"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:1,2).

These verses connect closely with the previous chapter. The great cloud of witnesses are those
spoken of there:witnesses, not in the sense of being spectators (though in a certain sense we are
running our race under the eyes of all who have gone before), but the record of their lives bearing
witness to the truth and reality of all that God has promised and of His sustaining grace in the
midst of every circumstance. The effect of this upon us should be to stimulate us to run in the
same path. The apostle here, as in Philippians, uses the familiar illustration of the racecourse; only
here he dwells more particularly upon what would hinder the saints.

We are to lay aside first the weights, and then the sin which so easily besets us. The weight is not
necessarily a sin in itself, but that which hinders one in making progress. We often hear, alas, the
question:What is the harm or the sin in my doing this or that thing; engaging in this business, or
indulging in that pleasure? The question is answered here. Is the thing a weight, or is it a wing?
Is it that which speeds you on your course or does it hold you back? If it is a weight, it will lead
inevitably to that which follows after.

Here Lot gives us a sad example. Morally speaking, Lot was separate from the wickedness by
which he was surrounded; he vexed his righteous soul about it. But his business interests, the
facilities for heaping up wealth, outweighed his pilgrim desire. What do you find as a result?
Follow him a little further, and see him in that mountain cave all tarnished with unspeakable sin
and corruption. There you see the sin which easily besets those who are held down by weights.

If a child of God is to be a racer, he has to lay aside what will hinder him in his race. Suppose a
man has a real desire to run a race and one should offer him an attractive garment to put on, or
something pleasant to eat or drink as he was about to start, or a bag of gold to carry with him. If
he desires to win the race, everything of that sort will be laid aside_not because it is inherently
evil, but because it is injurious to him as a racer.

These weights are not necessarily external:they are first of all in the heart. We all have our duties
in this Me to fulfill, yet these are never weights. But the moment a thing gets a place in my heart
and mind which is not in God’s mind for me, it becomes a weight, no matter what it is; and the
effect is soon manifest.

To illustrate further from Israel’s history, in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people
of what Amalek did to them when they came out of Egypt. The host was being led forward by the
pillar of cloud and of fire. But there were some who lagged behind; they were the stragglers, the
camp followers_doubtless some of that mixture that had come out of Egypt. Amalek fell upon
the rear-such attacks are always upon the rear_involving the whole of the children of Israel in a
conflict which would have been unnecessary had all been pressing forward diligently.

This is an important spiritual lesson. Our heavenly Guide is leading us on. If, as the apostle says,
we are "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, [we] press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling" (Phil. 3:13,14), Amalek (the
lusts of the flesh) will not overtake us. We may struggle against fleshly lusts; we may conquer,
by the grace of God through Christ’s intercession; but why should there be such a conflict? Does
not the very fact of such conflict point unmistakably to the fact that we are lingering behind?

There is also a conflict in front, but it is not with the flesh and its lusts, dragging us back to Egypt.
The enemy in front is the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places who would hinder us from
entering fully into our inheritance. To fight that enemy is the mark of genuine spiritual growth _a
very different thing from struggling with the lusts of the flesh which war against the soul. The
apostle Peter says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims" (that is, those who
are running this race), abstain from those things which are behind_fleshly lusts which assail you
if you linger. If your eye and heart are in the world, if you linger there, the first thing you know
you are engaged in a rear conflict that brings nothing to your credit.

The sin "easily" besets us. Let us never forget that, nor think for a moment that we can get in a
position in which sin will not be natural to the flesh, or where we do not need to be on our guard.
Sin is as natural to the flesh as it is for an animal to breathe. And the moment the eye is taken off
Christ, you have the certainty of the sin besetting you. It follows after, and we can only run away
from it by pressing on in the race. Then you will distance fleshly lusts like wolves in the distance;
as you speed on your way the shouts grow fainter, with less likelihood of your being overtaken.

We are to run this race with patience, or endurance. The Galatians began to run well. Their faith
was so bright, it was as though everything was enacted before their eyes; and their love so fervent
that they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to the apostle. But look how they
began to falter. Questions came in as to the law-teachers subverted them from the gospel of
Christ_and those who were running so well were hindered. It is not enough that we have run up
to the present time; until we reach the goal we are to press on. Where Christ is, is our goal; and
until we are there with Him, we will never have finished our race.

It is an appointed race. Every step of this course has been marked out for us. We know not how
long it is, but God knows every step that each of us has to take. It is one race that all the people
of God have to run_from the cross up to the glory. You begin at the cross when, as a poor sinner
with nothing in your hands but your sin, you come to Christ. The goal is where He is, at the right
hand of God.

Those are the general marks of the racecourse, but each of us has a specially appointed race
answering to his life down here. Some of us live longer, some a short length of time. Some have
passed through outward persecution, others have had very little of that; whatever the course may
be, it is the race set before us. Our blessed Lord has gone the whole way before us; He has
marked out the appointed course for His people. We are never called upon to take a single step
where we do not find His footprints ahead of us to show us the way.

Thus in running the race set before us, it is ‘looking unto Jesus" (or rather, looking off unto

Him_for that is the force of the word). It is looking off first from the weights and the sin, on to
Jesus; for that which gives power to discard the weights is to catch the eye of the One on high.
We will then drop everything that is not consistent with the perfect will of that blessed Master.

But there is more even than that, I think. We have had a whole chapter of witnesses, from Abel
onward. We can look at them and thank God for them; but in the race we are to look away even
from them. We are not to be entirely occupied by any of the examples of faith, whether past or
present, but to look off from them all unto Him who is the Leader and the Perfecter of faith.

(From Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews.)