Running the Race

Thank you very much, Mrs. Call. It's a blessing. Unlike most of you, I got to hear two services today, although I'm going to hear the same sermon twice, but I got to hear different special music, two different beautiful songs. That's very nice. And I did want to mention my apologies that I'd forgotten. I should have welcomed our guests. I see several faces of people that aren't normally here, and we're thrilled to have you.

So it's good to have a full house. And I don't know how many people are downstairs, but I'm looking at you now. If you're down there, we're glad to have you here, too. Now, on the first day of Unleavened Bread, we stand at the beginning of a week-long festival. Now, to get ready for that, we did a lot of preparation. We had to get ourselves ready, we had to get our homes ready, and now it's time to begin. Or it finally has begun. And it's going to carry on for a little while.

Now, with that in mind, I want to start off my message today with something that's a little unusual. Not unusual to read accounts, but I want to read an account of a particular fight that happened during the Civil War. And that's a little unusual for the days of Unleavened Bread, but I think it fits. And as I read this, I want you to think of it in terms of a group of men being ready for something and not wanting to stop partway through, but wanting to continue on.

And, of course, that's our goal. Having begun what pictures a life without sin, we don't want to go back, we don't want to pause or hesitate, we want to carry on. Now, the battle that I'm talking about was part of the fight for possession and control of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now, of course, the North and South raged back and forth in Kentucky and parts of Tennessee. And as we reached 1863, General Grant had been commanding the troops that conquered Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River.

And then, at the same time, troops were fighting back and forth, and Union troops had pushed the Confederates out of the city of Chattanooga. But then what they did is the Confederate troops moved up and occupied the mountains that surrounded the city. And if you'd imagine, behind me is to the south, there was a long ridge, and then there was a mountain range, or small mountains, to the east, and then also to the west. I shouldn't be turning away from the microphone.

So what happened by the time Grant got there seemed that the Union army, although they'd conquered the city, they were besieged. They didn't dare march away with a powerful enemy holding the high ground so near. So Grant, in his usual fashion, built up his strength, getting ready to make an assault so that he could push the Confederates off of those mountains. Grant strengthened his forces methodically and a little bit slowly for an attack on the mountains.

His strategy was to have soldiers commanded by General Sherman attack at both ends, so here and here, forcing the Confederates to reinforce at the ends and leave the middle vulnerable. And then he hoped eventually to send troops commanded by General Thomas, General George Thomas, I believe, up that ridge when there would be fewer men there to defend it.

That is, if the armies at the ends hadn't already been victorious. Unfortunately, on the day of the battle, the plan wasn't working so well. The attacks at both ends were not successful. The center was still strong. It was held by a large number of Confederate troops. In an effort not to waste all that effort, the Union soldiers at the center of the base near what was known as Missionary Ridge would be ordered to capture some rifle pits at the bottom of the ridge, rather than going on to the top. Where they had initially hoped to be able to go. So that's where I'm going to pick up.

I'm going to be reading from a book that's a biography of General Sherman. It's called the title, Sherman Fighting Prophet, written by Lloyd Lewis. Now, there are a lot of accounts of this battle, but I like this one. It was particularly colorful. So I'll be reading some excerpts starting on 321. If you'll bear with me, as I said, I think it's an intriguing story.

As the day of the battle, it says, And Sherman continued his hopeless battering at an invincible rocks. Finally, at 3 p.m., he rested his bleeding soldiers. He caught a signal from Grant. Attack again! I thought the old man was daft, Sherman said later. He sent an officer to require if there was a mistake. Grant sent back a reply. There was no mistake.

Keep pounding. Major Jenny, the staff officer, in question remembered Sherman's words as, The orders were that I should get as many as possible in front of me. There must be enough. They've been reinforcing all day.

The last message of Sherman may have helped jog the center into action. That's the group that was attacked Missionary Ridge. At least soon after its arrival, Rollins walked up to Grant in his mother hen manner and urged him to make Thomas move. Wilson noticed that Grant, with an unusual fire, ordered Thomas to command the attack. The brave Virginian came to life and sent word to his troops down on an orchard knob to be ready to take the rifle pits at the ridge base when six cannon should be fired in rapid succession.

Looking back later, they said what was really intended was never entirely clear. Grant recalled that he had considerable difficulty in getting the order to attack through Thomas to the division commanders. He also said that he had ordered the troops to take the rifle pits, then to reform preparatory to carrying the ridge.

The Cumberlanders understood that they were to merely carry that line of rifle pits, as I said, down at the bottom of the ridge. But when the order, such as they were, came to the Cumberland troops, they jumped up and down with excitement. The battle so far had been a failure. The short November day was nearly done. Thomas' soldiers had Chickamauga, their previous battle, on the brain and burned for revenge. For a day and a half now, they had lain offstage, seeing and hearing the action of their rivals. The Army of Tennessee and the Easterners' implication that they were not first-rate combat material.

That had ferman inside them. So later, one of them said, we were crazy to charge, as they lay waiting for those six signal guns. General Hazen noted that in his brigade, all the servants, cooks, and clerks found guns in some way or another, and they crowded into the line, avid for a chance at the Johnnys. At 3.40, the cannon began booming.

One, boom, two, boom, three. When they reached five, the men began to run forward like the wind. They howled back epithets, huzzahs, and incoherent defiances at the rifles and cannon that blazed from the bottom to the top of the ridge.

Led sang past them as they jumped fallen trees. Over their heads curved Union shells to splash fire against the mountain. Confederates, withdrawing from those rifle pits, backed up the slope, shooting as they went. Many of them seemed dumbfounded, fascinated, as at a mammoth review, end of the pits leaped the Federals. Officers began urging them to convert the shelter holes into trenches, facing the opposite direction. But the men paid no heed. They were sucking great chunks of air into exhausted lungs, while their muscles twitched, as if under some dervish intoxication. And their eyes rolled hungrily upward to the summit, 600 feet away.

All at once, they began to howl and to run again, breaking out of the pits to scramble up the steep slope, their bodies bursting through entanglements, heaving up rocky faces, their eyes fixed on the heights. Officers stood bawling at them to come back, waving swords, cursing them, and then finally joining in the race. Soon the leading Federals were running neck and neck with the slowest Confederates, and came tumbling with them into the second line of Southern defense, out of which the other gray coats tore like rabbits. Unionists were too winded and secessionist, too astonished to do much fighting.

Both sides simply raced and bellowed. Back in the rear, Grant sharply said to Thomas, who ordered those men up the ridge? Thomas didn't know. Granger persisted, Grant turning to the next Cumberland overrank, did you order them up? No, said Granger. When those fellows get started, all hell can't stop them. One of Thomas' division commanders in the charge, Phil Sheridan, had tried to recall his men when they surged out of the rifle pits, but he'd wound up by joining them.

One drink he would take before starting up the mountain, he whipped out his silver whiskey flash, threw back his head. Far up the crest, he saw a Confederate officer looking down at him. Here is to you, he said, and then drank deeply. The Confederate answered with a wave of his hand and a volley from six cannon, which threw up dirt, because Sheridan rubbed the dirt out of his eyes, and he said, That's very ungenerous of you, I'll take those guns for that.

And he spurred his horse, jammed his flask back into his pocket as he joined the charge. Sixty battle flags were climbing the mountain, the soldiers now traveling and wavering wild goose formation behind the banners. Upon them rolled rocks and shells whose fuses had been touched with matches. The air whimpered with musket balls, which gray gunners had tossed by a hatful into the cannon and discharged point blank down the cliff.

The angle was not favorable to execution, but the Federals were paying no attention to the enemy anyways. They seemed to have forgotten the foe. They began to race with each other as they neared the summit. Now and then a man fired perfunctorily upward, but they were more absorbed in the obstacle race before them. Boulders, entanglements, precipices, thickets, fallen trees. Captain Bryant of the sixth Indiana was in the lead when one of his privates, Tom Jackson, passed him, snatching Tom by the coat-tail. Bryant jerked him back and forged ahead. But just at the finish, Tom rushed by to win.

Before his eyes, he saw the Confederates scampering away. Only one Confederate captain remained to defend the crest. Dropping his gun, Tom stalked him with his bare hands lowered. Now the captain had been brave enough to face hot lead or cold steel, but when he saw those bare hands lowered, he threw down his sword and ran off after his men. Bryant's Hoosiers, pulling themselves onto the crest, saw Tom Jackson looking down the rear, facing, come and look at him and see him run. His comrades said it was the sight of our lives, men tumbling over each other in reckless confusion, hats off, some without guns, running wildly. Everywhere the defenders were fleeing. A squad here and there lingered to battle on for only a few minutes before tearing off down the back slope.

The Confederate flight was as sudden and inexplicable as had been the Federal assault. We ran because we could see too much, said the Southerners after the battle. When we saw the number of men coming up against us, we got demoralized. No one could explain the turn of battle. And the superstitious age, said one of the generals later, the victory would have been attributed to supernatural influences.

One of the generals sent a wire back to Washington and said this, The storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the greatest miracles in military history. No man who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front could believe that 18,000 men were moved up its broken and crumbling face unless it was his fortune to witness the deed. It seems as awful as a visible interposition by God.

And so the soldiers that day let nothing get in their way. A few minutes later it says that generals came up. As a matter of fact, let me read just a little bit more. Eyes lifting from the valley saw the victors capering on the crest, officers embracing privates, orderlies hugging colonels. Above them danced what was apparently a flock of blackbirds. The men were throwing their haversacks into the twilight air. On the ridge the generals were now coming. Thomas Wood shouted at the soldiers, You'll all be court-martialed. And then he laughed. Sheridan had had his horse shot out from under him, but he came up on his short legs to rush the cannon that had offended him and straddled it. Quarreling with General Hazen as to its ownership, General Howard stopped on the slope to ask a dying soldier where he was hurt. He answered, Almost up, sir. No, I mean what part of your body? The soldier said, Oh, I was almost up, but for that, pointing to his wound. But for that I'd have reached the top.

As I said, it's not the common way to start a sermon on the Holy Day, but this was an example of men who had done their preparation, and they wanted to delay no longer. But they wanted to get on all the way to the end, not start part way, not get distracted. Now, what in the world does that have to do with the days of Unleavened Bread? Or with us? Well, I think that the start of Unleavened Bread, shortly after the Passover, and very much right after our baptism, that we're like these soldiers, in the sense that we've done our preparation, and we're in position, and now it's time to move forward. And once we start, we want to keep on moving. It's vital that we not stop. Now, the battle for Missionary Ridge turned out to be much more like running a race. And that's one of the things I've always found interesting. Not a lot of shooting or bloodshed involved, but continuing, running that race. Many of us have more familiarity with running races than we do with battle. I know I do. But the Bible uses both as analogies for Christian life. Overcoming sin is a battle, and doing it for life is like a long-distance race. That's why the battle for Missionary Ridge came to my mind when I thought of the sermon. Let's turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, and we'll begin at the beginning, in the first verse of the chapter.

To see another analogy of a race.

And, of course, the analogy of those who have just finished their preparation, as we do after, as I said, after baptism, or as we were reminded at Passover. Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted unto bloodshed striving against sin. And that's true. Jesus did do that, and He did it largely so we wouldn't have to. But in this analogy, Christian life is like a race. At baptism, we have laid aside that sin that so easily besets us. And of course, we commemorate that sacrifice once a year in a special way at the Passover ceremony. But what lies ahead is the actual running of the race. And that's where I think the Days of Unleavened Bread are kind of like that. Now, the start of a race isn't so hard. Now, the adrenaline is thumping, and you want to go as hard as you can, but then you have to run and keep on running, all the way to the end. And what Passover reminds us that Jesus paid the price for our sins. Then we put leaven out of our homes to represent putting sin out of our lives. The next thing to do is to keep the sin out. Don't go back to the old ways, but keep that sin out. That's an ongoing process that, like a long-distance race, is not nearly as dramatic as the start, not as exciting or as fun, but vital. And I mentioned a week or two ago that I've run into marathons, and the start is always very exciting. As I said, there's thousands of people there, and a pistol sounds, and the crowd surges forward, and people shout, and sometimes music is playing, and you see decorations. But then, as time goes by, you cover a few miles, and the crowd of people thins out. You might sometimes round a corner and seem like you're the only one running, and you just have to keep on running. No single step is a big deal. Now, I've been there. Even after 15, 16, 17 miles, I can always take one more step. And every one of those steps wasn't so big a deal, but add all of those steps together, and it adds up to a significant accomplishment. Well, I think that's part of why the Days of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day festival. All the other Holy Days represent a particular point in time or an event. For the most part, of course, Passover represents Christ's sacrifice. Pentecost, we look back to the time the Holy Spirit was poured out on the New Testament Church. Or we might also look at the time that it's first put in us after our baptism with the laying on of hands. But it's a particular time. Of course, the Feast of Trumpets represents very specific events. But the Feast of... or the Festival of Unleavened Bread is about, you could say, the rest of our lives. That's what it represents. Now, we start out, but then how long does it go? It's a seven-day festival, but it represents something that lasts far longer than seven days. It should represent however much time we have left, continuing to put sin out.

So if we think that the Days of Unleavened Bread represents the rest of our life, the analogy of a marathon race isn't such a stretch. And just like running a marathon consists of a collection of many individual steps, each one of them not remarkable on its own, but all of them together amounting to something pretty important, so a sin-free life, a life without sin, is made up of a lot of individual days. As a matter of fact, you can say a lot of separate hours. Going one hour without sin isn't a big deal. Going one day might not be a big deal, but day after day after day, adding up to weeks and then months and then years, you put them all together, it comes out to something wonderful. A life transformed. A life being like God. So I want to explore the analogy a little bit. Partly, I'm being a little selfish. As I said, I've run some marathons, so I like to cast it in that. I know that we've got a perfectly good analogy for the days of Unleavened Bread. That is, leaven equals sin, putting our lives out, you know, or putting leaven out of our lives equals putting sin out of our lives. But I want to look at this marathon analogy. The first lesson, of course, is found in Matthew 24. Matthew 24 and verse 13. I'll forgive you, if you haven't memorized, you don't have to turn there. Most of us know this one pretty well. But it's one it doesn't hurt to hear over and over again. Matthew 24, 13 says, But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Enduring to the end. That's important. Now, that must be our attitude in living God's way of life and doing it without sin. Now, of course, in a marathon, that's very important. No wonder I've thought of this Scripture a lot of times. Enduring to the end. It takes some perseverance. I remember one of the marathons I ran was the Los Angeles. And this happened several years ago. What happened is a friend of mine that I was working at summer camp with lived in California, and he'd always wanted to run one. So he said, Why don't we train and we'll run this one together? And I said, That sounds okay. You know, this is after I moved back to Ohio, and the thought of visiting L.A. in early March didn't sound bad. You know what the weather can be like here. So we trained separately, he and California and I in Ohio, and I flew out there, and of course, I flew out on a Friday, and stayed with his family, had Sabbath services, and Sunday morning we were going to run the race. But when I got there, I discovered he was just recovering from having the flu. Now, having the flu is not a good thing for when you're going to go out and have this type of exertion. But he was recovering, he said, I feel stronger every day. I want to try it. And his family was concerned, well, can you really do this? He said, If I start it, I'm going to get to the end. He said, I'm not going to drop out. And I remember his phrase, he said, I'm going to cross that line up, I have to drag myself across on bloody stumps. Now, luckily, there were no bloody stumps involved. But he did get to the end. Now, that's the way it should be for us and the life as a Christian. Let's go to Hebrews 6. There's a very good reason why bloody stumps... I don't know why I shouldn't fixate on bloody stumps, but why something equivalent to that spiritually is still better than dropping out of the race. Hebrews 6, beginning in verse 4.

And I said, what is the alternative to dropping out... The alternative to continuing to the end is dropping out, and that's what this represents. It says, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. That means you've been converted, you have the Holy Spirit, you've been living God's way of life. He said, it's impossible if you've done this in verse 6, if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. Now, this is not saying that you can't be forgiven if you sin, it's saying you can't be in God's family and partake in the Holy Spirit and then deliberately turn away. If you drop out knowing that you're dropping out and purposely doing so, you can't come back. Now, that sounds scary. You might say, well, is it better to not even start this race? Be baptized and not commit to God? Well, I'd say no, because what's the alternative to that? If our life as a Christian is coming out of sin, the alternative is staying in sin. And we all know the wage of sin is death. So we're looking at, you can die if you stay in your sins, you can die if you start and you come out. The only real solution is to go with God and go all the way to the end. That's reaching to the end, enduring no matter what. He that endures to the end will be saved.

Wherever or whenever we're called by God, whatever the time that he calls us, he chose the time because he knew what was best for us. And he says, then we need to put sin out of our lives and then keep it out. And so I wanted to focus on that because, as I said, the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we've cleaned the house and our cars and all that other stuff. Now we want to keep it out.

But while I was thinking of that race analogy, a thought came to my mind. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians 9, I'll introduce that thought.

And actually, I think it first came to mind when I was thinking of speaking on this as an analogy because it wasn't a concern for me in running a marathon. Because when I signed up to run my first one, my goal was to get to the end. And so I wanted to start, I wanted to run the whole way and reach the end. What was not my goal was to cross the finish line first. Because I knew there was going to be some fella from Kenya who will cross the line a good 2 or 3 hours earlier than I will, or something.

It always seems to be somebody from another country. It seems like it's black men from Kenya or Tanzania or whatever, and for the women it's usually a woman from Russia. And I'm not sure, I don't mean to sound racist about it, it's just Americans don't win the marathons very often. So my goal wasn't to win, but here, the Apostle Paul says something about running a marathon.

He's saying, running a race to win. 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24, he says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? So run in such a way that you may obtain it.

Here he's saying, in the Christian life, your goal should be to want to run to win the prize. That sounds like Elmer Fudd here, wanting to win the prize. We want to get there. Now, one of the things, even this, I know, who's the winner? If we make an analogy of Christianity with a marathon, the winner is going to be Jesus Christ. There are many places in the Bible that say, He's the first and foremost. He's our predecessor. He's won the prize. Well, is what this says in 1 Corinthians, saying, well, there's only one prize and it's already won?

That makes you say, well, why should I bother? Well, the reason we should bother, we can find later in this very book, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 57. We'll see, of course, for one thing, we're talking about an analogy, but we're also talking about God, who is a spirit being, and not limited to the same physical parameters that we are.

And so this, as I said, I don't have any illusions of winning a marathon race, and when it comes to winning the Christian life, I'm not worried about me winning the victory. I want to see what happens here. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 57 says, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to win the victory. Jesus Christ has won it and will give it to us.

Now, in a physical race, only one person can have the prize, but in our spiritual race for eternity, Jesus Christ has won, and because He's our Creator and because He will dwell in us through the Holy Spirit, then He can share the prize. He can give us that victory. And we know, and we're going to turn there later, there are scriptures that show that, of course, Jesus Christ, on the night that He was betrayed, prayed to the Father, He said, we will come and we will dwell in You.

And He was talking about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now, that takes care of my biggest concern, but there's also a little vanity. And that's still there when we're human. Okay, I'm not going to be first, but there's another place I don't want to be in that race. Right? With thousands of people, I don't want to be the last one across the line. And even if it's a small race, then it's worse.

You don't want to be last. Let's turn back to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 48. We're going to see that that one's covered for us already, too. You don't have to worry about the shame of being the last one there. And I guess it shouldn't be that big of a shame, as I said. When it comes to a marathon, you reach the finish line. It doesn't matter how long it takes. You reached it. But still, we have these concerns. Isaiah 48 and verse 12. I love this section of Isaiah because God is speaking in first person here.

And he says, Listen to me, O Jacob, in Israel am I called. I am he. I am the first. And I said Jesus Christ finishes first, but then he says, I am also the last. He's a spirit being. He can finish first, but he can be last. None of us are going to be last place. Let's go back a few pages to chapter 41.

I wanted to read that first version, but in 41 verse 4, it puts it a little differently.

And as I said, I don't know if God had a race analogy in mind, but it fits very well with it. So we're definitely going to read it. Isaiah 41 and verse 4, God speaking of himself, he says, Who has performed and done it? Calling the generations from the beginning, I am the eternal. I am the first, and with the last, I am he. He's with the last, and he'll be right there making sure you don't fall behind. That's a very important thing, because of course the race is just an analogy, but in life, sometimes we get hit by a tough trial. And it's good to know that we don't have to worry about whether or not we're going to make it, or falling behind and being forgotten. God is still there, no matter how grievous your sin, no matter how difficult the trial you're in, God is still there to help you repent. I talked about how repentance is a gift from God, and then the forgiveness and the faith to carry on all come from God. And that's important, because like a marathon has, or as a marathon has hills, and it has weather, all those individual steps might be unremarkable on their own, but those individual steps are not the same. Some of them are going up a steep hill. And when I moved to southern Ohio, I discovered when I do my running, I like to run about three days a week, and I've become acquainted with running up hills a lot more than I was in Columbus. Same thing goes in life. Not every day is the same. As I said, a life in Christianity is a lot of separate days of not sinning, and in some days it's a lot harder than others. But we're never alone.

Now, looking back, of course, I'm going to come back to the race, but I was just thinking as far as the days of Unleavened Bread, it's seven days. How many of you, well, I shouldn't do a show of hands, but I'll bet if I just say it, have you ever slipped up in the past?

At some time or another, you're thinking, no problem, I'll get the leaven out, and then later on you go, what did I do? You ate some leaven, and you didn't mean to. I've got a story that I still find humorous. I was there. My freshman year at Ambassador College, I was in Big Sandy, and I've said many times, I joined the choir because my roommate, he always said, let's go join the choir.

I don't want to be in the choir. He said, well, the choir is going out to Pasadena for spring break. I said, oh, I'd like to go out to Pasadena for spring break. I'd never been. So I joined, and I actually tried out and made the choir. And so we did, and now, in that time, spring break was also the days of Unleavened Bread. Classes would be canceled. Some people would go home to be with their families for Passover and Unleavened Bread. That year in the choir, we went out there, and it was a wonderful time.

We got to see the campus, many of us for the first time, and visit. So there was one evening while we were there, a group of us, a fairly large group, went to a local restaurant, and we were sitting at different tables. And now one good friend of mine decided to play a prank on the same, my roommate, who was also a good friend. So he calls one of the waiters, Rachel says, see that fellow over there? Today is his birthday. He says, oh, that's great! So she gets the other waiters, and next thing we know, they come parading through the restaurant, singing a song, and clapping their hands, and set down this chocolate cake in front of him.

And he's caught off guard, and he's, especially since it's not actually his birthday, but he says, hey, free cake! He picks up his fork, digs in, and he's like this! And the first friend says, unleavened bread! And he goes, ah! Luckily, he had somebody to remind him, but it's that easy. I don't know how often that type of scenario comes up. But you know, you can get caught off guard, you're not paying attention, and you can eat something leaven during the days of unleavened bread.

Likewise, we can get caught off guard and slip into a sinful situation where we weren't planning on it. And so, it's important to know that we have God there with us to help us. Going back to the race, we're in Isaiah 41. Let's look, are we still in 41?

Let's look in verse 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Now, let's skip over to, ahead to verse 13. Verse 13 said, For I, the Eternal, your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not, I will help you. That's important. When we're struggling, when it's tough, you know, we don't always see God, but He's saying, don't be afraid. I'm there holding your hand. If you'll let me, I'll help you.

We're all running this race. Now, the start is behind us. We've already passed the start, the excitement, and all that. Now we're in the phase of having to keep our feet moving. Now, because Jesus Christ is already the winner, we have hope, because He wants to give the victory to all of us. We're not competing for a victory. He's already planning to give it to us. But when we get discouraged and we say, well, where is God? Then we need to remember that He's in the lead, but He's also bringing up the rear, making sure nobody gets behind Him.

And at the same time, He's right there, beside you, to hold your hand if you're about to stumble. That's the day after day after day. One foot in front of the other. I've got to watch myself. There is a Christmas special that has a song that says, put one... And that song just pops into my...

I don't know any of the rest of the words, but I found myself singing it to Connor the other day, as I was getting... Not about Christmas, but trying to get Him to walk down the steps. But you put one foot in front of the other and just keep it up. Now, analogies can be exciting. I love them, and I get excited when I talk about the start of a marathon with the pageantry and the music, or the story of soldiers charging up a ridge and making it all the way to the top.

But life isn't always that, is it? Life is more complicated. It has a lot of different things come up. So I thought, one thing we have to have in the sermon is some of, how do we keep sin out of our lives? We know we have to do it. We have to not get discouraged. But it's good to have some practical advice.

How do you do it? How do you keep sin out? Well, the first thing we need to remember is that unlike running a race that we do for our physical enjoyment, or just to see if we can do it, living a life without sin does not depend on our own strength or our own stamina. It depends, first of all, on God's strength and stamina. If you want to turn to Philippians chapter 3, I'll make the point that we want to say, not sinning is doing what's right. So if we do what's right, if we don't sin, that's righteousness.

And I want to make that as a definition. Philippians 3 and verse 9 says something about righteousness. Because we want to be righteous. Philippians 3 and verse 9. Be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. That's where we get the righteousness. And as I said, not sinning and doing what's right is a good definition of righteousness.

If we want to do that, we need to realize we need to get it from God by faith. Faith is tied to righteousness also in Romans chapter 5. If you'll join me in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1.

You'll notice by now I like to do some of these word plays, or tying one word to another, especially where the Apostle Paul ties these things together.

Romans 5 and verse 1 says, And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. That's those testing when we might be tempted to sin, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us. Now, before I comment any further, I want to look further in Romans, Romans 13. I want to tie these two scriptures together, and then I'll make a comment. Romans 13 and verse 10.

This is to make a connection between love and not sinning. Romans 13.10 says, Now, we know sin is breaking the law, but the love is fulfilling the law. So the love of God is the opposite of sin. And as we saw there in Romans, how do we get the love of God? It's put into us by His Holy Spirit. It's shed in our hearts abroad. Too often, and of course, I want to make note, we get that love of God by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, it is too often, and I've said this before recently because it's been on my mind, we tend to think that we can put sin out of our lives and keep it out through our faith. You know, I want to build up this faith and trust God, and I'll keep that sin out. But think, if we could do that, then all the blessings and the results that come through that faith would be something we earned by our works. And we don't teach that. We teach that the gift of God, the gift of life, is a free gift. We can't earn eternal life. You know, our faith can only bring our own righteousness. And if Isaiah 64, verse 6 says that our own righteousness is as filthy rags to God, the best we can do isn't good enough. Now, I want to quote just a short section of an article that Herbert W. Armstrong wrote years ago. I found this in a pile of reprint articles, I think, from back in the 50s. The title of it was, How to be an Overcomer. And he just said it so well, talking about trying to build up our faith. So let me quote. It says here, Stop trying to work up faith. You have no faith. The Scripture above speaks only of the faith of Christ, not your faith. Christ's faith. Jesus had real faith. I can't do a good Mr. Armstrong impersonation, so I'm just trying not to sound like me. He says, Here's the secret. He gives, he implants, his strong faith to you and me. He gives his faith to you and me. Yes, even faith is a gift from God, one of the spiritual gifts. So we have to ask God for that faith and let him do it. If you'll turn to Galatians 2 and verse 20. If you can find Galatians 20, I'd like to see that. Galatians 2 and verse 20 shows again how is it possible. How can we have the faith of Jesus Christ? And which, remember, gives us, allows us to have access to the Holy Spirit by which we get the love of God, which fulfills the law. Which, fulfilling the law means we're not sinning and thus we're keeping sin out of our lives. See, I'm building a chain here. It's long enough that I keep forgetting where the links go to. But it comes down to this. I have been crucified with Christ. So when we go down to that watery grave of baptism, as though we joined Christ in putting our old man to death, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So that's one of the main secrets or tricks to not sinning, keeping sin out. Realize that you have to have Jesus Christ live in you. I shouldn't be saying you, I should say us, me. Because I'm in it with all of you. I need to ask God to live in me to keep that sin out. And that's what makes it work.

Now, having said that, I want to look at the other side because it's easy to say, okay, great, I'm going to sit back on the couch and drink beer and God will keep sin out of my life. Well, there's nothing wrong with sitting on the couch and drinking a beer. I do it myself on a regular occasion. But the point is, we still have to do something. God isn't going to do it all for us. When He gives us His Holy Spirit, He wants us to put it to use. So we can find a little bit of advice on how to do that if we'll go to the book of James. James 4, verse 7.

I want to look at a couple of different things.

I'm slacking off. I'm only halfway through my first glass.

James 4, verse 7. Simple Scripture.

Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. As I said, it sounds simple, and in principle it is. Submit to God. Put Him first. Obey His law.

Okay. Resist the devil. Don't go along with his way. Don't sin. Remember, was it last week I had the sign that said, sin is bad, so don't sin? If we just did that, it'd be easy. But then, okay, what is sin and how do we keep it out? Well, for one thing, if we'll go flip a couple pages to the front of James. James 1, verse 14, will show us how it is that even though we think, okay, that's good, I want to do that, we get drawn in sometimes. James 1, verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. And when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings death. So sin starts with those thoughts, that lust, the wrong desire. Now, they're right desires that are okay. But it's all what we're getting at is the thoughts in the mind. If we want to keep sin out, we've got to control our thoughts. When Jesus discussed what we call the spirit of the law, He made that point. He showed us that if there's something that is wrong for us to do, in most cases it's wrong for us to give it much thought or to think about doing it, to imagine it. Matter of fact, we can see that if we go to Matthew 5.

Matthew 5. If we want to prevent doing sin, we need to control our thoughts, which of course is only possible by the power of God's Spirit. And we have to make that effort to do it. Matthew 5, beginning in verse 27.

You've heard that it was said by those of... It was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks on a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So I'm not finishing the scripture, for I'm looking over here. But if we let ourselves think about something we shouldn't do, we can get close to it. And we might have the physical opportunity then and not be able to resist it. So, well before I go forward, I want to say, that's not saying that a fleeting thought coming through your mind is a sin. Things enter your mind, somebody says, oh, I better not think about that. And that's the right reaction. I don't want to think about that. It's sort of, Jesus also made the point that hating your brother without cause is as bad as murdering him. It doesn't mean that being angry is a sin. Ephesians 4, 26 says, be angry and sin not. So the thought can come in, or in emotion, you control it. Letting an anger fester, letting anger build bitterness and resentment and hate, that becomes a sin.

Now, how do you get those thoughts out? How do you get evil thoughts out and keep them out? Well, I could do the analogy. I remember reading this. They say, how do you get air out of a glass? And the first time I heard that question, I thought, okay, can you hook up some kind of a vacuum pump and suck it? And you know, you reach the end where it's difficult because how efficient is the pump and will it leak? And then someone says, you're going out the wrong way. You want to get the air out? Whoa. Pour some water in and all the air goes out. It's as simple as that. How do you get bad thoughts out of your mind? It's hard to just pull them out and leave nothing but replace them, not with water, but with good thoughts.

Focus your thoughts. I said, it's very hard for me to make myself not think about something because then you're thinking about it. You know, it's like, I remember I took a psychology class years and years ago, and a professor did something mean. At the end of class, he wrote, I can't remember what the word was. It might have been blimp or it was some nonsense. It wasn't a nonsense word, but he wrote it on the board, looked at us, went and erased it. He said, now your assignment for next week is to forget that word. You know what? We came to class next week. All of us knew what the word was. And it's like that if you get focused on something, you want to think about it. But the way to get something out of our mind, put something else in. Now, if during that weekend I'd had something really exciting going on, I might have forgotten about the blimp. Actually, well, I guess it has because I don't think it was actually blimp. I don't remember what it was, but since it was probably 30 years ago, I have managed different... Couldn't have been 30 years ago. It's been at least 20. It's been a long time ago.

But with the power of God's Spirit, we can replace our thoughts. Now, meditation is a spiritual tool that we don't talk about very often. And I was thinking I might talk about it more in a sermon coming up, but we don't talk about it largely because in our modern world as society, we think of meditation as crossing your legs and going home and emptying your mind, which is what I was just saying, it's hard to empty your mind.

Now, what we think of meditation is focusing your thoughts, giving deep thought to something in particular, choosing what to think about. And we can do that. We can control our thoughts to focus on positive things. We can think about serving others. We can think about the blessings God has given us, contemplate on God's great power, and the wonder of His creation. I would appreciate yesterday, down in Prestonsburg at least, was one of the most beautiful days I've seen in a long time. And soon I took the opportunity in the afternoon to take Connor out to a park. But, you know, you see these rock faces and trees and say, wow, it's just gorgeous.

It's hard to think about evil thoughts when you're looking at just beauty like that. Now, with practice and, of course, help by God's Spirit, we can move our thoughts onto the good things. Now, while we're talking about that, I also want to talk about one other thing that can help us avoid sin, keeping it out of our lives.

And that is if we adopt a higher standard when it comes to making decisions. Now, I mean decisions about everything, not just the basic ones. And I want to refer to a book I recently read, and I'll admit freely Gary Smith recommended it to me. I was talking to him on the phone. He said, I read this book recently, and it's very useful. And it's not good for fixing past decisions, but it's good for past mistakes. It's good for helping to avoid future ones. It's a book called The Best Question Ever, written by not a minister in our church, but a Sunday preacher who's pretty smart. His name was Andy Staley.

And he says that we often get into bad situations, not because we get up and say, I'm going to go sin today, but because we don't think about the end goal and when we make a lot of little decisions, decisions like about what to eat, what to wear, who to spend your time with. We're not focused on, or we ask the question often, well, is it wrong to do that? And he said, don't ask that question.

Don't ask, is this a sin? Because it's probably not, but you should ask a question, is this the best thing for me to do? Is it the wise thing to do? Let's go to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 and verse 15, we'll see where Mr. Staley said, this thought came to him. And I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he wrote, and it just came to mind as I was working on the sermon. Ephesians 5 and verse 15, the Apostle Paul writes, he says, See that you walk circumspectly.

That's a fancy way of saying, be careful. Watch what you're doing. Not as fools, but as wise. Don't be foolish, be wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. That's the way of saying, be careful, it's a dangerous world out there. There's bad things waiting for you. You could get into trouble. Therefore, do not be unwise. What is not being unwise? Don't be unwise. Well, that means be wise. Don't be unwise, be wise. Not as fools. I lost my place here. Verse 17, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. When he says understand what the will of the Lord is, he's not saying just command you to understand something that you don't already understand, but he's sort of saying, generally, we know what's right and wrong.

We've been studying this word in most situations, not all, but most, we already know what we should do or shouldn't do. And Paul said, wrote, be careful. If you know what's right or wrong, let's be careful out there and make the wise decision.

And that's what it comes down to. When you make a decision, don't say, oh, is this a sin? Would it be a sin to do this? Ask yourself, would it be wise to do this? Would doing this move me down the road closer to a bad situation or closer to a good situation? And if we're using that as our standard for all these little decisions, as I said, what to spend your money on, who to spend your time with, what to where, it can move you either in the direction you want to go or in a direction you don't want to go if you don't choose the wise decision.

An unwise decision, and I'll admit this, you could make an unwise decision to do something that's not at all a sin. And we do that all the time, me included. But it might move us a little closer. And the next decision might be something a little more unwise to get you closer to sin. And it's too often that, especially when we're younger, we ask ourselves, okay, is it okay to do this? Would it be wrong? And we want to see, how close can I get to sin?

How close can I get? Can I get up? Can I hang my toes over the edge? Can I stand on one foot? Because then it doesn't take much. You're over the edge, into the sin. And Mr. Staley says, just stay back far from the edge, and you won't have that problem. You might ask yourself, how are you going to keep leaven out of your house for the next seven days? Well, if you go to the grocery store, are you going to pick up the package of cookies and look it over real carefully? If you do, you might drop in your cart because you got distracted.

If you go to a restaurant, are you going to have the roll sitting on your plate and try to remember each time not to eat it? This week, are you going to... slow down... Are you going to walk into a donut shop just because you like the smell? Now, I like the smell of donuts. Now, that one might be a stretch, but you think, if you ask yourself, how am I going to keep sin out of my life?

Well, just like at the grocery store, don't pick it up and look it over and examine it real closely. Keep it away from your cart. Don't let it on your plate. Walk into a donut shop. I was going to say, don't walk into a sin shop, but I've never seen a strip mall or something where there's, you know, that says, sin.

Come on in and get some. So, which is good. We don't want... But, you know, don't go to places where that stuff's going on. Don't make decisions that'll see how close you can get to sinning without actually doing it, but rather make your decisions to keep it at a distance. You know, I'll say this. If you're a young single person, don't date people who don't have Christian standards. You know what Christian standards are. Don't date someone who has a different end goal than you have, and then see how close you can get when you're arranging your finances.

Don't plan your finances so that if you fall just a little bit short, then you're stuck making a decision. Do I tithe or feed my family? You know, plan... Leave yourself a cushion so that you don't get close. No. Make each decision based on the question, what's the wisest thing for me to do given my circumstances and my situation?

Now, what's wise for one person in a certain situation might not be the wisest thing for another. That's why I'm saying based on your circumstances. Different for different people. But our general goal is keep sin out of your life, and keep sin far from your life, not there close at hand.

You know, not like the teddy bear that you want to cuddle. I gotta watch out. These analogies can get silly. But I started off today talking about a group of men charging up a mountain to conquer an enemy. And I think there's a point you could see. We're like we're trying to charge up a mountain sometimes, conquering an enemy. And the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread can seem like the beginning of that charge. We're excited, ready to give it all we've got. But then, like a marathon race, our strength might start to fade.

And when the challenge goes on, and on, and on, and then on some more, that's when we have to determine that we're going to carry on no matter what it takes. Just like reaching the end of a marathon requires continuing to take one step after another, so living a life according to God's will, that is, living a life without sin, requires not sinning one day at a time, day after day after day.

And the only way we can do that is by the power of God's Spirit. We can't do it alone. And God knew that. That's why He planned to give us His Holy Spirit. That's why He does. And then when we have it, we have to put it to use. We have to institute good habits into our lifestyle.

We have to use that Spirit to control our thoughts. We have to make good and wise decisions in our lives. Because in this world, Satan is fighting against us every step of the way. But with God's help, we can do it. We can reach the top of the mountain. We can put sin out, and we can keep it out. Brethren, I hope you have a good remainder of the Sabbath. Remember, we'll see you back here next Friday.