Good morning. Our text this morning will be
from Hebrews 12, but turn with me first to 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10. And we'll start reading verse 1.
1 Kings 10, 1. And when the queen
of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of
the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she
came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that
bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when
she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that
was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her
questions. There was not anything hid from
the king, which he told her not. You can turn now to Hebrews chapter
12. Over the last couple of months,
I've been in communication with someone that has questions. They
have good questions. They have hard questions. And
as I've been slowly answering those questions, it dawned on
me, I've asked these questions before. And as I considered that,
I thought, if I've asked them, if this person's asked them,
others have probably asked them too. Could these questions that
are being asked be some of the same questions the Queen of Sheba
came to Solomon asking? God granted Solomon great wisdom. But we have something he didn't
have. We have the completed Word of
God. The things that Solomon looked
forward by faith and saw are the very same things we look
back by faith and see completed. These hard questions before I
get to even the questions. These all have one answer. Hebrews 12, 2. Looking unto 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." The title of this study
this morning is, The Answer to Hard Questions. And the answer
is, Looking Unto the Lord Jesus Christ. All questions concerning
the name of the Lord What is his name? His name is Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, salvation is of the Lord. He is the author. He started it. He is the completer. He finished it. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising, often thought
despising there just means hating it, just despising it. Look that word up, despising,
thinking little or nothing of it, despising the shame, the
shame of our sin that he carried for his people, that shame for
which he bled and died as the just for the unjust, so that
he might redeem us to God. Looking unto 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. He is the victorious,
successful, reigning King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the
Almighty God. For every hard question concerning
the name of the Lord, there is this answer. Look unto the Lord
Jesus Christ and be ye saved. With that being established,
let's ask or let's consider a couple of these hard questions. And
we'll start with this one. There is a church on almost every
corner. And every one of these churches
say, we have the way to God. We are the true church. How do
we know which is true? To reduce this to its finest
point, is the gospel preached here? Do I, am I proclaiming the gospel? Most of you know I'm a computer
programmer by trade. Do you know what a computer understands? True or false? Yes or no? That's all a computer knows. When I'm working on an issue,
the thing that I have to get to, regardless of the complications
that the business comes to me with, the thing I have to get
to is a yes, no answer on everything. It seems as if there are as many
religions as there are communities in this world. But turn with
me to Galatians, Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. And verse
6, Galatians 1, 6, I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye
have received, let him be accursed." Paul declares here There is the
truth, the gospel, and there is the lie. There are only two
religions, and that is all that's been since Adam fell. Don't turn here, I'm going to
flip over. In Genesis 4, verse 2, and Abel was a keeper
of sheep. But Cain was a tiller of the
ground. And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. When these two men came to worship,
Cain brought the works of his hands from a garden that he had
tilled of the cursed ground. A garden he had tilled and he
had pruned, and in a word, he had worked that garden. The result, the fruit of that
garden, that garden that grew out of the cursed ground, Cain
brought of that fruit an offering to God. What happened to that
fruit, those vegetables that he brought, as soon as he cut
them from the vine, plucked them from the tree, got them from
that bush? What happened to that fruit?
It died. The moment it was separated,
it was dead. And he brought it and made this
pretty offering of this fruit. But in a day, at most, as it
sat under the hot sun, that fruit would have revealed what it was,
dead and rotting. There was no life in that fruit.
There was no blood. But Abel, he came with a lamb. A lamb which was born and sustained
without Abel. He was a keeper of the sheep,
yes. He kept them. Basically, he kept them from
wandering. That's about all he could do. That lamb had life. Blood flowed through its veins. That lamb was innocent of the
sin that Abel came to confess. Abel brought it as an offering,
and in shedding its blood, he confessed before God that God
is just, that my sins deserve death. I need a sin covering
that I cannot provide. I must have a substitute. Without knowing his name that
would be revealed later, Abel looked to the Lord Jesus Christ
in his offering. The religions pictured in this
account of Cain and Abel are the very same that exist today.
One worships and exalts the person and the work of the sinner, the
tiller of the ground, and has no blood offering. The other
esteems Christ alone above all others who gave himself and shed
his own blood in a sin offering for those he loves. How can we
know if we are hearing the true gospel declared? Back here in
Galatians 1 verse 3. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and of our Father. Grace be to
you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. All churches, all religions cry
grace, peace, If you do, if you avoid doing, grace and
peace. But the true gospel declares
grace and peace because, verse four, Our Lord Jesus Christ gave
himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom,
to Christ, be glory forever and ever. Amen. The hard question,
does the church I go to preach the gospel? Who receives the
glory, the sinner or the Lord Jesus Christ? Here's another hard question
I've been asked and have asked before. How do you know if you're
saved? To get to the heart, how do I
know if I'm saved? There is no magic simple answer
to this question, but everyone whom Christ has mercy on and
saves has this in common, looking unto Jesus Christ. Although God
deals with each of us individually, he reveals himself to each in
a similar manner. Turn with me to John 16. John chapter 16. We'll begin reading verse seven. Nevertheless, this is our Lord
speaking. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged. In these verses, our Lord has
described the work of the comforter in the redeemed sinner. The man,
woman, boy, or girl that the Lord is pleased to reveal and
to save them shall have all of this revealed to them. First,
they will be made to know what they are, sinners. Their sin will be revealed, not
as sometimes I do something bad, not that sometimes I tell a little
white lie that doesn't hurt anybody. Their sin will be revealed that
they are made to know from their very deepest, darkest selves,
everything they touch, everything they think, everything they do,
but sin, because it's who they are. Secondly, the Lord Jesus
Christ will be revealed as He is, who He is, not as an abstract
person, but as a man, a true man, so much more than just a man,
the God-man. The holy, immortal God who dwells
in a light that no one can approach unto is the man, Jesus Christ. Not only will we know who he
is, but we will be made to know that all sin, that sin that I
am, all sin is against Jesus Christ. It's against God. Thirdly, that sinner that God
has redeemed will have judgment revealed. Once it's revealed
that God is God, that God is just and must punish sin, that
all that I am is a sinner and sin. That's all I am. The sinner
knows that God is right to punish and should punish us, and we
readily confess, I am guilty and I deserve death. Verse 8, And when he is come,
he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Verse 13, How be it? When He, the Spirit of Truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak,
and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall
receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. in the darkness
of that soul that Christ redeemed, that the Holy Ghost reveals the
true nature of that person, that sin, the true nature of God,
the only true and living God, the Holy God, against whom we
have sinned, and the judgment, the death that we deserve, light
breaks forth. And we are caused to cease looking
for a remedy within ourselves. But we are caused to look unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. God became a man. God took upon
himself our nature because we can't take on his. He lived,
he became sin, he suffered the judgment on our behalf, he satisfied
the law and justice of God, he receives all the glory. Writing
to Timothy, Paul said, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I, the
chief of sinners, obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern, for an example,
to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul says, to those wondering
what it looks like when the Lord saves a sinner, Look at the way
the Lord revealed himself to me. Look to that as an example. So let's do that. Turn over to
Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine. Verse one. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. We tend to read
these words and think how awful Saul was. But let's be careful
how we judge men and women. If it wasn't for God's restraining
hand, that'd be me today, and more so if he allowed it. Verse
3. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light
from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto
him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do. Here God reveals himself to Saul
as he is, the Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He revealed
to Saul his sinful state, and that his sin, although he was
carrying out his desire towards the Lord's people, was against
God alone. Verse 7, and the men which journeyed
with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. God deals with us individually. We may be in the midst of men
who even the world at large considers most vile, such as those men
hanging on the cross, or in the midst of the congregation of
redeemed sinners. The Lord will deal with us as
individuals. Verse eight, and Saul arose from
the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, But
they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And
he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink." I don't know much about others'
conversions. But speaking for myself, when
the Lord was dealing with me, I was a most miserable person. And I couldn't get relief from
friends or family though they tried. Verse 17. And Ananias went his way and
entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way,
as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy
sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there
fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received
sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. In my misery, at
the appointed time, the Lord sent his message to me through
a man preaching the gospel. One day, as I sat listening to
a preacher that I had heard so many times before, from a passage
of scripture that I had heard preached from many times before,
suddenly I heard and saw the Lord Jesus Christ in that passage
of scripture. I saw Him as the Redeemer I had
to have, and by His grace, I continue to this day, looking unto Him
who gave Himself. He gave all. He, the King, became
the servant. He, the Just, was made sin. He, Life, shed His blood and
laid down His life. He, the Judge of all the earth,
bore justice on our behalf. He who is all surrendered all
to the salvation of us nothings. How do I know if I'm saved? Has the Lord Jesus Christ been
made all to you? Well, do you answer, I'm not
sure. Others seem so confident, so
sure about their salvation, but I'm just not sure. Is there anything
I can do? Look unto Jesus. Go before him
in prayer. Pour out your heart and ask him
to reveal to you who you are, who he is, and ask him to have
mercy and to save you. Do we ever really get beyond
that? Paul, the Apostle Paul, in his
latter years said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus." Paul continued, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. As we poor sinners have these
hard questions come to our minds, For there are many more than
this to be asked. May the Lord be pleased to cause
our answer to be looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And may
he cause us to turn to him, to seek him, and may he be pleased
to answer us through his word. Pray that's a blessing.