Turn with me back now to Hebrews
chapter 12. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. What is faith? From time to time, I ask folks
that question when we're in conversation and they're talking to me about
being a believer. and believe in God and these
things, and I'll ask them, what is faith? What are you talking
about? What is this thing called faith? Well, faith is believing God. First of all, do I believe God? Do I believe God concerning His
testimony of my condition? Of the fall of man? of the history
of the world, of creation, do I believe God? Do I believe God? Do I look to His Word? Do I go
into His Word and find in His Word the answers for that which
troubles me? Do I believe Him? Do I believe
God? Well, the Father of our faithful
Father of all God's faithful, old Abraham, here's what it said,
he believed God. It didn't say he believed in
God. It says he believed God. He believed God. He took God
at His Word. His faith extended to all things,
all matters. God's account of man, God's promise
of the coming Redeemer, presence with him in this world, God's
covenant blessings, Abraham believed God. And it was counted to him
for righteousness. And it wasn't written for Abraham's
sake alone that it was imputed to him for righteousness, but
to us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up our Lord from the dead. What is faith? Well,
faith is believing God. He tells us in Hebrews chapter
11 at the outset of it that faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen. Those who truly believe
God know, at least in part, that they're in a bad shape. They're
in a bad way. They're members of a cursed generation,
sin entered by Adam and death by sin. And so death passed on
all his posterity. And the unrefuted evidence of
that is that all have sinned. All have sinned. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now, won't you listen closely
to what I'm going to tell you. We're not all murderers, but
murderers in your nature. Murderers in your nature. We're
not all adulterers. But adultery is in your nature.
We're not all thieves, but the potential is there. And spiritually
and mentally, we practice these things. You see, those Pharisees,
you call them adultery. They say, we're not like other
men. We're not adulterers. We're not idolaters, and we're
not adulterers. That's what they say. And then
our Lord said, well, here's what you teach about adultery. And
He told them. They quoted the law of Moses. Now He said, now let me tell
you what that law means. To look on a woman in lust after
her is to commit adultery already in your heart. To be angry at
your brother without a cause is to be guilty of murder. Every
one of us practice these things. We practice these things. Not
outwardly, not outwardly, but inwardly. Faith is the substance. We believe God. We believe God concerning His declaration of
who we are. And we act that way. We walk
that way. We think that way. What is it that makes forbidden
fruit suit the appetite so well? All you have to do is forbid
something. Then it becomes expedient to
do it. Brother Mahan gave this illustration one time, talking
about sin. He said, you take a bunch of
little tiny children, just tiny children, and you put them back
here in a big room in the back. There's toys everywhere. Toys
all over the floor everywhere. Tricycles. They're jumping things. There's everything in the world
back there that a child could want. And you turn them loose
and you say, now, you can have everything in this room. You
enjoy it. You play with it as long as you
want to. But don't go through that door over there, okay? Okay. Then come out here and look through
a peephole and see where to go first. Straight through the door. What is it about the forbidden
fruit? Well, I'll tell you what it is.
It's sin. That's what it is. It's the nature of sin. Sin is
what caused Abel to take a rock and bash his brother's brains
out. Sin is what caused false religion to grow like kudzu in
the world. This is condemnation, our Lord
said, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light. Goodness as it applies to mankind
is non-existent. Well, just take that word out
of our vocabulary, because God said there is none good but God.
None good but God. No, Paul said not even one. The Lord said He looked down
from heaven, and the good man, He said, has perished from the
earth. The world right now today is
the same as it was in the days of Noah, and its end will be
no different. Peter comparing these two things
said, but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same
word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Same reason God preserved
it before the flood, He preserved it afterward. Same reason. God will preserve and call to
faith and repentance every soul given Him by the Father. He'll keep His promised redemption
and promised salvation to the last man. And believers believe
the testimony of God concerning these things. And they find themselves,
as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2, this is where God finds a
man. And when God finds a man, He
reveals to the man where He found him. And then Paul reminds them
where God found them. When He found you, you was without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world. That's where He finds you. That's
where He finds you. When you find out that salvation
is by the covenant promise of God, you can't find anything
in this book to tie you in to that covenant. Nothing in your
history, nothing in your bloodline, nothing in your past to tie you
and your strangers to the covenant of promise. What ties us into these things
is Christ. In Christ there is neither Jew
nor Gentile, not Greek or none of those things, not male or
female. We're all one in Christ. And then being convinced to sin,
God the Holy Spirit then sends to His people the good news of
the gospel, that now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes
afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And I can't
explain the act any more than I can explain life or creation.
But I just know it so. I just know it so. Upon the commandment
of God, a light begins to shine into the darkness of a man's
soul, and from that day on, he begins looking unto Jesus. That's what he does. Looking. Looking. For the first time in
his life, he sees who he is. He sees why he came. He sees
what he did. He sees where he's at. And he
begins looking. That's what faith is. Faith is
looking unto Jesus. Not having looked. Looking. Looking. Now let me ask and hopefully
answer just a few questions that I've been asked over the years
about this. First of all, what does he see?
What does faith see when it looks to Jesus? Well, he sees a person. A person. Not with natural eyes, not in
some kind of a dreamy vision, not in the clouds, not in a formation
in the clouds. There's Catholics all over the
world in places with monuments on them where folks have seen
Jesus in a cloud, or seen Mary in a cloud, or seen in the grass,
or in the sea, or something. But we see Him as He's set forth
in the Word of God. We see Him in His glory. We see
him as he's testified of the Father. The Gospel, my friend,
is a person, Jesus Christ the Lord. The person of Christ is
so preeminent in faith that Paul defines it, looking unto Jesus. That was his theology. That's
Paul's theology, looking unto Jesus. Who is he? Oh, he'll tell you who he is.
He'll tell you who he is. Why do you look? He'll tell you
why. He'll tell you why. What does he see? He sees face.
He sees a person. It sees a person. And it asks
the question, who is this man? Who is this man, Jesus Christ?
Who is he? Who is he? The Bible's full of
information about Christ, but who is he? There's churches all over this
country today, and they're talking about Jesus, and they're talking
about the cross, and they're talking about the tomb, and they're
talking about faith, and they're talking about the church. Who
is this man, Jesus Christ? Tell me what you know about him.
Why should I look to him? Who is this man? Oh, I tell you,
if you're here today and you don't know the answer to that,
you need to find out. Who is this man? Well, I'll tell
you who he is. He's the seed of woman. No sooner
had man fell in the garden than God came to him in the cool of
the day and gave him the promise of Christ. And he said, the woman's
seed. Isn't that what he told them?
The woman's seed. That's who he is. He's the seed
of Jesse, the father of David. He's the seed of David. He's
the seed of Abraham through which all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed. Who is this one who shall be
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek? Who is this one
which God shall provide as a lamb for a burnt offering? Who is
this one foretold from the garden? foreshadowed in all the ceremonial
types and prophesied by all the servants of God from the beginning
of time. Who is this man? I've been hearing
about Jesus as far back as I can remember, but nobody ever told
me who he was. Nobody ever. They just said,
well, just believe on Jesus. Who is this man? Well, he's God.
That's who he is. He's God. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's
no mere man. He's the God-man. He's the God-man
in one holy person. He's God in man. He's God and
man in one person to save His people from their sins. And He's
God in order to satisfy. God demands satisfaction, divine
satisfaction. It must be perfect, the scripture
said, to be accepted. And if God doesn't do the work,
then the work will never satisfy God. Only God can satisfy God. That's why our Savior must be
God and man, because only God can satisfy and only man can
suffer. God can't suffer. He must be
man to suffer as one mediator between God and
me and the man, Christ Jesus. You know, if you just read the
Scriptures and quit listening to logic and just read the Scriptures,
when God talks about His manhood, He talks so strongly about His
manhood that you can't hardly believe He's God. And then when
he talks about his Godhood, he talks about it in such a manner
that you can't hardly believe that there's any man in him.
And that's the way we're to preach him. He's the Godman. He's the
Godman. This one being in the form of
God. Paul said, "...thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took on him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and become obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." Who is this man? He is the God-man
mediator. And then thirdly, he is our covenant
head. God's elect were only pictured
in the nation of Israel. God had an elect within Israel,
but God's whole elect was just pictured in the nation of Israel.
God's elect were all chosen and blessed in Christ. That's who
God's elect is. In Galatians 3, verse 26, it
says this, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus
Christ. For as many of you who have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You're neither Jew
nor Greek, nor bond nor free. You're neither male nor female.
You're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, if you
be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. Faith in Christ is the evidence
of election. His sheep hear His voice. And
as many as are ordained to eternal life believe. Who is this man? He's the reigning King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, seated upon the throne of God. A preacher, I understand that
as God, he has the right to rule, but what is a mediator and redeemer
doing upon the throne? He's arranging all things. and
ordering all things for our good in His glory and for the salvation
of our souls. That's why this mediator of God
is seated on the throne. All for whom He died, all for
whom He was appointed, He sits on that throne to be sure all
those covenant blessings are sure to them. ruling all things
and arranging all things according to the redemptive purpose of
God. Over in Revelation chapter 5, John saw in his holy vision
one seated upon the throne, and in his hand was a book of all
the eternal decrees of redemption. There was a scroll in his hand,
but it was sealed with seven seals. sealed with the perfections
of God, sealed. And John wept because a search
went out throughout heaven and no man, no man was worthy to
unloose the seals. But then an elder came forward
and spoke and said, weep not, weep not. The Lion of the tribe
of Judah hath prevailed to take the book and to open the seals
thereof. It was a book of hope, but no
man to open it. It was a book of promise, but
none to fulfill it. It was a book of mysteries, but
no man to reveal it. But one was worthy. One was worthy. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne, and it
said, everybody sang a new song. I tell you, you will too. You
will too when you see him take the book. and loose the seals. You'll sing a new song. Oh, you
quit singing that I'll fly away business. You'll start singing
the grace of God, amazing grace, amazing grace, redeemed how I
love to proclaim it. You'll sing a new song. Here's
the song you'll sing, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. Who is this man? He is the Lamb
slain, John said before the foundation of the world. The old folks don't
like that either. Why did he come? He came to fulfill
the redemptive will of God. Or in his own words, he said
in the volume of the book, it's written of me, I come to do thy
will, O God, by the which we were sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Our Lord said, This
is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all which He hath
given Me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. Why did He come? He came to fulfill
all that God gave Him to do. Paul said, This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners. Why did He come? To save sinners.
to save sinners. He came to fulfill all that the
prophets had written of Him, every passage, every type, every
allegory, every promise. Why did He come? I'm come that
they might have life and have it more abundantly. Why did He
come? He came to give hope to the hopeless,
help to the helpless, mercy to guilty sinners. And then what
did He do? Well, they satisfied God's holy
justice. God's justice demanded that the
soul that sinneth shall surely die. Christ died, and we died
in Him. We died in Him. As our covenant
head and surety, He took our place before the offended justice
of God, and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He was made to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And then where is He now? Well,
I'll tell you this, the angel said to the women, He's not here.
He's not in the tomb. He's not in the tomb. He's risen. And by His resurrection, we've
been justified, delivered from our offenses. He was delivered
from our offenses and raised again for our justification.
By His ascension to the throne, He's taken full possession of
the promised inheritance of the saints. And we're complete in
Him who is the head of all principality and power. Death has no threat
to a believer. Has no threat. Has no threat
to the believer because the issues of death belong to the Redeemer. To Him belong the issues of death.
They're in His hands, John. They're in His hands. They're
not in your hands. We think they are. We live like we're going to live
forever. Let me tell you something. You're going to die. when it's
your time. That's when you're going to die.
Because those issues belong to Him. They belong to Him. We don't fear death. Poverty
has no threat to the believer because he knows that he who
spared not his own son, he won't spare anything. Why would he
spare a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread when he spared not his
own son? What will he spare? He'll spare
nothing. It's fair enough. And we don't fear the prince
of this world because our Lord's got him on a chain. He's on a
chain, and he's the only one who can hold it. We don't fear
disease because our Lord commands even that which kills the flesh.
From His throne in glory, He controls and works all things
together for good to them that love the Lord, who are called
according to His purpose. And my one goal, my only goal
as your pastor and as God's ambassador to men is to persuade you through
the preaching of the gospel to look to Him. And keep on looking
to Him. Keep on looking to Him. In Him
is life. In Him is glory. In Him is all
things. He is all in all. Or as the Scripture
said, all and in all. He's everything. He's everything. And one day we'll see Him as
He is and be with Him where He is. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Finding in Him a full sufficiency
of all things. We find our election in Him.
That's where our election is. It's in Him. You ain't going
to find it in you. You're going to find it in Him. We were chosen
in Him. Isn't that what it says? We find
our election in Him. We find our redemption in Him.
We find our righteousness in Him. We find our sanctification
in Him. We find our wisdom in Him. We
find the revelation of God in Him. And we find the will of
God in Him. Christ in you. That's what Paul
says. That's the hope of glory. Not
this business of coming down an aisle and joining the church
and turning over new leaves and doing the best you can. God spits
on the best you can do. If you don't believe me, you
go back and read that report of Cain and Abel. I can't even imagine what kind
of a garden would have been at the beginning of this world before
we polluted the soil and did all the things. I can't even
imagine what kind of crops that man brought and laid on the altar
of God and God spit on. He wouldn't have them. He's the way. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. He's the truth. He that hath
received his testimony hath set to seal that God is true. He
is life. He that hath the Son hath life. He is the resurrection. Blessed
and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection. He
is the bread of God. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of God and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He is
the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. And He is a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek without beginning of days or
end of time in order to save to the uttermost all those who
come unto God by Him. Believers are always looking
unto Jesus because there is nowhere else to look. He told, when those folks got,
they got upset at what I just quoted to you about eating his
flesh and drinking his blood, and they said, mumbled among
themselves, well, he's preaching cannibalism. He said, my words
are spirit in their life. You don't understand them. You
don't understand. But everybody, all that big crowd
that had been following him and on his heels and all those ones
he fed up on the mountain, they all turned and went away. They
turned and went away. And he turned to the 12 and he
said, well, you go too. I said, where are we going to
go? You see what I'm saying? Where are we going to look? There's
nowhere else to look. There's no other foundation.
There's none other name given unto heaven whereby we must be
saved. John said, he's the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the
whole world. There is no other propitiation. You'll look to
him or die in your sins. Imagine. Imagine an authority
so irresistible, so powerful, so universal, that none could
stay his hand or say unto him, won't do us that. You can't even
comprehend that. Imagine a wisdom so great, so
all-knowing that it could declare the end from the beginning and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done. Imagine
a will so absolute, so sure, so determined that all things
must be brought into compliance to it. Everything. everything subject to the will
of God. Imagine a love so pure, so self-sacrificing,
so inseparably fixed that nothing could separate that love from
its objects. Imagine a grace so free, so undeserved
that it could reach into the lowest pit of the damned and
spare sinners. Imagine a mercy so tender, so
full of goodness and compassion that it's said to endure forever.
Imagine a justice so infinite that it would by no means clear
the guilty. Imagine a righteousness so perfect
that even before the all-seeing eye of God, one could be spotless
before the presence of His glory. Now imagine all these things
in one divine person whose eternal mission is to save your soul,
looking unto Jesus. You see what I'm saying? Looking
unto Him. That's what faith does. It finds
in Him God's treasure. It finds in Him God's glory. It finds in Him hope, peace. It finds in Him eternity in Him. It finds all things in Him. And
it sees all those things in that person engaged to save your soul. I said, why wouldn't you look
to Him? Why won't you look to Him if you never have? Look to
Him. Look to Him. Salvation is in
a look. He said, as that old brazen serpent was lifted up
and all who looked lived. Even so shall the Son of Man
be lifted up. Looking. That's what Paul said.
Looking. That was his message. Look! Look! Quit doing! Quit saying! Quit
arguing! And look. Just look. I tell you,
the first time you do, you'll be the first time you ever worship
God. Look to Him.