00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Or perhaps you'd take your Bibles
and turn with me back to Hebrews chapter 12. I'd like to just
read those words again to us. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
two especially. The scripture says, let us fix
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who
for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. I wonder
if you can imagine going ten pin bowling yet not being able
to see the pins that you're trying to hit. I'm sure you'd agree
with me that that would be a very difficult challenge indeed. But
in 1933 a man called Bill Knox did exactly that and amazingly
he got a perfect score. Now how did he do it? Well it
all took place at an event in Philadelphia where he wanted
to demonstrate a special technique called spot bowling and apparently
what you do with spot bowling is you aim the ball at a mark
on the floor just beyond your feet past the foul line and even
if you can't see the 10 pins down the end of the lane you
can still get a bullseye or a strike as they call it in bowling. And
to prove it, Bill Knox actually had the ten pins covered off
by a screen so he couldn't see them at all and yet consistently
he got one strike after another with this simple technique. And
he proved that all you have to do to be a winner is to fix your
eye on the right thing. And you know dear friends, that
in a nutshell is the message of Hebrews chapter 12 verse two. Fix your eyes on Jesus, look
unto him, and you will be a winner in the Christian life. And that's
a message we need as we go into 2025, isn't it? You know, we're
facing a year of unknown events and unshown conclusions, like
that screen across the 10 pins in the lane, so we can't see
the end. We don't know what this year has in store for us. But
if we fix our eyes on Christ, then spiritually, we will come
through victoriously. And the writer to the Hebrews
wants us to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus in four capacities
especially, as our author, our perfecter, our savior, and our
king. And he wants us to look to Christ
exclusively as these things. As Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbarn explains,
the word looking, or fixing our eyes as it is in the NIV, actually
implies looking away from all other distractions. So looking
away from other things, or even looking away from other people.
Even the great heroes of the faith in the previous chapter
of Hebrews, chapter 11, they're there for us to follow their
example, but we don't fix our eyes on them. We fix our eyes
on Christ alone. as the hymn writer said many
years ago, looking only unto Jesus as I onward go. You know, in the year 1737, the
great revival preacher, Jonathan Edwards, had an amazing time
of worship alone with the Lord in some woods. And he said this. He said, the person of Christ
appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough
to swallow up all thought and conception. In other words, what
he's saying is he couldn't think about anything else. It just
totally consumed him. And he said this went on for,
quote, about an hour, which he kept me for the greater part
of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. And it was
a great turning point in his life spiritually. Now friends,
I'm not going to try and manipulate your emotions to make you end
up crying this morning, but wouldn't we all love to know something
of that experience that Edwards had back then, in being so moved
by the person of our Lord Jesus Christ that it impacts our life
also. So may it please God to bless
these things about the Lord Jesus to us this morning, these four
things in the text. So let's begin by considering
the first one, Christ as our author, meaning, of course, the
author and perfecter of our faith, the author of our faith, as it
says there in verse two. You know, I heard about a mother
who, on Valentine's Day, decided to have a bit of fun with her
little girl, and so she sent her a mystery Valentine's card. Well, when the little girl got
it, she looked deep in thought, and her mother said, do you know
who your card is from? to which the little girl replied
in a very grown-up attitude, well, from analyzing the handwriting
on this card and comparing it to the writing on my Christmas
presents in December, I think my secret admirer might be Father
Christmas. Well, I'll tell you that story,
apart from wanting to inject a little bit of humor into my
sermon, is because it illustrates how our handwriting often gives
us away, doesn't it? And you know, written into the
life of every true Christian is something which could only
come from the Lord himself. It's got his handwriting all
over it, as it were. And that is saving faith. Because believe it or not, your
saving faith did not come from you. And it didn't come from
your parents, and it didn't come from your pastor or your Sunday
school teacher. It came from the Lord himself. He is the author of your faith. Or as he's called in chapter
two, verse 10, the author of their salvation. Yes, saving
faith comes from him. What an amazing revelation. It's
not something we worked up, it's something he sent down. As Paul said in Romans chapter
12 verse 3, in accordance with the measure of faith God has
given you. Did you hear that? Faith, which
God has given you. Or as Peter said in 2 Peter chapter
1 verse 1 in the introduction of his letter, to those who through
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have
received a faith as precious as ours. It's something we have
received, something the Lord in his sovereignty wrote into
our lives. And when you think about it,
it had to be. We could never write into our lives this faith,
and we would never do so had he not done it for us. Romans
chapter 3, verses 10 to 11 says, there is no one righteous, no
not one. There is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God. So if we weren't righteous before
we became Christians, and if we didn't understand, as it says
there, and if we didn't even seek God, as the Bible says,
how did we ever get saved? It's only because he is the author
of our faith, and therefore he alone gets all the glory and
all the credit for our trusting in him. The great Baptist preacher
Charles Spurgeon tells the following. He says, I can well remember
the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single
instant. The doctrines of grace are these
precious truths that we're considering like this this morning. He says,
born as all of us are by nature an Arminian, people who deny
these things, I still believe the old things that I had heard
continually from the pulpit, and I did not see the grace of
God. I remember sitting in the house
of God one day and hearing a sermon that was as dry as possible and
as worthless as all such sermons are. A thought struck my mind. How did I come to be converted? I prayed. I then wondered, how
did I come to pray? I was induced to pray by reading
the scriptures. How came I to read the scriptures?
And then in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all
and that he is the author of faith. It was then that the whole
doctrine opened up to me from which I have not departed. Friends,
it's true. Trace it back upstream and soon
you will see that your faith was authored by the Lord himself. So just think how much he loves
you to do that for you. What a privilege to be a Christian.
What a mercy. So fix your eyes on Jesus, the
author of our faith, and let him have all your praise this
year. But we're told in the second place that he's not only the
author of our faith, but he's also the perfecter or finisher
of our faith as well. It says finisher in some translations.
It's from the same Greek word. And this is just as wonderful
as the first thing was because it tells us that what Christ
began in us, he will bring to completion. Like Magnus Magnusson,
do you remember him? The host of the game show called
Mastermind. He used to say, I've started,
so I'll finish. That was his catchphrase. Well,
Christ has started a good work in us, and so he will also bring
it to completion. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6
says, being confident of this, that he who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. You see, he's the author and
perfecter of our faith. Psalm 138 verse 8 says in the
New King James, the Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Friends for me personally this
is a wonderful verse of assurance that my salvation didn't begin
with me and it doesn't end with me. It's all of Christ from beginning
to end. He's the alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end, the author and the perfecter. I didn't
save myself and I don't keep myself saved. It's all from him
from start to finish. He's the author and perfecter
of my faith. As one hymn writer put it in
a wonderful hymn, The work which his goodness began, the arm of
his strength will complete. His promise is yea and amen and
never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things that
are now, not all things below or above can make him his purposeful
go or sever my soul from his love. So if you're a Christian
here today trusting in Christ alone, I've got good news for
you. You're gonna make it. You're gonna make it to heaven.
Not because of you, but because of him. As Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
once said, if our salvation and our ultimate arrival in glory
depended in any sense whatever upon ourselves and upon our abilities
and faculties, our powers and faithfulness, or our understanding,
not a single one of us would ever arrive in glory. And he's
right. But it doesn't rest on me. It
doesn't rest on us. It rests on him. Reminds me of
that story about Charlton Heston, the actor. I'm sure some of you
will remember the original version of that film, Ben-Hur. I know
they've made a remake. But the original film was famous
for the chariot race in it. And I don't know if you know
this, but the director didn't want a stuntman to do the chariot
race, but he wanted Charlton Heston to do it. So it was a
perfect likeness, of course, in all the shots. So he sent
him for chariot racing lessons, wherever you send someone to
do that. And when he came back, he said to Heston, he said, well,
how did you get on? And Charlton Heston said, well,
I can drive a chariot now, but I don't know if I can actually
win the race. to which the director said, listen,
you just stay in the race, I'll make sure you win it. Which of
course, he's the director, he's going to. Well, that's like the
Lord Jesus Christ. He will make sure you win it. Because he's not only the author,
but our perfecter too. Praise his name. So fix your
eyes on him in 2025 and watch those doubts just fall away.
But thirdly, we must fix our eyes on him as our savior. What does verse two say again?
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning
its shame. And this verse calls us to fix
our eyes on Jesus, especially as the one who was crucified
for us, not just as the author and perfecter of our faith, but
the one who endured the six hours at Calvary where he bore our
sins before a holy God and the shame before a mocking crowd.
You know, dear friends, none of us could save ourselves because
we're all guilty sinners who have broken God's holy laws.
We're all guilty of sins of commission and omission. You say, John,
what's the difference? Well, I had a little boy who
once defined it like this. He said, your sins of commission
are the things you've actually done wrong, and your sins of
omission are the ones that you've been meaning to do, but you haven't
got round to it yet. Well, that's not quite right.
The sins of omission are not the bad things we've been looking
forward to do but haven't got there. It's actually the good
things that we should have done for God, but we didn't. As the
Lord Jesus said, the two greatest commandments in the Bible are
to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul,
with all our mind, and with all our strength. And the second
commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. And those two commandments
are like a huge bullseye with two circles on it. And guess
what? We've all missed it. every single
one of us. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 says,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've all messed up. And that's
why Jesus came and died on the cross for us, acting as our substitute
before a holy God to take the punishment of hell that we deserve
when he died at Calvary. As the Bible says, Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15,
verse three. So now, if I look to him, I'll
be saved from my sins and will go to heaven. As the old hymn
says, there's life for a look at the crucified one. There's
life at this moment for thee. Then look, sinner, look unto
him and be saved. Unto him who was nailed to the
tree. Have you looked to Jesus yet?
Have you looked in faith? If not, then do it today. Like
the children of Israel when they looked at the bronze serpent
in Numbers 21, look to him in simple faith and be saved from
your sins. As Isaiah 45 verse 22 says, look
to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and
there is no other. Then finally, we must look to
him as our king as well, as the last part of verse two says,
and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Here the writer of Hebrews reminds
us that after the Lord Jesus died, he rose again and ascended
40 days later into heaven to take his place on God's own throne
at his right hand, the place of favor and power. And that's
where he sits today as our priest and king, a theme of which Hebrews
makes an awful lot of. And I'm afraid I don't have time
to go into all of that this morning. But I want to simply remind you
that our savior is in the place of power today. both for his
reward and for our representation. For his reward for dying for
us, he had the joy set before him of going to sit with his
father at the right hand and seeing the travail of his soul.
And for our representation, he's there to help us. And you know,
what a wonderful thing for us to have to go into 2025 with.
that we have the Lord at the right hand of the Father for
us. So remember as you pray this
year, thou art coming to a king, great petitions with you bring,
for his power and grace are such that you cannot ask too much. He's able to answer our prayers
and help us. He's our king. He rules and he
can overrule. So if you and I are gonna win
this year and come through spiritually victorious, we need to stop looking
to ourselves and start looking to him. Look to him as our author,
our perfecter, our savior, and our king. May God help each one
of us to look only unto Jesus as we onward go. Let's sing our
final hymn this morning.
Looking Unto Jesus
Series Encouragement from God's Word
| Sermon ID | 172517840183 |
| Duration | 19:03 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 12:2 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.
