Service with a hymn from the
softback hymnal number 47, The Covenant Ordered and Sure. And
let's all stand together. Number 47. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast. God my Father chose his own. in the person of His Son, and
ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly,
Stood as my great surety, For my price He offered blood, To
appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb. By his mighty, sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. I love that hymn. The gospel
is so clear in that hymn. And David's last words, though
my house be not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. This is all my salvation
and all my desire. That's what we just sang. What
glorious hope we have in knowing that our sovereign God established
such a sure covenant of grace that none can be lost that are
in it. We're going to be looking at
Hebrews chapter 12 this morning, the beginning of the end of Hebrews
11 and beginning of Hebrews chapter 12. I want to welcome the Sarasota
group here this morning and hope that you all will be able to
come over to our house this afternoon and spend some time in fellowship
together. Rich, good to have you home and
out of the hospital. Peggy Avila was diagnosed with
pneumonia yesterday and she is in Florida Hospital East on IV
antibiotic and hopefully she'll recover from that. So Henry and
Peggy won't be here today. One month from now, if you can
believe it, is our conference, a month from now. So Todd Nybert
and Joe Terrell are going to be here, Lord willing, to preach
for us. So 15th, 16th, and 17th of January. I hope that you'll remember to
ask the Lord to prepare our hearts for that and to prepare the messages
that we need to hear. and be pleased to glorify himself
in those meetings one month. All right, let's ask the Lord's
blessings on his word. Our heavenly father, we come
before thy throne of grace thanking you that we have an advocate.
We have one who has provided for us thy mercy and thy grace
by the sacrifice of himself. We ask Lord that you would send
your spirit and power that the Lord Jesus Christ will be lifted
up in our hearts and that we would be brought to find in him
our all and find him to be in all. For truly Lord by him and
through him and to him are all things. We pray for Peggy. We ask, Lord,
that you would be merciful to her. We pray that you would speak
comfort to her heart by the sweet presence of thy spirit, and we
pray that your hand of healing would be upon her and recover
her strength. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. In Hebrews chapter 11, the Lord recounts for us several of the
Old Testament believers and tells us about their faith. The significance of Hebrews chapter
11 is that None of the events that we read about pertaining
to these individuals in the Old Testament accounts are brought
out in terms of their failures or their weaknesses. The only
thing that's described is their faith, and they are called saints
of God because of that faith. What a, what a hope that we have
in knowing that all of our failures are covered by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're found in him, we're
part of this, of this chapter. We're part of this, this hall
of faith, if you will, all of God's people find themselves
in hope of salvation. by the faith that the Lord has
given them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith at the end of the
day is all we have. And faith at the end of the day
is all we need. It's all we need. Faith is the
substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. We don't look to anything else
to get assurance of our salvation. We look in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ as our substitute, as our sin bearer, as our advocate
before God, as our savior. And God's pleased with that.
The Lord is honored when Christ is exalted and when he's believed
on. Now the last part of chapter
11 will begin with verse 35, women received their dead raised
to life again. And the others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Now he's just going to summarize
now that that's particular individuals have been mentioned. The Lord's
going to summarize many of the old Testament saints as they
suffered martyrdom for believing God. And others had trial of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn
asunder, 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. In this world you shall suffer
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Paul said in Romans chapter 8,
I reckon that the sufferings of this life cannot be compared
to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Now that's where the Lord's
taking us. He's reminding us of how saints
of old have suffered as a result of the gospel in this world.
But they remained faithful, believing that their life was not bound
up in the things of this life. Believing that their life was
bound up in Christ for all eternity. And that was their hope. That
was their hope. Looking beyond the temporal circumstances
of this world, knowing that that which is temporal shall pass
away, so that that which is eternal shall never pass away. And that's
what faith does. Faith looks to the eternal, those
things that cannot be shaken. of whom the world was not worthy,
they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and
in caves of the earth, and these all, having obtained a good report
through faith, received not the promise." They looked in faith
to the promise of God, but they weren't able to see, as we are,
the fulfillment of that promise. We have such more of a fuller
revelation of the covenant of grace than they ever hoped to
have. They looked at shadowy types
and figures. They looked at the promises of
God as they were revealing in a very veiled way the hope of
eternal life. But what the Lord is about to
say to us is that, oh, what you know is so much more than what
they ever could have possibly understood. They could never
have possibly fully comprehended the fulfillment of the promises
that we now have revealed to us in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They could not have seen Him
coming as He did, and dying as He died, and raising from the
dead as He did, and ascending back into glory, and being seated
at the right hand of God. They could not have fully comprehended
what we now see. Now, here's the point of the
passage. If they endured the sufferings of this life with
the veiled hope that they had, how much more ought we to be
able to endure the things of this world with the clarity of
revelation that we have now in light of the fulfillment of the
promises? They had the promise, but they didn't have the fulfillment
of it in that regard. God having provided some better
thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect. In other words, their faith and
our faith where just saints, the scripture says, made perfect. Just saints made perfect. Justified
through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, made perfect
by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
they and us enter into glory together. That's what he's saying. We're all gonna enter in together
at the same time. Chapter 12, I'm sorry, verse
1. Wherefore, in light of this, seeing that we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now the word witness
there is the same word translated martyr. That's the word. And that's what all witnesses
are. Now, I hope that we are able
to live out the rest of our life in this world with the kind of
peace that we've experienced thus far. We've not, we don't
have anybody trying to kill us. Uh, we don't have any, anybody
burning us at the stake or sawing us asunder or, or, or, or martyring
us with the sword. We don't have that happening.
And I pray that we don't. Nevertheless, to be a witness
of the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, a death is required. There is a dying to self that
has to be experienced in order for us to be able to stand for
Christ. And so, in that regard, every witness, every child of
God who witnesses to the gospel experiences that martyrdom, the
slaying of our flesh, that we might reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed in Christ. Let us lay aside every weight. and the sin which so easily besets
us." Now, some have read that phrase and thought, well, you
know, every person has a different temptation. Every person has
a different besetting sin. But that's not what he's talking
about. There's one sin that besets every one of us. There's one
sin that is the mother of all sins. There is one sin that is
the fountain of all of our problem. And that is the sin of unbelief. That's the sin that doth so easily
beset every one of us. That's what he's talking about
here, faith. Talking about trusting Christ. And every child of God
is brought to say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
I'm just so full of it. I'm so full of unbelief. It besets
me at every turn. It's the reason why I do what
I do. If we had perfect faith, perfect
faith, we would never sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that had perfect faith, and he's the only one that never
sinned. It's his faith. It's his faith. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on Calvary's cross, the hope of my salvation is that I was
in him. that I suffered when he suffered.
I died when he died. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I do live. Yet the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and died for me. So it's Christ's faith. It's
from faith to faith. Nevertheless, nevertheless, the
Lord is admonishing us. He's encouraging us. to to plead
for more faith and he's exposing what our problem is the sin that
does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us where we were when you think about a race
you mean I'm engaged in a race right now what is the goal of
your race what's the goal What's the end result of your race? Here's the answer, isn't it?
Turn with me back to Hebrews chapter 9. We looked at this passage Wednesday
night. Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse
15, and for this cause He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the mediator
of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions, to redeem us from our sins. that were under
the first testament they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance. Now that's the end of the race.
That's what this book is all about. And men that have not
the spirit of God All they can do is prepare everything for
this life. And what did the Lord say? What
does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? Well, people like Esau will sell
their souls for a pot of soup. They'll do it. And you'll do
it, and I'll do it. If the Lord doesn't give us an
interest in our immortal soul and a desire to have the Lord
Jesus Christ to be our Savior, our advocate, our sin-bearer. If the Lord doesn't do a work,
Lord don't let me live my life for the temporal pleasures of
this world. They're passing. Life is a vapor. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. Looking to those Old Testament
saints for encouragement. Is that what it says? I remember
back in religion we had books called character sketches and
the authors of those books would take particular characters from
the Bible and tell us what their strengths were and what their
weaknesses were so that we could emulate their strengths and avoid
their weaknesses, comparing ourselves to another sinner. No. After everything that's said
in Hebrews chapter 11, and after the Lord says, lay aside every
weight and the sin, unbelief, that doth so easily beset us,
let us run the race with patience, looking unto Jesus. That's who we look to. We're
not comparing ourselves to ourselves. We're not comparing ourselves
to another man. We're not comparing ourselves to the law. We're looking
unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the Lamb that was slain
before the foundations of the world. He was the one in whom
the Father saw all of his chosen elect redeemed before time ever
began. He's the one who came and fulfilled
that redemption through his sacrificial death. He's the one who was raised
from the dead and ascended back into glory. He's the one who's
seated at the right hand of God, who ever lives to make intercession
on behalf of his people. He's the one that's coming again
to receive us unto himself so that where he is there we may
be also. He's the author and the finisher of our faith. He's
the one who keeps us from falling and presents us faultless before
the throne of God with much joy. This description of the Lord
Jesus Christ is where every religion of this world airs. Free will works religion. will stand firm on believing
that Jesus Christ is the Omega, in that they will say, once you
make your decision, once you allow Jesus to come into your
heart, that makes you the Alpha, then He is faithful. Once saved,
always saved. Once you get in, you're good
to go, and you can't be lost. and they will declare the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Omega and deny him as the Alpha. The Reformed
Calvinist, on the other hand, will say, oh no, Jesus Christ
is the Omega? He's the alpha, I'm sorry. You're
dead in your trespasses and sins. There's no such thing as free
will. God has to do a work of grace to open the eyes of your
understanding. He's got to cause you to believe. The faith is a gift from God.
Regeneration is a miracle of grace. There's nothing that you
have to do with it. But, but, once he does that work,
Now it's up to you. Now it's up to you to go back
to the law and do your best in trying to keep the law and prove
yourself that you are a child of God. And so what do the reformed
Calvinists do? Oh, they're strong on church
discipline, aren't they? They're whipping each other and
they're measuring one another's works and they're inspecting
one another's fruits and they're trying to figure out, you know,
are you really a child of God or not, based on the outward
appearances of your obedience. And so they're firm on the Lord
Jesus Christ being the Alpha and deny him as the Omega. He looking unto Jesus. the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the author and the finisher of your faith. See, everybody that calls themselves
a Christian will fall into one of those two camps that I just
described, except for those who believe the gospel. And those
who believe the gospel believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the author and the finisher of their faith. He is all and he's
in all. I've got no contribution to make
at the beginning or at the end. He's gonna do it all. He's my
only hope. I'm so glad the Lord didn't say,
now look to Abraham. Look to Lot, look to Sarah, all
these saints that were looking unto Jesus. He is our rule of
life. He doesn't take you back to the
law. You don't measure yourself by
your obedience to the law. And we're gonna deal with this
in the next hour. You don't try to keep the law. Trying to keep the law of God
does not honor God. It dishonors Christ. If you think
about that, we'll deal with that a little bit more in a few minutes.
It dishonors Christ. Your attempts to keep the law
do not honor God. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him, now see, his faith is now going to be described.
Here's the one who had perfect faith. He suffered the shame
of the cross. He despised its shame. In other words, he counted it
a light thing. That's what it means to despise
something. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising its shame. Cursed is every man that hangeth
upon a tree. They spat upon him. They shamed
him. They crucified him. They mocked
him. If you be the son of God, come
down. Don't you know that while our Lord was hanging on Calvary's
cross, that every angel in heaven had their swords drawn, were
sitting breathless at the precipice of glory, ready to come into
this world and destroy everything to deliver the Lord Jesus Christ.
All he had to do was speak a word. One word. and they would have destroyed.
One angel in the Old Testament, one angel oftentimes wiped out
a whole army of the enemies of Israel. Every angel in glory
would have come at the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a sheep before his shearers,
he opened not his mouth. He remained dumb before God. Why? Because he was doing business
with God. God had sent him on a mission,
if you will. God had sent him in order to
shed his blood. We looked at that passage in
Romans, Hebrews chapter nine. Turn back with me there for just
a moment again. Hebrews chapter nine. Look at verse 14. We looked at 15 just a moment
ago. Look at verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God? The Lord Jesus Christ did not
offer himself to you and me. He didn't. He wasn't making an
offering of salvation on Calvary's cross. He wasn't saying, look
how much I love you, look what I'm doing for you, won't you
accept me? Won't you accept the offering
that I'm making? He offered himself without spot
to God. He was satisfying the demands
of God's holy justice and shedding his blood to cover the sins of
his people to Fulfill the requirements of the covenant of grace that
we just sang about He offered himself without spot to God and
he believed he believed that God would accept his offering
and He obligated God to fulfill the promise which was the salvation
of his people and The Lord Jesus Christ obligated God to fulfill
the promise. You and I can't obligate God.
We can't do it. But he did. Why? Because he went
to the cross, enduring the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Where is the Lord
Jesus Christ right now? One, when you read the Old Testament
account of the tabernacle, there's tables and basins and washings
and arcs and lots of different things. There's candles. There's one article that is conspicuously
missing in the tabernacle. There's never a chair mentioned.
Never a chair mentioned. Why? Because the priest's work
was never finished. They were constantly offering
sacrifices. And the sacrifices themselves
didn't put away sin. The sacrifices were a picture
of what would put away sin when the Lamb of God shed His blood
and made an offering of Himself to the Father to put away the
sins of His people. And when He did, the Father raised
him from the dead, received him back into glory, and said to
him, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. And that's exactly what he's
doing right now. We come into this world at enmity with God. And by the power of his grace,
He causes us to have our swords forged into pruning forks and
our spears into prowl shares. We give up our enmity with God
and we sit at His feet. We sit at His feet. The Lord
Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne of God
for consider Him. Consider Him. Don't look to your progress.
Don't look to yourself. Don't look to, you know, how
you're doing. Don't look to the Old Testament
saints. Don't look to anybody else. Look
to Him. Consider Him. He's the one that
was faithful to God. Consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself. Lest you be wearied
and faint in your mind. The Lord remembers that we're
made of dust. He knows that we get tired. He
knows that we get weary. He knows that we are on the verge
all the time of giving up. He knows that. And that's what
He's telling us. Look unto Jesus, the author and
the finisher of your faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him, and we have that same joy set before us, endured the cross
and despised the shame and is now sat down. He's received his
reward. Even though in this life he suffered
the contradiction of sinners. Have you ever suffered the contradiction
of sinners? Say, yeah, I got a guy I work
with that just hates me. No, no, no. No, I'm talking about
the person that's sitting in the same seat you're sitting
in. That's the center that contradicts
me. My life is a contradiction. I'm
in constant calm. My spirit wars against my flesh,
my flesh against my spirit. I cannot be what I would be. That's the shame of our unbelief,
isn't it? It's this body of death that
we carry about with us. And the Lord said, I suffered
the contradiction of sinners. I know what it's like. I know
what it's like. He didn't have the sinful nature
that we have. But then when he went to the
cross, he bore in his body all the sins of all God's people.
And he experienced, he experienced the forsaking of the Father,
becoming the substitute for sinners on the cross. Verse four, you have not yet
resisted unto blood. You've not yet been tied to a
stake and had the fire lit to your feet. You've not yet been
sawn asunder. You've not yet been pierced through
with a sword. Your afflictions don't measure
up to that, do they? The trials and troubles that
we have in this life don't compare to the things that other believers
have experienced and what the Lord Jesus Christ went through. He's telling us to look to Christ.
Look to Christ. You've not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin, I'm going to deal with this in
the second hour, what it means to strive against sin. What is
the sin? What is the sin that doth so
easily beset us? What is it? It's unbelief. It's not looking to Christ. It's
looking somewhere else for our satisfaction, for our hope, for
our happiness. It's diverting our attention
from the Lord Jesus Christ and trying to find some hope of salvation,
some happiness in life outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the sin that you struggle with. That's the sin that I struggle
with. All the other sins, plural, that are manifested are manifested
as a result of unbelief. So the sin that we're striving
against It's not, oh, well, I just need to quit doing that, and
I need to start doing this, and I need to get a bit, you know,
be a better person and fight these temptations. That's not
what he's talking about. He's talking about laboring to
enter in to His rest. That's our labor. To whom? Coming. We have to just keep
coming back to Christ. You've not yet resisted. You've
not yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would bless your word to the hearts
of your people. Cause us, Lord, in this hour
to look onto Jesus as the author and the finisher of our faith. We ask it in his name. Amen. Thank you.