Open his eyes that he may see. Open his eyes. The young man,
the young man went out. The young man went out and he
saw, didn't he? And he saw around about this
city, this city surrounded with horses and chariots. what his servant couldn't see,
and what the Syrians couldn't see. Blessed is the man who has
his eyes opened by God. God opens and no man can close,
and he closes what no man can open. He makes blind. He sends
blindness and he sends light. God's servants in this world,
God's children in this world, see what no other person can
see. Noah, in all of that huge multitude
that was to drown, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord
and he saw what no one else could see. He saw what no one else
could see. Isaiah saw what no one else could
see. David and Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
they saw what no one else can see. The children of God see,
through God-given eyes of faith, what no one else can see. And
we will see, as Elisha saw, and Elisha's servant was made to
see, the glory of God. The glory of God in mercy. In judgment, who do you say that
I am? It's a great question, isn't
it? Who do you say I am, the Lord Jesus Christ? Ask them in
Matthew 16. And thou art the Christ, is the
cry of every believer, isn't it? It's the cry of Peter, isn't
it? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And what
was the answer from the Lord Jesus Christ? You're a very clever
fellow, Peter. You've done very well. You've
been listening hard. No, listen to what Jesus answered. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood, no matter how polished the flesh is and
no matter how learned it is, flesh and blood are not revealed
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. God hides things
from the wise and prudent, and he reveals them unto babes. God is the hider, God is the
creator of eyes, and God is the creator of light that illuminates
the eyes of faith to see him. Elisha, no doubt, went outside
of his dwelling that morning when the young man cried out,
and there was a force that was too mighty to withstand. Who
are we? Who are we? Who's Elisha? against
this mighty force. Have you ever felt that way,
overwhelmed by what's around you? But Elisha saw the power
and the presence of God, and listen to what he says. What
shall we do, said the young man, what shall we do? Verse 15 and
verse 16, Elisha says, fear not, for they that be with us are
more than they that be with them. Fear not, fear not. Elisha saw a physical situation
in this world, which is distressing and disturbing, and Elisha also
saw God. And where does he see God? He
sees God above it. I love the fact that in the midst
of this young man's distress, Elisha was given rest. of this world. Alas, my master,
what shall we do? Well, I sure didn't say that.
He saw what God is there. There is no harm that can befall
the righteous in the world. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah.
It's a blessing from God to see what God is. Open mine eyes,
says the psalmist. What a great prayer, Psalm 119. Open mine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. The wondrous thing, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that God does is wondrous.
It's all he ever does. So what a great prayer for us
to pray for our brothers and sisters and for those who are
out of the way, in all sorts of ways people are out of the
way. What a great prayer to pray for
our brethren in every circumstance of life when everything around
is overwhelming. Open my eyes that I might see. world has blinded the minds of
them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel,
who is the image of God, should shine upon them. The eyes of
faith, as I said, rest in a troubled world when events overwhelm them. The eyes of faith do not grow
dim with years, but they become more far-seeing. The older you
get in the Lord Jesus Christ, the more needy you are. The more
needy you are for Him, the more needy you are for His Word, the
more needy you are for fellowship with Him and His people in the
midst of Him being worshipped. The old man was troubled. The old man was at peace. The
young man was panicking, and the old man was at rest. The
young man needed confidence and assurance, and the old man said,
this is where you'll find it when your eyes are opened. The
young man saw the danger and didn't see the deliverance. The
young man saw the enemy. and didn't see the Saviour, the
Deliverer. Elisha prayed for him, isn't
this lovely? Elisha couldn't open his eyes. No human man can
open the eyes of another to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Elisha could do what we can do, and he could seek the Lord.
He could say, oh Lord, open his eyes. A prayer of faith, Elisha
prayed, isn't it? And a prayer of faith is saying,
I'm dependent upon you to do all things. The prayer of faith asks the
impossible, isn't it? What's impossible with man is
possible with God. A new heart, says the Lord, I
will give you. A new eyes to see, a new heart
of faith to lay hold of these promises, and a new life to live
on these promises. God's children walk in this world
by faith and not by sight. Dear oh dear, I wish the Lord
would teach me that. We walk by faith and not by sight. What's that mean about our sight?
Always, always, in every situation, our sight needs to be adjusted
by the Word of God, so that we will see God. That's exactly
the situation of this young man, that's exactly our situation.
Open his eyes, that he could see the glory of God. If you
can see the glory of God, everything else will be alright. If you
see the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on his throne, ruling and reigning
over all things, heaven's glory. If you could
see him in his glory, you would rest. If you could see him in
his glory, you'd rejoice in him. If you could see him in his glory,
you'd find yourself trusting, believing him. If you could see
him in his glory, you would rest in his providence. If you could
see him in his glory, all of a sudden, the important things
would be really important, and the things that aren't important
would have their place. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. They are spiritually discerned. What does this man see when his
eyes are opened on a glorious, glorious thing? 11 verse 17, Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. He was seeing
already, wasn't he? He was seeing already and all
he saw was danger. Open his eyes and now he's gonna
see properly. Now he's gonna see. And what
does he see? And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. He
saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire. Where were they? around Elisha. There was an enemy
that surrounded the city, but around Elisha, around Elisha
was all of this, full of horses and chariots around Elisha. Oh Lord, open my eyes to see
you as the force causing everything, to see that you reign and rule
above all the circumstances and all the providence and all the
events of this world and you do it for your glory and you
do it for the good of all of your people. What comes first
in God's economy? A spiritual reality or a physical
reality? What comes first? God, who is
Spirit, says, let there be light, and there was light. God says,
let there be a universe, and a universe exists always, brothers
and sisters. Remember that spiritual realities
precede all natural realities that we see, and spiritual realities
determine all of the natural realities of this world. This
world is here for the glory of God. This world exists that the
Lord Jesus Christ will reveal all of the glory of God, all
of the magnitude and the magnificence of the character of God on the
cross of Calvary. And this world, and this universe
as it is, exists because of those spiritual realities. And when
those spiritual realities have achieved the last, when the last
of God's children is born again and saved, this earth as we see
it has no need for existence any longer and God will wrap
it up. All of the soaps of God are believed
to be living in the last days. in Paul's day. They've been doing
it for the last 2,000 years, but each day is a day closer,
brothers and sisters. Each day is a day closer for
us as we walk in this earth to be enwrapped in a spiritual reality
which will drown all of the things of this world in the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you see him, you see him in
his glory. You see him in his glory in Providence,
as in his glory in, His purposes and His salvation. You'll see
Him in His glory in eternity. You'll see Him in His glory in
this world. You'll see Him reigning and ruling
over all things. The natural eye just can't see
a sovereign, an absolutely sovereign God, but they can see men ruling.
The natural eye can't see the righteousness and the holiness
of God's law, but they can see their own obedience. The natural
man, is blind and deaf and no amount of evidence is going to
make any difference to them. The Lord Jesus Christ was God
Almighty doing the things that were promised of God Almighty
in the very place they were promised, at the very time they were promised,
in the very way they were promised. He was a living, breathing Old
Testament. And there He was in the face
of those people who knew the Old Testament off by heart and
they didn't have a clue. These Syrians see all of this
and they came down to Elisha and Elisha prayed unto the Lord
and said, smite these people, I pray thee, with blindness.
What an extraordinary thing that God will do. Smite these people,
I pray, with blindness. Why are people blind? And he smote them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. And then Elisha leads this army. See, blind people can be led. These blind people are very,
very fortunate because they are led by a child of God. God says
that the blind in this world, the religiously blind in this
world, are leading the blind in this world. And what's the
end result of it? They both fall into the ditch. This is a glorious exercise of
the grace of God in the lives of these people. Elisha, verse
19, said, This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow
me, and I will bring you to the man whom you see. And he led
them to Samaria. Samaria was the capital. of those
northern tribes of Israel. And it came to pass when they
were coming to Samaria that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of
these men that they may see. Do you see the power and the
sovereignty of God? He can say to an army, be blind,
and they're all blind, every single last one of them, and
they can be led like babies into the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said to
Elisha, when he saw them, my father, shall I smite them, shall
I smite them? Here we have this enemy, they've
been pursuing us to destroy us. And here we have them all blind,
all without any weapons, without any chariots, without any armor,
all of them here, blind as bats. And we've got them captive. I
just love the picture of grace, isn't it? What a picture Elisha
leaves us with those who would do us ill in this world. Here's verse 22. Thou shalt not
smite them, wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive
with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them,
that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision
for them. When they had eaten and drunk,
he sent them away, and they went to their master, so the bands
of Syria came no more into the land of Israel." What a glorious,
glorious way. God has a lesson here for us
in dealing with those who oppose us. The Lord Jesus Christ takes
captivity captive. He takes captivity captive. He
says that he will make his enemies his footstool. He will make his enemies his
footstool. What were you? What were you
before God? What were you to God that you
didn't see? Romans 5, what were you? Romans 5 verse 8, but God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. sinners. That's the description that God
has on us. Christ died for us. Much more
then now being justified by his blood shall we save from wrath
through him for when we were in You must be born again. You must
be born again. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also join
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received
the atonement. We have received the atonement.
What a glorious picture that he takes his enemies captive
and he takes them to a place of captivity and then he sets
a great feast before them. What a picture of our God in
his salvation. How much we need our eyes opened
by that we would see Him in His
glory, that we would see what's encamped around us. I said in
the earlier message that according to God Almighty, and destroyed a whole army in
one night without Hezekiah or anyone else in Jerusalem having
to lift a finger. 185,000 soldiers died outside.
One angel. The angels are encamped around.
The angels are present here with us. God Almighty is present in
the midst of these people and He gathers these people together.
The angels, those angels, those chariots and the horsemen of
God were camped about Elisha. We need our eyes opened. We need our eyes opened to the
holiness and the glory of God. We need our eyes opened to see
the glory of a saviour. We need our eyes opened to see
the majesty of his salvation. We need our eyes opened to see
even our need of a saviour. We need our eyes open because
the natural man can see works, but not grace. The natural man
can see the things of this world, but he can't see the things of
God Almighty. The natural man can see sin in
others, but he can't see sin in himself. The natural man sees
no great need. It's like Paul, that perfect
Pharisee. He was absolutely blind to the
holiness of God. He was absolutely blind to what
God's law demanded of him. He says, I was alive once. I
was living the life of a Pharisee. I was living the life of a religious
and zealous man. I was proclaiming God wherever
I could, and I was destroying anyone who stood opposed to him.
I was alive. I thought I was alive. without
the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."
God's law slays the natural man. The natural man is blind to the
holiness of God's law, he's blind to who God is himself. Open our
eyes. Open our eyes. What happened
when Elisha's eyes were opened when he was in that temple? He
saw the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up. He saw the Lord
Jesus Christ fill in the temple. And what was his cry? He says,
I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people
of unclean lips. Job. saw God Almighty and heard
God speak to him, and his response is, on by all, behold, on by
all. And then he says, I abhor myself
and I repent in dust and ashes. He's already in dust and ashes,
but he still wasn't in dust and ashes that was proud of his own
righteousness. He was wanting to defend himself
at the end of all of those accusations. In his dust and ashes, he wasn't
low enough. He wasn't low enough, he had
to be brought spiritually low. The natural man can't see God
in everything and the natural man can't see everything that
is in God. The natural man, when his eyes
are open and he gets to see, you'll see the emptiness and
the deceitfulness of religion. The natural eye can't see its
condition and the natural eye can't see the way of salvation.
He doesn't know the righteousness of God and he doesn't see how
much he needs a Saviour. He doesn't see the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the other thing that the
natural man cannot see, and these Syrians couldn't see until Elisha
had led them to a place of feasting and opened their blinded eyes
again, the natural man can't see the messengers of God as
who they are. They are, in this world, God's
servants, insignificant people. Elisha was just ploughing. Elijah came to him. David was
just an insignificant shepherd boy when God came to him. Amos was just tending shepherds
in the hills of Tekoa. They were nothing. They were
nothing. Notice where the focus of the
Lord's army was. It was around, about Elisha. God's servants in this world
seem so human and so frail and so weak, and they have a treasure,
the treasure of God's gospel, they have it in an earthen vessel.
And you look closely at the earthen vessel and you see the cracks
and the frailty and the fragility of it. But if God gives you eyes to
see, you'll see who they are in God's sight. Touch not mine
anointed, says God, and do thy prophets no harm. The eyes of faith, the open eyes
of faith. I want us to be reminded that
when the eyes Is he revealing something that
didn't exist before, or is he just revealing what did always
exist? Elisha walked through that world
with that army of gods surrounding him all the time. How safe are
you brothers and sisters in Christ? How safe are you under the care
of God Almighty? Nothing new was created. Just like if we pull all these
curtains down, you couldn't see the mountains and the trees out
there. But when your eyes are open and the curtains are up,
does that create the mountains? Or does it just reveal the Creator?
It just reveals the creation that's already there. The Syrians
didn't see. The rest of Israel didn't see.
Only two people saw. What makes the difference? Who
makes the difference, always? It is God alone. And what does spiritual blindness
have to do? What's the effect of spiritual
blindness on people? Both the Syrians and the rest
of Israel saw nothing in this. that was lasting at all. Israel
continued on its rebellion against God and they didn't see the grace
and mercy of God and they didn't hear the words of God from Elisha. Spiritual blindness causes people
to be content with what they are, with what they believe,
with what they do, have done, The publican was very pleased
with himself when he went to the temple in Luke's Gospel,
wasn't he? He was very pleased, and he said, I thank God. I thank
God that I'm so special. I thank God that I'm above this
bit of rubbish that's here beside me, beating on his chest. He was totally content with his
being, with his future. He was so sure of getting into
heaven that he might as well have already been there in his
eyes, and everyone else around thought the same of him. The
Lord Jesus says he's a blind man, and the publican went home.
That publican who'd been on his chest went home, and he says,
be merciful to me, the sinner. God sent him home, saved and
justified in the sight of God. And no one else in Jerusalem
saw it. No one else saw it. Children of God, it's what God
said. and he rejoices, and the spiritually
blind will never see him as God opens their eyes. It makes them proud of their
righteousness, and there they are before God, clothed in nothing
but filthy rags, and I go around bragging about how special they
are and how wonderful their righteousness is. We are, by nature, Adam's
children. We're covered in rags and we're
proud. We think we're rich and we're in need of nothing, but
we don't realize that we're diseased and poor and naked and blind. We think we're whole, and yet,
We are broken and need a saviour. We're fools before God, but we're
proud of our wisdom. We ought to be crying out to
God to save us from ourselves. Instead we're strutting around
as proud as peacocked. There is a turning of things
upside down. The blind lead the blind. Lord, open the eyes of those
who hear your gospel here and throughout this world, that they
might see the spiritual reality of the world in which they must
live. Open my eyes that I might see
your future for me, perfectly secure, to live in this world with eyes
awake to the reality of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, the reality
of what happened on Calvary's cross when he shed his precious
blood, the reality of that glorious resurrection. Please remember,
brothers and sisters, that when he rose from the dead in a city
of a million people, in a nation and in a world of darkness, he
only ever appeared are your enemies. What's impossible
with man is possible with God. And may the Lord make us as gracious
to our enemies as the Lord should be to these Syrians. Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we pray your mercy upon us. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
you would enlighten our eyes, that you would cause that new
creation which is created in righteousness and true holiness
to continually have its eyes opened to see the Lord Jesus
Christ in his glory, to see him in his absolute sovereignty,
to see that he's the one that performeth all things for us.
Our Father, be merciful. Be merciful to those that we
grieve over at this time for the failings of their bodies,
Heavenly Father, we do pray that in the midst of all of these
difficult circumstances, that they might just glimpse the beauties
of the Lord, the glory of His protection and His provision,
the wonders of He who performs all things for them. And our
Father, we pray that like Elisha, We might find ourselves at rest
in a troubled world, resting and rejoicing in who our great
God and saviour is. We pray in Jesus' name, our Father,
and for his glory. And we thank you. We thank you
for recovery.