Looking To Jesus

John Flavel The Fountain of Life Opened Up

https://books.google.com/books?id=sLpZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3&dq

Happy were it, if Christians, in perplexity and distress, would turn their eyes from the defects in their obedience, to the fullness of Christ, and see themselves complete in him.

John Bunyan The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate

Look to Jesus if you have sinned. Look to Jesus as an advocate pleading with the Father for you. Look to nothing else for he knows how, and that, by himself, to deliver you; in the way of justice which will be God's glory; and also to your complete deliverance, which will be your comfort and salvation.

Robert Murray McCheyne

For every one look at your problems, your weaknesses, your failures - take ten looks at Jesus.

C.H. Spurgeon

It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.

Archibald Brown

The blood saves from guilt, the resurrection saves from doubt, and the revelation saves from fainting. The blood tells me what I have lost; the resurrection tells me what I have gained; and the revelation tells me what I am going to possess.

Robert Traill “The Steadfast Adherence to the Confession of Our Faith” on Hebrews 10:21,22

https://books.google.com/books?id=la8PAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA225&lpg

The eyes of a believer ought to be fixed on Christ in all his dealings with God. The one eye is to be set on His oblation, and the other on His intercession.

Octavius Winslow

"Looking unto Jesus," for our standing before God; "looking unto Jesus," for the grace that upholds and preserves us unto eternal life; "Looking unto Jesus", for the supply of the Spirit that sanctifies the heart, and fits us for the heavenly glory.

Shall He have wrought such an obedience, shall He have made such an atonement, shall He have died such a death, shall He have risen and have ascended up on high, all to secure your full salvation and certain glory, and will you derive the evidence and the comfort of your acceptance from any other than this one precious source—"looking unto Jesus!" Look away, then, from everything to Jesus. No matter what you are, look away from self—to Jesus. The more vile, the more empty, the more unworthy, the greater reason and the stronger argument why you should look entirely off yourself—to Jesus.

Daily Walking With God

Nothing more effectually obscures our view of Christ than the sin of unbelief. Not fully crediting His word—not simply and implicitly relying upon His work—not trusting His faithfulness and love—not receiving Him wholly and following Him fully—only believing and receiving half that He says and commands—not fixing the eye upon Jesus as risen and alive, as ascended and enthroned, leaving all fullness, all power, all love.

On Hebrews 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith..."

“Righteousness, peace, and joy” (Romans 14:17) are the fruit of a full belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he who looks for them away from the cross will meet with disappointment; but they are found in Jesus. He who looks away from himself, from his vileness, guiltiness, emptiness, and poverty, fully, and believingly unto Jesus, shall know what the forgiveness of sin is, and shall experience the love of God shed abroad in his heart.

Let your constant motto be, “looking unto Jesus”; looking to Him just as you are; looking unto Him when faith is feeble; looking unto Him when faith is tried; looking unto Him when faith is declining; yes, looking unto Him when you fear you have no faith.

Look up, tried and tempted soul! Jesus is the Author, the Sustainer, and He will become the Finisher of your faith.

On Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."

You will make no advance in the divine life, if your eye is ever upon yourself instead of Christ. What though the experience of today is the opposite of the experience of yesterday - yesterday all brightness, today all cloudiness; yesterday your soul like a well-tuned psalm, today every string loosed and breathing no melody; yesterday, Jesus felt to be so near and precious, today seeming to awaken not a loving emotion in your heart; yesterday, communion with God so sweet, today, none whatever; yesterday, desiring to walk uprightly, holily, and humbly, today detecting so much that is vacillating, weak, and vile.

Nevertheless, Jesus is not changed. The work of Christ is the same- your acceptance in Him is the same- His intercession in heaven for you is the same; then, where should you fly to spiritual experiences for support, strength, and consolation - rising when they rise, falling when they fall - when all your standing, joy, peace, and hope are entirely out of yourself, and are solely in Christ?

On 2 Corinthians 1:20 "For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."

Jesus is the grand evidence that God is true. Faith needs asks no more. Here, as on a stable foundation, it rests. Its eye ever "looking unto Jesus," it can thread its way - often sunless and starless - through a dreary, and an intricate wilderness. It can travel through trials, endure temptations, bow meekly to disappointments, bear up under cross providences, and sustain the shock of fearful conflicts, trusting in the God of the covenant, resting on His promise and oath, and implicitly believing His word, because it sees in Jesus an ever-living witness that God is true.

J.C. Ryle

The Upper Room, Being a Few Truths for the Times, Chapter XII Hebrews 4:14. “Our Profession”

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ryle/upper_room.xiv.html

(The Christian) lives the life of faith in the Son of God by continually looking back to Him on the cross, and to the fountain of His blood for daily pardon and peace of conscience, and by daily looking up to Him at the right hand of God interceding for us, and daily drawing from Him supplies of grace in this world of need.

Cultivate the habit of fixing your eye more simply on Jesus Christ, and try to know more of the fulness there is laid up in Him for every one of His believing people. Do not be always poring down over the imperfections of your own heart, and dissecting your own besetting sins. Look up. Look more to your risen Head in heaven, and try to realize more than you do that the Lord Jesus not only died for you, but that He also rose again, and that He is ever living at God's right hand as your Priest, your Advocate, and your Almighty Friend.

Holiness "Christ Is All!"

http://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/holiness21.htm

Would you be holy? Then you must be ever looking unto Jesus, looking at His cross, and learning fresh motives for a closer walk with God; looking at His example, and taking Him for your pattern. Looking at Him, you would become like Him. Looking at Him, your face would shine without your knowing it. Look less at yourself, and more at Christ — and you will find besetting sins dropping off and leaving you, and your eyes enlightened more and more every day (Hebrews 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Learn, I entreat you, to look more and more at the great object of faith, Jesus Christ, and to keep your mind dwelling on Him. So doing you would find faith and all the other graces grow, though the growth at the time might be imperceptible to yourself. He who would prove a skillful archer must look not at the arrow — but at the mark.

F.B. Meyer on 2 Corinthians 3:18

There are two laws for Christian living: keep looking at Jesus until you become like Him, and beholding are changed into the same image; then reflect Him to others, and as you endeavour to reflect Him, the work of transformation goes on.

Heaven is high above the earth on which we stand; only at the horizon, behind us and before us, do heaven and earth touch.

(Look back on occasion to where Jesus touched you to remind yourself where and what you were, but keep your eyes looking ahead where He waits for you with open arms.)

“The Blessed Life”

https://www.gracegems.org/SERMONS/blessed_life.htm

This was taught me by a gray-haired clergyman, in the study of the Deanery at Southampton. Once, when tempted to feel great irritation, he told us that he looked up and claimed the patience and gentleness of Christ, and since then it had become the practice of his life to claim from Him the virtue of which he felt the deficiency in himself. In hours of unrest, Your peace, Lord. In hours of irritation, Your patience, Lord. In hours of temptation, Your purity, Lord. In hours of weakness, Your strength, Lord.

A.B. Simpson

The blessed Lord condensed it all into one single message of eternal comfort spoken to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, "It is I, be not afraid." He is the antidote to fear; He is the remedy for trouble; He is the substance and the sum of deliverance. Get your eyes on Him and Him alone. Not on your faith, but on the Author of your faith; not with a half look, but with a steadfast, prolonged look, with a true heart and fixedness of purpose that knows no faltering, no parleying with the enemy and not a shadow of fear.

D.A. Carson The God Who Is There

Do you want to know what God looks like? Look at Jesus. ‘No one has ever seen God,’ and God in all of His transcendent splendor we still cannot see until the last day. But the Word became flesh; God became a human being with the name of Jesus; and we can see Him.

That is why Jesus later says to one of His own disciples, ‘Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father’ John 14:9.

Do you want to know what the character of God is like? Study Jesus. Do you want to know what the holiness of God is like? Study Jesus. Do you want to know what the wrath of God is like? Study Jesus.

Do you want to know what the forgiveness of God is like? Study Jesus. Do you want to know what the glory of God is like? Study Jesus all the way to that wretched cross. Study Jesus.

A.W. Tozer

The Divine Conquest

It is one of the devil’s oldest tricks to discourage Christian believers by causing them to look back at what they once were. It is indeed the enemy of our souls who makes us forget that we are never at the end of God’s love. No one will make progress with God until the eyes are lifted to the faithfulness of God and we stop looking at ourselves! Our instructions in the New Testament all add up to the necessity of looking forward in faith and not spending our time looking back or just looking within.

We Travel an Appointed Way

The safe rule is, whenever we look at ourselves, be penitent; when we look at Christ, be joyous. And look at Christ most of the time, looking inward only to correct our faults and grieve for our imperfections.