We're gonna be looking in Hebrews
12 again, if you would like to turn there. First hour, we learned about
how we live and how is it that we live. looking unto Jesus,
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. Somebody said,
do you tell your congregation how they should live? And I said,
yes. And they said, well, what do
you tell them? And I said, look to Christ. And they said, that's
it? I said, that's plenty. He's more than enough. He's more
than enough. And if the believer's truly looking,
And to Christ, he's going to look in a way that he wants to
honor his Lord, not be a reproach on the church, not be a reproach
among the Lord's people. I don't want it to be everyone
would agree with me here. You don't want to be Judas. Nobody
here wants to be Judas. That's the fear is that Lord
lead me to myself. Don't let me be Judas. I know I'm Peter. I know I'm going to deny the
Lord if he leads me to myself. Don't let me be Judas. Lord,
pray for me. that my faith not fail that you give me. Now we
want to look to our Lord and Savior as believers, don't we?
We desire to see him and see him as he is, high and lifted
up. Only the Lord's people desire to see the Lord high and lifted
up as he is, seated as King of kings and Lord of lords. We're
the only ones that desire to see him just as he is. Just tell
me the truth about him and tell me the truth about myself. You're,
we're the only, Lord's people's the only people on the planet
you can look at and say, you know, you're a liar. And they say, yeah, that's
true. You tell anybody else that, like
you wanna fight? If you know that, it'd be their
attitude. Not the Lord's people, you're a liar, you're a thief,
you're a this, you're a that. I know, you don't even know half
bad how bad I am. You don't know half of it. Thank
God he came to save sinners of whom I am chief. We learn in
the first hour how to live. We live looking to Christ. We
live looking to Christ. But also, we see throughout the
entire book of Hebrews, looking is a gift, it's not a work. Looking
is a gift, and that's so important. Religion takes looking and puts
man to it, and it just ruins it. You need to do this. No, you need to look. And looking
is a gift. gift of grace in the heart done
only by the faith of Christ bestowed and only given to the Lord's
people. This is what the Lord does for his people. I love and
rest in and hope in and trust in the fact that everything God
required, he has provided for his people. Does that give you
comfort? Everything, everything required for your salvation,
For the salvation of the Lord's people, he provided. He's not
looking to you and saying, okay, I've done 99.99%. I need you
to do that .01% and then you can be saved. No, he did 100%. Exceedingly, abundantly above.
That's what he did. He saved his people. Now, we didn't wake up one morning
saying, OK, now I'm going to look to God. I'm going to believe
him now. I decided. And there are songs
in false religion we used to sing as a kid. I have decided
to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Well, I'm sure their intentions
are good in that song, but oh, I can't look at my decision and
have any hope. Can you? Can you look at your
decision and have hope? I have hope in my decision. I
trust the Lord takes that away from you then, because it's the
only thing we can hope in. Only thing Paul said, we glory
in one thing, the cross of Christ, the Christ of the cross. That's
who we glory in. Not self, not choice. It's faith,
faith that causes us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
faith bestowed that causes us to trust in His blood alone.
It's faith that causes us to believe in His broken body alone,
His works, His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Otherwise,
we're gonna trust ourself. So how do you live? Looking to Him,
just looking to Him. One, if not the biggest problems
we have is looking to self. By nature, we desire to look
to self. By nature, we desire to have
the attention drawn to us. I have three daughters, and all
of them have different personalities. And I've seen over the years,
if one gets a certain amount of attention, the other ones
want that attention. One will become more boisterous, or they'll
do something to draw my attention away from the other one. If you're
having children, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And we
desire it. I didn't have to teach them that,
first and foremost. I didn't have to teach them that. Why?
Well, because they're my children, for one. But they're Adam's seed.
That's the whole point. And it's sinful. It's all about,
look at me. Look at me. All the social media
today is, look at me. Look at me. That's what it's all about.
And we see. By nature, we draw attention
to ourself, but what does faith do? It looks to Christ. It never once examines ourself,
and that's our problem. A lot of times, we're examining
ourself, looking for evidence. Well, I know that I'm a believer
because of A, B, or C, or I know that I'm one of his because of
E, F, and D, or D, E, F. I know I'm one of his because
I've done this, or I haven't done that, and that's what we
do by nature. The Lord says, no, no, look to
Christ. Christ is the alpha and omega.
You don't even get a letter. We don't even get a letter. He
has all the letters. He did the A through the D. He did it all.
We didn't do A, B, or C. We didn't do any of it. He did
it. And then he says, receive this freely by my grace. And now you've done it. He's
imputed righteousness. That's how it works. He just
gives it to his people freely. Oh, what a glorious salvation.
He is wrought for his people by grace alone. We don't look to our vows. You
know, I remember, you ever remember looking to the
vows that you've made? You ever heard of the expression, rededicate
your life? Anybody ever heard that one? Well, that was a big
one. Every Sunday, be like, well,
somebody here's backslidden. I know it. Nobody needs to be
saved to come up here. Then somebody's been backslidden, and you know
it. You need to come up here and rededicate your life. It's
just a bunch of show. That's all it is. It's just a
show. And they don't even know that
they're doing it. That's the saddest part. You know, a blind
man doesn't know he's blind. At least if he does know he's
blind, he don't know what the difference is of seeing and not seeing.
We're not talking about somebody that's blind after they've saw.
We're talking about somebody that's born blind. They don't know what they're
missing. How you gonna describe sunshine to a blind man? Or the
rain, the way it falls? How you gonna describe that?
How beautiful a baby is? You can't. You can't, can you? It's impossible. But oh, when
sight's received, that's whenever we see the truth. That's when
the Lord reveals his truth. That's when we see Christ is
all in salvation. We don't, if that's, if rededication
is part of, Well, we do rededicate every day, don't we, by saying,
Lord, save me. He gives us repentance every day, don't he? I mean,
honestly, it's not like in religion, but the Lord has to draw us back
to him, turn us back to him. He's causing us to be refocused,
rededicated back to him. I mean, you understand what I'm
saying. You understand what I'm saying. You and I in no way can please
God. We're utterly sinful. Enmity, flesh is enmity against
God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. You heard
that the first hour. We're born in sin and shapen in iniquity,
but not him. That's the point this hour, not
him. Everything that I've said thus far, everything I've talked
about us and unbelief, everything that I've mentioned about what
we do, what we don't do, and how people have false religion,
they have the truth backwards, and they do all these things,
not him. He did everything perfect. I've titled this message, Consider
Him. Consider Him. Let's read our text here. We're
just gonna read the first three verses. Wherefore, Hebrews 12,
verse one, wherefore seeing we are also, we are compassed, we
are also, 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 the race with patience. Run
with patience the race that is set before us, 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 set
down at the right hand, the throne of God. For consider him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. He says, consider him. So first he says, lay aside the
weight and the sin that does so easily beset you and run the
race with patience. The next thing he says, how do we do that?
Looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how do you do that? We'll
consider him. So it's a, it's a pattern of, of this is how
this works. We're going to look to Christ.
We consider him. We think on him. We dwell upon
him. We dwell upon, his goodness,
his mercy. We don't look to ourself. That's
the key this hour. We're not examining ourself to
see if we have the right attitude or the right dedication
or the right choices made or the right lifestyle lived. We
look to him. We look to him. We consider him
alone. So obviously being told to do
something, in this case consider him, that means That means that
our problem is is we're not considering Him. If we're being told to look,
our problem is is we're not looking. Excuse me. But how does one do this? How
does one consider Christ? How does one look unto the Lord
Jesus Christ? I need to know. If that's the
requirement, I need to know how to look. Because I don't know
how to look. Do you know how to look? You
ever, It's not the same as looking at your children when you see
something, a bird in the sky. Hey, look at that, and you point,
and the child can look up and see it. No, we're talking blind
leading the blind is how the scripture calls it, unless the
Lord calls us out of darkness into his light. That's what men do
by nature. But here's our confession, isn't
it? Whereas this one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Now I see the truth. Now I desire to see the king.
I desire to see him as he is. Now we carefully look at the
savior of his chosen sinners. We do not examine ourself. We
do not look to self for anything. We don't look to self to supply
anything in salvation. We don't look to self to obtain
anything in salvation or to merit anything in salvation. We look
to Christ who merited, obtained, successfully redeemed his people.
That's who we look to. This is the message here. Consider
him. Don't consider yourself or your
circumstances. Don't look at what you can see
in front of you and try to find hope in it. Look to Christ. There's hope in him alone. There's
hope in him alone. Do not think on your own works,
think on his finished work. Do not think on your life, think
on his life, his perfect life. Matter of fact, we look to his
life, his death, his resurrection, his blood as our only hope before
the throne of God for righteousness. And if we start looking at ourself
in any way, shape, or form, we are taking our eyes off of the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no hope in that,
is there? There's no hope in that. Well, since we're told that looking
to Christ would cure our ailment, our ailment must be not looking
to Christ. That's the problem, isn't it?
That's what we started out with. That's the problem. I am the
problem. If you ever wonder, you ever ask yourself, what's
the problem here? Something's going on in life. Just go ahead
and say, I'm the problem here. You might as well. You know it's
true. That's how we are by nature.
Well, I don't know how to fix it. I know, because we're the
problem. The Lord's gonna have to save us again. Now, you understand
what I'm saying. There's things that happen and
we don't have control over. I understand all that, but I'm
saying most of the time, we create our own problems, don't we? Most
of the time. Whether it's unbelief, whether it's murmuring, whether
it's forgetfulness, there's so many things that we do that,
boy, I'm glad we serve a merciful Heavenly Father. full of mercy
and compassion. His compassion fills not, and
he doesn't forget to remember his people. And I don't know
why he worded it that way. He can't forget anything, but
he wanted us to make sure we understood, he can't forget to
remember his people. It's like, that's a double, okay,
I understand. I mean, Lord, I believe. Help
my unbelief. Since we're told looking to Christ
would cure our ailment, our ailment must be not looking to Christ.
Since we're told to lay aside the weight, The issue must be
we're carrying some weight. Whether the weight is unbelief,
or whether the weight is self-righteousness, whatever the weight may be, he's
saying, lay that aside. And you can fill in the blank.
Whatever it may be that's preventing you from looking to Christ alone,
lay it aside. Look to him. Look to him. Because we're told to run, that
must mean that we're standing stagnant, not moving forward,
not pressing towards the mark, as Paul said. And that's the
calling of the Lord is to press towards the mark. Every day that
we get up, we're actually pressing towards a mark. Every day that
we live, this is not in vain. This is a race and it is not
a sprint, is it? I don't know how you felt. I've
been in a couple races in my life and when I was younger,
you know, wherever that gun would sound or the whistle would blow,
I'd be the first one out the gate, ready to go as fast as
I could. Well, my steam kind of gave out
pretty quick. And all these people passing me up, and they're like,
rookie. They're telling me, you should have slowed your pace
down. You should have slowed your, well, I learned pretty quick, slow the pace down. In
a sprint, that works just fine. If it's just the 100 meter dash,
that's called a dash. But we start out as pioneers,
blazing trails in this life, and the Lord reveals His face
more in the trials of this life. He increases them to cause us
to look to Him, and the world grows a little dimmer, and He
grows more and more brighter. We end up being survivors. We
end up being survivors. That's not a bad thing. We're
surviving, pressing towards the mark. Running a marathon, it's
one step at a time. It's one step at a time. One
step at a time. And what is that? Do we look
to our feet to step? No, we look to Christ and he
orders the feet, doesn't he? He orders and he provides. That's
what he promised to do. We do it by looking unto him. Consider him who orders. Steps of a righteous man are
ordered of the Lord. What does ordered mean? That
doesn't mean he tells us and then expects us to do it. That
means he causes us to step towards the Lord, one step after the
other. So by the time we get to the end of our journey, and
we look back, we'll say, surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. It'll be like David, although
it be not so, though with my house, yet the Lord hath made
with me an everlasting covenant. This is all my hope. This is
all my hope, this is all my salvation. Because we're told to run, there
must be times when we're standing stagnant, not pressing forward. But consider Him. Fix your eyes
on the prize. Not these eyes of flesh, the
eyes that the Lord's given you. Look to His finished work. And the things of this life will
grow dim. They'll grow strangely dim. the
more you look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Your biggest problem
that you'll ever face in life, is he not powerful enough to
take care of that? The one that created the universe,
the one that spoke all things into existence, the one that
offered up his darling son for his people, that he might save
them, is he not good enough to take care of our needs? You better
believe it. Oh, he's good, and he's gracious, And he's all-knowing,
and he's wise, and he's patient. Aren't you glad he's patient?
That's something else he tells us here. Run the race with patience.
That tells me we don't have much patience. He's reminding us, hey, be patient. Be patient. You and I, we don't
have a lot of patience, do we? The Lord's saying, be patient. We could say the same thing about
unbelief in that. Lord, I'm patient. Help my patience. Help my patience. I'm not patient enough. Consider him, consider the greatness
of his person as God. Think about that. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man, consider him as God. You have a man that
was upon the face of the earth that was God incarnate. Consider
that. You talk about a condescension
from going to the highest heights to the lowest lows, being robed
in the likeness of sinful flesh. so that he might condemn sin
in the flesh, that he might set his people free from the bonds
of sin and death. Consider him, consider him. Consider him as the son of God,
the heir of all things, and yet laid down his life freely for
his people so that you and I could be made joint heirs, heirs of
God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, consider him. Consider all of his offices.
We don't need a priest that's alive right now on this earth.
to confess to the Lord. There's some that they still
believe they have to go to a priest and confess their sins and the
priest intercedes for them. We have a high priest that can
be touched with the feeling, who was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, who's seated in the heavenlies. Consider his
office as high priest for his people, the sacrifice and the
priest that offered up the sacrifice. Consider his office as prophet,
the one that was spoken of from the beginning that would come,
that came and did exactly what was declared that he would do,
the prophet of the Lord. Consider him as the king the
successful redeemer of his people, the conqueror of his people.
Aren't you glad to be conquered? I've been conquered by grace. What a glorious truth that he
conquered this flesh. He put it under subjection to
his authority. And he called us out of darkness
into his light as our king, and we just bow. We just bow, truth
Lord, you're king, I'm not king. I don't wanna be king. I just
would love to be a doormat in your kingdom. A doormat is probably
too good to describe a dead dog sinner, but you understand what
I'm saying, just let me be in your kingdom. Let me be in your
kingdom. Consider his lordship as alpha
and omega and salvation. the successful redeemer of his
people, the savior of his sinners, the one that before time ever
began had purpose to redeem a bunch of sinners back to him for his
glory, for his honor. Consider him. He's the captain. He's the captain
of our salvation. You're not the captain of your
salvation any longer, are you? You used to be, thought it was.
Maybe I never thought I was, but I was, because I made the
decision. No, God made the decision. He's the captain. Matter of fact,
this ship that we're on, this ark, it doesn't have a rudder.
It doesn't have a sail. It doesn't have a steering wheel.
He's the captain. And it goes exactly where he's
purposed for it to go. One day, it'll take us to the
other side. That's the purpose of it. That's
the purpose of it. Consider him. Turn with me to
Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two, look
at verse five with me. be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness
of men. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Think about that. The winds and the waves still
obeyed his voice as the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he was still God, but yet he humbled himself to the death
of the cross. If he hadn't humbled himself
to do that, he would have never died. He's the only one that
actually had to concede to death. Father, into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He chose to die. He had to choose
to die. He made that choice. Wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved,
as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. for it is God, and I love this.
He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and
then immediately says, for it's God which worketh in you. Work out
your own salvation, but it's God that works in you. I love
that. Both to will and to do his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings
and disputings. Consider him, the key word here
is fear and trembling. Men talk about working out their
salvation, What are you looking to if you're working out your
salvation? I'm looking to self, aren't I? I'm looking to what
I've done or what I've not done, looking to what I'm doing or
what I need to do to do better. I'm working it out. Now how do
you work out your salvation? With fear and trembling. That's
how you work it out. Looking unto Jesus, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look to him. That's how you
work out your salvation, look to him. with fear and trembling. That's the key words here, fear
and trembling. It's not that it works out because you're working
it out. It's the next verse tells us,
for it's God that worketh in you. So you work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, you ask yourself this, is there anything
in me that I am counting on for eternal life other than the blood
of Christ? Is there anything in me that I am hoping in for
righteousness other than His perfect righteousness? Is there
anything else in my life that I am looking to for salvation
other than the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? If
so, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Because
it's the Lord that works in you. The Lord's the one that has to
do the work there. He's the one that has to give you faith to
believe. He's the one that has to call you to set your affections
on things above and press towards the mark of the high calling. Press towards the Lord Jesus
Christ to run with patience. If I'm found in Christ, he is
the doer of it by his own purpose, by his own pleasure, by his own
will, by his own choice. And consider him who became a
man because you and I could not fulfill God's demands as the
men and the women we are. So he became what we are. in
order to save his chosen people from their sin. He became a man
in order to do what we could never do in order for us to be
redeemed. Go back to our text, Hebrews
chapter 12. Verse one, wherefore seeing we also are compassionate
with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight
and sin that does 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 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. For consider him that
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Consider him as the apostle
and the high priest of our profession. Consider him in his humility
as a human nature. We just read about that in Philippians,
but how humbled did he have to become to die for you and I? I mean, we're talking about the
embodiment. He is eternal life. We understand
that he is eternal life. And you read that on chapter
one, we read that. In Him is life. In Him is light,
and that light is the life of men. He is life. He is light. That's who He is. But light and
life had to die so that you and I might have life and have light. It's the only way it could happen.
Consider Him. You say, I don't understand that.
Neither do I, but I believe it's true because the Lord told us.
But that's what had to happen for you and I to be redeemed.
God had to die. God had to die. Consider his
walk, his conversation, his obedience unto the Father the entire time
he was here upon the earth. People talk about the Lord being
a good man and different things and he was a Some say, remember
he had the disciples, he asked the disciples, who do men say
that I am? He said, well, some say you're a prophet, some say you're a liar, some
say this and that. He said, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter
spoke up, and he had it right this time. He said, I believe
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he said,
blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in Heaven. And
that's the point, the Lord has to reveal it, right? But so many
people just saw him as a good man. He's a healer. He's a man of God because he
can heal, or he can do this, and we can see this, but they
were never given faith. Never given faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed in him as a man,
but they never believed in on him as the son of God, the successful
redeemer of sinners. The Lord said, I come to do thy
will, O God. That was his purpose. That was
his purpose. He never deviated, consider that.
He never deviated from his purpose. He came to do the will of God
and nothing could stop him, because he's God. If you and I set out
to do the will of God, sooner or later we're gonna fall flat
on our face. Do you know why? Because we can. We're capable
of sinning. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
capable of sinning or he would have sinned. He's incapable of
sinning because he's God. He's God, he was incapable of
sinning. You and I are capable of sinning.
He wasn't capable. Somebody said, well, why did
Satan tempt him? Well, to show you and I that he was God. To
show us that he was not gonna sin. He couldn't have. Somebody said, yeah, he could
have. No, he couldn't have. If he could have, he wouldn't have been God. God cannot sin. That's one thing God cannot do.
Lord Jesus Christ could not sin. Does that give you hope? Knowing
that that's all we can do is sin. All he can do is not sin. I love that. And he imputed righteousness
to his people. The very righteousness that he
is was given to them. His sinless, spotless, perfect
life and the obedience he had to his father. When the father
sees his people because they've been washed in the blood, he
sees the Lord Jesus Christ and sees them as perfectly righteous.
Perfectly righteous. Oh, the Lord set his eyes like
a flint to finish the work the Father gave him. I like what
he said in John 17. He said, this is life eternal,
that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. This is life eternal. This isn't,
this isn't, we don't come here playing games. We don't come
here, we take this very seriously. This is life eternal. that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. Then he says, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou hast gave
me to do. And God says, I finished the work. What does that mean?
It's finished. 100%. Done. Over. Complete. Successful. Consider that. When you become
troubled, you become weary, you become discouraged. Consider
him who endured such contradiction of sinners. They were Beating
him, mocking him. He didn't pay any attention to
that. Why? Because he was going to save his people from their
sins. It was a done deal. He could not fail. I love his,
the impossibility of him failing. I love that. He can't or he's
not God and he didn't. Salvation secure forever for
his chosen people. Consider his offering. The offering
that he made unto the Father. He offered himself up freely
for his people. He offered himself up as the
sacrifice. You see the fire and you see
the knife is what Abraham and Isaac. Isaac said, well, here's
the fire, here's the knife, here's the wood, but where's the sacrifice? Where's the offering? He said,
God will provide himself. And that's exactly what he did.
That's what he had to do. Isaac wouldn't have been good
enough to redeem us. He was a sinner, but it was a picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have to endure with the father
executing his son on the cross of Calvary so that you and I
could be redeemed. And that's exactly what happened. The ram
was caught in the thicket by its horns, a picture of its power
caught in the curse, the thorns of the curse. And that's what
the Lord did. He took the curse. He hung on a tree, became the
cursed thing for his people that you and I would be relinquished
of the curse, eradicated, gone. Took our sin away and therefore
we're no longer cursed. He took our curse. Consider that. Consider him. Consider his nature. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. He was God. He's perfect. The only one that could have
redeemed, and he did. He did just that. He did just that. Consider him. I love what Isaiah
says, Isaiah 53. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich because he'd done no violence. Think about
that. Doesn't say he did violence and
therefore he deserved to be. No, he did it because he was
perfect. He was the only one that could
redeem because he was perfect and because he did no violence.
Neither was any deceit in his mouth. He made his grave with
the wicked for one purpose, to suffer and to bleed and to die
as the substitute surety of his elected people that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He did it on purpose. Consider him. Consider him. Consider his character and nature.
Boy, we have a lot to learn in this. He was humble. as they were mocking him and
beating him. The only time he spoke up, when Pilate spoke up
and said, you'd have, he said, I have all power here. And what'd
the Lord tell him? You'd have no power at all, except
it be given to my father, which is in heaven. The Lord never
defended himself, but he defended the father, didn't he? He said,
no, you're wrong. You have no power except to be
given to you of my father. It's the only time he spoke up
to defend, but it wasn't for him, he defended the father.
He said, you're wrong. You can call me whatever you
want to call me, but you're wrong about the father. He's the one
that gave you the power to begin with. But as they, what does
the scripture say? He went as a sheep dumb before
the shearers. Before the shearers is dumb,
that's how he went, as a sheep. Have you ever been around sheep? The rams are kind of hateful,
but I mean, I'm talking about just the sheep, just the females
in general. They're very gentle and easy. The shearers come along
and they just, they can gap them and gouge them and everything
else. And they just stand there and
take it like it ain't even nothing. What's my point? My point is,
is everything they did to the Lord Jesus Christ, he just kept
his mouth shut because he was going to save his people. He was going to redeem his people
and it didn't bother him to be gouged and poked and stabbed
and beard plucked and all that. He was going to honor his father
because the love he had for his father. My father was well pleased,
well pleased with his son. You and I, We come to a traffic
light and get honked at, we get aggravated, don't we? Think about
what all that, stripped him naked. Completely naked. In front of
the whole world, he's completely exposed. Why did he do that?
So that you and I could be clothed in his righteousness. It's the
only way. He had to be stripped for you
and I to be clothed. His blood had to be shed so that
you and I could be washed. He had to place crown of thorns
upon his head so that you and I could be crowned with his righteousness.
See, consider him. Consider him unless you be weary
and faint in your mind. That's what he's saying here.
Consider him unless you be weary. Stop looking at everything else. Look to Christ unless you faint
in your minds, unless you become discouraged, unless you worry
about things. Go back 10 years ago. Tell me
what the worst problem you had 10 years ago was. Can you remember? Maybe some of you can. I can't.
I could think pretty hard, but I can tell you this, goodness
and mercy followed me all through that. I can tell you the Lord
brought me through that. I can tell you this, Lord's gonna
bring his people to the other side, safe and secure from all
harms. That's his promise. I'll never
leave you, I'll never forsake you. I'm going to keep you. Why? I've bought you, I've redeemed
you, I've purchased you by my own blood. You're mine, you're
mine. Consider him, consider him. He was despised of men. Consider
how He was so despised of men. The truth, the Lamb of God, the
innocent one, the tender one, the Lamb was despised. They hated
Him. Oh, they hated Him. We will not
have this man reign over us. Why was He despised of men? So
that you and I would be accepted by the Father. Why was He forsaken
of the Father? So that you and I would be Never
be forsaken. We would never be forsaken. For
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Consider, oh,
consider his great accomplished work, his finished work. Think
of his compassion, even as the terrors come past him about on
the cross of Calvary. What did he say? Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. What humility, what
compassion and grace the Lord showed us. Considering anything else but
him is unbelief. Did you know that? Considering
anything else? Well, I'm considering this and
I'm considering him. It's the only place of rest.
It's the only place of refuge. It's the only hope that we have.
It's the only peace that we'll ever have in this life. Consider
him. Unbelief always turns to the
right or turn to the left or turn back. Looks away to see
what it can see. Unbelief wants to see something
with these eyes. I need to see evidence. I need to see this.
I need to see that not faith. Faith considers him. Faith looks to him. I love the fact that the Lord
said you're going to believe. Therefore, we believe. I will
and you shall. Now, how did he do that? He gave
faith, and faith believes him. You're going to believe. Well,
how do you know I'm gonna believe? Because I'm gonna give you faith
to do so. That's what the Lord did. I'm gonna cause you to believe. You're going to look to Christ
as all your hope of salvation. How do you know that? Because
I'm gonna make you. Look to Christ as all your hope and salvation.
I love that. Lord, don't leave it up to me.
Don't give me a chance. I'll mess it up. Oh, I don't,
I can't trust this. No, I can't trust this. Every
opportunity I get, I worry, I fret, I fear. Consider him. Consider his great work. He's
not gonna leave his people to themselves. He's going, he's
not gonna lose one sheep. Think about his promises. He
cannot lie. Consider him. Consider him. Faith causes the believer to
place all our acceptance before God in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Faith causes us to believe the
Lord Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Faith causes us to
look to the body and the blood alone, not our life, not our
works, not our merits, not our goodness, His goodness, His works,
His life, everything that He merited. Consider Him. It's His service. It's His obedience
that saved His people. It's not our obedience. You obey
because He's given you the faith to obey. He has to give the ability
to do that or we'd never obey Him. Consider him. For if we could work righteousness,
I'll say this in closing. If we could work righteousness,
Christ is dead in vain. If we could work righteousness,
Christ is dead in vain. But our righteousness is as filthy
rags, therefore God sent forth his son, born of a woman in the
fullness of time, that he might redeem his chosen people who
are under the law. Consider him. Consider him who
works nothing but righteousness and goodness and holiness and
perfection, who is the only successful redeemer of his chosen people. Consider him. Christ is not dead in vain. He
said when he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down on the right
hand of God, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool.
I like the thought that we were enemies of God and now we're
his footstool. That doesn't bother me at all,
does it, you? That's not exactly how that is described there. He actually made us princes of
the Lord. He didn't just make us his footstool.
His enemies, he's talking about put them into subjection. We
don't deserve to be his footstool, do we? He's talking about ruling
and reigning over them. Oh, brethren, he don't. cast
us down and prop his feet up on us. He puts us at his table
with his ring on our finger, robe on our back, and gives us
the best. He gives us the lamb to feast
upon. Consider him, consider him. Every person he died for
is perfectly righteous without contributing anything of themselves. All because the Lord laid upon
him the iniquity of us all, of us all. Thank God he said it
is finished. So whenever you are considering
other things, remember that it is finished and consider him.
Consider him. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would bless this to our understanding for your glory and that you would
give us the ability to consider you. Lord, as we are about to partake
of your table, we ask that you would bless these elements for
your glory. You would cause us to remember
your blood and your body that was shed and broken for your
people, cause us to rejoice knowing that it is finished, cause us
to consider you for just a little bit longer. In Christ's name,
amen. Last match.