I love that song on an album sung by Frank Sweeney. I don't know if he wrote that or not. Did he write it? Okay. But I've loved that song. I appreciate that.

Okay, Hebrews, the second chapter. tell you a story. Back in 1972, I was working at a church in Virginia as music director, choir director, Sunday school teacher, youth director, and we had a sovereign grace preacher, but he didn't lay things out as clearly as he ought to have. And he resigned and actually went into, he became an airline pilot. And, of course, Nancy and I were in college in Winston-Salem and so I couldn't be there during the week and I had to miss a couple of Sundays.

quickly called in another pastor. And he was a free will preacher, a works preacher. And I met him and I led the singing and he gave an altar call, said he was going to keep on singing just as I am until somebody came down the aisle. And I knew right then what I should do as soon as the service was over. And I went to him and I told him I couldn't sit under that kind of preaching. And I wasn't going to lead the singing during an altar call anymore. And I said, I'm gone. He said, you're not going to give me a notice? I said, no. This is the only notice you're getting. We left.

That very day, on our way back to Winston-Salem, I found out about a church that was looking for someone to take care of all the music, teach Sunday school, take care of the youth, and be the assistant to the preacher. And on Wednesday night, I was there. And they extended a call to me to come. And we stayed there for several years. And I won't ever forget the first time I got up behind the pulpit to lead the singing. Right at the top of the pulpit was this silver plate. And it had engraven on it some words that I thought were very fitting, and they're as fitting today as they were back then. And they were the words out of the 12th chapter of the Gospel according to John. When the Greeks came to Philip, and they said to Philip, they said, Sir, we would see Jesus. Had it right there on the pulpit, that verse. I thought, boy, that's good to read that every time a man gets up behind the pulpit, to read that. Sir, we would see Jesus.

That's what I want you to know and to do this morning. I want you to see Jesus. Not with these eyes. Because you see, when our Lord was on this earth, lots of people saw Him with the physical eyes and despised Him. Now true, the saints of God, the true believers, they saw Him with these eyes and rejoiced because they saw Him by faith. They saw Him with the eyes of the soul. They saw Him as the only Savior. They saw Him as the fulfillment of all the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament. They saw Him as the One who fulfilled all the sacrifices. The sacrifices were pictures of this One. They saw Him and they loved Him.

I think of somebody like Zacharias and Elizabeth. the parents of John the Baptist. They saw Him. I think about a man by the name of Simeon, and a woman by the name of Anna. They saw Him, but they didn't just see Him with these eyes, they saw Him with eyes of faith. They saw Him in their innermost being. They saw Him as the very Savior they needed. They saw Him as the righteousness that God required. They saw Him as the answer to man's dilemma. We're sinners. We need to be saved. And this one Christ, the Savior, is the only one who can save. They did see Him with physical eyes, But more than that, they saw Him with the eyes of the soul, and they rejoiced. But there were lots of people who saw Him with their physical eyes, and they despised Him. They saw Him preaching in the synagogue. Luke chapter 4. They didn't like what He had to say, so they threw Him out of the synagogue. And they would have cast him down from a high mountain and bashed his brains out, but he passed through their midst. They saw him, but a physical sight of him did them no good.

I've had people tell me, oh, I wish I had lived when Jesus walked on the face of this earth. Well, if you had been a believer, and saw Him, that would have been a blessing. But there were lots of people who saw Him physically and despised Him.

We read in Matthew, the 27th chapter, when our Lord Jesus was crucified, many people saw Him. And the Scripture says in Matthew 27, they sat down and watched Him there. They saw a man naked hanging on a cross. They saw Him writhing in pain and agony. And though they saw Him with the physical eye, Seeing Him that way did nothing for them except satisfy their curiosity to watch Him die.

To see Him physically will do you no good. In fact, There is coming a day, the scripture says in Revelation 1, that when He comes back the second time, every eye shall see Him. That's what it says. Everybody's going to see Him. Believers and non-believers. And concerning non-believers, we read a little further in the book of Revelation, the 6th chapter, Many when they see Him, see His face, they're going to call for the rocks and the mountains to hide them or hide Him from them. Fall on us, they will say. We don't want to see Him. They don't want to see the judge.

That which I'm talking about this morning and that which is indicated here in verse Number 9 of Hebrews, the second chapter, but we see Jesus is not a physical sight of Him. It's a spiritual sight. It's to see the glory of who He is. It's to see His majesty. It's to see Him as the only Savior of sinners. It's to see Him as God's own only begotten Son. It's to see Him as the sinner's only hope. It's to see Him as the Lord our righteousness.

Oh, that God would open the eyes of our understanding, the eyes of our soul. That's what's needed for a spiritual sight of Christ. to perceive Him for who He is, and to understand the necessity of being known by Him, and of you personally knowing Him.

In John the 12th chapter, that verse that I mentioned, Sir, we would see Jesus, and we're talking to Philip. We don't have any background of those Greeks. We don't know how much they knew. We don't know whether they just wanted to see Jesus of Nazareth, the great miracle worker, or whether they wanted to really see Him as He truly is, the Savior of sinners. We have no background there whatsoever. So I don't know their motivation. But I do know the motivation that the Spirit of God gives. We desire to see Jesus the very Savior we need. That's who we want to see. That's who I want to see. And I believe I do see Him by faith.

And this is a theme that runs all the way through the Scriptures. Isaiah said, quoting Jehovah, Jehovah who saves, Jesus who saves. Isaiah quoted Him as saying, Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. There is none other. Look to Me. Not with these eyes, but with the eyes of the soul. with discernment, with some degree of understanding.

Lots of times in our conversations with one another, we'll be telling you something, just like I'm trying to tell you something right now, and I can ask you this, do you see what I'm saying? I'm not asking you, do you see the words, because you can't. I'm not asking, do you see my lips moving as I try to vocalize the message. When I say, do you see what I'm saying, it's do you perceive the truth? Do you understand what I'm talking about? Do you understand the importance of knowing and loving and believing and coming and looking to Jesus Christ the Savior? Do you see what I'm saying? And I hope you do.

But I know this, I can't cause you to look and I can't cause you to see. Scripture says the hearing ear and the seeing eye both cometh from the Lord. You'll never see him unless he gives you understanding. I think about those disciples in Luke the 24th chapter after our Lord's resurrection. They didn't understand what he spoke about, talking about the Scriptures that referred to him and made mention of him and pointed to him. They didn't understand until he opened their understanding. Ah, that's what's got to happen.

Because there may be somebody here, there may be somebody watching, and you're thinking in your mind, Jim, I don't see what you're saying. Well, I understand that. Because you don't have the capacity to see. You have no ability. Do you remember our Lord's words to Nicodemus in John chapter 3? He said, no man can see the kingdom of God except to be born again. You can't see unless you're born again. And you can't see who Christ is. You can't see the necessity of His substitutionary death unless the Spirit of God teaches you.

You can't see, you can't perceive, you can't understand that He's the only Savior of sinners and you're a sinner who's destined to die and something's going to happen to you then after death. You just don't have the ability to perceive. I'm not here to try to paint the beauties of heaven, though heaven is a wonderful and glorious place. That's not why I'm here. I'm not here to try to scare you into some kind of decision by preaching on hell. That's a horrible place. I don't want any of you I don't want any of you here, I don't want any of your family members, I don't want anybody who's watching me to perish in hell.

But, what I want you to see, because, see, even the beauties of heaven, if you could see them, and the horrors of hell, if you could see them, that wouldn't cause you to look to Christ. Only the Spirit of God can give you eyes that truly see. As it says in Ephesians, the first chapter, our understanding has to be enlightened. We have to be enlightened. I can try to pour the truth into your brain and try to do it as simply and as clearly as I possibly can, but you'll never see Jesus until the Lord Jesus raises you from the spiritual death. You must be born again.

And this is what I pray for you, for all of you. You see, you can know a lot of facts about Christ, and that's wonderful to know some facts about Him. But knowing things about Christ, knowing facts about the Son of God, that is not the same as knowing Him. The only way you'll know Him is to be taught of God. Our Lord said in John chapter 6, No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. And I'll raise him up at the last day. And then he said, everyone, everyone who heareth from the Father, everyone who is instructed, taught by the Father, that's who comes to me.

Here's what is necessary for everybody here and everybody who will ever believe. The Holy Spirit has to take the things of Christ and teach you in your heart, and enable you to hear the sweetness of His voice, and enable you to see from your innermost being the very glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, then and only then will you fall in love with the Savior. You'll be saying to yourself, this is the very one I need. Oh, that God would give you spiritual eyesight.

Who do we see? Well, the text says here in verse 9, but we see Jesus. Jesus is not a title. It's a name. That's His human name. It's the name that Gabriel first gave to Mary. It's the name also that Gabriel gave, secondly, to Joseph. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He is the only Savior. He is the only Deliverer. He is the only one who can rescue a perishing soul.

What is it to see Jesus? Well, it's to know who He is. It's to know what He's done. It's to know why He had to do it. But it is to see Him in His beauties as the very one that you've got to have. It's a very personal look, a personal look.

When the Israelites were making their journey across the wilderness and they bucked the providence of God, they murmured and fussed all the way across. And God from time to time would bring some kind of disease or pestilence or plague upon them. And on one occasion, he sent these fiery serpents to bite the people. Poisonous serpents. People were dropping left and right. Moses went to the Lord. Lord, what's to be done? put a serpent of brass on a pole, lifted up in the wilderness. And the command of the people was not work. It wasn't try some of grandma's potion. It wasn't go to the pharmacist. When Moses lifted that serpent of brass up on a pole, the command was very simple, very direct, very straightforward. Just a very few words, look and live. That's not too complicated, is it? Look and live.

Well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to wash that bite really good. I'm going to put alcohol on it. See, that's what people are trying to do in salvation. I'm going to wash myself. I'm going to do better. I think the remedy is I need to turn my life around. You'll die because it won't take care of the poison. What did Moses say? He said, look. That's all he said, look.

And our Lord Jesus went back in the Old Testament and drew from that story. And He said to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of God, the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on Him, or to put it this way, whoever looks to Him will have eternal life. Can you look? Will you look? It didn't say look to baptism. It didn't say look to the Lord's Supper. It didn't say look to the church. It doesn't even say look to your look. That is, look to your faith. It doesn't even say that.

Well, Jim, I'm afraid my faith won't be very strong. It isn't the strength of your faith, it's the object of your faith. The object of our faith is omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He's the Son of God. He's the one who laid down His life for sinners and then took that life again. He died that God might be just and justify the ungodly. And God has raised him up from the dead and has exalted him. And we see him now exalted in the heavens, the great physician of sinners.

Look and live, but you'll never look lest God gives you the ability and gives you the desire. It says we see Jesus, we see Him made a little lower than the angels. He who made the angels was made lower than the angels. This is His incarnation. How amazed the angels were to see their Creator born in a manger and living in the midst of ungodly men and women, most of whom hated Him and despised Him and mocked Him and accused Him of performing His miracles by the power of Beelzebub."

This is an incarnation. We see Him made a little lower than the angels. and we see Him made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He had to be made a little lower than the angels because angels can't die. Angels can't suffer. The only one who could save us had to be able to suffer, bleed and die because death is the wages of sin.

He wasn't put in a coma. They didn't put him to sleep. He died a physically agonizing death and he died with his soul in agony over being the object of the wrath of his father. Do you with the eye of faith see your substitutes suffering all the hell that God would have put you in forever and ever? But Christ suffered it for you. Do you see that? I have eyes to see that as best as I can comprehend. I know I'm sinful. You don't have to tell me.

Preacher, you just think you're somebody, don't you? I'm nobody. I'm nobody by nature. I'm a child of God by grace. But I'm nobody by nature. I'm just a sinner like you are. We're all in the same boat. A boat that is sinking, it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, old or young, or whatever your status in life. If the boat's going down, you're going to go down with it unless somebody saves you.

This world is sinking and sinking fast. The end is drawing near. I do not want to perish. I do not want to be separated from God. And God the Spirit has given me eyesight to see. There's a blessed Savior. And He has called to me. And I hear Him in my heart. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That's me. That's me. I labor and I'm heavy laden with sin. Come to me and I'll give you rest. And I've been coming ever since.

Look to Jesus. But do you see Jesus? I see Him as He beckons to me. And it's not an invitation. It's an effectual call. Because when He, the Shepherd, the Great Physician of souls, when He calls, with that call comes the power to draw us, to bring us unto Himself. It's like He takes hold of us. See, we're like the lost sheep in Luke 15. And the shepherd goes out to search for the lost sheep. And he finds it. That's me. That's me. I fit that picture. Wandering further and further away from the shepherd. And then, as it were, I hear a rustling in the thicket behind me. I look back. It's the shepherd. You mean he cares enough to come after me? And he finds me wounded, bruised, sinful, ungodly. Religious? Yeah. But I was in ungodly religion. And here's what he did. He picked me up. He lifted my feet out of the miry clay, set my feet on a rock, and he embraced this lost sheep to his heart and he put me up on his all-powerful shoulders. And I could almost hear him whisper, I love you. I laid down my life for you. Therefore, I came and bought you with my blood. I have robed you in my righteousness. You have always been accepted by the Father in me. And I still hear Him saying to me, as it were, I'm going to carry you all the way home. That's the salvation I want. Huh? Is that what you want? That's exactly what I want.

We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. And we see Him crowned with glory and honor. Why? Because He accomplished His mission to save His people from their sins. I see Him with the eye of faith exalted. There He is at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And He governs all things. Wicked things. Ungodly things. He rules those too. He governs those too. And I see that He governs everything in my life. Sickness, yeah, He governs that too. Times of need, He governs those too. Times of joy, times of sadness, all things.

He's been lifted up. He's crowned with glory and honor because He finished the work of redemption. And we see the very basis of our salvation right here in this verse. The grace of God. That's behind it all. It's the grace of God.

But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. We see Him crowned with glory and honor that He, by the grace of God, That's behind it all, the grace of God. Should taste death for every man, and the word man is anthropos in the Greek, and that isn't here. It's really He tasted death for all of His people. People from everywhere. People from Kentucky. People from West Virginia. People from Ohio. people from every nation, kindred, and tongue.

I see Him. Do you? I see Him. And the more I see Him, the clearer my view is of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more I love Him. More thankful I am for Him. And the more I see Him by faith, the more I realize I've got to have Him. I just got to.

Fannie Crosby wrote that song, Take the World, But Give Me Jesus. Somebody said to her one time, and I don't know what she believed. I mean, she wrote some good songs, but I don't know her theology, don't know what kind of doctrine she held to, I don't know. But somebody asked her one time, because she was blind from birth, physically blind. Somebody said, don't you feel like you've missed out on a lot of God's creation, the fact that you were born She said, it's been a blessing. Because she said, you know, the very first one my eyes will ever see will be the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the hymn writer said, when by his grace I shall look on his face, that, that will be glory. Glory for me.

Let's sing a closing song, shall we?