Joel Beeke | ”Run the Best Race Ever”

Good morning to you all.

It's a wonderful to be here.

Honored and humbled

to

give the Mullins lectures in these days,

but also to have the opportunity to

bring God's word to you in this

beautiful chapel.

And uh

I don't deserve

what Dr. Mohler said about me.

Just a sinner saved by grace

and I do highly highly respect you,

brother. Thank you.

I'm going to call this with my wife the

the Mohler month because we had so much

time at Shepherd's and now we have more

time now. So that's that's wonderful.

Turn with me, please, to Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12.

I'm going to preach to you on two

verses.

You remember Hebrews 11

is this roll call of heroes of faith.

And I'm going to pick up on just read

the last few verses there

that you get a grasp of what those

heroes of the Old Testament in faith

suffered and then there's a call in

verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12

to run the race.

Run the race set before us. I'm calling

it run the best race ever.

So let's read from Hebrews 11:37

Hebrews 11:37

through Hebrews 12:2.

Hebrews 12:2

>> [cough]

>> Hear the [clears throat] word of God.

They were stoned.

They were cut in two.

Were tempted.

Were slain with a sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and

goatskins.

Being destitute.

Afflicted.

Tormented.

Of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts

and in mountains and in dens and caves

of the earth.

And these all having obtained a good

report through faith

received not the promise.

God having provided some better thing

for us.

That they without us

should not be made perfect. Wherefore

seeing we also are compassed about with

so great a cloud of witnesses.

Cloud of witnesses is the Old Testament

saints of Hebrews 11.

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 into Jesus,

the author and finisher of our faith,

who for the joy that was set before him

endured the cross, despising the shame,

and is set down at the right hand of the

throne of God.

May God bless the reading of His word.

Let's have a short prayer.

Lord God

I pray that by the end of this chapel

Thou wilt convince every person in this

audience

of the importance of running the race

negatively by laying aside sin and

positively by looking to Jesus.

And that it may impact our lives, our

ministries

past, present and future

for good.

Make us

runners

in the best race ever.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Never never never

give up.

Those were the famous words of Winston

Churchill

in one of his shortest but most

important commencement addresses.

The message was

keep on

keeping on.

Through cross-bearing

through office-bearing

through weeping and tears our Lord Jesus

preserved. Having loved his own, he

loved them

to the end.

We are called

to follow him.

You see, it's one thing to begin the

Christian life.

It's another thing to persevere

to the end in the Christian life.

Someone asks you how you're saved.

Often you will tell them how you were

brought to repentance and faith in

Christ and you stop

as if that's the life of conversion.

That's just the beginning.

That's just getting in out on the

racetrack.

You've got to run the race. Conversion

is a lifelong process.

See, we admire

the miracle of Pentecost in Acts 2:4.

Acts 2:4

But we often forget that an equally

great miracle is Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42

and they continued

steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine

and fellowship and in breaking of bread

and in prayers.

When I was a young man, my dad often

said to me

after he knew I was called to ministry

son

remember when you become a minister of

the gospel

it's relatively easy to begin a new

ministry in the church.

The challenge is to maintain it.

To persevere

in zeal for it.

Maybe you've discovered that personally.

It's one thing to become a Christian.

It's another thing to persevere.

To endure the sufferings of being a

Christian.

How how can you

endure? How can you persevere in

believing in the absence of anything

tangible to confirm your faith?

How can you go on believing that God is

light in the dark night of the soul?

How can you persevere in paying the high

cost of faithfulness, enduring

persecution, affliction and loss

merely for the gospel's sake?

Every Christian

faces numerous discouragements.

That's going to be particularly true of

you, especially you young men called to

ministry. The Puritans used to say

God often gives ministers

somewhat more afflictions than

non-ministers because they need to be

identified

with all the people of their flock. They

need to be a good pastor and so God will

often use a man greatly after he's

broken him deeply.

So

how do you

carry on when you're in the midst of

discouragements, when your hands hang

down, when you face personal failures or

when others let you down or when

providence frustrates your desires?

Disappointment

can promote discouragement.

Discouragement

however, brings us to our knees.

We feel weak and tired emotionally,

spiritually, tempted to give up and we

say, "What's the use of continuing to

fight temptation when everything seems

to work against me?"

And we feel like Asaph, "Verily, I've

cleansed my heart in vain."

So how do you endure?

Endure not just through another

semester, but endure in running the

Christian race all the way

to the end.

Oh, the answer is simple and profound

in Hebrews 12. We endure as Christ

endured when he was tempted to surrender

in the battle of spiritual warfare. We

walk as he walked by his grace and by

his strength.

That's what Hebrews 12 1 and 2

are all about.

So I've got three simple points this

morning.

First

this race, this best race ever that we

are to run, I want to talk about its

mission.

Second, its manner.

And third, its motives.

Mission, manner, motives.

So the author to the Hebrews

is right on theme here in our text for

the whole book. There are actually 96

verses in the book

of Hebrews. 96 verses that say something

like this, keep on keeping on.

Endure. Persevere.

Why so many?

Well, because the Hebrew Christians were

being persecuted.

They were being hounded.

If there were several people that

applied for a job

the Christian was the one that was sure

not to get it.

Some of their pastors were at times

being thrown into jail

for preaching the gospel.

The Judaizers

were opposed to them. They marginalized

them.

It was a tough time to be a Christian.

And the Judaizers would say, "Come on

back to colorful Judaism. What what what

do you have in Christianity? Just a man

standing behind a desk saying some

words.

Your religion is boring. Come back to

the color of all the Old Testament

sacrifices and the blood and and and all

the excitement

of the ceremonial laws."

But the author to the Hebrews is saying,

"Don't go back.

Even when you're persecuted. Even when

you're marginalized. We've got something

far better. Far better than the Old

Testament saints who lived indeed by

faith, but we have a more perfect way.

The New Testament way. The way of Jesus

Christ."

And so the author

of Hebrews

writes this book

to encourage them to go forward in

running the Christian

race.

The theme

of our text, the theme of Hebrews is

endure.

Endure.

Keep on going.

Now, the word endurance

in my big multi-volume Oxford dictionary

number one definition

is this, to hold up and to remain, to

continue on even under pain without

flinching. It's a great definition.

And that word endurance is actually in

all three verses of the beginning of

Hebrews 12. We are to run with endurance

the race that is set before us. We're to

model after Christ who set before him

who had joy set before him, but endured

the cross.

And we're to consider him that endured

such contradiction of sinners against

himself.

So, that's our mission.

Much of the Christian life

is not smiley joy sitting on a bed of

ease. Much of the Christian life is

enduring. Enduring. Running the best

race ever with

patience.

So, Hebrews 12:1 and 2

Hebrews 12:1

the author appears to be using the

metaphor of a race having in mind the

endurance testing relay races that took

place in great coliseums

in his day.

And these races did not focus on the

fastest sprinters

but on which runners would actually

cross the finish line.

They were long races. Think of the the

Tour de

the France uh

biking that goes on for weeks.

They were marathon events.

The contestants in the Christian race in

the time of the author of Hebrews

was something that would just go on and

on and on and one runner would put the

baton into another runner's hand

and the race would seem to go on

forever.

And there would be fans in the stands

cheering on the runners not to give up.

That's the picture he's painting here.

The Old Testament saints he's saying are

like a cloud of witnesses around us.

And they're encouraging us

as it were by their own lives, by their

own testimonies, the testimonies of

Hebrews 11

not to give up.

To persevere. In fact, if they

persevered when they were cut in two

when they were tormented and wandered in

deserts and mountains

and really hadn't seen the cross yet

how in the world, Hebrew Christians, can

you

stop running?

How in the world can you give up? How in

the world could you return to Judaism

when you can look back on the finished

work of Christ?

When you can see so much more than they

could see?

Keep on keeping

on.

So, this race of endurance is to be run

with patience, he says.

That is steadily

deliberately, actively every day.

And today, of course, we have so many

spiritual disciplines and means of grace

by which we can run this race. Reading

and searching the scriptures every day.

Through personal intercessory prayer

every day. Through reading sound

literature every day. Fellowship among

the saints every day. Keep Sabbath every

week.

The Christian life, you see, is not

passive.

We are to work out our own salvation

with fear and trembling using the

spiritual means that God has provided to

run the best race ever.

So, that's our mission.

That's our mission. Now, what's our

what's our manner? How how do we do it?

Well,

Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:1

tells us how we're to do it negatively

and verse two how we're to do it

positively.

So, negatively

we are to lay aside every weight, that

is every hindrance

and the sin which does so easily beset

us.

What does that mean?

Well,

there are actually three interpretations

of the words the sin that so easily

besets us.

The first interpretation

is that

it's unbelief.

Unbelief is the mother of all sins.

And we just have a whole chapter

of the Old Testament heroes of faith who

all lived by faith, by faith, by faith

and our sin, your sin

Hebrew Christians, our sin today is that

we falter in running, faltering that

steady jogging in the Christian race,

that marathon

when we live by unbelief and not by

faith.

It is the sin

that so easily besets us.

Second interpretation is that the sin

simply is all sin because all sin is

monstrous.

All sin is anti-God.

Stephen Charnock, one of the Puritans,

said

"At that moment

when we sin against our conscience,

against God, knowingly sin, at that

moment we are practical atheists saying

God is not because all sin

is anti-God."

Sin is a monster.

Sin is our great enemy.

Jeremiah Burroughs, another Puritan,

said this.

"The smallest sin

is a greater evil

than the greatest affliction."

We're to hate sin with passion because

we love the Lord Jesus, our savior and

Lord

with zeal.

You can't

be strong in Christ

and not be a hater

of sin

against him.

And so

it's all sin.

But then there's a third view.

We're to lay aside

the sin

that so easily besets us.

And this view means

you have your own weaknesses, I have

mine.

Our forefathers, reformers, Puritans

used to call them darling sins

bosom sins

besetting sins.

That is to say

I might have certain weaknesses that I

have to avoid certain things.

Whereas you

have other weaknesses have no trouble

with the things I have trouble with

and you need to avoid your own set of

things.

And they can be things that maybe

outwardly don't seem to be

sin.

Maybe you live with excessive fear

or worry

or love of things

or cares of this life.

Maybe it's

connected with your recreational

pursuits.

Maybe it's connected with some lust of

the flesh.

Whatever it is, as you're running the

Christian race, that tends to entangle

you. You see that that that sin that

seems to trip you up.

That entangles you.

It clings to you.

It comes out onto the racetrack with you

and hangs on your neck and clings to you

like like like skin-tight clothing. That

sin.

You need to lay aside. Need to avoid it.

Need to

run from it.

There was an old Scottish divine, Ralph

Erskine, who said

"The way to approach sin is either fight

or flight.

You can fight it if you're strong in

that area. Beat back the devil. But if

you're weak in that area, you got to

flee from it. You got to run from it."

So, if you're a recovering alcoholic,

God has not called you to evangelize in

bars

because you'll be too tempted.

You could be sucked back in.

So, what is What is your What is your

sin?

What is your weakness?

What are you giving a little open window

space in your life for that you

shouldn't be that you should just shut

the window on?

When I was a young man,

mine was pride in playing basketball,

and I had to quit

at the at the peak of my career

because it became an idol.

You maybe can play basketball without

that temptation, fine.

But you see, the point is this.

Whatever sin besets you,

lay it aside.

I had a man come to me one time, and he

He was weeping walking into my study. He

said, "I got this bosom sin I can't get

rid of. Help me." And I said, "Well,

what is it?" He said, "I can't stop

listening to country music."

And

you as a counselor, you're never

supposed to look surprised.

But I mean, I hardly know what country

music is. I mean, that's the last thing

in the world that would tempt me.

But for him, it was very real.

Very real.

And so, we worked on a plan

how he could avoid country music. It was

besetting him.

It interrupted

his walk with Christ. So, which of these

three interpretations is right?

All three, maybe.

Because sin is monstrous

in every form.

So, we need When we get out on the

racetrack as a Christian, we need to

battle our unbelief, we need to battle

our bosom sin, and we need to battle all

sin.

Hate it.

That's the way to run the Christian

race. Repent of it,

but stay in that repentant frame of

mind. As Luther said in one of his first

few theses, God will have his people

live a lifelong

repentance.

Lifelong

repentance. Are you doing that? Are you

repenting every day

of the sins you commit? That's the way

to run this race.

And so, when you combine all three, you

see, then you see sin as your mortal

enemy.

And you say to yourself, like Paul says

to us in Romans 6:11, "Likewise,

Romans 6:11

consider yourself

to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive

unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Do you know that Martin Luther or

rather, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones said that

this text, Romans 6:11, helped him more

Romans 6:11

in running his Christian race than any

other text in the whole Bible.

How so?

Well, he said, "When I'm tempted to sin,

I just say,

'What? Are you kidding me?

Sin's not my master. Christ is my

master. I got no business sinning. I got

no business sinning against the savior

who died for me and who now intercedes

for me at the Father's right hand moment

by moment.

Be gone, sin. You're not my master. I'm

dead indeed unto sin, the dominion of

sin, and I'm alive unto God through

Jesus Christ our Lord, and you're not

taking that away from me, Satan. Be

gone.'"

That's the way

to treat sin.

So, every every morning when you get up,

this is a very important part, I

believe, of our morning prayers. Lord,

keep me from sin all day. Turn my eyes,

my ears, my heart away from every

temptation. Help me to live wholly and

solely for thee and thy glory today.

Every moment, every thought, every word,

every action.

Will we fail? Of course, we will fail.

But every night we repent of it.

And we begin a new day

longing for that day when we will be

sin-free forever around the throne of

the Lamb.

But you run the race

all the way to the end.

I'm I'm convinced that one of the

greatest problems of Christendom today,

and it's big time in America, is a kind

of practical antinomianism that looks at

sin lightly. Says, "Oh, well, God's

going to forgive me. He's a God of

grace."

And you don't hate sin

like God hates sin.

And you see, what you want to do when

you run this race is you want to have

the same kind of thoughts of sin that a

holy, holy, holy God that we just sang

about thinks of sin.

So, that's a negative. But you can never

run the Christian race with any

semblance of success only by the

negative.

You need a greater power.

As Thomas Chalmers put it, a greater

power that takes you away from the

affections

by the positive The affections of the

world by the positive.

And that's exactly what he does in verse

two. He says, "We are to run the race

setting aside the sin which so easily

besets us by looking into Jesus,

the author and the finisher

of our faith."

When I was in high school many years

ago, I also ran track in addition to to

basketball, and our coach would often

say to us, I ran the I ran the what was

then called the 440,

and

basically, you run as fast as you can in

that,

and and you have a burst of energy near

the end. But he would say, "You You You

look You look at me. I'll be standing at

the end of the race. You run this one

for the coach,

and don't ever look as you're coming

around that last bend. Don't ever look

back. You'll lose a half a step if you

look back to see where the other guys

are. You just look at me. You run this

one for me with all your zeal and all

your might and all your power."

Yes, coach.

Well,

the only way you can run full bore

your whole lifetime

is by looking to Jesus.

But in this case, of course, it's a

marathon, so you're running steadily,

keeping your eye on Jesus, keeping your

eye on the positive. And

you see, by that, you not only will hate

sin, but you by loving Christ, by

viewing him as the model runner who went

before you, and by viewing him as the

coach who coaches you along through his

word and through all the spiritual

disciplines,

you, like the Old Testament saints, will

live by faith in the promises of God

surrounded by them as a crowd of

witnesses cheering you on.

But ultimately, it's Jesus, your

uniquely qualified supplier and

sustainer of faith, who by his spirit

will evoke and stimulate your faith to

run for him.

He is the pioneer

and the perfecter of our salvation. He

will not allow a single one of his

children to fall to the side of the road

because he's a finisher of the faith of

his runners. He who perseveres to the

end will persevere with you, too, dear

believer.

But run the race

by looking

to him.

He's the origin.

He's the continuation.

He's the completion

of the power of your ability, God-given

ability, to run the race to the end.

He's his ex- supreme exponent

of your faith.

My mother died at 92.

When she was 90,

she was a very God-fearing woman, a

prayer warrior,

she got dementia,

pretty serious.

Six weeks before she died,

I'm reading her Revelation 21,

and I asked her such a foolish question.

When I got to the verse,

"I am Alpha and Omega."

I said to her, "Mother, do you know

Do you know what that means?"

I I forgot for a moment she had

dementia.

Uh

Of course, she's not going to know. I

mean, Alpha and Omega, and she didn't

even know my name. She couldn't remember

my dad. She

But all of a sudden, she gets this

incredible

flash of

insight

that only the Holy Spirit could give her

that moment. And she said, "Oh, honey."

She called everybody honey cuz she she

knew nobody's name.

"Honey, doesn't that mean

that Jesus is the beginning of our faith

and the end of our faith?" And then she

did a little I said, "Jesus." And she

added to the text. And she said,

"And he's everything in between."

I go, "Yes, Mother. That's it. That's a

better answer than I was going to give

you."

And you see, that is how a Christian

runs.

He who began the good work in me that I

could never begin in myself, he is now

interceding for me at the right hand of

the Father. I will continue running by

his grace, and he will grant me to come

to completion. I will look to him. I

will look away from sin and look to him.

I will hate sin and love Christ.

I will persevere

to the end.

By the grace of God.

Now,

that raises, however,

my third point.

What really can keep motivating me to

run this race?

And that's the rest of the text.

Actually,

there's two sets of motivations here.

And the first set of motivations has

four parts to it. It's the example of

Christ. Look at verse two with me.

Four ways we have to be motivated by

looking to Christ to keep on running.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and

finisher of our faith, who for the joy

that was set before him endured the

cross.

So, first of all, we're motivated by

what he endured. By what he endured.

He was in the naked flame of his

father's wrath for six long hours on the

cross.

He endured to the end even through the

the cry of dereliction, "My God, my God,

why hast thou forsaken me?"

He endured even as he bore the essence

of what hell is on the cross, suffering

in such a way, so compacted, so

infinite, so horrendous as to be

seemingly unsustainable.

But he endured, undergirded by his

divinity in his suffering humanity.

He endured the cross even when abandoned

or felt abandoned by God.

Think about it.

When the son most needed encouragement,

no voice cried from heaven, "This is my

beloved son." When he most needed

reassurance, no one said, "I am well

pleased."

No grace extended, no favor shown, no

comfort administered, no part of the cup

of the father's wrath

against the sins of his people that he

was bearing removed.

God is only present as one displeased,

as one bearing down upon his own son. He

bruised his own son with profound wrath.

And every detail of it, every every

detail of it declares the irrationality,

the heinousness, the dread character of

sin. And yet he endured the cross to the

end.

And you can't endure your

little crosses compared to his big

cross?

We look to his cross

so that we can endure our crosses.

We get motivated by what he's done for

us, so that we're willing to deny

ourselves, take up our crosses, and

follow him.

Second motivation is by what he rejoiced

in. You notice that? Who for the joy

that was set before him endured the

cross. You see, he rejoiced under the

cross knowing he would ultimately be the

vic- the victor in the battle against

the powers of evil, soon be resurrected

by his father, taken home to glory

to receive his promised reward.

So, the joy that was set before him

was the joy of his own homecoming, the

joy of reunion with his father, the joy

of being crowned with honor and glory

and having all things put under his

feet. It was the joy of bringing many

sons to glory. It was the joy of saying,

"Here am I, Father." A joy that still

awaits him in his fullness, and all

those that thou has given unto me.

Because Christ endured to the end

with joy,

there won't be a single empty chair

in heaven.

And so we

we should persevere remembering this

life is just a little blip on the

horizon of eternity

remembering

that we will soon be with him whose eyes

we have never seen

nor has it entered into our heart what

God has prepared for those who love him.

Our future is to be spiritually married

to Christ forever. We will one day be

sin-free, one day be unable to sin, one

day to be focused wholly on Christ

without ever having a distraction.

Oh, the joy

of the perfect place that Jonathan

Edwards called

the love of God in heaven.

Because therefore heaven is a world of

perfect love.

Be motivated by where you're going. Be

motivated by the end of the race that is

soon coming.

Thirdly,

we're motivated not only by what Christ

endured and what he rejoiced in, but by

what he despised.

Isn't that interesting? He despised the

shame, verse two says.

Think about that.

He's hanging naked on a main

thoroughfare going out of Jerusalem. No

doubt there's mothers and with their

little kids walking by and saying, "Look

at those three men on the cross. They're

they're traitors, they're treasoner

trea- they committed treason. They're

murderers or whatever. They're notable

sinners. Don't ever be like them."

He was despised. He was despised by the

Romans, despised by the Jews.

They cast all kinds of accusations into

his teeth even when he's on the cross

for you.

How could he do it?

Well, because he loved and feared God.

And he loved you

more than he feared the frowns of men.

John Brown says,

"The fear of God means that you value

the smiles

of God more than the smiles of men.

And you value the frowns of God also

more than the frowns of men."

And because he knew he was doing his

father's will,

he despised the shame.

Stop also in your in with regard to your

future ministry, stop fearing the faces

of men and fear the living God.

And you'll save yourself a lot of sin, a

lot of heartache,

a lot of mistakes

in your life. Be motivated

by this shame despiser,

the Lord Jesus. And then finally,

we get motivated by what he's doing

right now.

Notice the end of verse two. Is set down

at the right hand of the throne of God.

And five chapters earlier it said, "He

ever lives to make intercession for us."

Have you ever thought about that? He

ever lives every single second to to

intercede for all his children

corporately in one mass, of course, but

also individually cuz he's infinite in

his capacity. He can remember

millions and millions and millions, all

his children at the same time.

So, there's never a second in your life,

if you're a true believer, where he's

not remembering you, interceding for

you.

What a what an amazing motivation this

ought to be.

Everything

shall work together for my good. He's

always in control in my life. All things

work together for good to those who love

God.

That's the whole first set of

motivations. Then let me conclude with

one more motivation. It's the witness of

the saints around us. Go back to 1A.

If I if I were to fall,

I wouldn't I wouldn't only destroy my

church,

I wouldn't only

destroy

or damage or blaspheme the name of God,

but I would I would destroy so much

more.

I would if I think of my father and my

mother now in glory,

wow,

how I'd be sinning against them.

How I'd be sinning against all kinds of

people.

And

who are in my stands.

You see, the New Testament saints had

the Old Testament saints in their

stands, but we have so much more.

We've got all the New Testament saints

in our stands. I'd be sinning against

Paul and Peter and and all the writers

of the New Testament. And and what about

the 2,000 years of church history?

It's

there's thousands and thousands of

people in my stands from church history.

Cheering me on.

Saying, "Keep running the race. Keep on

keeping on."

Martin Luther said, "Most of my best

friends are dead and they're sitting on

my shelves

and they're continuing to press me on in

running the Christian race."

The Bible, of course.

I mean, doesn't Enoch motivate you? He

walked with God. Doesn't David motivate

you in the Psalms? Yes, the Old

Testament saints are in our stands. The

New Testament saints are in our stands.

The the

all those in church history are in our

stands. And living people are in our

stands right now cheering us on.

Your own local church.

They're with you, but they're also in

your stands encouraging you, I hope.

Keep running. Keep running. Keep

running. And then those near and dear to

us.

Often while I'm preaching, I hear my

dad's voice ringing in my ears. Son, you

can never preach enough of Christ. Keep

Keep on preaching him.

He's in my stands.

Sometimes I'm driving to church.

Just with my wife.

Kids are all married now.

And I'm a little quiet.

My wife says,

"You got it again, don't you?"

Yeah.

Who am I?

Who am I

to be the mouthpiece of the living God?

I

To speak the word of God, it's a huge

thing. I don't care if you've been

preaching for 50 years.

You never get used to it. It's always

overwhelming.

And you always feel like you can't do

it.

And she'll

She'll put her She'll put her hand on my

wrist right here.

She'll say, "Honey,

I'll help you.

One more time.

Uh one more time."

She's in my stands.

You see.

Whose stands are you in?

Are you encouragers to others as you

run?

As you hand off the baton to others in

the race.

And who's in your stands? Consider

Consider the importance of being

motivated not only by those four ways of

that are Christocentric, but also by all

the followers of Christ throughout all

the ages down to the living people in

your church today.

And the living Christians you know in

society.

Run the race.

I often say to our students, let me

close with this. I say,

"You know what?

I just I'm really worried about you.

I I pray that none of you None of you

None of you

will fall and disqualify yourself

from ministry."

We've had We've had one student over the

years has fallen to serious sin.

And uh Oh, what a

It's like a sword going through my

heart. Sword going through my heart.

Let those around you motivate you. Let

your fellow students motivate you. Your

faculty motivate you. And faculty

motivate each other. Run the race. Run

the race all the way to

the end.

Well, I close then with this

illustration. In Grand Rapids, where we

live,

there's not much touristy attractions,

but there is the Gerald Ford Museum.

And uh when Gerald Ford died,

we were with thousands of other people

on both sides of the highway as the

limousine

went from the airport down to the Gerald

Ford Museum, where he wanted to be

buried.

He grew up in Grand Rapids.

And

there was a boy across the highway

that had a sign above his head that was

bigger than he was, and he was happy. He

was

moving that sign like this, and the sign

said, "Welcome home, President Ford."

I thought to myself, isn't that amazing?

This little boy is happy to welcome home

a dead body.

But how amazing will it be on that day

when the stands will be filled

for miles and miles and miles, speaking

figuratively now,

and you

will walk down that highway

through the open gates of Beulah.

And there'll be millions of people to

greet you.

Millions of people to say,

"Welcome home,

sinner,

saved by grace."

And then

to meet Jesus, as Rutherford said, at

the gate of heaven

with a soft cloth to wipe away every

last tear from your eye.

And to say, "Well done,

good and faithful servant.

You've run the best race ever

by grace.

And you will see him."

And what will you do?

You just worship him.

And love him

forever

and ever

and ever.

Keep on

keeping on.

Let's pray.

Great God of heaven, bless

Bless this chapel.

Bless us as runners. Keep us in the

race.

Help us not to fall.

Help us to look to Jesus.

Help us to crucify sin.

And help us to be motivated

to run all the way

to the end.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.