Sing this straight through, we
will not sing the refrain each time. So straight through, no
refrain. The stain that swallowed man's
nature from the distance that he fell, far removed from hope
and heaven, into deep despair and On there was a fountain open,
And the blood of God's own Son Purifies the soul and reaches
Deeper than the stain that was. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear the night. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone, that sweet palm of Gilead reaches
deeper than the snake has cloned. All unworthy we who've wandered
and are Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone Knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
Deeper than the sea We're standing in the presence
of the King And our souls are lost in wonder While the white-robed
choirs sing Then we'll praise the name of Jesus When the millions
round the throne Praise Him for the power that reaches deeper
than the sacred floor. Please be seated. That hymn reminds me of what
the Lord told us in Romans when He said, where sin abounds, Grace
does much more about. I'm so very thankful for that.
Let's open our Bibles together to some. I'm sorry. To Revelation chapter one, Revelation
chapter one. I was going to start my message
right now. Let's do the call to worship from Revelation chapter
one. And we'll begin at verse one.
I want you to notice the first words of this glorious book,
The Revelation of Jesus Christ. I heard someone talking recently
about the book of Revelations. It's not the book of Revelations.
It's not even a book of in-time events, primarily most of the
events mentioned in the book of Revelation, singular, have
already taken place. It's the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ as is all of Scripture, a revelation of Christ. The revelation
of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the
word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things
that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth and
they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things
which are written therein for the time is at hand. John to the seven churches which
are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and
which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which
are before his throne. That's just biblical language
referring to the wholeness of the spirit of God. There aren't
seven individual spirits, this is the Holy Spirit. And from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten
of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
and hath made us kings and priests, unto God and his Father. To him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Behold, he cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see him. and they also which pierced
him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,
even so, amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty. I, John, who also am your brother,
and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ, which was on the isle which is called Patmos,
for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I
was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great
voice as a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last. What thou seest, write in a book
and send it unto the seven churches. Again, the number seven here
is all the churches. We're part of those seven churches.
Which are in Asia, and to Ephesus, and Smyrna, and unto Pergamos,
and Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and unto
Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me,
and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. I turned
and being turned, I saw. That's our hope tonight. The
Lord will turn us and he'll open the eyes of our understanding,
enable us to see what he is saying. I turned to see the voice that
spoke unto me. We hear God's voice and we see
through the eyes of faith the things that he has revealed.
Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we pray that you would send your
spirit, give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, turn our
hearts, Lord, and we will be turned. Cause us to look up and
to believe what you have revealed in your word that our redemption
draweth nigh. We pray that Christ be exalted.
We pray that you would that You would glorify Him in our midst,
that You would cause us to look unto Him as the author and the
finisher of our faith, as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end, the Almighty. O Lord, let us see Jesus, for
we ask it in His name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 96 in your hardback timbre, 96 in the
hardback. We will skip verse three, so
we'll sing verse one, two, and then four. As with gladness men of old Did
the guiding star behold, As with joy they hailed its light, Leading
onward, keeping right, So most gracious Lord, make we As with joyful steps they sped
To that holy manger bed, There to bend the knee before Him whom
have never thought ill. So may we with willing feet Ever
see Jesus every day. And when earthly things are past
Bring our ransomed souls at last Where they need no star to guide
Where no clouds by glory hide Please be seated. Now let's turn to Revelation.
Psalms, Psalms 123. Psalm 123. Unto thee, lift up
mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of a servant
look into the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us,
O Lord. Have mercy upon us. For we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt
of the proud. I suppose it would be safe to
say that the conclusion of every message could be summarized in
look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
for everything. Look to Christ for your redemption. of the work that he accomplished
on Calvary's cross. Look to him as your surety who
stood in our stead in the covenant of grace before time ever began
and agreed to be the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Look to Christ for all of our holiness before God, all
of our sanctification. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We look to him for everything
in providence, whatever we have need of in this world. Our heavenly
father knows that we have need of them. And we come before our
father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look to
him for his merit and for his mercy, for all of our needs in
this life. We look to Christ for all our
righteousness. We have no righteousness outside of him. And we set our
affections on things above, looking unto Jesus, waiting and watching
for his return. As often as we talk about looking
to Christ, I remember some time ago speaking to a man about this,
and he had been listening to me preach for some time. And
in contempt, he looked up to the ceiling of the room that
we were standing in and raised his hands up into the ceiling
and he said, you've been telling me to look to Christ. I'm looking
and I don't see him. Looking to Christ is not looking
for him in physical eyes. The reason why that man didn't
see Christ is because he didn't have the eyes of faith to see
Christ. We're not talking about looking up into heaven that psalmist
refers to it that way. Look what, look what he says
in Psalm 123 unto thee lift up mine eyes now that dwellest in
the heavens. Sometimes looking to Christ is
having your feet, your face and in your feet. Sometimes looking
up to heaven is physically speaking, looking down. in contrition and
in confession, seeking the Lord's mercy. So it's not a physical
position that we're in, looking up into heaven. It's acknowledging
the fact that our God is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever
he wills. And whatever hope and help that
we have as sinners comes from heaven. We know that our Lord
is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. that God
has acknowledged him and anointed him as the high priest, the priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. He said, sit thou here at my
right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And the
eye of faith looks to him as the successful risen savior seated,
having finished our work of redemption. And we look to him for his mercy.
We look to Him for everything in salvation, and we look to
Him for everything in life. And that's what the Lord's saying,
lift your eyes up. Lift your eyes up. How oftentimes,
spiritually speaking, we get our eyes fixed on the things
of this world. That's where our physical eyes
are all the time. You can't look into the heavens
with your physical eyes. Our physical eyes are always
focused on the things of this world. And the Lord tells us,
set your affections on things, but not on things of the earth.
Not on things of the earth. You see, the affection is the
heart, isn't it? And the eye of faith is part
of that heart. And so the Lord, aren't you glad
that John said, and I looked to hear the voice, and as I was
turned, and being turned, being turned, I saw, being turned,
I saw, Lord, give me the grace to look into heaven, to see Christ,
to rest my hope in him, It's not going to be a prophet's experience
like John had. That was an actual revelation. He saw things that were too glorious
to write. He was caught up into the third
heaven. He received this revelation. It was an experience for John. And yet what hope we have. when
Peter tells us about his experience with the Lord on the Mount of
Transfiguration and he says, we did not bring to you cunningly
devised fables. We handled the word of God, we
saw him and we saw his glory. When the veil of his humanity
was taken away and the radiance of his deity was so bright that
our faces were driven to the dirt, we were there, we actually
saw that. And then he goes on to say, but,
but we have a more sure word of testimony. If we're going
to, what was he talking about? He's talking about the revealed
word of God. What the Lord is telling us there from the Apostle
Peter is that what God has given us in his word, inspired by his
spirit, causing us to see and to believe the things that these
men who saw what their physical eyes saw is better than an experience. It's better than that experience.
Those experiences are subjective, aren't they? We have experiences,
some of them True, some of them not so true. And yet they're always subjective. I'll tell you this little story. I was riding behind a car today
and it had something on the license plate that I thought, I wonder
if he knows what that says. Because you know how they take
letters and put them together And I thought, boy, that's for
me. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
That's a license plate on a car. I'm just sharing that experience
with you because it's fresh and because it was just a subjective
experience. God doesn't speak through license
plates. He doesn't speak through feelings. He doesn't speak through
experience. He speaks by His word. This is where we go to
see the Lord, to lift up our eyes into heaven. We do it in
the Lord's word. I want us to look at this Psalm
as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ first. How oftentimes
we read of him looking up into heaven. When he fed the 5,000
and he had them all sit down and he took the five loaves and
the two fishes And he blessed them, and the scripture says,
and he looked up into heaven and gave thanks. At Lazarus'
tomb, the Lord looked up and said, Father, I know that you
always hear me, but for their sake, I pray, Lord. And the Lord prayed there at
that tomb, looking up into heaven. Matthew, Mark chapter seven,
let's turn there for just a moment, Mark chapter seven. I've titled this message, Looking
Unto Jesus, Looking Unto Jesus. And before we can look and see
him as our savior, we need to look and see him. Before we can
see him In our faith, we see him as he
saw the Father. We see him in his faith, is what
I'm trying to say. Look at Mark chapter 7. And we'll begin reading in verse
32. Mark chapter 7 at verse 32. And they bring unto him one that
was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. and they beseech
him to put his hand upon him. Deafness always causes an impediment
in speech. If the Lord doesn't give a person
ears to hear the truth of the gospel, when they speak, you're
not going to be able to understand what they're saying. I had a conversation with a deaf
lady this week, two conversations in the last week with her. And
we had to talk through a translator over the phone. And it was difficult
because she would say things and translator didn't know exactly
what it was. There's always an impediment of speech that goes
with deafness, isn't there? Well, that's true spiritually.
Look at verse 33. And he took him aside from the
multitude and put his finger in his ears and he spit and touched
his tongue. The Old Testament Levitical law
said that if a man was unclean, if he had some sort of disease,
and he spit on you, then you were unclean. And here we have
the reversal of that. We have the only man who's clean. The only man who is without sin,
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, who's
taking his spittle and putting it on the tongue of another man
to make him whole. What a glorious picture. And that's what the Lord Jesus
does with everything. He reverses the whole order of
things. And straightway, I'm sorry, verse
34, this is the verse I wanted us to see. And looking up to
heaven, he sighed and said unto him, Ephrathah, be opened. That's what that word means. And straightway his ears were
opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake
plain. Here our Lord looks up into heaven
and he sighs over the ignorance and the unbelief and the sinfulness
of these people. And he's sighing out to his father
to help him, to bless him, to save him. And so we have this
picture of Christ so often seen in the scriptures. In Isaiah
chapter 63, verse five, the scripture says, I looked up and there was
none to help. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation. Now that's Isaiah, the prophet,
speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I
looked up. He looked up from Calvary's cross and there was
none to help. No one there to help him. So my own arm brought salvation. God couldn't help him. The father
couldn't help him. His disciples all ran off. He
had to do it all by himself. And he did. And his right, his
strong right arm brought salvation for his people. And here we see
the Lord Jesus Christ looking up and the Father forsaking him. Looking up and seeing nothing
but blackness between him and heaven. Seeing that separation
that came as a result of our sin. And yet, His own arm brought salvation
so that when you and I look up, we never see the blackness of
heaven. No, if God turns us to look up,
if he gives, if he shines the light of the gospel in our hearts
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was rejected, he was
forsaken, that we would not be forsaken. Psalm 69 verse 20 says, I looked
for some to take pity, but there was none. There was none. He looked up crying out for pity,
but there was none to pity him, none to save him, none to help
him. He had to bring salvation to himself and to his people
all by himself. Turn to me to Psalm 34. Psalm
34. I want you and I, by the word
and the spirit, Caleb and I were talking about this the other
day, the number five I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in the
scriptures is the number for grace. And Caleb brought out
the five loaves and the two fishes. That's the bread of life. That
bread is given to us by God's grace. That's the bread that
came down from heaven. And the number two in the scriptures
always refers to two things, the spirit and the word. So the
spirit, this is what the Lord, when he took the five loaves
and the two fishes and he looked up into heaven and gave thanks
and distributed them among the people. Here's our Lord looking
to the Father. and giving to his people by the
arm of his own salvation, his body as the bread of life, his
word and his spirit. That's my hope. That's my hope
is that the spirit of God will bless the word of God to the
hearts of God's people and feed us and cause us to know that
we've looked up into heaven. God has rend the heavens and
he has come down. He's opened the windows of heaven.
And the manna that those children of Israel ate? Oh, this is so
much better manna now. This will sustain my soul. Look
at Psalm 34 and we'll begin reading at verse one. I will bless the
Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble, the humble shall
hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his
troubles. The angel of the Lord encamped round about them that
fear him and delivered them. You remember when the prophet
Elijah had the army of Assyria come against him and the servant
came into the prophet's house and said, oh, master, what do
we do? What do we do? The mountains
are full of the enemy. And what did Elijah say? He said, oh, no. He said, they
that are with us are greater than they that are with him.
We got this. And then he said, Lord, open
his eyes that he may see. And when the prophet's servant
went back outside, he saw the chariots of fire encamped around
the enemy and knew that the Lord was in control. That's the way
it is, brethren, right now. If the Lord opens our eyes, we'll
be able to see in spite of whatever circumstances we're in. My God
brains, he knows the beginning to the end. And I don't know
what he's going to do, but I know what he does is going to be right.
I know it's going to be for his glory. And I know ultimately
it's going to be for my salvation and for the good of his church
and his people. And that's enough. That's enough for me. He opens
our eyes and he sees and we see that his chariots of fire are
greater than whatever enemy may be. Notice in verse, I mentioned
this to you before, you know this, the titles of the Psalms
are actually part of the text. Look at the title of the Psalm.
A psalm of David when he changed, that word changed means to disgrace
oneself. Do you remember what David did?
David pretended to be mad. He slobbered and he was, you
know, and he was, look, look. A psalm of David when he changed
his behavior before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. David acted like a madman to
save his life. And Abimelech thought, well,
he's no threat. Look at him. And he drove him
away. He disgraced himself. And that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's cross. He changed
his behavior. He disgraced himself when he
bore our sins in his body upon that tree. He accomplished our salvation.
And now he's crying out in this psalm. In verse seven, the angel
of the Lord encamped around about them that fear him and delivered
them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints.
For there is no want to them that fear him. The Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything. He's everything to me. He's all
I need. He's all I need. So in this Psalm, we see first
and foremost, the Lord Jesus himself looking up. And we look unto Christ, the
author and the finisher of our faith. We're not just looking
to him now, for our faith, we're looking to him in the faith that
he had, that perfect faith. When he presented himself before
the Father and he said, I looked around and there was none to
help me, and there was none to pity me, and I had to save myself
with my own arm. And when he looked up into heaven
from the cross, the father heard him when he broke bread, the
father heard him from Lazarus' tomb, but when the Lord prayed,
when he was forsaken of the father, he said, I had to save myself.
And that's exactly what he did. You remember the story, I brought
this out recently from Daniel chapter four of Nebuchadnezzar.
and how Nebuchadnezzar gloried in his kingdom, believing that
he had achieved it himself. You know, that's one of the reasons
why politicians are usually such failures, because they glory
in their achievements. You know, if they could just
humble themselves a little bit and give God the credit, maybe,
you know, maybe they would do a better job, but they can't. They can't, they have the glory
in themselves. That's what Nebuchadnezzar did,
and the Lord made him a madman, didn't he? And the scripture
says that he lifted up his eyes unto heaven and his understanding
returned unto him. How do I know, how do I know
if I've lifted my eyes up to heaven? Am I gonna be like my
friend who said, you know, I'm looking, I don't see. Well, what did, turn with me
to Daniel chapter four. When Daniel looked up into heaven,
what did he see? What did he see? Do we see what
Daniel saw? You have your Bibles open to
Daniel chapter four, look at verse 34, and at the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up
my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed
the Most High." There's how we know. He gets all the glory. We bless him. Nebuchadnezzar
had taken the credit to himself. He said, look at the kingdom
that I have built. And now that his understanding has returned
unto him, he realizes that God did it. And he blesses the Lord,
and he gives him all the credit. And this is how we know that
we've looked up into heaven, that our eyes have been lifted
up. And I bless the most high and
I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. I know I've looked up into heaven
when I see my God as the sovereign ruler, the almighty, the omnipotent
one, the one who does all things right and for his good and glory,
for our good and his glory and all the inhabitants of the earth.
Here's how I know I've looked up into heaven. Look at verse
35. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
That includes me. I know I've looked up into heaven
when I see that I am no thing, no thing in me that is in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? That's how I know I've looked up into heaven. I confess he's a sovereign savior
and almighty God, and he does what's right with the armies
of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth, and he's everything
and I'm nothing. The Lord said all power has been given unto
me in heaven and in earth. That's how we know. Lord, we
don't have any power. We keep trying to exercise the
little bit of power we have in this world and we're constantly
reminded what the Lord told Pilate, you have no power at all except
that which God has given to you from heaven. That's the only
power we have. He owns all power. He's got all
power. At the same time, my reason returned
unto me, verse 36, and for the glory of my kingdom, and my honor
and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my
lawyers sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and
excellent majesty was added unto me. That's how we know we've
looked up into heaven. We find our union with Christ to be the
hope of being in the kingdom of God. We are in the kingdom
of God as a child of God, united to the Lord Jesus Christ and
all of our, all the hope that we have established in him as
he is, so are we right now in this world and forevermore. That's
how we know we've looked up. It's how we know he's opened
our eyes. That's how we know he's opened the windows of heaven.
That's how we know he's spoken by his word. We make these same
confessions. And we know that we can't go
back. The Lord said, no man having
put his hand to the plow, looking back is fit for the kingdom of
God. Now, does that mean that Every
time we look over our shoulder to something of this world that
we're not fit for the kingdom of God, no, we're constantly,
our eyes and hearts are constantly wandering in the things of this
world, aren't they? That's not what the Lord is talking about.
He's talking about looking to your works for your salvation. I told y'all, I mentioned canning
the other day, Sunday, we used to have a garden. Well, my garden
was like 220 feet long. And I had a rototiller. And first
time, I grew up in the city, I never had a garden, we never
had any land like that. I got out there, I was so proud
of myself. I started that rototiller up
and started down through there. Got about a third of the way
down, I started looking back to see how I was doing. Taking
pride in my work. By the time I got to the end,
man, that rototiller was all over the place. And my neighbor
came over and he said, took a stick, put it in the ground with a flag
on it. He said, don't look back. Just keep your eyes on that.
Your rows will be straight. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher, right? This looking back, not being
fit for the kingdom of God is looking to our work and glorying
in our work as the hope of our salvation. And we can't, God
gives you, once you look into heaven and you see where Christ
is and who he is and what he's done, you can't look anywhere
else for your salvation. You may look other places for
your pleasures, but you're not gonna look there for your salvation.
And when you do look somewhere else for your pleasure, the Lord's
gonna correct you on that too, isn't he? This is an experience that every
believer has. We are compassed about the great
cloud of witnesses, Hebrews chapter 12. Turn with me there to that
passage, Hebrews chapter 12. This is every believer's experience. You know Hebrews chapter 11.
and the saints of God and the way they're described in Hebrews
chapter 11. And if you know anything about
the Old Testament stories, you know, well now wait a minute,
that's not what I read in the Old Testament about these guys
and these ladies. They weren't really all that
faithful. Well, Hebrews chapter 11 shows
them in Christ. That's who they are in Christ.
And there's no blemishes in any of them. They're all shown as
having faith in Hebrews chapter 11. But just like me and you,
they stumbled along the way, didn't they? And that's why Hebrews
chapter 12 starts out the way it does. Look. Wherefore, seeing
that we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight on the sin which doth so easily
beset us. What is that sin? It's not looking unto Jesus.
It's looking somewhere else. It's unbelief. That's what it
is. It's unbelief. It's the sin that does so easily
beset every one of us. It's the mother of all sin. It's the fountain of all sin.
It's the seedbed of all sin. It's the cause of all of our
sin. It's taking our eyes off of Christ. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of faith. Now you notice the word our is
in italics. Yeah, he is the author and finisher
of our faith, but there's only one kind of faith. There's only
one saving faith. Lausperius faith, but there's
only one faith that saves and if it's a saving faith, he gave
it. He's the author of it and he's
the finisher of it and he gets all the glory. Who for the joy that was set
before him, where was he looking? He was looking for his reward.
He was looking in faith to his heavenly father. He was looking
through that covenant of grace, knowing that the father was going
to reward him with his bride, that he was going to be glorified
in the end for all of this. And so he, he, for the joy that
was set before him, he wasn't in it yet. but for the joy that
was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame
and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for
consider him, consider him that endured such contradictions. See what the Lord is saying.
He gave us Hebrews chapter 11 to show us that all believers
are just like us, struggling in this life of faith to look
to God and to believe him. But Hebrews chapter 12 starts
out with don't, don't look to any of them. You know, we used
to do in religion, we would do what we called character studies
and we would take old Testament or new Testament characters and
we would identify their strengths and more weaknesses. And we would
say, you know, let's learn from their weaknesses and let's try
to emulate their strengths. And that's exactly what the Lord
saying, don't do. Don't look to these Old Testament or New
Testament saints as your example, good or bad. Look to Christ. Know that they're just like you.
They struggled just like you struggled. And the Lord's saying
to us here, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the author,
he's the finisher. Consider him that endured such
contradiction of centers against himself, lest you be weary and
faint in your minds. Isn't that our struggle? This
looking to Christ, so many distractions, so many things. We saw a Sunday
where the Lord said, godliness with contentment is great gain.
How difficult it is to be content. I mean, you and I are bombarded
daily with this message, you can't be happy unless you have
this. You can't be content unless you own this, unless you're here,
unless you've got that. The world is discontent. And this is a, we live in this
world, aren't you glad the Lord prayed for us? Lord, I pray not
that you take them out of the world, but you keep them from
the world. And when we're hearing the gospel and when we're looking
into heaven and when we're lifting our eyes up into heaven, we come
to our senses and we realize, you know what, those are just
all lies. They're all lies. And most importantly, I'm content.
I'm content with the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for all my salvation. I'm content with him. I don't
have to add to or take away anything from what he's done. His work
and His person is completely sufficient within Himself. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15
says, looking diligently, lest any man fall of the grace of
God. We have to, this is a diligent
look. It's a spiritual battle. Everything
in the world is saying, hey, look here, look there, look over
there. And the Lord said, no, look at me. Look at me. John chapter one, verse 36, you
don't have to turn there, but John the Baptist, When the Lord
came to the Jordan where John was baptizing, the scripture
says, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, said, behold, the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Looking
unto Jesus, he said, behold. the Lamb of God which taketh
away. How do I know if God's given me eyes to look to Christ?
He's the only one that can take away my sins. He's that spotless
Paschal Lamb. He's the Lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. He's the Lamb whose blood
was put on the doorpost and the lintel of the door. He's the
one without spot, without blemish. He's God's Lamb. He's the scapegoat. He's the one that carried my
sins far away. And I can say, I can say with
confidence, he is the Lamb of God. And the only hope I have
of having my sins taken away is his work of redemption on
Calvary's cross. Thomas, doubted when the Lord appeared
to the disciples and Thomas wasn't there and Thomas didn't see it
with his own eyes and Thomas said, lest I put my hand in his
side, my finger in his wounds, I'll not believe. I've got to
see it to believe. And the Lord came. No evidence
that Thomas touched the Lord. The Lord said, here I am, Thomas.
Here's the And all the thing we know about Thomas is he fell
at the Lord's feet and said, Oh my Lord and my God. And the
Lord said, Thomas, you are blessed that you believe because you've
seen a blessed greater are those who have not seen yet. They believe what's the Lord
saying. You and I don't see God with
our physical eyes. If we talk about seeing God and
we talk about our experiences and our feelings, those things
are so We see him through the eyes of faith. We see him by
his word and we know we've seen him because we just believe everything
that he has said. We believe everything he said.
In Isaiah chapter 38, when Hezekiah
was lying on his deathbed, he said this, he said, my eyes fail
with looking up. He'd been crying out to God to
save him, to deliver him from this mortal disease. And he said, my eyes fail for
looking up. And then he said this, oh Lord,
I am oppressed. Undertake for me. I wonder if
that may be where we got the word undertaker. I don't know.
But he's asking the Lord to be his undertaker. to take him up
to heaven. That word undertake there in
that passage in Isaiah 38 actually is the word surety. And Hezekiah
is saying, my eyes fail. I've been crying out, Lord, oh
Lord, oh Lord, I am oppressed. Be surety for me. Be sure to,
when I can't see my deliverance, when I can't see the results
of your promises, Lord, be surety for me. What is a surety? One who stands in your stead
and supplies everything necessary. None of which you are able to
supply on your own. Now let's go back to our texts.
I wanna close with one. So many examples in the scriptures
of men looking up. You remember when Abraham was
sacrificing Isaac on the altar, and the Lord stopped him, and
Abraham had already told Isaac the Lord will provide himself
a sacrifice. Abraham believed that. He believed
that the Lord would do the providing, the Lord would provide himself
as the sacrifice, and he believed that the sacrifice would be provided
for the Lord, not for us, for the Lord. That's what was happening
on the cross. God was doing business with God.
The Lord Jesus was offering himself up to his father for the salvation
of his people, to satisfy God's divine justice. And the scripture
says, as Abraham was about to kill Isaac, he looked up. He looked up. And as he lifted
his eyes, behold, behind him was a ram. How do I know if I've been able
to look up and see Christ? Behold, behind me is a ram whose
horns were caught in a thicket. And that thicket is my sin and
the horns are the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
is that ram, he's my substitute. But I look back. I'm not looking
to some experience now. I'm not looking for him to prove
himself with some evidence of faith in the future. I'm looking
back. Abraham looked behind himself
and he saw the ram. And that's where we look. That's how we know that heaven's
been opened. Let's go quickly back to our text. Maybe I should devote a separate
message to this because it's so glorious. Verse two, behold,
as the eyes of servants look under the hand of their masters
and as the eyes of the maiden unto the hand of their mistress,
so our eyes wait upon the Lord until that he have mercy upon
us. Now the picture here is that of a slave who is completely
dependent on the benevolence, the kindness, the goodness of
their master. And they're looking to their
master for everything. If the master doesn't feed me,
I'll starve. If the master doesn't house me,
I'll be left out in the elements. If the master doesn't give me
clothes, I'll be naked. If the master doesn't give me
drink, I'll die of thirst. and as the maiden and as the
servant looks to their master for all of their needs. So we
say, Lord, if you don't feed me with the bread of heaven,
I'll starve. If you don't show me the glory
of Christ and give me faith to rest my soul in him and on him,
I'll starve. I've got to have the body of
Christ. I've got to have His life to stand in my stead before
my life. That's what we, when we take
the Lord's table and we eat that bread, this is my body which
is given for you. And Lord, if you don't If you
don't give me a tabernacle, if you don't hide me in the city
of refuge, if you don't put me in the ark, if you don't, if
you don't put me in the house of God, which we saw Sunday is
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't hide, if
you don't give me up, I'll be left out in the elements. Lord, if you don't, if you don't
clothe me, I'll be naked. I'll be like blind Bartimaeus,
throwing my coat down and Lord, I'll try to sew fig leaves together
and cover my nakedness like my father Adam did. Lord, as the
servant, the slave looks to his benevolent master for all of
his needs, so we look to our heavenly father. That's how we
know that the windows of heaven have been opened and we've looked
up. Lord, I can't live without the fountain of water. That inexhaustible
well of living water that flows from the throne of God, clear
as crystal. Lord, if you don't give me to
drink, I'll have nothing to drink. My soul will not go satisfied. And that's what the Lord was
saying to that woman at the well. If you knew who it is that saith
unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask of him and he would
give you living water. Lord, give me living water. As
the maiden and the servant look to the hand of their master for
everything, so we look to our master, knowing that his goodness
and his benevolence, his love and his kindness has been proven,
and that he will provide all those things for us. And most
importantly, did you read the article in the Bulletin this
past Sunday about the little boy wanting to please his daddy?
That was a great little article. a father was talking about his
son who when he was a little and you if you've had little
boys and girls you know you know this uh... they they joke they
just want to be in your footstep they want to be right there by
your side they want to be just like you they want to do everything
you do not for payment and not out of fear of judgment Why does
a small child act that way around their parents? Why do they do
that? They want your approval. That's
all they want. They want your smile. They just
want to know that they're pleasing you. And that's as the hand of a servant
looks unto his master. Lord, we don't serve you to For
payment, we don't serve you out of fear of judgment, Lord, we
just, we love you because you first loved us and we just want,
we just want your smile. Just want you to smile from heaven
and let us know that you love us. And when he opens heaven,
it's exactly what he does. Exactly what he does. And so the Lord said, suffer
the little children to come unto me for such is the kingdom of
God, lest ye become as a little child. Do not enter the kingdom
of God. And we are servants, aren't we? We're slaves. Paul called himself
a bond slave. And that slave was a willing
slave, been bored through the year. And the Lord Jesus was
that. One who said, I love my master,
I love my children, I'm not go out free, and we say the same
thing. Looking unto Jesus, Lord, I don't
want to go anywhere. I want to be right here. Because
if I'm not bound to you, I'm going to be bound to that. And
that's my only, that's it. Everybody's a slave. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you for your word. We ask you bless it to the salvation
of our souls. We pray in Christ name. Amen. 225 in the hardback terminal,
let's stand.