What It Takes To Finish The Race
Hebrews 12:18-29
Hebrews 12:1
let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
1. Refuse to go back
Hebrews 12:18
(For) You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;
Exodus 19:12, 16-20
Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death...On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.
Hebrews 12:19
to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."
Deuteronomy 5:22-29
These are the commandments the LORD proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me. And you said, "The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey." The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, "I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
Hebrews 12:21
The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."
2. Keep your eyes on the prize
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
1st We have come to the city of God
Hebrews 12:22
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
Philippians 3:20
But our citizenship is in heaven...
Ephesians 2:6
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
Revelation 21:1-2
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
2nd We have come to angels
Hebrews 12:22
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
Hebrews 1:14
“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
Revelation 5:11-13
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
3rd We have come to fellow believers
Hebrews 12:23
But you have come...to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
4th We have come to God
Hebrews 12:23
You have come to God, the judge of all men
5th We have come to the Old Testament believers
Hebrews 12:23
You have come...to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
6th We have come to Jesus
Hebrews 12:24
But you have come to...Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.
7th We have come to realized forgiveness
Hebrews 12:24
But you have come to...the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
3. Don’t disqualify yourself
Hebrews 12:25
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.
1st Refuse to repent
Acts 17:30
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
John 3:7
[Jesus said] You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
John 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command.
2nd Worldliness
1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
James 4:4
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
3rd Accommodating sin
1 John 3:9
Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
Hebrews 12:25
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
Hebrews 12:26-27
At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Revelation 6:12-14
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Revelation 20:11-12,15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life...If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
Hebrews 12:29
for our "God is a consuming fire."
> There is a choice before you. Remain steadfastly true to God, and in the day when the universe is shaken into destruction your relationship with him will stand safe and secure. Be false to him, and the God who might have been your salvation will be to you a consuming fire of destruction.
> It is a grim thought; but in it there is the eternal truth that, if we are true to God, we gain everything; and, if we are untrue to God, we lose everything. In this present time and in eternity, nothing really matters except loyalty to God. -- Wm Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, The Letter to the Hebrews, 1976
Mark 8:36-38
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
