Now in that passage that Brother
Mark read, I'm just going to deal with basically the first
few verses of this passage, and then next week, Lord willing,
we'll get into the subject of chastisement. I know that's a
subject that a lot of people are interested in, and there's
a lot of myth and religious hype about it, but we'll look at what
the scripture says. But here provides the foundation
for even that. in this message on looking unto
Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. You know,
in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, as we went through that,
we saw so many examples of God's saints. Sinners saved by grace. Sinners chosen of God before
the foundation of the world. Chosen in Christ. Justified before
God. through the righteousness that
Christ would in time come and work out by his obedience unto
death on the cross, that righteousness imputed to them as well as to
us who are true children of God, those who were redeemed by the
blood of Christ. We can say all these things about
each one of these believers equally. You know, you look at the Hall
of Faith and we saw, you know, Whenever we look at these people,
the men and the women that are mentioned, we see weak, pitiful
human beings as we are, who if they were saved, and they were,
it's all of God's grace through the righteousness of another.
It was nothing they did, nothing they accomplished that saved
them. It was the power of God. And
so, We see these accomplishments and these great things that are
mentioned in them, but it's not a testimony to the goodness or
the determination or even the strength of their believing. It's a testimony to the goodness
and the greatness and the power and the grace of God in Christ.
That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. Some of them had suffered
great persecution, we read that at the end of the chapter, even
death, because they would not, and again, by the grace of God,
they would not deny Christ. They would not deny the gospel.
And that's why he says here in verse one, wherefore, for this
reason, seeing we also are compassed, or surrounded, about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, Why did the Holy Spirit inspire the
writer of Hebrews to list these Old Testament saints? Well, he
says they're witnesses for us. And here's the purpose. He says
in verse 1, let us lay aside every weight or every burden
and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us." In other words, he
listed these Old Testament saints as examples of the sovereign
power and goodness and grace of God to encourage New Testament
believers to endure in the faith, to persevere in the faith against
all opposition and even against persecution. Now, all who believe
and who follow Christ will be persecuted over the gospel. And you know that persecution
can come in many different forms and many different degrees. I
mentioned last time I preached, you know, when it talks about
verse 37 of chapter 11, some were stoned. I think about Stephen,
for example, in the book of Acts in the New Testament. He preached
the gospel to a religious crowd And they murdered him. And I think Jim, I think you
read that part and you said, we think we got it bad? We've
been spoiled, haven't we? Now we have been persecuted.
Sawn asunder, he says, tested, we're slain with the sword. Believers
who've gone through this. So we will be persecuted. The
gospel, and why? Because the gospel message wherein
the sinfulness of man is exposed, even in his best efforts to keep
the law, and the righteousness of God is revealed, which comes
only by Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead.
That message is hated by the world. It's the gospel light
of truth that reveals how all men and women by nature are fallen
and in need of a righteousness they cannot produce. And many
times we're talking to people who have spent their life trying
to establish a righteousness of their own and are confident
in themselves that they've achieved that or come pretty close. And what do we tell them? With
the light of the gospel, we tell them all that's no good. That's
right. We tell them all that's evil,
in fact, in the sight of God, because it's the product of self-righteousness
and unbelief. It denies the glory of God, which
can only be found in Christ and His righteousness, given to His
people. He worked out for His people.
And this light, which we see by the power and grace of God,
and in which we glory, exposes all efforts of sinful man to
make himself righteousness as fruit unto death. The world is
our enemy. You remember back up in Hebrews
11 verse 38, speaking of those that were persecuted and even
killed, it says, of whom the world was not worthy. The world
is our enemy. And we cannot defeat it. But
Christ can and has defeated this world. He told his disciples,
be of good cheer, in the world you'll have tribulation, but
I've overcome the world. He's done it, hasn't he? He's
overcome all our enemies. He's overcome Satan. He's overcome
the world. And I'll tell you what, He's
overcome us. Our flesh, our sin, our depravity. This light, which we can see
by the power of God. So the hall of faith here is
not given for us to admire men and women and seek to emulate
their goodness, their power, their determination, but it's
given to show us the power and the goodness, the faithfulness,
the grace, the righteousness of God in Christ, by which he
saves sinful people. And that's the only way any of
us can endure opposition and persecution of the gospel. By
the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to be so firmly convinced
of the certainty of this truth of salvation conditioned on Christ
who fulfilled those conditions and the certainty of eternal
damnation for anyone who does not come to Him and rest in Him
and believe in Him as the only way. We have to be so firmly
convinced of that by the Spirit that we will not faint. Look at it. He says, run the
race that is set before you. We're to run the race with patience. That word patience is endurance.
Endure. And it's a race. And it's a race
that God has set before us. How are we to do it? What am
I to do? What is the method that God gives
us to run this race? Well, look at verse two. There's
your answer. Here's how we run it, and listen to it very carefully. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. That's how. In other words, what
he's telling us, this is a race of grace, which nobody would
run and nobody would continue in or finish but by the grace
of God. Because we run it looking not
to ourselves, not to our denomination, not to our friends and our family,
not to our experiences, and certainly not to our feelings, but looking
to Jesus, the author. Not just looking to Jesus. It's
not just me and Jesus got a good thing going kind of thing. Everybody
loves Jesus. No. looking at Him as He is specifically
revealed by God in His Word. The author, that's the beginner,
and the finisher, that's the completer of our faith. In other
words, we look to Him as our all in all. And He says there
in verse 2, who, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured
the cross. What was the joy that was set
before Him? Well, it was his father's glory. Remember in John
17, he said, glorify thou me with the glory that I had with
thee before the world began. It was his own exaltation. He's
given a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he's Lord.
And you know what else it was? It was the salvation of all whom
the father had given him before the world began. Remember the Bible says there's
more joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance than
over a multitude that needs no repentance. God's not willing
that any of his elect should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. That's the joy that was set before
Christ. And for that joy, He endured
the cross. We preach the cross. What does
that mean? We preach the finished work of Christ, the righteousness
that He accomplished, which God has imputed to His people, which
demands their eternal life and glory. Despising the shame. Think about the shame that He
went through. Think about how it was described
in the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah. A man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. We esteemed Him not. smitten
of God. Think about all that he went
through and the accusations of sinful men. The very men and
women that he put breath into, accusing him of being a blasphemer
and a devil. Sinners looking at the Lord of
glory who never sinned, never committed a sin, never thought
a sin, and calling him a sinner. That wasn't easy for him to go
through. He suffered, the scripture says,
untold agony. But look at the result, look
at verse two. And is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. What does that mean, he's set down? That means he
finished the work. He established right, he did
what Daniel prophesied. That he was going to bring in
everlasting righteousness as having been the one who made
an end of sin and finished the transgression. That's who we look to. Years
ago, I want you to turn over here, turn to 2 Kings chapter
18 and just hold your hand right there for a moment. Years and years ago I heard an
old preacher preaching from a passage back in Numbers 21. Now you turn
to 2 Kings 18 and we'll come back to Hebrews 12. 2 Kings 18. Old preacher, he was preaching
from Numbers 21. And he made this statement. He said, salvation
is in a look. Always has been, always will
be. Salvation is in a look. Always has been and always will
be. Well, what kind of look? Looking under what? Well, he
was preaching from Numbers 21. Now, if you don't know what that's
about, that's where Moses leading the children of Israel, or the
Hebrew children rather, through the wilderness. And they had
just been attacked by a Canaanite king, and some of them taken
prisoner, and then Moses was leading them through, and it
was a difficult way to go. Very difficult. A hard road to
hold. And the Hebrew children began
to complain, just like they did at the Red Sea, you know, or
when after they crossed the Red Sea and Moses went up to the
mountain, and you know, and even before, before they crossed the
Red Sea. But why did you bring us here
to die? Why didn't you just let us stay
in Egypt? That kind of thing. Unbelief. And God showed his
just anger toward them. And remember what he did? He
sent fiery serpents That means a poisonous snake, that's what
that means. Fiery serpents to bite them and
they were dying. And so they changed their mind.
Now it was a legalistic change, we know, but that's the way we
are, aren't we? And God, meaning to intend him to preserve that
people to his purpose, he told Moses, he said, make a serpent
of brass, put it up on a pole, And tell them, anybody who looks
to that brazen serpent shall live. Look and live. You ever
heard the song, look and live, my brother live? That's where
that come from. So they had that brazen serpent
and they looked. Now let me ask you this. Do you
reckon there was any special, mystical, magical power in that
serpent of brass that they looked to? They looked and they lived,
didn't they? Well, it certainly would be common
for human beings, especially ignorant, sinful human beings
like we are by nature, to conclude there's something special about
that serpent of brass. Well, there was. But I want to
show you this. Look at 2 Kings 8. You know,
we love religious relics, don't we? People love to look at them. They like to go into a religious
building and they see a cross hanging on the wall or they see
a figure on that wall nailed to it or they see something,
a picture of what they think is Mary or something like that.
And they love to pray to it. There's some special significance
to it. Look at 2 Kings 18. This is King Hezekiah. Now he
was one of the believing kings of Judah, one of the very few.
And one of the things it says about King Hezekiah in 2 Kings
18, look at verse 4. Hezekiah removed the high places,
that was a place of idolatry. He broke the images and cut down
the groves, and he break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses
had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nahushton. What does that mean? Look at
your concordance. That's a piece of brass. I guarantee you if they could
find that brain, they can't find it because he ground it up to
powder, but if they could find it today, you imagine how many
people would flock to that today? Just let me touch it, I'll be
healed, you know? That kind of thing. Well, what's
the significance? of that brazen serpent. Well,
look over at John chapter 3. And I'm going to tell you something
now. The spiritual eternal significance
of that serpent of brass has always been the same and it's
stated right here, look at verse 14 of John 3. Look at it, and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That serpent was a picture, a
type of Christ. Those Hebrew children, even back
then, who got physically healed by looking to it, they were never
told to look to a piece of brass for salvation, for forgiveness,
and for righteousness. It was always Christ, and Christ
himself said, Moses wrote of me. I guarantee you Moses told
him that. The Messiah's coming. There's
a picture, there's a time. And it goes on, it says in verse
15 of John 3, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. And then comes John 3, 16, 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. That's for believers. Now go back to Hebrews 12. Number
one, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
This is the look of God-given faith, folks. That's what this
is all about. It's not just seeing something. It's the look of God-given faith.
It comes when God the Holy Spirit uses the gospel word to show
us our sinfulness and our depravity and that our only hope of salvation,
our only hope of forgiveness, our only hope of righteousness
is Christ in His obedience unto death. His work of redemption
is our surety, is our substitute. This is God-given knowledge. That's what faith is all about.
It's revealed knowledge. God-given faith accompanied with
expectation. Brother Richard last week, he
preached on an expected end. That's hope. Look at it in Hebrews 12 again,
verse one. Looking unto who? Jesus. The author and finisher of our
faith. You know what the Holy Spirit does here? He first points
to Christ's person. Who is Jesus? Today we have the
Baptist Jesus, we have the Methodist Jesus, we have the Catholic Jesus,
we have the, what's the group that denies his deity? Jehovah's
Witness Jesus. Somebody said, well there's only
one Jesus. Oh no. Among them, there's many. There's
many. And they're all false. If they
don't adhere to what God says of Jesus, what does His name
mean? That means He shall save His people from their sins. That's
what it means. There's no attempt here. There's
no blanket pardon here. There's no He did His part, you
do yours. Not here. Not in the Word of
God. That's only in the minds of men
and that's where idolatry comes from, the imaginations of men.
Christ himself there said there'll be false Jesuses, false Christ,
another Jesus. You say, well everybody preaches
Jesus. Not this one. This one is God in human flesh. This one is the God-man. That's
who he is. Bible says in Matthew 1.23, his
name shall be called Emmanuel. God with us. Unto us A child
is born, a son is given. That's who He is. And then the
Holy Spirit here points us to His redemptive work that He finished. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. Whatever it is we know and believe,
Christ is the beginner of it and the completer of it. The
finished work of Christ. Look back at Isaiah 45 that I
read at the beginning. And look at verse 20 here. Now
here's the identification. Who are you going to look to? Don't look to a serpent on a
pole. Don't look to yourself. Don't look to your denomination.
Don't look to your experiences. No matter how religious they
were or how real they were, look to Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Verse 20 says, assemble yourselves,
come, draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations.
They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray unto a God that cannot say. Somebody says, well, I've
never set up a wooden image. You may not have, but let me
tell you something about these wooden images. You know where
they begin? They begin in the heart and minds of men. before
they become wooden images. They begin with a sinner looking
at himself and looking at other people and looking around the
world and they say, what is God like? This is what I think. That's
where you first go wrong. The old preacher up north said,
it ain't like you thought it was. Most men and women, when they
think about God, they reason from the ground up. They create
and worship a God who is like unto themselves. Well, if that's
the case, you're not looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of your faith. Somebody said, well, I think
God is everywhere and he's in the world. He's in the trees.
He's in the ocean. He's in the sun. Oh, you're a
pantheist, are you? I don't know what that is. Well,
that's a nut. Don't worship the trees. Don't
worship the groves, the high places. Hezekiah had them squelched
out. Well, somebody said, well, when
I hold this crucifix, I just feel closer to God. Oh, is that
right? Well, you're an idolater. How do you feel closer to God?
Looking unto Jesus as the Lord our righteousness. Through whom? By His blood. God will not impute
sin to me. A sinner. By whom? Through Him. God imputes righteousness
to me. A sinner. God receives me, accepts
me, blesses me. A sinner. That's how you feel
close to God. Through Christ. He said, where
two or three are gathered in my name, there I'll be also.
That's the presence of God. That's the presence of the Spirit.
That's the power of the Spirit. Look on, he says in verse 21,
tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I? And there's no God else beside
me? And underscore this, a just God and a Savior. One who is
both a righteous judge and a Savior. You see, why is that so important?
Well, because of the basic problem of fallen man. God is righteous
and we're not. So the question is, how in the
world can a holy, righteous God be just and still save, accept,
receive me? Well, look at it. He said, I'm
a just God and a Savior. He says, there's none beside
me. Verse 22, look unto me and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth. I'm God, there's none
else. Verse 23, I have sworn by myself. That means God has
engaged his glory. The word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee
shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say in
the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Righteousness is
our justification before God based on the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Strength is the life given from
His righteousness by the power of the Spirit to give us eyes
to see and ears to hear. This is Christ as the end of
the law for righteousness. Christ who fulfilled all conditions
to secure the eternal salvation of all for whom he died. And
this look is the look that comes by the power of the Spirit in
the new birth. You know, John chapter 3 and verse 3, Christ
told Nicodemus, unless you accept you're born again, you cannot
what? See the kingdom of God. Remember
in Matthew chapter 13, Christ told his disciples, he said,
blessed are your eyes for they see, your ears for they hear. The Bible says that Satan's main
goal is to keep us from seeing the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. You remember that? 2 Corinthians
4, 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine
unto them. Paul says, for we preach not
ourselves, but Jesus Christ, crucified. And then he said in
2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6, when God turns the light on,
gives us eyes to see through his word by the power of the
spirit, to know what we didn't know before, to see what we didn't
see before, to hear what we didn't hear before. It says the God
who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, looking unto Jesus. the author
and the finisher of our faith. And it's looking to Him alone,
not to Christ plus, but Christ alone. That's what Paul was talking
about in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 when he talked about that
Satan was desiring to deceive them subtly by turning them away
from the simplicity that's in Christ, that singleness that's
in Christ. Christ is my all. He's all my
forgiveness. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my hope. Nothing else. And then it's looking
away from sin and self. Look at Philippians chapter 3
with me. Looking away from sin and self.
Now, when I say that, and here's where you really understand something
of the reality of spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. You know,
the natural man can go through experiences of moral reformation. He recognizes the sinfulness
of immorality as the world sees it, such as murder and adultery
and things like that. And he can have a religious experience
that's not even related to salvation and turn from those things. I've
heard people say this to me. They say, I know that person
was saved because they used to be a hellion and now they go
to church. Well, my friend, That is not
salvation. When God the Holy Spirit brings
us to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we
look away from sin and self. And I want to give you a perfect
example of that in Philippians chapter three. Look at verse
three. The apostle Paul, he says, for we are the circumcision.
Now that's circumcision of the heart. That's the new birth.
We worship God in the Spirit or by the Spirit and rejoice
or have confidence in Christ Jesus. That is, we look to Christ
Jesus and no confidence in the flesh. We look away from the
flesh. Verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh,
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust
in the flesh, I more." In other words, I had a lot to look to
other than Christ that kept me away from him. Verse 5, circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin
and Hebrew of Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee concerning
zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in
the law blameless. Now what's happened? He's talking
about all of his religious efforts, all the things that men highly
esteem as recommending us to God, as making us righteous and
acceptable to God. But then something happened to
Paul on the road to Damascus. God blinded him and then gave
him eyes to see. That was a picture of spiritual
of a spiritual work. Look what happened in verse 7,
here's something, there's a change here, but what things were gained
to me? All those things he listed, religious
things, moral things, sincere things, those I counted loss
for Christ. Now what's happening here? He's
looking unto Jesus now, the author and finisher of his faith. He's
not looking anywhere else. Verse 8, Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ." You see, his sight
has changed. He's looking somewhere other
than what he used to look to. He's not looking to his religion,
his works, his denomination. his heritage. He's looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher. He's not looking to these things
to make him righteous, he's looking to Christ as his righteousness.
And then lastly, it's a continual look. Turn to 1 John chapter
2. 1 John chapter 2. Now my friend, once this Operation of God takes place,
this eye operation you might say, this ear operation, this
heart operation takes place. It brings forth by the power
and the goodness and the grace of God a continual persevering
look. It doesn't mean that we won't
struggle. Struggles with the flesh. And one of the most troubling
works of the flesh, you know what it is? Unbelief and doubt. That's why he's saying, lay aside
the weight that hinders us and the sin that so easily besets
us. You know what he's talking about? He's talking about we
just want to give up. It's kind of doubt and unbelief.
And we'll talk about that more next week. But once he brings
us to see Christ, we want to lay aside anything that would
hinder our looking to Him. And those moments that we get
our eyes off of Him, that's when we're miserable, isn't it? That's
when we're worse off. But God won't let us go. And
you know, that's the reason we persevere. It's not by our strength. It's not by our power. It's because
God will not let us go. No man shall pluck them out of
my hand, Christ said. The remaining corruption of our
fallen nature. But we fight it. in a way of
grace, we endure in a way of grace by continually looking
to Christ, realizing that in him and because of his obedience
unto death, God will not impute sin to us. He imputes righteousness
to us, the righteousness of Christ. But look here, 1 John chapter
two and verse 18. Little children is last time
and as you've heard that antichrist shall come. Even now, there are
many Antichrists whereby we know that it's the last time. They
went out from us. Now he's talking about a person
who totally forsakes the gospel of Christ. They went out from
us, they weren't of us. For if they'd been of us, they
would have no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not of us. But you
have an unction, that's an anointing. of the Spirit, and it comes from
the Holy One, it comes from Christ, in other words, it's His righteousness
which is the source of this unction, this life-giving power of the
Holy Spirit, and you know all things, or you see all things.
That doesn't mean we're all know-it-alls, we're ever-learning, aren't we?
But it means we see and know all things necessary for a sinner
to enter the kingdom of heaven, to be brought to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works and idolatry. And we do this
by looking unto Jesus. That's what he's talking about
in the rest of that chapter, but we'll look at that next.