Address—Jim Hyland
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By way of introduction to the subject that I have on my heart this afternoon, I'd like to read a verse that was read to us this morning. It's in Ezekiel, Chapter 40.
Ezekiel, chapter 40 and verse 4.
And the man said unto me, Son of man.
Behold with thine eyes and here with thine ears.
And set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee.
Just that part of the verse, but this verse perhaps isn't, as I say, is an introduction to some further scriptures that we're going to look at this afternoon. Yesterday we heard something concerning the subject of faith, but this afternoon I'd like to speak on what we might say is focused, because I believe that the 2GO hand in hand we had some very necessary and helpful exhortations as to faith, and faith is a very practical thing.
We need faith in our Christian pathway, but we need focused coupled with it as well. And we're going to, with the Lords, help connect the number of scriptures that in some ways may seem sort of random, but I trust that what we have won't be too clouded or disjointed, but simply to encourage our hearts brethren to focus and to focus on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How many times have those of us who are parents said to our children in connection with the job we gave them to do?
Some tasks around the house or in connection with their school work, we've said you need to focus. We tell them you're never going to get a good grade, you're never going to get the job done unless you focus. And I would suggest too that it is becoming harder and harder for all of us in the fast-paced world in which we live where things move so quickly, both in our lives from day-to-day and on a screen, everything moves quickly and it's becoming more difficult to focus.
Educators will tell us that because of those kinds of things, that it's hard to get young people. It's hard to get students to focus. Students aren't readers today. They're not focused the way they were perhaps a generation ago. And it's a detriment to us because the traits that we develop in our lives in a practical way and in a secular way, those traits carry over into our spiritual life.
If we're not careful. And so we were singing that hymn all fixed our earnest gaze. And here we find that the the prophet here Ezekiel, he is told really if I can put it this way, to focus. He's being shown a vision, a very important vision, and it might have been very difficult. There may have been things that the prophet Ezekiel didn't understand about the things that he was shown.
In these various visions. And it might have been difficult for him sometimes to focus on what the Spirit of God was bringing before him in these visions, these prophetic visions. And so there's an exhortation here in connection with this particular vision to focus, to listen, to look, and to listen, and to set his heart upon that which he was being shown.
I've never counted carefully, but I was impressed in going through the Psalms to notice that at least three times the Psalmist speaks of his heart being fixed. Perhaps I'm taking it a little bit out of its context, but I have thought about that because you fix on something, you focus. You fix your eyes on something, you're looking steadfastly. You fix your heart on something, You're focused on it.
And twice in the Psalms, David uses the expression in connection with rejoicing and singing, his heart being fixed on his God. What does it 'cause it causes singing? Why is it sometimes we're not the singing people that we ought to be as believers? Why is it there isn't always the joy in our hearts expressed then on our lips in song? Perhaps it's because our hearts aren't fixed upon our God.
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And what he, who he is and what he is doing for us, and what he will do in that coming day of glory, On another occasion, in the Psalms, the Psalmist speaks of having his heart fixed. And there it's in connection with something a little different. It's in connection with not being afraid and trusting the Lord. Are you afraid in some circumstance today? Perhaps it's because you don't have your focus on your God. You don't have your focus.
On the one who we were just thinking about. Because if we're really focused on him, can we be afraid? I'm not saying we're going to see the absence of difficulties and problems, but he's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And so I want to encourage our hearts to fix our gaze and our hearts on that blessed one and the things that he shows us from his word, the things that he has for us.
If our thoughts and our hearts are truly centered on himself and all that is ours in and through Him.
Then I believe it's going to make a difference in our lives, and this is what I want to show now by going to some other scriptures that would encourage us as to those things that we need to be focused on and focused with. Let's go first of all to John's Gospel, chapter 14.
John's Gospel, chapter 14 and verse one.
Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God, Believe also in me. Just hold your finger here. I want to read a verse in Acts Chapter 7 as well.
Acts Chapter 7 And this is of course concerning Stephen verse 55. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, behold, I see the the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Well, I read this first because this brings before us the person of the Lord Jesus, in a very remarkable way to put this verse in John 14 in its context. We find here that the hearts of the disciples were troubled. They were afraid, you know, they had had the privilege, wonderful privilege, of walking with the Lord Jesus during his public ministry. And whenever they had a difficulty or a quandary, they could go to the Lord Jesus.
One incident comes to mind when John the Baptist was beheaded. The disciples were troubled. They had some questions about it, and they came to the Lord Jesus, and he drew them into that desert place to rest a while. They could go directly to him, but he had told the disciples that he was going to go away and leave them. He they weren't going to have the privilege of walking with him the same way as they had for the years of his public ministry.
Now that he was going to, after he went to the cross, rise from the dead.
And return to the Father. And the hearts of the disciples were troubled as they thought about the Lord Jesus going away.
And it's a little bit of side, but in these three first verses of John 14 we have three things that the Lord Jesus gives the disciples for their comfort and consolation at this time.
In the second verse he speaks of the Father's house. What a comfort it was to be able to tell the disciples that he was going to leave them here for a little time, but this wasn't their true home, that he there was going to be a home prepared for them through the work of redemption and the Lord Jesus returning to heaven as a man. And the other thing he gives them is in the third verse, and that is the promise of his coming to take them.
To himself in that place. But before he gives them those two things for their comfort, he gives them something else in the first verse. Because the two things that we've just spoken of were future the Father's house and the truth that he was going to come and take them to live with him in the Father's house. But they needed something for their present comfort and consolation, and in the first verse he steps before them.
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Himself, but not himself, in the way that they had enjoyed the person of Christ.
As a man walking here in this world, because Christianity steps us in relationship with Christ, but not Christ like the disciples and others knew him in this world. It tells us in Corinthians henceforth know we know man after the flesh, though we knew Christ after the flesh. Henceforth know we him no more, and what he's telling them here in this first verse is you believed in God whom you've never seen.
Now you're going to have to believe or trust in me. In the same way. We know that after he rose from the dead and remained on earth long enough to give ample and complete testimony to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead, his feet left the mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight, and it says, and they saw him no more, that is, they saw him no more with the physical eye.
And that was what he was preparing them for. Here so Peter later on writes to the Saints, and he says, whom not having seen ye love, though now ye see him not yet rejoicing, yet believing, he rejoiced with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And so you and I have never seen the Lord Jesus with the physical eye. But is he any less real to the eye of faith?
And So what he's telling the disciples is you're going to need to learn to look up by faith and focus on me. Be occupied with me the way you've been occupied with me physically in this world, but now occupied with me at the Father's right hand. Because it says in the chapter before that he had come from God and he must return to God and the Lord Jesus. This afternoon, brethren, he seated at the right hand of God.
And he's our object. He's the one that we were singing of, you know, we sang that little prayer together that I have sung with from the very early days of my youth in meetings like this. But, you know, I have to say that at least to my own heart, because I have to point the finger at myself and leave it there. But I have to say for my own soul that I sing these hymns so often that perhaps I have ceased to really consider the truth that is contained in them.
And I think it's good for us to stop once in a while and realize that many of the hymns that we sing, such as the one we sang at the beginning of this meeting, are really prayers. And when we sing those prayers, we need to again focus on what we're singing. Did that prayer that we sang this afternoon really come from your heart and mind? Did we really mean it when we sang? Oh, fix our earnest gaze.
So, holy Lord on thee.
Where are those just words that we have sung over and over and over again?
Or do we really mean it when we sing those words? And so the disciples?
He puts them in relationship with himself, as it was going to be after he returned to heaven. And then we have Stephen. What a wonderful story we have in Stephen. The courage and zeal of Stephen. We often refer to him as the first Christian martyr. And there he was, in his zeal and his courage, presenting the truth to those that he knew really had their hearts.
That against Christ and against the truth that he was presenting. And we find that before they stone him, and he lays down his life for his testimony, we find that he looks up steadfastly into heaven. I know there's a character of things here that's dispensational, but that's not what I have on my heart this afternoon. I simply want to encourage your heart and mind to be like Steven, to look steadfastly up into heaven by faith.
Sure, we don't see the Lord Jesus with the physical eye, but to look with the eye of faith above the horizons of this sad world, you know, if you and I look around and back, we're going to get discouraged. We're going to strip and stumble in our Christian pathway because what we see around and what we see when we look back is only going to discourage us. But when we look up and we're occupied with Him.
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Will we see any disappointment there? Will we see any failure there? Sometimes we look at Brethren and their dear brother. And we're thankful for our dear brethren, some of which we've had the privilege of spending these couple of days with. But you know David or the Psalmist said, I've seen an end of all perfection. You say that brother let me down, but I'm sure that other brother will never disappoint me. That sister said something, but I know that sister will never let me down. I'll be careful.
You're gonna see an end of all perfection if you're looking for it, even in your dear brethren. But you'll never see it in the Lord Jesus. It's often been pointed out that the bride, when she's awakened in Song of Solomon and her affections, are stirred. What is it that deepens her affections, its occupation? Not with her own failure, not with the daughters of Jerusalem or the others that no doubt are in her presence.
But its occupation with the bridegroom? And did she find, as she enumerated the qualities and glories of the bridegroom, any imperfections there? If she had started enumerating the qualities of the daughters of Jerusalem, she might have found many pleasing qualities, but she would have eventually found some little idiosyncrasies and imperfections. There a little failure, but not in the bridegroom at the end of it, she says. He's all together lovely.
And that's what you're going to find if, like Stephen, you look up and you're occupied with the man at the right hand of God. And so he looks up here and he sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And what was it that gave him the spiritual fortitude and courage to face martyrdom, to face the stones of those that he was desiring to present the Lord Jesus to? What was it? It was to see the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God?
To be occupied with him. Our brother Tim was telling us in the Sunday School this morning about those who have laid down their lives for their testimony. I recently reread a book about John Hoss and how he eventually faced martyrdom at the stake. You say. How could these people do that? How are people facing death today? And there are many of our brethren who do not sit like this in quiet. They come together in fear. There are many of our brethren, and we need to pray for them who are in prison and facing martyrdom.
Many being tortured for their faith, you say, How can they do it all? They have the Lord Jesus before them. They have something far better than the all the failure of man and the disappointments of life and this world. And so, Stephen, He saw the heaven open, and he saw the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, there. Oh, get a fresh glimpse of him this afternoon. Get a fresh glimpse of him if you get a fresh glimpse of him.
As a result of being here at these meetings, then, it's all been worthwhile.
It's all been worthwhile, and I know that that was the prayer and desire of our brethren in inviting us together again, that we get a fresh glimpse of the person of Christ, that our hearts would go out more to him. Because you can't help but be occupied with Christ and have the heart affected. I say you can't help but be occupied with Christ and have the heart affected. And where the heart is, then the feet will follow. And so Stephen, he lays down his life here. Was it worth it when we see Steven another day?
We're gonna say. I'm gonna say to. I wanna say to Steven, was it worth it? Was it worth it? Oh, he'll say. To have that vision of Christ just before I drew my last breath. And then to be taken absent from the body and present with the Lord. And then all that we're sharing now here in this glory, in the glory. Oh, he's not gonna be disappointed that he gave up something here in this world. And I realized, brethren, that probably none of us in this room will ever face what Stephen did. Probably none of us will ever have to face.
Martyrdom. But there are many difficulties. There's much opposition to the truth in the day in which we live, those who are trying to get us to give up the truth. It's the work of the enemy. But what's going to preserve us? The very same thing that preserves Steven to look up steadfastly, not just to glance casually. I I want to speak carefully, but brethren, so often my own the tendency my own heart is to.
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Get a little glimpse of Christ in the morning and then go on with the day. That's not what's going to preserve us. Not just the casual glance heavenward. If if Steven had just had a casual glance heavenward, I don't know if it would have been the same result. I don't know what would have been the result, but he looked steadfastly. I know there are many things that take our attention and focus in the practical things of life, and I don't want to take away from that.
But oh, I do want to encourage us day by day to look steadfastly up into heaven, to see the glory there. Because it says where there is no vision, the people perish. If you don't have a vision of what's there and the person of Christ, you're going to stumble, I say, in the pathway of faith, and become very discouraged. Let's go on for a little different thought to the Book of Colossians.
Colossians Chapter 3.
Colossians Chapter 3.
And verse one if ye then be risen with Christ.
Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections, or if you notice your margin and it's really a better rendering, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. Now again, just hold your finger here, because I want to connect it with a verse in the book of Philippians.
Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise. Think.
On these things I want to speak now a focused and connection with our thoughts or the mind, because I really believe that's the context of what we have here In Colossians chapter three. We have been speaking in these meetings of how the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God. And in Ephesians it tells us as we had in the readings that were seated together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and so on.
And here we have an exhortation to seek those things that are above and to set our mind on those things that are above. What does occupy our minds? Now again, I realize for our children and young people and even those in the business world today, it just seems that it takes all our faculties to survive in the world in which we find ourselves. It's the information age.
In fact, it's one of the characteristics of the last days. It tells us that in the last days knowledge shall be increased, Not necessarily wisdom and understanding, but knowledge. And when has there ever been a day when knowledge seems to be so prevalent and so available as the day in which we live? And I realize that you children and young people, you have to take in a certain amount of that knowledge to get through your courses and your curriculum. It just seems to in the business world.
There's no end of reading and updating and classes and seminars that need to be taken to keep abreast of the fast-paced chapter changes in the technological and business world in which we find ourselves today. But when we have our free time, when we don't have to be occupied with those things that are first survival in the workaday world, what are we occupied with? You know, I have. I have young people.
And it is appalling to me how much the enemy has to fill the mind in our spare time, to take up the energies of the mind and to fill it with that which is not going to encourage us in the things of God. That which is not edifying, in fact, that which really corrupts the mind. I'd like to give another little warning to parents. I had children that came up through the public school system.
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And I was disturbed to find that there is a great movement in the public school system to teach children here in the United States and Canada to empty their minds. You know, it really goes back to Eastern religion and cult. And some of us have had opportunity to travel in countries where they empty their minds under the banner of of meditation and Eastern religion and so on. It's presented a little more subtly in this country.
It's presented as relaxation and so on, but it's a very dangerous thing. We never have a precedent in Scripture that would teach us to empty the mind. Because when we empty the mind, then the enemy has plenty to fill the vacuum. We're never to make our minds a vacuum for the enemy, we're to bring every thought into subjection under the obedience of Christ. David said, thou anointest my head with oil.
That's really the mind governed by the spirit of God. And so we need to fill our minds, and we need to fill our minds with Christ. We need to set our mind on things above. And how are we going to set our minds on things above? Well, one way is to pick up this book we have in our hands and read it every day. Because you know, when we read this blessed book, the subject is always Christ. It doesn't matter where we read. Every page of this book brings before us something concerning.
Person and Work of Christ and God's purposes concerning His beloved Son, We have it by type and shadow in the Old Testament. We have His life recorded carefully by 4 Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John at the beginning of the New Testament, and we need that as an example for our pathway. Here we have a pattern of things laid out in the book of the Acts we have.
The person of Christ brought before us in the Epistles. We have the fruition of everything.
In A coming day in Revelation, the full exaltation of the Lord Jesus and how everything is going to be brought into conformity around himself. But wherever you read, I say the subject is always Christ. And I might just say in that regard too, that it's helpful to read the scriptures with that in view, read Christ into every line. Someone was accused many years ago of finding Christ in every nook and cranny of the Bible.
Wouldn't you like to be accused of that? I think that's a very good thing to be accused of. And I believe that's what's really going to give us a blessing when we read the scriptures. That's setting our mind on things above, because Scripture occupies us with the one that God would always occupy his people with. You know, it was read to us this morning how the heavens opened up and heaven looked down at the Lord Jesus walking here in this world.
Oh heaven delighted on occasion when the Lord Jesus was here to open up and be occupied with the one that, as we were reminded of at the end of the breaking of bread, was the darling of heaven, Heaven's delight, and a voice that would declare, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But you know the heavens are open this afternoon, not so much that heaven can look down, although in some, to some, in some regard that is true.
But heaven is open for you and for me now. So like Stephen, we can look up by faith and be occupied, I say, with the one that God would always occupy his people with. And we read in Philippians how that we are to think on certain things. Again, our thought process is it's very important to bring it into subjection to the word of God, and if we had time, which we don't this afternoon.
We could go down these things that are listed, these things that we are to think upon, and they are really all attributes of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ we find here. Just for instance, it says whatsoever things are true, well we think of the Lord Jesus as the faithful and true in revelation, and whatsoever things are honest, the Lord Jesus could say I am altogether what I saith unto thee.
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And so if we were to go down these things and justice, compare different scriptures concerning the attributes of Christ, we see how what the apostle is really telling us here is that in our thoughts we need to center it on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How much every day do we spend time thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm not asking you now how long you spend in the morning reading some scriptures.
I'm not asking you how long you spend in a little prayer time, or how long you spend at the end of the day, maybe reading a verse or two before you fall into bed.
I'm asking you now, how much time do you spend in a 24 hour time frame?
Thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, someone has said, and I believe it's true that to a great degree meditation is a lost art today. You know, it's good to read the scriptures as we've just been saying, But then to take those scriptures concerning the person of Christ, David said there the Psalmist said, oh how I love thy law, It is my meditation all the day. Could you honestly, could I honestly say that?
How much I love the word of God and that it is my meditation all the day. Do you and I stop during the day? Do we discipline ourselves to think a little bit concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Again, it takes all our faculties, it seems, to survive at school, to drive down the freeway, to run that computer, to conduct that business seminar or whatever it is. And I believe that it is a day.
When like never before, we need to discipline ourselves to think on these things. You're not going to find time to think on these things if you don't take time, you know. It's a little hymn. We used to sing it when we were young. People take time to be holy. You'll never have time if you don't take time. I don't believe they'll ever be such a thing as saying, well, I had plenty of time to focus on Christ. I have had plenty of time to focus.
On the scriptures, no more and more. We're going to have to take time. But oh how well you'll be rewarded, how encouraged you'll be in your soul. And so again, it does take that focus to focus on the word of God, to focus on those things that we read and learn from scripture, and to set our minds to it. Again, it's not just casually thinking about something, it's setting or fixing our minds.
On those things that are above. Now let's just back up a little bit here in Philippians. I want to read a portion in the third chapter.
Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and then a familiar portion in Hebrews Chapter 2.
I'm sorry. In Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 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. Well, I read these verses because though they have a similar thought as to what we have just meditated on. Yet we often find that in the New Testament the Christian pathway is looked at as a race or an athletic event. Just recently in Western Canada, we've had the Olympics and you know, those athletes that went out to participate in the Olympics.
They were men and women who were focused, and not only were they focused during those few days of the Olympics, but for the past few years they've been focused on the moment when they were going to take to the slopes of the ice or whatever it was and participate in their event. They were very focused. They went out to train every day. They had to discipline their body and their mind.
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In anticipation.
Of the event because they knew that unless there was real discipline and focus for those four years of training, they had no hope of walking away with a medal. They had no hope of going to the winter stand and being lauded for their achievement. But the Christian race path I say, is likened to a race because we understand, don't we very clearly, that when the athlete goes out to participate in the event.
They have that focus before them. And so we find here that the Apostle Paul in Philippians, he speaks of running a race and he has the prize, the goal in view. I've often told about my younger brother who when we were growing up was a very picky eater. He really didn't like vegetables and especially things that were green and leafy. But you know, he was also very athletic. He's a big guy and he went out one semester to try out for the high school football team.
And he disciplined himself to eat green salad and vegetables every day for several weeks. Why did he do that? Why did he bring his body into subjection to something that wasn't according to his natural taste or bent? Well, he had focused. He went out with going out to train. He wanted to get his weight to a certain level, hopefully make the team. Hopefully they would win their season and there would be a trophy in the front hall of the.
School with their names on it and their names splashed across the local press in Smiths Falls. I don't know whether they did win their teams I know win their games that year. I know my brother did make the team. But whether they want one or not is now insignificant. Because if they did, their names have long been replaced by others and they've been forgotten. And Paul, in another place, spoke of striving for a for a incorruptible crown.
An athlete does it for a corruptible crown, a moment of glory in this world. And then it's gone. It fades.
But we do it for something of eternal value. And so he speaks here of pressing towards the mark. He had the prize in view. I'm going to do something now at this juncture. I'm going to read a hymn. I'm just going to read it. It's a very well known hymn. But I'm going to read this hymn because this hymn perhaps expresses the thoughts that are on my heart concerning these scriptures that we have just read.
Perhaps better than can be expressed otherwise, Little parentheses, you know. That's why it's good to familiarize ourselves with these hymns. You know, sometimes these hymns express things in a way that can be expressed in no better language, and I believe that's one reason it says admonishing one another in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs. That's why sometimes you hear hymns quoted in ministry, because maybe there's no better way to say it than has already been expressed in the lines of some him.
You don't have to turn to it. It's 46 in the appendix. I'm going to read this whole hymn.
And again we sing these hymns so frequently. But let's in just listening to the words, without singing it, let's seek by the grace of God, to let these words sink down into our souls and have the effect that no doubt the hymn writer desired that they would have on the reader and the singer. Have I an object, Lord below, which would divide my heart with thee, which would divert it to even flow in answer to thy constancy.
Oh, teach me quickly to return, and 'cause my heart afresh to burn. Have IA hope, however dear, which would defer thy coming, Lord, which would detain my spirit here, where not can lasting joy afford from it. My savior, set me free to look and long and wait for thee. Be thou the object, bright and fair.
To fill and satisfy the heart, my hope to meet thee in the air, and nevermore from thee depart.
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That I may, undistracted be to follow Sir and wait for thee. That's a prayer too. I trust it's the earnest and sincere prayer of your heart and mind. And Paul here, he had one thing before him. You know, we talk about multitasking and I love to multitask. I suppose I'm what they would call a multitasker when I'm home and sometimes drives my wife a little bit crazy, but I've got a lot of projects on the go.
And I like to go from one to another and get everything accomplished and eventually all the loose ends tied up. But you know, this isn't multitasking that Paul is talking about here. This is focus, this one thing, one thing. And what was that one thing? It was Christ before his soul and running with the prize in view. Now again, there were many facets to Paul's life, many facets to his ministry. But no matter what Paul was involved in today, whether it was preaching the gospel.
Whether it was ministering to his brethren, whether it was walking or sailing to the next assembly, or taking care of some practical matter in his life, or visiting his brother individually, it all had the focus of running the race with the prize with Christ in view. But I read in Hebrews as well. I just want to point out something there, because here we're told to run with patience.
Or really, the thought is endurance. Often when you have the word patience. In our Bible, the thought is really endurance. And here we're exhorted to run with endurance. The race that is set before us. Because, you know, as we've often said, the Christian race is not the 100 yard dash, it's not the 50 meter dash. No, it's the marathon and it takes endurance. The marathon runner trains very different than the sprinter.
The marathon runner is taught to endure. The sprinter is taught to put everything he has.
Into those few moments because the race is over in a few seconds or minutes, but the marathon runner has to learn to pace himself, laugh after lap, mile after mile. And I realized that there are brethren here this afternoon that have run a lot more laps than I have in the Christian pathway. And if we were to step down and to talk to our brethren who've been in the past the Christian race for many years and asked them, how have you done it? How have you been able to go on for the Lord and run with endurance the race that is set before you?
You know what they tell us? They tell us if there's been any measure of faithfulness in running the race, If the result of looking unto Jesus, that's that's the key. It's looking unto Jesus, the one who began and completed the path of faith and perfection. And he's the only one. It's not so much that he's the author and finisher of our faith. The hour is an Italic, but he's the author and finisher of faith. He began and completed the path of faith and perfection.
You know the Lord Jesus, and again I want to be very, very careful in speaking about the Lord Jesus. But you know the Lord Jesus when he was here, he was a man who was very focused. He said, I have a baptism wherewith to be baptized, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished. On another occasion we read he set his face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem. Nothing was going to dissuade him. He had come to accomplish the Father's will.
And nothing was going to turn him aside or dissuade him. Why? Because of that focus. And what was the focus? I believe the focus was returning to the Father. Have it with the joy have a having accomplished the Father's will. You know, when we read of the joy that was set before him here, I don't believe this joy was so much the joy of having his own with him in a future day. Although no doubt there was that joy before his soul.
But the joy here, I say again, was the joy of a of returning to the Father, having accomplished the Father's will. What a joy there must have been when the Lord Jesus returned to the Father and sat down at the right hand of God, thought God on the one hand satisfied with his Son, and the Lord Jesus with the joy of knowing that nothing had been left undone of what the Father had given him to do.
Having said I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
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What a joy there was at the end of a pathway that was so focused that I say nothing would turn him aside from accomplishing that which the Father had sent him to accomplish here in this world. Go back to 2nd Corinthians for a moment.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3 and verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass the glory of the Lord. If you notice Mr. Darby's translation, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Well, this is what we might say is the effect of focus.
We've spoken at great length in this meeting of the need to focus, and every aspect of focusing really brings us back to being focused in some aspect of things on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we have the results, or the effect of being focused on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what this verse is simply telling us is in the measure in which you and I are focused on the person of Christ.
In the measure in which we are occupied with the man in the glory, there is going to be a reflection of Christ in your life and mine. You know, sometimes people talk about generating A testimony for Christ, but I don't believe we need to worry so much about generating A testimony for Christ as being focused on his person, because in the measure in which we are focused on his person, there will be an unconscious testimony.
And reflection of Christ in your life and mine, it says of those in the early days of Christianity. They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus when they came out from the presence of the Lord. There was an aura, there was a radiation of the person of Christ. As a result we often use the go back to the example of Moses. When Moses came down from the presence of the Lord on the mount, he had to veil his face. The children of Israel couldn't look on him.
Because of the reflection of his face. But you know, it's interesting what it says. It doesn't say he tried to make his face shine or generate some testimony or reflection of Jehovah. It says he wished not that his face shone. It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God on the Mount. And when I see a brother or sister who reflects something of Christ in their life, I say there's a brother, there's a sister who's come out from the presence.
Of the Lord Jesus, there's one who's occupied with himself. And so we're to be lights in this world, but we are. It's reflective light. You know, the moon has no light of itself. It reflects the light of the sun, but it only reflects the light of the sun in the measure in which the earth does not come between it and the sun, in the measure in which the earth comes, between the sun and the moon. Why, There's not going to be that proper reflection. That's why the moon waxes.
And Wayne's. And so in the measure in which things of this earth come between US and Christ, we're not gonna shine. We're not gonna reflect like we ought to. And you know, the children of Israel couldn't look on Moses without a veil. But for us the veil has been removed. We used to sing that hymn when we were young. People, Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Why is it the things of earth mean so much to me? Often? Because I'm not looking full in this wonderful face.
Why is it so often I don't reflect Christ like I should? Because I'm not looking in full in this wonderful face, and the things of earth are coming in.
And so we need to look up and be occupied with him, that there might be a reflection of him, of him in our lives. Turn with me now to Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews Chapter 2.
And verse 8. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. I want to make an application in reading this verse.
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And I trust that it is an application that is relevant and applicable. But, you know, we read in the eighth verse that we see not yet all things put under him. You know, I trust, brethren, that there's no thought, even in corners of our hearts today that the Lord Jesus is outwardly reigning. The Lord Jesus is the king in rejection. He's the noble man that has taken his journey to a far country, and he's waiting for that day when he's going to receive his Kingdom.
And he's going to come back and it's going to be a wonderful day for this world. When the Lord Jesus reigns in the outwardly in the Millennium, we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus. And the reason I read this is to encourage our hearts not to become overwhelmed with the condition of things that we see in this world around us today. You know, it is so easy even as believers to be over occupied.
With the political, the economic and the social condition of this world. Now don't misunderstand me. We are not isolationists and we need to be aware, but we don't need to be overwhelmed. I I like to be aware of what's going on on the world stage, but we don't need to be overwhelmed. You know, this is a day when men are overwhelmed. Men's hearts are failing them for fear. And if ever there was a day to my own soul that whenever there was a proof in my own soul.
That this is the last days. It's the fact that you read fear in people's faces as they are occupied with what's going on in the world because they realize that there is an interplay of economic, political and social forces, that it's like an elastic being stretched. It's got to snap somewhere and they don't understand what's going on and they don't recognize that God is behind the scenes and that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men. And they don't realize that there's a day coming when God's man is going to put it all straight.
And so we need to be aware but not overwhelmed. And we're not going to see things get better in this world as long as we're here. The Scriptures, in a sense, prepare us and show us that the last days described are indifference to the claims of Christ and the breakdown of everything economically and corporately. And.
Physical, socially and politically. And so on. But, brethren, we need to look above that and see Jesus.
We see Jesus. He's above it all. He's in control. He rules in the kingdoms of men. Read the book of Esther for your encouragement. Seemed like everything was out of control. Seemed like the people of God were even going to be annihilated. And though God isn't mentioned by name in that book, as you come to the end of the story, is there any doubt in your mind who is in control? Not for one moment you realize that God was in full control.
Though outwardly things might have for a time seemed out of control, and things may seem out of control, in this world they may seem out of hand. But remember, they're never out of God's hand. And what a comfort it is to look up we see Jesus, oh to see Jesus, to see him, to let him fill our gaze, to let him fill our hearts and satisfy us, and to give us the courage to go on even in difficult days.
But in closing, I'd like to turn to one more scripture and it's in Revelation chapter 5.
Revelation chapter 5 and verse 6. And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain. You know, I have to stand here this afternoon and confess, but the things that we have spoken of this afternoon are not always true.
In my own life and in my own soul, my vision of Christ sometimes is pretty dim.
The things of this world come between myself and my Lord. So often I become distracted. So often I become discouraged. So often I wander from the path. So often I don't have that focus on Christ that I ought to have. But it thrills my heart, brethren. It thrills my heart to no end, to think that there's a day when I'm gonna be focused on the person of Christ, the Lamb in the midst.
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And every other believer is going to have the same focus and everything is going to be centered around him.
And the praise and the worship is going to be one. What a day that's going to be.
When our focus is together on that person and I suggest that when you and I get one look at his lovely face.
We're not going to take our eyes off him for all eternity. Oh, I know there's going to be many facets to eternity and and before that to the Millennium and so on and. But I believe that everything in relationship to the reign of Christ and all those things that we often speak of, it's all going to be focused on the person of Christ.
I say nothing else is going to matter in that day we speak of. We think of meeting one another in that day, and no doubt there will be discourse with one another like Moses and Elijah on the Mount and so on.
But I say again, when we get one look at his lovely face, I suggest that our focus is going to be on the person of Christ for all eternity. He is so going to fix our earnest gaze in that day. He's so going to enrapture our hearts that that, I say, will be our focus. But, brethren, in the meantime, may our hearts be encouraged to focus on that blessed person. He's Heaven's delight, and Heaven's desire is that He would be our delight and our focus as well. Let's pray.
Our God and Father How?