Good morning, saints. Today, I’ll be seated with Christ in the heavenly places as I share. These old knees just will not do it anymore. I can walk around, but standing still locks them up.
We are so grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. What else can you say? Blessed assurance—isn’t it so good to have that assurance? There are times in our lives when doubts creep in and the enemy whispers in our ears. But blessed assurance: the Lord is faithful to keep us.
Lord, we are grateful to Thee. You are the Word, Lord Jesus. Open our ears to hear the Word this morning. Speak, Lord. Grant me the ability to share these thoughts that are on my heart, thoughts that I really believe came from You.
Lord Jesus, we look to You today. What could we do without Thee? We cannot even hear Your Word without the assistance of the Holy Spirit. We come under the Spirit’s rule and control this morning, looking unto Thee to open our ears and our eyes to see Jesus. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.
I will be sharing on this matter of faith this morning. There are two theme verses with which I will begin.
One is Hebrews 12:2:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
The second Scripture is Romans 1:17. Kenny recently shared in this area:
The just shall live by faith.
The just shall live by faith. How are you living today? Are you living off what you eat physically, what you encounter in the world, what you gain? Or are you living by faith? It is a critical issue in the life of every Christian, and we need to know what faith is.
Lord, we just thank You and praise You. Lord, I pray that we would be a real people of faith. I remember the man who was so desperate over the condition of his son, coming to You, and You said to him, “Believe. Believe, just believe. All things are possible.”
And he said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Lord, he knew he was not there. He knew he did not have it, but he knew he so desperately needed it: faith in You. Lord Jesus, increase our faith, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I need to say this morning that the inspiration for this message on faith really came from A. W. Tozer, a dear saint in the Lord. Many who have read his works know how precious this brother is. It was in his book The Pursuit of God, in a chapter called “The Gaze of the Soul.”
I would encourage all of you, sometime this afternoon, to go to your phone or computer and search for “A. W. Tozer, The Gaze of the Soul.” It will probably come up, and you can read it for yourself. It is a short message, but very powerful. I encourage you to read it.
We have also been considering this matter of faith in the book of Romans, and Kenneth has touched on this. As I looked into this matter of faith, I was impressed that when you come to the book of Romans, faith is Paul’s opening salvo to the Roman church.
He said that their faith was spoken of throughout the world. Their faith was known throughout all the known world at that time. That is an amazing statement. So powerful was the faith in the assembly in Rome that it affected the assemblies all over the world at that time.
Paul says in Romans 1 that he had been wanting to come to Rome but had not yet been able to make it. Yet he had a great desire to come and share the gospel with them. He makes this point: the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
Then he says:
The just shall live by faith.
In other words, he is trying to get across how important faith is in relation to righteousness. He is saying that you can never establish a righteousness of your own before God. There are no righteous deeds that can bring you into acceptability with God.
There is a righteousness that can only come by faith. Of course, that faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who becomes our righteousness when we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Himself.
Praise the Lord. It was mentioned this morning that we have a righteous robe which can never be dulled or tarnished in any way, even by the failures in our own life, because it is the righteousness of Christ Himself with which we have been robed.
Of course, we need to be a righteous people—do not get me wrong. But thank the Lord, we do have a righteousness that is acceptable before God. When He looks at you, you need to know that what He is looking at is Christ, your righteousness.
That is why you can appear before God. That is why you can be acceptable: only in Christ, in His righteousness. The point is that it is by faith. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
This morning, let us begin by looking at the absolute necessity of faith in the Christian life. I will read quite a number of Scriptures, but you will get the point.
Romans 3:28 says:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
In other words, brothers and sisters, the only way you can be just before God is through faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not in your own works.
Romans 5:1-2 says:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By Whom also we have access by faith into this grace.
Brothers and sisters, faith is so essential. If you want to have peace with God, it will only come through your faith in Christ Jesus. You can have access into all of God’s grace, but it is always by faith.
Acts 26:18 says:
That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.
In other words, brothers and sisters, you have been set apart. Through the action of faith, you are set apart, receive forgiveness of sins, and will receive an inheritance.
Ephesians 2:8 says:
For by grace are ye saved through faith.
That is a verse we all know. It is only through faith.
Ephesians 3:17 says:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
What would it be like now that you know Christ in your heart not to have Him there? But the point is that He dwells there. He dwells in your life. It is by faith.
Galatians 3:26 says:
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:14 says:
That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Second Corinthians 1:24 says:
For by faith ye stand.
Brothers and sisters, oftentimes we find ourselves crumbling, but if faith is there, we can stand.
Second Corinthians 5:7 says:
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We walk by faith every day. It is a walk of faith.
James 1:6, speaking of prayer, says:
Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
Prayer is a matter of faith—so essential.
First John 5:4 says:
This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Hebrews 11:6 is a powerful verse:
Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Often, I think we come to the Lord and do not realize that He is the rewarder. In other words, He is pleased to reward us. He is pleased to give to us, brothers and sisters. But I think we often limit the Lord because we think, “Well, I am coming to the Lord, but I am not worthy to be here.”
You begin looking at yourself instead of at Him, and you take away the fact of the great Rewarder Who stands before you.
Romans 1:17 wraps it up well:
The just shall live by faith.
Brothers and sisters, we are exhorted as Christians to live our entire life by faith. Faith is a governing factor in the Christian life, and it is absolutely essential.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, brothers and sisters, there is no salvation, no sanctification, no justification, no peace with God. Christ is not in your heart. You stand and walk by faith. How can you walk in this spiritual life if you do not have faith?
To the spiritual life, faith is like breathing to our physical life. If you stop breathing, you may be able to hold your breath for a little while, but eventually you will pass away. You have to breathe. In the spiritual life, there has to be faith.
Our faith is not in ourselves, of course. It is in Him, Who is our life. Without faith, you cannot please God. There is no approach to God, no forgiveness, no salvation, no reconciliation, no communion—there is no spiritual life at all without faith.
Our brother T. Austin-Sparks once said:
Do we not have to daily, continually by faith, appropriate His life? What we are in ourselves by our natural nature, we will be to the end of our life. But what we are by grace and faith is quite another thing.
In other words, brothers and sisters, if we do not live by faith, we are living in the old creation and in the old life. We are not literally living in the kingdom. But by faith, we live in newness of life in Christ Jesus.
Well, what is faith? If it is so vitally important and so indispensable, I think we should know what it is. And do we have it? Do we know what it is, and do we have it?
From the verse we just read in Hebrews 11:6:
Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe.
Remember our brother Abraham. Paul refers to him as the father of faith. Romans 4:3 says:
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Romans 10:8-9 says:
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Brothers and sisters, the key word in all these verses is believe. We must believe. Abraham believed. We believe in our heart, and we gain salvation.
You might conclude that faith is believing. Many theologians say that faith is implicit trust in God—taking God at His Word, confidence in the trustworthiness of God, trusting and believing in His promises. This is all true.
But we need to clarify something here and know what faith is. All these things are actions of faith or results of faith. They are not the essence of faith. Do you get what I am trying to say?
Believing and trusting are actions of faith. When faith is there, we believe, and things happen. I will clarify that a little more in a moment.
When faith is there, God is working in you; God is speaking to you. The Word says that faith is nigh thee. The word of faith is even in your mouth and in your heart. We exercise that faith when it comes by believing.
When we have faith, we put it into action through believing. They are so closely linked that you really cannot separate them.
Have we yet discovered what faith is? There is one Scripture, Hebrews 11:1, that seems to define faith:
Now faith is the substantiating, or assurance, of things hoped for, the firm conviction of things not seen.
When we have faith, we have assurance of things for which we are hoping. Therefore, spiritually, you have them because you have that assurance, though you may not yet possess them.
Abraham is a perfect example. Hebrews 11:9-10 says that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise:
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
That is faith in action. He sojourned in the land of promise, and he was looking for that city, but he never actually possessed it physically or saw it physically. He saw it spiritually.
John saw that city as well, and we see it in the book of Revelation. John, as best as he can, tries to describe what that city is and what it looks like. But Abraham was also given a glimpse of this city, and it so attracted him that he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Hebrews says he went out by faith, not knowing. So, brothers and sisters, believing, assurance, and conviction of things not seen are all things that occur when faith is working and in operation.
But this verse does not really tell us the essence of faith. It assumes the presence of faith and shows us what it results in rather than what it is. Some things you have to see in their outworking in order to understand them.
Thomas à Kempis was a fifteenth-century saint during the medieval period. He wrote one of the most famous devotional books, The Imitation of Christ. Our brother once said:
I had rather exercise faith than know the definition.
It is apparent, if you really think about it, that the essence of faith has to come from God Himself. It has to be out of God. It is a virtue of God. It is part of the life of God Himself. It is an expression of His life.
Faith is similar to love, and I think this will help us all. In 1 Corinthians 13, we have the chapter on love. But when you look at this chapter on love, it says:
Love suffereth long, and envieth not;
Love seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth.
All these are results of love. They are the outworking of love. They are not the essence of love. So, what is the essence of love?
First John 4:8 tells us plainly:
God is love.
That is the essence of God. He is the essence of love. It is amazing. Do you want to know where love is? You will never know what it is unless you know God.
A lot of people are searching for love, and you will never find love outside of God—not the love that suffers long, envies not, seeks not its own, and is not easily provoked. You will never find love anywhere else, and you will never have it apart from God and Christ Himself.
The Bible, of course, does not say that God is faith. But it does say that many gifts will pass away, while faith, hope, and love will remain. Love is the greatest of these.
I think this is because love is the motivational energy—the motivation of God behind all that He is and all that He does. It is the essence of God Himself. Love is part of all the virtues of God. When we speak of His righteousness, how glorious it is: it is all based in love.
Faith is very similar, brothers and sisters. The essence of faith is out of God. So, where does faith come from? You can figure that out: it really is from God.
That is important because if faith is from God, then you cannot work it up yourself. So many people struggle with faith because they are trying to work it up. They know how important it is, and they are trying to work it out: “Lord, give me faith, give me faith.”
It is fine to pray that way, but if you are trying to work it up, it will never happen.
Galatians 2:20 says:
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
It is important: it does not say, “I live by my faith,” does it? It says, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” It is the faith of the Son of God that you apprehend and by which you live. We do not live by our faith. We cannot generate it, brothers and sisters.
Ephesians 2:8 says:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
How do we get faith? How do we get it?
Romans 10:8 says:
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Then Romans 10:17 says:
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes from God. It is when you hear God that faith comes.
Faith is not far from you. It is near you, even in your mouth. If you will just open your mouth, He says it is even in your heart. Just believe.
It is interesting: the Greek word for “word” in “the word is nigh thee” and “the word of faith” is rhema. It is a living word. It is a word spoken to you.
The Bible itself is logos. This is the Word of God, and in Greek it is called logos. It is the written Word of God, and thank God for it. But, brothers and sisters, without the Spirit, it never comes alive.
What does Christ say? The letter kills, but the Spirit behind the Word brings life. So, it is a living word that comes to you. When we are speaking about the word of faith, it is a living word. It speaks to you, to your heart. It is near you. Only believe.
When you have rhema, it is more than just receiving understanding. When you receive rhema from the Lord, it gives you life. The Spirit gives you life, not just understanding. Yes, you receive understanding, but it also does something in your spirit.
You may be praying about a matter, and often, as you are praying, the Lord just speaks to your heart, does He not? That is rhema. That is a living word.
Many times, as you are in prayer before the Lord about something, He gives you a Scripture and makes it very living to you. That is rhema. It builds faith in your heart, and you say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
When the Lord is speaking to you a word of faith, it is near you. It is not far away. He says it is even in your mouth, but you are going to have to say it.
If you believe and confess with your mouth, and believe in your heart, the word of faith is there. You need to respond, “I believe.” That is faith in action. Faith is put into action.
I repeat once again: where does faith come from, and how do we get it? I want us to look at Hebrews 12:2, our theme verse:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
That is where faith comes from: by looking at Jesus, by keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus.
As we opened this morning, we were singing that song, “Emmanuel,” and it went through all the virtues of our Lord Jesus Christ and Who He is. My heart was lifted. I think yours was too. Faith was there. Faith was pumping out because it put our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is one reason, brothers and sisters, whenever we assemble together, we take at least a short time to look unto Him. Particularly when we come to pray, we begin by looking off unto Him. He is the Author and Finisher of your faith.
Are you going to pray? He is the Author and Finisher of the faith needed for prayer. How are you going to walk through this life every day and live in it? It is by faith, by looking off to Him.
Faith is not a once-and-done thing. You do not exercise faith once and then it is all over. You do not ever have to be concerned about it again. Faith is always seeking, always pursuing, always acquiring.
Every aspect of our life is affected by whether there is faith or not. We as Christians have to learn to live by faith and not just by our own reasoning.
A. W. Tozer said:
Let faith support us when reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.
Let me repeat that:
Let faith support us when reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.
That is A. W. Tozer, a dear brother.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct thy paths.
In all things, acknowledge Him. In other words, you are looking off to Him, are you not? And He shall direct your paths.
The Lord is the Author and beginning of your faith. It comes from Him. It is out of His life, brothers and sisters, and it is the only place you will ever find it. He is the beginning of your faith.
He is also the Finisher of your faith—the Completer of your faith. Faith in your life needs to grow, and it grows through exercising it. As you do, you will be strengthened in faith, and your faith will become more mature.
He has promised, brothers and sisters, that He will complete that faith in you. Is that not wonderful? You may say, “Lord, I do not really have much faith,” but get your eyes back on the Lord. He says, “You may have little faith, but I will take that little faith, and it will grow.”
Everything in the spiritual life is accomplished through faith. Sometimes we know our faith can be wounded. Things happen that we do not understand. Sometimes we get offended at the Lord. What happens? Faith begins to sink and becomes weak.
Somebody described it like a boat being loaded full of faith. But if you punch a hole in the boat, what happens? The boat begins to sink. That does happen to us.
But how, brothers and sisters, is faith restored? How is our faith strengthened once again? It is by looking off unto Jesus, I guarantee you. Looking off unto Jesus is faith in action. It is telling God that you believe Him.
When we get down spiritually, most of the time we are looking at ourselves, are we not? How much of our Christian life is spent looking at ourselves? We say what we ought to be, and we know that, brothers and sisters. But if you continually look at yourself, I will tell you this much: you will punch a hole in that boat.
Faith will wane. You are looking for something in yourself to build your life on. You cannot have faith in yourself. Faith can only be exercised in God. Brothers and sisters, that is how our faith is restored.
I cannot tell you how discouraged and down-and-out I often get. It is all simple: it is because I am looking down. I am looking in here. I am looking for something that is acceptable.
Brothers and sisters, the Word of God is so clear: there is nothing in here acceptable. Christ is the only thing in your life that is acceptable. That is where we have to keep our eyes—on the Lord Jesus.
You will never live a joyful life if you spend it looking in the wrong place. Brothers and sisters, keep your eyes on Jesus.
Looking off unto Jesus is believing. It is believing in Him—believing Who He is, believing what He has done, what He has accomplished on the cross, and believing what He can do. Our faith rises up when we look off to Him.
Oh, how vital looking off to Jesus is to our life.
Where we keep the eyes of our heart focused will determine whether we have a vibrant, fruitful, joyful life in Christ or whether we live a weak, laborious, struggling Christian life, brothers and sisters.
Colossians 3:1 says:
Keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
Is that where your eyes are?
When we experience difficulties in our life—sometimes horrendous difficulties, things we cannot explain—we ask, “Why would something like this happen to me?” Brothers and sisters, you have to get your eyes off that issue and onto the Lord.
Then you can look back at that issue through the eyes of the Lord. Faith will be strengthened in your heart in the midst of the most terrible circumstances, but you have to keep your eyes fixed on Him. That is faith. That is believing in Him.
Let me share the example that Tozer shared. I think it is so helpful.
First, we need to look at an example of faith in action. I will read from Numbers 21:4-9. You need this background.
Israel had gone through the Red Sea and was in the wilderness:
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
The Lord was angry at their lack of faith and their response to His goodness in delivering them and bringing them out. He sent fiery serpents in judgment among them, and they bit the people, and the people were dying.
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
Praise the Lord, they recognized that they had sinned.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
That was the cure for their sin. They had to look on the serpent of brass.
Now let us look in the Gospel of John, chapter 3. I am going to read verses 3, 12, and 14-16, because Jesus refers to this incident when He is talking to Nicodemus.
John 3:3 says:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus did not understand. In John 3:12, Jesus said:
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Then John 3:14-16 says:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus was explaining this to Nicodemus because Nicodemus was concerned about being able to enter the kingdom. He said there is only one way to enter the kingdom. There is only one way of salvation from sin, and that is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tozer did such a good job explaining this. That is why I want you to read it. He says Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus how to be saved and how to come into the kingdom of God: “You must believe in your heart.”
Then He uses the serpent in the wilderness to explain it. Remember what happened with the serpent in the wilderness. He said, “If you look upon it”—the key word is look—“you will be healed.”
What is He saying? Looking upon Jesus is the same as believing in Jesus in your heart. Looking upon Jesus is the same as believing Jesus in your heart.
Looking upon the Old Testament serpent with physical eyes is synonymous with believing in the heart upon the New Testament Christ, brothers and sisters.
Some may ask, “Why was it a brass serpent that they had to look upon? Jesus is not a serpent.” But remember, that brass serpent was taking on the sins of the people so that they would not die.
It is a type of Christ on the cross, when He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. That is why the type used is that of a serpent. Christ became sin for us.
You need to look upon the Sin-Bearer, and you will be saved. Looking upon Jesus is like believing in Him.
Psalm 34:5 says:
They looked unto Him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
They looked upon Him.
Psalm 123:1-2 says:
Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes,
O Thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,
So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us.
Where were David’s eyes fixed until God had mercy? They were upon the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, may I say this? His eyes were not fixed on mercy. His eyes were fixed on the Lord, from Whom mercy comes. Do you see the difference? How critical faith is.
It is looking upon the One Who can give mercy, not upon mercy itself. “Lord, I am looking for mercy. I am looking for mercy.” Look at the Lord. Look at the Merciful One. “Lord, You are merciful. I look upon You.”
Think of the Lord Jesus Himself. He was always looking up to the Father, was He not?
In Matthew 14:19, when He fed the five thousand:
He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves; and they did all eat.
After the Last Supper, on the way to the garden, we read in John 5:19-20:
The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth.
“I can do nothing of Myself, but what I see the Father do.” He was continuously looking up to the Father.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus lived by faith. It was a life of faith. His eyes were continually on the Father, and how strong He was in His faith.
We are to live a life of faith, brothers and sisters. We know from the Word of God that it is through faith that we are transformed into His image. Our life as Christians should be a continuous life of faith.
The theme verse, Hebrews 12:2, says that we run life’s race by continually looking off to the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Faith is like the eye which sees everything in front of it, but the eye never sees itself. The eye of faith is always looking in front of it; it never sees itself.
Faith is the least self-regarding virtue and is scarcely conscious of its own existence. Faith becomes like breathing; it should be that way. You unconsciously exercise faith without noticing it.
Faith is always occupied with the object upon which it is looking and pays no attention to itself. While we are looking upon Jesus, we do not see ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, that is a great blessing. That is our deliverance from our continual struggle with ourselves, our lack of being Christ-like, and our failures. The only way to get through this struggle is the blessing of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Lord and not ourselves.
Oh, brothers and sisters, how much you will be strengthened. What a relief to look away from ourselves, from our problems, from our circumstances, from our issues, and from the people who bother us.
Brothers and sisters, look unto Jesus. That is where we will learn to live in this world. Do not look at yourself. Look at the Perfect One, as our brother said.
Do you think what I am saying is true? Is this just Jerry talking, encouraging you to look away?
Second Corinthians 3:18 says:
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We are changed from glory to glory by looking upon the Lord.
It is true that we see through a glass dimly. We do not see all yet. But just a glimpse of Who He is—His glory—changes us. That is the secret of being transformed, brothers and sisters.
As I read this article by our brother Tozer, it really encouraged me. At that point, I was looking a lot at myself, at my condition, and saying, “Woe is me.” But, brothers and sisters, it so lifted me. I was encouraged by this simple thought of looking off to Jesus.
James 3:17 says:
The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated.
Looking off to Jesus is returning to the simplicity of Christ. I have always wondered exactly what it means to return to the simplicity of Christ. It is simply looking off unto Jesus.
We make faith such a complicated thing. We think we have to work it up. But it is not complicated; it is simple. It is looking off to the Author and Finisher of your faith. It is keeping your eyes upon Him.
Tozer put it this way: the gaze of our soul upon Him. The gaze of our soul upon Him.
I think our Bible study, prayer, meditation, worship, fellowship, every form of ministry, and all our activities in the Christian life are to be done in faith.
We may ask, “How can that be? How can it always be in faith? What does it mean?” I think it means that behind all these activities in our Christian life, the thing that gives them subsistence, life, and meaning is that, as we are doing them, the eyes of our heart are fixed upon Jesus.
Let me give you an example. We come together for prayer, and we are praying about something. We may be praying about somebody being healed. Our eyes tend to go to the healing. We are focusing on the healing. We say, “Lord, I am focused on this. I am focusing on what I see as the outcome.”
Often, we do not sense any faith there. What we should be focusing on is the Healer.
The Lord Himself. We have faith in the Lord that He is going to take care of us, even in our illnesses. We believe in the Lord Jesus. Our eyes are upon Him as the One Who can keep us.
Our eyes are upon Him, brothers and sisters, because He is faithful and loves us. Even if we are not healed, we know that He has a reason. He is working in our life to accomplish something that cannot be worked any other way.
So, even as we are praying about other matters, our faith and the eyes of our heart need to be focused on Him. I hope that helps.
I think of our worship time together. This was a great example our brother used. He said that a hundred pianos tuned to the same tuning fork are automatically tuned to each other.
When we come together for worship, if our eyes are tuned to the same tuning fork, which is Jesus Christ—if our eyes are upon Him—then, brothers and sisters, we will be in harmony with one another.
We will be able to worship as an orchestra, not as individual instruments tooting their horns here and there. We will be together.
That is worshiping in faith, brothers and sisters, because our eye is upon the orchestra leader, Who is our Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
Brother Tozer exhorts us:
Since believing and looking are synonymous, we should live our life of faith by a continuous gaze of our hearts upon Jesus.
I thought about this. At first, I said, “Lord, this is a great method to a better life.” Then I remembered that I had read years ago The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. How many have read that? It is a wonderful book.
But I took it as a method, brothers and sisters, and it did not have that much effect on me. I remembered this and said, “Lord, I made a mistake. I took this as a method.”
It is not a method. Gazing upon our Lord Jesus is a way of life, not a method. It is a way of life.
Brothers and sisters, how great it is to develop a way of life in which your eyes are always on Him. That is the way we are transformed.
Let me end with this. We were in our Bible study the other night, and we were talking in Luke 14 about the Lord having this feast. He calls the nation of Israel out and invites them to the supper. They had all kinds of excuses, if you remember.
One said, “I have bought a new ox; I have to work with him.” Another said, “I just got married; I need to go back to my wife.” They had all kinds of excuses.
The Lord became quite upset with them, and He told His servant, who is really the Holy Spirit, “Go out to the poor and the destitute and bring them in.” He did not say, “Invite them.” He said, “Bring them in.”
The servant came back and said, “Lord, the house still is not full. We do not have a full house for the feast.” Then the Lord said, “Go out into the byways and into the hedges, anywhere you can, and compel them to come in.”
Yes, the servant, the Holy Spirit, compels us. When the Lord is speaking to you through the Holy Spirit, He is not merely inviting you. He is compelling you.
When the Lord is speaking to you, He is compelling you. So I want to ask today: where are your eyes looking? Are they looking at yourself, your circumstances, and your problems? Brothers and sisters, save yourself. Look off to Jesus. Look off to Him.
Are you walking away from the Lord? Have you left the Lord? Are you off the path? Have you kind of turned your back on the Lord? Then your eyes, of course, are looking away from Him.
Brothers and sisters, there is a way back. You have to turn your head around and look at the Lord.
Think of the prodigal son. He went off and found himself with the pigs, eating corn husks. Finally, it says, he came to his senses. In other words, the Lord woke him up.
He said, “What are you doing in this pigsty?” How often we live our spiritual life in a pigsty. The Lord said to him, “You are in the wrong place.”
You know what he did? He started thinking about his father and how well off he was with his father.
His return to the father was not the highest way of returning. He was still thinking about himself and his poor condition. But he realized that the father was his way of salvation, and he returned to the father.
As he approached the father, it says that while he was still a great way off, he saw his father in the distance. The Father saw him and ran to him and embraced him.
That is what looking off to Jesus does. It brings us back into the embrace of our Lord and Savior Himself. What a wonderful thing.
Brothers and sisters, the word of faith is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. Believe.
Lord, we just come today. Thank You that You have not tried to make the Christian life a complicated one. Lord, You said it was going to be difficult, and we would pay a cost and a price.
But, Lord Jesus, the way of the Christian life is a simple one. I hear that old song in my heart: “Trust and obey.”
Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
Amen.