Looking unto Jesus December 16, 2018

Preach, I want us to pray together, Heavenly Father God, today. Lord, I want to thank you for salvation.

I want to thank you for the hope of eternal life. God, I thank you that my hope is not in this world, nor in the things of this world, but my hope is in you,

God, and I am so thankful today for you. My prayer this morning,

Lord, for the people in this place today, God, I don't know their hearts, and I don't know their minds, and I don't know the ins and the outs and the minute details of their life, but God, I know that you do, and God, I want to ask you,

God, search deep the hearts and the minds of the people in this place today.

God, I want to ask you to break up the fallow ground, break the stony hearts, dear

God, give unto the people in this place a heart of flesh that they can respond to you,

God. God, for those who do not seemingly care to live for you,

God, if they are truly saved, God, that today your Holy Spirit would bring such conviction in their hearts,

God, that they are broke so far down that they can't even lift up their heads, but to cry out that you would be merciful to them who are sinners.

Oh, God, and to those in this place, God, who by the circumstances of this life, where's your water,

Neal? God, who are, because of the circumstances of this life, so burdened and so weighted down that they cannot,

God, even see what hope that you have to offer,

God, give them grace. God, give them faith. God, give them strength today that they might do this one thing, look unto you, because you,

God, are the author and the finisher of our faith. You are the rock from which we are hewn.

God, you are the tower of strength. Oh, God, you are our fortress and you alone are our shield.

Oh, God, break down, break down the sin that separates between you and the people in this place by the power of your

Holy Spirit, for it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen.

Amen. Here in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, and if we were to begin reading, let's just begin reading in verse 32.

Verse 32 through 35, we're basically going to read verses of people throughout the years who we have recorded for us here in the word of God, who have lived victorious, who have overcome.

And then in verse 30, the latter part of verse 36 through 38, we're going to see folks who seemingly did not seem to be victorious in the worldly sense of the word, but truly who were just as victorious as those who experienced victory in their lifetimes because their faith was in the one and the same

God. Hebrews 11, verse 32, the word says this, and what more shall

I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens.

Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had a trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned. They were sawn and sundered in two. They were tempted, were slain with the sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and gopeskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

And amen to that. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and in caves of the earth.

But all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise.

God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

And before I read on into the 12th chapter in the first verse, I want to say this just as a word of commentary on those verses that we just read to you.

It's important to remember that the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of people who were on this side of the cross.

And he's writing to a group of people who lived on this side of the cross. The people on the

Old Testament side of the cross were saved the same way that those of us who are on the

New Testament side of the cross are saved by faith in an almighty

God. And so he sets this before the people and he tells them this, he tells of victory and he tells of seeming defeat and he goes on in verse one of the 12th chapter and says this, therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us.

And let us run with patience this race that is set before us.

And then the writer says this, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured that cross.

And despised that shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Where he ever lives to make intercession for us according to the word. Oh, friends, listen.

Today, the circumstances of your life be what they may. God knows what they are.

And I'm not here to preach to you about you. I'm here to exhort you and to encourage you and to tell you today, you need to look unto

Jesus. Charles Spurgeon, we hear him quoted a lot. We read about him a lot and we think about, well, what a great man of God.

He must have had this great testimony of coming out of this and that. He was no different than you and I.

He was a sinner in need of salvation. And his testimony is this, that he went on one snowy evening as a teenager to a little primitive

Methodist church where very few people were gathered in there. Though very few people were gathered in there.

Again, the numbers ain't what matters, amen. The spirit of God dwells in the hearts and the minds of his people.

He gathered, he went to this church and the snow was so great that the preacher couldn't even get to the church.

But he said there was a little skinny man that got up that evening. He wasn't good at talking.

He wasn't an orator. He wasn't even a preacher per se. But he got up that evening to tell the people and to read the people something from the word of God.

And as Spurgeon's testimony is written, it's this, that that man got up and he said this.

He preached from Isaiah the scripture, the text that says, look unto me all you ends of this earth and be saved.

He said the preacher, he said the preacher, all he said basically was this.

You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be intelligent. You don't have to be strong to look.

The word doesn't give us any requirements. It just says, look. And the word that I'm reading to you today is the same word of God.

And it says, look unto Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith.

You might say, you don't understand preacher. I can't look up. I can't lift my head. I don't even want to look at God.

I don't want to think about God. I don't want to talk to God. I'm telling you today, if you are saved, you must look unto him today.

Because if you have the testimony of salvation saints, that testimony of salvation began with Jesus Christ and it will end with Jesus Christ.

You say, well, you don't know my point, my place in life. You don't know what

I've endured. Listen, I know that a couple of you have lost loved ones in recent weeks.

Amen. That's not something that anybody desires to go through. But guess what?

You have hope if your loved one was saved. We spent April's mommas, her last waking hours, she spent with her arms raised up in the air, a woman who couldn't even lift up her hands before, but for hours while the family prayed and sang praises unto

God, she lifted up her arms unto the Lord and she praised the Lord who had saved her.

If a dying saint can raise her arms and praise God in her last moments of life, then certainly, certainly you could raise your hands and praise him who has saved you.

Oh, preacher, you don't know. I don't have to know. I do know that God is greater.

God is greater than the circumstance in your life. Let me tell you how

I know that. I can read of it in the New Testament. I read of it in the New Testament in Matthew.

You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read and expound just a little bit on this. Matthew chapter 11. Listen to what the word of God says.

It came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples that he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, are you the coming one or do we look for another?

Now, some of you are sitting here right now and I know that you're literally saying, so what?

What's the big deal that he would ask that question? Let me just so that you know in case you never have a chance to hear it again because we will not ever be gathered just like we are today.

And in case you never hear it again, I want you to understand and I want you to know the depth of the truth that you just heard in your reading from the word of God.

This is John the Baptist. This is the man who God before eternity began set up to be the forerunner for Jesus Christ.

The one who was prophesied as we learned about in Sunday school the importance of biblical prophecy, who was prophesied to be that one who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

Lord. This is the same John the Baptist. Now it's just so you know, John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins.

Though they were cousins, they wasn't necessarily raised up around each other, but at one point in their lives, in their pre -birth lives, amen?

They came in contact with one another because the Bible tells us that Mary went to Elizabeth.

Mary is the mother of Jesus. Elizabeth is the mother of John. Mary or Elizabeth was probably somewhere between six and nine months pregnant.

She hadn't yet had John yet. She had got word from the Holy Spirit that she was gonna bear the cross, the son of the living

God. She went to Elizabeth. She greeted Elizabeth. And the Bible says this, that when the two came in contact with one another, that John in the belly of Elizabeth leapt in her womb at the presence of Jesus Christ.

This is that John the Baptist that asks this question. Are you the one?

Are you the coming one? Or do we need to look for another? This is that same

John the Baptist who fulfilled what God had said he would do, preach repentance by being baptized in water until Jesus came.

And who one day down at the river while baptizing men and women for repentance of their sins, one day down there at the river,

Jesus came over the hill. This is that same John the Baptist who when he saw

Jesus, he stopped what he was doing, pointed and he said, behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Now I'm gonna tell you something. If you read the text of scripture, we'll find, I said it a minute ago, they had never seen each other.

He didn't know what Jesus necessarily looked like. He didn't know what the Messiah was gonna look like, except according to the scripture that the

Lord told him this. He said, you'll know the lamb of God when you see him because when you see him, the spirit will descend on him and it won't go off of him, but it'll stay right there on him.

This is the same John the Baptist when he saw Jesus. He said, behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus came down. John says, Lord, I'm not worthy to even loosen your sandal straps.

It is I that should be baptized of you. But Jesus said, well, we must do this so that all things are fulfilled.

The Bible says he took Jesus and he baptized Jesus. Jesus came up out of the water and the

Bible says straightway the heaven opened. The spirit descended like a dove and it lit on Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist witnessed this. Having had this promise to him, witness this.

And here's the point. Your circumstances of your life may get so great that it cannot seem that you can lift up your head and look unto

Jesus. It may seem that you have nowhere to go, no hope to be found. But friends, I'm gonna tell you, if you are

Christ, there is hope for you today. This is that same

John the Baptist who the next day when Jesus came back around, John had his own group of disciples that followed him, that helped him.

But when that next day, when Jesus came by, the Bible says John pointed again and he said,

I want you guys to look there. That is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

And those disciples of John left John to follow Jesus. This is that John the

Baptist. This is that same John the Baptist who stood up every day of his life from the time he started to preach and proclaim the righteousness of God.

This is that same John the Baptist, excuse me, who was willing to stand against the political powers of his day and proclaim the truth of the holiness of God.

John told the king, it's not right for you to have your brother's wife. And the Bible tells us this, this same

John the Baptist was taken. And John, this same John the Baptist was put in prison for proclaiming and standing for the truth of God.

He was there and my friend, circumstances as they may be, and because he was a human, just like John the

Baptist was a human, just like you and I are human being, the circumstances of his life began to overtake him.

Listen, I've been depressed, plenty. I've been depressed recently, but depression is not greater than God.

Death is not greater than God. Sin is not greater than God.

That is not a suggestion when the writer of Hebrews said, lay aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset you.

It is a command and the command is clear and the command is the same today. And that is what

I preach to you. Lay aside your heavy burden. Lay aside every weight, lay aside every sin, lay aside everything that does so easily beset you, that gets you off course.

Say, preacher, you don't know me. You don't know if I'm off course or not. You can tell people.

We can judge righteous judgment. Preacher, you don't know my heart. I don't gotta know your heart.

I'm just looking at what you do in your life to know if you're right or you're wrong. That's righteous judgment.

And friends, as a church, as a local body, we are called to be unified in the doctrine of Jesus Christ and in the purpose of Jesus Christ.

If you are not following Jesus Christ and being obedient to Jesus Christ, then you're a hindrance to his body.

And you have a responsibility to be right in the sight of God. And you have the privilege of being right in the sight of God.

I love that. Therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of our need.

Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus rose again.

And he sits at the right hand of the father where he ever lives to make intercession for you and me.

It is a blood -bought privilege. And it's not to be squandered in wallowing in the filth of this world.

It's not meant to be squandered by wallowing in the filth of your sin.

And it is not meant to be squandered by esteeming yourself higher than you esteem the

Lord God Almighty. John the Baptist is in prison.

For how long, I do not know. But we do know that he was to a point where knowing all that he knew and experiencing all that he had experienced, he began to second -guess his faith.

But I want you to listen to the rest of that in Matthew 11. Are you the coming one or do we need to look for another?

Jesus answered and said to them, John sent some disciples, carried a message to Jesus from the jailhouse.

He said, are you the coming one or do we need to look for another? And the Bible says this.

And this is something I believe that's very important. When you read the text of Scripture that you understand what's going on.

This wasn't a private setting. Jesus was right in the middle of teaching and preaching. John's disciples come and likely from the back of the room, maybe

Rosie from where you are, and said, Jesus, John's got his question. He wants us to ask you, are you the coming one or do we need to look for another?

And the Bible says here in the very next verse that Jesus answered them. Jesus answered and said to them, go and tell

John. Go give John this word. Go and tell

John the things which you hear and the things which you see that the blind receive their sight, that the blind receive their sight, that the lame walk, that the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, that the dead are raised up.

You go tell John, oh, this is happening. And this is the son that I truly am, who

I said I was, the only begotten son of God. Come into this world full of grace and full of truth.

You go tell John that all this is going on.

And to some, it'd be okay to stop there. Some would be content with that, but I'll tell you the part that I'm most enamored with is the last part of that verse right there.

Not only are the blind seeing, the lame are walking, the lepers are cleansed, not only are the deaf hearing, not only are the dead raised up, but the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Praise the Lord. Those who are not able in and of themselves to buy a right standing in the presence of God, those who are not able in and of themselves to earn their way into the kingdom of God, those who are spiritually bankrupt, those who are, as the old saying goes,

I believe it's something like this, broker than Joe's turkey, those people who is lost as a football bat, them people have the gospel preached.

Well, glory. The poor have the gospel preached to them.

The poor have the way of salvation shown unto them.

I was one of them poor people, poor as I could be.

I'd heard some preaching a little bit growing up, no doubt, I didn't care a lick about it.

Got invited to go to a youth conference in Nashville, Tennessee as a 12 year old boy after having moved back up here from South Carolina.

He and my friend David invited me, we went. I wasn't expecting to meet God. I wasn't expecting for God to deal with me.

I wasn't expecting for nothing but to leave a little bit happier than when I left. But I want you to know something that day, something happened.

Not just something, but someone. His name is

Jesus. It was in March, 1987 on a

Friday night at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt that I got born again.

Not because of anything that I had done, not because of any good deeds, not just because I was in the right place at the right time, but because God sent his love and his mercy on me.

He revealed my sinfulness. He revealed his holiness and he saved me that day.

And I ain't been the same ever since. But ever since that day,

Tim, I had a different outlook. All I could do before that day was look around me and all that I knew was based on what was going on around me.

But ever since that day, I've been able to look up under the hills from where my help comes from because my help comes from the

Lord. Look unto Jesus for he is the author and the finisher of our faith today.

John, in prison. John, getting ready to die.

How do we know this? Because the Bible tells us so. Because the scripture tells us this, and I'll close here in just a minute.

The scripture tells us this, that Herodias, that the daughter of Herodias came in and danced for him and a promise was given to her that he would give her whatever she asked for.

She went back to her mother. Her mother said, you give me John the Baptist's head on a platter.

And he, being the king as best he could, stayed true and faithful to his word, sent for John.

And it's likely, and again, I can't read into this. I'm just giving you some speculation on this.

But it's likely this was what was happening all at the same time. Friends, it's when you know that you are going to die that you are most vulnerable.

The living will consider the importance of life and eternal life when faced with the reality of death.

Some of you, as I mentioned, have been faced with the reality of death in your family. But you have not considered that the reality of death is an imminent reality in your life.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. That the wages of sin is death and all and every single one of us one day are gonna die.

We end, I don't know. Some preachers will say, someone will say, you're fixing to use a scare tactic.

What if it's today? No, it's not a scare tactic. That's just the truth. What if it is today? What if the very breath that you breathe now is your last breath?

And you'll enter into eternity and you'll go into eternity and you'll go into one of two places, heaven or hell.

And you'll go to heaven based upon the merit of Jesus Christ. Or you'll go to hell based upon what you deserve alone because of sin.

But today there is good news. You can look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith.

You can call on the name of the Lord today and be saved and have hope no matter what comes five minutes down the road or five years down the road.

Who are you looking to today? Looking unto Jesus. The author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, for your sake and mine,

Saint, endured the cross and despised the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Heidelberg Catechism written in 1563 is a series of questions and answers.

It's a different catechism than the Sunday school classes are teaching our children, but it is such a good tool as well for us as Christians.

The very first question and the answer for a Christian to know, to memorize, to understand, and to know as the reality of their lives is this, what is your only comfort in life and death?

Can I ask you that today? What is your only comfort?

I'm not asking what a comfort is. What things comfort you? I'm saying when the things of this world are passing away, do you have salvation?

That's right. Are you saved or are you lost? That is the only thing to which we must lean upon.

What is your only hope in life and in death? And the answer to that question is this, that I am not my own.

Well, glory, they wrote this according to the scripture because the scripture says in Corinthians, Paul reminded the church there, you're not your own, but your bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body, which is not your own.

What is your only hope in life and death? That I am not my own, but that I belong both soul and body in life and in death.

Which means that I belong to Jesus Christ who has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood.

And not only that, but that he has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

Preacher, I just can't seem to break free. I can't seem to break loose. Well, maybe just maybe it's because you ain't yet saved.

And this, also, that He watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my

Father which is in heaven. That's the sovereignty of God. And we must declare this.

In fact, all things must work together for the will of my Father which is in heaven.

All things must work together for my salvation because I belong to Him. Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life.

Can you say that today? Are you assured of eternal life?

The words that you have heard preached to you are not the words of Claude Ramsey.

You can take my words and you can put them in a bucket and you can do what you want with them.

They will fail you. They will let you down. But the word of God is eternal.

You can count on that. That the Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and He makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Oh, thank God for salvation. By, in, and through the person of Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Thankful that He has sealed. Listen, I can't speak for you, but I can tell you this.

I'm thankful that He has, according to His word, sealed me with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption.

I know that I am His and that He is mine and that come what may, it is for His glory and for His honor.

And I want to close, and I can't sing a lick, but listen, the Lord put this song on my heart, so I want to sing.

I'm going to ask you to sing with me. And I want to sing. If you know this, sing along.

April, jump in and help me. I know you know it, but listen, drown me out. This is another way the scriptures teach us that we are to be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, amen, encouraging one another in the faith.

Are you looking unto Jesus? Every hope that I have here in this old sinful world is anchored in the blood of the

Lamb. Though the billows are raging and I'm tossed to and fro, there is peace beneath that flow.

My hope is anchored in the precious

Lamb of God. There is no other fountain so sweet for He washed away my sin, gave me peace and joy within.

My hope is anchored in His blood.

Only one thing will matter when the time shall come to die.

The treasures of this world won't mean a thing, but the joy of knowing

Jesus, for He took away my sins. But, let me go back, but the joy of knowing

Jesus will banish all my fear, for He took away death's sting.

My hope is anchored in the precious

Lamb of God. There is no other fountain so sweet for He took away my sin, gave me peace and joy within.

My hope is anchored in His blood.

Where does your hope lie, Heavenly Father, God, today? Our prayer is this, that you would take the words of our mouths today, dear

God, that you take the word of God today, dear God, that we tried our best to proclaim, that you would work a work in the hearts and the minds of the people in this place today, that you would save the lost, dear

God, that you would reclaim the backslidden, dear God, that you would give hope to the hopeless, that you would give help to them that seem like they ain't got no help, and let the people in this place, dear

God, if they are saved today, let them know that they cannot leave this building today with any excuse to leave downcast and downtrodden, because they have a place that they can turn to you.

Give them a place today, God. Help them seek you. Let's take just a minute or so here in silence.

Maybe you just need to go to God right now. Listen, you know this altar's open. It don't have to be open by me.

This is just a good place to come and pray. You can pray right there where you are, but I exhort you today,

I encourage you today, seek the Lord in this time that we have in this silence.