Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. I'd like to consider verse 2. 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. Let's pray together. Our Father this evening, how
thankful we are for another time to be able to assemble ourselves
together. And Lord, thank you that you've
raised up the gospel in this place, and you've been pleased
to allow the candlestick of light and life to be here these many
years. Lord, have mercy. Lord, would
you bless your word tonight to the salvation of sinners. We
look to You, wait on You, and ask You for mercy. For it is
in Christ's name we pray, Amen. Last time we met, we looked at the first verse
of Hebrews 12, and we considered the race that others had run. Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews
considers the race, the race of faith. And as we looked at
the race that they ran, the Scriptures encouraged us to lay aside, verse
1, every weight, every number one, every priority, that would set itself up as a
hindrance to the hearing of the gospel. Lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, that sin that is surrounding,
that sin that finds itself adhering to us, that sin of unbelief,
and let us run with patience Waiting on the Lord. Looking
unto Him. Run with patience the race that
is set before us. Now, in the directing of our
race, the Scripture talks about a believer running a race. Fighting
a fight. A good fight. A good fight of
faith. This world that we're in, that
we're not of, There's a battle that goes on. There's a war within. A war without. But the greatest
battle that we fight is inside. Warring, struggling, old nature,
new nature, contrary one to the other. And as we run our race,
we need some direction. The Word of God is our direction. The scripture sets forth concerning
our race that we are to look to God's word, considering God's
word which is profitable, which is advantageous. Profitable for
doctrine, for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness, for teaching concerning our justification
before God. How do we know who we are in
the Lord Jesus Christ saved by God Almighty teaching us? So we consider this race that
we run and lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us. Now here is my question for this
evening. How? How do we run the race? We're in a race. The Scripture
says we're running it. How do we do it? Verse 2, looking
unto Jesus, considering attentively. The Lord Jesus Christ, the author,
the leader, and the finisher, the perfecter 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. Now, we never, well, we should never, to say
we never, look to ourselves, it's not so. We do look to ourselves
and we're disappointed. There's the grieving of a believer. If you want to know where to
find some grief, look within. I can tell you for a fact, I
don't have any security looking to myself. I have none whatsoever. We look to ourselves, and then
I remember without Him, I can do nothing. All of the examples that we were
given in Hebrews chapter 11, we don't look to others that
went before us. Now, I'll tell you this, I'm
like this and you are too. There's men that I dearly love. Preachers. I dearly love. I love them for their stand for
the gospel of God's grace. I love them for their study of
the Scriptures. I love them because of their
heart for God's people, for God's gospel. I love them. But I'll
tell you what will happen. Watching them and trying to emulate
them, what I'm going to end up doing is I'm going to emulate
their weaknesses. They'll disappoint me just like
I will them. So I can't look to myself, I
can't look to others. The eye of our faith, the eye
of faith looks only to the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who began
and who completed the will of Almighty God perfectly. This is what I know. That I am
justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. We look to Him and realize
that His faith as the God-man, He walked before God Almighty
perfectly. The Scripture sets forth looking
unto Jesus. How do we look? Number one, we
look unto Him. who was the obedient servant
of God." Now, you know, I say that so easily. That just flowed
just so easily off my tongue. We look unto Him who is the obedient
servant of God. But may I, by the grace of God,
stop for just a few minutes and muse on that thought There is
one, there is one that has obeyed God perfectly. There is one that has stood before
God's law and on his own merit, according to his own work, according
to his own walk, he served God. He served his Father and the
Father of God's people. as the federal head and representative
of all that God everlastingly loved, and we look unto Him thankfully. Lord, according to Your mercy,
according to Your grace, Lord, Your faith has been imputed to
me. It is not the way I see myself. It's the way that Almighty God
sees His Son. And looks upon me in His Son. The hope that I have that Almighty
God looks upon Him and sees me in Him. and accepts me in Him. The only way that I can know
that is by faith. I believe Him. I believe God. By the grace of God, I look to
Him who is the author and finisher of our faith. Which is to say,
He's the author and finisher of our salvation. Because without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Thanks be unto Him that it's
not mine that He looks to. Without faith, it's impossible
to believe God. I'm talking, Gary, of perfect
faith. Never wavering faith. I'm talking
about a faith that never doubted, never doubted, never one time.
That there was no spot, no blemish, there was not anything there
that the Father ever saw that was not perfect. Without that faith, not a wavering
faith, without His faith, it's impossible to please God, God
Almighty who will not look upon iniquity. God Almighty who is
just looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, charged us and then faith to
believe that it's His faith by which God Almighty accepts us
in the Beloved. Oh, the perfect beginner. and finisher of our faith. So
when we look to Him, who are we looking to? We're looking
unto Jesus, the One who begins and finishes our faith. Second, we look unto Him who
endured the cross. I looked at that who endured
the cross, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame." What confidence the Spirit of
God has set before us as we are told of the Lord's joy in the
redemption of His people. for the joy that was set before
Him. He delighted in the work that was given Him
of His Father. He delighted in it. I've got
God's Word on that. Psalm 40 verse 8, I delight to
do Thy will. Oh my God! Yea, thy law is within
my heart." He delighted in the redemption of those that he had
everlastingly loved. He delighted in their salvation. Oh, for grace that I might run
with patience to the city of refuge, to the Lord Jesus Christ. When I think of that which He
bore, I read the account of it. I read of the mock trial. I read of the whipping that He
took. I read of the crown of thorns
that was placed on His head. They put a robe on Him, a purple
robe on Him. They put a stick in His hand. They put a stick in His hand.
Then they spit on him. And then they walked up behind
him and slapped him. And they said, prophesy! Who
slapped you? Who slapped you? You say you're
the Son of God. Pulled his beard out. Put a cross on his back. Walked
up until they got Simon of Cyrene Barry's cross up there nailed
him to the cross, mocked him. When it says he endured the cross, I read a little bit about it,
and everything that we know about the cross and the sufferings
of the cross I think fall very short, and it still does to me.
Very short of the sufferings that He bore. But the cross,
the crucifixion, was the execution of the dregs
of society. That was the most hideous, it
was the most cruel execution that could take place. It nailed
you to a cross and you hung until you suffocated. And if it wasn't
fast enough, they'd break your legs so you couldn't hold yourself
up until you suffocated. And when you went to the cross,
it was because of the heinousness of your crimes, of who you were. You were the lowest of the low. You were nothing! You were nothing! When they executed him according
to God's good pleasure, he who humbled himself, he who bore
the guilt of his people, he who bore what his people deserved,
the lowest of the lowest, those that would treat God Almighty
with disrespect, he was made sin. and bore the heinousness
of the cross. And he delighted. He delighted
to do the will of God. He endured the cross and the
shame, the shame of that, I mean, if you were talking about one
of your family or something, it was a criminal or something,
and he was executed. How did they execute him? Oh,
they nailed him to a cross. They nailed him to a cross. And he despised the shame. But for the joy, that was ever
in His view. His people that had ever been
given in electing grace. Those people that the Father
gave to Him as the bride. That was His bride. That was His precious bride.
The bride that He loved. The Chosen of His Father, the
Chosen of the Son, Chosen of the Holy Ghost. Those that were
given Him from before the foundation of the world that the Father
gave Him to redeem. Those that He looked upon, I've
quoted so many times out of the book of Song of Solomon, when
He looked at her and said, you've ravished Me with one of your eyes, you steal my heart. I love you. I love you. I love you. When she fell in
Adam, when in her mind she was an enemy, in her mind an enemy
against him, When He came into this world to live for and to die for those
that Almighty God had ever given Him, those that He knew, that
He had always known, that He had always loved, always cherished, when He came into this world
and was to redeem her, He would suffer The lowest execution that
there was. The most heinous, the most painful,
setting forth that which He bore. Her guilt. And the scripture
says that He despised the shame. He treated the shame and humiliation
of the cross as not shameful to Him. It was not humiliating to Him. This is the Father's will. This
is the joy of my heart to redeem her. To pay her debt and put
away her guilt. Put away her sin. Being found,
Philippians 2.8, in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. How low? I don't know. I don't know how low. But he
was made the low. He said of John the Baptist, none
greater than John the Baptist, born a woman. But he said the
least. the least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than him. He made himself, Eric, the least. The least. Despise the shame. Bore the humiliation of the cross. Let me ask you this. What would you bear? What would
you bear? For your wife? What would you
bear for Sandy? If you could, what would you
bear? Carl? Whatever it took. Whatever you could. Whatever
you could bear. The dregs The slop, whatever
it took, you'd bear it for the one you loved. For the joy that was set before
Him. Her redemption. Her life, her
eternal life. An eternal presence with Him. To cleanse her, to wash her in
His blood, He endured the cross. despising the shame. And then
thirdly, looking to Him and His reward. The Scripture says, "...and is set down..." He's
done. He's done. "...set down at the
right hand of the throne of God." most hideous and humiliating
thing that man could dish out. This is the most grievous, the
most humiliating death that we can execute. We're going to give
you the dregs of our ability. And he despised it. He despised
the shame. was not shameful to him, and
God has highly exalted him. And given him a name above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that he's Lord. He sat down. He rests from his work. And I'm
telling you, a believer rests in him. A believer rests from
his work of trying to justify himself before God. Christ did
it. Christ bore His people's sin. Christ imputed His righteousness
to His people. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
God for her, and now ever liveth to make intercession for those
that He has eternally loved. He eternally occupies the place
of sovereign authority as the obedient Son. All power. He's given unto Him in heaven
and earth. And being the obedient servant of God, He's the One
that's going to judge all men. They're going to judge Him according
to Himself. Either in Him, according to mercy,
or apart from Him in judgment. The Scripture says, The Father
judgeth no man hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Look
to Him. Looking unto Him. Running the
race, set before us, we look unto Jesus who is the Captain
and the Completer. We do not look to our faith.
We look to Him who dwells within our heart by faith. We look unto Him who is our Shepherd,
who guides us even now. We read these words. In these
words, blessed by the Spirit of God to the hearts of God's
people, here's the voice of the shepherd right here. My sheep,
hear my voice. Listen to what he says. Look
unto me, the author and finisher of your
faith, you that know him. Look unto me, who for the joy
that was set before me, I endure at the cross. I despise the shame. And I see it. And I'm coming
back to get you. All my friends, make much of
the means of His grace. Study His Word. Hear His Gospel
preached. Ask and seek and knock in prayer. beseeching Him to lead, guide
and direct your steps. Lord, may it be so. Guide me. In closing, let me remind you
what Satan will ever be ready to remind us of. Your sins are too great for pardon. You waver too much. You don't confess your sins as
you ought. You certainly don't have the
faith that was spoken of in the 11th chapter here. You don't even truly believe
all of God's promises as you should. And you know what I say? You're right. You're right. But I'm not looking to myself.
This Scripture right here tells me looking unto Jesus. I'm disappointed every time I
look at me. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed. The only thing that I can come
out with is, Lord, have mercy. Lord, forgive me. Oh, but to
look to Him. To look to Him. And to believe
Him. To believe that His blood atones
for me. That is, covers me. When I see the blood, His righteousness
is my righteousness, imputed righteousness. I've never done
a righteous thing in my life. His intercession is for me. My husband, my Savior, my life,
my joy, my peace. By faith, looking unto Him, and
by the grace of God, soon we'll see Him as He is. Look unto Him. The Father does. Look unto Him
and live. Amen.