Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. Here is Gideon Levitan.

Gideon Levytam: Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews and the chapter we're going to deal with chapter 12. And so let's look into Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to read today actually only the first 13 verses of Hebrews chapter 12. So Hebrews 12 is the passage and the first 13 verses we are going to read together and they make some remarks and see what the Lord teaching us here from this very interesting chapter. So Hebrews 12 1 the writer is writing wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Yeshua the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and he set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourges every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye illegitimate children or bastards as it says here and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they very for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight path for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed. And I stop. 13 verses in Hebrews chapter 12 now takes us to another area in which the writer was appealing to the first century Hebrew believers. We just finished the 11th chapter of Hebrew. The 11th chapters of chapter of the book of Hebrew was a wonderful chapter that we have gone through and we have dealt with the many men, many people, many men and women of faith who trusted God, followed after God in a even in crucial and critical times in their life in spite of difficulties that they have been facing in their lives.

And the writer wrote about the need of faith and he said to them what faith is all about. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things which were not seen. And we have looked over beautiful chapter 11 chapter we looked over the people of faith. The Hebrew individuals that he wrote this book to needed to look and to be remembered of what God have done through these men and women in the past and how they trusted God and they followed God and they had faith in God in spite of difficult times.

Now he continue and you notice that chapter 12 is very much linked with chapter 11 not only because it comes in that order but also because he's basing what he's saying right now in this chapter about what he have already said in the 11th chapter. And so actually in chapter 12 the theme of chapter 12 number one is let us stay running. Let us continue running. This is number one. Secondly, let us remember that we belong to a heavenly city, to another city, the city of Jerusalem, the heavenly city which the Lord is preparing for his people.

And so really chapter 12 deal with two things. The believers, those Hebrews and you and I running a race. And there is a race in which we are running and the important is to continue running the race and to finish it in a way that is pleasing to God. That's the first 13 verses. Then from verse 14 to the end we learn not only that we are to run the race we are also to learn that we belong to another city. We are citizens of heaven. We are citizens of this city called the New Jerusalem in chapter 12.

Now we are not going to talk about citizenship now. We are going to talk about running a race. Now every one of us probably in the past when we were younger we were in school and we were many times going with our schoolmates to competitions whether it is running, whether it is throwing things far, whether it is jumping. We were in races when we were young in school. We remember that we were in various part of a athletic group and we were participating in athletics in races. The life of the believer is also we learn here is a real race.

The life of the believer is not only that the person have accepted the Messiah became a child of God, receive forgiveness of sins but also we are really in a race. We are really being challenged. They were being challenged by the writer, the Hebrew believers of first century to be challenged that they should continue on and move forward in spite of opposition and difficult time that they were facing. And you know brothers and sisters I spoke many times about that these Hebrew Christians, these Hebrew believers did suffer persecution. They suffered from their people. They've been rejected and despised.

They've lost perhaps parts of their lands. They've lost a place in the temple and they were wondering what should we do? Should we go and continue to offer sacrifices or not? What should we do? Should we follow the Messiah because our people as a nation Israel have not yet accepted the Messiah. What should we do? And they were inclined to kind of neglect following the Lord. And so he gave them a chapter, chapter 11 about the people of faith that follow God and he's now appealing to them directly. After showing them the history now he's speaking to them personally just like he will speak to you and I today.

And so the lesson that he's teaching them he's dwelling upon a race, a race about running. Running it's like him running and running and running and continue running in spite of obstacle that existing for us. There are obstacles that coming but he wanted them to continue to run and to follow the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. So what does he do here? In verses one to 13 is the race that the Hebrews are found themselves in but he give them two things verses one to four. He says, you know what? First of all, look unto the Lord Jesus the Messiah himself.

Look at him and notice what he does here in this chapter. He began in verse one A in the first verse. He's saying to them now look at this and I'm reading verse one A. He's saying them look at the ones that have been witnesses to the truth of God and they continue to follow the Lord. He said in verse one wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great clouds of witnesses. He's actually taking them back to chapter 11. He said wherefore the wherefore in verse one of chapter 12 connect us with the chapter before.

Therefore, in view of what I have just written to you about those many godly men and women in past history of Israel wherefore seeing that we also are compassed about with such great cloud of witnesses. He says look at those witnesses. You are surrounded by witnesses which I have just given to you from the past history of the nation of Israel. He began as we have discussed it from the beginning from Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and he continued on talking about Sarah and then Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and so on.

He went even on to say speak about Joshua and Rahab and Gideon, Barak, Shimshon, Yiftach, David, Samuel and all the prophets. He says look at the cloud of witnesses that we have. We just talked about it. He said seeing that we are compassed about with so great cloud of people who witness to the truth that have followed God. You and I maybe not relate to it as much as those Hebrews in first century but you and I can relate to other godly men and women that were part of our lives. Maybe you had a men and a woman, a brother or sister in your lives, in my life that have left an impact upon us.

I remember Mr. Astravsky a Jewish believer in the past that been an impact on my life. And I can remember others people that have been an example. Do you think they didn't have problems? Do you think they haven't been facing persecution and rejection and all these things? They have been facing with those problems but they went ahead and they moved on. And they continue to follow the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Here he says look back at the ones that gave us witness. Now when it says here wherefore seeing that we are compassed about so great cloud of witnesses, you know some people think that those believers in the past is like they are in heaven and looking down upon us and kind of checking us and seeing how we are walking with the Lord.

That is not the thought here. That is not like we have people that watching us and it's just that we need to look back at them and see their walk with the Lord like we described it in chapter 11. Look at what Moses have done. Look at what Jacob have done. Look at what Isaac have done by the grace of God with the help of the Lord. That's what you and I need to do. We need to look back and look at other men and women that have been an influence upon our life that have walked with the Lord.

They stumbled, they made mistake, they failed but they also continue on. They got up, they confessed their sins and they moved on to continue to follow the Lord. And so he's first of all directing them to the pastor, to chapter 11, the whole chapter. He says these are the cloud of witnesses. And how they have been a witness and they are witnesses to us. You know when we facing rejection here, we facing people who do not understand why we believe in the Lord Jesus the Messiah and some of us or our own family who do not understand how we follow Yeshua the Messiah and why we believe on him.

The apostle, the writer to the Hebrews tell them look at these men and women of God who have followed the Lord, who follow God and follow the scriptures. Now he's moving on. Not only that he says looking at them in verse one A then he's telling them now look inside yourself. Look at your state and your condition. Look at your own condition. And you know brothers and sisters listen when we want to follow the Lord when we desire to follow the Lord we discover that there are many things that hinder us from following the Lord.

He's telling them in verse one B let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now look what he says. Not only to look back at the cloud of witnesses that he have just written about in chapter 11 but then he tell them look within yourself. Do you have and notice he said do you have weights and sin which cause us to stumble and slow down our spiritual progress. You know when a runner run in a race before he get to the race when he or she practice they put an additional weights on their bodies so their body will be heavier.

So when they run they carry additional weight upon them but when the actual race coming they take all these weights from them whether it is on their hands or on their feet and then it's easier to run the race. You are able or they were able to run faster, more accurate, more precise, more fast because they took the weight away from them. Well, look at this what he's saying to them. Lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. What kind of weights you and I may have that hinder us from continuing the race.

What kind of weight those Hebrew believers of first century had that hindered them from continuing the race to follow after the Lord Jesus and to be victorious. Now we not running the race to get saved. They were already saved. They were already children of God but the race is not an order to get saved but because a person is a child of God now the race continue and the race start and continue on until the day that we are going to meet the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And so he tell him let us lay aside every weight.

What kind of weights you and I might have? Your weights, things that hinder us. Maybe we suddenly hear a brother speak about you know maybe we are occupied with certain things we are not supposed to be occupied. Maybe things that are hindering us. Maybe instead of spending time reading the scriptures we spend time doing something. Instead of spending time praying and visiting believers we are occupied with other things that take away from our spiritual energy, that suck from us, take away from us the energy that we should have for the things of the Lord. Those are weights, things that are dishonoring to the Lord, things that are not needful in our life.

They cause us to slow down with a spiritual progress. But it's not only weight. You know when I look at weight it's things that can be even good things. They're not necessarily sinful. It's just that are things that we have and do and come into our lives that are making us spiritually heavy and not light, not able to run. These are things that we can say indifferent. But then notice he continue. He doesn't only say let us lay aside every weight but he continue. And he says and the sin which does so easily beset us.

You know brothers and sisters I tell you it doesn't take too long for sin to beset us. It's a battle that you and I are going through every day in our thoughts, in our mind, in our desires. You see we sin because we are sinners. We have a sin nature. Sin is so easily beset us. Of course here the thought I would like to suggest this sin here is the sin of unbelief. When it's come to first century Hebrew believers in a Messiah that particular sin that he's speaking about is the sin of unbelief. They had the inclination to not believe what God said about Yeshua the Messiah that he is the answer but not only the savior but we are to follow after him and not to go back into the rituals that only pointed to him.

That was the sin of those Hebrews of first century but we can broad this and take beyond that. It's sin and sins that does so easily beset us. Don't you feel sometime it doesn't take too long. It doesn't take too much to do wrong, to dishonor the Lord, to hate, to lust, to covet and on and on to be angry, to talk wrong, to to think evil about somebody else, to do things, to go places we shouldn't go. It doesn't take too long. We never needed to be trained to do wrong. We by nature doing wrong.

We need the help of God to do the right things in the power of the spirit of God. That's the reality of the life of the believer. Paul said it in Romans 11 the things I want to do that I don't do. The things I don't want to do that I do. And he face he says all wretched men that I am. And here the writer say speaking to the Hebrews of first century look we have such a cloud of witnesses in the past. Look at the history of your brethren, the nation of Israel, the believers who among from Abraham so on.

And he says now look inside yourself Hebrew believers and he's also speaking to us and he says let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Now he continue and he says lay it aside and you know to put it aside mean that we need to ask the Lord's help. Lord, how can I be released from this thing that cause me to be bound to it and limits me with my enjoyment of the things of the Lord. We need to ask the Lord to help us to lay it aside.

We cannot even do it on our own. He tell them to lay it aside but to lay it aside with the help of the Lord Jesus the Messiah with the help of the Holy Spirit of God. Lay it aside. And then when you lay these aside he says he continue and he tell them and let us run the race or run with patience the race that he set before us. We are in a race. We are to run and to run, to consistently run, continually. And it's a race and a running that need a lot of patience, patience with each other, patience with the people around us, patience with the trials and tribulation that coming across in our life.

And you remember what the Bible tell us in the book of Roman, the tribulation works patience. When we have problems sometime problems are being brought upon us in order that we will learn patience and stay closer to the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Not every trouble that we have we should say I don't want it. Sometime the trouble that God brings across in our own life there is a reason for that because God ultimately said that this trouble will keep us stay closer to him, keep us depending upon him. But let us run, he said. Let us run the race with patience, the race that he set before us.

We are in a race. We will all finish the race but how we going to finish the race? Are we going to finish the race in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. I want to read a verse for you in first Corinthians chapter nine. Look what the same thought that we have in first Corinthians chapter nine and verse 23. The apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he's saying to them in verse 23 and this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partakers thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receive the prize.

So run that ye may obtain. And every man that strive for mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainly. So fight I not as one that beateth the air but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be disapproved or as it says here they cast away. Notice what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. He's saying to them I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.

How many time brothers and sisters we have fail in having our bodies put under subjection. How many times we do not succeed to control ourselves, to put ourselves in subjection to the Lord and to be those that by the grace of God succeeding with the help of the spirit of God to do the right things. How many times we do the wrong things and they become a weight and sins that creep it says so easily beset us. And so we are encouraged in verse one A and one B. First of all, look at the cloud of witnesses verse one A.

And then secondly, look within yourself and run. Take the weight, take the sins which does so easily beset us. I don't need to look at you and you don't need to look at me. We know within ourselves that sin easily beset us and cause us to fall, to stumble and not to grow spiritually. And there are weights that exist in our own life that cause us to be heavy and not light so we can run the race that is set before us. We all are in a race. We all going to get to the end of it.

The entrance into the presence of the Lord is because of what Yeshua have done for us. But how do we run this race? Are we running the race in a way that is pleasing the Lord? Are we honoring the Lord? And when we don't thank God for first John 1 9 if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us for all our sinfulness and make us righteous, set us right again before the Lord. So look back at the history of Israel and the history of these men of faith. Look present within yourself at your spiritual state and your spiritual condition.

Set aside, put away the weights, put away the sins that so easily beset us and run that race.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levitan. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, box 1411, Niagara on the Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0 or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program visit holyscripturesandisrael.com.

God bless you. Shalom Shalom.