You and I have been looking in
these chapters concerning Hezekiah for the last two or three weeks. And I want to look at one more
portion of Scripture here. And this will be the last time
we'll look at this for a while anyway. I want us to look at
just one verse. In Isaiah chapter 33 and verse
17. Thine eyes shall see the King
in his beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very for aulth." Now this is in the context of what you
and I have been looking at concerning this King Hezekiah for the last
couple of weeks or so. You remember King Hezekiah was
surrounded, Jerusalem was surrounded by the King of Assyria. He had sent his army in. They
had threatened to overthrow Jerusalem. And these men, these people here
in Jerusalem, they read this prophecy and they knew what was
coming. They knew the Assyrian army was coming down to surround
them and was going to try to overthrow Jerusalem. And then
also Hezekiah got sick. We saw that this morning, didn't
we? He had been sick and the Lord healed him. And some commentaries
Understand verse 17 here to apply to Hezekiah. And they're saying
basically, you're going to see the city
surrounded. You're going to hear that your great king is sick
and may die. But he's going to be restored
to health. You're going to see Him with a crown on His head.
You're going to see Him sitting on His throne. And He's going
to be well. He's going to be ruling again
in your presence, in your midst. And you're going to see Him in
His beauty. Well, now that's one way to look
at that. But there's a better way to look at that. There's
a greater one than Hezekiah. And it's really in the context,
look here what he said over in the same chapter, chapter 33,
in verse 22. The Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our King. He will save us. This is talking
about a King who is a Savior. You'll see the King. You'll see
the Savior in His beauty. You know who I think this is?
I think this is King Jesus. I think that's the King this
is talking about. You know every place in the Bible,
from start to finish, He's called the King. When He was born into
this world, and those wise men came from the East, and they
said, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? King, a baby
in a cradle, and He's King of the Jews. He was King then. When He came into Jerusalem on
the little donkey, remember that time? He came in riding into
Jerusalem on the donkey, and they were throwing down branches
and their clothes in His way as He rode in on this little
burrow, this little donkey. And the scripture says that happened
that this might be fulfilled. Thy king cometh unto thee, meek
and lowly, riding upon an ass, the fold of an ass. And when
he was crucified on Golgotha's hill, you know they recognized
him there as king. Even a heathen recognized him
as king. Pilate said, I want you to put
over His cross, I want you to put it in Hebrew, and I want
you to put it in Latin, and I want you to put it in Greek. Every
language of anybody that's going to be here so they can read who
He is. And every gospel has this recorded. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
says this very same thing. They put this inscription over
His cross. Jesus of Nazareth, the King. of the Jew. Now somebody may
say, what beauty do you see in Jesus hanging up on the tree?
Oh, that's the King in His beauty. That's the King in His glory
upon the cross. And when the Father raised Him
from the dead and set Him on His own right hand, this is what
He said, I will declare the decree I have set my King upon my holy
hill of Zion. He is the King of the Jews. He
is King of Israel. And He is God's King. God calls
Him His King. And when the disciples and those
men through the book of Acts went out to preach, and it says
they turned the world upside down. And here is what they were
preaching. There is another King. One Jesus. Jesus is the King. And the Holy Spirit is ready
to close this book. In the 19th chapter of the book
of Revelations, He's ready to seal it up where nothing can
be added to it anymore. And John sees a vision and heaven
is open. He sees one on a white horse
who is called faithful and true. And he notices his name. It's
written on his garment and on his thigh. In righteousness,
he said, he judges and makes war. And this is his name, King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. I think that's who this is talking
about here. I think this is the King in His beauty. And then we're told when it's
all over with, the consummation of the ages, and the dead have
been raised, and the nations stand before Him that's called
the Son of Man. And He'll separate them, one
from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And
He sets the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left. And here's what He said, The
King shall say to them on His right hand, Come, be blessed
to My Father. And He says to them on His left,
Depart ye of cursing. He's the King in His beauty. And He says to you, Your eyes
shall see the King in His beauty. Now there is a teaching in the
Scripture that we see Him. We must see Him. We can see Him
and we must see Him if we are to be saved. We must see the
King in His beauty. Not with physical eyes. Nobody
saw Him with the physical eyes since the Apostle Paul last saw
Him. There were many that saw Him
with a physical eye, but never believed on Him savingly. Now,
if you've got your Bibles, if you don't have a Bible, I want
you to get you a Bible. We have a few Bibles. I want
everybody to get a Bible. I want you to turn to some Scripture
with me, okay? I want us to see what it is to
see Christ, to see the King in His beauty. Look with me to John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. in verse 33. If you are using a few Bibles,
you will find this on page 1156 in your few Bibles. Look at it. John chapter 6 and
look in verse 32. Here is where the Lord Jesus
had just fed thousands with a few loaves and fishers. He crosses
the sea and now they come over seeking for it. And they said
here in verse 30, look in verse 32. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, that manna in the wilderness, but my Father gave you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And they
said unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that comes to me
shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst.
But look in verse 36, But I say unto you, that you also have
seen me, and believe not." A man may see Him physically. They
did. They saw Him raise a man from
the dead that had been dead for four days and was stinking. And
they didn't believe Him. They saw Him heal a man who was
blind in his eyes from his mother's womb, and they still didn't believe
Him. They saw Him turn water to wine
and still didn't believe Him. They saw Him do things that no
other man had ever did and still didn't believe Him. So to believe
on Him savingly is not to see Him with the natural eyes. That's
not what we're talking about, is it? They shall see the King
in His beauty, but not with these eyes. Not with these eyes. It
must be another eye. But we have to see Him. Read
on in our text. Look on in verse 37. All that the Father gives to
me, all that the Father giveth me, He shall come to me. And
Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast Him out. What a promise. What a gift. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
He hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son..." Now he just
got through telling these fellows, you saw me and you see me, but
you don't believe. And now he says, everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. This side has nothing
to do with physical. You know what it has to do with?
It has to do with the eye of the understanding. You see, we've
got eyes in this body. And through these eyes, we perceive
things. When I look at Glenn Whitehead,
these eyes tell my mind, that's Glenn Whitehead. The eyes of the body perceive
things. Well, the mind has eyes. And
with these eyes, the mind perceives things. That's the eyes that
he's talking about. Everyone which sees me, through
the eye of their understanding, and they believe on Me, they
have eternal life. The Bible says, We know the Son
of God hath come, and hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him. So it has to do with the eye
of understanding. But I want you to read that.
I don't want to quote this to you. I want you to read this.
I want you to see this and consider it yourself. Look on over to
your right. Keep turning to your right. In
the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, this is exactly what we read
here in the Word of God. Look in Ephesians, chapter 1. We use this word and we use this
concept in our daily life all the time. All of us have had
this to happen. I bet even some of you children
have had this to happen to you. It's almost a natural thing to
say this. You children are working on a
math problem and you don't know how to do it. And your teacher
is explaining to you how to do it. You can't get it. You can't
understand it. Then finally she gets through
to you and you know how to do it. And what do you say? Now
I see. Now I see. We use that all the
time, don't we? What do you mean now you see?
Now I understand. Now I know. Now I perceive what
you've been telling me. So it's through the eye of the
understanding. And that's exactly what Paul
tells us here in Ephesians chapter 1. Look here what he says in
verse 15. He heard of their faith in Jesus
Christ. And look what he did. Wherefore,
I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
your love to all the saints, I cease not to give thanks to
God for you, making mention of you in my prayer, that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him. That's what He's talking about.
I want you to know Christ. I want you to see the King in
His beauty. Well, how are we going to do
that? He's in heaven and we're upon this earth. Well, He tells
us in verse 18, doesn't He? The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know. It has nothing to do with the
physical eyes. It has to do with the eyes of
the mind, the eyes of the understanding. Boy, here's where we're in trouble.
Here's where we're in trouble. Look here in the fourth chapter.
Here's why we're in trouble here. Look in verse 17 of chapter 4. Here's the trouble we're in.
This I say therefore, testifying the Lord, that you henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind,
emptiness of their mind." Look at this, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of the heart. We have to have Our mind's eye
opened. That's the way we see the Lord
Jesus Christ. Seeing with the eye of our understanding,
and that's why it's spiritual perception. Spiritual perception. We know nothing about that by
nature. And you know when you talk about
the eye of the understanding, seeing, you know what that brings
in? It brings in faith. It brings in faith. Through faith,
we understand that the world was framed by the Word of God.
And when we talk about bringing in faith, we bring in something
else. And what's that? The Word. The Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. So we say it like this. We see
the King through the eye of our understanding by faith. in the Word of God. That's the way it happens, isn't
it? We don't see visions. We see through the eye of our
understanding, but it's by faith. I'm telling you what, if you
opened up this book and you don't believe it, it won't do you a
bit of good. If you open this Word and you
don't believe it, then I'm telling you, you won't understand a thing
about it. It's by faith. And when the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of wisdom, enlightens our minds and opens our understanding,
that's when we can see. That's when we see the King in
His beauty. Now turn to two or three more
scriptures with me. Look back over to your left and let me
give you some examples in Luke chapter 24. I picked these out
because it's so obvious, and it's very familiar with the most
of us. Look in Luke chapter 24, and look in verse 16. I think this is a perfect example
of what we're talking about. The Lord Jesus had raised from
the dead. Some women had seen Him, and
He told these women, Mary Magdalene and some of the others, When
they saw him, he said, you go tell Peter and James and John
and the other brethren that you've seen me. And they did. But they didn't believe him.
They seemed like idle tales. And two of them left Jerusalem,
was walking to Emmaus, a seven-mile walk. And the Lord Jesus comes
along, the risen Savior comes along and begins to listen to
them talk. And he sees how sad they are,
and he begins to talk to them, but they don't know him. They
don't know him. And here's how he says it. Look
in verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened, and it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself grew near and went
with them, but their eyes were holden that they should not know
Him." You know what this word, holden, means? To seize, to hold
fast. In other words, the eyes of their
understanding were shut. were shut. And they came knowing. Why? Because the only way to
see Him and know Him is with the understanding by faith through
His blessed Word. And look what happened. What
manner of communications are these that you have one to another
as you walk and are so sad? And boy, then they go on and
tell him this sad story about how they thought he was the Redeemer
Israel. And now they're so disappointed.
And why couldn't they see Him? Their eyes were holding. Not
their physical eyes. Now, they could see Him with
their physical eyes. That wasn't what was holding.
But the eyes of their understanding. This is why David often prayed,
Lord, open my eyes that I may see. Open my eyes. You remember, there's a wonderful
story, and goes perfectly along with this, with Elijah the great
prophet, when him and his young servant was down in Dothan, and
they were sleeping in a house, and the young servant got up
the next morning and went outside, and the Syrian army had surrounded
them. He went out on the porch, and
his heart sunk. I mean, he came back in screaming,
oh, they've found us. They're going to kill us for
sure. The whole Syrian army is here. And he was just trembling.
And Elijah went outside on the porch and looked up and looked
around and he said, Lord, would you open my servant's eyes that
he could see? That's what we're talking about,
isn't it? Open his eyes and let him see
something that I see and he can't see and the Syrian army can't
see. And the Lord opened his eyes,
and he looked up, and he saw chariots of fire, angels surrounded
about them. That's what we're talking about,
isn't it? It's the same principle here. Why couldn't they see the
risen Savior? Their eyes were holding. And
the Lord Jesus goes along, and He talks with them, and He said
there in In verse 27, look at this. And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself. And they drew near unto the village
where they went, and He made as though He would go on further,
but they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward
evening, and the day is for spent. And He went into a tarry with
them, and it came to pass, as they set at meat with them, He
took bread and blessed it, and break and gave to them, and look
at this, and their eyes were opened and they knew Him. And He vanished out of their
sight. That's the way we see the King in His beauty. This is the way we see the resurrected
Christ. Our eyes have to be opened. You know something? He's right
here in our midst today. But you can't see Him. You can't
see Him. And if He was here physically,
you and I could not see Him and know Him for who He is, except
He opened our eyes. Their eyes were opened. And they saw the King in His
beauty. And I tell you, they had just walked seven miles.
And you know what they did? They jumped up and took right
back off and walked seven more miles to tell everybody, we've
seen Him. We've seen Him. I tell you, it's
an exciting thing. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
those citizens of Jerusalem and Judea that had fled into the
city of Jerusalem? And they loved King Hezekiah.
Can you imagine how heavy their hearts were when they heard that
he was sick and was going to die? And couldn't you imagine
how excited they were when they came and saw him sitting on his
throne and he was healthy? Raining in their midst? That's
how these fellows felt. Our King has been crucified.
But here He is alive. He reigns. He lives. We saw Him. We saw Him. Look in John chapter 20. Look
back over to your right in John chapter 20. This is a wonderful
example of what I'm saying. In John chapter 20, and look
here in verse 18. This goes just a little bit deeper.
Look in verse 18. Seeing the King in His beauty. Look in verse 18. The Lord had
risen from the dead. In verse 18, Mary Magdalene came
and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He
had spoken these things unto her. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be
unto you. And when he had thus said it,
he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples
glad when they saw the Lord." They saw Him and they were glad. How were they before? Man, they
weren't fit to be around, were they? They wept. They were sad. They were heartbroken. And now,
suddenly, they were glad. What made them glad? They saw
the King and His beauty. I tell you, there's something.
I don't know what it takes to get you down. Sometimes it don't
take much, does it? It don't take much to make you
sad, does it? The next time you're really,
really sad about something, and you're lonely, and you're fearful,
and you're tearful, here's the remedy for your sadness. Here's
something that will suddenly make you glad if the Holy Spirit
will give you eyes to see Him, the Risen Savior. Not with His
eyes, but with the eyes of your understanding. Then were the
disciples glad. And I will forget I heard Scott
Richardson preach on this text. This is awful, but bear with
me. I'm getting old. And I stray on these stories that I think
about. I'm trying not to do this. But as I get older, I find myself
straying on these stories. And I've told you, you say, Bruce,
I've heard that a thousand. You probably have. But I remember
Scott Richardson. Ben Scott was down. And Scott
was preaching for Donnie. And I went to be in the meeting.
And we were both sitting there with Donnie. And Donnie felt
like he wasn't in the ministry. And he wanted to sell his farm.
That's all he talked about. I've got to sell this farm. I'm
going to move uptown and get me an apartment where me and
Mary can be there and I can get in the ministry and be dedicated.
And he just went on and on about that all evening. And Scott got
up and he took this text. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. And he looked right down at poor
Brother Donnie and he said, what would make you glad? To sell
that farm? Get rid of them cows? And he
just whoa, and you know how Scott was for it. And he said, I'll
tell you what made these fellows glad. They saw the Lord. That'll make you glad when you
see Him. Because He's beautiful. He is absolutely gorgeous, is
He not? He's the fairest among all thousands. The King in His beauty. But it
goes deeper than that. Look here what else He said.
He showed them His pierced hands and the hole in His side. Now what was that about? What
was that about? Well, they didn't understand
this, did they? Remember when the Lord told them,
I'm going to the cross? And Peter said, Lord, be that
far from you. He didn't understand the cross, did he? He didn't
understand it. But boy, here they did. I think
this is the first time that they understood while their Lord and
Savior was crucified. And I think it happened something
like this. Why were they so sad? Not just at the loss of Him,
their perceived loss, but I'm telling you, they had sinned
grievously. Peter not only denied Him, but
he swore and cursed. I'm telling you, I do not know
the man. They all forsook Him out of shame. And here they were feeling this
guilt and shame upon their conscience. And what did they see? They saw
the meaning of those wounds. They saw the meaning of those
pierced hands. They saw the meaning of that
hole in His side. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed. How were they healed? We don't read that any of them
were sick. Their conscience was healed. The guilt was washed
away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm
telling you, brothers and sisters, that will make you happy. That
will make you glad to see that. If you are a poor, guilty sinner,
I am telling you, He will make you glad when you see He was
wounded for your transgressions. I tell you, can you imagine the
sight of that? Not only that the Savior was
alive, but all of their sins had been atoned for. What would
it do? What would it mean for every
one of us here this evening, as we got out of our seats and
left this building, If we left here with assurance that all
our sins were gone, never to be brought up against us again,
not in this life or death or the judgment to come, what would
that mean for us? Oh, some of you, bless your hearts,
you think about the sins of your youth, the sins of your middle
age, the sins of old age. You have such a knowledge of
your sin, don't you? Oh, to leave here knowing. that
all my sins were forgiven. They were all cast behind His
back, never to be remembered. Wouldn't that make you glad?
That's the scene they got when they looked at that wounded side
and pierced that. What a scene. Oh, what a scene.
Jean was telling me, bless her heart, she was telling me when
she was just a young girl that someone threw her in a hole of
water a pond or something. She was drowning. She said, I
was going down. And she said, we'll forget this. Happened when she was just a
young girl. But she said, I never will forget my brother diving
in. And there he was. He got me and
saved my life. What a scene that was. She's
not forgot it to this day. I saw a documentary of where
the Allied forces in World War II took defeated the Germans
and came into those concentration camps, and they had it on film,
and those guys behind the barbed wire, starving to death, their
bones were sticking through. And here they saw those Allied
forces coming down the road with trucks full of food, and I'm
telling you, the smiles were on their faces, what a scene
that was. But it's nothing compared to
this. Seeing the King in His redeeming glory and beauty. Thou shalt see the King. Have you seen Him? Have you seen
Him? One more scripture. Look in Luke
chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. This is another thing talking
about seeing Him. Look in Luke chapter 2. This is where the Lord Jesus
was about eight days old. They were taking Him up to the
temple to circumcise Him, name Him, offer a sacrifice. And here
in Luke chapter 2 verse 25, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon. The same was a just and devout
man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost
was upon him, And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that
he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit, by
the Spirit's direction, leadership, aid, into the temple. And when
the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the
custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God
and said, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace according
to thy word, for my eyes have seen thy salvation." My eyes
have seen. Thy salvation. The salvation
of God to save the Jews and the Gentiles of life. I see it. Ain't that amazing? You talk
about it. I mean, this is outstanding. It's amazing. Here a little baby
was, 18 or 19 inches long, 6 or 7 or 8 pounds. How could anybody
look at such an infant and say, here is God's salvation? The only way you could know that
is if you had your eyes open to see Him for who He is. hears
thy salvation. Now let thy servant die in peace."
Now I can die, he said. Now I can die in peace. Here is what one old poet said,
Jesus, the vision of thy face hath overpowering charms. Scarce shall I feel death's cold
embrace. if Jesus be in my arms." Here is what the prophet Isaiah
said, "...a king shall reign in righteousness, a man shall
be as an unhiding place from the wind, and as a culvert from
the tempest, and as rivers of water in a dry place, and as
a shadow of a great rock in a weary land." And the eyes of them that
see shall not be dim." What do they see? What do they see? They see a King reigning in righteousness. They see it. How do they see
that? They see it through the eyes of faith, through the Word.
They see it. They see He's a culvert from
the storm. He's a hiding place from the
wind. He's a desert in a dry land.
Don't you see Christ as all that? He's the man Christ Jesus. And
what a highly place He is. And you see it. And I'm telling
you, when you see Him, you can face death with Him in your arms. And looking upon Him with the
eye of your understanding through faith. You can face death with
peace. I used to a few years ago. It's
just been the last two or three years. I've started thinking
a little bit more about death than I used to. All of us have,
haven't we? I'm having pains now that I never
had a couple of years ago. It's taken me long to recover
now. I'm not like you, Anthony. Sit down for an hour or two and
you're ready to go again. And I've seen some friends, and
I've seen what die in dust of their bodies. And I tell you,
there is such a fine line, such a union, if you will, between
this body and our souls that if you afflict one, you just
about afflict the other. And when this body begins to
break down and get weak through disease or age, it can't help
but affect the soul to some degree. But I tell you this. If we can
take the Lord Jesus in our arms of faith, just like this old
man did, and look upon Him with the eye of our understanding,
you know something we can say about death? Let me die in peace. There will be no sting there.
There will be nothing to hurt you if you see the King in His
beauty. Jesus, the visions of Thy face
hath overflowing overpowering charms. It fills us with such gladness
and peace that we can face death. And you
know something, if seeing Him here like this through the eye
of faith, if it's so wonderful for us and
we see Him through a glass darkly, what will it be like when we
see Him in this full glory? Wouldn't that be amazing? Here's
what David said about it. He said, I shall see your face.
I shall see your face. I'm going to see your face. I'm
going to see your face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I wake
in your likeness. And Job said, though the skin
worms devour this old body, in my flesh I shall see God. I'm going to see Him. I'm going
to see Him for myself and not another. And John said, when
He shall appear, we'll see Him as He is. As He is. Oh, what a sight that'll be.
Have you seen Him? Have you seen Him? I tell you,
salvation is not immorality. Salvation is not in reformation. Salvation is not what we do or
refrain from doing. Are these things involved? Well,
of course they are. But that's not salvation, is
it? What is salvation? Seeing Him. Everyone which seeth
the Son. and believeth on Him, this is
life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." May God open our hearts. May the Holy Spirit open our
understandings to know Him. That's life. That's life eternal. Let's pray.