If you turn back to the book
of Judges, Matthew, I couldn't have asked you to sing a more
appropriate song. God sees my Savior, and then
He sees me. And I have entitled this message,
In His Sight. And I sure would like to learn
to see things only as He sees them. In His sight. One of two times this statement
is made in the book of Judges. In those days there was no king
in Israel. Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. Now notice it doesn't say every
man did his own thing. It doesn't say every man did
that which was wrong and didn't care. It says every man did that
which was right in his own eyes. He believed it to be the right
thing to do. They felt vindicated and justified
in what they did, even if it was wrong. They had a good reason
for doing it. I mean, their circumstances were such that it needed to be
done. Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. I have a point of view that I
believe to be right. You do too. You may think that I'm wrong
in what I think I'm right in. And you may believe yourself
to be right in thinking me to be wrong. The point is we all
have a point of view that we feel strongly about. I'm right. I believe this to be right. I'm
doing the right thing. And we all have a point of view,
and from that point of view, we always manage to justify and
vindicate ourselves. Now I know what I'm talking about.
I know what I'm talking about from experience. I'm an expert
on this subject. Self-vindication and self-justification. Proverbs 12, verse 15 says, the
way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Proverbs 16, verse
2, all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. but the
Lord weigheth the spirits. Proverbs 21, verse two, every
way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth
the heart. We're all familiar with that
scripture in 1 Samuel 16, verse seven, the Lord seeth not as
man seeth. Man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart. And something I need to be reminded
of, I don't really have any access into looking into anybody else's
heart. And neither do you. Sometimes I'm quick to make a
judgment regarding someone, I'm wrong. The Lord sees not as man
sees. Man looks on the outside. on
the outward appearance, and the Lord looketh upon the heart. Psalm 11, verse four, the Lord's
throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids
try the children of men. Proverbs 5.21, the ways of a
man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth his goings. Turn with me for a moment to
Psalm 14. Verse two, the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men. You know, that's a powerful
thought, isn't it? The Lord, he looked down from
heaven upon every son of Adam, upon all the children of men
to see if there were any that did understand and see God, they
are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Now from these scriptures I just
read, I think there's one thing that we can be sure of. The Lord's
point of view is not our point of view. What he sees, And what
we see are two totally different things. Now this is a true story.
There was a major league baseball player at bat, and the pitcher
threw the ball by him for a called strike. The umpire said, strike
three! And he just dropped his bat in
disbelief. And he looked at the umpire, and he says, everybody
in this stadium knew that that was a ball. He said, unfortunately
for you, mine is the only opinion that counts. Is that not the truth? What the
Lord sees is all that counts. Not what you see, not what you
think, not what you feel, You can be assured of this, that
what you see and what you think and what you feel is not what
the Lord sees and what the Lord thinks and what the Lord feels.
You may have a point of view and you may feel very strong
about it. I have plenty of points of views that I feel very strong
about. But you know what? I don't have
any confidence in them. All that counts is what the Lord
sees. The Lord is really the only one
who can see in the first place. The writer to the Hebrews said
of him, all things are naked and open unto the one with whom
we have to do. He sees things as they are. We see through a glass darkly,
we see through our own lens, we see through the way we want
to see things, but he sees things as they are. Now I've got five
points to this message. I want us to consider how he
sees men outside of Christ. And I want us to consider how
he sees men in Christ. And I want us to consider how
he sees our, or how he sees his own providence. How he sees everything
that takes place. And then I want us to consider
how the ministry is to be conducted in his sight. And last, I want
to consider how his sight is to affect us. First, how he sees
men outside of Christ. Now there are men who are outside
of Christ. Everyone who is not saved is outside of Christ. And this is how he sees everyone
outside of Christ. Now, this is really how he sees
everyone by nature. This is how he sees me and you
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if I'm in Christ, he sees
me some other way. We're going to see that. And
thank God for that. But this is how he sees. This
is his vision. This is his sight of every man
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Romans 3. Verse 19, now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law for this purpose, that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. And that word before
is in his sight. Therefore, By the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now in his sight, in his sight,
you and I stand guilty. without excuse, without any reason
to justify ourselves or to vindicate ourselves. Guilty in his sight. In his sight, now listen real
carefully, in his sight, all there is, is sin. Nothing else. John chapter 6,
verse 5, and God saw. This is what God saw. And God
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart. Notice he's not
even talking about the deeds yet. He's just talking about
the stuff that goes on through the mind. Every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's God's
testimony. That's what God sees. When he sees what Todd Nyberg
is by nature, he says that everything that passes through his mind,
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only, get that
word only, only evil all the time. That's what God sees. That's what God says. I love that passage in Luke chapter
16, verse 15, where the Lord says, you are they which justify
yourselves before men. But God knoweth your heart. Now
listen to this statement. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight
of God. Anything the natural man highly
esteems, human righteousness, self-justification, whatever
it might be that a natural man esteems. It is an abomination
in the sight of God. I think of what Peter said to
Simon Magus, who had heard the gospel and believed, he ended
up offering Peter money if he could be given this power to
lay his hands on people, and they'd receive the Holy Ghost.
He said, the heart is not right in the sight of God. Now, he
was somebody to everybody else. He was a very important man.
They looked up to this man. He was somebody. But here's what
God said. Your heart is not right. in the sight of God. Thou thoughtest
the gift of God could be bought. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
26, you see your calling brethren. How that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. For God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the to confound the things which are mighty. And
God hath chosen the base things of the world, and the despised,
yea, and the things which are not, to bring to naught the things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. He's not gonna have any flesh
glorying in his sight. And then I think in the warnings
to the churches in Revelation. He said to the church in Revelation
chapter 3 verse 2 of the church of Sardis, you have a name that
you live and are dead for I have not found thy works perfect before
God or before his sight. They were living in the past.
You know, that's such a dangerous thing to live on past experience,
past faith, past whatever. He said, I've not found your
works complete and perfect before God. And what about the church
of Laodicea? Look at how they saw themselves. We're rich. We're increased with goods. We
have need of nothing. We're in good shape. But what
were they in the Lord's eye? He said, you don't know that
you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. They didn't
see it. They didn't see what Christ saw. Now, I want to see
as he sees, don't you? If my point of view, how I see
things, leaves me different or better than what God sees, my
point of view, the way I see things, is wrong. Am I willing,
am I willing, to look at God's point of view. Now my second point is how the
Lord sees those in Christ. Now we see how the Lord sees
people out of Christ, what I am in and of myself, nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, no sound in it, soundness
in it from the sole of the feet to the top of the head. That's
what God sees. Let me say something I'm going
to say many times tonight. How God sees is how it is. Amen. How God sees is how it
is. Now, don't forget, the Lord seeth
not as man seeth. Man sees appearance. The Lord
sees things as they are. Now, would you turn with me to
Luke chapter one for a moment? Verse 5, there was in the days
of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias,
of the course of Abiah and his wife of the daughters of Aaron,
and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord, blameless. Now that word before God is in
the sight of God, and they were both righteous in the sight of
God. walking in all the commandments
and ordinance of the Lord, blameless. Now I can remember actually,
almost like yesterday, the first time I read that verse. I thought,
wow, did they really? That's so unlike me. How did
they do that? Did they just have less temptations
back then? They had less problems and they
were just... How did they do that? I didn't
understand how these people could possibly do what this verse says. And somebody says, well, that's
relative. I mean, they did a pretty good job at it. Of course they
were sinful, but that's not what it says. It says they were both
righteous before God, walking in all the ordinances and commandments
of the Lord, blameless. How were these people like that? Were they different than me?
Now, beloved, if we're justified, the same thing is said of us
by God that was said of them. We're the same thing in the sight
of God that they are. What is justification? I've walked
in all of the commandments and ordinance of the Lord blameless. And that's as good a definition
of justification as you're going to find. Yeah, but you haven't. You can't honestly say you've
done that. Yeah, I can. Yeah, I can. Now remember, turn to Proverbs
17 for just a moment. I want to learn to preach this
the right way. Verse 15, he that justifieth the wicked
and he that condemneth the just. even they both are abomination
to the Lord. If I justify a wicked man, if
I condemn a just man, both of those things are an abomination
to the Lord. Who loves justice, judgment,
justice is the habitation of His throne. Now, when God was punishing Christ,
here's what he did, and this is part of the mystery of the
gospel, and this is such an important distinction, too. God took my
sin, and God can do this. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Only God can do this. I can't do it. But God took my
sin and made it his son's sin. So when Christ was being punished
for sin, he wasn't being punished for my sin, He was being punished
for his sin because he was guilty of it. Would it be just for God to punish
Christ if it wasn't his sin? Now here's the point, my sin
became his sin. The Bible never says this, it
was imputed to him. He doesn't use that kind of language.
It says it became his sin. Of course he didn't commit sin.
Don't anybody even think of it. He knew no sin. Even when he
was made sin, he knew no sin. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. But when God's
wrath came down upon him, It's because it was his sin and he
owned it as his sin. My sin as a heavy burden is heavy,
too heavy for me. It's more than the hairs of my
head. That's what the Lord said about the sins of mine that became
his. He owned them as his and just
as truly as my sin became his sin, his perfect obedience becomes
my perfect obedience as he walked in. blameless in all the commandments
of the Lord, in perfect righteousness, that's mine. That's mine. This describes every single believer
without exception. Righteous, walking in all the
commandments of the Lord, blameless. It was said of David, In Acts
chapter seven, verse 46, that he found favor before the Lord,
or in the same, it's the same word, same Greek word. He found
favor in the sight of the Lord. And that's the same as Noah,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You remember when
Moses prayed, if I found grace in thy sight, and he said, you
have found grace in my sight. favor, where the Lord looks at
me with favor. Now God's favor is His grace. And here's the thing about grace.
Listen real carefully to this statement. Your sin cannot hinder God's
grace. and your goodness cannot help
it. Now that's grace. David found favor, found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And in the eyes of the Lord,
your sin cannot hinder God's grace. That's hard to believe, isn't
it? But it's so. And there's nothing you can do
to help out God's grace. God's grace is sovereign, full,
free, and saving. Now, David committed a lot of
sins, and they still did not prevent God's favor, did they? Now, in Christ, you have God's
complete I wish I could say that the way it ought to be said.
You have God's complete favor, and there is absolutely nothing
you can do to mess it up. Turn to Ephesians 1, verse 4. according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him, in His sight. Now let me ask you a question.
If God chose you before time began to be holy and without
blame in His sight, Is there any way that that can't be? No. If He chose you to be holy
and without blame in His very sight, and like I said, this
is not some kind of certificate. I mean, I really am holy. I really
am without blame before God. If He chose me to be holy and
without blame in His sight, it's a done deal. It's finished. It's completed. Colossians chapter 1, verse 20, and having made peace
with the blood of his cross, By Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things on earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
or aforetime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. Now there's no way in your sight
that I could be holy and unblameable and unapprovable. Stay with me
for just a short time and you'll find out that that's not the
case. But you know what? That stuff
you see, that's not me. That's the sin that dwelleth
in me. That's the language Paul used. It was not I, but the sin
that dwelleth in me. God sees the me, and he says,
this is his work, having put away all my sins and given me
a holy nature, he sees someone who is holy, without blame, nothing
to reprove me for. Jude 24, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
in his presence. Same word, in his sight. With
exceeding joy. I love that scripture. He will
joy over us with, he will sing over us with joy because we're
faultless in his sight. You don't take faith to believe
this. You don't see it by sight. But I really believe right now
while I'm talking to you, I am, not a will be, I am holy and
unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. Now, we see how
God sees men outside of Christ. We see how God sees his people
in Christ. And remember, let me repeat that
phrase again. How God sees things is how they
really are. How does God see providence? I want to read one
scripture and this will take care of it. Luke chapter 12,
verse six, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? How insignificant
are two sparrows? When's the last time you gave
any thought to two sparrows? I doubt that you've done it in the last
24 hours anyway. Maybe some of you are so in tune with nature
that you did it, but I doubt it. I doubt it. Are not two sparrows
sold for authority? Nobody's thinking about that.
He's talking about something that is completely insignificant. Yet not one of them is forgotten
before or in the sight of your heavenly Father. You know what
that means? That means everything in providence
is in his sight and he's in control of it. No matter how insignificant
it may seem, no matter how important it may seem, it's all in his
sight that he is controlling. God sees. He sees everything. He knows exactly what's going
to happen. And the reason He knows exactly what's going to
happen is because He's decreed exactly what's going to happen.
And everything that happens is working together for good to
them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
You know, when we see things, how much time do you spend worrying?
How much time do you spend stressing, fretful about things, wondering
what's going to happen? Oh, what's going to happen? God
never worries. He doesn't know what it means
to worry, because He is in complete control of everything, and He
sees all of providence as His good and perfect and acceptable
will. Everything that's happening is
His will being done. That's how He sees things. You
and I see things, oh, it's this and that. Not Him. Wouldn't it be a blessing if
you and I could always look at things from God's perspective,
as God sees, because you can write this down the way you and
I see it. It's not right. God's way of seeing is the only
way that's right. And then there's his, our preaching in his sight. Now I'm preaching this message and I would be wrong if I didn't
say I don't care anything about your approval because I do. I
love you. I want you to be blessed. I want
your approval. I want your agreement. It hurts when you see you don't
have someone's approval. I want, I'm not saying I'm indifferent
about people's approval. I want you to approve of this
message. But if God approves of it, and
you don't, that's okay. He's the one whose approval we
seek. Doesn't mean I'm indifferent
about yours, but if you don't approve and God does, that's
okay, because we're preaching in his sight. I love that passage
of scripture in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2, where Paul said,
seeing we have this ministry as we've received mercy, we think
not, but we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by open manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. That's all,
in his sight. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2.17,
as a sincerity, As of God, in the sight of God,
speak we of Christ. Now that's who we, that's who
I want to be pleased with what I'm saying. It doesn't mean I'm
indifferent about you, but let me ask you this. If I'm more
concerned about what you think than what God thinks, you wouldn't
want to hear me anyway, would you? You don't want to hear somebody
like that. You want to hear someone whose only concern is what the
Lord thinks, and that's the way the ministry, the preaching of
the gospel, is to be conducted. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy
4, verse 1, he gave him this charge, I charge thee before
God. That means in his sight. I charge
thee in the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ that you keep this
commandment without partiality. I charge you before the Lord
Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing. Preach the word. That's all you're to do in his
sight. Preach the word. Whatever God says in his word,
preach it. And lastly, How about, what does
being in the sight of God, how does that affect us? Now you're
in his sight. I'm in his sight all the time.
Sometimes I wanna blank that out, blot it out, but the fact
of the matter is we're in his sight all the time. Now there's a few scriptures
that, I looked at, because I was looking at everything where it
talks about being in his sight. And the first scripture that
came was there in 1 Timothy chapter 2. He said, pray for the leaders.
Pray for all that are over us, all in authority that we may
lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. which is well-pleasing in the
sight of God. A quiet and peaceable life. Now in God's sight, that's well-pleasing. A quiet, non-disturbing, peaceable,
not contentious, not trying to start fights, not always causing
problems, but peaceable, which is in the sight of God. great
price. And then in 1st Timothy chapter
5, verse 4, he said, we're to learn to show piety at home and
require our parents, for this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God. And I think of piety at home.
Now, what is piety at home? It's love. It's what it is more
than anything else. It's love. It's that love that
covers, that endures, that doesn't keep records of wrongs. It's
that lover that's, it's that love that, that is not unbending
and has to have my way, my way or the highway. That's not piety
at home. Oh, but the Lord is pleased with
piety. True devotion to Him at home. Turn to first Peter chapter three. Verse 1, likewise you wives be
in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word,
they may also without the word be won by the conversation of
the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled
with fear. Whose adorning, let it not be
the outward adorning, of plaiting the hair, of wearing of gold,
and putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the
heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit. which is in the sight of God
of great price. Meek before God, quiet before
men. Somebody said undisturbed and
undisturbing. I think that's a good definition,
don't you? Undisturbed, meek, and undisturbing, quiet. Literally, the word means keeping
your seat, keeping your seat, which is in
the sight of God of great price. One more scripture, James chapter
four, verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. Now, I was thinking about this.
What else can you do? What else is there to do in the sight of
the Lord but this? Go down. Certainly not exalt yourself
in the sight of the Lord. There's one direction to go.
South. Down. Humble yourselves. Take your place as a sinner. Agree with everything God says. Humble yourselves. You know the
best way you can humble yourself is simply to believe the gospel.
It's humility that receives Christ is all. Humble yourselves in
the sight of God and he shall lift you up. You know, I am very thankful
for how the Lord sees things. Because I know I don't see him
right, but he does. And by his grace, may we always
see things as he sees them. It's called walking by faith
and not by sight. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would deliver us from the so easy to the flesh sin
of doing that which is right in our own eyes, and that you
will cause us to look only to how you see. Lord, how we thank you for the
eyes of the Lord. How we thank you that you see
not as man seeth. Man looks on the outward appearance,
but you look on the heart. And Lord, we ask with David of
old, create in us clean hearts and renew right spirits within
us for Christ's sake. Lord, as we face this week, we
ask that you would give us the grace to look at things as you
see them. Lord, we ask that you would open
up doors for us to witness your gospel to those people you bring
into our path. We ask that you would keep us
cleaving to thy son and looking to him only. We ask that we might
be kept and preserved. We ask that you would order our
steps in your word and let not any iniquity have dominion over
us. Now bless us for the Lord's sake. In his name we pray. Amen.