Beholding God's Glory

This recording is from our Grace Fellowship Church conference, Behold Our God 2026. Please visit our website at gfcedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram at Grace Church Yeag, all one word, or on Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church.

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The Glory of God Revealed in the Slain Lamb

Well truly, the glory of God and the glory of man, the glory of heaven and earth, is a slain lamb. He is. The only man-made things in heaven are the wounds upon the lamb. And one day we will gaze at him, unhindered by this tent.

We will gaze upon him and we will see the one who is worthy. So we sing these songs, I think, worthy is he. And when we gaze upon the Lord, we cannot help but just as Isaiah to say, woe, woe is me, for I am unclean.

I live among a people of unclean lips, but praise God, he has given us a beatific vision of the Savior. That's how he has drawn us to himself. That's what he does. He causes us to see him as greater than anything, anything in all of creation, greater even than our sin.

The Supremacy of Christ in Hebrews 12

If you have a Bible, please join me in Hebrews chapter 12. That's where I want to begin. And we will go from place to place because God's scripture is cohesive. He has spoken of the very thing that we see here in Hebrews 12 in multiple places throughout the scripture.

So we're going to look at a few of those places together, Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to consider the first two verses, but I will read the first three for us. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. Let's pray. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name.

Forget not all his benefits, who's crowned you with steadfast love and mercy, who has redeemed your life from the pit, who's crowned you with steadfast love and mercy. Oh, bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, you angels, all you heavenly host.

Bless him, for he is great and greatly to be praised. Lord, we look to you. You are our soul's satisfaction. You are all in all. You are worthy of all blessing, of all honor, of all glory, of all power, from all peoples forever and ever.

And you will receive it. We acknowledge these things tonight, Lord, and we ask that you would speak to us, incline our hearts to your testimonies, not to selfish gain. Lord, would you please turn our eyes from looking at worthless things and give us life in your ways.

Oh, God, would you confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared? We ask this knowing that this is your will for us, that we might see you and know you. Oh, we are asking, we are seeking, we are knocking, and we know, oh, God, we will not be put to shame.

Thank you for your precious promises. Be with us now as we look at your word, oh, God, please. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, the theme of Hebrews is easy to understand. This letter is often described as something to the effect of Jesus is greater or the supremacy of Christ in all things.

And that certainly is true. But from beginning to the end, we see the surpassing worth of Christ Jesus our Lord. We really do. But this letter also comes as a plea. The writer, whoever it is, if it was that important, we would know it.

But whoever it is, we know that this is a plea to all of those Hebrew Christians, of all those ones who have come out of a religion of types and shadows and has been shown the magnificence and the glory of Christ.

And they're being tempted. Should I? Should I go back to the old? Should I go back to those things that I've always known? Well, he is saying, behold, Jesus in the gospel, behold him and be taken by him to where you realize that there's nothing worth leaving him for.

All the old ways are futile. They're worthless. Do not go back to the ways of your father and trample underfoot the blood, the precious blood of the lamb. That's not how you treat something precious. And Jesus is precious.

He is. He is the greatest treasure of all treasures. It should be worth giving up all for just to enjoy the treasure. This was the main pressure for them. And so Hebrews comes and it says this. I'll quote someone who is much smarter than I am.

Ian Hamilton says this about the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is this. Behold your God. See how great he is. How could you think of turning back from such a God who has given you such a savior? That's why we start here.

That's why we start here. If we're going to, if we're going to spend the next few days together, beholding God, beholding Christ is where we should begin. Because to behold Christ is to behold God. And in order to behold Christ, we must place all of our trust in him.

It's an activity that is most important, that we would be a people who devote all of our lives to it. Romans 10, 11 promises, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. What a precious promise.

Well, as we look at these couple of verses, Hebrews 12 explains this, beholding Jesus in our lives, beholding Jesus in our lives. And so we're going to look at three points in these two verses, beholding Jesus in our lives.

We do this first, we focus on our trust, we focus on our trust. And we'll see that in verse 2a, the very first part of it. Well, beholding Jesus in our lives, we also forsake our trespasses. We see that in verse 1.

And by beholding Jesus in our lives, we find our triumph in verse 2b, he is Jesus Christus victor. So let us look, when we consider beholding Jesus in our lives, we want to begin with a focus on our trust, focus on our trust.

Focus on Our Trust in Jesus

Look at the first part of verse 2, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith. This clause may very well be the theme of every believer. This is what we do as believers. We are looking to him.

We're looking to him for everything. This is the core of our lives in every way. And this phrase lies at the center of these two verses. It's the axis upon which these two verses spin, if you will. This is also the core of this sermon.

And so throughout our time in here, we're going to continue to go back. We're going to recenter ourselves right here, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. If we endeavor to behold God, we are to behold Jesus.

Jesus, this one who has come from heaven, he is the God man. He is truly God, truly man. And he is the only mediator between God and men. There is no other. So we must look to him. He is the only one who has been given the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess on earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

He is the Lord. This is what we see in Isaiah 45. One day, all people will come and they will bow and give allegiance to me. And we see that this me is Jesus. He is Yahweh. Furthermore, Jesus is described as the word, the source of all of creation.

John 1 in his prologue, doesn't he begin that way? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And without him, nothing was made that has been made. He is the creator God and in him was light and that light was the life of men.

And this word, this creator God, this light and life of men came and he dwelled among us. He was made under the law, being born in a low condition. He underwent the miseries of this life. And we find that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side.

He has made him known. When we look at Jesus, we see God. Colossians chapter one, we find Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn among all creation for by him and through him, all things were made.

And we find out that he is the head of the church, that he is the firstborn from among the dead. Why all of this, Paul? Because in him, in verse 18, that he might be preeminent, that he might be first, that everyone in all of creation for all time would look to him and praise him and sing worthy and sing holy and sing all of my life is yours and that we might venture all for the sake of him.

And so in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul reveals in chapter four, though we read chapter three just a bit ago, chapter four, he goes on and he talks about this amazing privilege that is in the ministry of the gospel.

And he says that even though, even if our gospel is veiled, it is being veiled by the God of this world. He has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

So how are we ever to see him? Well, we must because it is him who is the image of God. Verse five, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We must gaze upon his beauty. We must worship in his tabernacle, but we must see his face. That is how we are saved. That is how we live our lives. That is how we are sanctified. The consistent refrain in scripture is that if we will behold Jesus Christ, we behold the fullness of God, the fullness of God.

John 12, if you're going to go there, we'll pick up in verse 36, the crowds have pressed in. The crowds do not believe the things that Jesus is saying. And so John gives us a little bit of commentary by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He reveals what's going on in this time. They are not coming. They are not believing because something has happened from long ago. Something is being fulfilled. And in verse 36, when Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.

Though he had done many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Therefore, they could not believe. For again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.

And this is the part I want to see. Verse 41, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Wait a second, John. Isaiah? Like Old Testament Isaiah, like 800 years before Jesus ever walked the planet, that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus.

When would this have been? Well, it doesn't say in Isaiah that he saw the glory of Jesus. So we must ask ourselves, where did Isaiah see glory? When did he see glory? Isaiah chapter six. Did he not? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

The train of his robe filled the temple. Can you just see his feet coming into the temple and all of a sudden being swallowed by robe? And he looks and there's robe everywhere. Oh, I am in the presence of a glorious king.

And above him stood the seraphim, each one having six wings with two. They covered their face with two. They covered their feet and with two they did fly. And they called to one another saying, holy, holy, holy.

There's none like him. He's set apart. Is the Lord God Almighty, is Yahweh of hosts. This is what he sees. And it's lost in translation a bit. But when John is writing, everyone would have understood this in the way that the Septuagint wrote it.

And it says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the glory of the Lord. And so they would have known. Wait a second. If Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord, if the Holy Spirit moving within John is telling us Jesus is on the throne.

He is Yahweh of hosts. So now to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews. The writer here in this majestic way weaves throughout the Old Testament to show us the superiority of Christ in all things. And the way he begins this magnificent book reminds us of these things.

And he says long ago and many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. And after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels, because the name that he inherited is more excellent than theirs.

And so he goes on in chapter one and he shows that Jesus possesses certain qualities, certain attributes that only God can. Eternality, immutability. And then he goes on and he says, he's the greatest messenger.

He's greater than any angel. And then he goes on and he says, you know, listen, Hebrews, he's even greater than Moses. He's greater than Melchizedek, that high priest that we don't even know where he come, he came from.

We just know he was the king of Salem and that Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoils. And then he goes on and he says, and he's a greater covenant. And he's a greater temple. And he's a greater, go on and on and on.

Jesus is greater than all that we could imagine. And then we get to chapter 11 and we see the lives of those who knew this. They stake their lives upon this. They had faith that he was the one who was prophesied to come.

He was the one that would crush the head of the serpent. He was Emmanuel, God with us. He was Yahweh come down in the flesh who lived a perfect life, who died a death in our stead, and who was raised to life.

But even before this, there were people that knew they were walking and they were looking forward to the promise. They knew something by faith that there was one to come. Remember Job, the way that Job would put it.

I know that my redeemer lives and he will stand upon the earth. Job knew that he would have one that was to come that would be his mediator. That would be the hope that he had to commune with God when it seemed like the heavens were bronze and that God was nowhere to be found and that God was afflicting him with such pains.

And in the midst of all that, he had faith. And so there's this hall of faith, all of these that have come before. And right after he talks about Abel, and then he talks about Enoch, a man that had such a faith that he walked with God and he was no more.

We think, wow, what a life. Oh, how can I experience that? How can I experience a life where I commune with the Lord? And then boom, I don't have to face the pains of death. That sounds really nice. But it happened.

It happened to him and one other in the scriptures. But we find out about this and we, and then it begs the question, well, then how do we, how are we able to please God in that way? And in verse six, it says, well, without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him. And praise God that the way that we're able to seek him is because he sought us. And that is the gospel.

That is the gospel, Romans 1, 16 and 17. Paul says, it's the power of God unto salvation. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not ashamed of this, this power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, whoever, whoever faiths into him, whoever trusts in Jesus, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.

For in it is the righteousness of God. The very thing that we needed, we needed an alien righteousness. We needed to be right with God and we could not. We can't. We are evil born in sin. It does not take anyone to teach us how to do wrong, but instead it teaches we need to learn how to do what is right.

No one had to teach us how to lie. Somehow we just come by that naturally. Yeah, the whole man is broken under his lips, under his tongue, the venom of asps. His throat is an open grave. His mouth is filled with bitterness and cursings.

In fact, if anyone was able to bridle the tongue, he would be a perfect man. Well, praise God, Jesus comes and there was no deceit found in his mouth. He was the righteousness that we needed. See, because before that righteousness was revealed from heaven, every mouth was stopped.

Every mouth was stopped. I have no argument. I have no plea. I lay my hand to my mouth. I've spoken of things I didn't know. Well, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, for as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Faith is a necessary gift and praise God that we have it through our author and our finisher, our founder and perfecter. We look unto Jesus because everything we need to satisfy God is in him. And it is in him that we find our faith.

And it is founded there in the cornerstone and the rock of Christ. And it is stable there. It stays there no matter what happens. Yes, he is Christ, our sure and steady anchor. And no matter what comes, no matter what comes, we have a firm foundation.

We have a rock for our salvation. And that necessary gift of faith has been granted unto you. Philippians 1, 29, for it has been granted unto you that you would not only believe, which means that it was granted to us that we would believe.

So it was granted to us, not only that we would believe, but also that we would suffer for his sake. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, after we have read of this wretchedness that we are by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God being filled with loving kindness, according to the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with him. For it was by grace we were saved. Yes, yes, for by grace you have been saved.

And this is not of yourself. No, by grace you have been saved through faith, through faith. And this is not of yourself. The grace was not yours. You couldn't show yourself the grace. You couldn't give yourself the salvation.

And you couldn't exercise the faith because you were dead in trespasses and sins like the rest of mankind. And so by his quickening spirit, he brings us to life. He supplants within us faith. We hear the word and faith comes through by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Our chains fell off. Our heart was free. We rose, went forth and followed him. And so it's not a result of works because there is no boasting. Man has no boast except Christ. So we look to him because we can do it.

The author of our faith. And not only that, but the perfecter of our faith. He is the perfect example to the greatest degree onto the very close. He is greater than everyone listed in Hebrews 11. He loved the Lord as God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.

He was faith embodied grace and truth therein, but faith. And yes, as encouraged in chapter three, we will consider Jesus. He is the one whom all the prophets spoke. He is the faithful one. He is the fairest of 10 ,000.

The greater prophet, priest, king, sacrifice. Believe on the Lord Jesus. That is the call to all men everywhere. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. And so today, if you hear his voice, if you're here in this place, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion.

Soften, plow up the fallow ground of your hearts, receive the seed of the gospel and planted. Plow up the fallow ground of your heart. See, see what Christ can do. The author and the finisher of your faith.

Yes, he who began a good work in you will see it to completion. He will perfect it and we can trust that you will bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Yes, when Christ said, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He meant that it should be a perpetual action. It was present, active, indicative. It's something that we must continually do. We must continually turn away from sin and turn our eyes to Christ. We must.

Well, behold your God. How? How? Through faith, through faith, that great assurance of things hoped for, that conviction of things not seen. It is by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what was made was not made with things that are visible.

Yes, it is by faith we follow Christ. Just as those in Hebrews 11. Look at verse 16 of Hebrews 11. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. And listen to this. That by faith, therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

For he has prepared for them a city. Do you hear that, souls? Do you hear that? God is not ashamed of us. I've been ashamed of me. Oh, the regrets I've had. Oh, how ashamed I have been before the face of God.

And yet he is not ashamed of me. What grace, what mercy found in Jesus by faith. I once was a brute beast before him. And if not restrained by his grace, I would continue on as a brute beast. But it is enough that he is determined to help us.

And even now, even now, for you, for me, he can restore to us the joy of our salvation. By faith. What about chapter 2, verse 8? Now, putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control.

At present, we do not see everything in subjection to him, verse 9. But we see him for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. Behold your God, the author and the finisher of your faith, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.

Because of the suffering of death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he for whom by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of our salvation perfect through suffering.

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed. Wait a second. He is not ashamed to call them brothers. Oh, what a blessed thought. God not ashamed of us.

Jesus not ashamed to call us brothers through faith. No matter our failings. What a wonderful, what a wonderful savior we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. For because he who suffered when tempted, because he suffered when tempted, he is able to help us to help those who are being tempted.

What a merciful savior. Yes, a bruised reed. He will not break. You may be here tonight and think I'm beat up. Listen, look unto Jesus. He is meek and mild. A bruised reed, he will not break. You might think I feel like I'm barely making it.

Brother, give me some hope. Here, a dimly burning wick. He doesn't put out. He is good. Look to him, run to him. It is his work that has been accepted. And it is his work that will get us all the way home.

Forsaking Our Trespasses Through Beholding Jesus

As we focus our trust, as we're looking unto Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, it affects our lives and we forsake our trespasses. We forsake our trespasses. Go back to verse one with me.

Therefore, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Hebrews 12 starts with this great cloud of witnesses. All of these that were mentioned in verse 11, we have testimony from those throughout the ages who would go, look to Christ, look to him. He has never let us down.

Yes, there were moments where I thought he would. Yes, there were moments where I thought I was all alone, but praise be to God. He was always there and he has fulfilled every promise. Look to him, look to him, all the ends of the earth and be saved.

Yes, and because of that, because we see those that have come before and they're pointing and they're saying he is worthy, worthy as the lamb who was slain. He is worthy. Give up everything. Turn your eyes from everything else and look to him.

He is worthy. Go run. We're being cheered on by these who have testimony after testimony of the goodness of God in the land of the living. Let us look to Christ. Let us open our ears in faith and let us run.

Let us run. Yes, run with endurance this race. That's great, but I don't know the way. Yes, you do. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is. And so we look to him and we follow him. How are we ever going to, how are we ever going to do this?

Well, you can't do it if you're holding on to something. You can't run when you're encumbered by a load of care and you can't run after the pure and spotless one on the road that he has blazed. If you continue, you continue to hold on to your sin.

We have to lay that weight aside. Well, I don't know how. Look to him. He has promised that you can lay your heavy burden down at his feet and he will carry it. And he has. This sin, he says, it clings to us.

Other translation says it easily entangles us, right? What is this sin? What is it? I think as we survey Hebrews, this sin is unbelief. Unbelief. And so maybe, maybe we need to come to Christ just as another had come to Christ.

Jesus, I believe. Help my unbelief. And see what the Lord can do. Lay unbelief aside so that you can look and you can run. This activity requires endurance, he says. Endurance has to do with situations and circumstances, trials and testing, storms.

It's all these things that want to slow us down and hinder us that make us look around and go, how am I ever supposed to do this? How can I actually look to him and run this race when I have all of this going on in my life?

How? You have to endure. You have to endure. It's the situations that can cloud our judgment and we can think, there's no way he's here with me. There's no way. I'm going to walk off this cliff and there's going to be nothing there to save me.

I've had faith. I don't know if I have faith to go on. This situation is too hard. This trial is too difficult. God surely has abandoned me now. How feeble and fickle our faith can be. We're faced with so many things and we may think he's abandoned us.

Hear me. He hasn't abandoned us. He hasn't. He has not forsaken his promise. I will be with you, he says. Will he be with me even after everything I've done? Yes, child. Yes. Fix your eyes. Focus your trust.

Lay aside the encumbrances. Lay aside unbelief. Fix your eyes upon him. Looking to Jesus means looking away from everything else. Looking to him. Laying aside the weight. We have to look away from ourselves.

Thinking that we can do it. Pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Thinking that by some performance I can be acceptable to God. We have to lay that aside. We have to look away from that and we have to look unto Christ.

We have to fix our eyes on him. We're not even looking to the witnesses of Hebrews 11. We're not looking to the law. We're not looking to law keeping. We're not looking to the 1689 or the Westminster.

We're not looking to the church. We're not looking to church activity. We're not looking to our lusts that leave us broken and empty. We look away from our sins and all the tokens of self-righteousness.

And we look unto Christ, the author and the finish of our faith. And we run with endurance. Because the more that we gaze upon him, the more we look at him, the more we see how good he is and how worth every trial he is.

He's worth our endurance. He's worth running this race. You know, it says race. But in other places we find this idea of pilgrimage. I don't think I'll ever tire of singing a few things. Pilgrimage might be one of them.

This pilgrim way in which we walk. Of course, that gets me thinking about Bunyan and his opus maxim, his great work of the pilgrim's progress. This pilgrimage that Christian would go on. He would find out that he was in the city of destruction.

That he had no hope. There was a coming judgment. And that he had to take action. And he had to take action fast. And what was he to do? He didn't know. But he just went. He just ran. And others were trying to stop him.

But he had to stop off his ears. And he said, no, no, no, no. This book. Something has come to me. It has been revealed to me that there is life. There's eternal life. Life, life, eternal life. And he runs and he runs.

And the first thing he does is he runs right into a bog. And there he is in the slew of despond. Well, that didn't work out. What am I going to do now? He'd taken his eyes off where he was going. Someone comes to him and they help him.

And they set his feet on a rock. They pull him out of the miry bog. And he says, look, look under there. Go, run. And so he must go. He must look. See, in our lives, the start depends on Jesus. The middle depends on Jesus.

And in order to get to the very end, it depends on Jesus. The author and the finisher of our faith. Let me tell you, friends, that's good news because he's promised that he will do it. And it's the greatest news because he's no liar.

He's a great savior. Oh, great is his faithfulness. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o 'er and o 'er. Have you ever sang those words? What have you thought about when you're saying those words?

Listen, it's no great feats of faith that I've done to prove Jesus' faithfulness. In fact, it's my many, many failings that have proved Jesus' faithfulness to me more than anything else. How could this guy still be running the race?

I've proved him over and over. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's not me. Why am I here tonight in a place I shouldn't be? Jesus, Jesus, how I've proved him o 'er and o 'er. And you have testimony. I hope you have testimony of the very same thing.

That Christ, when you felt your faith would fail, has held you fast. He has held you fast. I thought the tempter would prevail. No, he's held me fast. He's held me fast. I could never keep my hold through life's fearful paths.

In fact, my love often for him is cold. He has held us fast. He holds us fast. And we're encouraged. Keep racing. Keep trotting this pilgrim way. Paul exalts. Listen, the reason why I can go forward, the reason why I can continue on.