is faithful to himself, and he's
faithful to his promises, and faithful to you and I. And not
only is he faithful, but he has the ultimate power to do that
which he said he would. Now, this ought to increase our
faith, knowing that he said whatsoever we ask in his name, that he'd
do for us. Well, the Lord visited Sarah
as he had said. No doubt about that. There shouldn't
have been any doubt in Sarah's mind. God told Sarah one time,
said, I'm going to give you a son. Abraham is going to give you
a son. Seeing you're barren, been barren all these years,
and she was past the age of being able to have children. Abraham being past that age too. But you've been barren all your
lives, I'm going to give you a child. And Sarah laughed and said, give
me a child? How could I have a child? This
is what she read. How could I have a child? Beyond
the age of conception. My husband's an old man. God
said he was going to give her a child, and he gave her a child.
But anyhow, for Sarah, as he had spoken, verse number two,
for Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age,
and at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham, called the name
of his son, was born unto him whom Sarah bared to him highly. And Abraham was a hundred years
old when his son, Isaac, was born unto him. A hundred years
old. A lot of folks say, well, the
years then were not lengthened like they are now to four weeks
in a month or some month, five weeks, 12 months in a year, 24
hours in a day. But it was. He was a hundred
years old when he was the father, or when
Isaac was born. And Sarah said, God hath made
me laugh so that all that will hear will laugh with me. That is, she's rejoicing now.
She laughed before in kind of a robe of unbelief, but now it's
praise. honor and she wants to have all
that's near her rejoice with her and she said who would have
said unto Abraham that Sarah hath given children suck for
I have born him a son in his old age and the child grew and
was weaned Abraham made a great feast the
same day that Isaac was weaned. I don't know what spiritual significance
that has there, but it had great significance and importance to
Abraham and to his wife. When the boy was weaned, weaned
away from his mother, she would give him suck from her breast.
And when it came time, what age it was, I don't know whether
it was two years old, three years old, five years old, or what
it was. But they said, we're going to have a great feast.
We're going to have a party. We're going to invite the neighbors
in, all of our relatives. We're going to kill the fatted
calves. We're going to have something going on at this house. The reason
was because Isaac was weaned. Now, to stay with the context
of the story, you remember that when God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, Sarah laughed in her tent, and
things went on as they had prior to the promise. There was no
evidence that she was going to have a child. And so she said,
well, Abraham's been looking forward
to a child. It doesn't look like God's going
to be true to His promise. So she had a servant girl or
a handmaid named Hagar. And she told Hagar and Abraham,
she got them together and said, well, Hagar, you go in with Abraham
so Abraham would have a child for you and that's what took
place and his name was Ishmael and she gave birth to Ishmael
and Abraham loved him Abraham loved Ishmael and I remember
one place he cried oh God that Ishmael might live before thee well In verse number nine, Sarah
saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham,
mocking. She saw old Ishmael mistreating
Isaac. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
Cast out this born woman and her son. For this born woman shall not
be heir with my son, even with Isaac to cast him out. And this thing was very
grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. Hard to do. Oh, Abraham was way past 100
then, maybe 115, 118 years old. And he loved this boy. God said unto Abraham, Let it
not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because
of thy born woman. In all that Sarah hath said unto
thee, hearken unto her voice. For in Isaac shall thy seed be
called." All the promises are wrapped up in that miracle child,
that child that was born supernaturally from an old, barren womb. of the son of the born woman
will I make a nation, because he is thy seed." That is, I want
you to cast Hagar and Ishmael out, but they'll not be forgotten.
They'll not be forgotten. All the spiritual promises is
all wrapped up in Isaac, but he said, I'll make a nation out
of Ishmael. And I guess to this very day,
the Arabs The Arabs are the byproducts of that union between Hagar and
Abraham. They're Ishmaelites. Well, anyhow,
Abraham rose up early in the morning and he took bread and
a bottle of water and he gave it to Hagar, putting it on her
shoulder and the child, and sent her away. And she departed and
wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was
spent in the bottle, and it was all gone. She cast the child
under one of the shrubs. And she went and sat her down
over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot. For she said, Let me not see
the death of the child. And she sat over against him
and lift up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the
lad. He didn't hear the voice of Hagar, but he heard the voice
of the lad. And the angel of God called to
Hagar out of heaven and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and
hold him in thine hand. for I will make him a great nation." And this is our text. And God
opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled
the bottle with water and gave the lad to drink. And God opened
her eyes. God opened the eyes of Hagar
Now, there was, I believe, a well of water close to Hagar, although
she couldn't see it. All the while that Hagar was
at this spot, there was a well of water there, but Hagar couldn't
see it. Now, I don't think that God broke
open the earth and caused new waters to gush forth, I think
the water was there already. I think the well was there already,
but she couldn't see it. There was water there, and she
was nearby, and she had need, a great need, but she couldn't
see the well. She couldn't see that well of
water. You see, the water gone forth from the bottle that Abraham
had supplied her for her and the child. They had wandered
for a long time, I suppose, maybe leading the boy or carrying the
boy at times. They stopped every once in a
while to get a drink of water, and finally there was no water
to drink. The bottle was empty. And the
boy, she said, is going to die. What am I going to do? I can't
stand to just sit here and look at him or hold him or lean up
against him and watch him die and listen to him die. So what
I think I'll do is I'll put him under a shrub there. I'll put
him there in the brush, in the bushes, in the hedge or behind
some trees. I'll put him there. And then
I'll get away from him a distance where I can't hear him sobbing.
I can't hear him crying. I can't hear him thirsting for
water and know that ultimately he's going to die. Well, the
water was gone from the bottle and the child was dying of thirst
and herself was ready to faint. She was ready to give up the
ghost ready to die. You see her need here. Her need
was to see this well of water. That was her need. If she can't
see this water and go and take of this water, she's going to
die and her boy's going to die. Now that's plain and simple,
isn't it? I read the story to you. She's
cast out. She's cast out of her of her
house, of her home that's been her home all this time. She has
a servant, an Egyptian girl who was a servant and was a friend
of Sarah and Abraham. But there come a time that she
must be cast out, and her son cast out with her here in the
wilderness of Beersheba, about to die, about to die. And she
had a vital need, and that need was for water. And there was
a well right there nearby, but she couldn't see it. But she
couldn't see it. Her child was dying and herself
ready to faint. And she must see that well of
water and taste of that water or she's going to die. And the
Bible says that God opened her eyes. God opened her eyes. That's what I want to talk to
you just a little bit here this morning. God opening our eyes. He had to open Hagar's eyes in
order for Hagar to see the well. He didn't dig down with his mighty
hand and cleave from the dust of the earth a hole in the ground
and cause water to gush forth. The water was already there.
She couldn't see it. The well was there full of crystal
clear water that would satisfy her thirsty longings, but she
couldn't see it. Her need was that God must open
her eyes, and God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. Well, what if He opened our eyes,
what if He opened our eyes this morning as to the future, as
to what the future holds for us? What would you do? What would
you do this morning if God rolled back the pages? If God lifted
up the curtain and you could peer through and look into destiny,
what would you do? If you could spy, if you could
be a spy into destiny and see what's in store for you, what
would you do? Well, I'll tell you. I'll give
you my opinion on this matter, how I feel about it. If I could
see, if it was only into tomorrow, I don't believe I'd look. Don't
believe I'd look. If I had the opportunity right
now, and it was told to me by the angel of God, well, I'll
let you look beyond ten or twelve hours and see into tomorrow and
see what tomorrow holds. not only for you, but for all
of these that are gathered here. See what tomorrow holds all over
the entire world. Well, I believe I'd say, well,
I don't want to see it. I don't want to see what tomorrow
holds for you and for the entire world. I don't want to even see
what the future holds for me tomorrow. I don't want to see
that. Well, I guess If our eyes were
opened as to all that would happen, well, I don't know what we would
do. I don't know what I'd do. But I believe if I was wise,
and that did happen, I believe if I was a wise man and had any
grace in my heart and any biblical knowledge in my mind, I believe
I'd say, well, I'll commit I'll commit all of the future unto
God. I believe I'll just trust God for it. I'll not try to figure
it out. I believe I'll just commit that which I see and that which
I know is going to happen into the hands of God, and I'll just
trust Him to work it out. But if you don't know what's
going to happen tomorrow, what about that? If God would open your eyes as
to the future, which I don't think he's going to do and wouldn't
be wise probably if he did, for you and I, humanly speaking.
But in all reality, we're not going to be able to see what
lies beyond right now. As a matter of fact, we'll not
even be able to see what's going to take place this afternoon.
But we don't know. We don't know. You think, well,
We got some idea. We got some idea what's going
to take place. We've got some plans, what we're
going to do. Yeah, but the plans of mice and
men often go astray. The plans of men often are never
developed. They never materialize, the plans
of men. We might think, well, we're going
to the bonanza. When the service is over, we
go into Bonanza and have our lunch. But we may start towards
the Bonanza and maybe the car will break down. Or maybe we'll
hit an icy patch on the road and shoot right over the guardrails
and over the bank. You don't know. Or maybe someone
else will come along. I was talking to a fellow the
other day. A fellow, and he was crippled. Young fellow, about
35 years old. And I said, well, what did you
do, break your ankle? Are you a skier? What happened? He said, no, I was in a car wreck.
And he said, that's not my problem, broken ankle. He said, I was
in a car wreck, and he said, I had about every bone in my
body broke. About every bone. He said, I had my bones in my
hips, both of my hips was broke and shattered, and shattered
so bad that it couldn't have a plastic replacement, the legs
are shortened, and he said, I'll always have to go around on crutches.
And he said, my wife said, a man run into me in the car, said,
I had a Volkswagen and a young fellow driving a Chevrolet Camaro
run into me at 80 miles an hour and said, even moved my wife's
heart. over towards the other side of
her body. And said my little girl was in
the back seat and it broke both of her legs and both of her arms
and done damage to her head. Said, said like it killed us
all. Said they didn't think any of
us was going to live. He said we was just driving along minding
our own business down at Morgantown. Just driving along, talking and
had been shopping. Just driving along, minding her
own business, and he said, all at once, without warning, all
at once, I think Brown and Charlie had an experience like that one,
all at once, a car come right over the knuckle of the hill,
going 80 miles an hour, and come right on our side of the road
and hit us head on. And the police right behind him. The police chased this fellow.
And he got up to speed, trying to get away from the police.
He don't know. What if God was to open our eyes
to the future? What's going to take place? But
in all probability, He's not going to open our eyes to the
future, Bob. We don't know what's going to
take place in the next two hours, the next 15 minutes, and the
next minute, the next 30 seconds, we don't know. What's going to take place? Ah, brethren, since we don't
know what's going to take place, then we have need of great faith. We have need of faith to believe
in Him who does know what the future holds. You see, I don't
know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.
That's the difference, isn't it? I don't know what the future
holds, but bless God, I know Him who holds the future. And
that makes a difference. That makes a difference. Since
we don't know what the future holds, there is within us then
a great and vital need of faith. Faith! Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. That's how it comes. You haven't
got it. You don't have a little valve
down here by your belt buckle to turn it on when you need it. And when you don't need it, you
shut it back off. No, sir. Faith comes only one
way. It comes only one way. It comes
from God, and He uses a means to give it to us. And if we neglect
the means, we're not going to have it. It's that simple. Faith is a gift of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God." Take the receiver off that thing,
or unplug it or something. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Oh, my soul, what a great need,
what a great need. Well, I know that we don't know
the future. We don't know that. But we know
who holds the future, which leads me to say this. One thing is
sure and certain. To live outside of him who holds
the future is to be on very dangerous ground. To not be vitally connected with
him who holds the future We're on dangerous ground. We're on shifting, shifting ground. We're on ground that could move
out from underneath us at any minute. Well, if you knew the
future, it might make you idle. It might make you lazy. If you
knew the future, it might make you vain when it ought to make
you hungry. Thank God. for those here this
morning who know Him who holds the future. What if your eyes
were opened? I was thinking about this. It
might be of some interest to you. I hope it will as I make
the introduction to our text here. The text is God Opened
Our Eyes. I was thinking about what if
God opened our eyes to the future? What if God opened our eyes to
the existence of angels? We've never seen an angel. We
don't even know what an angel looks like. I don't know what
an angel looks like. I've never seen one. I said,
well, they've got pictures of them in the Bible. A fella told
me that one time. He said, well, there's pictures
of them in the Bible. He said, there's a picture of Jesus in
the Bible. I said, is that right? Yeah,
he said, it's in my Bible. Is it in yours? I said, no, it's
not in mine. Well, it's in mine. Now, you
think that's far-fetched? No, sir, that fellow really told
me this. It's in my Bible. And he was upset. He said, well,
if I had my Bible here, I could show you Jesus. It's in the Bible.
Folks, there's lots of people that are that ignorant of the
Word of God that they really believe those little pictures.
It's in some Bibles, you know, really a picture of those that
they represent. What about these angels? I've
never seen an angel. If our eyes were opened to the
existence of angels, I tell you, we'd be amazed. We'd be amazed. Really, we would. You see, I
remember reading one time about old Elijah. Or Elisha, I guess
it was. He was praying for a young man.
And he prayed that that young man's eyes might be opened. That
he might see something. And finally, God answered Elisha's
prayer and opened this young man's eyes, and you know what
he saw? He saw angels. He saw horses
of fire. He saw chariots of fire. And he saw angels camped about
Elisha and himself. That's what he saw, Bob, when
God opened his eyes. He saw angels. There are some
scriptures in the Bible. Turn with me to Psalm 34, and
let me just read that one scripture. Psalm 34, and verse number, I thought it was I thought it was Psalm 34, but
evidently it's not. I just looked that up for you. Verse 7, is that it? Yes, that's
it. I was thinking it was verse 4,
Carl. Thank you. Listen, it says, "...the angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them." That's what it says. Wouldn't we be amazed if our
eyes were opened to see the existence of angels. There are angels,
according to the Scriptures, there are angels that hover over
us, round about us, even now. Well, let me read it again. The
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and
delivereth them. Well, there is a qualification
there, and it goes according to this rule. that no man can
be a recipient of the promise of God Almighty unless he, to
a degree, fits the description that's described in the promise.
Do you see that? Now, what is the description
described in the promise? Well, it says the angel of the
Lord encircled in camps round about some people who fear Him. And that angel delivers them. Who fears Him? Fears Him. Not that they cringe. He's not
talking about that, that they cringe at the very thought of
God. But they fear Him. They're overpowered. by His holiness and His might,
His mercy, His kindness, His love and long-suffering to Him. Well, you've read of scriptures
like that in the Bible. It says, He shall give His angels
charge over them to keep them in all of their ways. In another
place it says, They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest
thou shall dash thy foot against the stone. Another place it says
that he sent ministering spirits, and they were sent forth to minister
to them that are the heirs of God. I'll tell you, if our eyes
were opened, as to the future, and our eyes were opened even
to the existence of angels, we'd certainly be amazed, wouldn't
we, at what we'd see, if our eyes were opened to that. If
our eyes were open to look into God's heaven, I'll tell you,
we'd see some things there too. We'd see some things there that
would just baffle our very human understanding. If we could open
up, open up the heavens right now and peer in and look in,
see the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. Where
it is, I don't know. Where heaven is, I don't know.
I don't know where it's at. A lot of people know where it's
at. I don't know. Some people say it's up yonder
in space. Some people say it's here on
earth. Some people say it's... I don't know where it's at, but
I think I can be safe in saying that heaven's not very far away.
It's not very far away. He said to that dying thief,
that dying thief that was nailed there to the cross with him.
And the dying thief looked over into the face of the Son of God
and he said, Lord, rememberest me when thou comest into thy
kingdom? What was it that our Lord said
to him? He said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Wherever it's at, wherever paradise
is, I don't know. But wherever it is, not too far
away, today shalt thou be with me, what glory is to be seen,
if God would open our eyes, that we might see heaven." You see
that glory? If we could get a glimpse of
the glory that is reserved and in store for the people of God,
for the redeemed ones, I'll tell you this, brethren, this poor
world which we love so, which we refuse to be divorced from,
if we could have a glimpse of that which God has in store for
us, we would despise this world in a second. We'd despise it. We'd turn our backs on it. We'd
say, in light of what God has for us, I'd turn my back on this
world. This world is nothing and cannot
be compared to, oh, that which God has prepared for those that
love Him. We just in a second, we'd soon
forget the pains and the pleasures of this world, and we'd rise
above its influences. We'd rise above its connections
and its attractions and we'd despise it and turn our backs
on it and we'd be surrendered and sold out to God Himself. And we'd hate the world as He
tells us to do. We can't see, we can't see this. Why can't we believe Him though?
Why can't we believe Him? He said, I have not seen nor
ear hath not heard that which God hath prepared for those that
love him. He said to his disciples, he
said, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go, I'll come again, and where I am, there you may
be. Why can't we believe that? He
said if any man loved this world, he said he's a hater of God.
A man that loves the world and refuses to be divorced from it,
is controlled by it and all of its principles and all of its
systems. He said, he cannot be my disciple. He can't be my disciple. He's got to sell out. Why can't
we sell out? Why can't we just believe what
God says? He's not going to. open up heaven
and let us look into it? He's not going to do that. He's
not going to open up our eyes that we can see into the future
or see into the glory. We need faith! We need a great
faith to believe what God has said. God's told us. He put it
down black and white here. It's in the Bible. It's in the
Bible, these things that I'm talking to you about here this
morning. All we've got to do is to believe it. Someone said,
well, what about Your interpretation or another fellow's interpretation.
It hasn't got anything to do with the interpretation. Has
it? What's the interpretation got to do with it? Your interpretation
is as good as mine. God's already interpreted it.
It's wrote down here in the Bible. All we've got to do is believe
it. We're not called upon to interpret the Bible. We're called
upon to believe the Bible. Just believe the Bible. Well,
if I believed the Bible and took the Bible at face value, I'd
just be a fanatic. Well, I doubt that. I doubt if
you'd go that far that people would call you a fanatic. But
I think we ought to just believe the Bible. Just believe it. Oh,
my soul! If we could see that glory, I'm
sure we'd rise above the influence of this world if we could just
believe it. Well, what if our eyes were opened
to see heaven? to see all that. And what if
our eyes were open to see other things? It wouldn't make a whole
lot of change in us, I don't suppose. But I'm going to tell
you this, brethren. There's one thing that our eyes,
or there's several things, but one thing I'm going to mention
to you here right now. One thing that our eyes must be open for
us to see something about ourselves. Our eyes has got to be open in
regard to ourselves. God must open our eyes in order
that we might see our wretchedness. You see, Hagar could not see
that well, though it was nearby. But there was one thing about
Hagar, she was thirsty. She was thirsty, she needed to
see it. She needed to see it. She had
a need. Her need could only be realized
by God's provision. Now, we have a need. But we don't
know that we have a need. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying
that God must open our eyes in order that we might see our need.
If we never see our need, our need is that we're wretched,
and unholy, and abominable, and corrupt, and black, and we're
dead before God, and God's angry with us every day. That's ourselves. We've got to see that. Now, I
can tell you about it. I can tell you about it, and
I have told you. Time after time, Sunday after
Sunday, and Wednesday after Wednesday, I've told you and told you and
told you and told you that outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
a loathsome thing. You're a leper before God. There's
not one spot of goodness in you as God views you. I've said that
over and over. Hundreds and hundreds. But you
never heard me. You never heard me. And you never
seen that in yourself. You never seen that leprous heart,
that black heart. You never seen that. You never
will see it until God opens your eyes. God's got to open your
eyes and my eyes in order that I might see my wretchedness.
If I never see my wretchedness, you know what's going to happen,
Kevin? I'll just continue on in this life trusting in my own
goodness to get me to heaven. I think I'm a pretty good boy.
I believe what my mother said. My mother said he's a pretty
good boy. He's a good boy. He's a good boy. Old Mrs. Hickman one time, Brother Lily
was up there, staying up there with her, and he was a stickler
for biblical language, you know. And she is a dear old lady who
thought a good bit of me, at least gave that indication, and
I thought she was a fine old lady. But anyhow, she was telling
Brother Lily about me, you know, and she said, oh, said, he's
a good boy. Said, he's a good boy. Said, oh, said, you oughtn't
to say that. Said, he's a good boy. He got
around later to me. He said, you better talk to that
old lady. I said, why? He said, she said you was a good
boy. He said, you know there's no
good in you. There ain't no good in you. Well,
that's right, there ain't no good in me. Oh, if I could see
that, if I could see my wretchedness before God, if I could see my
hopelessness before God, if I could see that from the bottom of my
feet to the top of my head, inside and outside, there wasn't a single
solitary thing about me that would be attractive to God, that
I was wretched and blind and miserable, If I could see that, if I could
see that, if I could see I had a need, if I could ever get to
the place, Bob, where I was thirsty, thirsty, so thirsty that I'd
die if I didn't get a drink of water. Oh, our eyes must be opened to
see our wretchedness, to see how black we are in ourselves,
to see how leprous, how poor and how miserable and how lonesome
it's got to be. If God ever opens our eyes to
see ourselves, like, well, you know, throughout the Bible, throughout
the Bible we have illustration after illustration of God opening
men's hearts and opening their eyes and situations that require
that. Over here in the, I think it's
in the book of the Revelation somewhere, to the church at, where's the
church at Philadelphia, was it? Where's that at, anybody know
offhand? The church at Ephesus, that's
not the one. Where's the one that says they're
blind, they're miserable, poor, miserable and blind, where's
that at? Oh, verse 17 of the third chapter. Verse 17, listen to this. He
said, I know thy works, said ye, neither hot nor cold. I would
that there were cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm,
neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Behold,
thou sayest. This is what we say. You know,
before we see, before God opens our eyes, this is what we say. I'm rich. I'm increased with
goods. I'm rich. Now, we may be rich. We may be rich as we compare
ourselves with other people. I may be a rich man myself. I'm
a rich man this morning. That is, if I compare myself
with a fellow that hasn't got a penny. If I compare myself
with a fellow that's only making $50 a week or $20 a week, well,
I could say, well, I'm a rich man. I'm a rich man. But if I
start comparing myself with true value and true worth, then that's
something else. Well, I'm rich. That's what folks
say. I'm rich, increased with goods,
and have need of nothing. No need to talk to me. I've got
everything. I've got everything. Got plenty
of money, plenty of money in the bank. I've got property,
I've got stocks and bonds, I've got good health, I've got a fine
family, my children are alright, everybody loves me, good friends.
I don't have anything. No need to talk to me about my
wretchedness, about being lost before God for the want and lack
of love that Jesus Christ... No need to give me this whole
Bible business over and over and over and over. I don't have
need of anything. I'm alright. I'm alright. I have need of nothing, and knowest
not, that's our problem, knowest not that thou art wretched. Oh, God must open our eyes in
order that we might see our wretchedness. For thou knowest not that thou
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. That's our, right there we are,
that's our description. Oh, that's one thing I'm sure
of, that our eyes must be opened in order that we might see ourselves.
Well, I've got hanging down on my wall there, a house, I read
it every once in a while, it says, What would a man give in
exchange for his soul? Well, what doth it profit a man?
What doth it, that's what it says, what doth it profit a man? Mark chapter 8. What does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul? We have never seen that. If we
ever see that, if God ever opens our eyes to see the valueness
of what we are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and the value
of our souls as God sees it, the worth of them, oh my soul,
we are going to lose our own souls. We are going to commit
suicide. You know this, you can lose yourself.
You can lose your own soul, but you can't save yourself. God's
got to open your eyes that you might see your wretchedness.
Well, and secondly, God must open our eyes if we're ever going
to see Him. You can't see Him unless God
opens your eyes. But if God opens your eyes to
see your wretchedness, Then he's going to open your eyes to see
him. Hagar can't see the well until
her eyes are open. The well's right there. The well's
right there. But Hagar can't see it until
her eyes are open. She's thirsty. She's thirsty. But her eyes must be open. It's
close by. She can't see it. You know, the
Scriptures say, Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and
be ye saved. For I am the Lord, thy God, and
there's none other. Look to Me. Can't be any plainer
or any simpler than that, can you? What can be more simpler
than that? Look unto Me and live! As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, and everyone that was bitten by that serpent,
if they'd looked upon that brazen serpent hanging on a pole, if
they'd looked, they'd live. Even so, the Son of Man must
be lifted up, and whosoever believeth on Him shall live." Look and
live! What can be more simpler than
that? Yet nobody ever did understand
the doctrine of look and live until God opened His eyes. No
one ever understood. And no one ever will understand.
until God opens their eyes. And that's a fact. That's true.
Well, the well's there, but the thirsty soul can't see it. Christ is there, but the sinner
can't see Him. The fountain is filled with blood
that flows from Emmanuel's vein, but the sinner doesn't know how
to wash in that fountain. There stands the words, Believe
and Live! But unbelief darkens the eyes
of all of us until God opens our eyes. I can tell you that
He is as near as the air that you breathe. I can say that and
say it over and over and over and over and I can tell you to
look and live. I can tell you that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the substitutionary sacrifice for every man that
will bow to Him and believe on His name. Paul said to that Philippian
jailer, he said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. But I'll tell you, when it's
all said and done, I know that if you ever see Him and if I
ever see Him, God must open my eyes that I might see. I can
be religious all I want to. I can carry my Bible. And I can
just get on everybody that cusses in my surroundings, and I can
just condemn and criticize every known sin in this world. And
I can be against all of them, but I'll never understand what
it means to look and live unless God opens my eyes. The eyes of
my soul, the eyes of my heart, the eyes of faith, unless God
does it. Now, I know that, and that's
a fact. That's a fact. I can be religious. I run into
religious people every day, practically, and can run into them every hour
if I look for them. I'm tired of religion. Religion
is up to here with me. I get sick of it. I just go to
church now and then for some reason or the other, and I hear
the religion, and I get sick of it. I want to get up and leave.
I just want to get up and walk out. I'm so mired in religion. Religion, religion, religion,
men and women sitting in Moses' seat. Religion. I'll tell you,
he's as near as the air you breathe, but yet you'll never see him
until God opens your eyes. But if God ever does open our
eyes, just let me conclude by saying what we will say. If God
ever opens our eyes to see our wretchedness, we'll see that.
If God ever opens our eyes, we'll see the Lord Jesus Christ. If
He opens our eyes, we'll see the beauty and the glory of God's
eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to have our eyes open
in order to see that. We can see on the outside. Most
people, right today, it was like one of the Brother Gordon was
telling me there before church, coming through town and everybody
excited about having birthday parties for Jesus and bringing
Him presents. And we're all going through that,
you know, and churches and celebrities. Just everybody's involved. The
whole world's involved, but no one gives a damn about the reality
of the Son of God. No one gives a damn. No one cares. No one cares. about the continuance
of worship. This worship that men are going
through, that's not worship. That's hypocrisy at its worst. That's hypocrisy at the height
of hypocrisy now is to month of December start buying presents
and start being happy and wearing a big smile. Merry Christmas
to you. Hope you have a good day. All
that kind of stuff. They couldn't care less whether
you had a good day or how happy and merry you are. That's nothing
but religion hypocrisy. That's all that is, through and
through. They don't care. See if they're
around next Sunday morning. See if they're there on Wednesday
night. See if you've got their pocketbook. See if they're on
their knees. See if they're reading their Bible. See if they're identified
with the cause and claims of the Lord Jesus Christ 365 days
out of the year, and you'll see what I'm talking about. You know
that I'm telling you the truth. They see on the outside all they
see of Jesus Christ as a little baby. That's all they see. Honestly,
that's all they see is the nativity scene. I don't know how many
arguments I've read in the newspaper and how many arguments I've listened
to on the television by people that are just upset to no end
because the government has come along or someone's come along,
the city council or someone, and said you can't have no nativity
scene. And they said, well, you just
can't have Christmas unless you have a nativity scene. We've
got to have a nativity scene. We've got to have a little cradle
and a little plastic baby doll and set him out there in the
snow and shine a light on him. We can't have Christmas unless
we have that. That's all they know. That's
all they've seen of God's Son. And what I'm telling you this
morning, under God I say this, A heart full of love and kindness
and forbearance to anyone who will listen to me. Not to be
smart or to say, well, I'm doing something you're not doing and
looking down on your preaching. I couldn't do that. I can't look
down on you. I can't preach to you. I'm just
like you are. I'm in the dust and the clay.
But I say this under God. This business, this business
that we know right now is Christmas for the most part, Ninety-nine
percent is just what people see on the outside, and the only
beauty that they see of the Lord Jesus Christ is His little baby
in the crib someplace, and that's all they are to. But if God ever
opens our eyes, we can see some things in Him. We can see some
things, we can see some beauty in Him, some beauty that we have
never seen before. Oh, I used to wonder what that
meant over there in the book of Isaiah where it says that
that as we looked upon Him, when our eyes were not, there was
no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. Do you remember that
verse? No beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ that we should desire
Him. There's no beauty in that little
baby that would make you long, long for Him and thirst after
Him. There's no beauty in the nativity
scene that would cause you to bow down I'm not saying that
the birth of Jesus Christ is not important. It was important. It was a great event. It was! But we're not commanded to, we're
not commanded or even, it's not even indicated that we're to
do what the world's doing right now. No, they missed it a thousand
miles. A thousand. there when the tabernacle was
built. When the tabernacle was built, it was built according
to the specifications that God gave to Moses on the mount. Remember
I talked to you last Sunday about how God made David to understand
the very details of the temple. God made him to understand. He
pictured it in his mind. He did the same thing for old
Moses. He made him to understand. Gave
him some plans and patterns for the tabernacle. And he said,
see to it that you make it according to the plan and the pattern that
I showed thee on the mount. Make it just like it. Just like
it. Why? Because that tabernacle
was the type of the Lord Jesus, the type of the church of God,
that tabernacle. On the outside of that tabernacle,
they had skins of I think there's beaver skins. Badger skins. Badger skins. Thank you. There's
badger skins. Worthless. Ugly. There was no
beauty about a badger skin. If you was on the outside looking
on at the tabernacle, at the exterior of it, there was no
beauty about that tavern. You know where the beauty was?
The beauty was inside. You had to get inside of the
tabernacle to see the beauty. all the beaten gold and the candlesticks,
the silver candlesticks, the golden lampstands, all of the
beaten gold and all the tapestries of velvet and red and the various
colors. You had to be in the inside to
see the beauty. And that's the way it is with
Christ Jesus. You've got to be in the inside.
You've got to have your eyes open. And if God ever opens your
eyes, you'll see this beauty, this beauty and this loveliness
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what will you see
in Him if God opens your eyes? Well, you'll see this. You'll
see what God made Him to be for you. You'll see that. That'll
be one of the first things you'll see. You'll see what God made
the Lord Jesus Christ for you. The Scripture said God made Him
to be sin in whom there is and was no sin. God made Him to be
sin. That's what God made Jesus for
you. That's what you see, Bob, when your eyes are open. That's
what you see in Christ. That God made Him to be sin.
What is sin, preachers? You know what sin is? Sin is
all of that vile, impure ungodliness of this wretched heart, this
black, leperous heart, pile upon pile, mountain upon mountain
of rebellion against God. God took the sin of all of His
people, every sin, every sin, every sin of of greed and lust
and selfishness, every sin of the pornography of your heart,
every sin of your black mind, every lust, God took all of our
sin and laid it upon Him. God made Him to be sin. Who knew no sin? That we might
become the righteousness of God in Him. That's what you'll see.
That's what you'll see. If God opens your eyes in order
that you might see your wretchedness, you might see the Lord Jesus
Christ, and then you'll see what Christ did for you, what God
made Him to be. You'll see His perfection. There
won't be no arguing anymore, was Christ perfect? You won't
even debate the question. You'll say, that's not debatable.
We preach Christ and Him crucified, a perfect, a perfect Savior,
a perfect man, all man, perfect in every respect, perfect might,
Lord Jesus Christ, who is on God's right hand right now, the
man, the man, the man, Christ Jesus. There is one mediator
between God and man. What did the Holy Spirit say?
He said, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. My Savior, the
Man! Jesus, the Man! Perfect! Perfect. A lot of people say
they're perfect. I've heard some guys say they're
perfect. A guy told me one time, yeah, I'm perfect. I've never
seen it. I'll tell you, you ever run into one of them fellas?
You ever run into one of them fellas that tells you he's perfect,
the first thing you do is put your hand back in your pocketbook.
Put your hand back and hold on to it. If you're like Pat McGinnis,
you carry your money in a money clip, put your hand down and
put it around you. And if you've got your wife with
you, run out and lock the car door. He'll steal your money
and he'll steal your wife. Hard to tell what he'll do. These
people that say they're perfect. There's only one man that was
perfect! That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is perfect. You'll find that out. You'll
find that out when God opens your eyes to see What Christ
is. Perfect. Why? You and I ought not to have any
fear of dying. We ought not to have the least
fear. That's right. It's our shame
that I say this. If there's any fear in our hearts
about going out into eternity, you and I who say that Jesus
Christ is our righteousness. Why, if He's our righteousness,
When we go out into eternity, even God Himself, whose eyes
are so pure that they cannot look upon evil or iniquity, even
God can't find any sin in us. Even God Himself. Because we
have the righteousness of His Son. We're just as righteous
as God's Son is righteous. That's the gospel. Men don't
believe that. Men don't believe that and say
you're crazy if you tell them anything like that, but that's
exactly what the Bible teaches. And that's what men see when
their eyes are opened in Christ. But if their eyes are never opened,
they never see that. They never see it. They can hear
it, and hear it, and hear it, and hear it, and hear it. It's
like a fellow, old brother Walker down at Ashland Avenue. The school
I went to, he was the pastor of this church, the president
of this school, and he was smart as a whip, too. But anyhow, if
there's anything he preached, it was that baptism was not for
children. Baptism was by immersion, and
there was no such thing as infant baptism. And I believe that there
wasn't a service that went by that he didn't mention that.
He didn't mention something about that. There was a woman who was
a member of his church, who was a charter member of his church,
been with him for about 40 years at that point, maybe 30 or 40
years. And his custom was to go to the
back of the building and shake hands with the parishioners as
they left. And as they left this morning,
this dear sister came to him and said, Brother Walker, Joy
of being here. So glad to have you. She said,
my daughter who lives in such and such a place has a child
that's two years old. I wonder if you'd baptize her.
Brother Walker said, that poor soul never heard a word I said
for 40 years. Been preaching to her for 40
years and she never heard a word I said. And that's the way men
are. You preach and preach and preach
till you never hear a word you said until God opens their eyes,
Fred, until God makes them understand.