more happy, but not more secure
are the glorified saints in heaven. And they are more happy, but
they're not more secure. Would you turn back to Hebrews
chapter 12? I've entitled this message, Looking
unto Jesus. Now just that title says to each
one of us that there is no more important subject that we could
possibly consider. Looking unto Jesus. Have I ever done this? Have I ever looked unto Jesus? Have you ever looked? Verse one. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about was so great a cloud of witnesses. We spent the last six months
in Hebrews chapter 11, considering this great cloud of witnesses. Abel. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. What a cloud of
witnesses. They testify to us of the glory
and the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a witness
they bear. Now seeing that we are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight. Now there is a race set before
us. Let us lay aside every weight. And that sin does so easily beset
us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, there's a race for you. There's a race for me. It's the same race. And what
I think is glorious about this race, it's utterly unique. We
start at the finish line. Isn't that glorious? We begin
this race at the finish line. Already won. But this race is
still set before us. And he says, let us lay aside
every weight. When you're running a race, you
don't want to wear things that weigh you down. Anything that
hinders us in our running this race, whether a person or a thing,
lay it aside. That's what he said. Lay aside
every weight that would hinder us in this glorious race that
is set before us, where we already have victory. We begin at the
finish line. It is finished. That's where
we start. And you know, that's where we're going to end as well.
We begin here. We end here. So lay aside every
weight that would weigh you down. And then he speaks of laying
aside the sin, which does so easily beset us. Besetting sin. Does that mean
a sin we're most tempted by? or have the hardest time with,
most susceptible to. Is that what he's talking about?
We have them. There are some people that have more trouble
with some sin than other people where it really probably doesn't
bother them that much. There is a besetting sin to you. There's no question about that.
To me, every one of us have sins, which we committed repeatedly
over and over and over again to our own shame, a besetting
sin. But is that what he's talking
about here? I don't think so. He's talking about unbelief. That is the besetting sin. That is the one that hits us
wherever we go. Now, unbelief is the twin sister
of self-righteousness. Wherever there's self-righteousness,
there's unbelief. You see, faith is trusting Christ's
righteousness. When you have your own righteousness,
you don't trust his righteousness. And this sin of self-righteousness
and its twin sister, unbelief, hits us from every angle all
the time. By faith, Abel, by faith, Enoch,
by faith, Noah, self-righteousness, unbelief, this is what we're
to combat that we see from this great cloud of witness. We're
to combat every sin, I realize that. But self-righteousness
is what keeps me and you from trusting Jesus Christ alone.
The greatest enemy that you and I have. is our own filthy self-righteousness. Such a contradiction in terms,
but yet it's true, it's real. That's what begets unbelief,
your own righteousness. So he says, seeing we're compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight that would hinder us in this Race that set before us
and VC and he doesn't say ACN or something. And he says VC,
and that's the definite article with every body. It's the same,
the sin of unbelief. That is the sin that does so
easily beset us that controls us. That hits us when we think
we've got it down and let us run with patience, the race that
has set before us. If I watch a ball game, I twist
up like a pretzel. But when I watch the game and
I already know the outcome, I'm patient. It's all going to be
good. It's all right. I don't have to worry. We run
this race with the patience of knowing we've already won. That's the only way to run this
race, with patience, knowing we've already won, that the Lord
Jesus Christ has won the victory for us. How does he say to do this? Looking
unto Jesus. Oh would to God that that's what
me and you will do even right now. Looking unto Jesus. Now this is the only time this
particular word looking is found in the New Testament. This particular
word looking. It's only found in the Bible
one time. And it means to turn the eyes
away from everything so as to fix your gaze upon one thing. If I say, look at me, nobody
says, what do you mean by that? You know. You know, if you were
a fly in my house at least once a week, if you were a fly on
the wall, something that you would see at least once in a
week is when Lynn says, look at me. Look at me. And that's
when she wants me to listen to what she's saying. She knows
that I have a tendency to, you know, it just goes over my head. And she never told me that. But
when she's afraid of that, she goes, look at me. Look at me.
She wants to establish eye contact. Look. When the people of Israel in
the book of Numbers were bitten by those fiery serpents and the
poison ran through their veins and the pain, what were they
called upon to do? Look. That simple. Look. Somebody says,
what if they're blind? If you're blind, you can look.
And if you look, you'll see. Somebody says, I do not see.
You've not looked. All who look, see. Looking unto Jesus. They weren't
told to try to get rid of the snakes. They weren't told to
try to build things to keep them out. They weren't given some
kind of antidote to pull the poison out. They were told to
look, that's it, look. Looking unto Jesus. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth. That tells
me that looking and believing is the same thing. Look, look,
looking unto Jesus. We're to look to him and not
at other people. Why get so discouraged the way
other believers conduct themselves? Quit looking at him. Stop it. Or look to him and not ourselves. Wouldn't it be a blessing if
you could just forget about yourself right now and look to him? Wouldn't
it be a blessing to me if we could just forget everything
about ourselves and turn our eyes upon him? We're to look
to Him and not our faith. Does that make sense? We're to
look to Him and not our faith. We're to look to Him and not
our life or our walk. Looking unto Jesus. We're to look to Him and not
look to our experience. You know, I've experienced a
lot over the last 40 some years, throw it all overboard and look
to him. I'm not to try to find assurance
of salvation from something I felt way back when, when this happened
or that happened. We are to look to him and not
our feelings. Feelings come, feelings go. Feelings
are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
not else is worth believing. We're to look to him and not
our intentions. Well, I'm going to make things better. I'm going
to, don't do it. Looking unto Jesus. We're to look to him now. Not
waiting for something. We're to look to Him alone. Nothing
more. Nothing less. Look to Him now. Don't wait for
something to happen. Don't wait till you have the
proper feelings. Don't wait till your life is right and you're
ready to do it. Not till you've learned more.
Look right now. Looking unto Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else. Looking unto Jesus. Christ alone, plus nothing, minus
nothing. We look to Christ alone always. Now listen to this. We look to
him and not the work of the Holy Spirit in us. You see the work
of the Holy Spirit in us causes us to look to him only. We love
God the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, the third
person of the blessed Trinity, when he's working on you, you
look to Christ only. That is the evidence of his work. Looking unto Jesus. We begin looking unto Jesus.
We carry on looking unto Jesus. And by the grace of God, may
our last second of life be looking unto Jesus. Isn't that the way
you want to die? By the grace of God. looking
to him only. Now the writer to the Hebrews
tells us exactly what we're to look to him for. Now look at
this verse again, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of, and notice that word our is in italics,
it was placed there by the translators, and I think if anything it confounds
the meaning. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith. A faith. If you can't look to Christ in
faith, look to Christ for faith. He's the author of it. He's the
object of it. He's the subject of it. He's the giver of it. He's the
originator of it. He is the increaser of it. I
love when the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith. Who'd
they ask to do that? The Lord. Looking unto Jesus as the author of faith. I love when the Lord said, you
believe in God, believe also in me. Do you believe God is
all powerful? Me as well. Do you believe God
gives faith? I do. I'm God. Do you believe
that? I think of what the Lord said
to the woman at the way. He said, woman, believe me. I love those
words. Woman, believe me. He said, I am, when Martha said,
I know my brother will rise on the last day. He said, Martha,
I am the resurrection. It's not an event, I'm it. I
am the life. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? We believe his ability. Listen
to this scripture. Paul said, I know whom? I have
believed and I am persuaded. And the reason I'm persuaded
is he persuaded me. If he persuades you, you'll be
persuaded. If you're not persuaded, he hasn't
persuaded you. But if you're persuaded, he persuaded you. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded. I'm convinced that he is a believer. That's faith. He said to those blind men, do
you believe that I am able to do this? That's faith. Believing his ability. Do you
believe? Think of the simplicity of this and the power of this.
Do you believe he has the ability to save you without any help
from you? That's what faith is. believing
His ability. I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded He is able to keep that which I've committed to
Him. I've committed the entire salvation of my soul to Him. If He doesn't do it all, I won't
be saved and that's the commitment I've made. That's the commitment
every believer makes. We commit the entire salvation
of our soul to Him. Looking unto Jesus, the author
of our faith. Not only do we look to him as
the author of our faith, we look to him as the finisher of our
faith. I'm going to persevere looking
to Christ only and I'm going to finish looking to Christ only
and it's because he is the finisher of my faith. He is the perfecter
of my faith. He will cause me to die in the
faith. Now, remember when I said we
start at the finish line? Well, here it is. It's finished.
Isn't that where we start? It's finished. Not due. It's
finished. That's the starting line. And
when we're running the way we ought to be running, you know
what? We're still on the starting line. And we continue on the
starting line. And we finish on the starting
line. It is finished. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We look to him
only as the author and the finisher of faith. We're saved by his
faith. We're saved by his faith. I live yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me in the life that I now live in the flesh. I live
by the faith of the son of God. I trust his faith. I trust his
faithfulness. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We believe in Christ that we
might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works
of the law. For by the works of the law, there shall no flesh
living be justified. Faith is faith, not in our faith,
but in his faith. Do you trust his faith? Do you
trust his faithfulness? And look again in verse two, looking unto Jesus, the Son of
God. Don't you love his name, Jesus?
I love his name. I love to say his name. I love
to hear his name. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. What a name. I love his name. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And look at this next phrase.
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." Looking unto Jesus, who for the joy, now don't miss
this, who for the joy that was set before Him. You know, He
said, my meat and drink is to do the will of Him who sent Oh,
the joy he had of glorifying his father, the joy he had in
communion with his father. I love to think of the communion
between the father and the son. The Lord, the father looked on
his son and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. Yes, he was pleased with him,
but in whom? And everybody in him. The joy
that was set before him. What was the joy set before him?
Well, number one, It was to glorify His Father. When He came to this earth, He
came on a mission. It was to glorify, to completely
glorify His Father. That's why He went to the cross.
Every attribute of God was glorified in Christ willingly submitting
to being nailed to that cross. Oh, He said, I've glorified thee
on the earth. I've finished the work thou gavest
me to do. Now, what did He do? He came
to glorify his father. Did he? You know, he did. You know, he completely glorified
his father. He honored, oh, the joy of obeying
his father. Even the, the, the, the torment
that he had to go through, how he enjoyed obeying his father,
no matter what it did to him. That's, that was his joy. Joy
that was set before him. Listen to this, the joy of saving
his people. When Jesus Christ went to the
cross, he went, not generically, hoping somebody would end up
believing. He went to the cross with the names of the elect on
his hands. on his feet, just like the high
priest with the 12 tribes of the children of Israel on their
breast, his shoulder. Now, I love thinking of him dying
for the elect, and I can't stand anything that even implies that
he died for people who will end up in hell anyway. That's blasphemous. He died for the elect. He accomplished
their salvation. But listen to this. He died for
me. I stand amazed. We sang that
song. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner,
condemned, unclean. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Now
that was the joy said before him. Oh, he did what he did willingly. And you think of his The life
he lived, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief while
he was here on the earth. But he had a joy set before him,
the joy of glorifying his father and the joy of saving his elect,
the joy of saving me, that he had my name on his heart. And I want you to think about
this. If you're a child of God, you know, heaven would not be
heaven to him without you being there. That is the power of his
cross. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me that of all which he has given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. The joy that was set before him
of glorifying his father, saving his people. What did he do? Because
of the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. And this is something me and
you are never gonna understand, what all was going on on the
cross. I realize that. You know, the Lord made darkness
to cover the earth to let us know that this is a transaction
between the Father and Son. And you and I will never really
understand what was going on. But on the cross, he was made
sin. I would be afraid to go any further
than that. What does that mean? I don't
know, nor does anyone else, but I know he was made sin. And here's what explains that
to me. Despising the shame. This gives us some inkling as
to what was going on, despising the shame. Now, If you knew what
has gone on in my heart in the last 24 hours, I couldn't look
you in the eye. I'd be ashamed. I'd be so ashamed
of myself. And if somebody says, well, I
don't feel that way, well, that's because you're so hard-hearted
then. Because if you have any honesty whatsoever, You feel
shame, and you wouldn't want someone to see the shame, your
sin that would cause you to be so ashamed. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ never sinned. Even when he was made sin, he
never sinned. But he felt all of the shame
before God of my sin, because it became his sin. And who for the joy that was
said before him, he endured the cross. He was nailed to a cross.
The son of God had nails driven through his hands and feet, the
spear that pierced his side. Forsaken by God. Left to himself. Feeling the shame and the sorrow
of my sin. You see, the Lord killed him
because he's guilty. The Lord didn't kill him because he's
innocent. Lord killed him because he's guilty. He took my sin and
it became his sin. But for the joy that was said
before him, that shame, I'll go through it for the joy I'm
getting out of this. Despising the shame, looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that
was said before him, endured the cross, despising the shame
and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Sit down. There's so much significance
to this. You know, I'm sure, that in the tabernacle there
was no chair. Why were there no chairs? Because
the priest's work was never done. There was always something left
to do. And once he got finished, he had to start the same process
over and over again. Thousands and thousands and thousands
of sacrifices. The work was never done. You
know why? Because there was never any satisfaction
in the blood of an animal. God never was satisfied with
the blood of an animal. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, turn with me to Hebrews 1. And don't forget this set down.
Verse one, God. What a way to start this book.
God. He makes no attempt to prove
God. God. Who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in times passed into the fathers by the prophets
hath in these last days Now, I love that phrase, the last
days. We're in the last days. Every day since the day our Lord
ascended back to heaven, it's the last days. As far as when
is He going to come, I don't know. I hope He comes tonight,
don't you? I hope He comes soon. He said, I come quickly. Behold,
I come quickly. And that makes us very happy
to think of Him coming. And He's going to come for us
even if He comes for us in death. And we're in the last days. Been
in the last days for 2,000 years, but hopefully we're in the last
of the last days. You know, when people make predictions about,
you know, given dates for the second coming of Christ, the
Lord said, I don't even know the date. Somebody says, how can
that be? I don't know. He's God. He's
man. And he said, I don't know. No
man knows but my father. Well, I'm fine with that. Whatever
the Lord says is just right, isn't it? But we're in the last
days. He's going to, when he shall
come with trumpets sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed
in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. These last days. Now he had in
times past spoken by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
to us by, I like the way he uses it in italics, by son. by son,
the son of God, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things. Do you know everything belongs
to Jesus Christ? Do you know the heir you just breathed is
his heir? You're sitting on his property. You're in his world. He's heir of everything. Now,
not only is He heir of all things, by whom also He made the world.
This one is the creator. He's the one who created the
universe. He's the one who said, let us make man in our own image
and in our own likeness. That was Jesus Christ saying
that. He's the creator. Verse three, who being, The brightness
of glory. His glory? Well, I like it better
this way, who being the brightness of glory and the express image
of his person. What a description of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the divine imprint. All
we'll ever see of God is Jesus Christ. He's the express image
of God's person. And upholding all things by the
word of his power. Now, you know what that means?
Everything he is in control of. Providence is everything that
takes place. It's not, well, that was providential.
No, it's all providential. Good, bad, it's all His providence. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. Right now, the reason you're
breathing is because He's willing it. The reason your heart's still
pumping is because He's willing it. Right now, you know, they
talk about we're not conscious of these things, He is. And we're in his sovereign hands. He can do with me and you whatever
he's pleased to do. You know, when people say things
like make Jesus the Lord of your life, you can't make him the
Lord of your life. He is the Lord of your life.
Whether you like it or not, I like it. I want it to be that way,
but he's the Lord of the dead and the living according to scripture.
He's Lord. Now look what it says next in
verse three. when he had by himself purged our sins. How did he do it? By himself. He didn't have any angels helping
him. He didn't have his father helping
him. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And
why are you so far from my, from hearing me in the words of my
roar? And why is it so far from helping me and the words of my
roar? He did this by himself. He certainly
didn't have any help from you or me. He did this by himself. When he had by himself purged
our sins. Purged. Who's our? He purged our sins. That's the
elect. That's everybody whose sins were
purged. When he had by himself purged
our sins. Now this word purging, are you
filthy and do you need to be purged? That's what I'm asking you. Are
you filthy and need purging? That's the people he purged.
When he had by himself purged our sins, what did he do? He sat down because he did what
he purposed to do. The sins were purged. They were
made not to be. They're gone. They're no more.
When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down. Why? The work was finished. What does that mean to me? Forget
doing. It's done. It's done. It's finished. That's why he sat down. It is
finished. He sat down. The father was satisfied
with what he did. The law is satisfied with what
he did. He sat down. Turn to Hebrews
chapter 10. Verse 11. And every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool for by one offering he Hath what? Perfected. Forever. This doesn't need to be repeated.
It's accomplished. Them that are sanctified, those
he sanctified in eternal election, those he sanctified by his blood,
those he sanctified by the spirit in giving them spiritual life. He sat down. Now back to Hebrews
12, let's close up. Looking unto Jesus. Will the
Lord give me the grace and you the grace to do that right now?
To look away from yourself, to look away from other people. To look to him only. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. We are to look to him as the
sitting Savior. Not pacing back and forth, worried
his will's not being done. Sitting in absolute splendor
and control. Sitting. And we're to look to
Him in this sense. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's the one we're looking
at. And you are complete. Nothing lacking. You can't get
any more saved than you are right now. You can't get any more accepted.
You can't get any more loved by God. You are complete in Him. What a glorious Savior. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the high and
holy name of your glorious Son that we might be enabled like the snake bitten children
of Israel, to look to the brazen serpent, the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross, and know that in looking we're made whole through
what he accomplished. Lord, deliver us from our own
understanding, deliver us from our own thoughts, enable us to
look to thy dear son. In his name we pray, amen.