Latest / Enjoying the Journey / "The Fight of Faith" by Stephen Olford | The Legacy Archive
Transcript
- 0:02Hello friends, this is Scott Pauley. I praise
- 0:05God for the preaching and teaching of the Word of God through the centuries.
- 0:10Periodically on Enjoying the Journey, we are going to be sharing
- 0:14a legacy message from the archive. These are powerful
- 0:18Bible messages given from another generation, but the eternal truth of
- 0:23the Word continues to this present hour. These, by and large, are messages
- 0:27that have not been previously heard And we're thrilled about releasing
- 0:30them. I hope you'll get the Word of God and follow along as we
- 0:33hear the Word of God preached today.
- 0:51Turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 12.
- 0:56Hebrews chapter 12 and
- 1:00those opening verses that were read to us earlier in our worship.
- 1:07My theme this morning, as has been announced, is the fight of
- 1:11faith. And while I want
- 1:15to exegete some of these verses, the thought
- 1:19I want to link together is that of thus 2 And
- 1:24verse 4, looking unto Jesus,
- 1:30the author and finisher of our faith,
- 1:34who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
- 1:38despising the shame, and is set down
- 1:42at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 1:46Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,
- 1:50striving against sin. So let's just take those phrases:
- 1:55looking unto Jesus,
- 1:58striving against sin.
- 2:02Looking unto Jesus,
- 2:04striving against
- 2:08sin. The fight of faith.
- 2:14The Epistle to the Hebrews is an anonymous epistle. Great debate
- 2:18has raged down through the centuries as to who wrote it, and that's irrelevant this
- 2:22morning. But its main thrust and theme is
- 2:26not so much the priesthood of Christ, though that is dominant throughout
- 2:31this letter, but rather the supremacy of Christ.
- 2:35The epistle opens with those great words, God who at sundry times
- 2:39and in divers manners spake in times past
- 2:43unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
- 2:47spoken unto us in his Son.
- 2:52God's last word from heaven,
- 2:55God's final word from heaven, is in Jesus Christ.
- 2:59As one great theologian has put it, Jesus Christ is God's
- 3:03conversation with men. Now, with that opening
- 3:07word The writer goes right on to show that
- 3:11our Lord Jesus Christ is utterly supreme. His word is final.
- 3:17And so you find the little word better occurring again and again throughout
- 3:21these 13 chapters. In fact, 12 times in
- 3:2413 chap— 13 chapters is the little word better.
- 3:29He is better than angels. He is better than
- 3:32Moses. He is better than Joshua.
- 3:37He is better than Aaron, and on and on.
- 3:41It's the supremacy of Christ.
- 3:45And the reason why the apostle, whoever it was who
- 3:48wrote this epistle, focuses on the supremacy of Christ
- 3:53is because this epistle is addressed to men and women who
- 3:57are being tempted to move away from the centrality
- 4:00of Christ They were going back to Judaism.
- 4:04They were going back to the sacrifices and to the ceremonies and to the
- 4:08rituals and to the temple. And Jesus Christ had transcended
- 4:12all that. And so the writer says,
- 4:15now then, you're moving away from the center.
- 4:19Come back to Jesus. And in this climactic
- 4:23verse, which follows, of course, that great, great gallery
- 4:28of the men of faith and the women of faith, in chapter 11. He says,
- 4:31looking unto Jesus. And beloved,
- 4:35I want to say that this is a tremendous burden on my heart,
- 4:38and in a sense, this is a very significant Sunday for reasons I won't
- 4:42go over now. But I want to say that as I've crisscrossed
- 4:47our country for the last nearly 3 and a half years and ministered
- 4:51in so many places around the world, I'm coming to see that one
- 4:56of the greatest fights we have to fight, and as a matter of fact,
- 4:58the fight of faith is the fight against
- 5:02everything and anyone who takes our eyes off
- 5:06the Lord Jesus. As I go run around
- 5:10churches and talk to pastors, so often the emphasis is on busing
- 5:15or on this means of evangelism or on that means of evangelism
- 5:19or that method of outreach, or it may be on tongues,
- 5:23or it may be on the charismatic movement or on Reformed theology Or
- 5:28it may be on some other things. And to me, men in ministry
- 5:32as well as our lay friends across our country and overseas
- 5:36are off at tangents, tangents,
- 5:39occupied with other things and other people and even
- 5:43other theologians instead of keeping their eyes on Jesus.
- 5:47Some are all on experience, all on experience. It's experience that
- 5:51matters, experience that matters. And so they divorce
- 5:55the Bible from the Christ. And you know what that means?
- 5:59It's bibliolatry.
- 6:02Bibliolatry. When we divorce
- 6:06Jesus from the Word, it's bibliolatry. When we divorce experience
- 6:10from the Christ, it's pneuma-horology.
- 6:15It's a harlotry in the name of the Spirit.
- 6:20And this is the sin of our age today, taking our eyes
- 6:24off the Lord Jesus. Now, if we were to exegete this very,
- 6:28very, very seriously and ask the question, what is the sin
- 6:32mentioned in verse 1? Verse 1,
- 6:36let us lay aside every weight and the sin
- 6:40which does so easily beset us. We went down to verse 4,
- 6:44ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against
- 6:48sin I suppose the most accurate answer we could come up with
- 6:52would be probably unbelief, because from chapter
- 6:552 onwards, the writer is dealing with this sin of unbelief,
- 6:59the unbelief that shut the children of Israel out of the fullness of blessing of
- 7:02Canaan so that their bodies dropped in the wilderness and bleached
- 7:07in the sun, and they never entered into the fullness of the blessing. Not even
- 7:11Moses, only Joshua and Caleb.
- 7:15And to be sure, unbelief is here
- 7:20understood, but supremely unbelief is
- 7:23the lack of faith. And the whole passage here opens
- 7:27up with that great word, without faith it is impossible
- 7:31to please God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and
- 7:36that he's the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Without faith it is impossible
- 7:40to please him. And Paul, of course, reminds us whatsoever is not
- 7:44of faith is sin. So the fight of faith is focused
- 7:49on Jesus, to keep our eyes on Jesus.
- 7:53And the clarion call I want to bring here this morning to everyone,
- 7:57to pastors, to elders, to deacons, to members, to friends,
- 8:01to young people, is this: eyes right? No.
- 8:04Eyes left? No. Eyes Christ? Yes,
- 8:10eyes on Jesus,
- 8:13who is revealed to us in his eternal infallible word,
- 8:17and our task is to keep our eyes on him. In fact,
- 8:21most of the squabbles and divisions and schisms I've met
- 8:25in churches around the country today have usually been because eyes
- 8:29have been turned away from Jesus unto a minister they don't like. Or unto an
- 8:33elder they don't particularly appreciate, or unto a deacon who's more
- 8:37of a demon than a deacon.
- 8:43Eyes on Jesus. And so my theme
- 8:46this morning is the fight of faith,
- 8:51and I want us to take it in 3 ways. I want
- 8:55us to notice that this fight of faith, first of all, is an ecstasy of
- 8:58contest. An ecstasy of contest.
- 9:02Secondly, that it's an agony of conflict.
- 9:06And thirdly, that it's a mastery of conquest.
- 9:11First of all, an ecstasy of conquest,
- 9:15for it's our Lord Jesus who's pioneered this fight. And concerning him
- 9:18we read, looking up unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
- 9:23our faith, who for the joy Who for the joy that
- 9:28was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.
- 9:33And we haven't to plumb very deeply to discover what that joy was.
- 9:36Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.
- 9:41And the joy of our Savior was the joy of obedience, the joy
- 9:45of obedience which was expressed in 2 ways. First of all, submission to
- 9:51the will of God. Submission to the will of God. That's the
- 9:55way of faith— submission to the will of God. In the language
- 9:58of prophecy, we hear concerning our Savior, lo,
- 10:01I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me to do
- 10:04thy will, O my God. Thy law is
- 10:08within my heart. As a boy of 12, he could
- 10:12look into the face of his earthly father and say,
- 10:16wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
- 10:21At the zenith of his ministry, he could remind his disciples at
- 10:25the well of Sychar, my meat, my meat is to do
- 10:28the will of him that sent me. And then
- 10:32at the climax of his ministry, as he kneeled in
- 10:36Gethsemane and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood,
- 10:40his cry was, Father, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
- 10:44pass from Nevertheless, nevertheless,
- 10:48not as I will, but as thou wilt.
- 10:56Submission to the will of God. And I
- 11:00maintain, young people, listen very carefully, you can never know the will of God in
- 11:03your life unless your eyes are focused on Jesus as revealed in
- 11:07the Word.
- 11:11Paul calls it the good and acceptable and
- 11:15perfect will. Good. Why? Because it's profitable.
- 11:19There is nothing good that can ever come into your life that isn't
- 11:22wrapped up in the will of God.
- 11:26It's the good will of God. It's the acceptable will of God. Why?
- 11:30Because it's pleasurable. Young people who seem to think that the will
- 11:33of God is something strait-laced and unhappy, I want to tell you,
- 11:37there is no happier place on earth than the center of
- 11:45It is the perfect will of God because it's purposeful.
- 11:50The purpose of your life will never find its true fulfillment.
- 11:53God's purpose for your life will never find its true fulfillment unless you're found
- 11:57in the center of the will of God, looking unto
- 12:01Jesus. Means submission to the will of God.
- 12:05And that was the joy, that was the joy that
- 12:09took Jesus to the cross. But not only the joy
- 12:13of submission to the will of God, but listen carefully, and this is so important:
- 12:18completion of the work of God.
- 12:22Completion of the work of God.
- 12:25My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. And to
- 12:29finish his work. Now it's a very interesting thing. Our Savior
- 12:32said very little about the opening of his work. Our Savior said very little about
- 12:37the continuance of his work. His emphasis was always on the completion of
- 12:41the work of the Father. My meat is to do the will of
- 12:45him that sent me and to finish his work. My Father worketh hitherto and
- 12:49I work. I must work
- 12:53the works of him that sent me. While it is day, for night cometh when
- 12:56no man can work. And I want to look across this
- 13:00audience again this morning, and I want to say right from the depths of my
- 13:04heart that once again an itinerant ministry has shown me that one of
- 13:08the most despicable sights across the religious world today is
- 13:12unfinished work. Unfinished work. And I
- 13:16want to say under this canopy where my voice has reverberated
- 13:20for many, many, many years, if there's one prayer I'm praying every day as I
- 13:24get older is that I will finish my
- 13:28work. It's great to start, it's wonderful
- 13:32to continue, but it's to finish, to finish,
- 13:36to finish. We hear so much today of short-time workers,
- 13:40short-time missionaries, of those who go out
- 13:43to start a work but never finish it. I don't believe God has a
- 13:48second best for anyone. His purpose is the best.
- 13:51And the best is a finished job.
- 13:57Finish the work. Finish the work that
- 14:01God has given you to do. Finish it. That's the joy,
- 14:04to finish it, to complete it.
- 14:08And I'm going to tell you, nothing reverberated across the universe
- 14:12like that one word in the Greek language,
- 14:16finished. And he bowed his head and dismissed his
- 14:20spirit. The great apostle who followed him could say,
- 14:24I have fought a great fight. I have finished my course.
- 14:28I have kept the faith. Finished. Dr. Bradbury there,
- 14:32bless your heart, what an honor to see you in the congregation this
- 14:35morning. He's about 103 and
- 14:40he's still going strong, and I know he wants to finish
- 14:43the work. That God has called him to do.
- 14:47Finish the work. Here is the ecstasy of contest.
- 14:52Here is the ecstasy of contest. This is the joy of getting into the
- 14:56battle. Why? The joy of submission to the will of God.
- 15:00The joy of completion of the work of God.
- 15:04But let's hurry on and let me touch something that's
- 15:09going to bite. Bite afresh into my own soul and every one of
- 15:13us. There is not only the ecstasy of contest here, but the
- 15:17agony of conflict. The agony
- 15:20of conflict. For the joy that was set before him,
- 15:24he endured the cross, despising the
- 15:28shame. And as the writer,
- 15:32consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,
- 15:36Lest ye be wearied in your minds,
- 15:39lest ye be faint in your minds.
- 15:42For ye have not yet resisted unto sin striving against sin.
- 15:47Ye have not resisted unto blood, death itself striving
- 15:51against sin. The agony of conflict.
- 15:55Now this is where so many draw the line. This is where
- 15:58so many draw back and say, no, no, not there. Not there.
- 16:03And I want to say to you precious young people here, some of you down
- 16:07from university and college and looking into the
- 16:11summer for your summer work and further decisions you have
- 16:14to be made, have to be made about your studies and careers,
- 16:18you older folk as well, listen, we're in a fight. I've got news
- 16:22for you. We're in a fight. We're in a fight, but in the language
- 16:26of Roy Putnam, we're in it to win it.
- 16:30But it's a conflict. It's a conflict.
- 16:34It's a conflict which involves shame.
- 16:37Shame for every Christian. That word shame means exposure.
- 16:41Sometimes it can lead to even embarrassment.
- 16:45Shame. Shame. But Jesus despised the shame. He endured the cross.
- 16:49Why? Why? Because he
- 16:53was in a conflict. To win.
- 16:56What was the shame? First, the shame of mental
- 17:00confrontation. The shame of mental
- 17:04confrontation. Yes,
- 17:08we're to endure, we're to endure in a world
- 17:12of contradiction. We're to endure in a world of
- 17:17confrontation. We're to endure in a world of
- 17:20collision. This was so true in the life of
- 17:24our Lord Jesus Christ, so much so that the writer says, consider him,
- 17:28weigh him up, analyze how he lived and
- 17:32endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,
- 17:35lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind.
- 17:39Now, I don't know if you've read John Stott's little book, Christ the
- 17:43Controversialist, but you need to read that
- 17:46little book to show that nobody can really follow the Lord Jesus by the
- 17:50power of an indwelling Savior and Spirit without facing that
- 17:54same contradiction. For our purpose this morning and because of time,
- 17:58may I just illustrate 3 ways in which he,
- 18:01he met his world head-on in mental confrontation.
- 18:07There was a confrontation of those who denied truth, who denied
- 18:12truth. The Sadducees, the Sadducees. My Savior and the Sadducees
- 18:16were at loggerheads all through his ministry. You see, they didn't
- 18:20believe in the supernatural. They didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in signs.
- 18:24They didn't believe in resurrection. They didn't
- 18:29believe in many of the great truths, and Jesus had to say to them,
- 18:31ye do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures or the power of God.
- 18:40Pastor Mitchell has already referred to Dr. Harold Lindell and
- 18:45his Time Making booklet. The Battle for Truth. I just
- 18:49read it through and I think it's a very solemn and timely warning.
- 18:53I wrote to him the other day and gave him my own reactions to the
- 18:57way he's handled this subject. We're at a point
- 19:01in history today and in our religious world where the
- 19:05very, very foundations of our faith are being challenged.
- 19:08And you needn't sign a statement of faith. What use is a statement
- 19:12of faith? What use is a doctrinal document?
- 19:15What use is a creed, whatever creed it is, however ancient
- 19:19it is, if we begin to challenge the very book from which all these
- 19:23creeds and statements of faith and doctrinal documents
- 19:26are derived, the Word of God? I love a game of
- 19:30golf, and I know golf well enough
- 19:33to know this, that when I pause on that first
- 19:37tee and address my ball, You who are watching me, unless you're very
- 19:41perceptive or a pro, may not see whether or not
- 19:44at the point of impact I've actually slightly pulled
- 19:49or slightly sliced my ball. It won't appear
- 19:53at the point of contact or impact. But I tell you,
- 19:56150 to 200 yards away,
- 20:00it'll become very evident.
- 20:04We've got to come back to the word of God, its authority,
- 20:09its inerrancy, its infallibility, its absolute
- 20:13reliability, and what we cannot argue because of the
- 20:17many intellectual problems that we all agree stand
- 20:21here. We wait until faith gives place to sight,
- 20:25and we ask our Lord about it. We accept
- 20:29by faith what the Word of God has to say on reasonable
- 20:33grounds, just as we accept everything else that the Bible says
- 20:37concerning the doctrines of our salvation.
- 20:41But we're going to find this in an increasing measure across the country
- 20:45today— those who deny the truth.
- 20:49But not only those who deny the truth, those who distort the truth.
- 20:52These were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were legalists,
- 20:56vishal separatists. But they were fundamentalists. But their
- 21:00problem was that they allowed their traditions, their systems of theology if you
- 21:03like, so to straddle the
- 21:07word of God, straddle the word of God, that instead,
- 21:11instead of exalting the word of God,
- 21:15they made the word of God of none effect. Ye have transgressed
- 21:19the commandment of the Lord, and by your traditions you have made the
- 21:22word of God of none effect. And I'm bothered at the people
- 21:26who raise these systems of theology that straitjacket
- 21:30the Holy Spirit and straitjacket the doctrine of God and
- 21:34of salvation to their own ways of interpretation instead, instead of
- 21:37taking the Bible exactly as God intended us to take it
- 21:42and distorting the Word of God. But I think one of
- 21:46the most sad confrontations was not only the confrontation with
- 21:50those who deny the word, who distort the
- 21:53word, but his own disciples who diluted
- 21:57the word. You remember how Peter, having announced that
- 22:01Jesus Christ was the Son of the Living God, heard the Savior
- 22:04speak about the cross and of going all the way, all the way,
- 22:08all the way in doing the will of God, all the way in doing the
- 22:11will of God. And Peter stood back and said, Lord,
- 22:15far be it from you. This shall not be unto you. You're not going
- 22:19to go that way. And Jesus had to turn around to his beloved disciple
- 22:23who had said in fundamental language that he was the Christ,
- 22:26the Son of the Living God. Get behind me, Satan,
- 22:30for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but that be of man.
- 22:34And I'm worried about people in churches packed right here today who
- 22:38say, yeah, yes, yes, we're fundamentalists, but don't go
- 22:42too far, don't go too far. Don't preach that total commitment,
- 22:46that total abandonment life. Don't preach resisting
- 22:49unto blood, striving against sin. We're living in another day.
- 22:53Take it easy. Hold back. Those who dilute the Word
- 22:57of God. It's a
- 23:01conflict. A conflict of mental
- 23:05confrontation. And you've got to have your wits about you.
- 23:08So much about it's been the heart, you know, the heart. The subjective.
- 23:12Use your intelligence. Use your intelligence and challenge
- 23:16anything that dilutes the word of God, anything that distorts the word of God,
- 23:20anything that denies the word of God.
- 23:23And be not weary or faint in your mind in so doing. The agony
- 23:27of conflict. But the agony of conflict involves not only the shame
- 23:31of moral confrontation, but the shame of moral alienation.
- 23:36For the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Lord Jesus Christ to fight
- 23:41sin meant the cross. To fight sin meant the cross. He became obedient
- 23:45unto death, even the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus would
- 23:49not compromise with sin. He would not compromise
- 23:52with sin. He took it to the cross and he nailed it there. And he
- 23:57says to us today, strive even unto blood against
- 24:02sin. And I want to say that we're living in
- 24:07a permissive age. We're living in a relativistic
- 24:10age. We're living in an hour of tolerance.
- 24:14We're living in an hour of compromise. We're living in an hour
- 24:18of negotiation. No longer confrontation, but negotiation.
- 24:21And all that's happening in the world is seeping into the church,
- 24:25and we're beginning to find ways to be with it, to compromise,
- 24:29to join hands with our enemies, to talk it over
- 24:32and to try and determine terms of peace.
- 24:36I want to tell you that's totally unbiblical. We are to resist
- 24:41unto blood striving against sin.
- 24:46And that's going to mean moral alienation.
- 24:49People are going to talk about the self-righteous off-putting people.
- 24:53They're going to talk about the way you're smug, They're going to talk about your
- 24:57separated life. They're going to talk about the way you will not walk in the
- 25:01way of the ungodly, as we heard, nor stand in the way of sinners,
- 25:04nor sit in the seat of the scornful. But I want to tell you,
- 25:07the blessed man is the way who goes just that way.
- 25:11The conflict of moral alienation.
- 25:18And as the time draws near for our Savior to return, you're going to have
- 25:21more cold shoulders than ever before. Jesus never said we're
- 25:24going to be loved by the world. He said, in the world you shall have
- 25:27tribulation. The day will come when even religious people who
- 25:31don't hold the view you do will slay you and think that they're doing the
- 25:34will of God. This is the fight of
- 25:38faith, the ecstasy of contest,
- 25:43submission to the will of God, completion of the work of
- 25:46God, the agony of conflict Moral confrontation,
- 25:51moral alienation, mental confrontation, moral alienation,
- 25:56right through to the very end, striving against sin.
- 26:03But I want to tell you something. There's a beautiful, beautiful close to this.
- 26:07I'm calling it the mastery of conquest.
- 26:10The mastery of conquest. For going back to verse 2, we read,
- 26:14looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
- 26:18that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
- 26:21and is set down at the
- 26:25right hand of the throne of God. And is set
- 26:29down at the right hand of the throne of God. This pioneer
- 26:33of faith who fought the fight of faith right through to the throne of God
- 26:36is now set down and is reigning.
- 26:41And you know what the mastery conquest is? I'll tell
- 26:45you. To share his rest,
- 26:49to share his reign. To share his rest,
- 26:53to share his reign. It means the mastery of resting
- 26:57in Christ. The mastery of resting in Christ.
- 27:00You know, he has sat down at the right hand of God, and that's
- 27:04a very significant phrase in a book that interprets the Old Testament
- 27:07as this book does. The book of Hebrews. You know, throughout the old economy,
- 27:12no priest was ever allowed to sit down on duty. Never,
- 27:15never, never. As he served in the tabernacle and later in the temple,
- 27:18he was always standing, always standing. If he ever sat on duty,
- 27:22he was slain immediately. The penalty was
- 27:25death. He had to stand because he was looking on to
- 27:30a work that was yet to be completed. But when the Lord Jesus
- 27:36having purged our sins by the shedding of his most precious blood, he sat
- 27:41down. His work was complete.
- 27:44By faith we enter into that completed work and we rest with
- 27:48him. And the very Hebrew writer tells us, he that hath entered
- 27:52into his rest hath ceased from his own works. Now of course that rest
- 27:56isn't inactivity, it's not passivity, never,
- 27:59because right alongside of that very verse He that hath entered into rest
- 28:03has ceased from his own works. Comes the other word,
- 28:06strive to enter in.
- 28:09This is the rest of trusting the Lord Jesus for what I can't
- 28:13do. This is the rest,
- 28:16my friends, of knowing that we're on the victory side. You know,
- 28:19when the children of Israel went into Canaan, there were many, many enemies and
- 28:24there were wars and conflicts. But when every city was conquered and Joshua
- 28:28had declared that the country, the land was theirs. You remember
- 28:32it's recorded the land had rest from war.
- 28:36That didn't mean to say there wasn't any more fighting. Oh no, but it meant
- 28:40that they were at peace, at rest, and ever moved from the position
- 28:44of strength knowing they could rest in their conqueror, even Joshua.
- 28:49I love those words. They mean a lot to me this morning. My Savior,
- 28:52thou hast offered rest Then give it now to me,
- 28:56the rest of ceasing from myself to find
- 29:00my all in thee.
- 29:04But not only the rest, the reign.
- 29:08Not only sharing his rest, but sharing his reign.
- 29:12And I'm talking about a reign today, not tomorrow.
- 29:17Not only resting in Christ, but reigning in Christ. One day
- 29:20we're going to reign with him, but today we can reign
- 29:24in him. Romans tells us in chapter 5 that
- 29:28we're united to a Savior so that we reign by one Jesus Christ
- 29:33in life, in life. And you know, to share his
- 29:37resurrection life by the indwelling Holy Spirit is to have an
- 29:41authority here upon earth. That's what Jesus meant when he said, all authority is given
- 29:45unto me in heaven and in earth. It's an authority to direct divine
- 29:50It's an authority to destroy demonic power. It's an authority
- 29:53to exercise our gifts here upon earth and do a job
- 29:57for Jesus Christ in preaching the gospel and living out in the home,
- 30:01in the kitchen, in the office, on campus, living out
- 30:05the reigning life of Jesus Christ as we stand
- 30:09under his authority, our reigning Lord.
- 30:12The fight of faith is an ecstasy of
- 30:17of contest, the joy of doing the will of God and finishing his
- 30:21work, the agony of conflict with that mental confrontation
- 30:26to be sure, and that moral alienation to be sure,
- 30:30but the mastery of conquest,
- 30:34of resting in Christ, reigning in Christ, under his
- 30:39authority, under his lordship.
- 30:44The question then is, how do we look to Jesus?
- 30:48For our text is looking unto Jesus, looking unto
- 30:53Jesus. Just a moment and you got it.
- 30:56Looking unto Jesus, my friend,
- 31:00means this, means the focus
- 31:04of faith. It's a faith which
- 31:08is focused. Faith which is focused.
- 31:11This is a very interesting Greek word. In this particular form, it only occurs
- 31:15here. Looking unto Jesus means that your vision of
- 31:19Jesus is so concentrated that everything else
- 31:23is eliminated. You zero in, as we say today. You zero
- 31:26in. You zoom in on him and everything
- 31:30else is excluded.
- 31:34Eyes on Jesus. Eyes on Jesus.
- 31:39This morning I'm inviting you to zero in on him.
- 31:44Not on me, not on personalities, on him.
- 31:48On him. Faith must be
- 31:51focused. It's a focused faith. But more than that, it must
- 31:55be a faithful faith. Do you
- 31:59see how that verse starts? Looking unto Jesus, the author
- 32:03and finisher of faith. The more we look at Jesus, something happens
- 32:07through the Word of God and by the Spirit of God. Through the Word of
- 32:11God and by the Spirit of God, in obedience to the Word of God,
- 32:14in obedience to the Spirit of God, faith is strengthened because faith
- 32:18cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That's grasping the scriptures.
- 32:23But the fruit of the Spirit is faith. The fruit of the Spirit is faith.
- 32:26So you have the grasp of the scriptures and the grace of the Spirit to
- 32:31keep our eyes on Jesus in faithfulness, and faith grows stronger
- 32:34and stronger. Faith becomes more and more full, faithful,
- 32:37as we focus on him. It's a focused faith. It's a faithful
- 32:41faith. But more than that, listen, it's a forward faith.
- 32:45He's gone on and we're looking on. And do you know where that
- 32:49faith is going to bring us? It's going to bring us to the climax of
- 32:53all history. For our Lord Jesus Christ who went to
- 32:57Calvary was highly exalted by the Father and a day is going to come when
- 33:01every tongue is going to name him Lord. Every knee
- 33:04is going to bow to him in heaven and on earth and,
- 33:08and he, Jesus, is going to be called
- 33:12Lord of all to the glory of God
- 33:16the Father. The name that belongs to Jesus, which is
- 33:19the name Lord, is going to be declared all over the universe.
- 33:23There's a danger today of using that word Jesus
- 33:26without recognizing that he is Lord.
- 33:31You know, that's the day I'm waiting for. For not only everybody in this
- 33:35congregation this morning, not only everybody over radio, but every
- 33:39single demon, every single demon Every single
- 33:42demon is going to call him Lord, and the loudest voice of all,
- 33:46in all probability, is going to be Satan. Satan, who has opposed
- 33:50and fought our Lord all through the centuries, is going to call
- 33:54him Lord, and the universe is going to call him Lord.
- 34:00You can call him Lord here this morning because our forward
- 34:04look to Jesus is going to see him there. Lord of
- 34:09all. The fight of
- 34:14faith. Are you prepared this morning
- 34:18to enlist in this fight, this contest,
- 34:22this conflict, this conquest?
- 34:26May I ask you to focus your eyes on him,
- 34:30and by the Word of God and the Spirit of God,
- 34:34To move in with faithfulness to him, and then with that
- 34:38forward look, await that day when you will call him
- 34:42with all others Lord. But start tonight,
- 34:45start today, start right now,
- 34:49and make him Lord. Undisputed, unqualified,
- 34:52unrivaled Lord. Let us pray.
- 35:07For those of you who have never trusted Christ as your personal Savior
- 35:11listening to me on radio or right here in this audience,
- 35:14salvation comes when you look to Jesus.
- 35:18As you look, you'll live. The look of faith,
- 35:22focusing on him as the only Savior.
- 35:25And Lord of your life. But for the multitude of
- 35:30others who've come here this morning, and perhaps you've been caught up
- 35:35in irrelevancies, in accessories,
- 35:39in things and people who really don't matter.
- 35:43Perhaps you've been obsessed with your own problems,
- 35:46your sickness, your weakness, your bank
- 35:51balance, your career, and a hundred and other things,
- 35:56and you haven't had your eyes on him.
- 36:00I'm going to ask you this morning, if God has spoken to you and
- 36:04you're prepared to join me in this fight of faith, resisting even
- 36:08unto blood, striving against sin, which is the
- 36:12sin of taking your eyes off Jesus,
- 36:16Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Taking your eyes off Jesus and you're
- 36:20coming back to that focused look at him to be maintained
- 36:25daily through the word and by the Spirit and the means of grace and the
- 36:29church fellowship. And you're making your commitment and you're saying,
- 36:32Lord, I want to be included in that. I want
- 36:36to be included in that. This is my response. I'm going to ask you to
- 36:39quietly stand to your feet right now in this audience. Say, Lord,
- 36:42here's my life. I'm focusing on Jesus.
- 36:46I'm doing it right now. Would you just rise to your feet right now?
- 36:49God bless you. Yes, God bless you. Just rise.
- 36:53You there on radio, wherever you are, you do the same.
- 36:57Just rise and then sit down. Just rise and sit down.
- 37:01Yes, God bless you.
- 37:05God bless you, sir. God bless you. God bless
- 37:09you. Anywhere else? Just stand to your feet.
- 37:12Yes, praise God. Praise God.
- 37:17Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Yes,
- 37:20praise God. God bless you.
- 37:23Yes. Yes, anywhere else?
- 37:27Just quietly stand and say, Lord, eyes on
- 37:32you. And that's where I'm going to stand. God bless you. God bless you.
- 37:36God bless you. Yes. God bless you all over.
- 37:39Yes. Praise God. One more moment.
- 37:44Still on the air, and I'm making this appeal to all who listen.
- 37:47Write in and tell us that you've made your commitment. Father,
- 37:50we thank thee in the name of the Lord Jesus for this tremendous response
- 37:55from hearts and lives. And we ask
- 37:59that all of us, including myself, will refocus our
- 38:05eyes upon Jesus. Make him
- 38:09the center of our focus in the Word, through the Spirit,
- 38:13in our service, fighting the fight of faith with the ecstasy
- 38:17of contest, agony of conflict, but the mastery
- 38:21of conquest. That we shall know that rest
- 38:25and reign in Christ to be enjoyed right here and now.
- 38:29We ask it for Jesus' sake.
- 38:40Thank you for listening to this Bible message from the Legacy Archives.
- 38:44You can find more Bible messages like this in our library at etj.bible.
- 38:49That's etj.bible. And we hope you'll join us for the daily devotional
- 38:55broadcast and Weekend Pulpit each week. God bless you.