Would you turn back with me to
that 12th chapter of Hebrews? It is my hope. And it is my prayer. That we will close out this old
year. And bring in the new year. Doing
the precise same thing. Looking unto Jesus. Now, what's that mean? Looking
unto Jesus. Now, the word translated looking
in our text is only used twice in the New Testament, and it
means to look away from something so as to see something else. The only way I will be enabled
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ is I quit looking at something
else. And in quitting looking at something
else, I will look unto him. Now, we read in this passage
of scripture of a race that is set before us. awesome thing
to think about. We all have an appointed race
to run. We all have a course to finish. And notice he says in verse one,
wherefore seeing where compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. And he's talking about the people
he's been writing of in the Old Testament. He's talking about
Abraham and Moses and Jacob. Isaac and David and all these
different people he mentions in Hebrews chapter 11. And these witnesses are encompassed
about us right now. And they bear witness to something.
What are they bearing witness to? They are bearing witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, these Old Testament
saints are bearing witness that He is all in salvation. When Abel, by faith, offered
up to God that more excellent sacrifice, he was bearing witness
that the only way to approach God is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. through his precious blood and
through his glorious righteousness. Now, they're bearing witness
of this to us right now. You know, one of the key words
to the book of Hebrews is better. You'd find it interesting to
look up in concordance how many times the word better is used
in the book of Hebrews. Christ is better. That's the thing. Christ is better
than the law. Christ has better promises, a
better country. Christ is better. That's the
theme of the book of Hebrews. This is what they're bearing
witness to, and they're bearing witness to this thing of faith.
If you read of Hebrews chapter 11, how many times do we read,
by faith, Abel, by faith, Moses, by faith, Abraham. Now, by faith,
I'm not talking about Peter Pan faith. You've got to believe
it, and if you just believe it, it'll happen. No, that won't
have any bearing on whether or not it will happen. That's foolishness. It has already happened. Believe. That's faith. It's already happened. And your faith doesn't make it
happen. It has happened. Believe. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, in bearing witness, look in verse 35 of chapter 11. They
were willing to die for what they were bearing witness to.
These are the witnesses that we're encompassed about with.
Look at verse 35 in Hebrews chapter 11. Women received their dead,
raised to life again. And others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance. They could have been delivered
if they would have not confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, but they
didn't accept that. They chose torture instead, that
they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had a trial of cruel
mockings and scourging, moreover, bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned. They were sawn asunder. They
were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wondered 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, received not the
promises God having provided some better thing for us that
they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing
we're compassed about with this great cloud of witness who were
willing to die for what they were bearing witness to. And
many of them did. These are the ones who are witnessing
to us right now. People who have died for the
gospel. Now, seeing that we're compassed
about with this great cloud of witnesses, he says, let us Lay
aside every weight. He's talking about running a
race. When you run in a race, you don't carry weights with
you, do you? You put them down. Anything that would hinder you,
anything that would hinder me in this race, I'm to set it down. Let us lay aside every weight.
And then he says in verse one, and let us lays out every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us. Now, when he's talking
about this sin that does so easily beset us, he's not talking about
some particular sin that you have trouble with, like lust,
or greed, or self-righteousness, or any of the millions of different
kinds of sins that, indeed, we want to be delivered from. But
that's not really what he's talking about when he says, lay aside
that anger, or intemperance, or whatever it might be. We un-lay
aside those things. I'm not saying the opposite,
but he's talking about unbelief. This is the sin that does so
easily beset us. This is the sin that entraps
us. This is the sin we continually
fall into. And really, all other sins come
out of this sin. This sin of unbelief. So this
is what he's talking about when he talks about what the sin that
does so easily beset us that we're to lay aside. This thing
of unbelief. Look what he says next. He said,
let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Patience, cheerful, hopeful endurance,
the fruit of faith. We run this race believing that
there's a prize at the end of the race and believing that there's
free grace to enable us to run this race. Believing God is,
God is in control, and that the outcome is already determined.
We're not running hoping we win. We're running knowing victory
is ours. That's what this hope is. We're
running knowing we're going to win. That's what faith is. Let
us run with patience the race that is set before us, verse
2, Looking unto Jesus. Now, this is the way I'm to run
with patience this race that's set before me. Looking. Looking
unto Jesus. Now, what in the world does that
mean? To look to the Lord Jesus Christ? This actually is a description
of the life of every believer. This is the most glorious, awesome
thing there is. This is the most simple thing
there is. Yet it's something that's beyond our ability, unless
God gives us the grace to do it. Simply looking unto Jesus,
looking to him and looking nowhere else. Looking unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, like I said, the word translated
looking is found only twice in the New Testament, and it means
literally to look away from something. so as to see something else. Now, you will not see that something
else unless you look away from what your gaze is fixed upon.
And thank God, God himself gives us an example, an illustration
of what this thing of looking to Christ is. So would you turn
with me to Numbers, Chapter 21. Numbers, Chapter 21. You know, the Bible is filled
with illustrations. You know, we come up with illustrations
and there's always holes in them, but I love using the illustrations
the Bible gives. We can count on this illustration
as teaching us what it means to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Numbers 21, let's begin
reading in verse four. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom And
the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Now, this is after all the Lord
had done for them. He brought them out of Egypt.
He delivered them. They'd been drinking water from
the rock. Manna came down from heaven to
feed them. They had everything, but look what they say. And the
people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no bread, neither is there any water. Both of those
things were lies. There was bread, there was water,
and our soul loatheth. this light bread. We're sick
of this manna. We eat manna every day. We've
had it. We don't want any more. Our soul loathes this. Verse
6, And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people as an act of
His justice and a judgment against their wicked ingratitude. And
they bit the people And much people of Israel died. Now, try
to put yourself in their place. Can you imagine a bunch of snakes
all over the place, biting people and people dying? It would have
been a horrible situation to be in. I'm sure they were all
scared to death. Verse 7, Therefore, the people came to Moses and
said, We've sinned, for we've spoken against the Lord and against
thee, praying to the Lord that he take away the serpents from
us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. Now, he was to make a serpent
that looked just like those serpents that were biting the people,
a brazen serpent, and to put it on a pole. And our Lord refers
to this as the cross in John, chapter three, verse eight. And it shall come to pass that
everyone that's bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a
serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld, when he looked
at the serpent of brass, he lived. Now, Moses holds up that serpent
of brass and he says to all these people, look and live. And, you know, I don't have any
doubt that there's some people who thought that's ridiculous.
I won't do it. And they didn't live. And what
did He say to do? He didn't say, look at your wounds.
He didn't say, look at the snakes. He didn't say, look at me. Look
at the serpent. Look at the serpent on the pole.
And everybody who looked lived. Turn to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Our Lord refers to this in verse
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He was nailed to a pole that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish. but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him,
they believe who He is, and they believe what He did is all that's
needed to make them whole. And they look to Him. Who so
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world. The
world already was condemned, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Now, beloved, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ right now, you are not condemned. Isn't that wonderful? Look. Look. But I can't see! You're not required
to see, you're required to look. And if you look, you'll see. And if you don't see, you're
not looking. You look to Him as all that is
needed, all there is to make you whole before God. Looking. That's it. Looking. Looking unto Jesus. Everybody
who looked, lived. Now, there's a race that we're
to run. We're to run this race, looking
unto Jesus. Now, if you were running a race,
let's try to picture in your mind a hundred yard dash. And
there was a tree you had to get to, to the finish line. How would
you run that race? Would you look down at your feet?
Would you look at your walk? No. You wouldn't get there. You couldn't reach the point.
Would you look at the other runners? No. You'd veer off. Would you look behind you to
see how you do it? No. You'd fix your eyes on that point
and you wouldn't look away. You'd look only to Him. Looking unto Jesus. Nowhere else. You cease to look everywhere
else. And you look only to Him. They
looked unto Him, the psalmist said in Psalm 34, 5, and were
lightened. You won't have any light until
you look to Him. Now, I'm called upon to look
to Jesus. I love the simplicity of that. Not look to my feelings.
Not look to my experience. Not to look to my works, not
to look to my intentions, not to looking at my... I don't want to call it progress
because there isn't any progress, but not to look at my life in
any way. I'm to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ only in looking to Him will you have any life. Now let's
consider this thing of looking to Jesus. First, looking. It's a simple thing. That's a
simple thing. It's not something you've got
to figure out. It's not something you have to have some ability
to do. Look, you look to Him in His person. He's God. He's the Creator. He's the absolute
Sovereign of the universe. He controls everything. Yet He
is the Man, Christ, Jesus. This mysterious, glorious person
is God, is man, the God-man. Does He have sufficient strength
to save you? You look to His person. You look
to His life. Now, this life, the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ, He never sinned. This is the life that God requires. What does God require of you?
You have to be exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
God requires of you. You see, God's holy. He cannot
accept sin. He cannot accept anything contrary
to His perfections. And the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're going to have to not only have a life just
like His, it goes farther than that. His life, He is my life
before God. That's His righteousness, His
obedience, His law-keeping, His perfect life. That is my life
before God. That's why I have confidence.
I'm not ashamed of my life. You can put my whole life up
on a screen and show it to everybody. All my innermost thoughts, all
my motives, put it up, let everybody see it. And you know what it
is? Perfection. Because the life of Jesus Christ
is my life before God. That's trusting his righteousness
as my personal righteousness before God. I look to his life.
I look to him in his death. Now, why did he die? There's
only one reason. Don't ever miss this. There's
only one reason for death. Sin. That's the only reason there
is for death. My sin became his sin, so that
he became guilty of it. It became his, and he died. And in dying, he paid for my
sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Christ died. Why? Sin was found
on Him. The sins of God's elect were
made to be His so that He became guilty of them and He died. I look to Him in His death as
my sin payment. I look to Him in His resurrection. He went into that tomb with something. My sin. He walked out of that
tomb without something. My sin. Where'd my sin go? I don't know. But it's gone. And I don't have any. I look
to Him in His resurrection. I look to Him in His intercession. Wherefore... What's that mean?
Intercession. It means He's representing me.
That's all it means. He represents me for the Father. When I pray,
oh, my prayer... They're filled with sin and unbelief
because I prayed Him. But He presents that prayer to
the Father, and the Father is pleased. Wherefore, He is able
to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. I look to Him in His
intercession. I look to Him in His return.
You know, He's going to make everything right. This place
is a mess, isn't it? I'm a mess. You're a mess. This world's a
mess. But He's going to clean it all
up when He returns. And I tell you when I really
look for Him, when my name is called on Judgment Day, and He
shall say for me, present and accounted for, I look to Him. Looking unto Jesus. Now, verse 2 gives us five ways
that we're to look to Him. Back to our text in Hebrews chapter
12. And would to God that you and I would be enabled to look
to Him in these five ways even now. You know, it's easy to believe
when you've got faith, isn't it? And it's impossible to believe
when you don't have it. God's got to give it to you.
You know what I'd do if I were you? I'd ask the Lord to give
me faith. I don't come to Him with my faith, I come to Him
for faith. Lord, give me faith. Give me faith, teach me what
it is to look to thy son, teach me what it is to rest in him.
Now, look what Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 says, 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. Now, the first way I look to
him is I look to him as the author of faith, as the source of faith. Now, I believe I've got faith,
right? This is amazing. I believe that
a sinful as I know myself to be. And I don't know the half,
I realize that. But I believe that I stand before
God without guilt because of who Christ is and what he did.
I believe that. And I tell you this, I know where
that faith came from that I possess. It didn't come from me. It didn't
come because I decided to believe. It didn't come because I, as
an act of my free will, decided this is the direction I'm in.
No! He gave me that faith. I know that as sure as I'm standing
here. He is the source of faith. You know, I don't have to try
to talk any believer into that. You know it so, don't you? If
you have faith, you know He gave it to you. He is the cause of
faith. He is the object of faith. He
is the subject of faith. Why, the Bible actually says
we're justified by the faith of Christ. I love that. We're justified by his faith. You know, somebody had to believe
God perfectly. He did. And I am relying on his
faith. I'm relying on his faithfulness. I know where my faith came from.
Him. He is the author of faith. But not only does it say he's
the author of faith, it says he is the finisher or the perfecter
or the completer of faith. He's the one who causes me to
continue to believe until my faith is turned into sight. He's
the end of faith. It stops at him. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
He's the completion of faith. It's not faith until it sees
that we're complete. Complete. Colossians 2, 9 and
10 says in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in the
body and you are complete. Now, I want you to think about
how incomplete you feel. There's so many holes in every
one of us, so many contradictions. Rough being a sinner, isn't it? That being said, I am complete. Saved to the fullest. Justified, sanctified, and glorified
in Him. He's the author. We look to Him
as the author of our faith, and we're looking to Him to finish
our faith, aren't we? I'm looking to Him to cause me to continue
to believe. You see, He is the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. We look to him as the author
and we look to him as the finisher of our faith. But let's go on
reading verse two. 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 here's what I want you to think about for just a
few moments, the motive of the Lord Jesus Christ going to the
cross. Why did he do it? This passage
of scripture says, for the joy that was set before him. The
joy of glorifying his father. You see, when Jesus Christ died
on the cross, he glorified God. Every attribute of God is manifest
in what Christ did in dying on the cross. He glorified His holiness.
He glorified His justice. God's not going to let sin go
unpunished. When sin is placed upon Christ, God's justice kills
Him. He glorified His wisdom. How
God in His wisdom could make a way to remain just and justify
me when in and of myself I'm unjust. What wisdom on God's
part. What grace, what mercy. Oh, the joy he had of glorifying
his father, the joy he had of obeying his father, the joy he
had in honoring his father's love, the joy he received in
saving somebody like me. Who for the joy that was set
before him. He endured the cross. despising
the shame. Now that says so much. He endured
the physical pain of the cross. I would never want to make light
of that. Can you imagine being nailed to a tree? I can't even. He endured that willingly for
the joy that was set before him. But we get more of a glimpse
as to what's going on. When we read that he endured
the cross, despising or counting as nothing, the shame. The shame. You know, shame is a powerful,
powerful feeling. I can think of times when I was
just utterly ashamed. And it's one of the worst feelings
I know anything about where you're just ashamed, ashamed, just humiliated. My sin. So truly became his sin
that he experienced all the shame of it before his father. And you know what? Still, for
the joy that was set before him of obeying his father and glorifying
his father. He endured the cross, despising
the shame, counting it as nothing, even though it's such a horrible
thing, the shame he experienced. He felt all the guilt. He felt
all of the loathsomeness. And this is something there's
no way we can understand. But he experienced everything
there is to experience in sin, with the exception of the commission
of it. Now, do I understand that? No. But I know it's so. That's what he experienced on
the cross. Everything that's experienced in sin, the shame
of it. He was made to feel. But he counted
as nothing. He despised the shame. And look
what he did. It says in verse two, the last
phrase, he sat down. Now, I'm to look at him as the
author. I'm to look at him as the finisher. I'm to look at
his motive for the joy that was set before him. I'm to look to
what he did. He endured the cross, despising
the shame for that joy that was set before him. But I'm to look
to him. And here's what I believe is
the best part. I'm to look to him as sat down. You know what
that means? His work is finished. And there is absolutely, listen
to me, there is nothing for me to do. He did it all. Jesus paid it all. All did I owe. Sin had left a
crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Look in Hebrews chapter 1. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by a Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory 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, He sat down. You know why? Because those sins were purged. They're put away. He sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. Verse 11. He's talking about the Old Testament
priest here in verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 10 and every priest standeth
daily. You know, a piece of furniture
that you couldn't find in the tabernacle. a chair. There weren't any chairs. You
know why? The priest work was never done.
Wasn't no chairs. They were standing daily, ministering
and offering oftentimes those same sacrifices. How many lambs
were slain? Thousands and thousands and tens
of thousands. 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, nothing left to do,
on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting, simply
waiting, till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected me." Everybody that sanctified. Everybody he died for. By one
offering. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. You see, He finished the work.
That's what He said. It is finished. And He sat down. And I'm to look to Him as having
sat down. That means, Beloved, that there's
nothing for me to do. I am accepted in the Beloved. I am complete in Him. Looking unto Jesus. Somebody says, well, how can
I look when I don't see anything? I hear you, and I don't see anything. If you look to Him right now,
you will see. You'll see how a holy God can
accept you. You'll see that his precious
blood is all that's needed to make you clean before God. You'll
see that his righteousness is the only righteousness there
is and the only righteousness you need. You look right now. And I don't care how abandoned
you are. I don't care how ignorant you are. I don't care how blind
you've been up to this point. you enter into full and complete
salvation. Right like that. You look right
now and you can't get any more saved than you already are. Isn't that amazing? Looking,
looking unto Jesus. Now, as we take the bread and
the wine, knowing what they represent, The bread represents his broken
body, the wrath that he endured as the sinner's substitute, and
the wine represents the forgiveness that he actually procured when
he said it is finished. Now, listen, remember this. When
he said it's finished, I was forgiven. My sin was put away. I love thinking about this. Salvation
begins with forgiveness. It doesn't end with it. Doesn't
mean there's some things you need to do in order to get forgiveness.
No, it begins with the full, complete forgiveness of sins.
Faith rests in that. Faith believes that. Looking
unto Jesus. Now, as we take the bread, as
we take the wine. Who's to take the bread? Who's to take the
wine? Anybody who believes. That's the only requirement.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son? Do you believe
that what He did is enough to make you perfect before God?
Are you relying on him? Then you are to take the Lord's
table. Now, if you don't believe that,
don't take it. Don't take it. Don't make a mockery
of it. But if you believe, this is for you. And we do so looking unto Jesus. May the Lord enable us to simply
look. Let's pray.