Would you turn to Hebrews 12.
Verse 2. Looking unto Jesus. What is faith? What does it mean to believe? Would it be an act of presumption
for me to believe? What is faith? looking unto Jesus. What does it mean to believe
looking unto Jesus? Well, would it be presumptuous
for me to believe? Well, the answer to that is looking
unto Jesus. Verse 1, wherefore, seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now the cloud of witnesses are
those men and women mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, quite
often known as the hall of faith. These were people who believed. These were people whose life
could be characterized by this statement. They were people who
were looking unto Jesus. And look what it did for them.
Beginning in verse 33 of chapter 11, I'm sorry, chapter 11, verse
33. These are the great cloud of
witnesses who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness,
were made strong, wax valiant in fight, turning to flight the
armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised
to life again. And others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these
all, having obtained a good report through faith, Receive not the
promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect. We can't deny the
power of the testimony of these men and women we just read about.
Looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ did something for them, didn't
it? Now we're compassed about, surrounded on every side by this
great cloud of witnesses that we can't deny. Now in light of
these men and women and the reality of their faith, wherefore seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside. every weight, every encumbrance,
everything that would hinder me in running this race. I don't care what it is, it's
to be laid aside. Let us lay aside every weight
and that sin which doth so easily beset us. And trip us up. Now what is this sin that does
so easily beset us? Somebody says, well, I have a
problem with temper. Somebody else says, well, my
problem is covetousness. And somebody else says, well,
my problem is lust. That sin that does so easily
beset us, every single one of us, is unbelief. That's what he's referring to.
Now if I said to you, I am guilty. of grotesque immorality, you'd
be thinking, well, what's he done? What if I say I'm guilty
of unbelief? That's a relief. Is that all?
I mean, that's better than some of the other things. No. Unbelief,
my dear friend, is the master sin. It's the sin from which
all other sins arise. It is the sin that does so easily
beset me and so easily beset you. You stamp it out in one
place and it comes up somewhere else. It's always there. It's
that sin that does so easily beset us. Now, he said, let us
lay aside every weight and that sin which does so easily beset
us and let us run with patience the race that's set before us. Now, this word race is usually
translated fight, conflict, contention. It is indeed a difficult course,
isn't it? A fight, a conflict and a contention. The life of faith is not easy,
but here it is set before us. We have a race to run. And we're
called upon to run this race, this fight, this conflict with
patience. Not getting stressed out, not
wigging out, but I'm to run this race, this difficult course set
before me. Nothing easy about it. Our brothers
already expressed that. There's nothing easy about it.
And yet, I'm to run this race that's set before me. God set
it before me. We all have a race to run. I'm
to run this race with patience. Patience. How? Looking unto Jesus. That is how I run this race with
patience. Looking unto Jesus. Now there are 17 different Greek
words in the New Testament that are translated look. Here, this
is the word that means to look away from one thing so as to
see another. Now that's the characteristic
of my life, if I'm looking to Him. I'm looking away from one
thing so as to see another, is to concentrate the gaze, looking
unto Jesus. Somebody says, well, I would
look, but you don't realize how hard my heart is. It's harder
than you think. But that kind of sounds to me
like you're looking to yourself. Look away from one thing so as
to concentrate the gaze on another. But you don't understand how
sinful I am, nor do you. And let me give you a hint, it's
a lot worse than you think. But once again, that's looking
to yourself, isn't it? It's not looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, I would look if I felt
my need more. I just don't feel like I feel
my need enough. Well, you don't. That's true. That's an accurate assessment.
But once again, that's looking to self. That's not looking unto
Jesus. If what? If you believe that
Jesus Christ was God? I already believe that. If you
believe that Christ died? No, I already believe that too.
I can look if I had a deeper experience, if I had more understanding,
if I felt more. Well, the logic of that, that's
looking to yourself. That's all it is. That's all
it is. Looking away from self to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now somebody else says, well,
I have a reason to not look. I'm blind. I can't see. Let me read you scripture from
Isaiah 42.18. It says, look ye blind that you
may see. And I guarantee you if a blind
Israelite with no eyeballs in his socket would have turned
his head toward that brazen serpent on a pole, he would have been
healed. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am God and beside me is none else. Look away from yourself
Look away from your experience. Even look away from the things
that you've always believed. Look away from yourself and look
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus and concentrating
your gaze upon Him. Now what's that mean? It sounds
good. How do you go about doing it?
How does one look to the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean
to look to Him? Well, first of all, I'm looking
unto Jesus Who He is? That's where I've got to begin.
Who is He? He's God. You know, there isn't
anything I like to say better than this. Jesus Christ is God. That's a wonderful thing to say. I love saying it. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God. You know, He's man. bone of our
bones, flesh of our flesh. He's the God-man. He's the creator
of the universe. He's the second person of the
Blessed Trinity. Because of who He is, what He
has done must be successful. I look to Him as to who He is. And how do I look to Him? Look
what our text says. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Do you say it's hard for me to
look to Him? It's such a spiritual act. Yes, it is. But He's the
author of it. If you can't come to Him with
faith, come to Him for faith. Lord, give me faith. You're the
author of faith. Give me the faith. I can't come
up with it on my own. As a matter of fact, you've never
believed till you found out you can't. That's when you begin to believe.
That's when you begin to believe. Are you advocating doubt? No,
I'm not advocating doubt. Everybody ought to believe. I'm
not talking about doubting, but I know this. I used to wonder,
what's it mean to believe? I couldn't figure it out. Then
when I looked, I saw. But I can't see. Then you haven't
looked, as our brother said. Looking unto Jesus, the Author,
the Giver of faith, the Source of faith, the Object of faith.
Looking unto Jesus, the one who can give you faith because He's
the author of faith. Now, I come to Christ. I don't come to Christ
with my faith. I come to Christ for faith. Lord,
give me faith. It only comes from You. I look
to Christ as the author of faith and the The finisher of faith. The completer of faith. Look
to Him for all things. The author and the finisher and
everything in between. I'm to look to Him. Just look. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now let's go on reading. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. But you can just
as easily say the author and finisher of faith. Of the faith. of the Gospel. He's the author
of the Gospel. He's the finisher of the Gospel.
He's the author of faith. He's the finisher of the faith.
I look to Him as the author and finisher of the faith. Now what's
that all about? This is how I'm to look to Him. If I'm to look
to Him the way the Bible says to do it, this is the way I'm
to look to Him. I'm to look to Him as the author and finisher
of faith. Well, let's go on reading and this will give us some light
into what that means. I'm to look unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of faith, the faith, our faith, however you want to
say it, who for the joy that was set before Him." Now, what
was the joy that was set before Him? The joy that was set before
Him was glorifying His Father. Oh, the love between the Father
and the Son. Don't much understand it. We
are in awe of it. We glory in it, but we don't
much understand. But the joy that was set before
Him, the joy of doing His Father's will. He said, My meat and My
drink is to do the will of Him that sent Me. He said, I've glorified
Thee on the earth. I've finished the work that Thou
gavest Me to do. Now He had a joy set before Him.
And here's what took place. Way back before time began, God
foresaw the ruin of our race. He saw the ruin of our father
Adam. He saw the ruin of every single
one of us. He foresaw it. It was all part
of His plan. It was all part of His purpose.
It wouldn't have happened unless He let it happen. He's in control
of that. But in His mercy and in His grace,
He elects. He chose a vast number out of
Adam's race. It's a big number. You know,
there's a lot of elect. There's a whole lot of them.
What if I'm not one of them? What if you are? What if you
are? I mean, don't look at it from
a negative point. What if you are? He chose a great
number out of Adam's race, and He gave them to His Son. Six
times in John chapter 17, our Lord speaks of those the Father
gave Me. I pray for them. He said, I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me. He
gave them to Christ. The Father gave these elect ones,
these chosen sinners to Christ. And He said, You represent them.
You keep the law for them. You save them and You'll bring
glory to Me. You'll glorify all my excellent
attributes. You'll glorify my justice. You'll
see how sin will never go punished. You'll glorify my sovereignty.
Everybody I picked out to be saved will be saved. You'll glorify
my wisdom. I found a way to be just and
justify the ungodly. You'll glorify my mercy, that
I can have mercy on one such as these. You'll glorify every
one of my attributes. You'll glorify my love, my grace. Every attribute of God is glorified.
And Christ came with this joy set before Him, knowing He was
going to glorify His Father, and what joy that gave Him. Now,
looking unto Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him,
what did He do? He endured the cross. Now what is meant by that? He
endured the cross. Our Lord, The whole time that
he lived, for 33 years, he had this ahead of him. No wonder
he's called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He
knew the cross was ahead of him, and he endured the cross. Now,
is this a reference to him enduring the physical pain of the cross?
And I would not in any way diminish what our Lord suffered on the
cross. Having His hands, having spikes
driven through His hands, having the nails driven through His
feet, having that cross lifted up the air and dropped it in
the stand. They ripped His beard out. They had that crown of thorns
on His head. Who can tell the physical pain
He must have endured? I wouldn't in any way diminish
that. But is that what the Lord was
dreading? When he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating,
as it were, great drops of blood, when he fell down on his face
and said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Was he just talking about the
physical pain that he knew he was going to endure? Now, I have
no doubt that he would dread that. He's a man. No doubt about
that. But that's not really what he
was talking about. The next phrase gives us some
kind of insight into what He meant when He said He endured
the cross. Let's go on reading. Looking
unto Jesus, and this is the way we're to look to Him. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross. Look at this next
phrase. Despising, counting as nothing,
the shame. The shame. He saw the shame of
the cross and he counted it as nothing and went through it anyway.
Now, in my experience, the most powerful, horrible feeling that
I've ever experienced, I suppose, is shame. When you've been caught
doing something that was wrong, and you're embarrassed, and you're
humiliated, you've been exposed. You know, there are certain events
that took place in my life that I can remember that even now
when I think about them, it creeps me out. I don't even like to
think about it. I mean, just humiliated, exposed,
embarrassed. You're so ashamed that you've
been caught, that you've been guilty, and you've done that.
Oh, you're so ashamed. With regard to the cross, there's
so much darkness, so much we don't understand. You know, the
Lord turned the lights out while Christ was on the cross, and
there's so much we don't understand. But I know this, the sins of
God's people were placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture
says He was made. Now what all that means, I'm
really not sure. What all it means, but I know
it means this much, my sin so truly became His that He experienced
the shame and the humiliation and the embarrassment of it before
His Father. That is how truly my sin became
His. Yet for that joy that was set
before Him, He endured the cross, discounting the shame, Now just
as truly, now you think of him, experiencing the shame of our
sin. It became his, so he said, my
iniquities have gone over my head as a heavy burden, they're
too heavy for me. Now you know he never sinned
in his person. He knew no sin. If you would describe sin, You
didn't know what you meant because He's holy in His person. He knew
no sin. Yet on the cross, He was made
sin. The sins of His people became
His. He experienced the shame, the degradation, the humiliation
of them. And just as truly as He experienced
the shame of my sin, I experienced the joy of His righteousness. Just as truly as my sin became
His, His beautiful, perfect righteousness is mine. I love thinking about
this. My righteousness is not based
upon His righteousness. My righteousness is His righteousness. And that is our confidence. Now,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and
for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame. And what did He do? He sat down. This is how I'm to look to Him.
I'm to look to that One who's the author and the finisher of
faith. If I'm going to have faith, it's
because He's going to give it to me. If I'm going to continue with
it, it's because He's going to perfect it. And He's the author and finisher
of the faith. The Gospel. He's the One who
for the joy that was set before Him, doing His Father's will,
saving His people from their sins, He endured the cross, discounting
the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high." Why did He sit down? Because His work was finished. Look over in Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews chapter 1. This description
of the Lord Jesus, who being the brightness of God's glory.
You know, the Scripture speaks in in ways that words just can't
express it. Who can explain what the brightness
of God's glory is? And yet that describes our Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the brightness of his father's
glory. The sparkling of deity is him. And the express image of his
person and upholding all things by the word of his power when
He had by Himself purged our sins. Now, did He do it? They're
purged away. The sins of every one of God's
people have been washed away. And He did it by Himself. He
did it with no creature aid. Nobody helped Him out. He did
this by Himself. The work of redemption is His
work and His work alone, and that's the way it ought to be,
isn't it? When He had by Himself purged our sins, what did He
do? He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God, having
finished the work. There's nothing left for me to
do. Now, looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. Well, if I'm to look to Him first
away, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to look away
from myself. Don't look within. Don't look down at your feet,
at your walk. Don't look down. Don't do it.
Not right now. Forget it. Don't look to the
side. Somebody else. Certainly don't
look at me. You know how helpless you are?
That's me too. I'm right there with you. I can't
do you any good. Looking unto Jesus. Look to His person. He's God. All things are in His hand. He's
all powerful. Whatever He wills, it's going
to come to pass because He's all-powerful. He's God. He's man. He's THE man, Christ
Jesus. Now here's what I want to ask
you. Is He able to save you? You know, instead of Abraham,
he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able
also to perform. Does the Lord Jesus Christ have
the ability to save? Does he have the ability to make
you perfect in God's sight? Look to him in his person. Look to him in his life. And
this is a wonderful thing to think about. The Lord Jesus Christ
When he came here and subjected himself to the holy law of God,
remember who he was and who he is. He's the law giver. He is
the law giver. He was not under constraint.
It was not necessary for him to put himself under that law
because he's the law giver. He has all authority. And yet
he put himself under that law to keep it. Why? Because he did
what he did as a representative. He did what he did as a substitute. When he kept the law, he was
keeping the law for somebody. That's why he came here. He came
here to keep the law, to fulfill God's holy law. He did it as
a representative man. And he worked out a perfect righteousness
before the holy law of God. Is his righteousness enough to
make you righteous before God? Do you need anything else? Remember,
His righteousness is the only righteousness. I love what David
said in Psalm 71, 16. He said, I've made mention of
thy righteousness, even of thine only. How come, David? Because
it's the only one there is. His righteousness. I don't care
if you're talking about His righteousness imputed. I don't care if you're
talking about His righteousness imparted. It's still His righteousness.
I'm to look to His righteousness as my righteousness before God.
Looking unto Jesus. I looked to Him and His death.
The Lord Jesus Christ nailed to that cross the wrath of God
coming down upon Him and He died. He closed His eyes and He died. His death. Who died? It's Christ
that died! Oh, the power of His precious
blood. His precious blood washed away
all my sins. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that can be Him? It's Christ that died. Anything
else need to be said? Yea, rather than it's risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. It's Christ that died. Look to
Him in His death. Is His precious blood enough
to wash away all your sins? Do you believe that? Can you
rely on Him for that? Look to Him in His resurrection.
Here's a remarkable thing. Our Lord died. They took down
a corpse, cold and lifeless, from that cross. They put Him
in a tomb. And who knows what happened all
that time? I don't know. Neither does anybody else. I
don't know what was going on during that time. But I know
this. Three days later, He opened His eyes. And He got up! He was raised from the dead!
Why was he raised from the dead? Because God said, I can require
nothing more. He paid the debt. He was delivered
for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. When he was raised from the dead,
my salvation was available. Look to Him in the power of His
resurrection. Look to Him in His ascension.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts, mighty in
battle, He is the King of glory. You see, when He went back to
heaven, ascended back to heaven, He's called the Lord of hosts
because every one of His elect were right there with Him. When
I look to Him ascended, I'm already there. Union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. I look to Him in His intercession. You and I pray, I've got this
confidence. He takes my prayer and presents
it before the Father and it smells good to God. I pray for you that your faith
fail not." You know what? Peter's faith failed not. You can write that down. We look
to Him in His intercession. But what if I'm not one of the
elect? What if Jesus Christ the Lord did not die for me? What
if I'm not one of His? Well, turn with me to Romans
10. Verse 13. For whosoever... Now stop right there. Are you
one of them? Are you in that group? Are you
a whosoever? Now this is a good word. I love this word. This
is better than if it said Todd Nyberg. There might be another
Todd Nyberg somewhere. But whosoever. Are you in that
group? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Would it be presumptuous for
me to believe this? Okay, I'm calling on the Lord. But would it be presumptuous
for me to believe this? No, it would be faith. That's
what it would be. And let me also say this. Don't
even ask if it's presumptuous. You'll be damned if you don't.
That's all. You'll be damned if you don't.
You're commanded to believe the truth. Believe! on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the promise of the Gospel.
Looking. Now, notice looking. It means always looking. When I first came to Christ,
whenever that was, and I don't have any idea when it was, but
I know it was this when I first looked to Him. And I'm preserved
by continuing to look to Him. I'm looking to Him right now,
and this is a glorious thing to think about. Do you know heaven
is going to be looking to Him? It's going to be looking at Him.
Now we see through a glass darkly, I realize that right now. We
see through a glass darkly, but then, face to face, we know in
part now, but then we shall be known even as we're known. May God give us grace to look.