and review just a little bit in the book of Hebrews all through
the book. And we've seen this, we've been
in the book of Hebrews for how long now? I don't know how many
months, maybe over a year. I don't even keep track of that
or have any idea. I'm sure it's been over a year.
Some of the ladies could probably tell you, ladies can remember
things. Have y'all noticed that? I use that. A lot. Probably tell you exactly how
long. Listen to what it says, verse 1 of chapter 12. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, And let us run with patience the race that
is set before us. Now, this is tied to chapter
11. We see this great cloud of witnesses.
These believers, these men and women in chapter 11 are set forth
before us to consider their example. And we see the scriptures are
full of examples like this. And we'll talk about that in
a minute. But notice what we're doing. The witnesses are there.
We know, we acknowledge them, but we're not looking at them.
We're 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 set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. The last part of that verse is
not superfluous. We look unto Jesus. What Jesus? The one who gives faith to whom
he will. That one. Isn't that important
to see that? The one who gives faith, the
one who sustains faith, the one who finishes faith. We can't
finish the race unless he hold us up. And the one who died on
the cross and not as a defeated victim,
he did it with joy. And he sat down on the right
hand. Those things are significant. And we have to look into that.
Yes, there are witnesses that are there at the race. It's not
necessarily a race. This is any kind of a contest
where there's a striving and a prize. That's all that's, it'll
qualify for the definition. It'll fit the definition. If
there's a striving, an endurance required, a steadfastness required,
and something to be gained. That's what this is talking about.
And there's no question that these men and women in chapter
11 are set forth as examples of that. We see what they went
through and what they were able, by God's grace, to do and not
do. And no question about that. But
look at verse three, for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds. You're still going to be weary and faint in your minds
looking at these witnesses. Don't look at them. Look under
this Jesus, this Christ, who gives faith, who died joyfully
and victoriously for his people, who sat down on the right hand,
who's sitting in heaven right now for us. Look at him, look
to him, and consider him, ponder, think on him. That's what that
word means, very simple. In Hebrews chapter 3, the Old
Testament Israelites are mentioned there, particularly those who
refused to enter into the land that God had promised. God said,
the land of Canaan is yours, go take it. There's a little matter of destroying
the people that live there now, but God said, it's your land,
it's not their land, go get it, go occupy it. And of course they
went and scouted out the land and Joshua came back and said,
all right, y'all ready? You got your swords ready? You got your
armor on and everybody ready to go? But there were those who
said, oh no, we can't go. Did you see how big they were?
How many of them there were? We can't do that. But God said,
do it. And it's called the provocation. They provoked the anger of God. They were afraid of the Canaanites
and so they wouldn't, occupied the land that God had given them.
And God made them wander for 40 years in the wilderness. And
they died in the wilderness, never entering the promised land
because of their unbelief. And in Hebrews 3.17, it says
this, but with whom was he grieved 40 years? Who was God grieved
with? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell
in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they
should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And in the context of that reminder
of those Old Testament Israelites and what they did and what God
did, in verse 11 of chapter four, we're given this exhortation.
Let us labor, therefore. Let us labor. Strive. There's a reward. Let us run. Let us fight. the good fight of faith. Let
us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief." Example. That's an interesting word, isn't
it? It means something to imitate. Or, in this case, just the opposite. Consider their example and learn
from it. Learn from it. That's what we're
exhorted to do there. So there are bad examples in
the scripture for us to learn from, and they serve as warnings
to us. There are some other bad examples
given in 1 Corinthians 10-11. Several there, if you want to
read that chapter sometime, but let me read you just a key verse
from that passage. Now, all these things happened
unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world or come. So there are examples
in the scripture. That's what these men and women
in chapter 11 of Hebrews are. That's why they're even there
at the race as witnesses because they serve as examples and an
encouragement to us. There aren't just bad examples
in the scripture, there are good examples too that serve as instruction
and encouragement. The word, as I said, means something
to be imitated. They're written for our admonition,
Paul said to the Corinthians. James 5.10, we haven't gotten
to chapter five of James yet, but we'll see this verse when
we do. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the
name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and
of patience, of steadfastness, of constancy. take them for an
example. So that's good, isn't it? That's
good, and that's why we're giving these examples, and these are
mentioned in our context. As we said before, they're not
given in order to cause us to admire these people themselves. Think about this with me for
a while. We're giving these examples so that we might admire the one
on whom they believed, the object of their faith. We're not to
admire their faith, were to admire the object of their faith. As
examples, they set forth the glorious truth that Christ is
worthy of our steadfast confidence, our devotion to Him, and our
utter, absolute, unreserved commitment. He's worthy of that, and He's
able to give it, to enable us in these
things. And so, as this life of faith
is pictured here in our immediate text as a contest, a race, an
athletic event. These examples in chapter 11
are pictured as witnesses, but our eyes are not set upon them
in the picture. Our eyes are set upon the same
one that their eyes were set upon. You see what this is saying? Verse two, looking unto Jesus.
We're not looking unto Moses. Why would we be looking unto
Moses when Moses was looking unto him? Moses chose Christ. So don't
admire him, admire the one that he chose over all the riches
of this world. That's what we're exhorted to
do. This is what our Lord said to the Pharisees. who looked
to Moses and not to Christ. You remember that? When we looked
through John, we saw that. They caught that woman in adultery.
Do you remember that? They said, this woman, she's
caught in the very act. And they said to the Lord of
glory, now they said to the Son of God, Moses says to stoner,
what do you say? Now we know the rest of that
story, don't we? When Stephen preached the gospel to them in
Acts chapter six, You know what their response to the gospel
was? The religious Jews there. They said, this man has spoken
blasphemous words against Moses. You can't blaspheme against a
sinner. You can only blaspheme God. They
exalted Moses, didn't they? Let's not fall into that. Let's
not be guilty of that. They looked to Moses. And do
you know what the Lord told them in John 5 45? He said, don't
think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one that
accuseth you, even Moses in whom you trust. For had you believed
Moses, you would have believed me for he wrote of me. Don't set your eyes on Moses
and miss the one that Moses was looking to. That's what those
Pharisees did. And in John chapter eight, verses
31 through 56 if you want to jot that note down and read it
later this same truth is set forth and I'll read you some
key verses from that passage. John 8 38 the Lord Jesus speaking
to the Pharisee to the religious Jews again he said I speak that
which I have seen with my father and you do that which you have
seen with your father. Once you know that, that made
them think, you know, you could see the wheels turning, I'm sure,
if you'd have been there. And they answered and said unto
him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham. But
now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth,
which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Abraham
didn't act like that. What were the works of Abraham?
We saw some of them in Hebrews 11, didn't we? He believed God
and he obeyed God. And if he said, he said, if you
were true children of Abraham, like old Zacchaeus was a son
of Abraham, a spiritual son of Abraham, he said, you'd act like
Abraham did. What did Abraham do? Looking
unto Jesus. he says that in in verse 56 in
that same passage he said your father abraham rejoiced to see
my day and he saw it and was glad so let's don't look at abraham
let's look where he looked to the lord jesus christ almost
thousands of years ago he looked to the lord jesus Christ. Why would you trust Abraham when
Abraham trusted Christ? Don't make an idol of men. We
have Abraham as an example, but we also have these Pharisees
as an example of how not to trust the sinner, not any other sinner
or this sinner. Don't lean on the arm of the
flesh. Paul said we have no confidence in the flesh. Trust the one that
Abraham trusted. Look to the one that Moses chose
and don't set your eyes on these examples and when i say when
you worship me and you're worshiping yourself you're saying oh i've
got the same faith he does and look how wonderful you know we
are come on you know how long it would take us to fall if it
wasn't for that wonderful little word there in verse two i think
it is the finisher he's the finisher he doesn't author it and then
depend on you to finish it No, he lets go. If he takes his hand
off of this universe, all the stars and the planets and everything
would fall. How long would it take you to
fall if he let you go? The Old Testament fathers, you
know what they were? They're described in Matthew
chapter 13. They were merchant men seeking goodly pearls. Let me read you about them. In Matthew 13, 45, this is a
very short and wonderful passage of scripture. The Lord Jesus
said, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking
goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price,
he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Isn't that
simple and clear? Now when you hear that there's
a merchant man he's looking for goodly pearls and he found one
that was so goodly that he sold everything he had in order to
have it. Now does that make you say what
a smart merchant man he must have been or does it make you
say what a pearl that must have been? What a pearl. Even a stupid merchant man would
buy a pearl like that. It doesn't say there, in those
two verses, it doesn't say anything about the merchant man being
particularly shrewd. He was just a merchant man. But it describes the pearl this
way, of great price. Great price. You see why, when
we look at these examples, We don't talk about how smart the
merchant man was. We say what a pearl he must be
for Moses to look at all the riches of this world and say,
nah, nah, I've got him. I've got him. So when we run our race in this
life, there's a cloud of witnesses, sure. They're there as an encouragement. And those from whose experiences
of grace we may learn. But we're looking unto Jesus
just like they did. Just like they did. And we're
exhorted in verse three to consider Him. Consider Him. The word looking in verse two
means this. There's one line in the definition
of that original Greek word there. It means to turn the eyes away
from other things and fix them upon something. And then in verse three, having
looked away from all other things and fixed your eyes upon Christ
Jesus, do this, consider him, think him over, ponder him. That's what that word means.
This is what faith does. This is the chief thing that
faith does. It looks unto Christ, and ponders
him. We talked about the exploits
of faith when we went through chapter 11. This is scriptural
language. In Daniel 11, 32 it says, the people that do know
their God shall be strong and do exploits. God-given faith just works that
way. And many are mentioned in chapter
11 of Hebrews, many of these exploits, but this is the one
that explains all of them. When Noah moved with fear, he
did so looking unto Jesus and considering Him, or else he wouldn't
have. When Abraham obeyed, when Moses
chose, when David subdued kingdoms, all these did what they did looking
unto Jesus, having looked away from some things. If they had
looked at the waves and the winds like Peter. If Noah had looked
at the mocking throng and the historical fact that there had
never been a drop of rain on the earth yet, as far as anybody
knew, he looked away from those things. He believed God and he
looked unto his son, Jesus Christ, and considered him. And these all looked away from
themselves, and from the weakness of the flesh, and from every
other false confidence and fleshly hindrance, and they fixed their
eyes upon Christ, and they considered Him in their hearts. And when
you consider Him with a heart of faith, you find Him to be
who He said He was. You find Him to be that pearl
of great price. that will cause a man, quite
simply, without reservation, to sell everything he has to
obtain Him. What do we look away from? What
are we specifically now, tonight? What do we look away from when
we look unto Him? Well, we look away from our self-righteousness. Paul said in Philippians 3.9, that I might be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, that which
is by what He did, not by what I did. Not having mine own righteousness.
We look away Isn't that what he said all through that chapter?
I put that behind me. You can't look at something that's
behind you. And I look to him, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Not having my own righteousness,
but his. The righteousness, not that which
is of the law, of my obedience to the law or lack thereof. but
the righteousness which is of God by faith, my faith in Christ. So we look away from our suffering.
What do we look away from? We look away from our own imagined
free will. John 1.13, which we're born,
we're talking about the people of God, born again, and born
not of blood, for the first time we were born of blood, bloodline,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. If we're to be saved, we must
look away from that which salvation is not of, not of the will of
the flesh, not of. But born of God, we look away
from that which salvation is not of and look unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, Romans 9, 16, so then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. What do we look away from? Religion. Fleshly, man-centered religion. Paul said of his Jewish brethren, and as far as the flesh is concerned, He said, my heart's desire and
my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. You
see, they worshiped Jehovah, they said. They called him Jehovah. They said, you know, he's God.
You know, we worship him. We keep his law and we obey him
and we fast and tithe and all these things that the Pharisee
mentioned there at the temple. Talking about the same God, it
sounds like. Jehovah? Is your God's name Jehovah?
Yeah. But, you know, Paul didn't say,
my prayer to God for them is that they might, you know, straighten
up their doctrine a little bit. He said, I'm on my knees before
God that he would save them. Well, what's wrong with them?
Aren't they worshiping Jehovah? Aren't we worshiping the same
God, that little lady that came in that time? When I told her
we're worshiping two different gods, I've never seen anybody
so shocked in all my life. It was like I'd hit her upside
the head with something. And that's so sad, isn't it?
That's so sad. Paul said, I pray that God would
save them, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.
She's down there preaching somewhere to somebody, using the same Bible,
I'm sure. but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness." That's so important, isn't it? We have to understand
who it is we're dealing with. This is a God of righteousness. He is righteous. He requires
righteousness from you. And by His almighty grace, He
provides it. in his precious son, ignorant
of the righteousness of God. And what we talked about this
one already, this is religion. He's talking about religious
Jews, staunchly religious, dogmatically religious, but he said they're
ignorant of God's righteousness and they're going about to establish
their own righteousness. They're self-righteous. These
three that we've talked about, our self-righteousness, our free
will, and religion that we look away from, they all go together.
And we're to look away from these things. We must look away. And if you ever see Christ, you
will look away from these things. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness and they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. What's the righteousness of God?
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to everyone
that believeth. Christ is God's righteousness.
And when you see him, when you fix your eyes upon him and consider
him in your heart, the law for righteousness, there's
an end made of that. As far as trying to keep the
law for righteousness before God, Christ is the end of that.
He does away with any idea of that in your heart. And you look
away, look away. Where do we look? Unto Jesus,
but not any Jesus. Jesus, the author of something. We're looking unto Jesus, the
author of our faith. Where did all these men and women
in Hebrews 11 get faith from? Were they born with it, or some
born with it and some without? Did they develop it somehow?
Did they fan that little spark, you know, that religion says
is abiding down in everybody's heart? No, they got it from the
Lord Jesus, the one that they're looking to. You see why Paul talks about
it being the simplicity that is in Christ? Because Christ
is the author, Christ is the object, Christ is the finisher,
Christ is everything. Everything. The singleness that's
in Christ. The all-sufficiency that's in
Christ. The completeness. He said to the Colossians, you're
complete in Him. He's everything that you need. And if you know Him, everything
that you want. That's why we look into Him.
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. The one who accomplishes
it. He that hath begun a good work
in you, he'll perform it. He'll finish it. Not to Jesus
of religion who's waiting on the sinner to conjure up faith
and make some kind of a decision, but to the one who gives faith
to whom he will. Will my children ever have faith?
I don't know, but I know where they'll get it from if they ever
do. They'll get it from Him. They'll get it from the one I
got it from. The Jesus that's waiting on you
can't do anything for you. But this author of faith, if
he is so pleased, he can but speak the word only and you'll
be healed of your unbelief. He can say to you as he did to
Thomas, be not faithless, but believing. And if he ever does,
just like when he said, let there be light and there was light.
When he says, let there be faith, what's going to happen? there's going to be faith. Where
do we look? Unto the one who endured the
cross, but not as a defeated, helpless victim, but as a mighty champion rejoicing
in the spoils of victory. We look to the bloody cross where
the Lamb of God offered himself for mercy. offered himself unto
God as payment for my sin. We looked to Mount Calvary where
hangs the son of God who loved me so much that he counted the
shame that he had to suffer in order to redeem me as a small
thing. We looked to the cross and Paul
said, God forbid that we look anywhere else. don't glory in
anything else, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look away from your works and
your righteousness and your will and your religion and look to
the Lamb of God that takes away sin with his precious blood. And because we know who it is
that died on that cross, we know where he is now, don't we? Romans
8, 34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Where is he, Paul? He's
at the right hand of God. Where did Stephen see him when
he was stoned to death? And he looked up into heaven
as they were gnashing their teeth on him. He said, I see the son
of man. standing, even the glory of God,
even Jesus, standing on the right hand of God. What was he doing
there? Paul said, he was making intercession
for me. That's what he's doing there.
As my high priest, who entered in once into the holy place,
not made with hands, and not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with his own precious blood, having obtained eternal redemption
for me, once. He offered himself once unto
God. and washed away all the sins
of all of His people for all time. And we're looking unto
Him and pondering Him in our hearts. Why are we here tonight?
To look unto Him and consider Him. Not just to cast a passing glance
His way, as the world might do, but with a heart of Christ-authored
faith to think upon Him. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. That's what happens when we think
on Him, consider Him. Ponder who He is. And ponder what He did for sinners. Think about why He did it. And consider Him where He is
right now. He's the Son of God, the Christ
of God, the Messiah, the Lamb of God that takes away sin, the
sovereign, victorious, redeemer of sinners. What did he do? He came into
this world to save sinners, Paul said. of whom I'm chief." He
said, that's a faithful saying and worthy for everybody to acknowledge
and bow to. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. He came down here to do something.
He either did it or he didn't do it. He's either victorious
or he's a failure. Is there anything in between
that? His mission was clear. And he accomplished it. He came
down here to save sinners by living as their righteousness.
He was my representative in everything that he did as a man on this
earth. As my human, holy, spotless substitute, he lived and is my
righteousness. And he came down here to save
me by dying as my satisfactory substitute. Not just satisfactory
to me, but satisfactory to God the Father. God said, I'm well pleased with
him, the father. Why did he do it? He did it because
he loved me. He did it because he couldn't
let me go. And me being a fowl, wretched
worm. The only way he could have me was to represent me and redeem
me. That's the only way he could
have me. Who for the joy that was set before him. When he prayed to the Father
as he was going to the cross, he said, Father, I will. that those that you've given
me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory the joy that was set before him to glorify his father and to save a wretch like me
a sinful, foul wretch like me that he loved so much he could
not let me go to hell The God of religion doesn't love anybody
that much, does he? He'll do his best, but he'll
let you go to hell, won't he? Unless, you know, you're smart
enough to do something about it, he'll let you go right on
to hell. My God loves me too much to let me go. My Lord Jesus,
he said, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, I did something about this thing. I drew you
to myself. And right now, where is he now?
He sits on the throne of glory, having proven worthy in his holy
human life And having been successful in his sin atoning death, he
reigns until all of his enemies be made his footstool. And until
every last one of his sheep are called home to be with him forever. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. He's sitting right there where
Stephen saw him. Stephen saw him standing up.
And I believe he stood up to receive Stephen into glory, don't
you think? I believe that's why he was standing. But he's seated at the right
hand of God Almighty, the throne of glory. And he'll be there when we get
there. He'll come to meet us and He'll take us to be with
Him forever. And in the meantime, having this faith that He authored
and He sustains even now and is finishing even now, in the
meantime, what are we doing? We're striving, we're running,
we're fighting, we're warring, and we're not entangling ourselves
in the affairs of this life that we may please Him who has chosen
us to be a soldier. And all the while that we're
striving and running and fighting, we're looking unto Jesus and
considering Him.