Sermon

By Rev. JAMES A. TALLACH, Kames.

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews xii., 2).

IN the first verse of this chapter the life of faith is compared to a race. The instant a sinner believes in Jesus unto salvation he enters on this race; although in no two cases is the same course prescribed. The race set before Enoch was not the same

as that of Abraham, and Abraham’s differed again from that of Moses; nevertheless they all obtained a good report through faith. The comparison implies progress — “Let us run.” Faith begins at a definite point — the moment we receive the Gospel unto salvation — but that is only the starting point: it is not the finishing post. But the progress must be in the right direction — hence, “The race that is set before us.” The Word of God supplies us with the rules and regulations, while Providence gives us the opportunity of putting these into practice, and defines the course to be run.

As an experienced runner himself, and a keen observer of others, the Apostle recommends “the laying aside of every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” Surely this is what common sense would suggest. He who would enter on a race laden with weights and entangled in loose garments has made sure his defeat before he has well begun. It matters little of what material the weight is made; a bag of gold is just as cumbersome to a runner as a common stone. Both the love of riches and the lust of the flesh sink men in perdition.

The Apostle has also proved the value of patience. Patience lightens the severest trial, and shortens the longest course — “Let us run with patience.” Patience rooted in God is unconquerable. “Even the youths shall faint and be weary . . . But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

But the most important requirement of all, one that must of necessity be observed by every Christian who would so run as to obtain, is this, “Looking unto Jesus.” This is what gives direction, supplies motive, and ensures success.

In considering our text let us notice: — I. Jesus — the great Object of Faith. II. The Conduct of Jesus, the Pattern of Faith. III. Jesus exalted, the Encouragement of Faith.

I. Jesus, the Object of Faith. — “Looking into Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.” This is the mark on which the eyes of all who would press forward for the prize of the high calling of God, are to be fixed. Through the observance of this

injunction the Apostle could say at last: “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day.” The eyes of all who shall obtain the crown at that day have been opened to see the supreme importance of Jesus in the life of faith. It is in the face of Jesus Christ that they have beheld the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily—grace infinite in variety and inexhaustible in degree—, a fulness freely available for the needs of the whole Church on earth and in heaven. Look, O believer, weary it may be, with the toil and labour of running, bowed down under a burden of depression which threatens to sink you in despair. Lift up your eyes yet again to this, the fountain of all grace. Let your weakness be but another occasion for the display of His strength. Can there possibly be any want in you, which His fulness cannot supply? As well might the tiny shell on the beach complain that there was not enough water in the vast ocean to fill it! Was the Apostle speaking at random when he says: — “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?” Look unto Jesus, exclusively unto Him. Is He not looking at you, and perfectly cognisant of every detail of your circumstances? He is touched with a feeling of your infirmity, because He was tempted (without sin), in all points like as you are. That feeling touches, and sets in sympathetic motion, an infinite resource of tenderest compassion in His bosom. He puts your tears into His bottle and fully understands the unutterable sighs of your spirit.

Look unto Him with fixed, steady gaze. The idea expresses the intense attention of a competitor looking away across the course, to the distant post which marks the end of the race he is to run. It is his sole concern, as a runner, to reach that post by the shortest possible route. Now, the shortest distance between a competitor and the goal he aims at, is the line of sight, the line between his eye and the finishing post. When he keeps his eye

fixed intently on that mark and his feet follow in the line of vision, he travels in a straight line which eliminates all unnecessary wandering. But if he takes his eye off the mark, he is sure to wander, with consequent loss of energy and loss of time, which other and wiser rivals will not be slow to take advantage of, to his certain defeat at last. If Christian and Hopeful had but kept their eyes on Jesus instead of on the allurements of By-path Meadow, they would not have made such painful acquaintance with Giant Despair and his cudgel, and they would have saved themselves many a tear.

Look, my beloved friend, up and away, with the steady gaze of an unwavering faith, which by the very glory of Jesus may blind you to every counter attraction, and thus looking, let us so run that every step brings us nearer to Him.

(b.) But further, Jesus is “the Author and Finisher of our faith.” He is the Alpha and Omega of what we are to believe in order to be saved. The promises — are they not all Yea and Amen in Him, to the glory of God? The prophecies—is it not of Jesus that Moses and the prophets did write? Who is the great anti-type in whom all the Old Testament types find their meaning and fulfilment and by whom they are for ever superseded, but Jesus, the Author and Finisher of the faith, once delivered to the saints?

The great work of Redemption wrought out by Him on earth is a finished work. Beginning at His wonderful birth in Bethlehem’s stable, and including the glory of His Person, as God-man, the divine perfection of His life, the words He uttered, the miracles He performed, the infinite merits of His atoning blood; that work leaves nothing to be desired, no doubt to be expressed, no question to be raised, on the score of Law, Justice or Conscience. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth! Here, in Jesus, the guiltiest of sinners may find perfection, infinite, and eternal. The dying thief is an illustration of the practical value of such perfection, even at the eleventh hour, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom”

— the prayer of a guilty wretch on the very confines of everlasting woe. “To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” — the brand plucked from the burning by an almighty power that defies interference. So certain and secure is the final blessedness of the soul who believes in Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. Take Jesus away, and we are left to flounder in a confusion which has neither beginning nor end. Life, death, and eternity become shrouded in the deepest gloom, and the only gleam left is the will-o’-the-wisp of a distorted fancy, which allures us to our doom, only to mock us when we sink, never to arise. Oh! sinner, look to Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost — from beginning to end — all who come unto God by Him.

(c.) But Jesus is also the Author and Finisher of faith in us. That which has been wrought in us in the way of religious experience is all of the Spirit concerning whom Jesus says; “When He is come . . . He shall not speak of Himself . . . He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” The hope of glory from first to last is Jesus formed in us. He is the Author of those first, faint rays of divine light which penetrated the thick darkness of our guilty souls. The first true views a lost sinner has of his state before God, the guilty fears arising from those views, the first pangs of conscience, awakened to realise the awfulness of that eternal hell, to which by sin he has exposed himself — all have their rise in Jesus; He is the Author of them. No true view of sin is obtained, until it is seen in the light that a crucified Jesus casts upon it. Then it is felt to be what it really is, an infinitely evil and bitter thing, the just wages of which is death. That inward sense of guilt drove you away from one false refuge after another, until there was none left, and you were cast out into the open field in your own blood, to the loathing of your person — and there was none so weary of your sins as yourself. Not till then did you really understand what was meant by the call of the Gospel. You may often have heard the phrase, but never till now had you heard the Call. Oh! how sweetly did that “Come unto me” of Jesus

in the Gospel, sound in your ears now. The Gospel invitation to sinners was all that stood between your guilty soul and black despair.

Then, can you not recall the time of your first-love, when that invitation became really effectual? You heard it, you understood its meaning, and, best of all, you were graciously enabled to respond to it. The Holy Spirit in your heart enabled you to close in willingly with Jesus, held out to you in the Gospel; so that Jesus formed in your heart, spiritually, and savingly, became to you the Author of your eternal salvation.

But He who is the Author is also the Finisher. Doubtless there is much still to be done, much progress to be made in knowledge, grace, and sanctification. The warfare between the flesh and the Spirit rages; the body of sin causes much wretchedness. Faith may have been begun, but it is by no means complete. But even so, Jesus is the pledge of your salvation, and as the Author and Finisher of your faith, this promise is sure in Him — “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Look unto Him, and leave all to Him.

(d.) In Jesus — the Author and Finisher of his faith — the believer has a sure and certain guide to the Better Country. And who, that is acquainted with the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of his own heart, can dispense with such a Guide? Unnumbered thousands, seduced by the subtle power of pride, passion, self-righteousness, worldliness, unbelief, idolatry, etc., — are led astray until they stumble on the Dark Mountains, never to arise. But the man who runs with his eyes lifted up and fixed resolutely on Jesus is provided with a counteractive, which effectually checks any evil tendency arising within, to wander from the way that leads to peace, to God, to Glory.

Again, in this world we constantly come into contact with false systems of religion, each purporting to be The Way, and followed by countless devotees who are intolerant of the spirituality and

holiness of the true faith. In our day, such systems are multiplied to an alarming extent, and large numbers of souls are led aside from the right way by the charming voice, the novel doctrines and modern methods of some popular idol or other. Against the danger arising from such sources there is no preservative, but Jesus. Oh! my beloved fellow-sinner, let us make a covenant with our eyes, in the strength of God’s grace, never to look to any hireling for what can only be found in the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep, who ‘is able to keep them from falling,’ and who will yet present each one of them “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”

II. We come now to consider the Conduct of Jesus as the Pattern which Faith is to follow. “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, and despised the shame.” His conduct leaves us an example which it is the desire of every true believer to follow. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” This quality of patient endurance in present trial because of future reward, is essential to the very nature of faith. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

Even in the case of those Old Testament heroes who are passed in review before us in Heb. xi., this principle of faith is clearly exemplified. Abraham, believing in the promise of a future seed as numerous as the stars of the sky, offered up (at God’s command), his only son: Moses, having respect to the recompense of the reward, forsook Egypt and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God for a season. There can be no crown without the cross; the cross a thing of the present, the crown of the future: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

(a). But here we have a greater than Abraham or Moses. Let us consider Him, who, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, and looking to Him, let us run in His footsteps. Joy was

set before Him — the joy doubtless, assigned to Him in the counsels of eternal love, and made known to us in prophecy in such instances as, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied,” “He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand,” “His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed,” etc. Such was the joy set before Him as Head of the covenant of grace in a past eternity — a prospect which embraced the whole Gospel dispensation with all its gracious provisions and blessings; a seed, gathered out of every nation under heaven, regenerated in His own image by the power of the Holy Ghost, called effectually by the Word and Spirit, justified, sanctified and ultimately glorified. His was the joy of the prospective Bridegroom, looking forward to everlasting union with a redeemed Bride, prepared and adorned for her Husband.

(b). This joy, let it be noticed, was set before Him. There was no part of it actually present with Him during His sojourn on earth. He was then emphatically “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” It was set before Him in prospect. In between Him and the realisation of it there stretched a gulf of infinite woe. The sword of divine justice awakened to smite the Shepherd, the shame and spitting, the agony of the cross, the powers of the Kingdom of darkness, were all between Him and the joy set before Him, barring the way. Neither was He ignorant of what that really meant. It was no fanatical zeal, blinded by the passion of the moment, that carried Him on and rendered Him immune to pain. There is a stark reality about Gethsemane, the Judgment Hall, and Calvary. The terrible loneliness of the Garden, the dark foreboding giving rise to that prayer — “Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me,” all leave a solemn awe upon the mind of the devout reader. And He was heard in that He

feared by Him who was able to save Him from death, His humanity receiving the necessary strength to suffer all that was demanded by inflexible justice, from the surety-substitute of sinners; suffering which came to an awful climax and found expression in the agony of that bitter cry: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” And for you, my believing friend, as part of the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame. Let us stand in awe, and reverently worship.

(c). All that suffering was present in His apprehension as He set His face as a flint to go up to Jerusalem. But the dark shadow of the cross, which lay across His way was cast by the brightness of the joy on the other side. Fixing His eyes on the joy—an elect world redeemed—He endured the cross and despised the shame, confident that God would not leave His soul in Hell, nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption. They taunted Him with this: “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him,” and “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Why, it was because He trusted in God for the joy that was set before Him that He would not come down from the cross. The cross was the supreme trial of His trust in God. By reason of it, He endured the cross and despised the shame.

The cross, the shame — that was the course set for Him, ordained by Justice, Law, Righteousness, inflexible and eternal as God. But on the other side of the cross there is the glory that was to follow. Keeping His eye persistently fixed on the glory, He set His face, confident that although all the world condemned, He was near who justified Him, and that consequently He would not be put to shame. He locked the Word of the Lord up in His heart and kept a firm grip of the promises of a covenant-keeping God, and even the cross did not discourage Him. “Lo, I come.” Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, they all forsook Him and fled dismayed. Legions of angels awaited His least command, but no command was

given, He remained silent and alone. He fixed His mind on the cross, for the joy that was immediately to follow.

(d). And is there not joy set before you believer? Promises great and precious, victory over all enemies, glory everlasting; the gladness of the resurrection morning, when mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death; where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And what is the sum and substance of that joy? All that, and a great deal that we cannot at present receive is summed up in this one name, Jesus. That, my beloved friend, is the joy set before you. Look unto Him. He is the joy set before you. Keep your eye fixed on Him. If, across the line of your vision Mount Moriah casts its dark shadow, what of that? If between you and the object of your desire, there stretches the wilderness, where loneliness, weariness, painfulness are your daily companions; if between you and your reward there come the demands of duty — “Occupy till I come” — What then? Look unto Jesus, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.

III. Jesus Exalted is the Encouragement of Faith.

(a). He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is the Lord’s doing, the Father’s answer to the prayer of Jesus, in John xvii.: “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” It is the action of God, publicly acknowledging His satisfaction with, and acceptance of the finished work of Christ. And there is no attribute of God which more fully concurs with the divine enactment than does justice. “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” The joy of Jesus exalted is built up and established for ever upon principles of justice, truth and righteousness.

The sorrow, the cross, the shame are all of them past, for ever past. The sword of Justice now bars the entrance of sorrow into the heart of Jesus. The joy which had been set before Him is now a thing of the present — eternally present, and justice secures that nothing but joy shall ever have its dwelling where Jesus is. But the joy of Jesus is the joy of His people, and what justice secures for Christ, is equally secure to each believer in Jesus. Shall justice crown the Head, and suffer the members, or even one of the least of them to perish? Even to think such a thought would be blasphemy!

All the blessedness of the Gospel dispensation has its rise in Jesus and the effectual application of that blessedness to the Church on earth and in heaven is made absolutely certain by His enthronement. All power in heaven and in earth is given unto Him. In virtue of that power the success of the Gospel, the ingathering of the elect, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the blessedness of the saints — grace and glory — in a word, the joy set before Christ, as it affects and embraces each believer, — are all placed on a footing of security which the justice, no less than the love of God has made inviolable. Well might the Apostle, having such a view of his exalted Redeemer say “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” My beloved friend, when all else would discourage you, when the whole course of the way which is set before you seems to be against you — fightings without and fears within — look up again on high. Jesus encourages you, beckons you onward, for what is your crown, but part of His joy?

(b). But the fact that He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God means that He has triumphed over all His enemies, and the enemies of His people, and the joy into which He has entered partakes largely of the joy of victory. He ascended on high, leading captivity captive. The enthronement of Jesus was opposed by the utmost powers of hell and earth

in evil confederation. On behalf of all who believe in Jesus, the cross exhausted the bottomless pit of all its fiendish cruelty. The armies of hell shot the arrows of their rage into the blessed body of our Redeemer, until every quiver was empty.

“This is the hour and the power of darkness.” There was no expedient known to the Adversary of which he did not make full use, and there was no reserve of power upon which he did not draw, and yet, after it all, it was Jesus Himself, who voluntarily yielded up the ghost, not a moment before He had finished His great work. There was no point throughout the terrible ordeal, at which Jesus was not in absolute command of the whole situation, and that only because He trusted in the Word and purpose of Jehovah, who had set the joy before Him. In virtue of that glorious victory He is set down at the right hand of God and “Who now is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.” The really decisive battle in the war of light against darkness has been fought, and the crowning of Jesus is our evidence of the triumph of the cross. “Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

Before your race is run your faith and patience will be subjected to many and severe tests. There is many a Hill Difficulty to be ascended; there are Valleys of the Shadow of Death to be trodden; there are battles with Apollyon to be fought, temptation to be resisted and chastisements to be endured, but with our eyes fixed on a triumphant Jesus, what enemy can triumph, what temptation prevail, what trial can overcome? “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”