Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to Genesis, the last verse of chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31. And we'll be reading the first three
verses in chapter 2 in just a moment. The message tonight is about
seeing. Seeing. We talk about that all
the time. They just can't see. You just
don't see what I see. We talk about that all the time.
See. What a marvelous thing is the
eye. Everything that passes before
it, it takes a picture. It takes
a picture and it sends it to the head and to the heart. Everything
that it takes in. It can take in the most minute
detail or it can capture an entire mountain. It can see what's right
in front of it or it can see what's way off. The Lord called it the light
of the body. And most of what the mind processes
comes through the eye. Most. I mention somebody's name,
immediately you get a picture. You get a picture. And I'll tell
you this. I've experienced this. I meet
so many people, it's impossible for me to remember their name.
But I very rarely forget a face. That eye takes a picture. It
takes a picture. And it registers it on the mind
and in the heart, and you just don't forget. You may not remember
their name, but you'll remember that face. I've seen you somewhere
before, they'll say. But there's another sight and
another eye which God speaks to us about in the Scriptures,
and that is the eye of faith. Now, I want you to listen to
this. You can turn to it if you want to. It's in 2 Corinthians.
Chapter 4. Just hold your place there in
Genesis. We'll be coming back in just a minute. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul
talks about the inward man's struggle and his conception of
the sufferings that he goes through in this life in particular. And
he's talking about those tribulations and trials that God sends his
way, and how the man of faith deals with those things. And
in 2 Corinthians 4, in verse 18, he says, while we look, now
listen to this, while we look not on the things which are seen,
what in the world is he talking about? If you look, you see,
don't you? But he said, he's talking about
eyes of faith here. He's talking about a different
kind of vision. He's talking about the eyes of
faith. And he says, while we look on
things, Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal. Faith sees
eternal things. It sees spiritual things. It sees what the natural eye
cannot see. Faith goes past what these eyes
see and what these ears hear. And he goes on down in chapter
5 of 2 Corinthians verse 7 and says this, for we walk by faith,
not by sight. The eye is a wonderful thing,
but the eye of faith is even more glorious. The eye of faith
is the window of the soul. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
6. Matthew 6. I quoted the very
first part of this verse a few moments ago in the introduction. But here in Matthew 6, verse
22, our Lord says, "...the light
of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light." The Lord compares
our bodies to a room or to a house or to a temple. And he says it
has an eye, and that eye is the source of light into that room,
into that temple, into that house. Just one source. Take away the
source of the light, the house is dark. The house is dark. Now watch. He's going to leave. He's going to leave the natural,
and he's going to move on to the spiritual. Now listen to
this. Verse 23. But if thine eye be evil, what's
he talking about? He's talking about that eye of
perception, that eye of faith, that eye that perceives. Now watch it. If thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that be
in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness? If the house
just has one source, it just has one way for light to come
in, and that light is evil, then it don't matter how much
light is out there. If all the light that was out
there came in, it would all be evil. Because the eye is evil. You
see what he's saying here? The source. The source. And there
is an eye of perception that comes by hearing and reasoning
and logic. There is an eye of understanding
that brings light into a man. And if that eye go unchanged,
undisturbed, without intervention from God, that man's body is
going to be filled with darkness. That eye perceives That eye of
perception. Those Jews to whom our Lord was
speaking here, those Jews thought they were righteous men. They
were convinced of it. They were convinced that He was
an evil man. You see what I'm saying? And
this is what the Lord was telling them. He says, everything that's
being processed into you is coming through an evil eye, an evil
perception, an evil understanding. Everything. You know, we think
folks are just wrong on a few points. They're wrong by nature,
aren't they? Everything that they process
in is wrong. It's processed in wrong. It doesn't
matter what it is. It doesn't matter what it is. They're not just wrong on a few
things. They're wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. That's what
he's telling them. It doesn't matter how much he
hears and sees, because all that enters through the evil eye is
evil. The eye of faith goes past these
things and by the power of God fills the heart with that good
light of God. He said, blessed are your eyes
for they see. They see. Now tonight I want
to approach this seventh day of rest And I want you to notice
that it begins with a look. I had moved completely out of
chapter 1, was in chapter 2, and had began to study and had
already read 3 or 4 of the old writers on the subject, and 3
or 4 messages by this one and that one. And I went back to
re-read the Scriptures again, and boy, that first word there
in chapter 2 just jumped out at me, thus. You see it? Thus. Thus the heavens and the earth
was finished, and all the host of them. What's he talking about,
thus? Thus. Well, I move back up there to
verse 31, and here's what it says, And God saw everything
that he made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening
and the morning were the six days, thus the heavens and the
earth was finished. Verse 2, And on the seventh day
God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh
day from all the work which He had made. And God blessed the
seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested
from all His work which God created and made. Alright, now here's
the heart of what I'm going to tell you tonight. There can be
no rest until the work be completed. Not going to be any rest. God
ain't going to rest. Now I'm telling you, if anybody
could do a work that didn't need examination, it'd be God, wouldn't
it? But He examined His own work. There's not going to be any rest
until whatever it is that God intends to do, until that work
is completely finished. Not going to be any work. Not
going to be any rest. And there can be no completion
of the work without his looking at the work and approving of
what he did. Now listen to me. I said all that I said about
the eye to say this. Faith sees what God sees. Now you think about that. Don't
you think that over? Faith sees with God's eyes, not
their own. Faith sees what God sees. I know how natural men think,
and I know how they reason, and I know how they see, and what
they see. I don't need them to give me
explanations. I don't need them to give me
their arguments and ideas and situations and circumstances.
I don't need to hear it because I've already heard it. I don't need for them to explain
things to me because I see through His eyes. Now, I don't see to
the degree He sees, and I don't see with the perfection that
He sees, but I see. And what I see is what He sees. That's what faith does. How does
faith know about sin? Huh? When did you get upset about
sin? When you found out what sin was
and against who sin was. How did you do that? You saw
sin the way God sees sin. That's right. I wasn't in much trouble the
way I saw sin. But boy, when I saw sin through
His eyes, It's a different story. Faith sees with the eyes of God. With the eyes of God. At the
Feast of the Passover, it said there was a great crowd of people
and many believed on Him. This is over in John chapter
2, and he said many believed on Him. when they saw the miracles
that he did. They believed on him. You remember,
he took those few fishes and loaves and fed 5,000 men that
said they would have taken him by force and made him king. They
were just going to take him down and make him king. They were
going to establish a kingdom right there, right then, because
they saw what he did. But now listen to this, John
2, verse 24, But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because
he knew He knew all men. He knew all men and needed not
that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
Now I'm telling you, if God gives you eyes of faith, you're going
to see the way He sees. How are you going to see? Through
the Word of God. I don't need a miracle. I don't need somebody to raise
from the dead. If God lets me look through His
eyes and see me, and I receive His testimony. That's what faith
does. Faith believes God. Faith believes
God. Well, what does God say? He says
what He sees. That's what He says. What does
God see? He said, well, He opened up the
doors of heaven, it says this over in the Psalms, and He looked
down to see if there was any righteous. God looked. What did
He see? None. You can read about it over
in Romans chapter 3. He looked down, there was none
righteous, there was none seeking after God. They had all gone
astray. You can read the whole thing.
Romans chapter 3 is just a quotation from the Psalms. It says back
in Genesis that He saw Every imagination of the thoughts of
the hearts of men, they were only evil continually. That's
what God sees. What do I see? I see the same
thing. The same thing. Because I see, eyes of faith
sees what God sees. They receive that testimony. And so do you, if you're a believer. I don't need to know how men
think. I already know how they think. I don't need to know what
to think. I don't need a confessional.
I don't need to hear about this situation or that situation.
I know what's in man because I have God's testimony and those
eyes of faith receive it. Now let me give you some things
here to think about. He says, God saw everything that
He made. I'm going to give you four or
five things. First of all is this, let me know without doubt
that nothing escapes the eyes of God. Nothing. I want you to think about that.
Nothing escapes the eyes of God. Not even His own Word. Nothing
escaped. God sees everything. He sees
all. He said in Matthew 12, verse
36, He said, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Every idle word. It says, the thought of foolishness
is sin. Satan said in his heart. He didn't
even mutter the word. He never got them out. He was
gone. Satan said in his heart he was
going to do this. Nothing escapes the eyes of God. He sees all. He sees all. There's just no
way for us to comprehend that. He sees all. And we come and
we fool ourselves into believing because we do this or do that
and we approve of it or this one approves of it or the whole
group approves of it. It doesn't make a big difference.
What matters is what God approves. What God approves. And He sees
all. He sees all. Now listen to me. I said a few
minutes ago, if ever there was a work that did not need looking
at, approving of, it was the work of God. Why then did He
look? Did God have doubt about what
He'd made? No. Did He suspect something wrong
with what He'd done? No. Why then did God look? Because faith can only see what
God sees. That's why he looked. He looked
so you can look. You think about it. He looked.
He looked on the travail of the soul of his son and was satisfied. Why did he look? So you can look. So I can look. God looked. Why did He look?
God already knew what was in the hearts of men. Why did God
look down from heaven and tell us what He saw? So I can look. Why did God look upon His creation
at the end of that sixth day and give His approval and announce
that it was good? So I can look. That's why. So I can look. Alright, think
about this. Here's the second thing. How
does God look? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
4. Now Hebrews chapter 4 is that
chapter in the Bible that deals with rest. Now that's what our
subject is. So you can put your marker over
that because probably next week we'll be talking something similar
and we'll go back to Hebrews chapter 4. This is a chapter
in the Bible that deals with rest. It talks about God's entering
into His rest and ceasing from His labors in verse 4. And verse
5 speaks of Israel and Canaan that God would not allow them
to enter into His rest. And there's a little bit of bad
translation there, so if you'll look over in the margin of your
Bible, When he talks there about entering into his rest, what
he's actually saying is that they're not going to enter into
his rest. And you can go back into Deuteronomy and the different
places where this is. In the Psalms, if you look in
the margin of your Bible over there, it will tell you over
there what it says. But he's talking about this rest. And then in verse 7, he talks
about David, talking about a day of hearing his voice and of hardening
not your heart as Israel did in Canaan. And then in verse
8, that Jesus, and that word is Joshua, Joshua, did not give
them rest, or David would not have spoken of another day of
rest. Now he starts out talking about
that rest in Genesis, and then he talks about that day of provocation
where Israel provoked him those ten times. You remember I brought
a message on it here not too long ago. And God swore an oath
that they wasn't going to enter in because of unbelief. And here
in chapter 4 it talks about that, chapter 3. And then he talks about another
day of rest, and David talks about And so he says, and therefore
there remaineth a rest to the people of God. The seventh day
that God decreed is a day of grace. It's a day of rest. It's a day of sanctification. It's a blessed day. It's blessed
of God. It's a perpetual rest that all
believers may enter into by faith and cease from their labors.
as God did from His. And we're talking about this
rest of God, this work He looked upon, this work He says which
is finished down here in verse 11. Let us therefore labor to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. For. You see that word for? It
means because. Because. for the Word of God. Now watch this. The Word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints
and of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in His sight. But all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Now, these
verses here are not talking about the written Word of God. They're
talking about the living Word. They're talking about the Son
of God. If you'll just finish reading
that chapter, you'll see where he says, seeing these things,
therefore, we have a high priest who's entered. He's talking about
the high priest. He is not talking about a day,
he is talking about a person. A person being the fulfillment
of that work. A person in whom all things are
discerned and divided and seen. A person through whom God looks
and sees all things. When God stood there in this
chapter 2 of Genesis, or verse 31 of chapter 1, and looked on
His creation, He looked through the eyes of the mediator. He
looked through the eyes of the creator. And without Him was
not anything made that was made. So there's no doubt in my mind.
When He looked at these things, He's looking through the eyes
of the mediator. Are you with me? Faith receives
the testimony of God. When we talk about seeing, we're
talking about receiving the testimony of God. That's how faith sees,
through the Word of God. But the Word of God, the written
Word of God, has to do with the living Word of God, has to do
with the person of Christ. And so that I know that all these
things, even back here in Genesis, have something to do with Him,
that revelation of God in Him. And what faith does is to see
the same way God sees. It's brought to consider things
in the light of Christ. God sees all things in Christ
because that's where He put them. I don't need to read that to
you. We've read it a thousand times over in Colossians chapter
1, Colossians chapter 2. He put everything in Christ.
Ephesians chapter 1. All spiritual blessings are in
Him. Everything is in Him. He moves on down in chapter 1
of Ephesians and talks about everything being gathered unto
Him. Everything in heaven, earth, and hell. Everything. Everything is in Him. And that's
where God sees these things. That's how He looks upon things.
Because that's where He put it. That's where he's determined
for it to be seen. Creation, providence, salvation. What faith does is to see the
same things God sees. It's brought to consider these
things in the light of Christ. And he says this, God doesn't
see as a man sees. Man looks on the outward countenance. That's as far as these eyes can
go. You come here and I see your face. That's all I can see. God
sees your heart. Huh? He sees your heart. And He don't just see your heart
tonight. He saw it yesterday and the day before and He sees
it 20 years from now or 5 years from now or 10 minutes from now
or however long God has determined for you to live. He sees it. He said there's nothing that
escapes his vision. He don't see as a man sees. I want to get a hold of that
because we make too many determinations by men's reactions and how this
one feels and how that one feels and how this one, what they say
and what this man thinks or we take a vote on see what the majority
thinks. I'll tell you one thing I've
learned. Man is man. He's fallen and he's
sinful. And if you can get 10,000 of
them to vote, they'll all vote wrong. Every one of them. And
he's given us examples of that. Look at Israel. They stood there
by Canaan. Two of them wanted to go in. Three million of them
wanted to not go in. Man, that's a lot. That convinced
me, wouldn't it, you? I'd leave the two. That's right. A hundred people
wrong don't make a thing right. Still wrong. But when God stood at the end
of creation and He looked at all He'd made, He looked through
the eyes of the Redeemer, discerning, dividing, piercing, seeing why
it was made and for whom it was made, how it was made. And He beheld it, and it was
good. It was good. I'm telling you, we better get
a hold of this. God sees all things in Christ because that's
where all things have been submitted. Alright, here's the third thing. When God looked, how far did
He look? Did the fall take Him by surprise? Did men going sour before the
flood, that take him by surprise? Did the Tower of Babel take him
by surprise? What took him by surprise? Nothing.
When God looks, how far does He look? He sees the end from
the beginning. That's how far He can look. I'm scared to look at next week,
ain't you? Eyes of faith let you see what
God sees, and God sees the end from the beginning. And from
ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand. How come He can see the end from
the beginning? God only sees what He determines
to be done. There's nothing outside of God.
Nothing. When God sees a thing in the
future, it's because He determined for that thing to be done. Well, how can God see me justified
before Christ ever died on a cross and rose from the dead? Because
God is an eternal being, and He's determined for that thing
to be done, and it's going to be done, and nothing is going
to stop it. I read that to you a while ago
over in 2 Corinthians 4. These eyes see carnal things. Faith sees what these eyes can't
see. It sees eternal, eternal things, everlasting things. Eyes of flesh cannot perceive
spiritual things because spiritual things are eternal, and eternity
is beyond the scope of man's perception. Let me read you something
I bet you've never read. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Now I've read this first verse,
but I failed to look at the second one. Listen to this. He says,
I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing
can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, And God doeth
it that men should fear before Him. That which hath been is
now." Have you ever read that? I don't think
I've ever stopped to take time to even consider that. That which
hath been is now. And that which is to be hath
already been. And God requireth that which
is past. Now what's he talking about there?
He's saying what God has determined to be done in the past, that's
what He requires to be done at the end. He requires it. And it's going to be done. It's
going to be done. It takes spiritual eyes to see
that. Eyes of God. Eyes of the Eternal Mediator.
Eyes of Deity. And yet, by faith, our eyes look
with God, and we can see what He sees. Paul said this over in Acts 13,
verse 48, it says, "...as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed." They had no getting out of it,
was they? They had no resisting it. Oh, they resisted. They resisted from the time they
were children. They resisted their parents,
and they resisted the local authorities and governments, and they resisted
just like we resisted. They resisted God. They resisted
truth. They despised it. But when God
sent His gospel in power with His Spirit, as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. And they still do. They still
do. I'm telling you, God sees the
end from the beginning. When He looked at creation, He
looked past the past. Let that sink in for a minute.
He looked past the past. He saw the fall. When God said,
Behold, it is very good, He looked past the fall. And he looked
past the flood. And he looked past Osiris. And he looked past the days of
the idolatry of the Gentiles. And he looked past all those
things. He looked past the cross. He looked at the end. And he
said, Behold. You know how come he could see?
Because he looked through the eyes of the mediator. God sees the end. Ignorant men
imagine the fall of man a surprise to God. Circumstances to react
to. And over and over, the Lord calls
Christ the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
God looked with eternal eyes, all-seeing eyes, eyes that discern,
divide, and pierce through time and circumstance to see all things
exactly. Exactly as he purposed that they
should be. And he said, it's good. Oh, believers in Christ, think
about that. That's what faith sees. That's
where the comfort is. That's where the assurance is.
That's where the calmness comes from. That's where the rest.
In that chapter 4 of Hebrews, where he's talking about rest,
he said, look through these eyes. These eyes discern all things. They discern all things. These
eyes, this Word, this Word through which God looks and through which
the believer looks, that's that Word that divides and sees and
conquers circumstance and all these things sharper than a two-edged
sword. And then fourthly, what is the
result of this look? Well, it says it's a blessed
day, a sanctified day, and a day of rest. Turn with me to 2 Peter
1. Now, we don't keep a day. I don't keep the Sabbath day. And we don't keep the Sabbath
of weeks or years. There was all kind of Sabbaths. We don't keep a day. And all
these things that were kept and were given under the law, they
were all pictures of this day of rest. And this day is a perpetual
day because Christ is our rest. Christ is our Sabbath. Now, listen
to this here in 2 Peter 1, verse 19. He says, We have also a more
sure word of prophecy, Whereunto you do well that you take heed
is unto a light that shineth in a dark place." Now listen,
"...until the day dawns." What day? What's he talking about? Take heed. Take heed to the Word
of God. Receive the Word of God. "...until the day dawns." What
day? What's he talking about? He's talking about that rest.
What are you talking about? And the day star, the light of
the day, the eyes of the day, the light arise in your hearts. Listen to this over in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 and verse 4. He said, But ye, brethren, are
not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief,
you are all the children of light and the children of the day."
What's he talking about? He's talking about that day of
perpetual rest that's in Christ. That's what he's talking about.
That day. That day. We're not of the night
nor of the darkness. He said, while it is said today, Harden not your hearts. Ain't
that what David said? Ain't that what that chapter
is all about in Hebrews? How many times does he say that
in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4? Today, today, today, when God
looked with those eyes of discernment, when God looked through eternity
and saw the end from the beginning, when God saw everything that
He made and pronounced it good, He said, now we can rest. And
I'm going to sanctify this day, and I'm going to bless this day. Today! Today! Oh God, let me get hold
of that in my heart. Today! Every day from that day
to this. Every day, a perpetual day in
Christ. A day of grace. A day approved,
a sanctified time of rest every day from that day to this and
right on into eternity. Today, if you harden not your
hearts. Today. Today. While He said today, if you'll
hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the
word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. For we which believe do enter
in to rest." What is this faith? It is the eyes of the soul seeing
with the eyes of the Spirit the things of Christ. All the spies
were sent together into Canaan. They all saw with these eyes. They all saw the giants, and
they all saw the walled cities, and they all saw the great armies.
Every last one of them, all twelve of them, two of them seen what
ten couldn't. Now Joshua, who was a type of
Christ and Moses' general, he went over and stood with Moses. And Caleb stilled the people.
And he said, I saw the giants. They're over there. I saw the
walled cities. I saw it all. But he said, this
thing is like, it's like a victory I already won. It's like a tale
I already told. This is like a deed I already
accomplished. For God goeth with us. That's
what he saw. These men saw what was in them
and saw what was in that land, and they said, We ain't going
in. We ain't going in. Caleb saw God, and he saw with
the eyes of God. What difference would it make
if there was a hundred thousand and the walls were four hundred
feet tall? It wouldn't make any difference to God. God wound up tearing the walls
of Jericho down with a bunch of trumpets. Took them down. They saw the work already accomplished,
the tale already told, the victory already won. You'll never enter
into risk looking through these eyes. We must, by faith, be enabled
of God to see what He sees. And when you can look, John,
with His eyes, And you can see your sins nailed to a substitute
on that cross. When you can see with those eyes
of faith as God sees, the soul of Christ in its travail, satisfying
divine justice. When you can see with the eyes
of God that walk of faith in the substitute in our representative,
Obeying that law, loving that law, meditating in that law day
and night, honoring that law through His own obedience, exalting
that law to a position it never had before. When you can look through these
eyes and you can see even the chastenings of God to be for
our good, and you can see His protection, And you can see how
He's provided for you in all things. All things. All things in providence, Winston,
working together for you. We can't even get a hold of that
camera. Huh? When you can see with the eyes
of God, you're going to say the same thing He did. It's good. It's good. And you're going to
rest. But till you see through His
eyes, you ain't going to rest. You're going to be shook up,
tore up, not be able to do anything. Let me read this to you and then
I'll close. In Matthew chapter 11, the Lord had pronounced a woe
on two great cities. And He tells them, He said, If Tyre and Sidon had saw what
you saw, if the mighty works which were done in you were done
in them, they'd still be here. He said Sodom and Gomorrah, they
knew what that was about, we still know what that was about.
He said if the mighty works which were done in you were done in
them, they'd still be here. And he upgraded the cities. And
listen to this, verse 24. He said, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. I'm telling you, that's going
to be said of a lot of our cities right here in the United States. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. has revealed
him unto babes, even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight. All things are delivered unto me of my father. And no
man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father
save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal it." Now
listen. Come unto me. Come unto me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Why? Why? Because He knows the Father. And He sees the Father, and the
Father sees Him. And what's better than that?
The Father sees you in Him. In Him. Oh, God, give me these
eyes. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of Me. For I am meek and lowly and hard,
and you shall find rest for your souls. For by yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." And I might just add this one thing. God
only looked. Check me out now and see if this
ain't so. God only looked and approved of His own works. Now He saw the end and everything
in between. But what he saw and approved
is what he made. God hath made him to be unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And it was good.