Looking Unto Jesus by Greater Grace World Outreach

Looking Unto Jesus

The late Carl H. Stevens Jr. was pastor of the Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, Maryland, until 2005, and he also founded thriving ministries in Maine and Massachusetts. Pastor Stevens’ death in June 2008 marked the completion of a ministry that spanned four decades and included the establishment of Maryland Bible College and Seminary in Baltimore and the development of “The Grace Hour,” an Angel Award-winning radio talk show that is still heard on Christian stations throughout North America and via the Internet. This booklet was created from a message preached by Pastor Stevens.

Table Of contents

Introduction ............................................ 5 Chapter 1 ................................................... 7 God Pleads Our Cause Chapter 2................................................... 11 Strength for Our Accountability

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version. Italics for emphasis are ours.

Chapter 3................................................... 17 Jesus Christ—Alive Forevermore

Grace Publications 6025 Moravia Park Drive BALTIMORE, MD 21206 Printed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. Copyright © 2010 From a message preached in February, 2000 Grace Publications is a ministry of Greater Grace World Outreach, Inc. ISBN # 1-57907-567-3

INTRODUCTION “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. “I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust. “My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness. “I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads. “Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy” (Psalm 109:21-26). The psalmist was going through a great struggle with sin at this time. He hated himself for the sin he committed. His wounded heart hounded him. He sees himself as a mere shadow, a distorted, opaque version of who God made him to be. To make matters worse, this shadow was declining. He really felt as if his days were slipping away and he was desperate for an answer from God. The psalmist was seeking the sweet mercy of God. He desired an expression of longsuffering and loving kindness. He was appealing to the nature of God, which is expressed in Exodus 34:5-6:

“And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” This encounter happened to Moses, who was having quite a time of it leading God’s people through the wilderness. The children of Israel cried for deliverance from Egypt, but once they got their freedom, they were one big group of whiners. Fortunately, Moses knew how to look to the Lord when he was surrounded by such difficulty. In these pages, we will see just how important it is to look to the Lord and set our eyes on the things that are above.

Chapter One

GOD PLEADS OUR CAUSE “Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. “Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets” (Micah 7:7-10). Micah the prophet had no easy time of it. Conflict in his home left him without a place of rest. No matter how difficult things may be going at the office, the home should offer peace. The prophet’s enemies were those of his own house. And the people he was speaking to for God were not listening to him. Micah, prophesying at the same time as Isaiah, communicated a

message that was not getting through, despite the perilous times that had come to God’s people. In the historical setting, the cruel Assyrian Empire was on its way to capturing the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and soon its armies would set their sights on Judah and Jerusalem, the big prize. God was warning His people by speaking through Micah and the prophet was faithful to tell the truth. In this case, the truth hurt and few were taking note. The prophet’s message was not welcomed even at his kitchen table. This is a tough spot for a man of God. Imagine, a pastor preaching his heart out after hours of prayer and preparation. He knows God gave him the words to say, but the congregation rebuffs him and the sermon. The church empties in seconds, only a handful bother even to shake his hand. He makes it to the car with his wife and there is only silence all through their drive. At dinner, the complaints start to trickle out. “No one wants to hear that kind of message.” “How could you say such things?” “We are lucky you have a job and we have this parsonage to live in.” I know if that were the case for me, there would be times of deep discouragement. I can only hope that I would handle it the way that

Micah did in his situation. The prophet identified himself as a sinner. He recognized where to go with his trouble. He looked to the Lord and asked for strength in his time of stretching. “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness” (Micah 7:9). It’s a great passage. Micah’s got serious, domestic problems. He knows he is as much a sinner as the ones who are ignoring his message from the Lord. Yet, Micah had this attitude: “The Lord is with me while I’m down here. Now, I don’t like being down here, but the Lord is with me, and I shall arise, and my prayer will be heard. He will plead my cause, and He will execute my judgment.” It was a dark, dark night, but Micah kept his mind and heart in the light of God. Thoughts of mercy, peace, and righteousness ruled his mind. The Lord would have His way and the enemies of Micah would wind up ashamed. The prophet understood what was coming for God’s people as a result of their disobedience. Rather than live in the pride of his knowledge, Micah grieved for them and committed Israel to the hand of God. The important thing Micah did was look to the Lord. The troubles in the prophet’s fam-

ily, the prophet’s nation, and the prophet’s own heart did not deter him from the principle thing. Micah looked to the Lord and purposed to wait for God’s salvation. There is no better thing to do under God’s Heaven then to look to the Lord.

Chapter Two

STRENGTH FOR OUR ACCOUNTABILITY “Wherefore seeing we have so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset us, and run the race with patience 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, and despised shame, and set down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Here’s the key to spiritual success—Looking unto Jesus. Where’s the past? Where’s our failure? Where are the people who have hurt us? Where are the moments when we wished we could have done better? All those things are out of the picture when our focus is upon Christ. We turn our backs on those things and behold the righteousness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, and the nature of God. We behold Him. If we go through pain and sickness, certainly we have to deal with these things in some

measure. Yet, we need not focus on them needlessly. We refuse to look on these things and instead we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Imagine a young couple. They’ve been married a year, and the guy’s decided to leave his wife. They’re both Christians, and she’s going through a very serious time emotionally. She’s a very self-assertive person and has a lot of charisma, but he wants to leave her. She’s done everything she can for reconciliation, but he issues refusal after refusal. What can she do? Look to Jesus. She shouldn’t look at him. If she does, she will be miserable. His capacity for God is missing apparently. No one—not a pastor, not a parent, not a spouse— can make anyone make right decisions. Such decisions must be born of the Spirit in the heart of each believer. We do understand the carnal adventures that appeal to the flesh of men and women. We do understand the consequences that such adventures bring. Preaching, teaching, loving, counseling do fortify hearts and minds and instruct us to guard our capacities and to develop storehouses of doctrine for the warfare we face in these present evil days. One of my dear friends just got the news that his wife has entered the early stages of Alzheim-

er’s disease. He came to my office and we wept together. We prayed and we purposed to look to Jesus for the days ahead. He is a great man of God; he is going to love his wife and help her unto death. Gazing at the things that discourage us won’t help. Sure, responsibilities press upon us, but God gives strength for our accountability. We turn our eyes to Jesus and we stop thinking of the things that hurt us. Light breaks through in the midst of our darkness. “For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). “When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness” (Job 29:3). This is how we all began our walk with God. The light broke through and we entered into the rest of fellowship in the Spirit through salvation. We start out and get saved through the love of God expressed on Calvary. We grow through the love of God on Calvary. We are forgiven through the love of God on Calvary. We are moved to help others through the love of God on Calvary. We start out with love, we grow in love, we develop love, we adjust in and under love, and finally our lives shall be consummated to perfection in our union of love to the One who perfects us.

God declares that He will give us treasures in darkness, secret riches in hidden places; so that we will know that He is God (see Isaiah 45:3). Even in the midst of suffering, we can look unto Jesus, and He will enlighten our darkness (Psalm 18:28). If we fall into sin for whatever reason, the Lord never leaves and never forsakes His children (Hebrews 13:5). Micah said such a sweet thing when he said, “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me” (Micah 7:8). Understanding Christ, it is the most precious pursuit for our lives. I love Him. He loved me first, so loving Him is no sweat when you really think about it. He loved me, so I love Him. It all comes back to looking unto Jesus. He authors my faith and my love and He will be faithful to complete and finish my faith and bring me into the fullness and perfection of intimacy with Him. Most nights, I get home and just kneel before God, thanking him for what He has given me and for what He has given me to do by the power of His Spirit. I get in my house and say, “You’ve been merciful and gracious. Thank You for the people, for the music, for the Word, for the privilege of being alive, and for the ability to hear from You and speak Your message to a great congregation.” “I have blotted out thy transgressions, and as

a thick cloud, I have blotted them out, and as a cloud, thy sin returns to me, for I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 44:22) Here’s another interesting and beautiful statement from the Lord to us: “…thy sin returns to me, for I have redeemed thee.” With redemption, God took possession of our sin. Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might receive His righteousness. If our sin belongs to God, then this means we cannot get involved anymore. This is true of how I am to relate to myself and to others. Our sin has been blotted out in the redemptive program of God. I think one of the sweetest, most powerful rebound verses in the Bible is this one: “I, even I, have blotted out your transgressions. For my name’s sake, I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). Why would God do this? Because of His nature of mercy, and grace, longsuffering, goodness, doctrine, and forgiveness. The Lord personally involved Himself in bringing a permanent conclusion to the sin issue. He so loved us that He made a way for us to draw near to Him and for Him to draw near to us. God Almighty made us. God Almighty redeemed us. God Almighty will never forsake us. God Almighty is going to see us through and make us just like Him (1 John 3:2).

Chapter Three

Oh, if we, as God’s people understood this, our emotions would be healed. These realities, energized by the Spirit have the power to clean up our unconscious minds, to deliver us from subconscious imaginations, and to make our consciences joyful and right. Our streams of consciousness would be renewed if we would simply make ourselves available to the nature of God’s name and sweetness of His mercy, because He deals with us according to His nature, not according to man’s interpretation. God does not relate to us according to man’s frailty. He is not moving in accord with man’s ways. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and He deals with us in His way. We have God’s promises and not one of these promises will ever fail (see 1 Kings 8:56). I want to thank God today that He’s the God of my life, the God of your life, and He’s the God who wants to pour His life out into us and fill us with the Spirit, moment-by-moment, and fill us with His love. The Lord wants to give me an experience with His life that I have never had as I grow in grace and knowledge of His Person (2 Peter 3:18). How do I know this? The Bible tells me that His mercies are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22-23). There are new mercies for each day. So I can say confidently that God will do something new with me today.

“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; “And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:13‑18). The one beautiful thing about God is that He always speaks with the two-edged sword of

JESUS CHRIST—ALIVE FOREVERMORE

comfort and conviction. John heard the Lord and fell down as a dead man. Christ touched him, however, and all was right again. I can imagine God speaking to John like this: “Don’t fear, John. Don’t be afraid of My holiness. You’re in a human body, and I’m glorified but don’t be afraid of Me. I’m the first and the last. One day your physical body is going to be just as mine is.” John fell. God’s hand was on him, and Christ said, “I am he that liveth. I was dead, but I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys to death and hell.” Then, John was told to write and report all the things that were about to be unveiled to the apostle on this beautiful Sunday morning on the Isle of Patmos. The place that the Roman government put John in order to punish him became the place of glorious visitation. The mercies of God were oh so new to John on that morning and the Lord gave the great view of Christ’s ultimate triumph and the splendor and majesty of the New Jerusalem and beyond. Glory to God, death has no power, death has no sting, the grave has no victory (1 Corinthians 15:55, 56). Glory to God today through the blood of the Lamb and through the grace of God, we are more than conquerors in Christ. “Where are you, Micah?”

“I have fallen. My family is a mess. I have sinned against God, and my children are against me.” That’s what Micah said. But the prophet also said, “I will wait upon the God of my salvation, and my God will hear my prayer, and I’ll look unto Him right now, and He will plead my case, and He will execute my judgment, and light will come unto me, and I will behold His righteousness.” The gift of God’s perfect righteousness is received freely. When we take God’s offer of the abundance of His grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign by one, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17). I want you to see this, and I want you to understand it clearly. There is no greater thing than to look unto Jesus and keep looking. In doing so, we forget the things that are behind (Philippians 3:13), and look forth to the things which are before us. The one important dimension of living is Jesus Christ and what He’s going to do as He perfects you. Our ultimate perfection won’t come until we go home to be with Him, but here and now He teaches us how to grow and how to use recovery and use rebound without selfcondemnation. Shame and self-condemnation make us what we are when we are living in discord with the purpose and provision of Christ. Twice in the

past month, a husband has said to me, “I don’t love my wife.” After the second guy said it, I was feeling a bit feisty, so I answered, “God told me He doesn’t love you.” I wish I had a camera to capture the look that came over his face. “You’ve taught all your life that God loves me and always will,” the man said. I said, “I changed my mind.” He said, “You’re kidding.” I said, “No, I’m not. God doesn’t love you.” “But you’ve been teaching me unconditional love for 15 years.” I said, “I just feel from God He doesn’t love you.” Then, I blurted out. “You know I’m teasing, don’t you? But I’m a pretty good actor; I could have won an Academy Award, but God saved me from a Hollywood career after He saved me from life in politics.” Finally, the husband let out a little nervous laugh. I wasn’t ready to let it go, however. “I hope you repent and get right so love can start again in your marriage,” I said. “You told your wife you never loved her, and you wounded her, and you hurt her, and she can’t respond to you, because she feels rejected, and your relationship is mechanical. It is external.” “What about unconditional love?” he asked. “What about it?” I said. “The Bible doesn’t

say, ‘Husbands, love your wives because they’re pretty, because they have a slim waistline, good complexion, because they’re nice and good housekeepers.’ It doesn’t say that. It says, ‘Love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her.’” Of course, God loves this husband, and God loves his wife, too. The love of God wasn’t operating through this man toward his wife at this point. He had a decision to make. He was going to have to get right with God and love His wife, or risk disobedience and suffer the shame and self-condemnation that comes with it. Proverbs 13:6 says it: “Wickedness overthrows the sinner.” This man wasn’t looking unto the Author and Finisher of faith. He was looking at his wife and giving in to subjective feelings of dissatisfaction. He allowed these feelings to overthrow him. Some women do this to themselves. They become very unhappy with their body image and descend into shame and self-condemnation. The result, tragically, is that the inadequacies control their emotions and those emotions begin to dominate the decision-making process. Seeking a way to feel as if they are doing something to correct their weight gain, they turn to extreme measures and become locked into disordered

eating patterns. Now, you know what the truth is: God doesn’t look on the outward appearance. He looks upon the heart (see 1 Samuel 16:7). Throughout the days of Israel, everyone had to have a standard and had to move under a banner. These stood for victory because of love. Numbers 1:52 tells us that every individual and family in Israel had to have a standard for their house. Each of the 12 tribes had to have a standard. Even when the people of God were in Babylon, they had to write the standard on the walls of the city of their captivity. Do you know what the standard was? A banner of love. When the enemy comes in like a flood, God raises a standard and it’s the Holy Spirit’s banner of love. I have got to have a standard with my wife. I have to go home, hold her hand, and look in her eyes, and say, “You’re a good woman, and I do love you.” I am capable of making a horrible confession when there is trouble in my home. It could happen when I lose sight of the banner of love that God has raised over me. See, my problems with loving my wife—or with loving any else for that matter—is simply a matter of me not loving myself. Do you know why people don’t love them-

selves? Because there are many things with God that they have never accepted. I must grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Many things in life grieve and quench the Spirit. We can limit the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:41). If I love myself with God’s love, I have no problem adoring my family and my wife. Glory to God, He loves me forever. He has saved me forever. His Spirit has sealed me forever. He will never leave me. He will sit with me when I fail and help me up to behold His righteousness. God will teach me to grow, and teach me to be a disciple, and teach me to minister His life and reflect His nature and manifest His person. He will teach me to use His power and to use faith with love to minister Jesus Christ on earth. God will do these things for me and this is why life is worth living because living is Christ.