Kootenai Church: Hebrews

Hebrews 12:1–3:
1 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,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of 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.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (NASB)
Every part of running a race is easy except one: running. That's the most difficult part of it. Everything else about it is very easy. It is easy to plan the race. It is easy to intend on running the race. It is very simple to schedule the race and even schedule events in your life around the race. It is very easy to announce the race to other people and to put out a PR campaign and invite other people to come and watch you run the race. That's very simple. It's easy to show up for the race. It's easy to dress for the race. The stretching for the race is easy. Taking your place at the starting blocks is easy. And even starting the race is easy. All of that is easy. But once the signal goes off and the runners begin to run, everything that is easy is behind you. Everything simple is in the past and everything difficult lies ahead because from the point that the gun goes off and the runners begin to run, that is when all of the difficulties come into the race. And that is why, if we are to run the race, we must run the race with endurance. Because everything about running a race is simple except actually running the race. It's the most difficult part of it.
To finish the race and to finish well, to run the race and to run well and to receive the prize at the end of the race requires that you and I be willing and able, equipped, and understand what it means to run our race with endurance, because we are not commanded to simply start the race. We're not commanded to prepare for the race. We're not just commanded to train for the race. We are commanded to run the race. We are expected to finish the race. And we must do all of that so that having run well and having finished well, you and I might be rewarded well. We want not just to run the race, but we want to finish the race, and then having finished the race, to be able to take our place in the stands in the stadium with all of the saints who have gone before to testify to the grace and effectiveness of faith and grace of God in our lives. That's the goal of running the race.
So this racing analogy that the author gives us in Hebrews 12:1–3, you will notice that he is not concerned just that we start the race. That's easy. A lot of people start the race that never finish it. A lot of people run a race and they're not even running the right race. A lot of people run the race and at least look like they're running, but they're very encumbered, they're very slowed down, they're very entangled. And then headlines every month are filled with people who have started the race and run for a period of time, and then they make an absolute train wreck of the faith before they get across the finish line.
I hope it is your desire not just to run well but to finish well and then to be rewarded well for having run and finished well. What is required of that? Four things in our passage, Hebrews 12:1–3. We looked at the first one last week, that we must consider the others who have finished the race before us. That is in verse 1: “Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” This is a group of people who testify, bear witness to us as to the power of faith, the effectiveness of it, the need for it, what it means to run, what it means to finish well. There are others who have gone before, there are others who have gone before from the Old Testament, from the New Testament era, since the New Testament era, men and women even in our own time, who have finished the race well and passed on. And now they take their place in the stands and they witness to us as to the need for faith. And they are sharing something. Their example is encouraging and shouting and cheering us on as we run our race here, and our job is to look to them and to consider the example that they have laid out and then to say, OK, given that example, having considered them, I can run my race as well. That's the first thing. We looked at that last week. We are surrounded by the legacies and the examples of men and women who have kept the faith and finished the course, got all the way to the end, crossed the finish line, finished well, and they will be rewarded well.
There's a second thing—actually, there are three more in Hebrews 12:1–3. We must cast off the entanglements that threaten to hinder us. We must continue in the course that is set for us. Those are in verse 1. And then in verses 2 and 3, we have to concentrate on the One who will reward us. So we're looking at this second one today: we have to cast off the entanglements that threaten to hinder us. Consider those who have gone before; we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Having done that, “let us also lay aside,” the author says in verse 1, “every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Want you to notice just a couple of things. We're just going to be camping on this idea of casting off the things that hinder us in our race or encumber us in our race today. But I want you to notice a couple of things before we jump into the details of the text. Notice first of all that we are to lay aside two separate things. We are to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. There are two things. One of these is a moral thing, the sin. It's not difficult to see how that is a moral issue—the sin which so easily entangles us. And one of them is not necessarily a moral or immoral issue at all—the encumbrances. There are things that slow us down that are not necessarily sinful things, and then there are sinful things, and you and I are called to lay off, to put aside, to cast aside both of those kinds of things. So there are encumbrances and there are entanglements.
Notice also the order of these things. We are to cast these things off before we run the race. This only makes sense. Who would want to begin the race burdened down by all of these things? And there is a sense in which, having started the race, we soon find out what things encumber us from running well. And so this idea of laying aside something is not just what we do before we begin our race. I pick a few things I'm going to set aside, deny myself these things, and then I'm going to run the race for the rest of my life. Oh no. Once you begin to race, then as you're running, you will begin to find all kinds of things that are encumbrances to you, all kinds of sins that lie at the door around your feet which will trip you up. And so our life is to be spent laying aside these things. There's an order to it. We lay these things aside before we run and as we are running and as we continue to run all the way until the end of our life.
And third, I want you to notice how the author includes himself with the audience: “Let us.” “Let us lay aside. . .” The man writing the book of Hebrews, he's not like a spiritual coach sitting along the sidelines, considering himself as one who has finished the race, and now he's shouting out instructions to the other runners on the course. This is the danger that spiritual leaders often fall into, thinking that they have somehow arrived, that they're no longer running the race, and so that their job is to prepare the race for others, their job is to organize the race for other people, their job is to stand along the sidelines and to shout the instructions to the runners who are actually on the course. That's the danger that spiritual leaders fall into. And you and I have to remember that no matter what we have achieved in this life, no matter what office you have attained to, no matter how far you have run to this point, and no matter what leadership position you are in, you are always running the race and you never finish it.
This is why Paul, at the end of his life, in Philippians chapter 3 said, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14). That was his first imprisonment. He's probably four, five, six years away from passing on and dying. And there in his imprisonment, writing from prison, he says, “I continue to press on.” That's an athletic metaphor, an athletic word that describes the agony and the effort and the running of that race toward the goal, which is Christ Jesus. That he says at the end of his life, but then it is as he gets to the very end of his life and he is sitting in a prison cell, now not in a rented quarters like we find him at the end of the book of Acts, but instead now in an actual prison cell at the end of his life, awaiting his execution, having stood before Nero and proclaimed the gospel to the highest authority that he was ever tried in front of, the apostle Paul could say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). See, then it's in the past. Then the apostle Paul knows, “I'm about ready to lay down my life, and I'm going to die for this. Now, I can say that I have finished my course.” But at no point prior to that, in spite of all of the miraculous and incredible and supernatural wonderful things that God did through the apostle Paul, at no point did he ever consider himself to have finished his race until it was at the very end. Then he could say, “I have finished my course.”
How do you know when you have finished your course? When you're sitting in that room and you can hear the executioner in the room down the hall putting that finishing touch on the edge of that blade, then you know you have finished your course. But until then, you still run, and I still run, and we run together. Let us lay aside every weight. See, those who would be our spiritual mentors, those who would be our spiritual leaders, they're not our coaches; they're fellow runners. And the encouragement that we shout to one another, we shout from the course as we run the course.
The author says we are to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us” (v. 1). That word lay aside refers to something that a runner would do that every reader of this letter, every hearer of this message would have understood. He would have gotten the imagery here. It is to take something off and set it aside so that it does not encumber you. It's the idea of putting it off, putting it away, stowing it away. When it refers to laying off an action or an activity, it means to stop it, to cease it, and to give it up. You take it off, you stop doing this thing, you cease it, and you set it aside, and you don't return back to it. That's the idea. It is used in Scripture both literally and figuratively. The word is used literally in describing those who were the witnesses surrounding Stephen, who stoned him in Acts 7, taking off their garments and laying them at the feet of a young man named Saul. They laid aside their robes at the feet of Saul. They took them off, they set them aside, and then they did what? Then they picked up stones. Because the last thing you want if you're going to stone a righteous man is to be somehow encumbered by that bulky outer garment, a robe on the outside. You need to make sure that you can wind up and swing well and throw the rock well, so you lay aside the garments. Those are something that would hinder them from stoning a righteous man, so they laid aside their garments and then they stoned Stephen.
It's also used figuratively in Scripture of putting aside or laying aside sinful activities and proclivities. James 1:21: “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” And there it's in reference to a moral act, and we'll get to this more in a moment because we are called to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us. This is a deliberate act. It's intentional; it's thoughtful. You have to be aware of what it is that either encumbers you from running your race or entangles you to slow you down or to stop you, that threatens your soul. You have to be aware of what that thing is, and then you have to go to war against it and deliberately cast that thing aside so that it does not entangle you or encumber you. So this is a deliberate act. You have something in your mind that you are going to shed, that you are going to go to war with, and you set that aside lest it encumber you or entangle you.
And the two things that we are to put off—notice it: every encumbrance (that's the first) and the sin which so easily entangles us. The word encumbrance is an interesting word. It is only used once in the New Testament. It's used here. It's used nowhere else in the New Testament. It describes something that was a bulk, a weight, a bulge, a mass, or a burden, or a swelling, or, as one dictionary said, a prominent protuberance. Protuberance is not a word that you and I drop in casual conversation with one another typically day-to-day, but it is the word that you can drop into the middle of a sermon if you want people to think you're smart. A mass, a burden, a swelling, a prominent protuberance. That's the word encumbrance. It referred to a weight. It describes a runner who is shedding unnecessary weights and burdens that keep him from running and finishing the race. You take off anything that might make running the race or finishing the race difficult or impossible. And the imagery comes right out of the first century with the idea of the community games, for instance, that they would have in the city of Corinth, where runners in running would compete with one another, and before they entered into the race, they would shed everything, and I mean everything that might hinder them from running the race. According to some sources, ancients ran the race naked. I think our athletes are getting very close to going back in time to doing something like that themselves sometimes. So they would take off every weight, every burden, every mass. You didn't run a race with shekels in your pocket. You didn't run a race with your coat on. You didn't run a race in a shirt and tie. You didn't run a race in a shirt. You shed everything. You shed everything that would slow you down—a backpack, your wallet, your cell phone. Using modern ideas here, but you take off everything that might prove to be an encumbrance or a weight, an unnecessary drag.
Have you ever seen Olympic swimmers with hairy chests and hairy backs and hairy legs? Do you know why that is? They shave the hair off them. Why? Because that means that they can shave a hundredth of a second or two-hundredths of a second off their time. Apparently, I didn't know this because I've never noticed my hair slowing me down when I swim, but apparently hair creates a certain drag on a swimmer that keeps them from being competitive at the highest level. So they shave their entire body lest they have anything that drags them or slows them down. That's the idea. You cast off any encumbrance.
Now this word encumbrance is not a moral term. It's not describing necessarily a sin. It may describe things which are sinful. It may also describe things that are not sinful. There are things in our lives which are not necessarily sinful that prove to be encumbrances or weights upon our spiritual progress. They're not sinful things. They're not moral things. They're not necessarily the things that we read in the Scripture reading in Ephesians 4—sinful activities. These things can be burdens or weights that we don't need to carry. They could be activities or commitments or traditions, anything that slows you down in your spiritual progress. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small, some are large. They're picked up on a number of different occasions in a number of different ways. Some of these prominent protuberances grow here and there slowly, some of them almost imperceptibly. Some of them suddenly appear. Some of these weights are placed on you by other people. Some of them you pick up thinking that it will be temporary, but then you find that this weight, this protuberance, is something that you're carrying around for a long and extended period of time. And we are to shed and cast off and set aside every single encumbrance. There are all kinds of encumbrances in all kinds of different categories.
And at this point, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Jim, give me an example of an encumbrance. Tell me the thing in my life that I'm doing that's slowing me down spiritually. Does the author name the encumbrances or does he just say cast off the encumbrances? He just says cast off the encumbrances. I think if he were to name the encumbrances, there would be far too many for him to name. He would start naming them and say, “What more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of. . .” And he would go on and list a whole bunch of things that can slow us down.
I think that the author may have in mind certain things in regards to his own immediate audience in the first century. The people to whom the author is writing were people who were still involved in some way in some of the festivities and the formal exercises, outward expressions of Judaism. They had come out of the temple worship, the synagogue, the Judaistic practices with all of the feasts and the festivals. They had come out of that and embraced the Messiah. And then there are things in that system that they had come out of that I think that the author has in mind when he is saying, “You are to lay aside every, not necessarily sinful, but every encumbrance which might slow you down.” I think that the author has in mind some of those things that were wooing the hearts of his hearers back toward that old system. If it is true that for those people celebrating the Passover with their family in the synagogue or at the temple, though that may not have been a sinful thing in and of itself, if it was something that prohibited them from running well and testifying well to Christ, if it was something that wooed them back to their old way of life and to their old religious system, that was something they would have to set aside. All the cultural pressure that would come from their family and their friends and the people that—and their neighbors who lived with them, who were shunning them, because now they have embraced Christ and they have rejected, at least in terms of, they would say, all of the Old Testament, old covenant forms and features, and there would be pressure upon them to come back, to return, societal pressure, economic pressure, cultural pressure, all of that would be bearing upon them. And so now the author is just simply saying to them, “You have to lay aside everything, even if it's not sinful, which might slow you down in your race.”
So what are these things? There are no specifics that are given, and I'm going to give you some categories, but I'm not going to give you any specifics, and here's why. I think—before I mention that, if the author had given us some specific items, you know what our temptation would be? It would be to read those two or three examples and say, “Check, check, check, I'm doing good.” That's our natural inclination of our fallen heart. “I'm not violating that, I'm not violating that, and I'm not violating that very often, and so I think I'm doing really well.” That would be our inclination. But he doesn't do that. He just talks about encumbrances. There are some things that vary individual to individual. There are things that are encumbrances in your life that would not be encumbrances in my life, and there are certain things that are encumbrances in my life that wouldn't necessarily slow you down in your spiritual life at all. And so therefore, it's very difficult for me to say, “You must shed this. You must get rid of this. And here they are. Here are the things I can see in your life that are slowing you down, and this is what you need to get rid of.” It would be wrong for me to do that because there are certain things that—non-sinful—do not slow me down at all, but they might slow somebody else down.
Another consideration is that some of these things change over time. Right now, the occasional football game with my family on a Sunday afternoon does not encumber me whatsoever. But there may come a time, there may come a time when football is an idol, or some other entertainment or some other leisure activity becomes an idol, that it ends up slowing me down. And when, in the course of time, in the course of my race, this thing that never was a hindrance, or at least I never felt the hindrance before, suddenly I begin to feel the hindrance, that this thing is slowing me down, then I have a responsibility to address that thing.
So each of us is going to have to prayerfully evaluate themselves and your own life and your activities and ask yourself, “Am I entertaining, am I playing light with things that are encumbrances upon my spiritual walk?” What types of things might those be? It could be entertainments, things we enjoy. Entertainment in itself is not necessarily sinful, but it certainly can be. Social media—there is a place for leisure activities and distractions, and then there's a point where these things end up hindering our sanctification and our progress in our spiritual life. I got off Facebook for that very reason. This is not sanctifying me at all. I mean, if you see me, I'm still on there, but it's a different kind of page, and I hardly ever visit the thing. I got off it not because I'm seeing pictures that distract me or anything like that. I just—I got too mad to be on Facebook. I had to get off Facebook. I can't argue with idiots all day long, and so it was better for me to just get off. This was hindering me, so I stopped it. I got on Twitter, which is not any better. Twitter is more of a newsfeed for me, though. So it could be social media, it could be hobbies and interests and leisure activities. Again, none of these things are sinful in themselves, but they can be. Our community involvements and commitments, our social affiliations, our friendships, our acquaintances, our cultural activities, things that kill your spare time. It can even be natural affections and natural appetites. Celebrations. Some of these things can hinder us. Distractions and time drains, preoccupations, things that burn our energy, occupy our minds, and make us busy without ever allowing us to accomplish actually anything. All of these can become excuses for us to neglect our own spiritual life, to neglect our hearts, to neglect our minds, and to neglect the spiritual disciplines that make for holiness.
Now, having said all of that, I don't want you to confuse duties for encumbrances. We have certain duties. For instance, I have to mow the lawn and I have to keep the house clean and I have to maintain the roof and I have to fix this and I have to fix that and I have to go to work and I have to have a job. I have to serve others, I have to care for the sick, I have to do things for my mother, I have to do things for my relatives, I have to attend to the needs of my wife and spend time with my kids and train them and provide for my family and go to work. Those are duties. God does not command us to duties that are hindrances to us. He doesn't command things that hinder us. So since these things are commanded, those are not the things that are hindrances. So I don't want you to walk away from here saying, “Hey, Jim said to cast off every hindrance and everything that slows me down, and there's nothing that slows me down like that woman that God gave me and the kids that populate my house, so I'm going to cast them off so I can spend my time focused upon the Word of God and prayer. And that job—you know how holy I would be if I didn't have to spend eight hours a day working with that insufferable employer? I could be really holy if I didn't have to do that.” No, these are not encumbrances on your race. That is our race. Us attending to our spouse and training our children and attending to our grandchildren and providing for our family, the time that we spend doing those things, that’s the race that we are to run. That's why those things are commanded. So the question is not, Do those things hinder me from doing what I ought to be doing? Those are the things I ought to be doing, so now the question is, What am I doing that's hindering me from doing those things well? Because I must do those things well and finish doing those things well if I am to finish well. So those are not encumbrances. God does not command us to things which will hinder our race.
And one last thing about encumbrances. You only feel encumbrances when you're not running. Understand this. You only feel—sorry, you only feel encumbrances when you are running. You don't feel encumbrances when you're not running. So if you go home this afternoon and you sit down and put your feet up in your favorite armchair and you put a bucket of popcorn between your legs and you have a blanket over top of you to stay warm, you have the remote control in one hand and a cup of tea in the other hand, pair of slippers, a couple of layers of clothes, a little beanie on top, and a book on your lap to read during the commercials, you got all that stuff—you're not going to feel encumbered at all, are you? No, you're going to feel comfortable. Those things make you comfortable until you have to get up and run. But the minute you have to get up and run a race, what are you going to do? You're going to kick the little animal out from between your legs and take the blanket off and remove the beanie and a layer of clothes, take your slippers off and put on shoes, get rid of the bucket of popcorn, drop the remote, because you have a race to run. But as long as you're not running, the encumbrances that encumber you, you don't feel them. So if your goal in this life is to be comfortable, then you will find, listen carefully, you will find that everything that encumbers you are the things that God commands you to do. If your goal is comfort, then your encumbrances will be the commands that God gives you. But if your goal is to run well, then your encumbrances will be all the things that make you comfortable when you're not running and you won't notice those encumbrances.
So we are to cast aside or lay aside every encumbrance, everything that slows us down in our spiritual race. Second, every sin that so easily entangles us. And here is the moral element that comes in. Now he could have just said “lay aside sin,” but I love the description that he gives, “the sin which so easily entangles us.” It easily entangles us. This word easily entangles is another word that is only used here in the New Testament. It's not used anywhere else. It's a compound word, a word that means easy or easily, and a word that means to stand around or encircle someone. So sin is that which easily encircles us, easily stands around us. It's everywhere that you turn. This word means to be in control of or to control easily. It means to control tightly. It clings to us. That's why the ESV translates this phrase, the “sin which clings so closely” to us. Sin is not something that is only out there, a long ways away, that we have to go in search of. Sin is something that stands ever present all around us. It's like the creepy clown in your worst nightmare. You look at the window, his face is there. The refrigerator, he's right there. You look out in the woods, the creepy clown is standing right at the edge of the trees. Everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, everywhere you might go, he's there to meet you. It's Tonya Harding's bodyguard, waiting forever in the shadows.—that's a dated cultural reference that half the audience is not going to get—waiting ever in the shadows for you to jump on the course and get ready to run your race, and sin is going to take you out at the kneecaps with a baseball bat. That's how sin is. It's always everywhere, no matter where you go, which direction you turn, it clings easily to us. You know why? Because we're sin magnets, and there's something inside of us that magnetically attracts sin and finds sin alluring. So sin doesn't—we don't have to go searching for sin. We just have to be running the race, and sin is going to come after us, and we're going to find that that sin entangles us, grips us, encircles us, and stands around us quite easily. It doesn't require any effort on sin's behalf.
Which sin is it that does this? “The sin” (v. 1). Does the author have in mind one particular sin? I don't think that he does. I don't think it is just the sin of apostasy. I don't think it is the sin of lust, particularly. I don't think it's just the sin of pride or just the sin of unbelief. Those are all sins, but when he talks about the sin, I think he is describing here generally sin as a threat at our every turn, easily encircling us all the time. It's our sinfulness. Ephesians 4:22 says,
22 In reference to your former manner of life [now listen to the references here to putting aside, casting aside, laying aside sin], you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Eph. 4:22–24 NASB)
There is the laying aside that the author describes here in Hebrews 12 and in other passages of Scripture like in 1 Peter 2 and James 1, Colossians 3, Ephesians 4. These are passages that describe laying aside something and picking up something else. This is what the Puritans referred to as the power of a new affection. Not only to lay aside this sin, but we are to pick up other things that might replace that sin and find these things to give us—have an affection for these things and do these things instead of the sin. So we put off one thing and we pick up or take upon ourselves something else.
Colossians 3:
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. (Col. 3:5–8 NASB)
James 1:21 says, “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted.” You see the exchange? You put off this and you receive the Word. There's an exchange that is going on.
1 Peter 2:1: “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy. . .” We lay these things off. This is what the Puritans used to refer to as the mortification of sin. We kill it. We kill sin, we go to war with it, we battle it, we wage a war, laying aside our sinful thoughts, our deeds, our inclinations, our motives, our desires, our affections. We throw them off, make no provision for them, deny ourselves these things, and put them to death, going to war against sin and constantly killing it because sin will kill us. Romans 8:13 says, “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body. . .” What does it mean to be led by the spirit in Romans 8? Does it mean that we hear still, small voices and receive private revelations? No. To be led by the spirit is to put to death the deeds of the flesh. We see this activity and we say, “I'm going to war with this, I hate this, and I'm going to kill it, because if I don't kill it, it will kill me.” You go to war with it, and you turn all of your attention and all your fury and all your anger and all your hatred and resentment toward that sin, understanding that it threatens your very life.
First Peter 2:11 says, “Abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
Second Corinthians 7:1: “Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
Titus 2:12 says we are “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”
We deny these things, we reject these things, we put these things off, we turn them away. We consider ourselves dead to them, we don't listen to them, we don't obey those things. Instead, Romans 6 says, we are to take the instruments or the members of our body and yield them as instruments to do righteousness. And we are to refrain from, to stop, and to cease yielding the members of our body as instruments to sin because the one whom we obey is the one to whom we are enslaved. So if I give obedience to this thing, I become enslaved to it. So then we have two choices. I can either become enslaved to unrighteousness, or I can become enslaved to righteousness. You want to be a slave to righteousness, obey righteousness every time you have the chance, and consider yourself dead to unrighteousness. And when we reckon that to be true in our minds and we set our affections on those things which are righteous instead of those things which are unrighteous and we refuse to yield our members as instruments to do unrighteousness and instead we yield our members to do righteousness, then we become slaves of righteousness because Paul says in Romans 6 you are the slave of the one you obey. Every time and all the time, you are the slave of the one you obey. You want to be a slave to life and righteousness, then obey life and righteousness. You want to be a slave to sin, then just yield to it. You like bondage? Keep yielding to the sin. You'll get bondage. You want to be enslaved to your passions? Keep yielding to them. You want a victory over your passions? You deny yourself, you say no, and you yield your members as instruments of righteousness.
This obviously requires diligent intention on our part, doesn't it? Very easy for me to say all these things, but it's very difficult when we walk out the doors together to go do this in the coming weeks. It requires a vigilance and a soul watchfulness. It requires discipline to throw away the sin which so easily entangles us. It stands around us. This is what Jesus was describing when He said if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you sin, cut it off. You take drastic measures. If social media is a sin for you, every time you get on there you find yourself sinning, you get rid of social media. It's that simple. If the Internet causes you to sin, you get rid of your Internet. Whatever it is that causes you to walk in iniquity, you get rid of that thing, you go to war against it, and you make no provision for the flesh, and you do not indulge its desires or its lusts because it will kill you.
And notice the reference to it doing this easily. It's the sin which so easily entangles us. Sin doesn't have to put out any effort to trip us up. None at all. Sin's most natural effect is to entangle us, to trip us up. It's ever present and it's always there and it finds gripping us to be very easy. Now, our race is not easy. Putting off sin is not easy. Saying no is not easy. Denying ourselves is not easy. Metaphorically cutting off your hand or gouging out your eye, those are not easy things. But sin just easily entangles us. It's effortless. Sin doesn't have to work at that. And you know why it doesn't have to work in it? Because sin dwells in me and sin dwells in you. That is the reality in your life and in my life until we go to be with the Lord. We carry around with us that old man, that dying and rotting carcass, this flesh, this physical body with all of its sinful proclivities and desires and affections. We have to take this everywhere that we go. We drag it around with us. It stinks. But sin dwells constantly with us. And if we are not always about the business of throwing off those things which are part of that sinfulness and those sinful desires, if we are not always about the business of doing that, sin will just continue to cling to us. So therefore there must be a continual repentance and seeking of forgiveness with the Lord, walking in holiness, denying myself, putting off those things which encumber me and entangle me and pursuing holiness and righteousness without which no one will see the Lord.
We are running our race in an arena that is fraught with dangers. The devil desires our deception and he has laid traps all the way around the course. Then we are dragging with us this old sinful man that stinks. We smell the stench of it everywhere that we go. And then the world constantly sings its siren song of temptations to draw us away and lure us into the traps. And that old man, we're dragging him with us, but he is constantly pulling us toward the traps. He is constantly hearing the siren songs that the world sings and dragging us in that direction. And therefore, because that is true, laziness will rob you of a multitude of eternal blessings and rewards. It will cast you into inactivity, apathy, sloth, and indolence. Your lust will poison your soul and enslave you to its basest passions. It will rob you of your joy and delights. It will cripple you under guilt and shame. And it will do this easily.
By the way, the response to this is not despair; it's diligence. We just have to know what we're up against. It's very gracious of the Lord to lay all of this out for us so we can see exactly what the road ahead looks like. We know that there are traps, we know that there are dangers, we know that we have enemies aplenty, and we know the course is difficult. And yet, if it were not possible to run it well, nobody else would have ever done it. We would have no examples in Hebrews 11. And if it were not possible to run it well, we would not be encouraged to run it well. So the answer to this somewhat discouraging picture—that the devil's planting the traps and we're running a course fraught with danger and the world's singing its song and we're dragging the old man and its flesh along with us—the answer to that is not to despair or to lose hope. Rather, it is to say, “OK, now I have a picture of what lies ahead of me, and now I must run with endurance the race that is set before me,” and to do so for the glory of God, to do so by the power of the Spirit, to do so fed by His Word, to do so strengthened by the fellowship that we receive from other people, to do so in the plain view of God and all of His saints, and to do so together.
Friends, you and I are living in difficult times, and I think we're living in some of the most dangerous times that Christians in this country have ever faced. And if you're going to run them, and you're going to run them well, you better be ready to run light, unencumbered and unentangled. How are you going to do that? You got to cast off every entanglement and every encumbrance, what slows you down, what trips you up. Go to war with those things so that you may run well, finish well, and be rewarded well.