The Pursuit Of Holiness
By Sammy Tippit
The following is edited from a message given at the Heart-Cry for Revival Conference in November 2009 at The Cove, Asheville, North Carolina U.S.A.
For the past two and a half years I have been experiencing the greatest revival of my life. It began about the time I was diagnosed with cancer, and I took a look at my whole life in that context. God allows things to come into our life that cause anguish, pain and suffering. When that happens it is beneficial because then we begin to seek Him and to say, "O God, I want You. I want to know You."
Scripture Calls Us to a Race of Endurance
One day as I began to read the Scripture and go to God, I prayed, "Speak to my heart. I want to hear from You. I want to hear from heaven." God spoke to me through one verse of Scripture, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).
I received from God one word: "Run." Now that seemed a strange word since I was sixty years old.
When I was a pastor in Germany, about thirty years before the diagnosis of cancer, a friend of mine and I had been training to run the original Greek Marathon. We were preparing by running trails and running on hills. Then my friend was killed in an automobile accident. When he was killed it was as though that dream died and was buried with him. My heart broke so I quit running. Occasionally off and on I would run or jog or walk, but not much. I began to put on weight. Now thirty years later the doctor had said to lose weight and build some endurance. I remembered that dream. God began to revive in my heart that dream of running the original Greek Marathon.
Of course, it looked impossible for me to do at the time. I went through the surgery. I had other problems: a foot problem, and twisted shoulder ligaments which required therapy. Yet God said, "Run." I said, "Lord, I do not understand why, but I will run." As soon as the doctor gave me freedom to start training, I started running.
God began to teach me something about revival and about the Christian life through running. I discovered that the Bible uses several comparisons of the Christian life to running. For example, Paul said, "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). And Isaiah wrote, "…they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Isa. 40:31). When God talks about running, He talks about a lifelong run, about not becoming weary in the life that He has given you. As I have returned again and again to the Book of Hebrews, I have found some great truths relating to the athlete and to the race.
Jesus, the Superior One, the Holy One
Hebrews chapter one begins by saying that Christ is "the radiance of the glory of God and the express imprint of His nature…" (v. 3). The introduction to the Book of Hebrews is that Jesus is in a category all His own for He is the exact representation of God’s person. Do you want to see the beauty, and the splendor and the glory and the majesty of God? Look unto Jesus.
He is far superior to the angels. He is far superior to Moses, the great leader, the greatest prophet to arise in all of Israel. Jesus is greater than all of the prophets for He is more than a great prophet. He is God in human flesh. He is greater than Israel’s high priest for He is the ultimate High Priest, the One who would go into the Holy Place once and for all to pay the price and give the sacrifice.
His new covenant is better than the old covenant. When He shed His blood on that cross two thousand years ago, it was not something that had to be repeated over and over again like the shedding of the blood of goats and bulls and sheep or any other animal. Christ’s blood was like no other blood that flowed on the face of this planet. He made a covenant with His eternal blood so that you and I once and for all could be forgiven. By this covenant, He says in Hebrews chapter ten, "Let us draw near" into that holy place. You and I have been given access into the very holy of holies because a High Priest has gone in and offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. You and I can now come into the presence of a Holy God. All of this was done by Jesus.
In Hebrews 11 we read of Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Moses’ parents, etc. who lived by faith and looked forward to a coming Messiah. Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day" (John 8:56). These men and women in Hebrews chapter 11 were people like us. They had been called to run a race and they ran the race. They are witnesses as to how we are to run that race.
Purpose of the Lifelong Race
Then we come to Hebrews chapter 12: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (v. 1).