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.