Seeing Jesus
A sermon
(No. 771)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"We see Jesus." Hebrews 2:9.
THE Apostle, in this verse, does not claim to have seen the Lord in the
flesh, although he boasts in another passage that he has done so, and
asserts it as one of the proofs of his Apostleship. He is not, indeed,
in this text referring to any seeing of the Lord by mortal eyes at
all–he is speaking offaith–he means a spiritual sight of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The point to which I shall have to draw your attention
this evening is that sight is very frequently used in Scripture as a
metaphor, an illustration, a symbol to set forth what faith is.
Faith is the eye of the soul. It is the act of looking unto Jesus. In
that act, by which we are saved, we look unto Him and are saved from
the very ends of the earth. We look to Him and we find salvation. So
far as seeing with these natural eyes of ours is concerned it is the
very opposite of faith. We have heard people speak as though they
wished they had lived in the Savior's day and could have seen Him. It
must have been a great privilege to those who were spiritually-minded,
but it was no privilege (as they know now, alas, to their regret), to
those who were spiritually blind–for many of those who saw our Lord
and heard Him preach, rose up in wrath to thrust Him out of the
synagogue, and cast Him down the brow of the cliff.
Instead of being overawed by His sweet majesty, or won by that love
which sat upon His brow, they scoffed at Him, said He was a Samaritan,
had a devil, and was mad! Even the sight of Jesus Christ upon the Cross
did not convert the men that stood there, but they thrust out their
tongues and called Him by ignominious titles and increased the sorrows
of His death by their scornful expressions. To see Jesus Christ with
the natural eye is nothing, my Brothers and Sisters, for this shall be
the lot of all men! They shall look on Him whom they have pierced and
shall weep and wail because of Him.
The sight of Him, when He shall come in the latter days to judge the
earth in righteousness, will be the source of terror to the wicked so
that there can be no kind of benefit, certainly no saving blessing,
from such a sight of Jesus Christ with the eyes as will be afforded
even to lost spirits. The Apostle is speaking of the spiritual eye
here. He is speaking of that mental vision which God affords to those
who have had their eyes anointed with heavenly eye salve by the Holy
Spirit that they may see. And our business tonight is, first of all, to
show why faith is so frequently compared to the sense of sight.
I. Let us, in the first place, give our attention for a few minutes TO
THE REASON WHY FAITH IS COMPARED TO SIGHT. Is not sight, in many
respects, the noblest of all the senses? To be deprived of any of our
senses is a great loss, but perhaps the greatest deprivation of all is
the loss of sight. Certainly, whatever may be the degree of pain that
may follow the loss of any other sense, they who lose their sight lose
the noblest of human faculties.
For observe, in the first place, that sight is marvelously quick. How
wondrously fast and far it travels! It does not take you an hour to
make a journey from one part of the country to another by your eyes.
You are on a mountain and you can see 50 or a 100 miles, as the case
may be, and you see it by the simple opening of the eyes. It is all
there. Your thought is flashed far away in an instant, in the twinkling
of your eye. Standing on some of the Alpine summits, you look far and
wide and see lakes spread at a distance beneath your feet. And far away
there is a range of black mountains, or of hills clothed with snow.
You know they are, perhaps, 200 miles distant, but in a moment you are
there! So quick does the sense of sight travel that we go to the moon
or to the sun without knowing that any space of time is taken up by our
eyes traveling there! And those remote stars which the astronomers tell
us are so distant that they can scarcely compute how far off they are,
yet my eye travels to them in a second of time when I gaze upon the
starry firmament! So quickly does sight travel–and equally rapid is
the action offaith!
Brethren, we know not where Heaven may be–where the state, the place
called "Heaven" is–but faith takes us there in contemplation in a
single moment. We cannot tell when the Lord may come–it may not be for
centuries yet– but faith steps over the distance in a moment and sees
Him coming in the clouds of Heaven, and hears the trumpet of
resurrection! It would be very difficult, indeed, it would be
impossible for us to travel backward in any other chariot than that of
faith, for it is faith which helps us to see the creation of the world
when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for
joy!
Faith enables us to walk in the garden with our first parents and to
witness the scene when God promised that the Seed of the woman should
bruise the serpent's head. Faith makes us familiar with Patriarchs and
gives us to see the troubles and trials of kings. Faith takes us to
Calvary's summit and we stand and see our Savior as plainly as did His
mother when she stood sorrowfully at the foot of the Cross. We this day
can fly back to the solemn day of Pentecost and feel as if we could
hear the mighty rushing wind, and see the cloven tongues sitting upon
the chosen company, so swiftly does faith travel!
And, best of all, in one moment faith can take a sinner out of a state
of death into a state of life, can lift him from damnation into
salvation, can remove him from the land of the shadow of death, where
he sat in affliction and irons, and give him the oil of joy for
mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness! O
Sinner, you can get at Christ in a moment of time! No sooner has your
heart trusted Jesus than you are with Him–united to Him!
You need not say, "Where is He? I would fly to Heaven if I could but
find Him, or dive under Hell's most profound wave if I could but
embrace Him." He is near you, so near that the act of faith conveys you
at once into His bosom, plunges you into His blood, clothes you with
His righteousness, adopts you into the family of God and makes you
co-heir with Jesus Christ–joint-heir with Him in all things! See,
then, why faith is like sight, because of the rapidity of its
operations, requiring no time so that a dying sinner, believing in
Jesus, is saved at the 11th hour, needing not to go roundabout to do
penances, and pass through probationary periods and I know not what
besides! He may come to Jesus, weary, and worn and sad. And the road to
Jesus, though it seems long to some, is so short that one step takes
you there. You have but to leave self behind, and trust in Him, and you
are with Him! "We see Jesus." Faith, then, is like sight for its
quickness.
Is not faith like sight, too, in the second place, for its largeness?
It is a wonderful faculty, that of sight. Your eyes and mine take in at
once the whole of this building with all the assembled company. These
eyes will next, if they are placed at a point of vantage, take in the
entire city of London with the whole of its populous streets. Give the
eyes but the opportunity, let the sun go down, and they will take in
all the thousands of worlds that stud the brow of night. What is there
which the eye cannot grasp, and mark you, not the eye of the great and
mighty only, but of the poorest also? Yes, the little insignificant
eyes of the lark can take in as much, no doubt, as the big eyes of the
bull. And the smallest eyes that God creates He enables to compass
great things.
A marvelous thing is that eye, darting its shafts everywhere, sending
its rays around and embracing all things. Now, just such a power is
faith. What a faculty faith has for grasping everything, for it lays
hold upon the past, the present, and the future! It pierces through
most intricate things and sees God producing good out of all the
tortuous circumstances of Providence. And what is more, faith does what
the eyes cannot do–it sees the Infinite! It beholds the Invisible! It
looks upon that which eye has not seen, which ear has not heard–it
sees beneath the veil that parts us from the land of terror, and, moved
with fear–it makes us fly to the Savior!
Faith sees through the pearly gate, and, beholding the glory of the
better land, it makes us fly to Jesus who bears the keys of Paradise at
His waist. Faith sees–I know not how to describe fully what faith
sees–what is there she does not behold? She sees even God Himself, for
though in my finite conception I cannot grasp God, and my understanding
can only perceive, as it were, His train and skirts, yet my faith, with
awful comprehension, can take in the whole of God and believe what she
does not know, and accept what she cannot comprehend!
Oh, wondrous faculty of faith! God give it to you, my dear Hearer! God
give you more and more of it so that it may be to you the substance of
things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, and that all
comprehending faculty shall enable you to say–
"All things are mine, the gift of God, The purchase of a Savior's
blood.
This world is mine, and worlds to come. Earth is my lodge, and Heaven
my home." Again, sight is a most remarkable faculty, because, in the
judgment of most men, it is very sure. We believe that we are often
deceived by hearing. We are inclined, often, when we hear a story, to
say, "I would believe that if I saw it, but I would not otherwise. I
have been so often deceived by hearing tales that I cannot always
credit what my ears tell me."
We know how, by feelings, we are readily enough deceived, like Isaac,
who would not have given his blessing to Jacob had not his eyes waxed
dim, and his touch deceived him. But "seeing is believing," according
to the world's proverb. When a man sees a thing, then he says he knows
it, though, indeed, of late years especially, we have learned that even
sight itself is not always to be trusted, for the most extraordinary
illusions have been practiced upon persons for amusement and have
become a part of the apparatus of pleasure and philosophy. You cannot
believe your own eyes nowadays!
You see a great many things, or think you see them, which are not
there. And things which you could declare to be in such-and-such a
position turn out not to be there at all–it is merely some reflection,
or some delusion, simple enough when explained–but most puzzling until
it is opened up to you. However, sight is generally regarded by men to
be the most sure of all our faculties. If we see a thing, there it
is–there is no questioning it.
Now faith has this certifying power in a much higher degree, for the
faith which is of the operation of God and which distinguishes His own
elect, is infallible. The faith of God's people will not believe a lie.
It is written that "if it were possible," such-and-such "would deceive
the very elect," but it is not possible. Where faith takes the Word of
God as her basis, and rests upon it, she becomes an infallible faculty,
and we may depend upon that which she reveals to us. It is a glorious
thing to know certainties, such as the existence of God, and the
Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Such blessed
certainties as the effectual Atonement which has put away the sin of
the Lord's people and such certainties as the enjoyment of the Presence
of the Holy Spirit in His indwelling power within our soul. May we have
much of this faith which is like sight for its certifying power!
Once more, is not faith wondrously like sight from its power to affect
the mind, and enable a man to realize a thing? What I mean is this.
That eminent preacher in America, Mr. Beecher, frequently used to
address his audience upon Negro slavery. his touching eloquence never
failed to move his people to an abhorrence of the thing and to a
sympathy with those who smarted under its power. But on one occasion,
as I have been told, he wished to produce an extraordinary feeling in
order to raise a large sum of money for a certain purpose.
He therefore spoke enthusiastically upon the sorrows of a beautiful
girl, almost white, but still with sufficient African blood in her
veins for her master to claim her for his slave–and she was about to
be sold far south for the worst of purposes. Mr. Beecher wanted to
touch the hearts of his people to purchase her liberty, that she, their
Sister in Christ, might be freed. He had spoken earnestly, but to
produce the required effect he called her from her seat, and bade her
stand up in the midst, and you may guess that that morning there was no
difficulty in collecting all the needed funds to set her free. The
sight of the slave-girl had moved their hearts as the preacher's words
could not do.
Now, it is so usually. We talk about poverty, but when do you feel your
hands go into your pockets so freely as when you have been visiting a
poor family where the little ones are crying for bread, and where the
parents have no means for providing for them? You feel for orphans.
Many of us do very sincerely, but we never felt for them so thoroughly
as when we began to deal with them and to see them and their widowed
mothers. In our newly-founded Orphanage–for which I would bespeak your
help continually–we have had already to deal with many fatherless
ones. We have come more than ever into contact with them and we feel
that the fatherless are, indeed, objects of pity, for the sight of them
and of the widows has put the thing forcibly before us.
We have heard of one who, being cold in the streets and seeing a poor
shivering family, thought that winter was very hard, and that when he
got home he would take care to put by some money to buy blankets for
them. But when he had sat down by the fire, and thoroughly warmed
himself and partaken of his cheerful meal, he thought the weather must
be changed, and that it was not so bad a thing, after all, to have a
little winter. And so the blankets were never bought, and the poor were
never cared for. There is nothing like sight, my Brothers and Sisters,
to convince–notwithstanding the moment when sight is over, feelings
may depart.
Now faith has also this mighty reasoning power in even a higher degree.
If it is real faith it makes the Christian man, in dealing with God,
feel towards God as though he saw Him. It gives him the same awe, and
yet the same joyous confi-
dence which he would have if he were capable of actually beholding the
Lord. Faith, when it takes a stand at the foot of the Cross, makes us
hate sin and love the Savior just as much as though we had seen our
sins placed to Christ's account and had seen the nails driven through
His hands and feet and seen the bloody scourges as they made the sacred
drops of blood fall–
"We were not with the faithful few
Who stood Your bitter Cross around.
Nor heard Your prayer for those who slew,
Nor felt that earthquake rock the ground.
We saw no spear pierce Your side–
Yet we can feel that You have died." Faith realizes the thing and thus
becomes "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen." Hence the glory and the beauty of faith.
Now, many of you have heard about the wrath of God but it has all been
forgotten. You have heard about the judgment and the wrath of God to
come afterwards. You have heard of the Atonement, and the power of
Jesus to put away sin. But you have had no effect produced upon your
minds, because, as the Apostle puts it, "It was not mixed with faith in
them that heard it." But if you had had faith in that which was
proclaimed, and had come savingly to trust in the Truth of God which
was presented as the grounds of your salvation, you would have been
moved, and stirred, and excited, and led to hate sin and to fly to
Jesus! God grant to us, then, that we may have more and more faith. I
have thus, I trust, at sufficient length shown the parallel between
faith and sight.
II. And now we shall spend a minute or two upon another thought,
namely, that FAITH, THE SIGHT OF THE SOUL, IS HERE SPOKEN OF AS A
CONTINUOUS THING. "We see Jesus." It does not say, "We can see
Jesus"–that is true enough–the spiritual eye can see the Savior. Nor
does it say, "We have seen Him." That also, glory be to God, is a
delightful fact! We have seen the Lord, and we have rejoiced in seeing
Him. Nor does the text say, "We shall see Him," though this is our
pride and our hope, that "when He shall appear, we shall be like He,
for we shall see Him as He is."
The text says, "We see Jesus." We see Him now and continually. This is
the common habit of the Christian! It is the element of his spiritual
life. It is his most delightful occupation. It is his constant
practice. "We see Jesus." Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am afraid some
of us forget this. For instance, we see Jesus Christ as our Savior, we
being sinners still. And is it not a delightful thing always to feel
one's self a sinner, and always to stand looking to Christ as one's
Savior, thus beholding Him evermore? "As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, even so walk you in Him"–not merely sometimes coming to Him
as you came at first, but evermore abiding in Him.
"To whom coming"–always coming, constantly coming–"as unto a living
stone." I was present at a meeting of Believers a short time ago when a
conversation of this kind occurred. A Brother in the Lord, one of the
most fervent men I know, said that sometimes when his piety flagged and
his heart grew cold, he found it a very blessed thing to go and visit
the sick and the dying. He found this to be such a sweet restoration to
his faith that he recommended us all, as often as we could, to frequent
dying beds.
Now another Brother who was present, who preaches the Gospel, but who
at the same time is a butcher, said he thanked God he did not need to
go to a dying bed to see Jesus and to get his heart set right. He said
that he had had as sweet fellowship with God in Camden Town Market as
he ever had in the House of Prayer. And he said that he found it best
always to live as his Brother wished to live sometimes, namely, always
conscious of sin and always looking to the Sin-Offering. Come to Jesus,
then, as you came at first! Fly to the fountain always as needing
constant cleansing–not as though you had not been washed, but still
abiding–continuing in blessed recognition of your present cleansing
that flows from the fountain filled with blood.
It is very sweet to remember that the fountain we sing about as being
opened in Jerusalem, is opened "for the house of David and for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem"–not so much for sinners, though it is opened
for them, as for Believ-ers–"for the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem." Let us always be coming to it! And each
morning and each night, let this be the cry of our spirit, "Still
guilty, still vile, still polluted, we see Jesus, and, seeing Him, we
know that we are saved."
Should not this, also, be the mode of our life in another respect? We
are now disciples. Being saved from our former conversation, we have
now become the disciples of the Lord Jesus. And ought we not, as
disciples, to be constantly with
our Master? Ought not this to be the motto of our life, "We see Jesus"?
We should not regard the commands of Jesus Christ as being a law left
to us by a departed Master whom we cannot see, and to whom we cannot
fly. Is it not better to believe that Christ is a living Christ, that
He is in the midst of His Church still, observing our order, noting our
obedience or our disobedience, a Master absent in one sense, but still
in another point of view ever present, according to His promise–"Lo, I
am with you always, even unto the end of the world"? We should–
"Stay with Him near the tree, Stay with Him near the tomb. Stay till
the risen Lord we see, Stay watching 'till He come."
My Brethren, could we be so frequently cold and careless if we could
always see Jesus? Would our hearts be so hard towards perishing sinners
if we always saw that face which was bedewed with tears for them? Do
you think we could sit still, or grow worldly, or spend all our
energies upon ourselves if we could see the Crucified, who though "He
saved others, Himself He could not save"? I wish I could always come
here to preach Jesus "seeing" Him by my side, and feeling in my heart
that I was preaching in my Master's Presence. I would that you could
always come into this place, both at Prayer Meetings and at all other
times, feeling, "The Master is here. Let us bow as in His sight. Let
our worship be given–not to One who is blind, and who will not see
us–but to One who beholds us all and sees our inmost thoughts."
As disciples we should be more punctual in our obedience, more
consistent in our imitation of Jesus if we had Him always before us.
The Romanist puts up the crucifix idol before his eyes. Well, let us
put up Christ in our spirits. He wears the cross on his bosom. Let us
carry Christ in our heart, still thinking of Jesus, seeing Him at all
times. Would it not also, dear Friends, be very much for our comfort if
we were to see Jesus always as our Friend in our sojourn here?
"Henceforth," He says, "I call you not servants, but I have called you
friends."
You are very poor, my dear Brother. Do you see Jesus? He was poorer
than you. You have somewhere to go to sleep tonight, but He could say,
"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man has not where to lay His head." Are you racked with pain
tonight? Let it help you to see Jesus. You are not "exceedingly
sorrowful even unto death," nor are your griefs to be compared with
His. Have you been deserted and betrayed? See Jesus kissed by Judas!
Have you been denied by some friend who promised to be faithful? Look
into the face of Jesus as He turns to Peter! Does death itself stare
you in the face? Remember Him who, "being found in fashion as a Man,
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
Cross."
We would never be alone if we could see Jesus, or at least, if we were,
it would be a blessed solitude! We would never feel deserted if we
could see Jesus–we would have the best of Helpers. I know we would not
feel weak if we always saw Him, for He would be our strength and our
song. He would become our salvation. The bitter waters of Marah–the
afflictions and troubles of the day would all be sweet if this tree
were cast into the flood for us, and if Jesus were brought, in solemn
meditation, into contact with our spirits. Oh, to see Jesus!
You have seen Him as your Savior–you desire to see Him as your Master.
Oh, to see Him as your Friend upon whose bosom you can still lean your
aching head, into whose ear you can ever pour your tale of sorrow!
Through the wilderness you may continually come up leaning on your
Beloved, and with Him you may have perpetually such sweet enjoyments,
that earth, desert as it is, shall seem to blossom like a garden of
roses and your spirit shall enjoy Heaven below!
Again, would it not be much better for us, dear Friends, if we were to
see Jesus as our Forerunner? I do not know whether it is so with the
most of you, but while some of us rejoice in the prospect of Heaven,
yet the thought of death is sometimes surrounded with much gloom. It
cannot be an easy thing to go down amidst the chill darkness of the
river, and there to be separated, the soul from the body, and to leave
this earthly tabernacle behind an inheritance to worms. It has a
hideous appearance to us sometimes.
Even the Apostle himself shuddered a little at it when he said, "Not
that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon." Death seems a bitter
pill to us all, and unless it is swallowed up in victory–and the
victory takes away the sting of death–the hour of dissolution will be
bitter. But do you not think that our thoughts of gloom about death
sometimes arise from a forgetfulness that Jesus will be with us? If our
faith could see Jesus as making our bed in our sickness and then
standing by our side in the last solemn article to conduct us safely
through the iron gates–should we not, then, look upon death in a very
different light? You know how Watts's hymn puts it–
"Oh if my Lord would come and meet, My soul should stretch her wings in
haste, Fly fearless through Death's iron gate, Nor feel the terrors as
she passed. Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on His breast I lean my head, And breathe my life out sweetly
there." My dear Brothers and Sisters, gathering up all I should like to
have said, but cannot say, into one, it is this–if we see Jesus as
being always with us, from morn till eve, in life and in death–what
noble Christians it will make us! Now we shall not get angry with each
other so quickly. We shall see Jesus! We cannot be angry when that dear
loving face is in view. And when we have been affronted we shall be
very ready to forgive when we see Jesus. Who can hate his brother when
he sees that face, that tender face, more marred than that of any man?
When we see Jesus, do you think we shall get worldly? Would you have
spoken as you did across the counter today, Brother, had you seen
Jesus?
My dear Friend, would you have been as you have been to your
work-fellow? Would you have spoken as you did to your servants? Would
you have acted as you did to your master had you seen Jesus? They say
"a master's eye does much." Certainly the Presence of Jesus would do
much! "The master's eye does more than both his hands," they say. Oh,
for that consciousness of the eyes of Jesus, which shall be like the
hands of Jesus molding us according to His will. "We see Jesus."
Now, I hope you do see Jesus as you sit in the pews there. Sometimes on
Sunday, when the Lord helps the preacher, and Christ is evidently set
forth among you, you have seen Jesus. But will you see Him after you
have gone down those steps? Will you see Him when you get home to your
houses? Will you see Him the next morning in the workroom, or at the
business, or in the market? This is not quite so easy, and yet I hold
that if we had more Divine Grace we would see Christ just as well in
the market, among the baskets of fruit, as we can at the Tabernacle
sitting in our pews! We would see Him quite as well if we were driving
a horse, or walking along Cheapside, as when we are in our closets,
bowing the knee. For that is true Grace which is with us always, and
that is the Presence of Jesus which abides with us forever. That is
true piety which shines the fairest in the midst of worldly cares. May
we each one of us have this–and may it be the expression of our
life–"We see Jesus"–and then we shall be able to go farther and say,
"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
III. I shall detain you just a minute or two longer for a third point
about our sight of Jesus, namely, we have said that faith is like
sight, and that our faith should be a present Grace in active
operation. But there may be this reflection about our present sight of
Christ, that SOMETIMES OUR FAITH, LIKE OUR SIGHT, IS NOT QUITE CLEAR.
You do not always see, I suppose, equally well. There are many things
that affect the optic nerves, and we know that in fair weather we can
see a greater distance than we can in cloudy weather.
I was at Newcastle, some time ago, in a friend's house and when I went
up to the top window and looked out, he said, "There is a fine view,
Sir, if you could but see it. We can see Durham Cathedral from here on
Sunday." "On Sunday!" I said, "how is that?" "Well, you see all that
smoke down there, all those furnaces, and so on? They are all stopped
on a Sunday, and then, when the air is clear, we can see Durham
Cathedral." Right away I thought–ah, we can see a great deal on a
Sunday when the smoke of the world is gone for a little time! We can
see all the way to Heaven, then. But sometimes, what with the smoke we
make in business, and the smoke the devil makes, and the smoke that sin
makes, we can scarcely see anything at all!
Well, since the natural sight has to undergo variations, both from
itself within and from the smoke without, and from the state of the
weather–we must not wonder if our faith undergoes variations, too. It
ought not to do so, but sometimes it does, There are seasons when we
realize that Christ is ours. Glory be to His name, if all the devils in
Hell would speak to the contrary, yet we know that our Beloved is ours,
and that we are His! We are sure of it. Though all the angels in Heaven
should come and deny it, we would face them, and say, "I know whom I
have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
have committed unto Him against that day."
But there are other times when the same Believer sings Newton's hymn,
but whenever he does, he ought to sing it alone, for fear anybody
should catch the contagion of it–
" 'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought: Do I love
the Lord or no,
Am I His or am I not?"
There are hours when some of us would be glad to creep into a mouse
hole or hide ourselves in a nutshell–we feel so little, so
insignificant–our faith is at so miserable an ebb that we know not
what to do. Well, let us not be astonished as though we were not the
children of God because of this. Everything that has life has
variations. A block of wood is not affected by the weather, but a
living man is! You may drive a stake into the ground and it will feel
no influence of spring, summer, autumn, or winter–but if the stake is
alive and you drive it into the soil where there is moisture–it will
soon begin to sprout! And you will be able to tell when spring and
winter are coming by the changes that take place in the living tree.
Life is full of these changes–do not wonder, then, if you experience
them.
Again, faith, like sight, is not only subject to variations, but it has
great growth. Our children, in a certain sense, see as truly when they
are a day old as when they are grown up to be 20 years old. But we must
not suppose that they see as accurately, for they do not. I think
observations would teach us that little children see all things as on a
level surface, and that distant objects seem to them to be near, for
they have not yet received experience enough to judge of the relative
position of things. That is an acquired knowledge, and no doubt very
early acquired but still it is learned as a matter of mental
experience.
And let me say, though you may not have noticed it, all our measures of
distance by the eye are matters which have to be gained by habit and
observation. When I first went to Switzerland with a friend from
Lucerne, we saw a mountain in the distance which we were going to
climb. I pointed out a place where we should stop half-way up, and I
said, "We shall be there in about four and a half hours." "Four and a
half hours!" my friend said, "I'd undertake to walk it in ten minutes."
"No, not you." "Well, but half an hour!" He looked again, and said,
"Anybody could get there in half an hour!" It seemed no distance at
all.
And yet when we came to toil up, the four and a half hours turned into
five or six before we reached the place! Our eyes were not accustomed
to mountains, and we were not able to measure them. It is only by
considerable experience that you get to understand what a mountain is
and how a long distance appears. You are altogether deceived and do not
know the position of things till you become wiser. And it is just so
with faith. Faith in the Christian, when he first gets it, is true and
saving–but it is not in proportion. The man believes one doctrine,
perhaps, and that is so delightful that it swallows up every other.
Then he gets hold of another and he swings that way like a pendulum–no
doctrine can be true but that one.
Perhaps in a little time he swings back like a pendulum the other way.
He is unsteady because while his faith perceives the Truth of God, it
does not perceive the harmonies of the Truths of God. His faith, for
instance, may perceive the Lord Jesus Christ, but as yet it has not
learned the position which Christ occupies in the great economy of
Divine Grace. He is half-blind, and cannot see very far. He has sight,
but it is not the sight which he will yet receive. Like the blind man
who, when our Lord healed him, saw men at first as trees walking, he
comes, in due time, to see clearly, for Grace always goes on in its
work–it will never halt half-way.
Regardless, at first all is obscure and confused. Just as when you pass
from darkness into light you are unable to bear it, you are dazzled and
need a short time to accustom your eyes to the brilliance. But in due
time the eyes are strengthened and you can bear more and more light
till you again see with comfort. Let us ask, then, of the Lord, that He
will increase our faith till the mental eyes shall become clear and
bright, and that we be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light, to be with Christ, and to see Him as He is. If you
have but little faith remember that that will save you. The little
diamond is as much a diamond as the Kohinoor. So little faith is as
truly the faith of God's elect as the greatest faith!
If you but see Jesus, though it is but by the corner of your eye, yet
if you see Him, you shall be saved! And though you may not see as much
of Christ as advanced Believers do, yet if you see enough of Him to
trust Him, to rely on Him entirely–your sins, which are many, are
forgiven–and you shall yet receive Grace for Grace until you shall see
Him in His Glory. However, always be praying, "Lord, increase our
faith."
The last thing I have to notice about this true faith in Christ as
sight is that it is at all times a very simple thing to look. Look! No
one needs go to a grammar school or to a university to look. Look! The
smallest child, as we have said, can look– the most illiterate and
untaught can look. If there is life in a look, glory be to God for such
a provision because it is available for each one of us! Sinner, if you
would be saved, there is nothing for you to think upon but Christ. Do
your sins trouble you? Go to Him and trust in Him–and the moment you
look to Him you are saved. "Oh," says one, "but I cannot do that! My
faith is so weak."
Well, when I walk about and see a beautiful sight, very seldom do I
think about my own sight–my mind is occupied with the sight–and so
let it be with you. Never mind those eyes–think more about the vision
to be seen. Think of Christ. It
would be a pitiful thing if, when there were some great procession in
the streets, all you thought about was your own eyes. You would see but
very little. Think less about your faith, and more about Jesus–
"Weary Sinner! Keep your eyes
On the atoning Sacrifice.
View Him bleeding on the tree,
Pouring out His life for you.
Cast your guilty soul on Him,
Find Him mighty to redeem!
At His feet your burden lay.
Look your doubts and fears a way." Turn over and over in your mind the
great transaction on the Cross. I have sometimes said to young seekers,
Go home and spend an hour deliberately reading about the death of
Christ. And then picture it in your mind's eye, for it is in that way
that faith comes. Through the Holy Spirit's power we come to believe
that story by thinking upon it, seeing Jesus in it, and then following
on and giving it the full acceptance of our spirit. Go to the Cross for
faith if you cannot go with faith, and the Lord grant that you may find
in Jesus–
"True belief and true repentance, Every Grace that brings us near," so
that you, too, may say with us, "We see Jesus."
What is there in this world which is worth looking at in comparison
with Him? All else is like the mirage of the desert which appears but
to fade away, deluding the weary traveler with hopes of rest and
refreshment, and leaving him sick at heart because all has passed as
the baseless fabric of a dream, leaving not a wreck behind. Can you
gain anything by watching the bubbles on the stream of time? Will they
shake your death thirst and cool your brow in the article of death? Is
there anything of healing in the uplifted images of earthly gold,
honor, wisdom, and power? You have tried them–well, how do they
answer?
I know of one who, traveling over a pass in Italy one evening, secured
a light to help him over a dangerous and difficult part of the way
further on. It was not needed till the narrow steep descent was
reached. In fact, it was in the way till then, and just as the traveler
came to the very spot where it was required, it went out and left him
in utter darkness! So it is full often in the sinner's experience who
travels in the dark–his lights go out when most needed. Oh, far
better, then, to walk in daylight, using the eye of faith in the clear
sunshine of Gospel light from the Sun of Righteousness! Walk in the
light. Come to the light, and live seeing Jesus–
"We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen Across this little
landscape of our life. We would see Jesus' our weak faith to
strengthen, For the last weariness, the final strife. We would see
Jesus, the great Rock foundation, Whereon our feet were set by
Sovereign Grace. Nor life nor death, with all their agitation, Can then
remove us if we see His face. We would see Jesus–sense is all too
blinding, And Heaven appears too dim, too far away. We would see You,
to gain a sweet reminding That You have promised our great debt to pay.
We would see Jesus: this is all we're needing– Strength, joy, and
willingness, come with the sight! We would see Jesus, dying, risen,
pleading; Then welcome day, and farewell mortal night!" The Lord send
you away with His blessing, for Jesus' sake.
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Delay Is Dangerous
A sermon