If you take your Bibles and turn
back with me to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45, my text will
be found in verse 22. The scripture says, look unto
me. What's the result of this? And
be ye saved. Who? all the ends of the earth. Why? For I am God and there is
none else. This morning I want us to speak
on what it means to look unto Christ. We know this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The very text, the very verses
below this says that I have sworn by myself my word has gone out
of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. We know that
this is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the New Testament it tells
us that every knee shall bow to Christ. Every tongue shall
swear to Him, confess Him. And so this morning I want us
to know what it means. What does it mean to look to
Jesus Christ? I know many of you have looked
to Christ and are even now looking to Christ. You've been born by
the Spirit of God. You've been given the grace and
power of faith. Faith is not a work that you
work up. It's something that God gives.
It is a gift of God and not of works. So you've been born again. You
are resting and so then as my purpose is for you who do believe,
listen, my purpose is this, that you continually believe. Why? That just shall live by
faith. That's how we live. I want to encourage you to continue
to look to Christ. That's my purpose. Why? because we are surrounded by
troubles and things causing our eyes to look to other things. Paul says this, that through
much tribulation you shall enter into the kingdom of God. So my
purpose is that you continually look. But there are others listening
to me who have not looked to Christ. And these people may
be very religious, They have made some profession when they
were younger. Today you're not looking to Christ
but rather looking to your own works. You're looking to your
own religious deeds and not really looking to Christ. Some of you hearing the message
this morning might even understand the five points of Calvinism.
I know some of you have been raised under the catechisms and
you've heard those things over and over. You know, the five
points of Calvinism. But if you're trusting in your
knowledge of Calvinism, you've not looked to Christ. You're
trusting in your knowledge about Jesus. Doesn't mean you're trusting
in Jesus. And so my desire is to be very
plain as to what it means to look to Christ. I want you to
be very clear that when you leave here, what does it mean to look
unto me? Now, we know I've entitled, so
I've entitled this message life by look. Life by look. Now, we know according to the
word of God that the natural man will look to anything but
Jesus Christ alone. I may preach this gospel ever
so plainly. I set forth the deity this morning. I am. I'm going to set forth
the deity and the humanity of Christ. I'm going to show you
the person of Christ. By the grace and power of the
Spirit, I desire to show you the successful work of Christ.
That there is salvation for the vilest of sinners, the worst
among us. There is hope only in Him. I want to preach that as plainly
as I can. I want to speak to you of forgiveness
by a look, by faith in Christ. But the question is, why will
men revolt against the gospel of salvation by grace? Why do
men try to add their righteousness to his work? Why do they try to add their
will or their personal sanctification or their personal righteousness
to the work of Christ? The word of God is plain about
this, that if we add anything to Christ, He will profit us
nothing. The church of Galatian was, they
were, the Galatian church was infiltrated by this doctrine,
this false doctrine that faith in Christ was necessary, but
they needed to add one thing. You needed to keep one part of
the law circumcision. And one of us say, well, that's
just foolish. But yet, instead of circumcision, you put anything
else there you want to. What did Paul say about if they
added circumcision? He said, if you be circumcised. Christ shall profit you nothing.
He put anything in there you want. Any work. I like this in
Exodus chapter 20. God says, if you're going to
make me an altar of stone, He said, I don't want you to add
your tools to it. Don't chip away at that stone
one bit. The moment you put your tool
to it, you defile the offering. That's a beautiful picture of
what it is to add anything to Christ. You add anything to Christ
and you've polluted his offering. You've defiled it and it's not
any good. Why do men do this? Because the
carnal mind, the mind we are born with, is at enmity against
God. It's at hatred. It's at warfare
with God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, listen, indeed can be. I don't care how hard you try,
you're not going to obey that law. You're not going to do it.
Whatever law you make up for yourself. Have you ever made
a law for yourself? You determine to do something? I'm going to
set this law. And the more you determine, the
more you want to break it. That's our nature. Paul says in 1 Corinthians
2 that natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit
of God. Why? Their foolishness to him. What I'm going to preach
this morning is foolishness to the natural man. Neither can
he know them because he's spiritually discerned. And because of his
depravity, he will look to anything and everything but Jesus Christ. I know some really smart people.
Really smart people. And in everything in the world,
in worldly things, they are very logical. When it comes to this,
they're the stupidest people I've ever met in my life. They
will defy everything they know to not believe this gospel. That's
because we're spiritually discerned. Therefore, millions of people,
even today, are bowing down to statues of wood and stone and
gold and silver. They bow down to crosses with
fictional pictures of a man they call Jesus. Millions of people
have made idols out of ceremonies and rituals taken even from the
scriptures. They worship angels and apostles. They believe they can be saved
by being submerged in water or eating bread and drinking wine.
They think that can save them. Many today are looking to their
own obedience, they're like that rich young ruler saying, oh,
well I've kept all these things from my youth up, tell me something
else I need to do. I've done that check. And others, they're like that
Pharisee, I thank God I'm not like these other people. I thank
God I'm not like that sinner over there. Why do they do this? Because
they're ignorant of the righteousness of God. Men by nature ignore
the righteousness of God and as a result they go about to
establish their own righteousness. Are you going about to establish
your own righteousness? Is there something that you are
adding to the work of Christ? Millions of people are looking
toward their feelings or experiences. There are opinions of things.
But the Word of God plainly declares this one thing. Listen. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It
is a gift of God's grace and not of works. Ephesians 2 way 4, By grace you
are saved. Look unto me and be ye saved. How is anyone to look to Christ?
It is by grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. Why? Lest any man should boast. I want to be clear concerning this
matter, that if you're looking to anything you have done, felt
or experienced, looking to any idle ritual or deed you have
ever done, then you have set up a God of your own imagination
and you're worshiping a God that cannot save. That's what he was
telling us in this text here. He said, let them draw near with
all their gods, assemble together. He said, you pray into a God
that cannot save. I do hope that God would now
reveal to everyone that salvation is a work of God alone. It's
a work of God alone. It is a work of God, the father
who purpose salvation. It is a work of God, the son
who actually accomplishes salvation. And it is a work of the spirit
that applies and keeps our salvation. If any man would desire to be
saved and abandon his false gods, if you desire this morning to
be saved by the grace and mercy of God, then listen, listen to
God speak. Look unto me. Look unto me. And what is the result of that?
And be ye saved. Who? All the ends of the earth. Why? Because there's only one
Savior. I am God. There's no other God
but me. I'm the God that saves. So with
this in mind, I have four questions this morning. More questions
about what it is to look. First of all, what does it mean
to look to Christ? When He says, look unto Me, what
does that mean? Secondly, what part then of salvation are we
to look to Christ for? If we're looking to Him to save
us, what part of this are we looking for? Thirdly, what encouragement
do we have to look to Christ? And fourthly, when? Are we to
look to Christ? So first, what does it mean to
look? Go to John 3, John chapter 3. Look over here. Our Lord Jesus tells us what
it means to look in this picture. John chapter 3 in verse 14. As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life. The Lord gives reference
here to those children of Israel who were bitten by those fiery
serpents. And you know that when they were bitten, it was a death
sentence. There was no remedy for it. There
was no medicine. There was no salve. There was
no doctor. There was no cure. They were
bitten and they died. That was the end. So if you were
bitten, you were bitten, the sentence was death. And you remember
that God did give a remedy, a very unusual remedy. He didn't give
some pill that they could swallow. He didn't say, hey, suck the
venom out. You know, that's when you get a snake bite, that's
not going to work. No, he did something very unusual. He said, make an image of a serpent
and put it on a pole and then put it really high so everybody
can see it. And then tell them this, look
and live. And what was the result of that?
Everyone who looked, everyone who was bitten, now if you weren't
bitten, did you need to look? Did you want to look? Were you
interested in look? No, no, only those that are bitten. And he
said, those that have been look and they live. It was a miracle. This is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, as the serpent was lifted up, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up. He's talking about His death. He's talking about His crucifixion. He was to be lifted up as a sacrifice
for sin. And what does He say about this?
That whosoever believeth should not perish, but have everlasting
life. So what is it then to look? To
look is to believe. That's what it is. Do you suppose
anybody looked at that serpent in the wilderness that didn't
believe it would be effectual? No, in order to look, you had
to actually believe it was going to work. Otherwise, you wouldn't
have looked. So what it means is this, it
is to believe. Jesus now proclaims that all
who look upon Him, who was lifted up to suffer in the stead of
sinners, this is His proclamation, that if you believe on Me, you
shall never perish, but have eternal life. This is the result of a look.
This is the result of faith to believe on Christ. So then what
is it to believe on him? I said to look on him means to
believe on him. What does it mean to believe
on him? If you go to Romans chapter 10,
look at this. What does it mean to believe
on Jesus Christ? I mean, let's just face it. You
ask anybody, do they believe Jesus existed? You're going to
have a lot of people that know he existed. They know he was
real. They even know he was crucified.
Historical, you can't, if you deny it, you're just an idiot.
I mean you deny the record of even lost men who despised Him. He was really a man. He was really
lived. He really was crucified and He
really rose from the dead. These are facts. So many believe
in Jesus like that. That's not what it is. Look at
Romans 10. If I ever get there. Romans 10. Let's see. Look at verse 13, it says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So what
is to believe on him? To believe on him is to call
on him. Now look what Paul says, How
then shall you call on him in whom you have not believed? And
how shall they believe on him in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, this is just
written, how beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel
of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah said, who hath believed our report?
So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So what is to believe on Christ?
To believe on Christ, you got to know who he is, all right?
You can't believe on somebody you don't know. I remember J.D. Farmer, some
of you remember him. I love, I miss him. He's with the Lord now, but he
came to us and the Lord saved him. I believe saved him the
first night he came in. The Lord saved that man and what
an amazing thing to witness. But I was preaching to him for
several months and one day he came into my office and he said,
you know, Are you telling me that I wasn't
saved before I got here? I said, J.D., I didn't say you
weren't saved before you got here. I don't know if you were
saved before you got here or not. I'll ask you a question,
though. Did you hear the same Christ
preached before you got here? How can you believe on somebody
you've not heard of? And so to believe on Christ,
you must hear who He is. And that's my purpose. My purpose
is to declare Him to you so that you, by the grace and power of
the Spirit, might look and call on Him. So to look on Christ
you must see two things. You must know two things. You
must know His person and you must know His work. There are many who claim to believe
on Jesus, but when you hear their description of Him, it sounds
nothing like the Jesus of this book. And so my purpose and desire
is set before you, Christ. And the first thing I want you
to know about this person is this. He is the only God-man
mediator. The only God-man mediator. Jesus Christ had referred to
himself many times as the son of man. And he did this so that
there'd be no error in his person that he was declaring himself
to be man. He was a man. In every sense
of the word, he was a man. Yet he was a very particular
man in this. He was not born of Adam's seed. Jesus Christ escaped the corruption
of Adam's seed. Why? God prophesied from the
beginning that he would be born of the woman's seed. The seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. Christ was
chosen then by God to be the surety and high priest of his
people, but in order to represent them, he must be one of them. Galatians 4.4 says, but when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son
made of a woman, made under the law. What purpose? To redeem
them that were under the law. That he might receive the adoption
of a son. And we know this, John says this,
anyone who teaches that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh
is not of God. He's anti-Christ. But we know he's come in the
flesh. He is a man, but we also must understand that he is also
the son of God. He is the son of man and the
son of God. The Spirit by Isaiah said, for
unto us a child is born. This is speaking of his humanity. His coming into the world as
a man. Unto us a child is born. When Mary bared that son, a child
was born. A man-child was born. But more
than that, unto us a son is given. The Son of God. So when we look
to Christ, I want you to know who you're looking to. You are
looking to God manifest in the flesh. It's what Jesus said of
himself before Abraham was, what did he say? I am. That's exactly what God said
to Moses at the bush. He said, I am. Who was speaking
at the bush? It was Christ. I am and they
took up stones to throw at him. John tells us at the beginning
of his gospel in the beginning was the word and the word was
with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God and in John 1 14 it says and the word was made flesh. So then to look to Christ, to
believe on Christ, you must see that he is the only God-man mediator. He is the only one who can represent
man so that he could be just before God. He is the only God-man mediator.
Any Christ who is not God and man. is no Christ at all. Paul said, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
Secondly, to look to Christ, you must see and believe his
perfect work. His work. What did God come to
do? Why was Jesus Christ made a man? What was the purpose? He had a work to do. Why was
the Son of God come to live and to be crucified? Why was He made
flesh? Because the work of Jesus Christ
was to save His people from their sins. You see, the work of salvation
was a covenant. It was a covenant of God. God in the Trinity of His persons
made a covenant to save a people. The Father, His work in the covenant
was to choose the people. He did. He chose them. It was the work of the Son to
come and save them. The Father says, I have loved
these. I have chosen these and he gave
them all to the sun and the sun says I will be surety for them. I will represent them. I will
save them. And so Jesus came then to do
the will of his father. That was his work to do the will
of the father. Look at John chapter six. Look at John chapter 6, what
Jesus says about his work. He is God manifest in the flesh.
What has he come to do? Look at John chapter 6 and verse
38. He says, For I came down from
heaven. What purpose, Jesus, did you
come? Not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. What's that? And this is the Father's will.
I like how he answers his questions. He doesn't leave you to doubt
what he's What he's saying, this is the father's will, which has
sent me. That of all he hath given me,
I should lose. How many? Nothing. But should raise them
up at the last day. In Hebrews 10 he said, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. And he says in verse 10 of chapter
10 in Hebrews, By the which will? By the will of God we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Christ Once for
all. The work of Christ. So when our
text says, look unto me and be ye saved, this is Jesus calling
us to look to his person. Look who I am. I am the Son of
God and the Son of Man. I came to represent my people
and do the will of my Father, which was to save them. To save
them. He's calling us to look at His
righteousness, to behold His righteousness and His redemption,
that His work of fulfilling the sovereign will of God was to
save. There are many who profess to
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Son of Man.
Many profess to believe, to look to Him to provide righteousness
and redemption. And many believe on him for these
things. But let me ask you this. Was
he successful? Christ came to do the will of
God to save his people. Now, let me ask you, the Christ
you are looking to this morning, was he successful? Did he fulfill the will of God,
which was to lose how many? Nothing. Did he do it? There are many who are looking
to a Christ who only made salvation possible. But I know this, that my Savior,
the one to whom I look to, He came to save. And He saved. He saved everyone He came to
save. In that same chapter in Hebrews
10 he says, but this man, there's something different about this
man, this priest. Those priests, they offered sacrifices
and never sat down. Work was never finished. But
this man's different. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, sat down. When you got work to do, When you're finished with your
work, what do you do? You sit down. Why? Because there's no more work
to do. You're finished. This man said this, it is finished. So when I say look to Christ,
I'm looking for a representative. I'm looking to someone Because
I can't, there's no righteousness in me. There's no salvation in
me. There's no hope in me. I'm looking
to Him because He is the only one who can represent me to God
and He is the only one who has accomplished the work of salvation. So anyone who comes to Christ
with any merit, you're not looking to Christ. To look to Christ
is to look to Him for all our salvation. And all who look to
Christ, you that have looked to Christ, we continue to look to Christ.
That's what it means to look to Christ. Looking to Christ
is not a one-time thing, is it? It is a daily constant dependence
upon His person and His work. The just shall live by looking,
by faith. Constantly taking our eyes off
of ourselves and totally being dependent upon His successful
work. That's what it is to look to
Him. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse
4, To whom coming? To whom coming? As unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Robert Hawker says this, this expression to whom coming, it
implies an act of constant coming. You that have come to Christ,
you that have looked to Christ, are you not still looking to
Christ? You know, you can tell if you've
looked to Christ because you can't look to anyone else. You
can't find any comfort or hope in yourself or anyone else. He
is all my salvation. And that's my second question
is this. We know what it is then to look. It is to look to his
person. He is God and he is man. He's the only one that can represent
me to God. And I look to his work of salvation
by his obedience to God and by his righteousness. Now, what
part are we to look to Christ for? People are saying, I look
to Christ for my wisdom, my righteousness, and my redemption. But you know
what? I've got to sanctify myself. Well, Christ's righteousness
was good, but you know what? I've got to add to it. I've got
to increase my righteousness. I've got to add my obedience
in there. No, friends, when we look to
Christ, we look to him for all our salvation, all. Paul says Christ is all. Christ
is all. Any Christ that requires your
work for salvation is not Christ. If any part of my salvation was
dependent upon me, any part, I would surely be lost. Let me
ask you that. What part of your salvation is yours? What thing that you've
done or you're going to do or you're determined to do that
you're going to bring to God and say, OK, here, here's my
part. Here's my part. Christ upheld his end. Now I'm
upholding mine. Anybody, what do you want to
bring? If your God will accept anything you've done, your God's
not God. Because anything we've done is
mixed with sin. Our best deeds, what does scripture
say about your best deeds? Scripture says that all our righteousnesses
are as menstrual clothes. That's our best stuff. So what
part are we to look to Christ for? All of it. Colossians 1 and 14 says we are
to look to Christ for all our forgiveness. Need forgiveness. Is there any believer that doesn't
need forgiveness? What about your worship this
morning? You need forgiveness. I need forgiveness in my preaching
this morning. You may need forgiveness. in
whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins." John says, if we confess our
sins, He is faithful. And just to forgive us all our
sins. He is all my righteousness. Romans
5, 19, For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so even
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. How am
I made righteous? How am I made acceptable before
God? By a representative. The same
way I was made a sinner is the same way I'm made righteous.
By a representative. Isn't that great? Isn't that
awesome? That's wonderful. What part do
I have in that? I don't know what part you have
in Adam, really. Adam was your representative.
You just received death and sin from him. When you're born, children
are born, your children are born, they're born sinners. You know
why? The seed of Adam, they received
it from their father. They're sinners. You know how
man's made righteous? by a representative, somebody
performing the righteousness for me. So Christ is all my righteousness. Christ is all my perpetual cleansing. John says, if we walk in the
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another
and the blood of this Christ, his son, cleanseth us. It's amazing. It's not just a
one time cleansing. It's a constant, perpetual cleansing. His blood constantly cleanses
me from all my sin. How many sins are we aware of
versus how many sins we are not aware of? We call those sins
of omission and sins of commission, sins you commit. And then sins
that are omitted, you don't even know you've done it. You know
what He's done with those sins? He cleanseth us from all our
sin. Jesus is all our strength to
preserve us. I told you if you look to Christ,
you're going to keep looking to Christ. Well, who gives you
the strength to look to Christ? Why are you still here? Surely the preacher does not
entertain you. I'm not an entertainer. I'm not
here to entertain you. I'm here to point you to the
person and work of Christ. That's my purpose. So you're
not here for entertainment. What are you here for? Why have you not gone away? What is the hope that I will
not go away? I fear that often. You fear that?
I have fears and doubts. What's my hope that I'm not going
to stop looking? Because he's all my strength
to preserve me. Remember what Paul was told by
Christ, he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength,
my strength is made perfect in what? When is Christ's strength
the most manifest to us? When you're strong? Christ is all my wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification, but of God are you in Christ? Isn't that
good? I didn't even put myself in Christ. I didn't put myself in Christ.
God put me in Christ. But of God are you in Christ?
Who of God, Christ, is made unto us? God says this is what he's
gonna be to you, your wisdom. You got any understanding of
His person and work? That's wisdom, friends. That's
wisdom the world don't have. If you've looked to Him, that's
wisdom the world don't want. He's my wisdom as to how God
can be just and justify me. He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness,
all of it. He's my sanctification. He's
my redemption. He's all my salvation. That's what it is to look to
Christ. And I know this, he will keep
me. He's all my keeping. Jude said this, now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling, and presents you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Who's able
to keep you? You. Are you able to keep you? No. Christ is all my keeping, and
listen, he is all my eternal life. I know this. one day he's
coming again. You know how I know that? He
told me. If I go and prepare a place for
you I will, without a doubt, I will come again and receive
you unto myself for this purpose that where I am there you may
be also. He is coming again and he will
receive us unto Himself. So then what's going to separate
me from Him? If I'm looking to Christ, what's
going to separate me from Him? Since He's all my salvation,
and there's nothing in me, nothing dependent in me, there's nothing
outside of me that can remove me from Him, then nothing can
take me from Him. Nothing. I'll go over these last two real
fast. Thirdly, what is the encouragement that we have to look to Christ?
If you've not looked to Christ, when Christ comes to a sinner,
He doesn't dress him up. He doesn't make him better. He
comes to the sinner as he is. A sinner. He comes to him in the most vile
condition. And he hears the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and he knows he needs salvation, but he feels that
he's unworthy. Good. You are. You are unworthy. So what encouragement
does the sinner have to look? Because Christ said so. He said, look unto me. I didn't
say it. He said it. Look unto me and
be ye saved. Who? I don't care where you are,
what you've done. To all the ends of the earth
this message goes out. Look unto me. There's your encouragement
to look. He commands you to look. Why
don't you look? Your authority is the word of
God. Do you need any other authority? If if there was a big celebration
at the White House, would you dare go without an invitation?
I mean, would you be foolish, you
walk over the door, hey, I'm here. You let me in. No. But if you had the invitation. Youíd have some hope of getting
in. I got something better than an invitation. I got a command.
Heís not just inviting you. Heís telling you. Heís telling
you, ìCome unto me!î Heís not asking. Heís telling you, ìCome
to me!î Let me say, ìOh, if any man thirsteth, let
him come unto me.î By wine and milk without what? Without money,
without price, no merit. Come here. Come. No merit. Stop
waiting to merit it. You won't come now. And that's
the last question. When are you going to come? Today
is a day of salvation. Now. Come to Christ. This life is to us uncertain. You have no hope of tomorrow.
You have no promise. You may live tomorrow. That's why he said today is a
day of salvation. Come unto me now. And listen,
all who come to Christ When do you come to Christ? Now. Now. It's an ever constant perpetual
now. Come now. What do you need? You have needs? Who do you come to? Who are you going to ask? Come to me. That's what Christ
said. Come now and be forever saved. Why? I'm God. I'm God. It's not like you're
going to your parents or your brothers or your sisters or your
family. How many times have they failed you? Why are they failing
me? They're not God. Come God! Come to me! And everyone that comes to Him
will be saved. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've
done. You come to Christ, the Savior. What part of salvation is He
going to do? All of it. What do you have to do? Nothing. It's free. Without cost. It's insanity not to come. I pray God will bless this. Let's
stand and be dismissed and pray. Father, dismiss us with your
mercies. Give us such eyes of faith to
look to Christ, to hold fast to His work, His
person, His righteousness, His redemption, His mercy, His forgiveness,
His blood. I pray that you would give grace
to every person's heart to look to Him And those that have looked,
give us grace also to continue to look. I pray you'd bring us back again
together to worship. And forgive us our many sins,
in Christ's name.