews 11. He is actually the object of our faith. Yeah, it's funny. Um we saying and heard so much Beethoven this morning. If you were to ask what is Beethoven's greatest work, you might think of his fifth, you know, but you would be wrong. It's it's his knife. Um It is a great musical masterpiece um within it at the end of it is the Ode to Joy. It's the Coral. Um Ode to Joy. They start singing at the end of Beethoven's ninth. And we even someone has even taken that music and set it to a hymn called which we sing today. Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee. But that's not the words in the original german, the words for the Coral finale are actually pinned by a german poet. So along with the mastery of the music, we have this poem, but it's a very unique poem and if you've never read it in translation, I encourage you to we don't have time to read it this morning, but we have time to read a little bit often. This poem. And Beethoven's ninth is used to signify the brotherhood of all mankind. But that's not quite what's happening in Beethoven's 9th. It's not saying we're all brothers and sisters and God is our father and that's it. That's not what it says. It's a very unique message and I want to explain this to you if you don't know. And after you go home today youtube choral finale of Beethoven's ninth. And you'll hear it and you'll you'll hear it in german and you'll hear this word at the beginning over and over Broida and you know, you won't know what it is, It sounds like they're talking about Sigmund Freud, but it's not Freud. A is the german word for joy. And so Beethoven was focused on joy. So the poem says joy is a spark of the divine. That is, it comes straight from God himself to all mankind. And it's the joy that is common to all mankind. Whoever has a friend has experienced joy if you find a spouse you have found joy and this is the same for the wicked and the righteous, we all experience the joy from God himself equally. It is common grace that he gives to all creatures. This is what this poem says. And then finally it turns and it says, this be embraced millions. This kiss to all the world kiss, meaning God himself kisses all mankind with the gift of Joy. Brothers. Look above the story canopy there must dwell a loving father. Are you falling down before him? Millions? Do you sense the creator world, seek him above the story canopy above stars? Must he dwell? Do you understand what's going on in this poem? He's trying to prove the existence of God by the common grace of joy. And because of that, he says, seek the father above. If you experience joy on this earth, If you experience that with a friend or the spouse, guess what? That proves. There is a loving father in heaven seek him. It's a beautiful poem. It shows on a small level what flows from a loving father as a catalyst for men and women to seek him. But this is all joy on an earthly level. That's not the joy that's before us. In our passage, We're told in verse two that because of the joy set before him, endured the cross, it's more than just this common joy that we just talked about. This. Joy tells us about God's character. It tells us about Jesus Christ's willingness to submit himself to evil men. The joy set before him was of the completed work of Christ looking verse 11 of Chapter 12. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by and afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. The writer is going to go on, encourage us as christians and the hebrew christians, us, by extension, encourage them. As you see, christ has endured. You endure as well. Look at him, he endured such hostility. It wasn't joyful at the time, but it seems sorrowful. But there is the hope of the joy in the completion of the work. That's what the writers talking about in the midst of suffering. There's hope of the joy at the end. This is the joy set before christ. He had the hope of his finished work on the on the cross. What amazing insight into God's love for us. When you think about this, he had the hope at the end of this completed work to sit down and be the savior for all time dispensing repentance and remission of sins. That's the joy that he set before himself and endured the cross. That's the love and kindness of the Lord. And this hope of joy disarmed any current pain that he was experiencing Verse three for consider him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you would not grow weary and lose heart. We're supposed to ponder that fact the fact that God himself endured suffering, but did so because of the joy of the completed work that he would dispense to us his grace. Think about the coming joy, think about the Hope of Joy, think about God's completing his work in you when you go through suffering, it's not easy, but it's what we're told to do. This is why James later on says consider it all joy my brethren. When you encounter various trials, think about christ and his joy of the completed work. Well, just as we have so many who have gone before us in the old testament, as the writer explains in chapter 11, we actually have Additionally, Years of Faithful Saints cheering us on. They become part of this cloud as will we in the future. They become Spectators, cheerleaders and testaments to God's faithfulness. And you know, sometimes we ignore this 2000 years and sometimes we think we're just popped here or that, you know, this, this church or uh the United States or some other country. We Christianity doesn't extend out of 100 years, but there's 2000 years of faithful saints, 2000 years, 2000 years of pastors, 2000 years of congregants. 2000 years of people raising their families in the church. I grew up in a church where they told me, don't read the Saint of the past. Their works are corrupt. You know, you're better off just reading the bible and I obviously we do well and we should be studying memorizing and pouring over the our bibles. But we also have 2000 years of the collected wisdom of the Saints that we can read. And while it's true we should there not on par with scripture, but they are an amazing resource. We can learn much from them. And so in the time that we have left, I would like to talk about a few of these saints, like the writer of hebrews, I quickly made a list of 50 that I'd like to go through, but we're, we would never get anywhere near that. And I think it's important to recognize this that we are here because of an unbroken chain of God's faithfulness. In continuing to save men and women. They have gone before us. They ran well and now they are part of this cloud as well. So in God's providence, we can only be encouraged by one another in our current church, but we can actually be encouraged by the saints who have run before us. Clement of Rome. You probably heard his name before. Um, just to give you a little Brief overview, we're probably going to hit maybe 13 or 14 people. I just randomly picked them. They are not order in order of precedence or anything. Clement was just a pastor in Rome. Very interesting guy. He wrote while john was on the island of Patmos. So john is on the island of Patmos receiving the revelation of Jesus Christ clement is Pastoring in Rome. He's just a pastor. You know, you might hear him called a bishop, but that's just another word we have in the new testament for pastor. You know, you could, you could say bishop, doubt if you wanted to, he probably won't like it. But um, but that's all it means that when you hear hear the word bishop, it just means overseer or pastor. So he wrote a book called 1st Clement, he wrote this book to Corinth, same church that Paul wrote to. Um and you'll be interested to know that when paul wrote to Corinth, he remember he rebuked them for their sin, they actually repented and became a great faithful church clement rights to them later. They had done some things that he wasn't that he corrected them for. Um but if you read first clement, it's a little long, it's originally written in greek. But it's a very interesting, It reads like scripture. He quotes so much scripture that when you read it, it's just like a random collection of scriptures linked together. But it's very interesting because we, we don't even get out of the first century before he writes this book. So he's so close to the first century church. Well, we have to skip ahead 300 years. Uh, there's just way too much. So there's, we could go through these, but we have no time. Cyprien is one of my favorites and I'm going to post this in the notes. So later on, you can actually follow some of these links next slide. So Saint jerome. We cannot overstate the importance of Saint Jerome, you probably have heard his name but he lived in the fourth century, he actually translated uh the Hebrew old testament and the greek new testament into latin. And you say well who can read latin back then? That's all greek started dying out latin became the lingua franca. That's what everybody spoke. So we cannot overstate the importance of Saint jerome doing this, translating this work because it put the bible in the common man's hands because everybody grew up learning latin. He wrote lots of works. But again we read these guys and we don't blindly accept everything they say. He actually believed that after mary had christ, She did not have any more Children. We don't believe this. We just flies in the face of scripture, Mark 6 3 says when they were talking about christ is this not the carpenter? The son of mary, the brother of James and Joses and judas and Simon are not his sisters here with us and they took offensive at him obviously in the scriptures. We see that joseph and mary had other Children after christ jerome didn't believe this. Well we don't blindly believe everything that jerome said but he was a christian and he was a faithful man. So I think we don't throw the baby out of the bath water. He was incorrect, we read all of them with a biblical I and during while Saint jerome was translating the bible from Hebrew into latin and the greek new testament into that ST Augustine was around. And what's very interesting is that ST Augustine actually we have his letters. So he writes a letter to Saint roman says, hey, I really like what you're doing with this translation. It's really good. He says, I read the book of job and I love what you're doing by telling us various insights of the hebrew. Keep doing that please. So it's very interesting that we get interactions and this is an ancient, this is the fourth century, 300 years removed from the first century Saint Augustine. If you've never read his confessions, it tells his story of his conversion. It's it's just a really interesting book into his very soul. You not only it's not a book of philosophy, it's not a book of theology, he just lays bare his soul and tells what struggles he had. I recommend it highly. He also wrote many other works. The city of God. It's huge. It's about 3" thick. Um it looks a little daunting but it's very interesting what what it was was um he wrote this work to romans in order to convert them because a lot of romans still were not christians. And what's interesting is that he wrote it after 4 10 80 when the Visigoths had sacked Rome and he says something very interesting. He says, hey guys, you know the Lord was mercyful to you when Rome was sacked, he judged you but only a little bit and he gave you time to repent. So why don't you repent and embrace christ again? We don't accept everything that ST Augustine has to say as gospel truth. We read his works with a biblical. I he believed that it was okay to interpret scripture allegorically. We do not. What does that mean? You take christ's resurrection. The empty too in front of the tomb was what a big rock right? The rock was rolled away. He believed it was okay to come to the scripture and say what does the rock represent? Well it could represent our sin being rolled away. No it's just Iraq. It's it's a rock that's all it is. So if you come to scripture you can't just say this represents this X. Represents why why represent Z. You have to interpret scripture in its context again for the sake of time. We leave behind men like bead thomas Aquinas Francis of Assisi thomas campus john hus we have to fast forward um 900 years or so martin Luther. You remember the reformation was that time period where the catholic church became so corrupt that they would go from city to city and say would you like to buy this? It's an indulgence or what's an indulgent indulgence. Well if you have sinned that's okay, pay us some money and this is a get out of hell card free, get out of hell, free card, free card and you could present that at the time of your death and you would get straight out of jail and go straight to heaven martin Luther who was a catholic priest at the time studied and as a result of his studies in the book of Galatians and romans actually became a christian and knew that what the catholic church was teaching was incredibly false. And so he, you remember, he wrote the 95 thesis which were 95 reasons why indulgences were wrong. He wrote many, many other works. He out of this time period is when men returned to scripture because they had been focused on the church and focused on what the church said rather than focused on what God said. And out of this time period came the five solos, the five only uh you know saved by faith alone through christ alone, to the glory of God alone by grace alone and by scripture alone, this is what we believe today. So they try to reform the catholic church from the inside, sadly they did not and had to end up leaving, He eventually leaves the catholic church. He actually marries a former nun and they raised a family. But later on he translates the bible into german, which was a huge deal because again, that's giving the common man the scriptures in his hands where he can read them and be saved. He was condemned by the catholic church and his works were uh we're told to be burned, I still use Luther's commentaries to this day, john Calvin, he was around the same time as Luther, he's very similar to martin Luther. He was a priest turned reformer. Martin Luther was in Germany, john Calvin was in France. So his name is actually jean but he, his importance cannot be overstated either. He was scary smart. He wrote his institutes which was sort of a work that summarized the reformers beliefs when he was only 26 or so. But this book of theology flew in the face of catholic doctrine and so he as well was condemned by the catholic church. I have Calvin's commentaries. Whenever I'm studying the scriptures, I opened up his commentaries, they are invaluable. He was a very interesting and thorough scholar and even if you're studying the bible, just google Calvin's commentaries, you can find them online. They're very helpful john bunyan. Uh not paul bunyan, that's someone different. John Paul Bunyan is 63 x handles high with his feet on the ground in his head in the sky. Um no john bunyan john bunyan is, he's that great, he wasn't a reformer, he was different see at this time what's very interesting is that you had Protestants and then you had, what could be called nonconformists. The church of England had already broken away, broken away from the catholic church, john bunyan was a preacher in England but he was an unlicensed preacher. He was not part of the church of England. He didn't believe the things that the church of England believed. So he met in separate worship in homes, in separate worship places. He was eventually put in jail for 12 years for him in prison though he wrote Grace abounding, which is his testimony of becoming a christian and it's wildly entertaining. He's a very funny and neurotic kind of guy. He speaks about, he was a non christian and he knew he was a non christian, but he loved to hear the church bells and so he would walk up to the church and listen to the bells. But then he thought I'm a non christian, if that bell falls down it's going to kill me and I'll go straight to hell, I better back up. And so he backs up about 100 yards and he says, you know, theoretically that bell could still fall enroll and kill me, I better back up to my house. So he kept backing up and finally he said, I better be in my house and just listen to them because I'm going to die and go straight to hell. Well, he finally converts and he writes a work that you probably have read the pilgrims progress, it's second only to best selling uh, of the bible um it talks about christian and his way Journeying to the celestial city. It's very interesting, It's sort of an allegory um about the christian life. They meet people like faithful. Mr worldly wiseman, mister talkative. Mr ready to halt my suggestion if you do read it. If you've never read it and you buy it by an updated version of modern adapted version, otherwise you're going to be reading what sounds like Shakespeare because it's so whole. Next Wesley brothers, we love our Wesley brothers. They were traveling field preachers, you may recognize them, you may not, but look at the hymns that they wrote Charles. Wesley Chuck wrote 9000 hymns in his lifetime. 9000 somebody estimated that's probably 50 lines of poetry for 50 years each day. Love Divine All loves excelling o for 1000 tongues. Christ The Lord is risen today. Easter doesn't come unless we sing christ, The Lord is risen today. Hark the herald angels sing jesus lover of my soul and can it be to name a few well Elizabeth prentice, you may know her, you may not. She was a pastor's wife in new york city, prolific writer. She wrote the lovely him more love to the we still sing it today. She wrote this work of fiction, stepping heavenward but it's it's more than just a work of fiction. It is instructive for the christian life Elizabeth Elliot says of it. I do not hesitate to recommend it to men who need to understand the wives they live with or to any woman who wants to walk with God. It's a beautiful story of a woman and her spiritual journey, Charles Spurgeon Spurgeon, you know, I didn't grow up baptist but I found Spurgeon when I was in the army and I started reading his sermons and I thought I had found some sort of obscure preacher that no one knew about. Obviously he's the prince of preachers. You know one time d. L. Moody, the great preacher he would get on Spurgeon because Spurgeon smoked cigars um and moody thought it was a horrible vice. But he said, hey, you know, you really shouldn't smoke. Um And Spurgeon said, well I only smoke, I don't smoke to excess. And moody said, well what's excess? He says two at a time. He was incredibly witty and his sermons are just so entertaining. Um but more than that he teaches the Bible in such an amazing way. If you don't have the Treasury of of David, I recommend it highly. It's $40 on Amazon. It's three volumes of uh it goes over all of the psalms. It's incredibly helpful if you're studying the songs. And again, I'll have this up. There will be a link to the Spurgeon archive where you can read some of his sermons. C. S. Lewis C. S. Lewis's quoted very often by our pastor, you'll remember. Um And if your name were Clive staples, you would go by C. S. As well. He's very interesting. Not everything he says is perfect. His theology is not perfect, but whose is um but he has many works that are very uh lovely. The Chronicles of Narnia. I read those while I was still a non christian and then understood them fully. Later on. It's it's not perfect theology but it is a lovely little allegory of the gospel. If you've never heard of Screwtape letters I recommend it highly. It's a senior demon writing to his nephew who needs help tempting the person he's in charge of. It's very instructive. Uh Feinberg. Everything he writes is golden. We've got to go on our seas parole again. One of my favorite theologians. You can find lots of his sermons online. Last Albert Mohler. If you don't know who Albert Mohler is, you should, he is president of Southern Seminary. Uh He's so smart people think he's a cyborg. Um but he he was a well we don't have time to go and I'll post this like I said and you can read but he's got a keen mind. He has such a wonderful pastor's heart. Um It's unfathomable how much he understands and you can listen to his podcast daily where he takes current events and gives you a biblical world biblical perspective on it. I encourage you to check out the podcast. Either start your day with it or end your day. Well this is really the tip of the iceberg. Like I said I had 50 names and we barely got through 14. These are in the cloud as well. Testament to God's faithfulness, Testament of him still saving. I encourage you um to pick up pick up one of their books to read and remember I didn't we didn't go over all these people to make us feel like schlubs that oh they have accomplished so much because guess what? We read ST Augusta and he's very accomplished. But guess what? We don't read Monica whose Monica that was his mother. His mother was in the chain of faithfulness as well. We don't read her but she has imparted her faithfulness to us in praying dearly for her son that he would be saved in being an influence on him. Well as we're running as we're enduring, we hear the crowd but we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. Think about that joy set before them, the completed work of christ in our own lives. This is the kindness of the Lord. This is the goodness of the Lord