How can we know that the message
of Christianity, how can we know that the message of Christ and
his gospel is true? We know that there's a book called
the Bible written several thousand years ago through a period of
several thousand years up until the last book was completed 2,000
years ago. We know that copies of this book
have been made and have been preserved down through the ages
to this very day. In this book we read the accounts
recorded of God's creation of the earth, of the formation of
a nation called Israel with whom he had dealings, of his giving
to that nation the law of God, to prove them to be sinners before
him, to show them his righteousness and what man should be before
a holy God. We read in this book the accounts
of the prophets and their prophesying of one to come. We read in the
New Testament the accounts of that one who was prophesied to
come, of one called Jesus Christ. who said of himself that he is
the son of God. And in so doing he enraged the
Jews at the time whom he stood before who thought that that
was blasphemy to make himself equal with God as the son of
God. So enraged were the Jews that
in the end, despite all the wondrous works which this man did, despite
all the healings that he performed, despite all the miracles, despite
all the things he taught and said, despite the effect he had
on many people, in the end their rage against him was so much
that they delivered him up to the Romans who were in power
at that time over their kingdom. and had the Romans crucify him
upon a cross. Following the crucifixion, we
read in the New Testament the accounts of his resurrection.
We read the accounts of his calling disciples, apostles, whom he
sent forth to preach the gospel, to preach the message of who
he was and what he did, of his death and his resurrection. He
sent them forth to preach this message in all the world. In
the final books in the New Testament we read letters, epistles, which
were sent by those apostles, particularly by Paul and John
and Peter. and a few others that were sent
by them to various churches, to various congregations which
were gathered under the preaching of that message of that gospel
at that time. Congregations which were gathered
of those who believed on this man Jesus Christ, who believed
on the one who said he was the son of God. And they wrote various
things to these people to declare who he was, to declare his dealings
with men, and declare the Gospel regarding Jesus Christ. So in
these books of the Bible, the 39 books of the Old Testament
and the 27 books of the New Testament which have been preserved to
this day, we have this record kept for us of the Gospel of
Christ, of who Jesus Christ is, of what he did and of the effects
of what he did upon the people at that time. But we live in a very different
age today. And these things happened a long
time ago. 2,000 years when Christ was upon
the earth. Several thousand years earlier
when Moses brought Israel out of Egypt. And in our day, much
doubt is obviously cast by those who call themselves wise men,
learned men, intellectuals. Much doubt is cast upon the authenticity
of the scriptures, upon the historical accuracy of these things. We
are told that we cannot trust them for sure. We are told that
various things are historical facts that cannot be questioned.
There was a time when the Israelites lived in Egypt. They were brought
out of Egypt. There were pharaohs in Egypt.
There was a time in which Christ would have been born. The Romans
were in power in Palestine. There are accounts of a man called
Jesus And various things are based
on facts, but much doubt is cast upon the accuracy of the intricacies
of the events recorded. Was he really who he claimed
to be? Was he really who the scriptures
say he was? Did he really do all that is
said of him? Did he really die on the cross
at that time? Was this really the same Jesus
of whom the scriptures bear record? Did he really rise from the dead?
Modern man mocks and he scoffs. And at a distance of 2,000 years
from these things, we may ask, how can we know whether this
Bible is true? And how can I know whether Jesus
Christ as recorded in the Bible really did live and really is
whom he said he was and really did do all these things? How
do I really know that he died as it is recorded that he died?
And how do I know that he rose again? And how do I make sense
of his claims that if I believe on him that I might have eternal
life? And what do I make of what he
says about man and his sin? I don't like some of the things
I read in this book. I don't like what it has to say
of me. I don't like what it has to say
that all men are sinners. I don't like what it has to say
of a judgment to come and of hell as an eternal punishment
place for those that do not believe on Jesus Christ. These things
seem hard to take in, they're hard sayings, I don't know whether
I can accept that. And these records of the miracles,
they seem incredible. That Jesus could make water into
wine, that Jesus could take Lazarus and bring him into life again
when he had laid in the grave for four days. that Jesus himself
could really be the Son of God and could rise again from the
dead himself. How can I believe these things? If I had been there at the time
at which these things happened, if they happened, well that would
be different. Maybe if I'd been where the disciples
were and saw this man Jesus, and heard his words and saw his
miracles, if I saw him touch a blind man and make that blind
man to see, if I saw the leper made whole, if I saw the impotent
man made whole, If I saw these who were paralyzed, these who
could not walk, these who I could see with my own eyes, had withered
legs and withered arms, if I saw him touch these and I saw their
arms and their legs change and I saw the strength come into
them and I saw them walk and run and leap, if I saw those
things well I would believe them, it would be passed out. But all I've got today is a book
that some people would give to me and ask me to read. And all
I've got today is the words of other people. How can I believe
it from that? I need to be able to see it,
to see Jesus. Then I would believe. Well in Luke chapter 10 and verse
23, we read of a few whom Christ addressed privately, his disciples. Those who it is said were with
him, whom he called out, whom he came unto in the land of Galilee
where they were. Normal people, fishermen, working
men, tax man, normal people. people whom he came to, and he
said unto them, follow me. And for some reason they gave
up everything that they had, they gave up their normal life,
they gave up their normal occupation and it is recorded that they
did follow him. They lived with him, they walked
with him, they went where he went, they heard what he said,
they saw what he did. They followed him. And he says
unto them in Luke 10 and verse 23, he turned unto his disciples
and said privately to them, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and
have not heard them. Well here's a few people that
did see. They were with Christ it is said. And they did see wondrous things
happen. They did see him in the flesh.
They did hear what he said. And he says of them, blessed
are the eyes, blessed are your eyes. Blessed are the eyes which
see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear and
have not heard them. So they were there and they saw.
And you may say, well that's good for them. That's where I
would want to be then. If I'd been where those disciples
were, if I with my eyes saw the things that they saw, then I
would be blessed as they were blessed. Then perhaps I would
believe in Jesus and know for a truth that what is said in
the Bible of him is true. But I'm not where they are and
they have an advantage on me. Many prophets and kings desired
to see what they saw and did not see them. and to hear the
things which they heard and did not hear them. Well if you're to believe in
Christ, and if you're to know that the truths declared in the
Bible are indeed truth, and are not simply cunningly devised
fables, the concoctions of men, traditions passed down from generation
to generation, which may have convinced simpler men before
our generation, but which are not enough for the 21st century. If you are to transcend the wisdom
of this age, and to come to see what these saw then, and to see
that these are not traditions simply passed down, they are
not simply cunningly devised fables, but they are true. If you're to see that Jesus Christ
is all he said he was, and all he said he is, that he is indeed
a man, and he is indeed God, he is indeed the Son of God,
that he really did heal the sick, that he really did make the blind
to see, that he really did make the deaf to hear, that he really
did die on a cross outside Jerusalem and that in dying he saved a
great multitude of people for in dying he was not a man a great
teacher simply put to death by the Romans but he came to die. If you ever come to see that
Christ's purpose in coming into this world was not to be a great
teacher, was not to be a worker of miracles, but was to be a
sacrifice which God sent for his people, that he came as a
sacrifice and he died as that sacrifice. and in dying he died
in the place of sinners that he might make sinners righteous,
that he might save sinners from their sins, that he might deliver
the captive from captivity and bring them into eternal life.
If you ever come to see that the reason Christ came into this
world was because of you and your sin, and that he died as
your saviour if you come to believe on him as such. If you ever come
to see that the reason for his death is sin, and sin such as
yours and rebellion such as yours and if you ever come to see that
he truly did having died he truly did rise again and he truly did
conquer sin and he conquered death and he rose into eternal
glory and if you ever see that he sits today alive in heaven
above on the right hand of God and from there he is ruling both
this world and the entire universe around it and he is not distant
and he is not passive and he is not defeated but everything
that is going on today is under his rule and his authority and
every word that men may say upon this earth and everything that
happens is actually according to his eternal plan and under
his rule and that he is not simply one who is a man recorded on
the pages of an old book, but he is one who is living today,
who rules over all, and who is a powerful figure with whom you
must have dealings, whether you see that now or come to see it
when it is too late. If you come to see these things
as true now, before it's too late, then it won't be because you
saw them with your eyes. It won't be because he stood
as a physical person in front of you. It won't be because you
had the advantages that you perceive that the disciples in that day
had, that they actually saw him and heard him. When Christ says
to these disciples, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that ye see, Yes, he was saying that they in that age and generation
were blessed to be with him and see him in person. Because many
generations didn't. But he meant far more than that.
He's talking about the eyes which truly see. He's talking about
eyes which are not simply the eyes that you have on the front
of your face. But he's talking about those
eyes which are the sight of the heart. Those eyes through which
dead men come to see things which are eternal. Things which are
hidden to us by nature. Things which we are blind to
by nature. For what Christ's disciples really
saw, they saw by faith. And the faith that they had to
see was not something they were born with. but something that
Christ gave them spiritually, by his Spirit. What they came
to see was a miraculous sight, beyond the natural sight, beyond
what men can see and perceive normally. It wasn't simply that
they saw Jesus Christ in front of them. Many, many saw Jesus
Christ in front of them. And the majority saw nothing
but a man. who in the end was slain upon
a tree and who after a number of years they soon forgot. Many were healed by this man. They actually saw him, they were
in physical trouble, they had physical problems, they were
blind, they were deaf, they couldn't walk, they were sick. He came
to these actual people. He touched them. The blind saw,
the deaf heard. And they never truly saw who
he was. And when their life came to a close, they perished in
their sins. They saw him with their eyes. They saw the man Jesus Christ. But they never truly saw who
he was, the Son of God. And they never truly had faith
to believe on him as the Son of God. Yes, we need to see as the disciples
saw. Blessed are the eyes which see
the things that ye see. But we need to see more than
just what can be seen with the outer sight. and we're at no
more disadvantage today than any have been. We could have
lived then and seen no more than we see now. We could have lived
2,000 years before them and seen no more than we see now. Whether we lived then, whether
we lived before then, or whether we lived after then, has nothing
to do with our ability to prove whether the message of Christ
is true or not. We will believe and we will only
believe should Christ himself open our eyes, open the eyes
of our hearts to see him by faith. to look into things that we cannot
see with the natural eyes, to look into eternal things, to
look into heavenly things, to look into things that cannot
be seen, touched or sensed with the natural senses, to hear a
speech that no man can hear, to hear a voice that is hidden
from most, to hear a voice that sounds from heaven above, to
see a man who stands who sits in heaven above, to see her man
unlike any man, a man who is divine, a man who is righteous. We need our eyes opened by God. In verse 21 of this passage,
Christ says, It says that, in that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father. And no man knoweth who the Son
is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and He
to whom the Son will reveal Him. If you ever know the Son of God,
if you ever know Jesus Christ, should you ever come to the point
of being able to say, He is God? He is who He said He is. He did
do what He said He did. Then it will be because the Son
has revealed Himself to you and the Son has revealed His Father
unto you. For he who sees the Son of God
sees God the Father through Him. This is a wonderful testimony
here to a triune God. wonderful testimony to the divinity
of Christ, to the fact that he is the Son of God the Father
and he is indeed God himself. No man knoweth who the Son is
but the Father, except the Father reveal the Son to you, you will
not know who he is. And no man knoweth who the Father
is, except the Son reveal Him unto you, and He to whom the
Son will reveal. We will know God as God the Father,
as the Lord of heaven and earth, only if the Son reveal Him to
us. And we will know the Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Son,
only if the Father reveals Him unto us. He's hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and He has revealed them unto babes. You may contend, is that fair,
you may say. Christ says even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in my sight. Many prophets and kings have
desired to see those things which these disciples saw by faith
and have not seen them and to hear those things which they
heard and have not heard them. We must see and we will only
see if God reveals. Christianity is true. And the
message of Christ and his gospel is true. And if God reveals it
unto you, you'll have no doubt that it's true. But you need
that revelation. It comes no other way. It comes no other way. It does not come from being there
2,000 years ago in person. It does not come by sight. As I said, there were many who
did not receive Christ, did not believe Him, did not repent.
Christ said, earlier in this chapter, He cries out and says,
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works have been done in Tyre and Sidon, which
have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting
in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum,
which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell.
He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth
me. and he that despiseth me despiseth
him that sent me. Now he speaks here at the end
of those 70 of those disciples whom he sent forth to preach
his gospel. He sent them forth in that day,
he sent them into the towns and villages round about and he said
go and preach the kingdom of God, go and preach this message
Go and preach the message of Christ and his salvation. And
he that hears your message doesn't just hear you, he doesn't just
hear your voice if you come with his message. He that truly hears,
hears me. And he that despises you when
you bring this message, despises me. And he that despises me,
despises him that sent me. God the Father. This truth is just as true today
as it was when Christ said it to these disciples whom he sent
then. He sends his disciples today with the same message.
He sends them to towns and villages throughout this land and throughout
this world. There are places you may go to
hear the message of Christ, to hear the gospel of Christ. There
are men you may hear, few though they may be, there are men whom
you may hear who will bring the message of Jesus Christ and his
salvation. and you can hear Him, and should
you hear Him, you don't hear those men. If they come as those
sent by Him, you are not hearing them, you hear Him, Jesus Christ. And if you despise them and reject
them and scoff at the message they bring, you don't despise
them, you despise Him who sent them. You despise Christ who
sent them with His Gospel. And you despise the Father who
sent Christ to send them with His Gospel. Well what is your reaction to
this message? Again you may say well I hear
the message but I can't tell if it's true if I was there that
would have been different. And yet as I read here Chorazin
and Bethsaida saw mighty works from the hand of Christ Christ
did mighty things in those days, mighty miracles. And there were
many here who did not believe, though they heard and though
they saw. And there were those places further back in history,
Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, evil places. And it is said that
if these people in those places in that time, thousands of years
before the coming of Christ, if they'd seen some of these
things and heard some of these things, they'd have repented. But those who were actually there
at the time, the majority, despised Christ and despised his message
and despised the disciples he sent out to preach that message. You would no more believe if
you were there than if you were before or you were after. It's by revelation. Now it is hid from the wise and
the prudent There are those who see, as these disciples saw,
and there are those who don't see. Those who don't see. No matter what advantage they
have, whether they lived and saw Christ in person, whether
they live today, whether they study the scriptures inside and
out, whether they have every advantage in coming to see these
things, every evidence, every proof. They do not see. It's hid from the wise and the
prudent. Many prophets and kings sought
to see these things and saw them not. Wisdom and religion can be the
most blinding of things. Those who are wise in their own
eyes, those who are spiritual, learned, steeped in the scriptures,
brought up in religious homes, theological, those who know the
most, those who study the scriptures inside and out, those who can
quote chapter and verse, more often than not are the blindest.
because these things are hid from the wise and the prudent.
They may have the knowledge of Christ in their heads as facts. They may know the prophecies
regarding him. They may know all the records
of what he did and what he said. And yet they never truly see
him. They never truly see him. And
yet they think they see him and that's where their blindness
is. They think they see. The Pharisees, who in the end
delivered up Christ to die, the custodians of the law, the custodians
of the Jewish religion, the ones who knew the scriptures at that
time inside out, the ones that knew what the prophets said of
Christ, the ones that could quote chapter and verse, knew Him not. Here was the Messiah stood in
front of them and they knew him not. He declared unto them that
he was the one who was promised. He declared unto them that he
was the fulfillment of all the prophecies. He showed unto them
his power and his authority. He declared that he is indeed
the Son of God, the one that should come. And they said no. no not him away with him for
all that they saw on the paper for all their reasoning for all
their acceptance of messiah they did not see messiah when he was
with them You see, it's not that they rejected Messiah, they had
the prophets. They would have spoken of Messiah. They would have spoken of Christ,
the anointed one. They knew that Christ should
come. They believed they looked for
Christ. They just didn't believe that
this man was Christ. They thought that Christ would
be different. They thought the Messiah would
be different. They had a Messiah in their heads
whom they waited for but they wouldn't own this one. Likewise
today many in religion can study the Bible and it's not that they
reject the name Jesus or reject the name Christ. They say that
they believe in a Jesus and they believe in a Christ. The scriptures
speak of Jesus and they speak of Christ and they study those
scriptures and they come to a knowledge of one whom they perceive to
be this Jesus and this Christ and they say they believe and
they follow this Jesus and this Christ. But he isn't the true
Christ. This is their problem. They don't
perceive, they don't truly see who the disciples saw. They speak
of one who sounds similar. But there are aspects about his
revelation that they don't wish to accept. They don't see him. All of their understanding of
him is in the head. And yet they think they see.
The Pharisees thought they saw. And Christ said unto them, ye
think ye see, but you are blind. Many think they see today, but
they don't see. What of you? Have you seen Christ? Are you blessed? Have you the
eyes which are blessed, which have seen what the disciples
saw? Or do you simply think you see? Do you recognize and accept? Do you intellectually accept
much that you've read in the book? Do you consent to the truth
of what's in the book? That's good. But have you heard
his voice? And have you seen him by faith? And do you know what it is to
have his life in your soul? Is it real? Or is it but persuasion? Christ said to the Pharisees,
search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal
life. And today they're like, tell
us, and I hear them often, oh yes, search the scriptures, study
the scriptures. The trouble with most of religion,
reason mothers are in error they say, is because they don't search
the scriptures as we do. They're not balanced, they don't
read it properly. You need to have a good balanced
study of scriptures, then you'll come to know the truth. And if
you don't, you'll be awash. Well they might be right, that
ignoring the scriptures won't help you. But it's not true that
the hardest study of scriptures will bring Christ to your sight.
You can do all that these modern day Pharisees tell you. You can
study it as much as you like and never see this one. Christ says, search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life, but you will not
come unto me. Go on, take your Bible, read
it, compare scripture with scripture, be as diligent as you like, as
careful as you like, but if you won't come unto Christ, you'll
never know his life and you'll never see him. You think you've
life in the book, but life is in him. Life is in a sight, not
a physical sight, not a sight of words on the page, but only
that sight that comes from above. Oh, the pride which is in religion,
the pride which says two things. One, that we are better than
others because we work harder. We study when others are lazy. Oh, everybody else doesn't see
things right because they're lazy, but I've studied it all
out. Oh, the pride. And secondly, the folly that
thinks because of your studying, because of your studying, that
you come to life. No man comes to life because
of his own studying of the scriptures, because of his own efforts. Don't
get me wrong, read the scriptures, Christ wrote them, they testify
of him but it's he who must open them up to you to see him they
are hid from the wise and the prudent these things are hid
read it all you like and it will remain hidden to you until such
a day comes when as a babe when you are as a babe and only when
you come to the point of being as a babe when you come to an
end of your own self, when you come to an end of your own pride,
when you come to see that you're nothing, when you come to see
that all your efforts are hopeless and you've searched and searched
and searched and still you don't know God, when you come there
and realize that you are nothing before Him, you're just a child,
you're just a babe, you need help, You need him to move, him
to act, him to reveal himself to you when you come there. Then, by his grace, he may reveal
himself unto you. For these things are hid from
the wise and the prudent and they have been revealed unto
babes. Yes, you need your eyes opened.
course elsewhere in this passage in Luke 10 you read at your leisure
we read the account following this these words that we've read
we read the account of the lawyer coming to Christ and of Christ
telling him of the parable of the Samaritan and in this account
and this response to this lawyer Christ is showing the blindness
of this man in religion. Here was one who thought he saw,
here was one who thought he kept the law of God, here is one who
thought he did all things. Yet he lacked the one thing needful
that Christ speaks to Mary and Martha about. There is one thing
needful, the sight of Christ. And this lawyer had the scriptures,
he knew it all, but he didn't know Christ. So Christ, in response
to him, speaks of this Samaritan. He speaks of this one who has
been robbed and stripped on the wayside, wounded, attacked, and
various ones come by him, a Levite, a priest, and they pass him by. And the one who helped him was
the Samaritan. And in showing this lawyer this
account, Christ is showing that the Levite and the priest, those
who should have seen, those who should have known the grace of
God, those who thought they did, showed by their works that they
knew not God. And this Samaritan whom they
thought little of, showed by his works a different character.
There are eyes that don't see and there are eyes which do.
The eyes of babes. Those to whom Christ is revealed.
Those to whom he comes by his servants preaching the gospel
and hearing them. They hear. They don't despise. They don't question. They don't
doubt. They don't cast them out. They
hear. There's a voice they hear in
that message. A supernatural voice. They hear
something they've never heard before. Not just the words of
men. Not just the account of things
recorded in the scriptures. But they hear something beyond
these things. They hear the very voice of the
Son of God speaking from heaven above. They hear Christ's voice
and hearing they believe. and believe in, they have a sight
of just who Jesus is, the Son of God. Oh they see, there are
eyes which see, have your eyes seen? Have you seen the one thing
needful? Have you seen him? You may be
busy with your religion, you may be busy with many things
as Martha was, but have your eyes been opened to see the one
thing needful, Christ and His grace. The Son of God,
the Son of Man, the Eternal I Am God in the person of man. These disciples didn't just see
the man Jesus, they knew that he was the Christ. As Peter could
say of him when his eyes had been opened, Thou art the Christ,
we know, we know it, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God, the Son of the Living God, the I Am. the creator, the sustainer
of all things, the one that keeps this earth spinning at this hour
and this moment, the one that keeps the atoms together, the
one that keeps your heart beating, the one that keeps your mind
ticking over, the one that sustains your life at this hour, this
moment, this second, the one who has all power in his hands,
the One that can plunge you into an eternity of judgment, this
moment if He wills, and the One that can open your eyes with
a click of His fingers and one word from His lips, the One who
can open your eyes to see this One, the Son of God. the Redeemer, the Saviour, the
One who came to die as a redemption price for His people, the One
who came to take their sins away, that He might make them righteous,
that they might be able to stand in the presence of God Himself
without one spot or blemish on them, perfect, holy, saved. The One who came to bring life
to those who are dead. The One who came to show mercy
to those that deserved it not. The One who came to set the love
of God upon those who had hated Him from the day they were born. Upon those who hated God. The One who loved those who hated
Him. The Redeemer. the great high
priest, the one who came as a priest, who offered up a sacrifice and
that sacrifice was his own self, who he had slain upon the tree. He went as a sacrifice to the
tree and as the priest, he had the sacrifice slain. He laid
down his own life. He has power to lay it down and
power to take it again. He was the sacrifice. the substitute,
the one who stood in the sinner's place, the one who bore their
sins, the one who was made their sin, the one whose father beat
him and slew him and bruised him and judged him for what he
was made to be in their place that he might save them. The
one who rose from the dead, having taken away the sins of his people.
The one who rose a victor. one who had accomplished the
salvation of all those people whom his father gave him, chosen
in Christ from before the foundation of the world, that company of
people who in time should hear this message of the gospel and
hear the voice of the Son of God in the message and hearing
should believe and their eyes being opened should see this
one who rose from the dead, a mighty victor, a king, the king of kings,
the lord god, the lord of lords, the all-sufficient one, the loveliest
among ten thousand, the beloved the bridegroom of his bride,
his people, for whom he died. They saw, the disciples saw him,
his people see him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. Have you seen? Do you see? Can you see how glorious a Saviour
the Lord Jesus Christ is? For if you have, it will be said
of you too, blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye
see. Amen.