This sermon emphasizes the importance of looking to Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith, who endured the cross and despised the shame, setting an example of obedience and love for God. The speaker highlights the challenges faced by early Christians and the high price of obedience, urging listeners to fix their eyes on Christ to avoid growing weary or faint-hearted. The focus is on imitating Christ's faith and enduring difficulties with joy through obedience to God's will.

Looking to Jesus, the founder, perfecter of our faith, who for the joys was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such a hostility against Himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Let's pray. Father, we look to you this morning, O God. Father, I ask you, Lord, that you will come, be here, and help. Father, I ask you that you will use words, Father, your words, in your servant, O God. Father, I pray that your Son may be glorified, and that we can look to Him in true faith. We ask you all these things, Father, by the mercies of Jesus. Amen. I'd like to talk to you this morning on the the prize of obedience. I just read Hebrews, and I just found out this afternoon, or this morning, that your pastor is preaching through Hebrews. He's in chapter 10, I think. So I'm in 12, so I'm okay. 11, okay. So, I'm well, that's good. That's good. So, in the book of Hebrews, you find encouragement based on the person of Jesus Christ. Now, in our days, we don't, in this country, we do not have such a hostility against Christianity. Not yet, anyways. We have some, but not much. But in back then, the people that believe in the Lord Jesus were going through different struggles and difficulties because they were hated. Hated by Jews. If you kind of read a little bit of history, you find out that in Smyrna, there was a brother, a pastor named Polycarp, and he actually was burned at the stake for professing Christ and not bowing down to the whims of the Romans. And actually, the people that produced this persecution against this church were the Jews. And he's writing to Jewish Christians here, and he's telling them that to have faith, not to abandon their faith, and to leave it. And he's telling them that they need to pay close attention to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, for us, it's hard to believe that somebody can lose their job for being a Christian, or family, or don't have any food to eat because being a Christian. But back then, you could lose your job, you could lose what you have, you could lose everything for the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you were invited, you were working for somebody, for a Roman or a Jew, if you were working for someone like that, and they invited you to some kind of get-together and you refused because they were doing some kind of idol worship, or the Jews that were against you because you believe in the Messiah Jesus Christ, you could lose your job. And by losing your job, you could lose your food. And by doing that, you can put in your family a lot of jeopardy. So there were a lot of difficulties that were going on in the early Christian church, and this letter is addressed to them. It's addressed to them. The high price of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first of all, it tells us right here that we have to look at Jesus. Now, if we look in the chapter before, we find that there's a list of people that he mentions as having faith. Abraham, Moses, you know, probably I wouldn't put some people here that I thought, like Rahab. I mean, Rahab, you know, in our mind we think, well, she shouldn't be here. I put Daniel here, probably replace Rahab and put Daniel here. But you see, the Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God, and the weakest of Christians have real faith in the Lord Jesus Christ like Rahab. So we find here in Hebrews chapter 11 that he mentions Abraham, which, you know, he wasn't a very good example of faith, even though he's called the father of the faith. He, when he went into a country, he gave up his wife twice. I don't know if I would call him the father of faith, a very good example of faith there. I mean, there was no faith there because he was afraid somebody was going to do wrong to him because his wife was very beautiful. So he tells her, you know, tell him that you are my sister, okay? That's not an example of faith. Now, he writes all these, all these names down, and he uses the first name for them. Rahab, Moses, etc. But then he comes to verse, to chapter 12 verse 2, and he says, you truly want to know what faith looks like? Trusting completely in God? Look unto Jesus. He trusted his own father. He had faith, brothers, trusting his father. Now, he paid a high price for it, but it was because of faith. So let me just look, turn with me on Matthew chapter 26. It's kind of like an introduction to verse 2 and 3. In chapter 6, verse 39, 26, I'm sorry, Matthew 26, verse 39. And going a little bit further, he fell on his face and prayed, my father, if it is possible that this cup pass from me. Now, I'm glad that the Lord is not like some people's faith, fakey and flaky. The Lord had a little bit of difficulty here, asking his father if there was any other way to please take away this cup from him. Sometimes our difficulties are too difficult and it's hard to bear. But the Lord did not act upon his emotions. He was willing to bear it. So our faith should not be directed by what we feel. Our feelings lie to us constantly. And you should not base your Christianity and your feelings, because your feelings can change from day to day. You should base your Christianity on God's Word, on what his will is. The Lord said, if it's possible, please take it away from me. But know my will, your will be done. Then, verse 42, he says the same thing. Again, for the second time he went away and prayed, my father, if that cannot pass unless I drink it, you will be done. So he's asking again, one more time, I don't know, I'm not a theologian, I am not very, a deep thinker, but I can tell you one thing, it's evident that the Lord is having a little bit of difficulty with whatever the Lord has for him in this cup. Obedience is not easy, brothers. Sometimes you have to pay a high price to obey. Sometimes when the Lord is calling you to do something, it's not as easy as saying yes. Sometimes you have to go through many difficult things or sometimes you have to be willingly to leave things or to move away from such things and it's not as easy as just saying yes. But the Bible tells us right here the Lord told him that he wanted to drink this cup. The next thing we find is that in verse 47 all the way to 50, they come to get him and look what he says, I mean this is amazing to me. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant and the high priest and cut his ear. I think he was aiming from the throat. I don't think it was his ear, but he missed. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think I cannot appeal to my Father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels. Now he's arguing now for the will of God. See he was praying for help. He was praying if it was possible for this cup to be taken away from him, but now he is per se arguing in favor of it. Leave that alone. I need to do this. The Word of God needs to be fulfilled. That's why he says verse 54. So yes, the will of God is difficult. If it wasn't difficult, everybody will be doing it, wouldn't it? If it wasn't against our flesh, everybody will be in it. The whole world will be in it, but it's not. Many times the Lord calls us to do things that sometimes it doesn't rational, but nevertheless if God is telling us to do certain things, we must do them. So we find here that the Lord is asking the Father. Later on he argues in favor of God's will in verse 52. Brothers, when the Lord speaks to you and is clear about something in your life, do not go again to him again and ask him again like Balaam. He might just let you do it and that would not be good. When the Lord is clear about something in your life and you know this is true, do not go ask around brothers and sisters what do you think God has spoken to you. You need to bow to his will. You need to bow to what you know that the Lord has spoken to you. And the Lord knows he asked twice, God answered, he's done. So what happened next? Well we find in chapter 27 verse 27 that because of his obedience, because of his willingness to obey, the Lord is about to suffer. Now I know we make sometimes very little. I don't know what you believe but sometimes people make very little effort, very little emphasis on the sufferings of Christ before the cross. In fact one person told me, he said, well you know that that doesn't save me so I'm not going to even look at it. Well it's in the scripture. The sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to the cross. I know, I know that the fact that the Romans got a stick and hit him on the head doesn't save me. I know that. Nevertheless it is important to look at this because if we look in Hebrews, if you turn to Hebrews, Hebrews mentions that to encourage the Christians to be willing to suffer for the obedience of Christ. Look what it says in verse 2, in verse 3 I'm sorry, it says consider him who endured from sinners such a hostility, not from the father but from sinners difficulties. So the cross, yes, is verse 2, the cross endured the cross but at the same time he talks about the difficulties he had because of his obedience to his father. So we cannot minimize in a sense. I know that the Lord in the cross completely paid my debt because his father poured out his wrath upon him and he paid my price for my sin. But I know too that before the cross he suffered shame. And look what it says in verse 27, then the soldiers of the governance took Jesus, verse 27, chapter 19, 27. They gather the whole battalion, you see, they gather the whole battalion. It was like a circus. The Lord Jesus put himself through this for the obedience to his father. I want you to be clear on this. He himself subject himself to this suffering because he wanted to obey his father in everything. That's important for us. If we are willing to obey God, if we are willing to obey our father, we must submit to him in whatever situation he might put us. And they stripped him and they put a scarlet robe upon him and twisted together a crown of thorns. Now let me tell you one thing about Romans. Listen, we look at movies and we think, you know, this Romans nice people. They were cruel. They were bad. Before the Nazis, they were the Romans. Before the genocide against the Jews, they were the Romans against the Jews in Jerusalem. You read a little bit of history and you find out what happened to Jerusalem in 7 AD, the cruelty that happened there. In fact, the Romans were so cruel. I was reading a little story about a girl. This is history. They could not kill a virgin. And this little girl was a virgin. They were going to sacrifice, they were going to kill her. So what they did, they raped her before she got, she was put to death. This is the type of people they were. They were mean people, bad people. And the Lord himself put himself under this type of people to do whatever they wanted to him for our sake. And Lewis says right here, they twisted thorns. You see, they didn't have to do that. They didn't have to mock him that way. They didn't have to. He was, I mean, we think about somebody dying. Give him some respect, right? At least in the time of death, don't do that to a person. Nobody, nobody in their right mind, when somebody's dying, try to be cruel to them. Nevertheless, they put a crown, they put, they put it on his head, they put a reed in his right hand and kneel down before him. They mocked him, saying, hell king, the king of the Jews. And they spit on him, they took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robes and put his own clothes on him. They led him away to crucify him. This is a real person. This person lived back then. His name was Jesus Christ. You know, I don't know, sometimes we're not moved. We're so used to reading these things. We're not moved. I was taking a claim by somebody and then his son was in the military and died in the military. And when he was talking about his son, tears start coming down on his face because it was a real person. This person was dear to his heart. Just the fact that he died for what he believed, it was dear to his heart. And listen brothers and sisters, when we think about the pain of Christ, it should move us. We should thank and thank God that he sent his own son to die for our sins. And it should move us. It should make us love him more. The sacrifice that he went to even before the cross. And they crucify him. And all this because of the obedience to his father. And verse 32 says, as they went on, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon, by name. They compel this man to carry his cross. Now what business had Simon there? Well my question is, what business had Jesus to be there? It wasn't his sin he was carrying, it was my sin. But all this happened because of the obedience that he had to his father. I want to emphasize that. The reason he was put in that position is because he was obedient to his father. He was willing to obey his father and everything. Verse 34, and they offer him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. So he, actually this was a mix of some kind of chemical so he can feel less the pain and he would not do that. He wanted to have his right mind on the cross. No help at all. Verse 39, and those who pass by deride him, wagging their heads and saying, you who destroyed the temple and rebuilt it, in three days save yourself, for you are the Son of God. Come down from the cross. So the chief priest and the scribes and elders mocked him, mocked him. So this is a circus that is going on around Christ and all this happened because he was obedient to his father. And the book of Hebrews takes it in verse 2. We're going to look now at verse 2, talking about the sufferings of Christ, but the difficulties that we went through. The Apostle Paul, which I believe wrote the book of Hebrews, says look to Jesus. Now why does he say that? Why does he say look to Jesus? It doesn't mean that they were looking at something else. The idea is that they were looking at something else, but they actually need to refocus their mind and their thinking. Look at Christ. Brothers, we are saved because one day we look at Jesus. Isn't that right? One day in our lifetime we looked at Christ in faith and you knew he died for your sins. You knew that you deserve what he deserved, but you see the idea is not here that we look at him one time and that's it. It's not the idea. The idea is a progressive in a constant manner. It's looking to Jesus. In fact, the King James calls it fixing your eyes upon Jesus. And what is to fix? Well, to fix is to put something and not move it. This is the way brothers and sisters, not only that we're saved, this is the way we have to live our Christian life, looking at Christ constantly. Many people look at theology or Calvinism, they all find it dandy, but listen, the way we do not faint is looking at Christ and his life and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. And that's the only way brothers and sisters. How do we fall in love with somebody? The more we look at it and more we look one way or the other, we see him, that he's beautiful, that he's glorious. There's nothing wrong with him, that he's perfectly glorious. And the fact is here is that look, that's a command for every believer, is to look. It's the easiest thing to do and the thing the devil wants you to do is to take away your eyes from him, because he knows that when you start looking at other things, your mind is going to wonder. The way you keep your heart warm before the Lord Jesus Christ, to look at him. And we're going to see what? Why do we need to look at Christ? Well, first of all we need to look at him intensely. Intensely. The verb here is to look, but it's not just to have a little, you know, oh I looked at it. No, it's actually fix your eyes. Fix your eyes on it. Do not move them from there. Look what it says in 1st John 3.1. It says, see, right? Observe. Put attention to this. Pay attention. See what kind of love the Father has given to us. So the idea is here is not just to look at it, it's to meditate upon it. It's to load, oh I'm sorry, to make heavy in your mind these things. It's like a wheelbarrow. You have a wheelbarrow and you load things on it. And the idea is here, load your mind completely and fix your eyes on Christ. His life is your life. The way you live and the way you walk is by looking at Christ and not taking your eyes from it. If you look at me, if you look at anybody, you might find a little difficult. You might find difficulties, but if you look at Christ, he will never disappoint you. Never. So it's fixing. It's making heavy in your mind the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Loading your mind with thoughts of him. Constantly looking in every direction and every side about his life. Why? Well, he's the founder and the finisher. But look, before we go to that, look what it says right there. It says, looking unto Jesus. Jesus. He doesn't talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, but Jesus. First name. It's important, I believe. It's important because we find that in the, it was a very common name. Extremely common. We find that in the Bible, different people were named Jesus. In Exodus 17 10, in Nehemiah chapter 7 verse 7, Zechariah 3 1, Acts 7 40 45, we find these people named Jesus. But we're not talking about this, this other Jesus. We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, but he uses the name Jesus. Why? Well, he uses it because it's the human side of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, many people by the second century of the church, the name Jesus had disappeared. First of all, the Jews hated the name Jesus. So they never named their son Jesus anymore. And second, the Christians revere that name so much, they didn't mention that name anymore. They didn't put or give their children that name. So by the second century of the church, that name had disappeared. It was, it was important. And right here, Hebrews is talking about Jesus. His humanity. It is important. Fix your eyes on Jesus. On the Lord Jesus Christ. But he uses his humanity as an example for us. He was fully human. He was in all parts tempted, but never sinned. But he was human. I don't understand it. I see some, some eyes, you know, wondering. I don't understand completely about the humanity and the divinity of Christ. But one thing the church has always believed is that he's completely human and completely divine, both together. We can talk about different names of theology, gives it all that stuff, but eventually we have to just bow down to the scriptures. Yes, he was. He was human and he was divine, but the Bible says right here, look at this human side of Christ Jesus. How did he obey Christ? So we can imitate his faith, in the sense. So it says Jesus Christ. Two things that we're gonna see here. The Bible says right here that this Jesus that we're talking about, he was the founder. Now the founder of our faith. What does that mean to be the founder? Well, it means that he's the author, as some translations put it, author. What does that mean, author? It's not a passive thing. You see, when we think about these things, author means, yeah, he produces our faith in our heart. He's not talking about that. Forget that thought. He's not talking about being the author, producing the faith in our heart. What he's talking about here is a word that can be translated as prince, as the forerunner, and actually the English Standard Version produces or translates that word founder very well. He's the founder. He's the founder. He is the forerunner of our faith, or the faith. What does that mean? Well, look with me in Numbers 13.2. Numbers 13.2, sent man to spy on the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the people of Israel, from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. He's sending them ahead to look at the land. The idea of being the founder of the faith means that he is the one that went forward. No one else in the history of humanity have been able to obey God completely. Okay? We have Abraham. He didn't. He was a sinner, just like you and I. But Christ, the idea is that he is like a man that goes to the Amazons, where no one has gone before, and he makes a way, makes a way, and he actually inaugurates a new path for humanity. And he is actually cutting away in obedience to the Father, whatever the cost, whatever it is. He inaugurates the way. He is actually the founder of the faith, and if we have the same faith that he has, we will go through the same path that he has gone through. That means obeying the Father. Every Christian who is truly regenerated has a desire, a love for God, and a desire to obey him, no matter the cost. No matter the cost. No matter the cost, brothers and sisters, because it's the same path that he inaugurated, the Lord Jesus Christ. He went forward. That's what it means. Founder. Founder of the faith. It means that every single person that goes after him has the same characteristics that he has. Yes. Every single Christian trusts in faith his Father, and our Father. There is a price, like we see. He paid a price, a great price, to obey the Lord. So we must be willing to obey him and do the same thing. We sing, right? We sing the song right now, let earth and kinder go, this mortal life also, that body they might kill. God's truth advises still, right? Yes. We might be called at any time to give up our own life for the will of God. We must be willing to do that, because he did that. And if that's the faith, if he is the inaugurator of that way, we must just follow him and completely walk in his steps. So he is the founder. Not only that, he says, and perfecter. The word here means that he's actually the one that denotes completeness. The idea is he is a completer. He has complete every single requirement that God requires from a man. That's amazing to me. I cannot wrap my mind around it, because still my mind is touched by sin, in a way. A man, Christ Jesus, that did everything exactly the Lord told him to do, and never said no. He always completed everything the Lord mandated to him. That type of life, we have to follow. We have to desire to be like Christ. And that's our desire, isn't it? It is our desire. So he is the perfecter, the author of our faith. And not only that, he, the Bible says right here, he endured the cross. But before he endured the cross, he looked through the cross, and to the difficulty that comes, the joy. And brothers, you cannot have no joy without obedience. There must be obedience in the life of a Christian to obtain joy. It really is. There was a man that I was talking to, and he was at Home Depot, and I was trying to talk to him. And he's been a Christian, professing Christian, for a while. And I told him, I said, you know, you need to repent and come to the Lord. I said, you know, everybody, everybody kind of, you know, puts me down every single time they talk to me. I said, you know, there's, you know, how come they don't encourage me? He said, I am encouraging you. Repent and come to the Lord Jesus. There's no joy outside Christ. You cannot have joy in disobedience. Now, you might think you have joy, but you don't have joy. True joy? No. The only joy, true joy, that Christians have is whenever they are fruitful in obedience to God. Whatever, Lord, whatever you want me to do, here I am. Do it, whatever you want in my life, I am. And you will find true joy. This is my joy. Then my joy will be competing you. What kind of joy? Well, the joy of obedience. The type of joy the Lord has. He finished his work. He was obedient to the Father. You cannot have joy, true joy, in disobedience. So, here you sit today, right now, as we speak right now, how is your life? Are you disobeying Christ? Are you hiding something from the Lord? Repent! Leave it alone! True joy is for you. The joy set before him. What? He endured the cross. He endured it. And that's one thing we have to do, brothers. Yes, endure difficulties, endure problems. And we have to endure them. We're called to do that. Despise the shame. And he's seated at the right hand of the Father. So, we find here that the life of Christ will help us endure difficulties. Nothing is too great for us to give to Christ. We just sing it. He is the apple of my eye. Is that really? Is it the apple of my eye? Is that the only thing that I want in this life? It's Christ Jesus. You might give me a car, you might give me a house, but if you take Jesus Christ, you're taking my life. Is that your story, brother and sister? Be willing to give it up. Be willing to lay it down. If it's possible, Lord, a different way. If not, you will be done and bound to him. And the example is Jesus Christ. The sinner, brother, there's not help outside Jesus. Sinner, there's no help outside the Lord Jesus Christ. Come in obedience to the call of the gospel. Bow yourself before him and come in repentance and faith. Confess it that you need him. Verse 3, consider, here's the Lord Jesus. Consider this. The result, what is the result? Well, consider him who endure from sinners such a hostility against himself so that you may grow, not grow weary or faint hearted. This is the way you keep your mind and your desires and you don't faint in the middle of the bottle. What do you do? Well, you keep your eyes on Christ. What do you do the next day? You keep your eyes on Christ. What do you do next week? You keep your eyes on Christ. You consider his life. And what is the result of that? You don't grow faint hearted. One of the things that many people are discouraged and leave the faith, you know what it is? They start looking at people. They start looking at the church. They start looking at the pastor. They start looking at one another. They start looking at something else and they keep your eyes from Christ. They start looking. You will find fault in me. I can tell you right now. That's not a problem for me. You will find fault in me. If you look deep enough in my life, you will find fault. We might disagree in certain points. You will find fault. Maybe he's not, you know, this or that, but you will find fault in every single man in some way, somehow you scratch enough, you dig enough, you will find something. And then you will have your excuse why to leave the church. But listen, listen, look at Jesus. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He will never disappoint you. He will never, you will never find fault in him. You will never find excuse to leave the church. You will never find excuse to leave Christianity. You will never find anything on him. He is perfect and altogether glorious. So what? Why are you looking at me for? Why are you looking at the brother over here? Yeah, he has faults. Yes. Yeah. Why? You want to put him on a pedestal and you want to put what he did on, write it down? Yes, you can find fault in that. But you look at Jesus. He will never, never, never disappoint you. And how many people leave the church? How many people leave the church because they find something wrong with it? Babe, you should never find anything wrong with the Lord Jesus. You will never find it. Look at him. Look at him. His faith was full of love, of love. Look with me in Hebrew, in 1 Timothy. The aim, verse 5, the aim of our church is love. That's the aim of any kind of teaching is love, to love God, to love him. That issue from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Yes. Listen, love. Why are you doing what you're doing? Because I love the Lord. What are you doing? What are you trusting God in that? Well, because what are you giving up this stuff? Well, because I love the Lord. You see, faith is just a response of man to what already God has said. It's your response. The Bible says right here, listen, it's love. The aim of our church is love. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect example of faith. Because he acted, everything he did was because of his love for God, for his own Father. When he came down here, it's because of love. Because he went to the cross, it was because of love to his Father. He is the epitome of faith. He is the epitome of faith. You want to know how a man should walk in this lifetime? You want to know how a man should trust God? Look at Jesus Christ. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He trusted his own Father with his own life. His own life. And he wasn't disappointed. And you won't be either. Has he treated you bad all these years? No. He has given you more than what we deserve, isn't it? He is a good God. So, when we look at Christ, he is the epitome of faith. He is, everything that he did, it was because of love for his Father. That's the way we have to live our lives, brothers. Constantly fixing our eyes to Christ. Now, today, as we speak right now, who are you looking at? What are you looking at? What are you looking at? It will show. Because the things that we fix our eyes on, that are the things we love. We become what we look at. It affects our minds, our way of thinking, what we look at. So, brothers and sisters, I will just exhort you, look at Jesus Christ. He is the epitome of faith. He is actually the one that we have to follow in example of faith. Whatever you say, Lord. Here I am. You see, we don't have to invent things in ministries. We don't. Programs or things like that. No. The only thing we have to do is say, Lord, I bow to you. What do you want me to do? Here is my life. Do whatever you want with it. Pour out for God. What do you want with me, oh Lord? Whatever you want, do it. Whatever the cost, just show me. Lord, help us. Let me pray with you. That's all I have. Father, I pray that you will help us, Lord, to look at your Son. Father, he is the epitome of our faith. He actually, Father, is the one that we have to imitate. Father, our hearts grow weary because we look at other people. We try to find things, Father. People will disappoint us, but your Son will never disappoint. He is the epitome of faith. How we have to live is like Jesus, trusting completely in you, giving our lives to you and everything, constantly looking at your Son, loading our mind with his life. I ask you, Lord, that you help us, that you help me, oh God, that ten days from now, a year from now, ten years from now, fifty years from now, Lord, we will find ourselves looking at your Son even more, finding in your Son everything that we need for this lifetime and even more. We ask you, Lord, open our eyes, open the sinner's eyes to see how lovely he is, how worthy of our praise he is, oh God. Anything he wants, he has to have. He's altogether lovely. We thank you, Lord, for these words. In Christ's name we praise you. Amen.