Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

It's good to have all of you with us.

It's good to have our visitors with us.

We're grateful for your presence, and we hope that you will come back and see us again
soon at your next available opportunity.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs chapter 20.

We read in verse 12 where the Proverbs writer says,

This Sunday and two Sundays from now, I want us to spend a few moments considering the
eye.

The eye which God made.

Now we're not going to uh delve into all of the scientific looking uh at or explanation of
the eye, though it is an incredible creation.

and certainly declares the glory of God, but rather we're going to look at it from a
biblical perspective.

Beginning first with our eyes, or the eyes of the righteous.

Turn to the 121st Psalm.

In Psalm 121, the psalmist writer begins with these words.

Psalm 121 and in verse 1, I will lift up my eyes to the hills.

From whence comes my help?

He asks the question, I'm going to look, I'm going to gaze around, I'm going to decipher
and try to understand from where my help comes.

But then he writes verse two, my help comes from the Lord.

who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved.

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.

He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even
forevermore.

as the psalmist writer considers where his help comes from.

He looks around.

He looks to the hills.

You know, there was uh a king who once thought as he went into the land of Israel and did
battle with the people in Israel and was defeated in the hills, you know what?

That's the problem.

We did battle with them in the hills.

Let's do battle with them in the flatlands because their God must be a God of the hills.

So if we do battle with them in the flatlands, we'll win because their God will be
powerless there.

The king had a false concept of God.

He didn't understand Jehovah who made heaven and earth.

God says, I'll defeat you in the hills.

I'll defeat you in the flatlands.

I'll send you to your grave.

The point is the psalmist writer uses his eyes and he looks ultimately to the Lord for
deliverance.

God's people use their eyes to look to the Lord and rely on him.

As we consider additionally, if we turn

back just a few pages in your Bible to Psalm 119.

In Psalm 119 and in verse 18, we learn that the righteous have their eyes taught by God.

In Psalm 119 and in verse 18, we read, Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from
your law.

The prayer

and the request of the psalmist writer here is that God educate his eyes, that God teach
him what the law would have him to know, that he be caused to see the wonders of what God

had done and was doing.

The psalmist writer here is an asking

for some miraculous knowledge to be placed in his heart and his mind, he's asking for his
eyes to be taught by the Word of God.

Matter of fact, the whole 119th Psalm in all of its verses is dedicated to glorifying and
magnifying and recognizing the value of the Word of God.

And here the Psalmist writer, Ash, opened my eyes.

that I may see.

As we consider the eyes of the righteous, we should understand that they are educated by
God.

They are taught to understand the things which the world does not perceive, does not
understand, does not conceptualize, because the thing they're missing is divine

revelation.

from God in the form of His Word.

as the righteous we are to have our eyes taught by God.

Psalm 19

The psalmist writer in the 19th Psalm speaks concerning the revelation of God.

He begins by pointing out that God has revealed Himself through the firmament, through His
handiwork.

He reveals Himself every day.

Day unto day He utters speech.

Night unto night He shows knowledge.

There's no language or speech in which their voice is not heard.

The line has gone out through all the earth.

and all the words to the end of the world.

He's speaking about natural revelation.

He's speaking about the thing which we see around us, the universe that we exist in, this
physical world which declares the glory of God.

But he goes on to write in beginning in verse seven, he says, the law of the Lord is
perfect converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

There was a time which historians have termed the time of the enlightenment, a time in
history where there was much discussion and cultural discussion and religious discussion

about God and about the creation and the world around us.

Much discovery was being made about the world and the universe around us and the way that
things were made and exist.

And yet,

God makes it clear as the psalmist writer brings forth that it is the commandment of the
Lord that enlightens, brings light to the eyes.

Most of us at some point, I imagine, have walked through a dark room.

We had a friend back in North Carolina that she was in their house, the house they had
lived in for years, and she was walking with the lights off.

and there just happened to be a wall where she didn't think there was a wall.

And her toe ran into it and she hit her toe so hard she fell the floor passed out.

in a house she had lived in for years.

You know that wall had been there the entire time.

from the time that they moved into that house.

That wall hadn't moved.

So why is it that she ran into the wall?

It wasn't because it hadn't moved.

It wasn't because it was new.

It was because there was no light.

Imagine living in a world day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, without
any light from the revelation of the commandments of God on how to live, on how to be in

this life prepared for the next.

in Ephesians, Paul, as he writes to the church at Ephesus, the church which he had spent
so much time with and had such deep, deep care for, will write in Ephesians chapter 1,

Verse 15, therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my

prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened,

that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who

believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in heavenly places, far above

all principality in power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only
in this age, but also in that which is to come."

He put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

as Paul writes to these Christians.

He expresses in this prayer on their behalf that they be granted eyes of understanding.

that they looked to God's Word.

They looked to the revelation and the knowledge that God has given them.

Now in the first century, He gave it to them through the form of the miraculous gifts,
through the form of those who had inspired knowledge and revelation like the apostles, and

they gave that knowledge and information to the church, and the church was supposed to
learn from it.

You go over to Ephesians chapter 4, and you will find Paul mentioning,

the work of evangelists and elders and teachers and preachers and their function to
educate the church to maturity so that they wouldn't be blown about by every wind of

doctrine that they encountered.

And Paul is praying on behalf of the Ephesian brethren that their eyes be opened to what
God had been doing and was continuing to do.

But he points out, he says, you need to see the work that Christ is doing.

You need to see his position in heaven.

You need to see his authority over principalities and powers in heavenly places.

Now question, how can you see that?

for everything that he's describing is something that isn't visible to the physical eye.

Well, if you turn over to Hebrews chapter 11, the Hebrew writer explains how you can see
it.

He says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

You ask, how can I see what is unseeable?

And in the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, the answer is, by trusting God's Word.

So example after example after example in Hebrews chapter 11 begin by using these words,
by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.

Now that's not a hope in the dark.

That's not walking through the dark room and hoping you end up in the right place.

That is God saying, let me shine a light in the room so you can see where you're going and
I'll tell you what I'm doing.

And so in Hebrews chapter 12.

The Hebrew writer writes, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.

The Hebrew writer says, here's how you do in the Christian age what the Old Testament
examples did in their age.

You set your eyes on Christ.

You look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of

the throne of God.

For consider him.

Put your mind's eye on him.

Stop worrying about what your

physical eye can see.

And start allowing your eyes to be educated by God to see what the mind can know through
faith, through the Word of God, through the evidence that God gives and the testimony He

gives, and consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself lest you
become weary and discouraged in your soul.

Paul prayed that the Ephesian brethren have their eyes enlightened by God.

How do you do that?

It's not some miraculous thing.

You put your eyes into the Word of God and you allow the Word of God to shine the light of
God in your eyes.

But when you don't...

The Hebrew writer says when you take your eyes off of Christ, when you no longer are
looking to the author and finisher of our faith, then you're going to become weary and

discouraged.

I have friends who have lived in Alaska.

Some of my friends have previously lived in Alaska, and some do live in Alaska.

But one of the things they would point out is how much of a struggle there is in the
society of people who live in Alaska with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and other things like

that.

And it is very much prominent during the six months where the sun doesn't shine.

When it's dark for six months, the human perception of things gets a little off-kilter.

It's not helped too much when it's bright for six months and the sun never goes down
either.

But the point is we are used to what God designed us to live in.

And the Hebrew writer tells us, put your eyes on Christ.

Stop allowing darkness to diminish your view of Christ.

We are to be those as we consider the eyes of the righteous who look to God.

Jesus would write or would say, as Matthew recorded it in his record of the gospel,
Matthew chapter six.

Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 19, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where
thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The lamp of the body is the eye.

As Jesus tells us, the light of your existence is determined by your eye.

He's not talking about your physical eye.

He's talking about where your heart is, what your heart dwells upon, what your mind
focuses on.

He says, the lamp of the body is the eye.

If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that dark.

Jesus says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

So as we consider the eyes of the righteous, we consider that they are to look to the
Lord.

We consider that they are to be taught by God.

They are to be given light by His word, and they are to look to God.

but then consider the eyes of the wicked.

If we turn to Isaiah chapter 6...

Isaiah chapter 6.

We read of the call of Isaiah.

In Isaiah chapter six and verse one, we read, the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the
Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above it stood Seraphim.

Each one had six wings.

With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew.

And one cried to another and said, holy.

Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was
filled with smoke.

So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

As Isaiah sees this vision, he looks at himself and says, I don't belong here.

because I am not righteous.

I am not a person of unclean lips or a person of clean lips.

I am a person of unclean lips and so are my people.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken
with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has

touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then I said, Here am I, send me.

The seraphim comes and he touches his mouth with...

one of the coals from the altar and he says, I've purged your iniquity.

I've taken your sin away.

And then the question comes from the throne of God.

Who are we going to send on our behalf?

We need a messenger.

Who's going to volunteer?

And Isaiah says, here am I, send me.

And he said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.

Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts, and return

and be healed.

God says, I've got a message that needs to go forth to the people.

Who's going to take it?

Isaiah says, here am I, send me.

I'll take the message.

What's the message?

God says, shut up the ears and the eyes and the hearts of this people.

Wait a minute.

I thought God wanted people to repent.

I thought God was long suffering and desired for them to be saved.

I thought God was one who was willing and gracious and desires for people to do what was
right.

Yes, he is.

How is it that Isaiah is going to shut the ears and the eyes and the hearts of the people?

The answer is he's going to declare to them the word of God.

You see, God knows that his word has two effects.

And it has two effects, and which effect it has is determined not by the word, but by the
heart of the person who hears it.

And so God is going to send Isaiah forth to speak his word.

And the result of Israel as a wicked people is instead of having their ears opened to
learn, instead of having their eyes opened to see, instead of having their hearts opened

to be educated by God and repent, the word of God is going to be preached to them and it's
going to have the opposite effect.

Same message.

different result.

And it's because the eyes of the wicked are blind to the truth.

They're not blind because it's impossible for them to understand it.

They're blind because they have their heart set on this world.

John would write in 1 John, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

For the things that are in the world are passing away.

But the wicked have their heart and their eyes and their mind locked in on this world.

And anything that is about anything else, they're uninterested.

So God sends Isaiah to make the eyes of the wicked blind, because they had blinded their
eyes already.

Turn to Mark chapter 8.

Jesus will speak to His disciples after they had witnessed the things which He had done in
feeding the 4,000.

and he will speak to them about why they do not understand what he's doing.

In Mark chapter eight and in verse 15, we read, then he charged them, take heed, beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

And the day the disciples, the apostles reasoned among themselves saying, is it because we
have no bread?

They were looking at their physical supplies and they heard the statement from Jesus,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, and they're like, is he criticizing us

because we kind of forgot provisions today?

Is he faulting us because we don't have the supplies that we need?

Jesus being aware of it said to them verse 17, why do you reason because you have no
bread?

Do you not yet perceive nor understand is your heart still hardened?

Having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when I
broke the five loaves for the 5,000 how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?

And they said to him 12.

Also when I broke the seven

For the 4,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?

And they said seven.

So he said to them, how is it you do not understand?

Then he came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch
him.

So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.

And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw
anything.

And he looked and said, I see men like trees walking.

Then he put his hands on him again, on his eyes again and made him look up.

and he was restored and saw everything clearly.

Then he said to him, oh sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town nor
tell anyone in the town.

Jesus has just confronted the apostles, the disciples about their blindness, their
blindness of understanding, their blindness of lack of education, their blindness of a

lack of perceiving what

Christ was doing!

Any questions?

You have eyes.

Why can't you see?

You have ears.

Why can't you hear?

Why do you not understand?

We are taught, we are to understand that the eyes of the wicked cannot understand what God
is doing, not because it's impossible, but because they won't pay attention to what God is

doing.

They will not perceive what God is doing because they won't accept the testimony that
comes from God.

But then as we conclude, we've seen the eyes of the righteous, we've seen the eyes of the
wicked, now consider the eyes of the Lord.

Psalm 34.

in the thirty-fourth Psalm.

The Psalmist writer

will write, beginning in verse 11, Come, you children, listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the LORD, who is the man who desires life and loves many days
that he may see good.

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil and do good, seek peace, and pursue it.

But then he writes,

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry.

As you consider the eyes of the Lord, we're not talking about physical eyes.

We're not talking about the eyes on this earth, the eyes that eventually become dim, the
eyes that used to be able to see clearly and now they don't see quite so clearly anymore.

The eyes that used to be able to focus long distances away and short distances away, and
now they only focus one or the other?

We're not talking about those kind of eyes, we're talking about the eyes of attention.

God's attention is on the righteous.

His ears are open to hear their prayer and their cry.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous for the ability to deliver them from harm.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous because He's ready to hear what they need.

quite often in raising children.

My children will love and appreciate this.

As you're speaking to them and you're trying to make a point, you say, look at me.

Why?

Because wherever your eyes are, most likely that's where your mind is.

Well the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

That tells you that the mind of the Lord is on the righteous.

He cares about them.

in Proverbs chapter 15.

Proverbs chapter 15 and in verse 3.

We read, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

if you were to say, you know what, I'm focusing on everything.

Well, that'd be a little bit of uh a testimony about yourself and it would tell everyone
else you're focusing on nothing.

Because here's how we work as humans.

The more things we focus on, the less focused we are.

The more things our attention is on, the less attention we can give to anything.

We have limited capacity.

There is just only so much

we can do at one time.

My wife learned years ago when we were first married that I could focus on one thing,
driving or where we were supposed to stop as we were driving.

We would pull out of school, head back to the house, she would say, we need to stop at
Dollar General.

Dollar General was one mile down the road and we'd drive right by it.

because my mind was already on home.

And since that's where my focus was, there went Dollar General and she'd look at me, are
we stopping or not?

We have limited focus.

We have limited attention.

Not so with God.

With God, see, the eyes of the Lord are in every place.

The wicked wonder, the wicked surmise, you know what?

We can get away with this.

God won't see it.

yes, he

and the righteous.

can have assurance that no matter their circumstance, God sees it.

but he also, as he is keeping watch, does so.

And I love the way, as we close, that Revelation chapter 1 presents the picture of Christ.

For in Revelation chapter 1, as John is in...

is on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's Day.

And as he is worshiping, he hears a voice behind him and he turns.

And this is what John says he saw.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven
lampstands, one like the Son of Man,

clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band.

His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of
fire."

John as he sees this vision of Christ.

will see Christ manifested in the vision.

as if his eyes were on.

Christ knows what's going on.

Christ knows what His people are about to come under.

And He's And He's ready to deal with the wicked.

It's interesting when you go through the book of Revelation, we'll do this a little bit
more in two weeks as we continue this thought, you see eyes and eyes and eyes all over the

place.

You see Christ pictured with seven eyes.

The picture of eyes all over the book.

But all throughout the book, the book is telling us, God sees.

If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, God sees you.

God sees you separated from Him.

at war, at enmity with Him.

Not righteous, not at one with Him, not holy.

God sees you in your sin.

but God doesn't desire to see you that

God desires you to be a part of His family.

God desires to look upon you as a child of His.

God desires to not see your sin, but rather see the righteous blood of His Son when He
looks at you covering your sin.

If you're outside the body of Christ, how can you change that?

You can hear the Word of God.

and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because Jesus said, except you believe
that I am He, you shall die in your sins.

But Jesus also said, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

He that believeth not shall be damned.

So you can hear the word of God.

You can have your eyes enlightened and educated by the word of God.

You can believe what God says and then you can obey what he says.

And you can be immersed in water to have your sins washed away.

and you can stand before God not with your sins as a testimony against you, but with His
righteousness as a testimony for you.

as a Christian, as a family member of God, dead to the world, alive to Christ.

If you have need of that invitation this morning, it is open to you now and every moment
of every day.

If you have need of that invitation, why not come now as we stand and as we sing.