Let us turn once again to God's
Word in the passage of scripture that we read in 1 Peter chapter
3 and the text I want to direct you to this morning is found
in verse 12. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 12 For
the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are
open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse
12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his
ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against
them that do There we need, of course, as is the case every
time we come to the Word of God, to take some account of the context
in which we find the words that we consider. And certainly the
opening word of this text reminds us of the importance of the context,
the word for, or we might render it because, shows that there
is a connection with what Peter has said in those previous verses
for example from verse 10 he says for he that will love life
and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his
lips that they speak no guile let him eschew evil and do good
let him seek peace and ensue it for or because the eyes of
the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their
prayers. And in this passage there is
in fact an allusion to words that we find in Psalm 34. In
fact it might be said that this is a free quotation of those
words that we've just been singing in the medical version of the
psalm. If we turn to Psalm 34 you will
see that it is the same truth that is being declared there
by the psalmist in the verse 12 and the following verses. What many see is the desire of
life and love of many days that he may see good, Keep thy tongue
from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do
good. Seek peace and pursue it. The
eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open
unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. It is quite evident then that
it is that particular portion of the psalm that Peter has in
his mind as he writes here in the context of the verse that
we're considering this morning. He speaks in particular of the
righteous. God's eyes, we're told, are over
the righteous. Who are the righteous? These
are they who are justified. We know that there is none righteous,
no, not one, for the sins and come short of the glory of God. And so, when we read of the righteous,
it is not those who are self-righteous like scribes and Pharisees and
imagine that they have some righteousness of their own, rather is a reference
to those who are, say, sinners, those who are justified by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great message, is
it not, of the apostolic gospel as we see in Paul's preaching
there at Antioch in Paisidia in the 13th chapter of the Acts
where he declares concerning the Lord Jesus that by him all
that believe are justified. from all things that they could
not be justified from by the deeds of the Lord these and these
alone are the righteous, they are justified sinners and they
are justified by faith and this justifying faith of course is
that faith that Paul says worketh by love and isn't Peter, really
asserting the same truths in this portion, it's a very practical
part of the epistle in the earlier part of the chapter, he speaks
of the duties of the wives, godly wives, he speaks likewise of
the solemn responsibilities of the husbands and then at verse
8 he says finally be ye all of one mind, having compassion one
of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not
rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary wise
blessing, knowing that ye are there unto call, that ye should
inherit a blessing. It's interesting how he speaks
of love here in verse 8, love as brethren, he says, and Robert
Leighton in his famous commentary, probably the finest of all the
commentaries that you could ever consult on this book of 1 Peter,
that of Robert Leighton who was Bishop of Glasgow of course,
strangely there in Scotland, an Episcopalian, but a most gracious
and godly man and he makes the observation in his remarks on
verses 8 and 9 that love is in the middle of these exhortations
that are being given. Love is in the middle, says Leighton,
as the stalk or root of the rest. It is as we love as brethren
that we will heed these various exhortations And we see here
different aspects to that love, that brotherly love that is to
be evidenced amongst the people of God. It is a tender love we
see in verse 8. Be ye all of one mind, he says,
having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful,
be Curtis. In other words there is a certain
tenderness that is to be shown in the way you relate one to
the other and as it is tender so this love is also a patient
love. This is what the believer is
called to. It goes on in verse 9 not rendering evil for evil
or railing for railing but contrary wise blessing knowing that you
are here unto call. that ye should inherit a blessing. It's a patient love then that
is to be evidence, being patient, long-suffering one with the other. It's to be a sincere love, he
goes on to say in verse 10. He speaks of lips that speak
no guile, guileless, transparent, sincere. in your love, in the
things that you're saying one to the other, and then again
it's a persevering love. In verse 11, let him eschew evil
and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. We're to love as
Brazil and we're to evidence then something of these characteristics
that have been spoken of by the Apostle Peter as he comes to
this practical aspect of his epistle now If we would know
such love as that, we of course must seek the face of God. We
are not able of ourselves to produce such a love. On the contrary,
we are those who in our very nature as sinners are enemies
of God, alienated from God, haters of God. We need the love of God
to be shed abroad in our hearts. If we would love Him and love
those who are the brethren, and so we must pray to him and that's
what we come to of course when we come to the words that we
have here in our text in the middle of these 12 verses we're
told how God's ears are open unto their prayers this is that
godly man then, that justified sinner that the Lord beholds,
the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are
open unto their prayers but the face of the Lord is against them
that do evil. Well, as we come to consider
the actual text itself and the content of this 12th verse in
some detail, I want to deal with three things this morning. Considering God, we look here
at what is stated concerning God's eyes, God's ears, and God's
face. Now, of course, the language
here is what is termed anthropomorphic. Human language is employed to
describe God. And that's not improper in the
sense that man, of course, as he came from the hand of his
maker, was created in God's likeness, made in God's image, not that
God has a body. We know that God is a spirit. The Lord Jesus in John chapter
4 asserts that quite plainly. God is a spirit and they that
worship him, says Christ, must worship him in spirit and in
truth. God does not possess a body such
as we have. That is not where God's image
in man is to be found. The image is of course seated
in the soul of man. God breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and he became a living soul. But in the scripture,
in order that we might understand something of the character of
God, there are those occasions where language that relates to
us as human beings is employed in describing God and the ways
of God and the works of God. We read sometimes of God's hand
and God's fingers. We read of the arm of the Lord.
And so here we have mention of these three things, God's eyes,
God's ears and God's face. And first of all I want us to
consider the significance of what is being said before us
in this reference to the eyes of God. At the beginning of this
twelfth verse for the eyes of the Lord we are told are over
the righteous the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous now
of course there is that sense in which God sees all God sees
the righteous but God also sees the unrighteous does he not sit
upon the circle of the earth and does he not behold all the
inhabitants and they are like grasshoppers in his sight he
is that one who dwells in the highest heavens he dwells in
eternity and he beholds time from its beginning to its end
and he sees all things from that vantage point of the high heavens
and we are told as God beholds man So God examines men. Psalm 11 and verse 4. The Lord's
throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men. What a statement is that? God's
eyelids try the children of men. What does it mean? Well it means
that God's eyes are, as it were, wide open. God is carefully and
closely examining all things. There is nothing hidden from
the sight of God. He is that one who clearly sees
all things. And we are reminded of that,
are we not, when we come to the book of the Revelation, and John,
there in the opening chapter, explains to us, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, how he was favoured with that vision of
the glorified Christ, whilst he was on the Isle of Patmos.
And as he describes Christ, what does he say concerning his eyes?
His eyes were as a flame of fire, says John. His eyes were as a
flame of fire, burning. How God's eye is so penetrating,
it sees into the very depths of all things. David in the 139th
Psalm, of course, very much speaks of the omniscience of God, that
there is no escaping the presence of God, that He is in all places,
that He sees all things. O Lord, Thou hast searched me
and known me, says David, Thou knowest my down-sitting and my
up-rising, Thou understandest my thought afar off, Thou compassest
my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my woes.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou
knowest it all together. He goes on at verse 11, If I
say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall
be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from the light, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness
and the light are both alike to the earth. There can be no
hiding from God and His all-seeing and His all-searching eye. It is a solemn truth, it is not,
that God sees all things and God therefore knows all things. But here in the text we are told,
are we not, that God watches over the justified sinner in
a special way. There is a special sight that
God has of the righteous that is spoken of here in the text.
The eyes of the Lord, it says, are over the righteous. And there are three particular
truth that we should remind ourselves of with regards to God's eye
as He beholds His people. First of all, does not His eye
upon His people remind us of that great affection that He
has towards them? It is a look of love. It is a look of love. When a
young couple are in love, is it not so often seen in the way
in which they behold one another, the way they look at one another.
That look betrays the real love and affection that is in their
heart. The one that they look upon is
the object of their delight. It's a look of love. And when
we read of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we see
God incarnate, how we see the Lord beholding sinners and as
he looks upon the sinner how the Lord loves the sinner when
Andrew brings his brother Simon to the Lord Jesus there in John
chapter 1 we are told when Jesus beheld him and you know the force
of that word when Jesus beheld him it has the force of an intensive
look, a longing look. When the Lord beheld him, he
said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. That was the Lord's
first meeting with Simon Peter after his incarnation. And now the Lord loved him and
of course later In Luke chapter 22 we are told
of how Simon Peter denied the Lord. And how does the Lord restore
him initially? It is again by that look. When
he denied him we are told there in Luke 22.61 how the Lord turned
and looked upon Peter. The Lord turned and looked upon
Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord and we had said
before the cock crowed twice thou shalt deny me thrice and
Peter we are told went out and wept bitterly oh what a look
it was a look of real love and affection it was a restoring
look just as the Lord had looked upon him at the beginning when
Andrew brought Simon to the Lord so now again the Lord turns and
looks upon him and restores him and the eye you see is so clearly
the servant of the affection. Again Robert Layton says that
the eye turns where the heart is. The eye turns where the heart
is. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. Go back to the Old Testament
and what we read there in that remarkable third chapter in the
book of the Lamentations. And we see clearly there that
the eye is servant to the heart. In Lamentations chapter 3 and
verse 51, Jeremiah says, Mine eye affecteth
mine heart. Mine eye affecteth mine heart
because of all the daughters of my city. Here is the prophet
lamenting the desolation of Jerusalem. He has witnessed the destruction
of the city. He was there, you see, when the
armies of the Babylonians and the Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege
to the city, destroyed the temple of the Lord. And he sees the
awful sea, mine eye, he says, affecteth mine heart. What does he say at verse 48?
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction
of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth
not without any intermission. What he sees, you see, affects
him, he touches him. There's a connection between
the eye and the heart, I say. And we see it, do we not, with
the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry when he
makes that final journey to Jerusalem and he beholds the city. When
he was come near we're told he beheld the city and wept over
it. How the Lord wept over that city. Holy Jerusalem. Again, we have
the words that the Lord spoke concerning Jerusalem there in
Matthew's Gospel, in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 27 or rather
verse 37 verse 37 in Matthew 23, O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the
prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often
would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings and he would not he is really
addressing himself to the scribes and the pharisees This is that chapter in which
we have the awful woes that he pronounces against those men.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He beholds Jerusalem,
he looks over the city, he weeps over the city. And he speaks
of the city, of course, in the third person. How often would
I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings he says and then he turns again to the
scribes and pharisees and ye would not how they set themselves
against him but the Lord you see as he beholds the sitter
we see that deep affection that he feels for it he himself was
a Jew he was a Jew he came unto his own and his own received
him not withal but as many as received into them daily power
to be called the sons of God. When we read then here in the
text of God's eye, the eye of the Lord over the righteous,
it's indicative of that very real love that he feels towards
his people, his affection. But also the eye in scripture
speaks of protection. And we see it in Human nature,
do we not? How the parents watch over their
little children. How the parents are always wanting
to know where the child is. As soon as the child is on the
move, the mother wants to know where the child is, wants to
ensure that the child is safe, she's watching over it. She wants
to protect it, she wants to keep it from harm, from danger. and
so too with God and His children. In His eyes over the righteous,
He watches over them, in order to ensure that they are kept
sane. Look at 2nd Chronicles, back in the Old Testament Scriptures
again, in the 2nd book of Chronicles, chapter 16, and verse 9, we are
told, the eyes of the Lord run to and through throughout the
whole earth to show Himself strong. in the behalf of those whose
heart is perfect towards him. Who are those whose heart is
perfect towards him? Again, it's the righteous. It's
the justified sinner. And God watches over them. He
watches over them in order to protect them, to keep them safe. Is it illustrated, is it not,
in the way in which God cared for his ancient people, Israel,
were they typical people? The type of the true Israel of
God? And how God found them, and watched
over them, and preserved them, and did so through all their
wanderings, of course, through the wilderness. When we come
to the song of Moses there at the end of Deuteronomy. He says the Lord's fortune is
his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in the desert land,
in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him. as the apple of
his eye. That's how God watches over the
righteous. He keeps the righteous as the
apple of his eye. He is concerned for them. He
will protect them. He loves them. He guards them. And also we see in the third
place this reference to his eye indicates that he is the one
who will guide them. He will lead them and direct
them in the right way. Psalm 32 again, and verse 8,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go, I will guide thee, he says, with mine eye. I will guide thee with mine eye. And then, as we see something of the significance
of this reference to the eye of God, so also the ear of God is spoken of. You remember again what I said
at the outset that the language is figurative language, it's
anthropomorphic language that is being used, it's that that
belongs to us as humans, we know what the eyes and the ears and
so this language God condescends to employ when he speaks of himself
and the tender care that he shows towards his children and so in
the second place what is the significance of this reference
to God's ears? well we're told his ears are
open unto their prayers His ears are open unto their prayers.
In the Psalm, Psalm 34 and verse 15, the word is cry. His ears are
open unto their cry. They cry to Him. And when they
cry, God hears them. We don't have to come, of course,
with formal prayers. What is real prayer? Often it's
the burden of a sign. It's the falling of a tear. We
have that lovely verse in the hymn 884 and here in the hymn
of course Berridge is speaking of worship and the true spiritual
worship of God and it's not what the world imagines it is. There
are those who delight in a form of godliness, and they're content
with fine prayers that they can read in a prayer book and so
forth. But what does good old John Berridge say concerning
that true worship of God? He says, for thee my soul would
cry and send a labouring groan, for thee my heart would sigh
and make a pensive moan, and each for thee would daily pine,
and would be always only thine. These true prayers, you see,
sometimes are nothing more than a cry, a laboring groan to God,
a pensive moaning, a sighing before the Lord. And God's ear,
we're told, is open to such prayers as those, when we cannot find
words adequate to express what we feel in our own heart and
yet God, God's ear is open and he attends to such prayers, such
poor prayers as we feel our prayers to them. Now when the Psalmist
again finds himself in the depths, here is his conflict that God
hears him, Psalm 130, out of the depths Have I cried unto
thee, O Lord? Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. God attends,
you see, those who feel themselves to be in deep places, and they
do not seek his face in vain. He bears long with them sometimes,
and those words of Christ in the Gospel, Shall not God avenge
his own elect which cry day and night unto him? Though he bear long with them,
yet I tell you, he shall hear them speedily. God's ears are open to the prayers
of his children, and he loves to hear their cries. And sometimes
we feel there's such a delay in the answer. Why is it? well
maybe it's because God loves to hear our voice if you see
He loves to hear us come to Him we have the ear of God and we
can pray to Him and we can tell Him all our complaints we can
pour out our hearts before Him the guy in the psalmist tells
us the righteous cry and the Lord heareth him and will deliver
him out of all his troubles that's the assurance that we have here
in the Word of God And it was that spot, of course, that Job
himself wanted to come to, when he found himself in the midst
of so many troubles, all those dreadful things that came upon
poor Job. And where would he look, where
would he turn? His desire was to turn to the Lord, as we see
in the 23rd chapter. Even today, he says, is my complaints
bitter, my stroke is heavier than my groaning, or that I know
where I might find him. that I might come even to his
seat, I would pour out my cause before him, and fill my mouth
with arguments, I would know the words which he would answer
me, and understand what he would say unto me. He wanted to know
that blessing of communion, him coming to God, ordering his cause
there at the mercy seat, and God coming to him, God answering
him. Oh, this is the assurance that
God gives, you see, to the justified sinner. But righteously, those
who are looking to Christ for that justifying faith and trusting
in Christ, they do not seek the face of God in vain. God hears
their prayers. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous and His ears are open unto their prayers. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. So finally this morning we come
to what is said here concerning God's face. And how solemn is
the text. You see how God's word is ever
always a discriminating word. There's a bot, there's a confluence,
bots. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. God, even under the gospel, makes
a separation, does he not? Of course we know that ultimately
the great day of separation is yet to come, when Christ is to
return in power and great glory and sit upon his throne and he'll
make that separation between the sheep and the goat. and he'll
set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left hand
and he'll send each to their destined places. But when Christ
begins his ministry, even under the Gospel there is a discrimination,
there's a separation. We see it right at the beginning
of the New Testament, do we not? Where we read of John the Baptist's
ministry, in the third chapter of Matthew. He comes heralding
the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does John say concerning
Christ? I indeed baptise you with water.
This is Matthew 3.11. I indeed baptise you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptise you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose hand is in his hand. and he will throughly purge his
floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire then cometh Jesus he is Christ
and this is how John heralds him his fan is in his hand he
will throughly purge his floor oh there has been the gathering
in of the harvest but now there must be the winnowing of the
heap There must be the separation between the good grain and the
chaff. And the fan, of course, is that
great shovel-like implement that you use for tossing the mixture
into the air that the chaff might be driven away by the wind and
the pure grain fall to the ground. But his fan is in his hand. He
will truly purge his flaw. And so in the course of Christ's
ministry there is that separation. There was a division amongst
the people because of his sayings we are told in John's Gospel.
Or a division because of him. There were those who set themselves
against him, there were those who believed. And so it has ever
been. How the Gospel comes, you see,
to psalm the Saviour of life unto life. and to others the
saver of death unto death and Paul asks who is sufficient who
is sufficient for these things oh our sufficiency is of God
going back to the Old Testament how is Jeremiah told by God to
separate the precious from the vile and then is God's mouth
there is discrimination here, there is separation Yes, God
looks upon his people, he delights in them, he loves them. He watches
over them to protect them. He will lead them and direct
them in the right way. His ear is ever always open to
their prayers. He hears their every cry, their
poor murmurings and mutterings, their sighs, their cries, their
growls, their moans. He hears them, he attends to
them. But, says the text, the faith of the Lord is against
them that do evil. Oh, there's no gracious moaning
of his faith towards these who are evildoers. It's a much fuller
statement that we have in the psalm that's being alluded to,
as I said at the outset. The allusion is to words that
we have there in Psalm 34. What does it say there at verse
16? The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. God is angry. God is angry with
the wicked. Every day. There is no escaping ignorance.
or that we might be those who are looking on to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those who look to Him for all
our salvation, look to Him for the forgiveness of all our sins,
to plead that precious blood that was shed for sinners, to
desire to be clothed upon with that robe of righteousness, to
be embraced by those garments of salvation. Well, as we conclude,
let me just make some remarks more generally concerning the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the thoughts of God's eyes, God's
ears, or the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in prophecy in Isaiah
chapter 50 as he speaks there of that great work that had been
given him to accomplish in the eternal covenant. Remember how
he came from heaven in the fullness of the time. When the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law. What was that fullness of the
time? It was that that was determined in the eternal covenant. when
the Father engaged to be the surety of his people to come
and to stand for them in their law place and he speaks of it
of course many times in the Old Testament in those prophetic
books there in Isaiah chapter 15 verse 7 he says I have set
my face like a flint there's the face of the Lord Jesus I
have set my face like a flint his determination to accomplish
all that work that the Father had given Him to do. It's taken
up, is it not, in Luke 9 verse 51, it came to pass when the
time was come that He should be received up. He set His face
to go up to Jerusalem. He knew the time. He comes in
the incarnation in the fullness of the time And as there was
a time to be born, so there was a time to die. Many times the
Jews would have killed him, they would have stoned him, but his
time was not yet come. But when the time was come, that
he should be received up, he stepped past, he set his face
to go to Jerusalem. He would accomplish that great
work. And why so? Because of that love that He
has towards His people. Oh yes, He loves the Father,
He will obey all the Father's will. He comes from Heaven not
to do His own will, but the will of Him who has sent Him to finish
His work. It's the Father's work, it's
the Father's will that is paramount. But also He loves those that
the Father has given to Him. And that He loved His own, which
were in the world, He loves them. to the end we read in John 13,
he loves them to the end, God terminates there in his death
upon the cross at Calvary, or the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's set on the accomplishment of that great work because He
looks so lovingly upon those that the Father has given him. The psalmist says, there will
be many that say, you will show us any good. Lord, Lord, lift
up the light of thy countenance upon us. Friends, this is what
we desire, that the Lord would look upon us, that the Lord would
look upon us graciously, mercifully, to know those gracious smilings
of His face. Remember that verse, I know I
I feel I seem to quote it constantly, those words of Paul in 2 Corinthians
4 verse 6, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ that we see all the goodness
and all the grace of God, or to know those smilings of that
face. And how we need it, how we need
it. Dear old John Newton knew it, you know. In one of his hymns
he says this, Thus preserved from Satan's wiles, safe from
dangers, free from forces, may I live upon his smiles. May I live upon his smiles. Is that what we desire to live?
Upon the smiles of God, as he lifts up the light of his countenance
upon us. as He beholds us, as He looks
upon us and hears our prayers and answers
our cry. Oh God grant that we might be
enabled to enter in some measure into that that the Apostle Peter
is speaking of here in the text, the eyes of the Lord. For the
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous And his ears are open
unto their prayers, but the faith of the Lord is against them that
do evil. Amen. I have seen him seven hundred
and forty-eight, but here is Marathon three hundred and sixty-six. In darkness born, I went astray,
but wandered from the Gospel way, and since the Saviour gave
me sight, I cannot see without His light. 748. you And wandered from the gospel
way, And since the Saviour gave me sight, I cannot sleep without
His light. So for and by I am. My Lord is bound up in
the land. And best of all, my way I see. My spirit in most comforts me. His glories I will not see. Without His glories I cannot
know access to God. The truth there is only so. It makes me feel my ruin changed. It lays my scorn and mercy's
gain. And Jesus smiles at such a day. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.