Look at chapter 12 of Hebrews.
We'll actually speak on a verse or two in chapter 12, but I wanted
to Read some from chapter 11 To get us into the context of
this chapter 12 Verse 1 it says we're foreseeing We are also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses that Let
us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus. That's what all of, wherever
it says by faith, by faith, by faith in chapter 11, that's what
it means. They did it looking unto Jesus. Everything they did, they did
it looking to him. By faith, Abel offered the more excellent
sacrifice. It says a more excellent. There's
just one excellent sacrifice. All the other ones point to him.
He offered the excellent sacrifice looking unto Jesus, the lamb
that takes away sin. The author and finisher of our
faith. The one faith looks to is the
one that gave the faith that looks. All things are of Him. Looking
unto Jesus who authored our faith, and we'll have to finish it,
lest we fall, lest we fail. Who for the joy that was set
before Him, this is who we're looking at, who counted it joy. to endure the cross, despising
the shame or counting the shame as a small thing, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. We're looking to him And
in case you get to the place where you're so weary and torn
apart and broken down that you're having a hard time to look to
it, consider Him. That's the only remedy. The only remedy, consider Him
and you'll look to Him if God gives you grace to know Him.
Now, no question these men and women in chapter 11 are set forth
before us to consider their examples. And that's not a bad thing, to
look to them as examples. We see that all through the word
of God. The Bible is full of examples. In Hebrews chapter
three, the Old Testament Israelites are mentioned, particularly those
who refuse to enter into the land that God had promised and
commanded that they occupy. because they were afraid of the
Canaanites, and God made them wander for 40 years in the wilderness
because of their unbelief. And listen to Hebrews 3, 17.
But with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them
that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to
whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believed not? So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. Then in chapter four, verse 11,
We're exhorted this way. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest. The rest that was pictured by
entering into the rest that was spoken of there in chapter three,
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. We're warned by example of the
unbelief that is by nature rampant in our hearts. So there are bad
examples in the scripture that serve as warnings to us. Some
other bad examples are given in first Corinthians 10, 11.
Listen, now all these things happened unto them for in samples
and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends
of the world are come. And then there are good examples
that serve as instruction and encouragement in the word of
God. The word means to be imitated. Example James 5 10 Take my brethren
the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an
example of suffering affliction and of patience of Steadfastness
take them for an example Because they suffered they've spoken
in the name of the Lord and they suffered for it Take them as
an example endure hardness Paul wrote to Timothy as a good soldier.
I Jesus Christ with these men as examples. Because God gave
them what they needed, he'll give you what you need if you
ask him for it. And these mentioned in our context
are set forth in chapter 11 as examples. They're not given in
order to cause us to admire those men. but the one whom they believed,
the one who they walked with, the one who they obeyed, the
one who they chose and trusted and looked for. What are they
examples of? That's the question. Well, as
examples, they set forth the glorious truth that Christ is
worthy of our steadfast confidence. He's the one we're to be looking
to. That's what they're examples of. They look to him. They did
what they did by faith in Christ. And that's what they're examples
of. And so this life of faith is pictured as a contest. Run
the race, we read there in chapter 12, verse one. It's pictured
as a contest, a race as an athletic event. It refers to the Olympic
games. And these examples are pictured
as witnesses, but our eyes are pictured as being set upon the
same one their eyes were set on. That's the important thing
in this. That's how you run the race,
by setting your eyes on Christ. Not by doing your best, not by
striving in the flesh, but by looking to him. Verse two, looking unto Jesus.
We're not looking unto Moses. Why would we do that when Moses
was looking to Christ? Moses wrote of me, Christ said.
So why would we look to Moses if Moses is looking to him? Let's
look where he's looking and see by God's grace what he saw. And
he wrote in all of his writings, the first five books of the Bible
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what our Lord said to
the Pharisees who looked to Moses and not Christ. When they caught
that woman in adultery, they said to the Lord Jesus, Moses
said to stoner, what do you say? When Stephen preached the gospel
to them in Acts chapter six, they said, this man has spoken
blasphemous words against Moses. That was the Pharisees hope was
Moses, our father Moses. How can you blaspheme Moses?
He's a sinner like we are. They look to Moses and do you
know what our Lord told him in John 5 45? Listen, do not think
that I will accuse you to the father. There is one that accuses
you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Moses condemns you. How? For had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me. For he wrote of me. He believed
me. And you say you believe Moses.
You don't believe Moses unless you believe the one Moses believed.
wrote of So they were hypocrites as well as having a false hope
hoping in man in heritage in John chapter 8 Verses 31 through
56 this same truth Is set forth. Let me read you just part of
that passage if you want to jot that down for later this is that
same truth now John 8 31 through 56 in verse 38 and It says, I speak that which I
have seen with my father, and you do that which you have seen
with your father. And they answered and said unto
him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. You
do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God. Abraham
didn't do this. Do what Abraham did. If you're
gonna boast about Abraham being your father, why aren't you doing
what he did? He looked to me. He saw my day
and was glad. Abraham believed and obeyed God
in great trial. But don't make the mistake that
Pharisees did and let that cause you to make an idol out of Abraham.
Why would you trust Abraham when Abraham trusted Christ? We have Abraham as an example,
but we also have these Pharisees as an example of how we are not
to trust the sinner, including ourselves, but the one that sinners
trust and are saved. John 8, 56, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. These
Old Testament fathers, they were merchant men seeking goodly pearls. Listen to that passage again,
and this is what they were doing. Matthew 13, 45, again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who
when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all
that he had and bought it. Now, does that story make you
say, my goodness, boy, that was a smart merchant man? Or does it make you say, what
a pearl that must be? Wow, what a pearl. The story doesn't say the merchant
man was particularly shrewd, but it does say the pearl was
of great price. So when we run our race, there's
a cloud of witnesses, sure. They're examples. They're given
as an example and as encouragement. And those from whom's experience
of grace we may learn, but we're looking unto Jesus just like
they did. And we're exhorted in verse three
to consider him. The word looking in verse two
means this exactly. You look it up. To turn the eyes
away from other things and fix them on something in particular. That's what looking to Christ
is. You've got to look away from your works. You've got to look
away from your heritage. You know, Paul said, I was a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee is touching the flesh, blameless.
You've got to look away from that, and he did, didn't he?
He said, I put those things behind me and pressed toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God. Where's that, Paul? In
Christ Jesus. That's the race. We're racing
toward him. We're running after Christ as
hard as we can. And then having looked away from
other things and fixed your eyes upon Christ Jesus, do this. Once
you've looked away from your own so-called goodness that's
nothing but sin. You've looked away from your
own works. You've looked away from every other earthly hope.
You've looked away from riches and other things that people
hope in. And fix your eyes on Him. Here's
what you do now. Consider Him. Just think about
Him. Just dwell upon Him. Meditate. upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, ponder, think him over. This is what faith does. This
is what the sinner does when God gives that sinner faith,
when Christ authors faith in the heart of a sinner. We talked about some of the,
we read some of the exploits of faith. And that's a good word,
that's a scriptural word. It says in Daniel 11, 32, the
people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. When God gives you faith, you'll
do what nobody else can do, but another one that has that faith.
We're worshiping him this morning. This world can't even do that.
They might call it that. They're not worshiping the Christ
we know. Many are mentioned in chapter
11 of Hebrews, but this is the one that explains them all. Listen,
when Noah moved with fear, he did so looking unto Jesus and
considering him. When Abraham obeyed, he obeyed
God. God said, take your only son,
Isaac, whom you love, and offer him on Mount Moriah. Moses chose
the reproach of Christ and counted the reproach of Christ as greater
riches than all the treasures in Egypt. David, it says, subdued
kingdoms by faith, looking unto the Lord. He looked away from
the weakness of his flesh, didn't he, David, when he stood in the
face of the giant. If he had looked at himself,
he would probably ran home. Keeping sheep would have probably
started looking a lot better. But he looked away from himself.
And he looked to God, didn't he? He said, this giant's defying
the living God. How are we gonna stand here while
he does that? Look away from self and every
other false confidence and fleshly hindrance? Simon looked away, didn't he,
from Christ for a little bit. He saw the waves and the winds.
But then when Christ reached out and took hold of him, he
looked away from those things and saw the Savior again. We consider him, we fix our eyes
upon him, and then we consider him in our hearts. What do we
particularly look away from? One thing is self-righteousness.
We look away from our own works, what we call our goodness. It's
not that you're looking away from sin. unless you want to
just be honest with yourself and say all of your works are
sin, then that's what you're looking away from, sin. And be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. I don't
want anything to do with my righteousness before God. What do we look away
from? Our own imagined free will. You
don't have to look away from that. Oh, well, I can do, you
know, it's all up to me, no? John 1.13, which were born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. You have to look to Christ, God's
salvation, and look away from your own will. We must look away
from what salvation is not of. It's not of the will of man.
And look unto the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not of him that
willeth, Romans 9.16, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. What do we look away from? Fleshly
religion. It's so easy for people, of course,
anybody that doesn't know the Lord, it's a great weakness to
look to religion because it's so enticing, isn't it? It looks so good to man, you
know, to be able to just walk in and say, you know, I'm sorry
about this, this and this. And you're you go out without
any sin. That's not pretty good, you know. Paul said, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. This is a matter of life and
death. It's not a matter of having some disagreements on a few things.
We don't criticize the world's religion just to make fun of
people. We do it because it's a warning, because it's death. It's spiritual, eternal death. And life is only in Christ. And
so we're looking away. from fleshly religion. He said,
oh, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved for I bear them record. They have a zeal
of God. It's not that they're not religious.
They're nobody more religious than Jews. But that's, it's not
about that. It's about, they represent all
of religious man. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. That's the thing about it. If
you're religious and you don't know God, then your religion
is vain. It's worse than vain. It's spiritual
suicide. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. That's what you need to know.
You need to know how God, how righteous God is and how do I Get that. How am I going to measure
up? How am I going to be accepted
of Him? And they're going about to establish their own righteousness by the works of the law. Have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. How
do you do that? You know what the next words
are? For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to
everyone that believeth. Christ is the end of the law.
In other words, once you know Christ, it's the end of you looking
to the law in order to please God. Also, Christ is the goal
of the law, which is that word, in, means goal, the goal of the
law. Why did God give the law to begin with? It's a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. When we see how Condemned we
are under the law of God when we see how hopeless it is Trying
to keep the law is like putting all your fingers in the dam and
every leak you plug ten more spring forth It's impossible
To please God by the deeds of the law And so Christ is the goal of
the law he gave the law not to make us do better Better is still
hell He gave the law to point us to
Christ. When we despair of ourselves and our law keeping, there's
only one other place to look. And the woman with the issue
of blood spent all she had. And think about what that represents
now. What money she had, she had to work for that money. Maybe
she did people's laundry or sewed things or whatever she did. Maybe
she worked some kind of a construction job or something. I don't know
what she did, but she was weak. She had an issue of blood for
many years. She did whatever she could to
make a living. And so that's what that represents, the works
of man, the works of the flesh. This is what I can do. How about
that? Is that gonna make me whole before God? No, you're just gonna
get worse. The more you do, the worse you
get. Well, what am I going to do then?
If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole.
I'm going to look to him and I'm going to go to him and find
out whether he'll have mercy on me or not. So we're looking to somebody
in particular here described as the author. Well, first we're
looking unto Jesus. That's his earthly name. Thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. In him alone is salvation from
sin. Unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, not the Jesus of religion who's waiting on the
sinner to come up with some faith so he can save him. You talk
about feudal. If Christ is the author of faith,
you're not gonna be able to come to him with faith. You're gonna
have to come to him for faith. And then by faith, you'll never
stop coming to him. The one who gives faith to whom
he will, it's his to give, it's the gift of God, not of works. and who sustains faith. He's
the finisher of faith. He's the one who completes our
faith, who upholds us in the faith and causes us to die in
faith. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not waiting on sinners to
do anything. If the Jesus that's waiting on
you can't do anything for you, But if there is a Christ of God
that gives faith to sinners, I'm going to Him because I know
without faith, I can't please God. The one who's able to give faith,
you know, remember what he said to Thomas? Remember what Thomas,
sort of the epitome of all that Thomas said, you know? He said,
if I can touch, you know, reach into his hand and feel the wound.
Remember what he said at the end of that statement? Unless
I can do that, I will not believe. What a thing to say. I will not
believe. That's what everybody says by
nature. But you remember what Christ
said to him? Be not faithless, but believing. And that just
happens to be, what a coincidence, that just happens to be right
when Thomas fell on his face and said, my Lord and my God. That's the one that said, let
there be light. And there was light. He said, don't be faithless
anymore. Believe. And he did. That's who I, that's my hope. That's my savior. He that said, let there be light
can say, let there be faith. And there is. Where are we looking? Unto the one who endured the
cross. Who endured the cross. Why in
the world did he do that? Well, he did that, first of all,
to satisfy his father, to please the father. Because I'll tell
you this, the reason God has a law is so somebody will keep
it for his glory. Somebody's gonna glorify that
law. Somebody's gonna honor God's law. God's honor cannot be compromised. It's gonna have to be fulfilled. But none of us can do it, so
he sent his son. What the law could not do and
that it was weak to my flesh, your flesh, all flesh, God sent
his son to condemn sin in the flesh. by keeping the law, by
honoring the law, not just outwardly obeying the law, but inwardly,
doing it with all of his heart, loving the law of God indeed
with all of his heart. So we're looking to the one that
endured the cross. And the reason he died on Calvary
is as the perfect sacrifice who kept God's law, who fulfilled
the law, honored the law, paid for us not keeping the law. He
did what I couldn't do and paid for what I did do. How? By enduring the cross. For the
joy that was set before him, he endured it. The joy of pleasing
his father and the joy of saving us, that those that the father
gave him might be with him where he is, that they may behold his
glory. He did it not as a defeated victim. He didn't endure the cross like
that, but as a mighty champion, rejoicing in the spoils of victory. We look to the bloody cross where
the Lamb of God offered himself for my sins. That's who we're
looking to. It says we look unto Jesus who
endured the cross. We look to Calvary. We look to
Calvary where hangs the Son of God who loved me so much. that
he counted the shame a small thing. It wasn't a small thing. To bear all of the sin and shame
of all of his people for all time, that's not a small thing,
but he counted it as though it was. In order to redeem me, we look
to the cross and God forbid that we should glory save in the cross.
of our Lord Jesus Christ, because there's nothing glorious besides
that. We know who died on that cross.
We know what he accomplished on that cross. We don't look
to it as a peculiar shape that, you know, people worship crosses
as idols. The cross is a symbol of shame
and disgrace. It's the Christ of the cross
we look to. We look to his cross in that
it means Christ crucified. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. It is Christ that endured the
cross. That's where Stephen saw him,
standing at the right hand of God. What was he doing there? Paul said he was making intercession
for me as my high priest, but not with the blood of bulls and
goats, but with his own precious blood. Is that Romans 8.38, it
says, yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right
hand of God. Stephen saw him there, making
intercession for him and for us. We're looking unto him and
pondering him in our hearts. That's why we're here this morning.
to look to him and to think about him, to think about him from
the gospel, from the word of God, not just to cast a passing
glance, you know, like the world might do, maybe on Easter, you
know, somebody will come or on Christmas, but with a heart a heart of Christ-authored faith,
we look to Him. Because you see, once you fix
an eye of God-given faith on Christ, you don't ever look away.
To whom would we go? To where would we look? We want
to think on Him, to ponder who He is. God's only begotten, well-beloved
Son. Who He is. the fullness of all
of the Godhead in a body, in a human body. There's a man sitting
on the throne of God this morning. My savior, the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who is he? He's God's son, the
Christ. You know what that word Christ
means? Anointed, anointed of God above his fellows. Christ
the lamb, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God is eternal and the atonement
that Christ made on Calvary for our sins is eternal. Christ is the sovereign, who
is he? He's the sovereign, he's the king. He's the one sitting
on the throne. He's the one that sits upon the
circle of the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are his grasshoppers. He's the one that made everything
and who runs everything. He's the victory winning redeemer. He's the victorious redeemer.
He came into this world to save sinners by living for them as
our righteousness and dying for them as our sin offering. And
that's what he did. He's a satisfactory substitute. You'll hear God's preachers use
that word, substitute and satisfaction. God must have satisfaction for
sin. He must have his law satisfied. And Christ is the only one who
could and did. And he did it for somebody. He
did it for us. Know him us whom he chose from
the foundation of the world He came into this world To save
us and why did he come? Who he is what he did he came
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Paul said of
whom I'm chief So what did he do? He saved sinners
by his precious blood. Why did he do it? Well, I've
said to you many times, you could trace everything back to what?
Why did he do it? Well, because I was one of the
elect. Yeah, but why was I one of the elect? You keep asking why and you'll
end up in one place, love. It's the only answer to the question,
why in the world would the son of God die for a worm like me? Because he loved me. Because
he loved me. That's just all there is. He
loved me with an everlasting love. And me being a sinner, him loving
me and me being a sinner, the only way he could have me with
him was to represent me Redeemed me Right now where is he now? He
sits on the throne of glory Having proven worthy in his holy human
life The only way I'm getting to glory is by being worthy And
there's no hope of me ever being that except in Christ I He's
in glory because he is worthy. And he's sitting on the throne
of glory because of his holy life of righteousness, doing
always those things that please the Father. And he's there having
been successful in his sin atoning death. If God doesn't accept
my offering, I'm a goner. If God hadn't accepted Christ's
offering, he would have been a goner. Of course, that's a
foolish thing to say, because he is the offering for sin that
God accepts. And so he's there in glory, having
been successful in his sin-atoning death, and he reigns, it says,
until all of his enemies be made his footstool. It says those
who know him will reign with him. and those who don't will
be his footstool. And until all his redeemed are
called home to be with him forever, when he calls home the last one,
he said he's gonna burn up this world and everything in it and
make a new one for us to dwell in, and wherein dwelleth righteousness.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And in the meantime, by the faith
that he authored, by faith that is the fruit of his spirit, by
faith that is his gift, not of works, lest any man should boast,
by that faith, and even now, the faith that he's sustaining
and finishing and holding me up in, by that faith we look unto him
and by his grace, We consider him. That's what we do. That's the cure for every ill. You got heartache, trouble, pain,
shame, problems, difficulties in relationships, or just with
yourself. I have a hard relationship with
myself a lot of times. It's hard for me to please me. Much less God. Here's the cure. Consider Him. Consider Him who
endured the cross, who for the joy that was set Him, died for
you on Calvary, and solved every problem you have, whether you
know it or not. It looks like you still have
some, doesn't it? I think I have some problems. Not really. Not really. He's promised us
that they'll work for our good. That doesn't sound like a problem,
does it? That almost sounds like a blessing.
Because of Christ. May we always look to Him. And
never look away by His grace. Amen.