I certainly hope they are, anyway.
Easy to follow. But it says there in verse 22,
Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. People all over the world are looking to be saved. A lot of preachers today are
going to try to get people saved. Going to have them walk aisles,
pray a prayer, sign a card, join a church, and tell them that
they're fixed up for heaven. And a lot are looking in books,
looking in creeds, making prayers, got the little
beads that go through and handle and run through their fingers.
A lot of people are looking to water. Over in India, folks make
great pilgrimages to get in one of the nastiest rivers on the
face of the earth, the Ganges. And think when they get in that,
you know, they've arrived. They've arrived. They say that there's a thousand
different religions in this world, and two million different gods,
and I wouldn't doubt it a bit. Wouldn't doubt it a bit. And
then there are folks who are looking, and God said, look unto
me and be ye saved. There are people, instead of
doing that, they look to themselves. They look to their own strength. When God says, you know, those
that look unto me, I shall be their spirit. They look to their
intellect, their brilliance, their education. They look to
their virtues. They look to their good deeds.
They look to their giving. They even look to their wills,
their right to make their choices. Some go to gurus. Some are looking
for some new leader with some new idea. Some folks go and get in a commune
to hide themselves so that they can find themselves. And if you
ever look to find yourself, you'll never find yourself. Only God
can find you. And if He ever finds you, you
really are sure enough getting found. And then there are folks that
are looking to preachers, preachers. Call a preacher. I remember reading
Mr. Spurgeon. A fellow got him out
of bed at three o'clock in the morning to come to a bedside
of a man that was dying. And Mr. Spurgeon says, Why do
you want me to go see him? Does the man ever go to attend
a service? No. Did he ever read a Bible? No.
Did he ever pray? Not that I know of. Did he ever Believe on God? Not that I know of. As far as
I know, he didn't believe anything. He said, why in the world do
you want me to go over there to be with them then? Why would you want me to go?
And that's what preachers want. That's what people want. They
want a preacher when they get married, a preacher to baptize
them, and a preacher to bury them. And when they get sick,
other than that time, they don't need a preacher for nothing.
They don't need God. They don't need mercy. They don't
need anything until it comes time to get married, to get baptized, or to get married.
That's the only time they need them. And they're looking to
denominations. They love their denominations.
They love their titles. They love their churches. And
some are looking to the Bible. What happens to those that don't
look unto God. Look here in verse 15 and 16.
This is what happens to those that don't look unto the Lord,
that looks every place else. Verily thou art a God that hidest
thyself, O God, of Israel to save. He hides himself. They shall be ashamed and also
confounded, all of them. They shall go to confusion together,
that are makers of idols, whether you make them in your mind, or
whether you make them with your hands, or whether you buy them
at the store. It's going to be brought to shame.
Is that not right? But God Himself tells us where
to look. God says this now. Tell ye, verse
21, tell you, assemble yourselves, come together here. Tell ye and
bring them near. Let every man take counsel together
when you assemble yourself. Is there any among you that ever
declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And this is what I've been telling
you right from the very beginning, from Genesis. There is no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior. there's none beside
me. Look, since there's no other
Savior, since I'm a just God and a Savior, and there's nobody
else besides me but that's just and safe. So therefore, look
unto me and be ye saved by a just God and a Savior, and be ye saved
all to the ends of the world, for I am God, and there is none
else." My message today is, Salvation, in a look. Life, in a look. Look unto me. Life, in a look. Salvation, beloved, is seeing
the Son of God. Salvation is seeing the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a look at a person. Our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, you know, He, everyone that,
this is the will of the Father, that everyone which seeth the
Son hath life. not going to get life, have life.
When you see the Son, you've got life. He that hath the Son
hath life. Now, you keep Isaiah, if you
don't mind, you keep Isaiah 45 and turn with me to John chapter
1, John's Gospel chapter 1. You know, a salvation is a look
at a person. We're not just saying to look,
but look as why God says, look unto me. Look unto me, God. There's life in a look. Salvation
starts with a look, looking at a person. Salvation continues
with a look, and salvation will all ultimately end with a look. Three looks, and of all of them
is salvation. There's, first of all, life in
a look. That's what God said, Behold my servant. Stop, listen,
look at my servant. He said to Zion, behold your
God, look to your God. He said to them, when they brought
the Lord Jesus Christ out in his crucifixion, and they brought
him out and put that purple robe on him and that crown of thorns
on his head, they said, behold your King. And then after they
had beaten him in front and Pilate wanted to let him go, then Pilate
brought him out and said, behold the man, look at this man, look
at this King. And that's my message to sinners,
to look and live. Look what he said down here in
John chapter 1 in verse 35. And again the next day, after
John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he said, The Lamb of God. That's what he said in John
1. Behold, the Lamb of God. Who is this Lamb of God? He's
the one that's going to take away the sin of the world. Look
unto me, all ye men of the earth. I'm going to take away the sin
of all my people that's in this world. And he says, behold, as
he saw the Lord Jesus walking, behold, the Lamb of God. See
how that's capitalized Lamb. That's one of the titles. That's
one of the blessed names of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch
what happens. And the two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed the Lord Jesus. Oh, behold, look! This is my
message to sinners. Look! When we say, look, it's
the gospel of faith. You're not saved by doing, you're
saved by looking, saved by believing. He, this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone was sent the Son. Do you believe that?
Seeing the Son, that you'll have life? That you're not going to
get it, but when you see Him, you have it? You don't do anything
to get life, you live? All that John said was, Behold
the Lamb of God. Those two fellows said, that's
Him? That's the one. He said, I believe that. And
they followed him. And not only looked at the gospel
of faith, but all the gospel of substitution. He said, behold
the Lamb. The Lamb was what God offered. The Lamb was what was for the
blood of the Lamb was what was put on the lentils and the gores
in Egypt and brought them out. It was the blood of a lamb that
Abel looked to. And God looked unto him and said,
Behold, he hath a greater sacrifice. He hath the right sacrifice.
When Abraham took Isaac upon the mountain, and he said, Father,
here we've got the wood, we've got the fire, we've got the knife,
we've got everything we need. The only thing we don't have
when we get there is the lamb. Abraham said, My son, God will
provide himself a lamb. And when he got there, they put
him on that altar and struck him down. God stopped him, and
he looked around, and behold, a ram caught in the thicket.
And he put that ram in the stand of Isaac. And that's what the
Lamb of God is. He's come to be put in our stand. He Himself bore our sins in His
own body. He's the Lamb of God's providing. He's the Lamb that God sent into
this world. And, oh, beloved, not only look,
is it the gospel of substitution, but look, the gospel of sin offering. God told Cain, when Cain slew
his brother Abel, he says, you know, sin lies at your door. What he meant was there's a sin
at your door, but there's a provision for your sin in that lamb. If
you had done well, like Abel did, to provide that lamb. And,
beloved, I'm telling you, There ain't but one sin offering in
this world. Always been just one sin offering.
All the lambs of all the blood and all the goats and all the
bullets that were ever offered never put away one sin. But this
man, once at the end of the world, by the sacrifice of himself,
put away sin once and for all. I mean, beloved, people think
that they can do something to put away their sin. Well, I'm over in my neighbor's
yard. Oh, that's going to help you real good with God. I went to that benefit, and I gave
more than anybody else did. That's really going to help you. Got all my clothes together and
gave them away to Goodwill. That's really going to help you,
too. You know, a man cannot do anything to put away one sin. not a sin of God? How many times
have you sinned in your mind? Whoo! Who's going to put away
all them sins? Lord, if thou shouldst mark a
nigger with thy hood, be able to stand. Bless his holy name. He did mark it. And where did
he mark it at? He marked it in his son. And
now there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared."
And now he looks at us because Christ is our sin offering. He
put away sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself.
No more sin, like He said in the psalm, those that we are
approved only in the Son. And not only that, but it's the
gospel. Look, it's the gospel of God's
sovereignty. When it says, Behold the Lamb
of God here, you know, whoever the world could provide a lamb
that would put away the sin of all his people once and for all.
Who could make a man to be made sin who knew no sin except God? It was God who provided that
lamb. Abraham said, God will provide that lamb. God told Moses,
he said, get a lamb and take that blood. Every lamb that God
used in the scriptures, God provided it. God told him what to do.
And beloved, it's the gospel of God's sovereignty. God provided
this lamb. We didn't provide it. We could
have provided it. We didn't know what to ask for.
We didn't know what to look for. And not only that, but it's the
gospel of God's grace. You think God provided a lamb
and not going to make that lamb effectual? Not make his blood
effectual? To not make it do what it was
intended to do? Save those that it was intended
to save? It's the gospel of grace. God
provided this lamb. God gave His only begotten Son. God sent Him into the world. And bless His holy name. It's
the gospel of mercy. Mercy. And that's why He said,
look. Look back over here in Isaiah
45, just a moment. We don't look in vain. Look what
it says there in verse 19. We don't look in vain. I mean,
when a man looks, he's not looking in vain. I have not spoken in
secret in the dark place of the earth. I said not under the seat
of Jacob. Seek ye me in vain." I didn't
say, seek ye me in vain. He said, I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare the things that are
right. I didn't tell this in a corner. I didn't speak it.
I said, under you. Seek me. And I didn't say, do
it in vain. And let me tell you something,
beloved. This look, this revelation of seeing the Lamb of God, seeing
Christ, looking unto God to be saved, this look, this revelation
of seeing Christ, is given by God Himself to see His blessed
Son and to see God's glory in Him. There's no way in the world
that a man could ever see Christ if God didn't give him that view,
if God didn't reveal Him to him, if God didn't cause him to look.
And I tell you, beloved, look with me in Matthew chapter 11,
just a moment. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. Our Lord Jesus Christ told those Pharisees one day,
Matthew 11, verse 25. He told them Pharisees one day,
you know, they were talking about all that they was going to do,
and how they was going to be saved, and all the works that
they could do. And our Lord Jesus says, No man can come unto me,
except the Father which sent me draw him. And as it is written
in the prophets, they shall, every one of them, be taught
of God. And everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father,
what does he do? He comes to me. Look there, Matthew 11, 25, talking
about looking, and God giving you that sight. At that time,
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee. This is what God thinks,
and that's what our Lord Jesus Christ thinks about the sovereignty
of God's blessed grace in opening sinners' eyes and not. I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." That's what we just
read over in Isaiah 45, Lord of heaven. I created the heavens,
put the stars in the skies, because Thou did these things. From the
wise, those who's got all the answers, those who knows how
to be saved, those that's joined the church, those that's about,
you know, went to an altar and made up a profession, and to
the prudent. And oh my, what you do, you reveal them under
little babies. And oh, what he said about that,
that ain't fair. That's not right. That's not
equal. He takes the folks that got all
this intellect, and all this reasoning power, and all this
great education, and all these wise, prudent people that can
manage in this world very well, and can do things very well by
themselves, and they can get saved by their own will, by their
own choice, by their own power, and live right to their own power. He said, I'll tell you what,
he says, those wise and prudent, he said, I've hid these things
from them. They ain't gonna never see Christ. They ain't never
going to see grace. They ain't never going to see
God's sovereignty. They ain't never going to see
what salvation is. But he says, there's a bunch
of little old folks in this world who don't know nothing. He says, and you know, they're
babies. They can't do anything for themselves. Only thing a baby can do is make
a mess and whine and cry and throw fits. Somebody else has
got to take care of them from start to finish. And then our
Lord Jesus Christ says, you know what I'll say about that? Oh,
Father, that's good. It's good in your sight. And then whatever good in God's
sight, that's good in our sight. Wouldn't you say that? And oh,
beloved, let me tell you something. You remember when Simeon, he
was waiting in the temple to see the constellation of Israel.
And the scriptures tells us that Simeon, An old, old man, he saw
a 40-day-old baby there. He saw a 40-day-old baby there
when they come to offer him to the Lord. They saw him there,
and he says, picked him up and took him in his arms. He says,
My eyes, my eyes have seen thy salvation in that little child,
that baby. And some of them saw him, though
he was an infant by the nest saw him, though he was blind,
Lazarus saw him though he was dead. How does that happen? Even so, he seemed good in my
sight. Let me show you something. Look
over in Zechariah. You know Malachi is the last
book in the Old Testament. You went to Matthew and read
one book back, you'd be in Malachi. One book before that is Zechariah.
Look in Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. Oh, this look, this look into
Christ, seeing Christ, is given by God Himself to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why Paul said, we see
He, Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels. Look what
is said here in verse 10, Zechariah 12, 10. And thou wilt pour upon
the house of David Now David, Christ is the son of David. He
was David made after the flesh. And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
what am I going to do? I'm going to pour upon them the
spirit of grace and supplication. And now look what it says. And
they shall look upon him, me, whom they have pierced. I'm going
to give them, they're going to look on me whom they have pierced.
And when they look, they're going to mourn. They're going to mourn
for their sin, they're going to mourn for their repayment,
they're going to mourn for their enmity, and they're going to
be in bitterness, repentance, because they've seen Him. And
I tell you, beloved, look and see this, that Christ is all. That's what Brad preached last
Sunday morning. Christ is all. He is all. He's all and in all. And that's why circumcision Don't
avail anything to a Jew. Uncircumcision, don't avail anything
to somebody that's not one. Getting clean or unclean, that
has nothing to do with it, but a new creature in the Lord Jesus
Christ. When I say, look, that means
to hear His voice. When I say, look, that means
to taste that the Lord is gracious. When I say, look, it means to
come unto Him and rest. And oh, beloved, let me tell
you, life's in a look. Now, let's look at the second
thing. Not only is life in a look. Look unto me and be you saved.
But life is preserved in a look. Look in Hebrews chapter 20. You
know how our life keeps on living, how our faith keeps on growing,
how we keep on being saved, how we're still saved after we've
looked unto the Lord and been saved? Saved means to be delivered. Saved means to be saved from trouble, saved from
sin. We're not talking about just
this idea, you know, I got saved back there, and I just haven't
lived for Jesus. No, if you ever, God ever saves
you. A woman asked me one time, how
should we, you know, I was in a meeting one time, and several
folks say, you know, when I got saved, when I got saved, when
I got saved. A woman asked me, she said, Do you ever use the
term, I got saved, or the Lord saved me? I say, since the Lord
saved me, I say the Lord saved me. I don't never say I got saved. No. That automatically presupposes
you had something to do with it, or somebody else did. But
when you say, the Lord saved me, or when the Lord saved me, And that's really, that's scriptural
language. Look unto me and be ye saved. He didn't say, look
to yourself and say, look to the Lord and say, I got saved. If you got it, you lose it. But
if He gives it to you, you got it forever. That's why you don't, that's
why, listen, I'm going to quit preaching and tell you something
serious now. That's why you don't look to what happened yesterday.
You don't go back to yesterday. You're looking to Christ right
now. Is that not right? Because if you look back to yesterday
for some other kind of experience, then you're going to come short.
We're not looking to experiences, we're looking to a person. Though
we've been saved by the grace of God, though God Worked in
us the glory of God. Worked Christ in us. Created
us new creatures. And we've had lots of experience.
We never look to an experience. We don't even look to our faith.
We look to Christ and Christ alone. We look outside ourselves.
We've got to always look outside ourselves. The minute you start
looking to yourself for anything, all the things going to happen,
you're going to get discouraged. You're going to get depressed.
You're going to get aggravated. You're going to get ashamed.
And you're going to, or else you're going to be one of the
few to do that, or you'll become a hypocrite and say, boy, I'm
a good person. One or the other, no middle ground.
And that's why, beloved, He says, look unto Me and be ye saved. And we looked, God helping us,
we looked. He gave us a sight to see. This
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone, God's will,
that everyone would seize the Son. Now, look what our life
salvation, how it continues. Look here in Hebrews 12. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside impure weight, and the sin which doth
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is
set before us. Now, how are we going to do that?
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 sat down at the right
hand of God." Where are you going to look at Him at? Sat at the
right hand of God. Jesus is not down here. He's
up yonder. He's sitting at God's right hand.
And consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be weary in pain in your minds.
You see, beloved, life is preserved, and life is given in a look,
and life is preserved in a look, continually looking unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said here we have a race
to run. Got a race to run. I run a little
bit, don't run much as I used to, but I still run a little
bit. And I tell you what, I'm not going to run with clothes
like this on. I'm not going to run in cowboy
boots. I'm not going to run in combat boots. I did that when
I was in the service. Had to run in combat boots. I
quit that when I found out, you know, that they made running
shoes. But what I want you to do is you take off everything
So the less weight you've got, don't even wear cotton to run
in, because it gets wet and it gets heavy. And so you want the thinnest,
smallest socks you can get, the lightest shorts you can get,
and the lightest shirts you can get. And that's why Paul says,
get rid of all this weight you've got here. And you know what kind
of some of the weights we've got? The greatest weight we've
got is the sin which does so easily beset us. What do you
think that sin is that easily besets us? What do you think
it is? I've seen a preacher the other
day being questioned. All he was interested in was
his stand on homosexuality. He said, Scriptures is against
it. She said, so when we said so, they said, you know, and
a whole bunch of folks got on it. Said, you mean to tell me
that if there's any gays or homosexuals in your service, that you're
calling them sinners? You reckon anything else goes to service
but a sinner? He said there's lots of sin.
He said pride is a sin. They didn't want to hear about
that. He said envy is a sin. Self-righteousness is a sin.
All they wanted to do was make him admit how wrong he was, how
sinful he was, how self-righteous he was, to call homosexuality
a sin. I'm going to say something right
now. And I don't want to upset anybody or make anybody mad,
but I'll tell you this, if you can vote for anybody that sanctions
homosexuality and gay marriage, If you can vote for anybody that
has abortion on demand, and in Orlando, Florida the other day,
they cut the price of abortion in half, and they had 40-something
women waiting in line to get in there to have an abortion,
because they could get it that much cheaper. If you can vote
for a people, a party, or anybody else, or a candidate, who believes
in gay marriage, and believes in abortion on demand. I say that, and I'm going to
say this if you never hear me ever preach again, there's no
way somebody saved by the grace of God can sanction anything
like that. It's immoral. It's ungodly. It's unrighteous. And that's why the sin that so
easily beset us, People want to catalog sin. But you know
what, I'm going to tell you what sin easily besets us? Unbelief. That's our... When we get in
trouble, just the minute something bad happens, unbelief fits right
in on us. Don't it? What are we going to
do about this? Look under the Lord. What are
we going to do about that? Look under the Lord. What else
are we going to do? Unbelief is the sin that so easily
besets us. People want to catalogue sin,
and sin, the Scriptures tell us what sin is. But I'll tell
you what He says here, lay aside the weight of sin which so easily
besets us and run with patience. When you're weary, weary, look
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that what He says, don't
be weary and faint in your minds? When you're striving against
sin, look what it says in verse 4, you've not yet resisted unto
blood. You ain't never resisted sin to the time that it really,
really cost you blood. Now, we may one of these days
in the United States of America. We may one of these days. I know
the only religion that's under assault in the United States
of America is Christianity. If you say something against
Muslims, you've got a fight on your hands. Say something against
the Catholic, you've got a spot on your hand. But if you begin
to say anything about Jesus, anything about a Christian, they
won't, too. And we've not yet resisted under blood, but we
may one of these days. Bruce Crafter and I was talking
about that the other day. We very well may, it may be just
the law to tell the truth one of these days. And all beloved striving against
sin, Chastening to endure, and he says, no, this is the things
we've got. We've got to keep looking to Christ. And he says,
you've forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you in verse
5 is unto children. He said, he exhorted you like
you were children. My son despised not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you're rebuked of it. See,
we've got to endure chastening. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scorneth ever son whom he receiveth. Now listen
to it. If you endure chastening, God deals with you like he does
with someone. Father loves his children. And
beloved continually looking unto Jesus. And that's what he says
there in verse 2. And I'll get on with it. Looking
unto Jesus, the author. Where'd our faith come from?
Who gave it to us? Who worked it in us? Who bought
it for us? The Lord Jesus Christ did. Who's
going to complete it? Who's going to finish it? The
Lord Jesus Christ did. That's why we're looking unto
Him. And that's where we've got to stay. Look to Him in your
trials. Consider Him that endured such
a contradiction to Himself. Look to Him for humility. Look
to Him for grace and mercy. Let's be like Abraham. What did
Abraham do? He was looking for a sea. who
filled her and made her who is God. And that's what I'm doing.
We're looking. We're looking. And guess what? One of these days we'll go to
sleep and we'll wake up right in the middle of that city. Little old Riley, she was looking
yesterday. In Mary's office in there, she's
got a picture of her mother. Everybody in the family there.
A picture of her mother when she was very young. And Riley
looked and said, that's Nanny's mommy. He said, yeah, that's
who that is. She said, she's in heaven. He
said, yeah. He said, she's going to come
back tomorrow. I said, no, no, honey, she ain't come back. She's
with the Lord Jesus. See, they can't conceive of that.
But we're looking. We're looking to that time we
leave and never come back. Huh? Looking unto Jesus. Let's
be like Abraham. Let's not put our hand to the
plow looking back. Let's look unto Jesus and finish
our faith. And then let me show you this.
In Philippians chapter 3. My third point is this. Not only does life start with
a look. Life continues with a look. It's
preserved by a look. The beloved life will be consumed,
recalcimated with a look. Look in Philippians 3.20. Our life will be consummated.
One of these days, just be over it. It's like that with a look. He said, for our conversation,
Philippians 3.20, for our conversation, that word conversation means
our manner of life in this world. For our conversation, our manner
of life is in heaven. We are heavenly minded people.
We look into heavenly things. We think heavenly things. We
believe in heavenly things. And our conversation, our manner
of life is in heaven. And why? Because there we look
for this Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking for Him. And how long do you reckon it
will be before He comes back? Well, He may come after you the
next day or two. By nature itself, He's coming
after you pretty quick. By nature, He's coming after
you pretty quick. And guess what? You're looking
for him to come, ain't you? In your bed, goes to bed every
night looking for the Lord Jesus to come get him. He looks. And oh, what's going to happen?
You see, it's our conversation. It's our walk. And look what
it says here in verse 19. This is the kind of people who
don't walk, who don't look. whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly
things." Their God's their belly? They live to satisfy the flesh.
They mind things of this earth, and the things that they ought
to be ashamed of, they glory in. But that's not us. No, no,
we're looking for the saving of the Lord Jesus Christ from
heaven itself. And when He comes, what is He
going to do? He's going to change our, my body. You know, there's a day in your
life when you look at yourself and say, Boy, I'm getting old.
There was a day that you didn't think that, and then all of a
sudden one day you look at your hand, and one day you look in
the mirror, and you say, My word, who is that looking back at me?
You know why that is? So why, why? But you know, in our hearts and
in our minds, we're still, most of us, 25, 30. But our bodies react. Huh? That's why he says he's going
to change it. Going to change it. And when you get to glory,
we're not going to have spots and wrinkles and old age. We're going to be brand new.
This body is going to be changed, and He's going to fashion it.
Fashion it. Or whatever His body says, I'm
going to fashion it like unto His glorious body. Because He's
able to subdue things, all things, unto Himself. Oh, beloved, we're,
oh, one of these days, bless His holy name, we'll be done
with this foul body. But oh my, life will be, we're
looking, we're looking. Let me show you in Titus, over
in Titus, that little book we've been looking at over here in
Titus chapter 2. Look at this. Oh my, we're looking for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then look what he says here
in Titus chapter 2 and verse 13. Looking, looking. from that blessed hope. Christ is our hope. Looking for
that blessed hope. Who is that blessed hope? The
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our great God, and He's
our Savior. That's why we're looking to Him.
That's why we've got hope. Hope in the Scriptures always
has to do with the future and the resurrection. Always has
to do with that. And we're looking to Him. Looking
for Him, beloved, that blessed hope. What makes it blessed?
Because Christ is our hope, that's what makes it blessed. What makes
it blessed? Because He gave Himself for us.
What makes it blessed? That He put away all our sin,
redeemed it for us. And oh, beloved, and it's blessed
because of where it comes from. It's coming from Christ Himself.
And then let me show you one more. John, 1 John chapter 3
and verse 3, over into your life. 1 John 3, 3. Looking for that blessed hope.
Life starts with a look. Look unto me and be you saved.
Life preserved in a look. We continually look unto our
Lord Jesus Christ. And life's going to end with
a look. Huh? You know, this is one of the
mysteries of the Scripture. Barnabas saw him, blind as a
bat, but he saw him. And because he saw Him, Christ
gave you eyes to see. How do you figure that out if
you can't? How do you figure that out? But a man saw Him before
he ever had sight. And because he saw Him, the Lord
Jesus Christ gave a blind man sight. Oh my, the mysteries of
God's grace. Now look what it said here in
1 John 3, verse 1. And we got that word look again.
What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. We don't know where we're going.
It don't appear yet. But we know that when He shall appear, We
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Oh, you're talking about a change.
What a change that's going to be. And beloved, when we see
him, we'll see he'll appear without sin the second time. without
a sacrifice. He'll appear as our salvation,
and we'll be plumb saved. Now, I want you to see this one
other thing with me, a couple other things. Look with me in
Luke 21, just a moment. Luke 21. I want you to see this
with me. I'll tell you, oh, thank God for seeing Christ. Luke 21,
27. One of these days when we see
Christ, we'll be plumb saved, the Angels of Barnard said. And
how do we look? We look by faith. How do we look? We look in His Word. And seeing Him whom we see not
now, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Look what
is said here now in verse 27. Luke 21, 27. And then shall they
see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and
glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up, look forward, lift up your heads
for your redemption. Draw a knife. Look with me in Isaiah 45, just
one more time. Let me show you two or three
times, and I'm finished. There you go. You know, look what it says here
now, in verse 22 again. Look unto me if ye say unto all
the ends of the earth, I'm God, nobody like me. And then look
what it says. When we look to Christ and look
unto Him, look what happens now. God swore by Himself, the word's
gone out of my mouth and went out into righteousness. And it
won't return. that unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear." Now, beloved, have we not bowed
our knees as we looked unto Him? Have we not bowed our knees?
Have we not swore that our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
that there is salvation no place else? And this is what else we
say. We could strive Him with our maker. What of him that striveth
with his maker? This is what else we say. Surely
shall one say unto the Lord, I have righteousness. My righteousness
is in Him. When you look to Him, that's
what you say. I don't have no other righteousness. Look what
else it says. And strength, and in the margin it says, surely
shall he say of me, in the Lord is all righteousness and strength.
Where else are you going to find strength? We look to Him and
that's what we see. And look what it said, and all
that are against him shall be ashamed. We're so ashamed of
our enmity that we had toward him, of the way we felt about
him. And then look what happens. And
then look what happens to those that look to him. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified as your glory. Huh? Oh, my! Justified? Glory? Only in Christ, in the Lord?
Amen. Amen.