Throughout the epistle of Hebrews,
I've told you repeatedly, the Holy Spirit urges us to go on
in faith. Because whether we like to acknowledge
it or not, the fact is the hymn writer accurately described us
all, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. prone to leave the God I
love. Here's my heart. Oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above."
He calls for us here in Hebrews 12 to run with patience, with
endurance, the race that is set before us. He calls for us to
patiently endure hardship, trial, adversity, temptations, letting
nothing turn us aside from Christ, His worship, His will, His service,
His honor, His glory, to lay aside every weight of earthly
care and that horrid sin of unbelief that so easily besets us, and
to follow Christ. In a word, the Lord God here
calls for believing men and women to make whatever sacrifice is
necessary and do whatever it takes, regardless of cost, to
follow Christ, to do the will of God. You see, the claims of God's
grace are universal. The Lord claims dominion over
the totality of our being. He claims dominion over our entire
life. If you would follow Christ, if
I would follow Christ, nothing can be held in reserve. Either
He will be Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. And
that's just fact. Either Jesus Christ is Lord of
me, or he is not my Lord at all. Either he rules my life, willingly
bowing to him, or he is not my Savior. And that's true of you
as well. Well, upon what grounds can such
sacrifice, such commitment, such devotion, such consecration be
expected? Upon what grounds can reasonable
men and women be expected to live in utter devotion to Christ? What will inspire us to seek
that kind of consecration? What will effectually motivate
us to seek that kind of devotion? The answer is found in my text
this evening, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. I want you to just
hold your Bibles open there. We will read the whole sentence
beginning at verse 1, but our focus will be tonight on verse
2. 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, 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 on
the right hand of the throne of God. The only way we can run
the race that's set before us, the only way we can live in this
world by faith, the only way we can overcome the trials and
temptations, enduring with patience the race that is set before us,
the only way it can happen, is by looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now, I have just one point that
I want to declare to you, one point I want to make in the message.
I want to inspire just this one thing. May God, the Holy Spirit,
drive it home to our hearts. Salvation is looking unto Jesus. Now, that's what it is. That's
what it is. If we would persevere in faith,
if we would continue in the grace of God, if we would keep our
hearts in the love of God, as we are required to do, we must
ever be found looking unto Jesus, looking to him as the object
of our faith, the author of our faith, the pioneer of our faith,
the finisher of our faith, and the goal of our faith. Now hold
your Bibles open here to Hebrews 12, 2, and let's look at this
text. Looking unto Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. These three words
are much, much fuller than our English translation suggests.
They are immense. Looking unto Jesus. Actually,
the words could be more accurately translated, looking away unto
and into Jesus. Salvation is looking to Christ. It's looking to Him. The children
of Israel, when they were bitten of fiery serpents, Moses was
commanded to make a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole. And God
said anybody bitten with the fiery serpents who looks on that
serpent of brass would live. And it came to pass that as many
as looked to that serpent of brass, though convulsing in pain,
though gasping for their last breath, though they were about
to die in unbelief, as they looked to that serpent of brass, they
lived. That serpent of brass was Christ
our Lord. As Moses lifted up the serpent
of the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in Him, that's what faith is. It's looking
to Christ. Whosoever looketh unto Him, whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. A
child looks to its father for everything. A child looks to
its father to take care of it, protect it, feed it, all those
things. That's what we mean by looking. Looking away from self
to Christ. Our Lord Jesus says, look unto
me and be you saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God and beside me there is none else. And that's how
salvation commences in the experience of it. When a sinner looks away
from himself to Christ. Salvation is maintained right
here in this second verse of Hebrews 12, 2. This verse right
here. Salvation is maintained looking
to Christ. We continue in faith looking
to Him. And when it's over, the scripture
says, they shall see His face. Salvation, then, is looking to
Christ. The Holy Spirit here calls for
us to turn our eyes away from everything else and fix them
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. If we would be saved,
we must look to Christ, only to Christ. If we would continue
in the grace of God, we must look to Christ. Only to Christ. He must have no rival. We must look nowhere else. Lean
upon no one else. Seek nothing else. Look away
to Christ. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. Look away to Christ our God. None but Jesus, none but Jesus
can do helpless sinners good. Would to God I could persuade
you who are yet without faith in Christ to look away from yourself
to Him. Look unto me, he says. Look unto
me. Quit looking at your knowledge,
and your experience, and your works, and your feelings, and
your hardness, and your sinfulness, and your corruption, and your
inability, and your depravity, and your weakness. Look away
to Him, and life eternal is yours. Look to Him. Look to Him now,
and eternal life is yours. In this passage here particularly,
He tells us to look away from this great cloud of witnesses.
Isn't that strange? He's given us this great cloud
of witnesses, these multitudes that have lived by faith before
us. And there are multitudes living by faith now. Multitudes
who have lived by faith in days gone by. And the Lord is telling
us, look away from these. You mean look away from Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob? Look away from David and Samson?
Look away from the great patriarchs and prophets? Look away from
them all. Look away from them. Because
any sense of looking to them that takes you away from Him
is destructive to your soul. What multitudes there are who
spend all their time and energy getting men and women to learn
about Bible history and Bible facts and Bible people. And in
doing so, turn them away from Christ rather than to Christ. In preaching, in teaching, you
who instruct others, whenever you open the book, make certain
Make certain that wherever you go in the book, you turn the
eyes, the attention, the mind, the thought away from the person
mentioned to the person spoken of, Christ the Lord. Look away. That's what the word means. Look
away from the course you have to run. If you spend your time
looking at your course, you're not going to run the race. The
hindrances will be too great for you. The obstacle is too
great. The difficulty is too great. And look away from other
runners. Multitudes, multitudes. I meet with folks all the time.
I talk to people all the time, all over the country, who seem
never to be able to get on with life because they spend their
time concerned about what other people are doing or not doing.
what other people are thinking or not thinking, what other people
ought to do or ought not to do. Look away from them and look
away to Christ. Now, look at these words, looking
unto Jesus again. They suggest that as we run our
race looking to Christ alone, we must ever be looking into
Him. The word unto would be very properly
translated, either unto or into. So that the first look of faith,
when first a sinner looks to Christ, the light of the glory
of God shines in his heart, to give the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And as that light shines, man,
it's so... Radical, so brilliant, so dazzling,
so overpowering, so overcoming that you think, oh, what great
light I see. And you have seen great light.
But after a little while, you'll find that it was just a little
glimmer of light. And the more the light shines,
the more you recognize you just see a little glimmer of light.
But the light shining causes you to look more and more to
Christ and looking more and more to Christ to look more and more
into Christ. And as you look more and more
to him and more and more into him, you will find that he is
indeed one worthy of your constant gaze, your constant trust, your
constant study, your constant meditation. You'll perceive more
clearly as you look to him. Who and what He is. What He has
done for your soul. You'll see Him to be a willing
Savior. A willing Savior. Willing to be gracious. Willing to be merciful. I can't imagine this fact, but
it's fact. I confess it to my shame. I used to doubt that even after he saved me. I used to doubt that indeed he
was willing. And I was scared to death somehow
this is inconsistent with free grace and inconsistent with divine
sovereignty and inconsistent with free destination. How silly,
how shameful. I see Him, the God incarnate,
with His pierced hands and side and feet. I hear Him and I see
Him a willing Savior. And I'm prepared to tell you,
upon the good authority of God's Holy Word, that there's never,
ever been a sinner who's come to him for mercy, who went away
without him. And there never will be. The
scripture says, one day as our Lord Jesus was ministering a
place, and he healed. as many as had need of healing. And He still does. Not only is
He willing, but He's suitable. This Savior is God and man. He is man, compassionate, tender. He is God, compassionate and
tender. But this compassionate, tender
man who is God is of infinite merit and of infinite power,
for He's God indeed. He's not only a suitable Savior,
He's able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him. All
sufficient is His grace, complete is His salvation, effectual for
all who believe. Now read on. Looking unto Jesus,
the author of our faith. I spent some time here today
in the last week or so. This verse of scripture has so
many superlative words in it. I mean by that words that really
have no direct, exact, precise word with which
they could be translated into English. This word author here
is another of those words full of meaning. It's one of those
Greek words that doesn't have an exact English equivalent.
And the word that is used here is the same word used in Hebrews
2, verse 10, where Paul says that he's the captain of our
salvation. It comes from a root word that
means to commence or to begin. What Paul's saying here is this.
He's holding before us the Lord Jesus as that one who is the
author, the one who commences, the one who begins faith. We would have no faith if he
didn't give it to us. You see, faith is not natural
to men. Faith is not something that can
be conjured up by some religious superstitious hocus-pocus. Faith
is not something that you can get if your mom and daddy just
teach you right way and pray for you enough. Faith is not
something that you can get if you just set your mind to it
and determine, I'm going to have faith. Oh, no. Faith! And Jesus
Christ is the gift of Jesus Christ. He alone gives men faith. Faith
in Christ is the gift and operation of God. It is the exceeding greatness
of God's power working in us. It is God Almighty doing for
a man what he cannot do for himself. But there's more here than that.
Notice the word hour. It's in italics. And that indicates
that it was added by our translators to make the verse read more smoothly,
and it does. And it's properly added, I'm
certain. Without question, the scriptures universally teach
us that Christ is that one by whom we have faith. He is that
one that faith looks to alone as its object. But the intent
of the Holy Spirit here is to teach us that Christ is the one
who is the great pioneer, the great commensur. the great example,
if you will, of faith. So that's the third thing. We
must look away to Christ as the pioneer of faith. Pioneer. That's a pretty good translation,
what he's saying. That is to say, if we would follow him,
if we would know what it is to live and walk in this world by
faith, we must look to Christ as the first man who ever really
did. The first man who ever really
did. Oh, but Abraham believed God. Look away from Abraham.
His faith had its faults. But Moses believed God. Look
away from Moses. His faith had its faults too.
And if those are your only examples to follow, you will follow their
faults as well as their good points. Christ is the first man,
the only man ever truly, perfectly, really to live in this world
by faith, absolutely without a fault. And that's exactly what
he's saying here. He is the one who commences,
who has commenced and has shown us how to live by faith. In Hebrews 2 verse 13, our Lord
Jesus says concerning God the Father, I will put my trust in
him. The Father put his trust in the
Son as our surety before the world began. And the Son, as
a man living in this world, put his trust in God. Perfectly trusted. Now, when I try to emulate somebody
in anything, I try my best to emulate the best example possible.
If I wanted to find out how to do something and learn how to
do it, I'd try my best to get the best fellow in the field
to teach me how to do it. That just makes good sense. And
if you want to find out how to believe God, don't look to Don
Fortner. because I'm a sorry example.
If you want to learn how to follow God in this world, don't look
to your neighbor. He's a sorry example. Look to
him who is the only man who really perfectly ever believed God. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked
with God, looking always to his Father, speaking and acting in
childlike dependence on his father. Never did he fail. By faith,
he looked away from all discouragements, difficulties, and oppositions. Looked away from them. His own
kinsmen, on one occasion, he was out preaching the gospel,
and folks got upset. And his kinsmen said, he's lost
his mind. Y'all overlooking. Discouragements, unbelief. His
disciples, over and over and over again, he would teach them
and they didn't hear. But he constantly looked away
from discouragements. He constantly looked away from
hindrances. He constantly looked away from
obstacles in his way and looked to God the Father and was never
once deterred by anything that lay in his path. committed his life and his calls
to the Lord his God who had sent him, whose calls he had come
here to do, whose will he had come here to perform. The Lord
Jesus steadfastly believed him. By faith, he resisted and overcame
Satan's temptations. But Pastor He was different from us. Well, yes, he was infinitely
different. But Larry Creasy was just exactly
the same as us. Everything but sin. Everything
but sin. Was he tempted in all points
like as we are? The book says he was. How on
earth did he overcome the temptation? He believed God. He believed
God. He endured all the trials brought
upon him by his father's wise providence, trials from his kinsmen,
from his friends, from his enemies, from his own disciples, from
Judas, that one who was his own familiar friend. All those trials
he endured, looking to God the Father, recognizing this is his
father's doing. He said, on one occasion, now
is my soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. What shall I
say? Father, save me from this hour?
Oh, I can't do that. For this cause came I unto this
hour. Father, glorify your name. By faith, our Lord performed
all those signs and wonders in which the power and love and
salvation of our God were symbolized. You say, well, you mean he did
those things by faith? Of course he did. When he was about to
raise Lazarus from the dead, before he raised him from the
dead, he called God his Father and said, I thank you that you
always hear me speaking with thanksgiving for that which he
was about to perform. Our Savior's example teaches
us what it is to believe God, what it is to live by faith.
Let us ever be looking unto Jesus, the pioneer of our faith. He trusted God, and He gave us
command. Have faith in God. How are you
going to handle what you've got to face tomorrow? How are you going to deal with
what you met this morning? How are you going to deal with
the adversity that's fixing to come to you in tomorrow's mail.
How are you going to deal with it? How are you going to deal
with it? Have faith in God. And just to the measure that
we believe God, whatever comes our way will in no way affect
our obedience. When he said have faith in God,
he was speaking to us, Lindsay, out of his own experience as
a man. Have faith in God. Turn to Proverbs chapter 3. Let
me show you what I mean. Proverbs chapter 3. Now this is what it is to believe
God. This is what it is. Verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Oh, this is what I think. That's
your trouble. Oh, this is what I think. Well,
that's your trouble. But I always thought, that's your trouble.
If you trust in the Lord with all your heart, you don't lean
to your own understanding. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, when you get
up in the morning, when you come in at night, in the field, in
the city, in sickness and health, in prosperity and adversity,
in good times and bad, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. Bow to Him. It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.
It's the Lord. He makes no mistakes. He's too
wise to err, too strong to fail, too good to do wrong. In all
your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. All
right, now back in our text, Hebrews 12, 2. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Let us never look away
to the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who is the finisher of our
faith. The word finisher seems to have been coined by the Apostle
Paul. You won't find it in any Greek literature except in the
writings of the Apostle Paul. It's found nowhere else. Christ
is the object of our faith. He gives faith. He sustains faith. And He is the one who consummates,
completes, and finishes faith. But this word, finisher, consummator,
can't be fully understood anywhere except in the context in which
it's found here. Read this second verse with me again. Looking
unto Jesus, the commencer and the consummator, the author and
the 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. Now, this is what we're
being taught here. This is what the Holy Spirit's
telling us. The Lord Jesus is that one who made himself the
only object of faith. He is that one who finished the
work for which he is the object of faith. He is that one who
brought to its consummation all the will and purpose of God for
which we look to him in everlasting salvation. Now, the word for,
who for the joy that was set before him, that word also. It's one of those words that
can't be exactly translated in the English language. It would
be accurately translated instead of. And it would be just as accurately
translated because of. How can that be? Both are true.
Instead of the joy set before him, our blessed Savior endured
the cross. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And that though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty
might be made rich? Now read it the other way. Because
of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame. What joy? The joy that was set
before Him. The joy that sustained Him in
His soul's trouble. The joy that kept Him faithful
in the midst of sorrow, the joy that caused Him never to turn
back and never to quit in the midst of His agony, was the joy
of saving His people from their sins. The joy of magnifying God's law
and making it honorable. The joy of honoring His Father
in the salvation of His people. The joy of glorifying the Father's
name. The joy of His own great glory
is our mediator, which He now enjoys at the Father's right
hand. Turn back to Psalm 21. Psalm 21. Let me show you. I'm
not just giving you some opinion here. Psalm 21 is a prophecy
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 1. The King, Christ
the King, shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation
how greatly shall he rejoice. Verse 2, Thou hast given him
his heart's desire. Ask of me and I'll give you the
heathen for your inheritance. Father, restore to me the glory
which I had with you before the world was. Thou hast given him
his heart's desire and hast not withheld the request of his lips.
Verse 3, thou preventest him. You go before him with the blessings
of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. He hath life of thee. Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one
to see corruption. Lord God, set me on high. He hath life of thee, and thou
gavest it him even length of days forever and ever. His glory
is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him, for thou hast made him most blessed forever. Thou
hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. Now, in
order to save us, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the darling
of heaven, voluntarily endured the cross, despising the shame. Oh, what shall I do? My Savior
to praise, so faithful, so true, so plenteous in grace, so strong
to deliver, so good to redeem, the weakest believer that hangs
upon Him. What words can praise the Savior? He endured the cross, despising
the shame. He endured, that is, He would
not quit. He would not go back. He would not call upon His Father
to send ten legions of angels to come and deliver Him. He would
set His face like a flint. He would not be deterred. How
come? Because of His great love for
us. That's all. Run with patience the race set
before you, not looking to Don Fortner, not looking to Larry
Brown, not looking to Shelby Fortner, not looking to Abraham,
Isaac, or Jacob. Run with patience looking to
Him who endured the cross, all the wrath of God. all the curse
of God's holy law, all the terror of God's infinite justice, all
the sorrow of hell, despising the shame. You know that which is most difficult
for men to endure? You men, what do you think would
be the hardest thing on this earth for you to endure? I mean
the hardest thing on this earth for you to endure. Shame. Abimelech called on one of his
servants to come kill him, lest he bear the shame of having a
woman kill him. Saul, rather than bearing the
shame of dying at the hand of a Philistine, fell on his own
sword. Shame. Men will do anything to avoid
shame. I have no doubt, one of the greatest
torments of the damned in hell, shame. Shame. But our Lord Jesus looked upon shame the same way that Moses looked
upon the riches of each Because of his love for us, he
considered it nothing. Old John Trapp said, Christ shamed
shame as that which is unworthy of consideration because of his
great love for us. Despising the shame, the shame
that men heaped upon him. They spit in his face, stripped
him naked, mocked him. The shame of being made sin. The shame of dying as one identified
as being cursed of God. Dying upon the cursory. The shame
of His utter abandonment. Now watch this. The shame is
all gone now. Who endured the cross, despising
the shame? For us. Even to the end. but now is set
down on the right hand of the throne of God. Because his work
is finished. His shame is over. He's entered
into his rest. The glory that God promised him,
he now possesses fully. And his soul is thoroughly, completely
satisfied. Now he sees of the travail of
his soul. And he's satisfied. He has everything
for which he went to the cursed tree. Now, one more thing. As such, Christ is held before
us here to encourage us in faith as the goal of our faith. See him yonder. It ain't gonna be long, and I'm gonna join Him. And as He has been given to be
seated with His Father in His throne, He has told me that I
will be seated with Him in His throne. without any shame. My work finished, completely
done. My rest, oh my rest, never interrupted. My glory my soul totally satisfied. I believe with such a prospect
I can go on another day or two, how about you? I can do another
heartache or two, another trial or two, another trouble or two. Let's pray now that our Savior
will bind our hearts to Him. that we might indeed run with
patience the race set before us, 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. Please let's sing
that hymn, Savior, bind my heart to you. I believe it's number
25 in the Psalms of Christ. This will be our benediction.
Yeah. Number 25.