Thank you for that. Several things
came to my mind, but one line in that poem, how much I owe. When I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then, how much I owe. Hebrews chapter 12. I'd like to read verses 1 and
2 of Hebrews chapter 12. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus." The author and finisher
of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross despising or discounting the
shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. I hope that you'll pray for me
as I attempt to preach this message, and that you'll pray for yourselves.
I've entitled this message, Looking Unto Jesus, and I I fear, I fear
taking something so beautiful and so simple and so holy and
confounding it with my own wisdom. So I pray that I might be delivered
from that and that I might be truly enabled to preach the gospel. Pray for me and pray for yourselves. looking unto Jesus. Now, what
is faith? What does it mean to believe? Would it be presumptuous for
me to believe? What is faith? Looking unto Jesus. What does it mean to believe?
Looking unto Jesus. Would it be presumptuous for
me to believe? Looking unto Jesus. Oh, that the Spirit of God will
enable each one of us to be people who are looking unto Jesus. In verse 1 of Hebrews chapter
12, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed, surrounded about
with so great a cloud of witnesses, this great cloud of witnesses
are the men and women mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, called
the hall of faith. They are people who believed,
people whose lives could be described as lives looking unto Jesus. That would summarize their lives. And look how it affected them.
Look back in verse 33. Chapter 10 or chapter 11. Who through faith, through looking
to Jesus, that's what faith is, it's looking unto Jesus. Who
through faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness, obtained
promises and stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned 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 sawed
asunder, 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. All of this
because they looked unto Jesus. That made them willing to live
like this. Now, that's a powerful testimony,
isn't it? They saw something in the Lord Jesus Christ that
made them not accept deliverance. They were swollen in half. They
were torn asunder. They were stoned. They lived
out in caves and dens because people were going to kill them
because they looked to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what a powerful
testimony. You can't deny it. You can't
deny it. These people were willing to
be tortured and not accept deliverance. That's powerful, isn't it? Very
powerful. Now, seeing you and I, we can't
deny this testimony. There it is. There's something
about the Lord Jesus Christ that made these people live like this. Now, seeing that you and I are
surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses that are mentioned
in Hebrews chapter 11, he says, let us lay aside every weight. everything that would hinder
us in running this race, whatever it is, lay it aside. Let us lay aside every weight,
and that sin which doth so easily beset us. Now, what in the world
is that? Somebody says, well, I have a
tendency to go this direction in sin, and somebody else says,
I have a tendency to go that direction in sin. Now, wait a
minute. What is the sin that does so easily beset us? I have
no doubt that in this passage of Scripture, he's talking about
the sin of unbelief. That's the sin that does so easily
beset us. It trips us up so easily. We
stamp it out in one place, and it comes up in another place.
The sin of unbelief. Now, if I would say to you, if
I would confess to you, I am guilty of committing grotesque
immorality. I mean, great wickedness. You know what you do? You'd wonder,
what's he done? What's he done? What's he been
guilty of? What's he been dabbling in? Maybe all kinds of things
might come to your mind. And then if I said, here's what
I've done, I've been guilty of unbelief. Everybody here would
say, well, yeah. That's not that big of a deal. That's better than some other
things you could have said. Is it? Is it? Unbelief is the master sin. It's the mother of all other
sin, the sin from which all other sins are born. Unbelief is not
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Not looking
to Christ. Now, he said, let us lay aside
every weight and that sin, which is so easily beset us and let
us run with patience. Not stretching out, not wicked
out, but let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Now, the word race is usually translated conflict. Fight. Contest. Contingent. Now, there's nothing easy. Understand
this, there's nothing easy about being a follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a conflict. And you know
that. It's a hard and it's a difficult
race. There's much pain involved. There's
much conflict involved. I mean, just think of the conflict
within your own breast right now. Those different ways you're
turned. It's a difficult race and it
would be a lie to present it any other way. It's a conflict. It's hard. It's hard, but he
says, let us run with patience. Patience, this race that's set
before us. Now, how in the world am I going
to run this race with patience? If you say it's hard, it's a
conflict, and indeed it is. How can I run it with patience? Looking unto Jesus. Now, there are 17 different Greek
words in the New Testament that are translated, look. Here is the word that means and
here's what it says, looking unto Jesus, it means this very
simply, to look away from one thing. So as to see another. To look away. From one thing. so as to see another, to concentrate
the gaze. Now, wouldn't it be something
if you and I are enabled by divine grace to concentrate our gaze
upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, somebody's thinking, I would
look, but you do not realize how hard my heart is. Where are you looking? That's
looking to yourself, isn't it? He doesn't say look at the hardness
of your heart. Looking unto Jesus. Somebody says, but you don't
understand how sinful I am. Nor do you. As a matter of fact,
it's worse than you think. It's worse. But that's looking
to yourself. He says, looking unto Jesus. I would look if I could feel
my need more. I'm afraid I just don't feel
my need. That's a self-righteous smokescreen. That's all it is.
Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look away from yourself to Him.
What? I could look if If what? If Christ
died? Oh, no. I believe Christ died. It's not Christ I doubt. It's
myself. You're looking in the wrong place. Don't look at yourself. We're
commanded to look unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if I have
somebody else says, I have a reason to not look, I can't see. I'm
blind. How can I look if I'm blind?
Isaiah chapter 42, verse 18 says, look ye blind. that you may see. I guarantee you that if a blind
Israelite with no eyeballs in his sockets would have looked
at that brazen serpent, he would have been healed. He doesn't
say see, he says look. And if you look, you will see. I don't see, then you haven't
looked. Look unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus. Look away from yourself. Look
away from your past. Look away from your experience.
Look away from the things that you've always believed and always
been taught. Don't look at yourself. Concentrate
your gaze upon Him. Looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. Well, what's
that mean? I can't see Him. I can't see
him physically. I don't know what he looks like.
How in the world do I go about looking to him? I look to him
as he is. Well, how is he? He's God. He's man. He is the God man. So whatever it was that he did
must be successful. I've got to begin by looking
to who he is. He's the creator of the universe.
He's the sovereign of the universe. He's the one who controls everything. He's the one who has all power
and therefore he's able to do whatever it is he sets out to
do. He's the son of God. I look to him who he is. Don't look at yourself. Wouldn't
it be a blessing if you could just stop looking at yourself?
Don't look at yourself. Don't look at me. I was thinking
about this. You know, I'm the one up here
right now that everybody's looking at. Listen to me preach a bit.
You know how warped you are? I'm no different. What good would
it do to look at me? I'm no different than you. That's
the truth. That's the truth. Don't look
at thee. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that God would enable us
to do that. Look to Him. And how do we look
to Him? Look in verse two. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Do you say, well, it's hard for
me to look to him. It's such a spiritual act. Yes, it is. But he is the author, the source. The originator, the cause of
faith, he's the faith itself. If you can't come to Christ with
faith, if you can't look to Christ with faith, come to Christ for
faith. Look to Christ for faith. He's
the author of faith. Say, Lord, I can't even believe
unless you give me the grace to believe. I can't make a move
for you. Give me the grace to believe.
You're starting to believe. That's where we begin. He is
the author of faith and he is the finisher of faith or the
perfecter of faith. He's the source of faith. He's
the object of faith. He's the sustainer of faith and
he is the finisher of faith. So when I look to him, I look
to him as the author and finisher of my faith. And I look to him
as the author and finisher of the faith. Now, this is how I
look to him. I look to him. He's the faith. It's the faith
of him. Faith comes from him. Faith is
sustained by him. Faith is completed by him. So
I look to him as the author and finisher of my faith. I look
to him as the author and finisher of the faith, the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does that mean? Let's
go on reading. This is such a wonderful thing to consider. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, this is how
we look to him, 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 that's how I'm to look to
Him. I look to Him who is the author
and finisher of faith. Who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross. Now what is this joy that was
set before Him? It was the joy of glorifying
His Father. That's the joy that was set before
Him. The joy of glorifying His Father. Now, how does He go about glorifying
His Father by doing His will? He said, My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent Me. Now, here's the Father's will.
the Father, before time began, gave Christ a people. That's called election. He chose
who would be saved before time began, and He gave these elect
ones as a gift to His Son. He said the responsibility of
their salvation is yours. Now, if you save them, if you
keep the law for them, if you die for them and pay for their
sins, here's what you're going to do. You're going to glorify
me. You're going to glorify every one of my most excellent attributes.
You're going to glorify my sovereignty. I've chosen to be saved and they
are saved. You're going to glorify my justice. There seems not going
to go unpunished. There seems to be dealt with.
But you're going to also glorify my grace because you're going
to save them in such a way it magnifies my grace. You're going
to glorify me. And that was his delight to glorify
his father. And in glorifying his father
by saving his elect, the joy that was set before him was saving
the objects of his love. Sinners, like you and me, regarding
all of his people, He could not be happy. He would be incomplete
without them. The joy that was set before Him
was saving His people from their sins. So what did He do? Looking
unto Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy of
glorifying His Father, for the joy of saving poor, helpless
sinners like me and you, who for the joy that was set before
Him, what did He do? The Scripture says He endured
the cross. Do you remember in the garden of Gethsemane when he faced the cross? And remember who he is. He's
the son of God. He's got a whole lot more strength,
obviously, than you and I do. He's perfect. But when he was
in Gethsemane's garden, Contemplating the cross, the scripture says
he fell on his face. He was sore amazed, being in
agony, the scripture says regarding him. At the thought of the cross. He said, Father. Is it possible? Let this cup pass from me. Don't let me go. If it be possible,
let it go away. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. Now, what is it about the cross
that would give the Son of God this kind of agony? This is not
like me doing this. This is the Son of God. What
about the... Was it the physical pain? Now, understand, I would
not in any way minimize or trivialize the pain that the Lord endured
in the cross. And if I had a crucifixion looking at me, I'd dread it too.
Can you imagine all he went through? I mean, the crown of thorns,
they beat him to death with a cat of nine tails. They threw him
down on a cross. They took big spikes and they
hammered him through his hands and his feet. They stuck him
in the side. Who can tell the pain and the
agony he endured? They ripped out his beard, all
the pain. But I'll tell you what, Pain,
that's an awful thing. But is that what made him cry
out, if it be possible, let this cut past for me? Was it just
the fear of the pain? I know that you couldn't look
at it in a way where it didn't even
matter to know it. But that's not what our Lord was praying
about. Now, let's go on reading. Looking unto Jesus. the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising or discounting the shame. Now, if you want to understand
something about the cross, if I want to understand something
about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to have to
understand something about this word shame. Shame. Now, in my limited experience,
The worst feeling I've ever had, as far as feelings go, and as
far as emotions go, is shame. Nothing compares to that when
I have been exposed and humiliated. And I'm so ashamed. There are a few events in my
life that every time I think about Him, I can feel my skin
tingling. I don't even like to think about
Him. I'm ashamed. I mean, and reliving that shame,
it troubles me. What a horrible feeling that
is, the feeling of shame, being exposed, being humiliated. You're so embarrassed. Now, what
in the world was Christ feeling shame about? Now, this gives
us some idea of what really took place on the cross. The sins
of God's elect so truly became His that He personally felt the
shame of them. When's the last time you truly
felt ashamed? He felt ashamed before God. You see, He bare our sins in
His own body on the tree, and He bore the shame, the humiliation
of them. They truly became His. And yet,
because of the joy that was set before Him, He went through all
this, discounting the shame. Now, you know what is so glorious
about this when we talk about the shame of Christ? Just as
truly, As my sin became his to the extent that he actually had
the shame of it, and the embarrassment of it, and the humiliation of
it before his father, he who was holy was made sin and was
so ashamed. Just as truly as he bore my sin
in that sense, that perfect obedience and righteousness that he worked
out is mine, and I bear the unashamedness of it. I can come into God's
presence with boldness, with confidence, just as truly as
He was made sin, I made the very righteousness of God in Him. Confident? Yep, I'm confident. Bold shall I stand in that great
day. For who ought to by charge shall
lay fully absolved from these I am from sin's tremendous curse
and shame? Got nothing to be shamed about
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's how I'm to look to
Him who for the joy that was said before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand God. Turn to Hebrews 1, verse 3. Who, being the brightness of
His glory and the express image of His
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins." Did He? I love that phrase, by Himself.
With no help from me. No pre-trade. He did it by Himself. You know, if you want something
done right, do it yourself. Now, there's only one who can
truly say that. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want something
done right, do it yourself. He did it by Himself. And He purged. He washed away. He obliterated. He made not to
be our sins. And He then sat down. There's only one reason He sat
down. because the work was finished
and there was nothing left to do. Now, that's how I'm to look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm to look to him who is the
author and the finisher of our faith, that one who for the joy
that was set before him, the joy of doing his father's will,
the joy of saving his people, he endured the cross, counting
as nothing the shame and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of the majesty on high, looking unto Jesus. You know, if you're running a
race, and you have a goal, if I want
to get to that clock behind me, if I look down at my feet, I'm
not going to run straight toward that clock, am I? Don't look
at your feet. Don't look at your walk. Looking
unto Jesus. Don't look at the side at somebody
else. What good's that going to do
you? Looking unto Jesus. Forget those people. Forget those
people. What's that got to do with anything?
Looking unto Jesus. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
only. Now, may God give us grace to
do that. First of all, you look to His
person right now, right now. Look, is He God? Did He create the universe? Is
He all-powerful? Is He able to save you? Come
on now. Is He able? Does He have the
ability to save you? I don't care how hard you are. I don't care how far off you
are. Yes, He does. He is able. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to his life. Now, I
want you to think about this. This was just wonderful to me.
I was thinking about this this morning. I thought about this
after I prepared the message. And it was such a blessing for
me to think about. You think of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ when
he walked upon this earth for 33 years. Did he have to come
down here? I mean, was there any compulsion
for him to come down here as far as you and I? He didn't have
to in the sense that he didn't owe it to anybody. You think
of this. He submitted himself to the law
of God, the lawgiver. The lawgiver. He submitted himself
to this law. Now, why did he do it? Did he
do it for himself? No, he didn't have to submit
himself to the law. He already was God, already holy. It's not
like he had to do it. He didn't do this for himself.
He did it for somebody else. He did what he did as a representative
man. When he kept the law, it wasn't
for himself. It was for somebody else. Now
you look at his law keeping. You look at his perfect righteousness. Is that righteousness enough
to save you? Let me ask you another way. Isn't that the only righteousness
there is? Is that the righteousness of
God? It sure is. Now you look to His life. There is your obedience. Don't look to yourself. Don't
look to your experience. You look to His life as your
obedience before God. Look to Him in His death. Look to Him in His death. Jesus
Christ actually died. There's one reason for death. Only one. Sin. The sins of His people were placed
upon Him and He died. He paid the price. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Look to His death. as your sin
payment. Don't look at any intentions
you have, anything you're going to do. Look to His death as your
sin payment. I love thinking about this. He
died, and they put Him in a tomb, and there He lay for three days,
dead. Can you imagine that, Jesus Christ being dead? How could
the God-man die? I don't know, but He did. He
did. And there He lay three days,
Dead. Cold stone corpse. Dead. Three days later, all of a sudden
he's laying there and he opens his eyes. He's alive. He gets up. Why? God accepted what he did. He was raised again for our justification. Complete justification. You look to Him in His resurrection
for your assurance. I love to think of Him ascending
back to the Father. The disciples looking at Him
and there He ascends back to the Father. Lift up your heads,
ye gates, and lift Him up, ye everlasting door, and the King
of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord of hosts, mighty in battle, He is the King of Glory. When
He ascended back to the Father, He ascended with hosts. Even
the company of all of His elect, they went right there with Him.
I'm up there right now. Union with Christ? I'm right
there. You look to Him. You don't look to yourself. You're so discouraging when you
look to yourself. That's a place not to look. That's just a place.
Don't go there. Don't go there. It won't do you
any good. It'll just fill you with confusion. Oh, you look
to Him. You look to Him. Look to Him
in His intercession. Here's why we'll persevere. He
said, Peter, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift
you as wheat, that he might turn you inside out, but I have prayed
for you. that your faith failed not. And
you know what happened with Peter? His faith didn't fail. Everything else did, but his
faith didn't. You know, when he was laying
there weeping in bitter tears, I'll tell you one thing he knew.
It may be clearer than he'd ever known. The only hope he had was
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sure of that. Somebody says, but I'm afraid
I'm not one of the elect. Anybody thinking that? I hear
what you're saying. But what if I'm not one of the
elect? What if I'm not one of the chosen? What if I'm not one
of the people he died for? That's what I'm afraid of. Well,
what if you are? What if you are? Now, are you
struggling with that? Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. Verse 13, somebody says, I'm afraid I'm
not one of the elect. I understand that fear. I do.
I don't discount that. I understand that fear. But look
at this verse of Scripture. For whosoever. Are you one of them? Are you whosoever? Well, I'm one of them. I might
not be able to climb up into heaven and see the names written
on the Lamb's Book of Life, but that's okay. I am a whosoever. I'm one of them. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord! Save me. Well, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, I've got a question
for you. Would it be presumptuous? Would it be an act of presumption
for me to believe? Everybody in here has asked that
question to themselves. Is it presumptuous for me to
believe? Well, let me put it another way.
You're commanded to. And you'll be damned if you don't. Is that enough of a reason? You'll
be damned if you don't believe. You'll go to hell if you don't
believe. And you are commanded. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. Shouldn't you believe the truth?
You ought to, shouldn't you? Now, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And here's the last thing I want
to call to your attention. It's the word LOOKING. LOOKING unto Jesus. Not to whom you plan on looking
one of these days, but looking to Him right now. You know when
my salvation began? Now, I don't know the date. I don't know when it happened.
And I can't even come close to telling you when it happened.
But I know my salvation began when I looked to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's when it began. You know
how it's sustained? Looking to Him right now. I'm
looking to Him. I'm looking to His person, His
life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession.
I'm looking to Him right now. That's how it's sustained. That's
all I got. But do you know what heaven's
going to be? What's heaven going to be? Looking at Him. Looking at Him. Is that all? Yep. That's it. And it's glorious. May God give
everybody here the grace to look away from yourself. Don't look
within. Don't look at anybody else. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we, as our