Our text tonight is found in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. We read the
first chapter for the call to worship for the purpose of revealing
that Paul makes no hesitation of running straight to Christ,
who he is, what his purpose was, what he accomplished. The very
first chapter of Hebrews. You can imagine them being Hebrews,
their religious past affiliations would have been towards Judaism. And that would have been that
they singularly believe that there is one God, but they would
have held to the Torah, which would have been the first five
books of the Bible. The law would have been their religion. What
they did would have been their righteousness. And so Paul is
addressing from the very beginning, that the Lord is both Lord and
Savior. He is the King. He is the fulfillment
of the law. And that's what really the entire
book of Hebrews reveals to us. Paul Paul deals with many different
things. He addresses many different things
and points them. No matter what the issue is,
he points them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad that
no matter what your issue is, no matter what my issue is, our
need is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in chapter 11 of Hebrews,
it's called the Hall of Faith by some, and it has many different
men and many different women named, declares that faith, the
very first verse, faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. We quote that pretty often. And
then he begins to expound upon that by faith. Abel brought a
better sacrifice than Cain. By faith, Enoch walked with God
and was taken. By faith, Abraham. By faith,
and it gives us 16 different men and women from Abel to Moses
and Rahab to David. They all had one thing in common. One thing in common, they all
lived and died by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. They lived
believing him. The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ
was bestowed upon them at the appointed time and therefore
they believed God. They believed God. Look at verse
39 of the previous chapter. And these all, having obtained
a good report through faith, received not the promise, God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us
should not be made perfect. They believe the promise of God
before Christ ever even became a man. They believe what the
prophets spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe he would
be born, that he would be the savior. And it's the same faith
before Christ came to this earth that it is after Christ came
to this earth. That's no different. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. He was given the faith of Christ.
We know that the entire Old Testament, what did the Lord tell the Pharisees?
He said, search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which speak of me. The entire
Old Testament is the concealed, it conceals the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've heard it put this way.
The Old Testament, Old Testament is Christ concealed. New Testament
is Christ revealed, but it's all by faith. It's all by faith. Cause of the Lord's faith were
made to believe Jesus Christ is God. They believed Abraham
met a king of Salem. Abraham met the incarnation,
the physical incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ that Abraham
met. He believed that he was God. He believed God. Paul saying that something better
that we have is now we have the full volume. We have Christ revealed
completely. We can look back and see all
the types and pictures and everything that happened with Jonah, the
prophet. We know that that was a picture
of Christ being in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
We have all these new pictures that these Old patriarchs and
matriarchs, if you will, they they had but they didn't know
to the fullest extent what it was Christ had not yet come yet.
They believed yet they believed. Most amazing thing that we have
is the evidence of Christ resurrection by many witnesses. That's a Somebody
said, well, what is the signs and wonders that you seek for?
That's the only one, isn't it? The sign that he was risen. That
means God was satisfied. Whatever Christ had done in his
death, God was pleased with and resurrected him. Now, establishing
everything that Paul's addressing with these Hebrews, let's read
our texts in Hebrews chapter 12. And I just want to read two
verses. Wherefore, seeing we are all so compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, they all witnessed the same thing,
didn't they? They all witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
testified of that. We have their testimony. Seeing that we are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run the race, let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. How do we cast off? The weight and sin that doth
so easily beset us. How do we cast off unbelief?
That's what that is. The weight and the sin that doth
so easily beset us is unbelief. How do we cast that off? How
do we run the race with patience? How does the believer live? We want to do those things, don't
we? We want to cast off our unbelief. We want to run the race with
patience, looking. That's how, looking. And he tells
us, looking unto Jesus. That's how we cast off unbelief.
That's how we run the race with patience, looking unto Jesus.
Not with natural eyes, of course, but with spiritual eyes of faith. The same way that all those matriarchs
and patriarchs were looking through the eyes of faith. David ran the race with patience,
called a man after God's own heart. We know the corruption
that David performed, the sin that he did, and yet the Lord
said, that was a man after my own heart. How can that be? Because
he had faith that believed God, that looked to Christ. Christ
was everything to him. It was the Lord that did it,
wasn't it? How does faith view the Lord?
He tells us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Now that word our, O-U-R, is
in italics. Translators gave us that in thoughts
that it would help us understand the context of the verse, but
I think it should be omitted. It says, without that, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. It's his faith, isn't
it? It's his faith. How does faith
view the Lord Jesus Christ as the author and as the finisher? And I've titled this message,
The Author. I preached a message some time ago, I believe it was
in April, and I could be mistaken, don't hold me to that. But it
was titled, The Author and Finisher of Our Faith. And we looked at
that very thing as it's faith unto faith, it's the Lord's faith
bestowed unto his people, and therefore he's pleased with his
people, because everything that he requires, he must provide.
But I don't wanna, I'll probably mention that again, but for tonight,
I want us to think on this, the Lord Jesus Christ being the author.
being the author, Jesus Christ, the author. How much power does
an author have when they write a book? Think about this. This is a very simple thought,
but it really changed when the Lord showed me this, it changed
my perspective even more of his. He's awesome. He's full of awe. He's full of wonder. He's uncomprehendable. How much power does an author
have when they write a book? How much control do they have
with every single character in that book? How much power do
they have on the color of the walls and the streets and the
buildings, every single detail, every conversation? How much
control do they have over that? The author has all control over
the author. The author has all the power. The Lord chose before time ever
began to write his word. The Lord chose before time ever
began to write the Lamb's book of life. He's the author of it. Everything written will happen. Everything that he has written
will come to pass. It's his word. He cannot lie,
as we heard last week. Most error in thinking that they
are in control of their own destiny, that they have a choice to make.
And I know that we don't preach that here. Salvation is a choice. It's God's choice. He's the author. It's his choice in everything.
We don't have a choice, do we? But most error in believing that
they have a choice. And there was a book series that
came to mind. Whenever I was a kid, it was called Choose Your
Own Adventure. And I don't know how old that is. So maybe some
of you heard of it, maybe you hadn't. So I'm going to explain
it, how it worked. Basically, it's the only kind of books I've
ever seen like this. You'd be reading along in it,
and it would say, You have two options or three options ahead
of you. You're going to go through this door on the right or this
door on the left. You're going to take the path on the turn
around and go back. Well, you would say, OK, I'm
going to take the path of the door on the right. Well, then
it would say turn to page 396 and you would turn to page 396.
And as you were doing this and you were going forward, Anticipation
begin to build you would open the door and you would see something
and you would make another choice and it just kept happening that
way. And I don't know if I'm just not very smart or the books,
a lot smarter than I am but 90% of the time I ended up dead.
So I've wasted 30 minutes trying to read my story and figure out
what I wanted to do, because you're the character. It's your
story. You're picking your path. You're getting to choose. I'm
going to go through this door, and you open the door. All this anticipation,
what's going to happen next? We're going to find the treasure.
Maybe here's the treasure, finally. And it says, you died. You died. It's like, well, that was a waste
of 30 minutes. You have to backtrack. Now, would
I turn to 294 from 384? What do I do? Backtrack. And that's what men believe salvation
is like. Choose your own adventure, choose
your own salvation, choose to let God do something for you,
obligate him by the choice that you make. And the end of that
is death. The end of that is always death. Most people believe in false
religion, in all false religion, in all false religion, people
believe. that the Lamb's book of life was written like a choose
your own adventure. It's not true. It's not true.
God is the author of this book. God is the originator of it. Men believe they choose God and
obligated him, but it's what Paul's talking about when he
says ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth. That's all we are by nature is ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. How close can you
be to the truth? Judas kissed the face of God
and went to hell. That's how close we can be. Lord,
don't let me think that it's a choose my own adventure here.
Lord caused me to be found written in the Lamb's book of life. And
if, if I'm going to be written in it, there's nothing I can
do to get in it. You're going to have to do it before time ever
began. You're going to have to write my name there. The truth is, is Jesus Christ,
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the author and the finisher. What does all that mean? Well,
it means he has all the power. Who can limit him? Even the devil's
a character that he created. The devil's a character that
he, do you think the devil has any power over God? He created
him. Why? For his own glory, for his
own purpose. This book is unalterable, unchangeable,
uncontrollable by the flesh because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now don't confuse, don't allow
me to confuse you in what I'm saying. The book that I'm referring
to is the, is God's covenant of grace before time ever began. He's the author and finisher
of faith. By him, all things were made, and without him, not
anything made that was made. That's what the scripture says.
He made everything. He wrote the book. He's the author. By his own will, he wrote it.
He wrote the Lamb's Book of Life. God wrote the Lamb's Book of
Life and put every name in it that he purposed to save, all
by his grace. Now in this book, time was to
be the stage, the stage the author chose. He created time as well.
The Lord chose to create a stage for everything that was written
to come to pass. We call it time. Time doesn't
affect the author. Time doesn't constrain or restrain
the author. He is the one that created it. Like any other author, he designs
every character specifically to his liking. Like all authors,
he has the ability to control everything about the contents
of everything in the book. That's amazing, isn't it? He
controls all. Now, we know this to be true,
but have you ever thought about it from him being the author?
That's what I'm speaking to us about tonight. This is, it's
a lot to digest, isn't it? We can't comprehend it. It's
incomprehensible. We believe it. We believe it, but to step
back for a second and really see time as something that God
created and us being these dead dog sinners that we are, and
him purposing to save his people in doing so. What an amazing
act of grace, what an amazing author we have as our savior. Every author has the ability
to control everything in his book, and God more so because
he's God. He's God, nothing limits him. Can you imagine somebody saying
that a character in a book that you have written, a character
in the book can control you? That's silly, isn't it? Well,
that's what men think about God. They can control him. They can
obligate him. That's silly. He's the author. He can't be dictated to. He can't be threatened by the
characters that he's made. Isn't that glorious? Lamb's book
of life was written by him and we can neither get in it or get
out of it. I'm so happy for that. I can't
get out of it. You can't get out of it. Why?
He's the author. He's the author and the finisher.
He didn't just write it and then held his hands up and says, well,
I'm powerless. Character's going to have to do the rest of it.
No, he sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh as one of the
characters, as one of the creatures to die for the ones he wrote
in the book. These are things that are past
my little pea brain to understand, but boy, that's all our hope,
isn't it? That's all our hope. Although we may be intrigued
with the character in a book, although we may be intrigued,
all the glory and all the praise goes to the author who wrote
it. You ever seen somebody New York Times best-selling writer,
and then have the character's name after it? No, it's the author,
isn't it? It's the author that gets all
the praise. It's the same in this, the same in salvation.
The award and any praise goes to the author, not the character.
Now, the characters are real in the book, but the characters
in the book must reside in the realm of that book, meaning the
characters can't jump off the page, literally. They have to
stay in that realm. I know this might sound a little.
crazy or complicated, but it makes sense. The characters can't
get up by their own power and jump off the page. They have
to remain in the realms of the book written. Well, that's what
time is. We can't choose to be saved. We can't choose to jump off this
page of life into eternity and have eternal life. It's not a
choice that we can make. We are not the author. He has
all power. He has all power. And in having
all power, he chose to become the creature that he created.
He chose to become a man born in the flesh, the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh. So the author
must become the finisher as well or we have no hope. We can't,
we have to operate in this realm. Everything that we do is limited
by our flesh in all things. We can't do anything that would
have spiritual Anything spiritually good, we're spiritually dead.
He's going to have to make us spiritually alive. He's other
than we are. The author is totally different
than what the creature is, and yet he became the creature. He became man so that he could
redeem those he wrote in the Lamb's Book of Life. Before beginning
his work, before beginning his book, if you will, a covenant
was made. Before speaking light into existence,
before creating the world, before forming Adam out of the dust
of the ground, a covenant was made between the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit. The Father elected a people,
the Son agreed to redeem those people, the Spirit agreed to
regenerate those people. The most amazing part to me is
God, being the supreme sovereign author, became a man. He wrote himself in the book,
if you will, in order to redeem all of the characters that he
purposed to, those who were in the Lamb's Book of Life before
time ever began. Why would he want to do that?
Grace, that's the only answer. There's nothing in us that's
good. Everything throughout scripture makes it so clear that he's other
than we are, he's holy, he's harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and yet everything about us is corrupt, it's death,
it's wicked, it's evil, and yet he chose to save some of the
sinners he created. Why? All for his glory, all by
his grace. Why didn't he just purpose to
redeem them? Why didn't he purpose them to
redemption by their own doing? Why didn't he just make it to
where if they did, then they would be redeemed? Because our nature won't allow
it. Our righteousness is filthy rags. Furthermore, the scripture
tells us clearly, who are you to reply against God, oh man?
who shall the same thing formed, we're called something that's
formed, did you know that? Shall the thing formed say unto he
that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay to make one lump of honor and another to
dishonor? I'm talking about an author in a book, Paul used a
lump of clay in a, A potter, that's the same idea as there's
so the clay is so insignificant in and of itself and powerless.
It can't mold itself. It can't shape itself. It can't
cure itself. It can't be useful. It's just
a blob of clay. But oh, in the potter's hand,
he molds, he makes, he creates, he redeems. What a what a picture
of the Lord's grace in choosing a bunch of clay. That's what
we are, isn't it? We're just dust. and redeem them,
give them eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's uncomprehendable,
isn't it? But we believe it and it is our
hope. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
adoption of sons. The author became a man because
that's the only way that he could be just and justifier. It's the only way he could become,
he'd be just and justifier. The most amazing part to me and
you is he didn't just make us in the simple form that he said,
the vessel of honor. It's true that we're vessels
of honor in his sight, and that's glorious, but he calls us sons
and daughters. He made us sons, accepted into
the blood, heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ. If we
can think just for a moment of the immense power that the author
has in all of his creation and yet he calls us sons. I can't fathom that. This dead
dog sinner being a son of God. You as a dead dog sinner and
no righteousness whatsoever, nothing but sin and all of our
nature and yet he calls us the sons of God. No wonder John said,
behold what manner. What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God? And he says we're the sons of God right now, doesn't he?
Not gonna be, but we are, we are. Because of what our author and
finisher has done, he's gave us a new nature, one that he's
pleased with, one that he's pleased with, a nature that lives, moves,
and has its being in him by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the same faith we heard about in Hebrews 11. That's the faith
that we live by. Unless he gives us life, we have
no eternal life. Unless he gives us this faith,
we can have no hope. of this eternal life, but it
would just be eternal death. Aren't you glad he chose? He
chose to give eternal life to some sinners. He chose to die
for some sinners. He chose to redeem some sinners
to himself. Unless he gives us life, we have
no hope of eternal life with him. But because of his grace,
turn with me back to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2.10, for it became him,
for it became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all
things in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through suffering. For both he that sanctifyeth
And they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. Not ashamed to call us brethren.
Why? Because he sanctified us. He that sanctified and they that
are sanctified, both are one. God became a man. The creator
became the creature. The author became a character.
And when the timetable turned, when the ticking of, they say
it was around 4,000 years from creation, I believe, and I don't
know all the, Lord doesn't tell us all the details, does he?
We just believe him. We believe him by faith. But
when that time came to pass, according to his purpose, what
the author had ordained before time, when that tick happened,
the Lord Jesus Christ was born a man. Then when the next tick
of his purpose happened, the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his head
on the cross of Calvary and said, it is finished. Everything in
that time span of his life, everything that he purposed was accomplished. How do we know? He was resurrected.
He was resurrected by his father. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and he is the finisher. Now we've been made one with
him, making us the very righteousness of God in him. That's what gives the glory to
the author, as he took a dead dog sinner and turned them into
perfectly righteous sheep, calls them sons. That's the glorious,
that's the glory of the author. He wrote the book. Somebody might
say, well, that's not fair. You're telling me that the Lord
walked and saw all of different men and passed by some and elected
others? Yes, that's exactly what we're
saying. Well, that's not fair. What needs to be understood is
he's the author. He's the author. He was not obligated
to do anything unless he gave his word that he would do it
whenever he wrote the book. Think about that. Him putting
our name in the Lamb's Book of Life as our only hope, it was
the seal that had to be broken. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
the only one. He entered into this realm as a man, loosed the
seals of God's wrath and opened the book, redeeming all of those
who were written. What's not fair is that you and
I think too highly of ourselves. We're not the author. We're not
the author, he is. We're not the finisher. We're
not even the contributing factor. He did everything. The only thing
we contributed is our sin. He had to contribute that. He
had to take it from us and lay it upon him. That's what the
scripture says. The Lord laid our iniquity upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. So the thing, who art thou that
replies against God, shall the thing formed say to him that
formeth, why hast thou made me thus? No, the Lord gives faith
to believe Christ and we see woe is me. I am a man undone. I'm the one that has unclean
lips. I'm the chief sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Lord, you're the creator. I'm just the creature. Lord,
you're the author. I'm just a character. Lord, you're
you're the one that's done it all in this. I have no hope outside
of you doing everything. You wrote the book. You have
absolute power. And it would be absolutely right
to send us to hell, but he chose to redeem. He ordained some unto
eternal life before time ever began. He has all authority. He's the author and finisher
of faith. That's why his grace amazes us, isn't it? He chose
to do that. He chose to, he was not obligated
to, he chose to. He would become what we are,
take our place on the cross of Calvary to redeem us. make us
vessels of honor, make us in his likeness, in his likeness,
vessels of honor, as holy as he is. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and finisher of his people's faith. Now briefly, I want to
turn back to Hebrews 12 in closing. Verse one, wherefore seeing we
are also 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 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 of the throne of God. If we can grasp this
realm, as a book coming to pass, and that's what time, every tick
of the second, you can think of it as another page turning,
another day's pass, that's a page turning, it's his book, he wrote
it. If we can think of it that way,
what rest there is in knowing that nothing's gonna stop him
from turning the page. He's not even turning it, he's
just letting it do what he purposed it to do. He's not holding the
sun up with his hand and moving it around. He's not playing games. Everything's going to happen
exactly the way he wrote it. He's supreme in authority. Him
purposing all things in every page. We could rest, if we can
think of it as a book. Just rest in him. One day the
very last page will turn. The book will close. Now this
is the part that I think the term is cooks my noodle, blows
my mind. I can't grasp it. One day the
book's going to close and no memory, no memory of this time
that you and I are in is going to be in our thoughts in glory.
The focus is on the Lamb. It'll be as if it never existed.
Somebody said, well, that's sad. Not to me. Not to me. That's
glorious that we are going to see him face to face being made
just like him. Not worried with the cares of
this life anymore. Not concerned with everyday troubles
and trials. We're going to be in perfect
peace and unity with the Lord for eternity. All because he
chose to write our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. He wrote
the book. He chose to do that. Chose to do that. On that eternal
day, we may like him because we will be made like him for
we'll see him as he is and there'll be no memory of time. We will
then know finally the extent of what all this glorious author
wrote. We will have the mental capacity
to finally understand everything that he did for his people because
we'll be like him. We'll be like unto the Lord,
perfect oneness with him. My encouragement to us, if we
can grasp this realm as a book coming to pass, cast aside all
unbelief. Look to Christ. It's finished.
It's finished. Rest in him. Rest in him. I don't misunderstand what I'm
saying. Whenever I say rest, that's not
a license to sin. It's looking unto him, isn't
it? And everything that we do, whether we therefore eat or drink
or whatsoever we do, do all to the glory of God. How? Looking
unto Jesus. That's how we run the race, with
patience. That's the only way we can. If we can see this realm,
As it really is, truly see that it is finished. We wouldn't worry.
We wouldn't have any unbelief. We would just be resting all
the time. That's what heaven is. That's what heaven is going
to be resting for eternity, where there is no time. May we live
looking unto our great author and finisher of faith, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we say with our dear
brother in the scripture, such things are too wonderful for
me. I can't attain to them, they're too high. Lord, you are glorious,
and your wonderful salvation for your people calls us to rest,
in Christ's name.