If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse
22 will be our text this evening. And I've entitled this message,
Life by a Look. Life by a Look. The scripture
says, look unto me. This is the Lord speaking. Look
unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and there is none else." Tonight I want to speak to you on what
it means to look to Christ. I know that many of you listening
tonight have looked to Christ. You are looking to Christ by
the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. You've been quickened
and given the power, the ability to look to Christ and believe
on Him. You're resting in His finished
work. And it's my purpose through this message that you who believe
should be comforted by this message. I like the Apostle Paul in Acts
chapter 14. He went about confirming the
souls of the disciples, the Scripture says, exhorting them to what? Continuing the faith and that
through much tribulation they should enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's my purpose for you who believe. But I have another purpose. There are others who are listening
to me tonight who are deeply religious people. Deeply religious. These are people who have made
a profession of faith by walking some aisle, being baptized, or
taking the Lord's Supper, and tonight they're resting in that.
Tonight they're resting and looking to what they have done. I want
to speak to you tonight. You that are trusting in your
religious deeds, you are not looking to Christ. If you're
trusting your religious deeds, you are not obedient to my text. God says, look unto Me, not look
unto you. Look unto Me and be saved. If
you're looking to you tonight, you're not saved. You're not
saved. Now, you might know the doctrines
of Calvinism tonight. You might be a wonderful student
at the seminary. You might really know Calvinism.
But listen, it doesn't say look to Calvinism. God says, look
to me. Christ says, look into me. You
may know Calvinism and not be trusting Christ. You may be trusting
in your knowledge of the doctrines of grace. That's not salvation. Salvation is not in a doctrine,
it's in a person. It's in a person, you gotta know
Him. And so it's my desire to set forth very plainly tonight,
very plainly, very clearly, what it means to look to Christ. And
that's why I've entitled this message, Life by a Look. Life, eternal life, spiritual
life, by a look, by looking to Christ. According to the Word
of God, according to God's Word, I know this, that natural man
will trust in anything. Natural man will look to anything
else but Christ. The natural man will look to
anything else but Christ for salvation. I may preach this gospel as plainly
as I can tonight, and I desire to do that. Preach the gospel
of free grace. That's what I want to do. Every
time I come up here, I want to preach free grace. I want to preach
mercy. I want to preach it plainly.
I want to set forth the glory of Christ's deity and His humanity. I want to speak plainly of His
pardon and mercy for sinners. I want to proclaim to every sinner
tonight, no matter how vile you are, you listen to me, no matter
how vile you are, there's life by a look. There's life by trusting
Christ. We speak so plainly of this,
there's peace with God. There's perfect cleansing. Do
you need cleansing tonight? Do you need pardon and peace
with God? There's peace and pardon simply
by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ. And what our
text says, look unto me and what? Be ye saved. Who? All the ends
of the earth. Doesn't matter where you are.
And yet no matter how I Proclaim that no matter if I could possibly
proclaim it as clearly as my master. I know this Men by nature
will still revolt and try to add their righteousness to it
Men by nature will still try to add their personal religious
works to the work of Christ That's what men are by nature God's
Word is plain. Now you pay attention to this.
You are not looking to Christ if you are adding anything to
Christ. If you're looking to Christ plus
something you have done or are doing now, listen, you are not
looking to Christ. Listen how plainly this is. In
Exodus 20, 25, I don't want you to turn there, just listen. It
says, if you make an altar of stone, And you build that stone
and you do it, you gotta do it without hewn stones. In other
words, don't add your tool to the work. He says, if you add
your tool to that work, you defile it. You pollute it. Isn't that
what Paul said in Galatians chapter 5? He says, if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you what? Nothing. You add anything to
Christ, you're not looking to Christ. You're looking to the
thing plus Christ. Why is this? Because man by nature
is totally depraved. He's totally depraved. This is
why. The Scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither it can be. And you know what, tonight, if
you don't look to Christ alone, what I'm preaching to you is
foolishness. Isn't it? It's foolishness to you. Why? Because the scripture tells us
why you're spiritually discerned. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
14. It says, "...the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him, neither can
he know them, because he is spiritually judged, condemned." And as a result of this depravity
tonight, millions upon millions of people are looking to idols
instead of looking to Christ. They're looking to idols of wood
and stone and brass and silver and gold. You go into a Buddhist temple,
what do you see? You see an idol. They're bowing down to an idol
that can't say. He has eyes, he has hands, he
has feet, but he cannot see, he cannot touch, he cannot walk. He is an idol, he is nothing. walk into a Catholic church,
what are you going to see? You're going to see idols, statues,
crosses of silver and gold and wood. And what do men do? They
bow down and worship idols. They can't do anything. Millions
of people worship ceremonies and rituals. You know, you believe
this? Some people actually believe
that doing ceremonies has some kind of power to save you. I
just told you about those people that were baptized. Some people
actually believe dipping a man down in water has something to
do with his salvation. And so what are men looking at?
They're looking at the baptism. They're not looking to Christ.
They're looking at the baptism. They're looking at the Lord's
Supper. They take things out of this book and they use these
rituals and services and they're looking to those things. Scott
was telling me of some people, and I know this, that still try
to perform a bloodless Passover. And what are they doing? They're
looking to that as though it's giving them some extra grace,
some extra measure of favor with God. No, you're a fool if that's
what you're doing. You're looking to something other
than Christ and you're not saved. Millions of people are looking
to their obedience to the law, aren't they? looking to sanctify
themselves. Many are saying tonight, I thank
God I'm not like that sinner. How many people say that? What
are they looking to? They're like that Pharisee, they're
looking to their self-righteousness. Some are like that rich young
ruler who says, all these if I kept from my youth up. I know this, anybody that's looking
to something other than Christ, I know this, you're ignorant
of the righteousness of God. That's what Paul said about his
brethren, didn't he? He said they're ignorant of the
righteousness of God. How do you know that? Because they go
about to establish their own righteousness. Their own righteousness. But the Word of God is plain,
and I want to be as plain as I can. You listen to me, salvations
of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is a gift of God's grace and not the works of man. It is not
a combination of grace and works. It is grace alone. Salvation
comes by the grace of God alone. It is a gift of God, not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast. If you're looking to anything
you've done, Or you felt. How many people are looking to
feelings? They're looking to feelings. They say, well, you
know, I had this experience one time. If you're looking to an
experience, you're not looking to Christ. How many people say, I saw a
dream. I saw a vision. I don't care what you saw. Are
you looking to Christ? God says, look unto me. and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth." Why? I'm God and there is no other
God but me. There's no other Savior but Christ. And so if any man would desire
to be saved tonight, you must abandon all other things
you're looking at. If you're to look to Christ,
you can't look to Christ and something else. You're either
looking to Christ or you're not. It's just simple, isn't it? Our
Lord said that. He said, there's only two ways.
There's a broad way and there's a narrow way. Christ said, I
am the way. The only way to God. Look unto
Me and be ye saved. For salvation, according to my
text, is only by looking. Now, I've got four things, four
questions that I want to answer tonight concerning my text. First of all, I want to answer
this question, what does it mean to look to Christ? If looking
to Christ is salvation, what does that mean? What does it
mean? Second of all, I want to see,
I want to answer this question, for what part of salvation do
you look to Christ for? What part of salvation do you
look to Christ for? Thirdly, what encouragement do you have
to look to Christ? And fourthly, when should you
look to Christ? So let's see this first. What
does it mean to look to Christ for salvation? Jesus himself
answers this. Go to John chapter 3. John chapter
3 and look at verse 14. Our Lord says this, and 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. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Our Lord gives reference here
to that when the children of Israel were bitten by those fiery
serpents, you remember, and it was a sentence of death. If you
were bitten, there was no cure. And God in mercy, he told Moses
to take a brazen serpent Put it on a pole and lift it up. Can you see that? You see the
people dying. You see them bitten. And you
see God telling Moses, make a serpent of brass, put it on a pole and
lift it up so everybody can see it. Lift it up. And he gave him
a proclamation. He said, you tell them, whosoever
looks will live. Whosoever looks to this serpent
will live. And we know what happened. They
lived. Whosoever looked, LIVED! LIVED! Well, Jesus tells us that
this brazen serpent is a picture of Himself. Even as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. He said, that's me. That's me.
You see, we've all been bitten by Satan, and we all had the
poison of sin running through our souls. The sentence of death was upon
us, but in mercy Jesus Christ came into the world and was lifted
up on Calvary's tree for sin. As Moses lifted up that brazen
serpent in the wilderness, Christ was also lifted up by the law
of God. You see, He was made to accomplish
the righteousness of God by His obedience, but He was also made
to be sin for us and suffer the justice of God. in the stead
of sinners. He was being lifted up. And so
Jesus now proclaims this. Here's the correlation. Look
and live. Now Jesus says this, believe
and live. You see the correlation? To look
is what? It is to believe on Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth on the Son
of God who was lifted up shall not die, shall not perish, but
have everlasting life. So what is it to look? It's to
believe. That's what it is. So when I
say look, what do I mean? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's his explanation. It's not mine. It's his. And so what then is it to believe?
That's a question, isn't it? If you're going to look, looking
is believing, but what is believing? To believe on Jesus Christ, you
first have to know who He is and what He's done. Isn't that
right? You've got to know who He is.
To believe on someone, you've got to know who He is. And then you have to believe
and know what He's done. And so, that's exactly what Paul
says, "...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved." But how then can you call on somebody that you don't
believe? And how can you believe on somebody that you've not what? Heard. And that's what I want
to do tonight. I want you to look to Christ.
I want everybody to look to Christ tonight. And I'm going to set
Him up. I'm going to set Him before you. Here He is. I'm going
to tell you who he is according to his revelation of himself. That's my purpose and desire
that you should see Christ as he is revealed by this book.
First of all, I want you to know this. He is the only God-man mediator. That's his person. That's who
he is. Jesus Christ in this text in John chapter 3, He refers
to Himself as the Son of Man. You notice that? I believe that
He refers to Himself more of this character than any other
character, representation of His nature. He calls Himself
the Son of Man. He did so, so there would be
no error as to his person, that he himself is man, very man. Jesus was not born of the corrupt
seed of Adam, but he was of the seed of the woman, the seed of
the woman. Jesus was chosen by God to be
the surety, the high priest of his elect people, but in order
to represent us, he himself must have taken on our nature. That's what Paul says, it behooved
him to take upon himself not the nature of angels. He didn't
represent angels, he represented man. So he must take on himself
the seed of Abraham. That's what he did. He condescended
and took upon himself the nature of a man. Paul says in Galatians
4, in the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth his
son made of a woman. Why? So that he should be made
under the law for this purpose, to redeem them that were under
the law. You see, Christ, when he came
into the world, he became a man. Anybody who teaches that Christ
is not man is anti-Christ. There are some people who believe
that, that Christ was not a man. Well, you're anti-Christ. That's
what John calls you, and that's what I call you, anti-Christ. But we must also see that this
one who became a man was something before he became a man, wasn't
he? He was the eternal son of God. Eternal son of God. The Spirit
says in Isaiah, I believe chapter 9, he says, unto us a child is
born, that speaks of his humanity. Unto us a son is That speaks of his eternal deity,
his sonship. This one I'm setting before you
is man. Yes, man. Man, very man. But he is also
God, very God. He is God, very God. Isn't that
what Christ said of himself in John chapter 8? He said, before
Abraham was, I am. He declared himself to be God,
and that's what John says of him in the beginning of his epistle,
his gospel. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and you listen, the Word was God.
And then what'd he say in verse 14, and the word was made flesh. Don't you see who he is? He's
God and man. Why did he do that? Why would
God condescend to become a man? So that he should represent and
save his people. God gave him a people. And in
a covenant of grace, he swore to come and represent them as
a man. Any Christ who is not God and
man is no Christ at all. No Christ at all. So when I'm
looking to Christ, you know who I'm looking to? I'm looking to
God and man. I'm looking to the one person,
the God-man. I like that scripture, without
controversy. What does that mean? It means
without debate. I'm not going to sit around and
debate this with you. This is so. Without controversy,
great is the mystery. I don't understand it. It's a
mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. How God can make a sinner holy
is a great mystery, isn't it? But I know how He did it. God
was manifest in the flesh. That's how He did it. That's
how He did it. And that's who I'm looking to tonight. Is that
who you're looking to? You believe in Him? Do you know Him? Oh,
what a glorious person. Second thing, you must believe
his perfect accomplished work. Christ came to be a man to perform
a work. He came to accomplish something.
He had a purpose. He had a mission. And that was
to save his people from their sins. The angel tells you at
the beginning what he said. You should call his name Jehovah
saves. Why? He shall save his people from
their sins. That's the purpose of his coming into the world.
And that's why he was lifted up on Calvary. That's why he
was made flesh and crucified. So that he might fulfill the
will of God which was to save his people. And because this
was the work of Jesus in salvation for His elect, He came to save
them in an eternal covenant. The Father gave them, put them
in union with His Son. And I like this, He made Him
surety for us. He made Him surety. That word
surety means guarantor. He's the one that is responsible. Responsible for the salvation
of His people. Matter of fact, Jesus himself
says this. It's so good to be able to preach something that
everything's already been said. Everything's already been said.
Jesus said, I came down not to do mine own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And listen, I'm not going to
leave you without that. He said, I'm not going to let
you guess what that will is. This is the will of him that
has sent me. That of all he had given me,
I should lose nothing. That's the will of the Father.
He said, I came to do that. I came to save all that the Father
gave me, and I'm not going to lose one of them. Why? That's
the will of the Father. And John, in Hebrews chapter
10, he said, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book, it is written
to me to do thy will, O God. And Paul says, By the which will? By the will of God, we were sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. And so what does my text say?
Go back to your text, look at it with me. Look unto me. Who? The God-man. Look unto me. Look to my work. My work of righteousness, my
work of redemption, my work of sanctification. Look at my work. I came to do the will of the
Father. You know what I did? I did it. Jesus Christ came to
fulfill the will of God in redeeming His people and giving them a
righteousness they could not provide for themselves. And it
is the work of the Holy Spirit of God to apply this then to
the hearts of His people. You see, salvation's a work of
God. It's all a work of God. It's none of a work of us. It
has nothing to do with us. It's the work of Christ. Now,
there are many who profess to believe in a Christ who only
made salvation possible. Now, tonight, ask yourself that.
Are you looking to a Christ that just made salvation possible? If you do that, then you must
concede that there's something left for you to do. If salvation's
possible, then there's something left. It's not quite finished. That's not Christ. Christ didn't
make salvation possible. He actually accomplished it.
He finished the work His Father gave. That's what He told them,
didn't He? He said, I have finished the work You gave Me to do. I
finished it. It's done. Redemption accomplished. Righteousness procured. Now, is the Christ you're looking
to, is He successful? Is He victorious? Are you looking
and trusting to one who accomplished redemption? Then listen to me.
You are looking to Christ. That's right. You're looking
to a finished work. Tonight, I'm looking at something
that's finished. Something that I have no part
in. Something that Christ Himself accomplished. Jesus Christ is the only victorious
Savior. Jesus Christ, unto whom His people
look and believe, they are saved. In that one, my text says, look
unto me and be ye what? Does it say possibly saved? It
doesn't. Be ye saved. Why? The work is done. You're looking
to Him who finished the work. And all who look to Him who finished
the work, the work is finished. The work is finished. His one offering for sin has
accomplished redemption for all that the Father gave Him, and
none of them shall be lost. Why? That was the will of the
Father, that none of them be lost. All of them will come to
faith. Paul says this, but this man
after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, what? Sat down. He finished the work. Expecting
that his enemies be made his... Why is he expecting his enemies
to be made his footstool? Because he finished the work.
The work is done. He's expecting something now.
He's expecting his enemies be made his footstool. Why? For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are Sanctified. Is that the Christ you're looking
to tonight? I pray it is. Look to Him. He's finished the
work. He's done the job. And according to my text, if
you're looking to Him, you're saved. Look unto Me, the only
God-man mediator, the only successful Savior, and be ye saved. But
how does one come to Christ? We must come as sinners. If you're going to look to Christ,
you must come as you are. Tonight, it is my harsh desire
that you just not wait, but come as you are. How do men look to
Christ? How do they come to Christ? They
come as sinners. That's the only way to come. I'll tell you this, if you never
feel and know your need of Christ, you'll never come to Christ.
You'll always be looking to Christ in something else. You remember how blind Bartimaeus
came? Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. He was blind. He couldn't see. No matter how
hard he tried, he couldn't see. But he knew this, that that man
is the one that give him sight and he needed mercy. And he what? Found mercy. Remember
the publican? Lord be merciful to me. How'd he come? The sinner. He
come as a sinner. And you know what Jesus said
of him? That man went home justified. The Canaanite woman, you remember
her? How'd she come? Lord said, it's not me to give
the children's bread to you dogs. And she said, what? Truth, Lord. Truth. But even the dog received
the crumbs from the master's table, and he said, Oh, I've
not found faith, so no, not in Israel. Oh, that's how you come. You come like that leopard. Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole. That leopard didn't have
anything. That's how sinners come. That's
how you look. How much strength does it take
to look? They take any strength at all? They take any ability? You know
what's moving muscle? You'd be paralyzed and look. You come like that centurion
who said, Lord, if you just speak the word. You see, they came
in faith recognizing who they are and what they had need of.
And I know this. Not one of them went away without
mercy. And tonight, if you look, tonight,
right now, if you look, you'll find mercy. If you come as you
are, needy, beggar, sinner, there's life by a look. There's
life by a look. And listen, if you ever look,
you'll always continue to look. You that look, have you ever
stopped looking? No, no, if any man abide in Christ, he will
continually look to Christ. Peter said this in 1 Peter 2,
4, to whom coming as unto living stones, you know, that expression,
to whom coming, it implies an act of constant action. Constant
coming. Never stop coming. You look to
Christ and you see Him as the God-man mediator. You see Him
as the perfect Savior who provided righteousness and redemption.
You see yourself as a sinner and you look to Him. I look to
Him like that always. I come as a sinner always in
need of mercy and pardon and forgiveness. Matter of fact,
that's the evidence of true faith, isn't it? True faith is always
looking to Christ. It never stops. Paul said this
in Colossians 1.23, if you continue rooted and grounded in the faith,
you're a believer, you're saved, you're redeemed, if you continue.
See, that's the evidence of you looking. Faith is the look. And faith never stops looking.
Now the second thing, I'm going to run through these real quickly.
What part of salvation do we look to Christ for? Simply this,
all of it. All of it. What part of salvation
belongs to you? None of it. Isn't that the most wonderful Jesus said, come unto me, you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You're laboring under the law.
You're laboring under religion. You're laboring under your works.
You're laboring under the false gods and their demands. Stop! Cease from labor, Christ says,
and look unto me. You know what? One thing about
false gods is you got to carry them. You got to carry. They ain't got no strength. You
got to tote them around. You got to put them on your back.
You got to carry them in your arms because they can't carry
you. I'm looking to Christ to carry
me all the way to glory. You see, I'm the one that has
no strength. My God has all the strength. And I'm going to glory
is because He's carrying me. You see what part does He have? What am I looking to Him for?
I'm looking to Him for everything. For everything. I'm looking to Him for forgiveness.
I'm looking to him for peace, for righteousness, for wisdom,
for sanctification, for redemption. Isn't that what Paul said in
1 Corinthians 30? That God made him to be wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. He made him to be
everything. It pleased God that in Christ should the fullness
dwell. The fullness of what? The fullness
of everything. Everything dwells in Him. All my salvations of
Him. So what part am I looking Him
for? All of it. All of it. Thirdly, what encouragement
do I have to come to Christ? Some of you may say, look, I
know. I know I'm a sinner. What right
do I have? I can answer that. None. You
have no right in yourself to come. But I'm going to encourage you
in some things that... I'm going to encourage you to
come. I've got some authority. I've
been given some authority. And my authority simply is this.
Come because God said to come. You know what my text says? Isn't it God telling you to look
to Him and be saved? Isn't that authority enough that
God would tell you, knowing who you are, knowing what you've
done, and yet God says, look unto me and be ye saved. Who?
All the ends of the earth. I don't care where you came from
or what you've done. The authority is God's Word.
God says to look. And I'll tell you this, looking
gives Him glory. Looking to Him gives Him glory. That's why you should look. It
gives Him all the glory. You get no glory. He gets all
the glory. You see, it's His benefit that
you should look. You should look because He tells
you to. It is the authority of God's Word. It is the promise
of Christ. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Listen, and him that cometh to
me I will not cast out. Now there's some encouragement
in it. Do you need encouragement? Do you think you're going to
be cast out if you come? Jesus said you won't. Why? Because if you come, you come
because you were given to Him. You come because you were already
redeemed. And now, at the new birth, you
begin to understand. And you don't want to take your
eyes off of Him. What an encouragement to come.
He said to come. And I got this, everybody in
this book, everybody in this book that came to Christ found
mercy. Now, there are people who came
to Christ with their merit and they found nothing. But everyone
who came for mercy found it. All those people I mentioned,
the Canaanite woman, the leper, blind Bartimaeus, the publican,
they all found mercy. Why not you? I encourage you,
come now. Look now to Christ. There's plenty
of encouragement to come. God said to. God said to. His Word is full of those who
come. And my last question is this, when's the best time to
come to Christ? Right now. That's the best time to look.
Why? Because now is all you've got.
Listen to me, the past is gone. The future is uncertain. The only thing you have is right
now. Isn't this why God says today
is the day of salvation? Because today is all you've got.
And I'll tell you this, you know our life is short. You should
come now because you have no promise of tomorrow. You're young. And you think you have tomorrow. How many have thought that and
died in their sins. When's the best time to look
to Christ? Right now. And you know what? I say that
to you who have been looking to Christ. When do you look to
Christ? Right now. You say, I'm looking
to Christ now. Why not you? Look now. Look at what? He's the only mediator
between you and God. He did for you what you could
not do for yourself. You are a sinner. And you ain't
getting any better. Look now. And what? There's life by a look. There's
life. Jesus said, whosoever believeth
in me shall not perish but have eternal life. And that's what
my text says. Look unto me and be ye saved
who all the ends of the earth Why? I'm the only God and Savior. Oh God, give us grace to look.