Sing Talk—Mark Allan
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Before we open the Word of God, maybe we can just.
Lord for his help.
Our God and Father, we come before you this evening and we thank you that we can be.
Here together in this way, to have your word open and enjoy the Lord Jesus together.
Lord, we just would pray as we open Your word that Your Spirit would have liberty. You know the needs of everyone here tonight.
To the to the littlest detail, Lord, we've sung your eye is on the Sparrow and we know, Lord, that your eye is on each one of us here. And so we ask for your help. Lord, we just pray for your blessing on your word as it's opened. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, when I was praying about what to speak about.
This evening I was struggling a little bit.
From a couple weeks ago and.
I prayed about it and you know, the Lord seemed to lay in my heart to follow up on a topic that I had thought about looking into a little bit before and.
Some of you may know I've I've enjoyed looking at a few things in Psalm 34 and this is the last of five things that I had wanted to look at. One was seeking the Lord like King Aesop. Second one was crying to the Lord.
Like Israel did and the judges did, and then the next was tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. And another one was listening to the Lord like Samuel did through his whole life. And this last one was.
Looking to the Lord, there's a verse in Psalm 34 that I'd like to just read to start this Psalm 34.
And this is really what I wanted to to mention tonight, Psalm 34.
And verse five, they looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed, agreed Mr. Darby's. I think it says they looked unto him and were enlightened, and their faces were not confounded. I was considering the fact that if we look at the Lord, it changes everything. It changes everything.
And, you know, I thought, well, maybe what, where in the Bible would I find out about looking to the Lord, you know?
I've very much enjoyed and many of you may have heard Dave Myrne speaking on Abraham lifting up his eyes and looking to the Lord 7 times. I think it is. And you know I've enjoyed looking at those who look to the Lord when the Lord was on the cross. And this is Easter weekend and I had wondered about speaking on that, but the Lord seemed to lay something else in my heart that I want to go through. Came out and breaking a bread a couple weeks ago and it was just a different perspective of looking at the Lord from Revelation 5 which I'll get into so.
What I would like to take out very quickly, and our time is very short, is how looking at the Lord changes.
Everything. And to start with, I just, you know, this week, a little story that made me realize this a little bit. I was in Johnstown, PA, which is near Pittsburgh, for work this week. I had meetings that were supposed to run Tuesday and Wednesday, and I knew I had to come home.
To a meeting at my work in Ottawa where bad news was going to be delivered that I had been dreading for four months and had been under NDA not to talk about, and I really didn't want to come home and, you know.
I was hoping that the meetings would extend so I wouldn't have to come back. And I called my wife and talked to her about it and texted my boss and she said she'd like me to come back. And, you know, I started home and leaving Johnstown. It was 31° or 80 Fahrenheit.
In Ottawa, where my wife was, it was below 0 in freezing rain. Totally different perspectives.
Now he's driving around, driving home, and it was sunny and beautiful and I thought, when is this going to change? My wife called me and said power went out at 2:00. There's a flood in the backyard. Can you help me get the kids to set up the generator? I kept driving along and I was thinking about all the things I was struggling with and had his burdens on my mind. And you know, the temperature stayed at 31. I got over to Ithaca and it was about.
It dropped from about 80 to 70.
I got to Syracuse and it was still at 60 and I was like, I'm only two hours from home and it's 32° or freezing at home and they're having an ice storm. I was thinking what a contrast between the two. I got to Watertown and it was still 15° or 50. You can correct me if I'm wrong on any of these. And you know, by the time I hit the border to Canada, it was below 0.
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And it was an ice storm and the roads were the trees were all slumped over and.
On the roads and, you know, I arrived home on Wednesday night, the power was out, we had a generator running and climbed into bed, dreading what the next day held. Got up in the morning, couldn't take a shower, went into work and, you know.
They the meeting was going to be at 11:30, they were going to announce it and then everybody was going to be able to go home for the weekend. And I had been dreading that because I worked with those people for 25 years.
Basically, since I graduated and I was a heavy heart and you know, it wasn't there, they were shifting some of the work to other sites and leaving it as an engineering site. So it had a big impact. And you know, I was thinking about it from what's my perspective on this and I was aching and you know then.
I was talking to my boss who had flown in from Dallas, and she said no. You know, Mark, I've gone through this a couple times before, and I think she's actually a Christian.
She said, you know, it's difficult the first day and something needed to be done and thank you for coming. And, you know, we went through that conversation and her perspective was completely different than mine. And then, you know, last night, 12:30, I got an e-mail from someone who I worked with for 25 years, and her husband works there, too. She had gotten the news and just wanted to chat with me about it.
You know, our perspectives were totally different and I don't mean to get into that, but where I want to start is I'm going to go through very quickly.
And I would like you to look at this yourself, 7 little references from the Bible where people looked at the Lord and it was totally different. You know, in Pittsburgh it was 80°. In Ottawa it was in the high 20s. You know, from my perspective was totally different from my bosses, was totally different from a person on the production floor. And you know, when we can get our eyes on the Lord, it changes.
Everything.
In the first story I want to look at and just think about very quickly is Abraham. In that story, when he goes to OfferUp Isaac, he has been waiting 25 years from 75 to 100 for a son. Then his son grows up and then what does the Lord say? Go to the mountains of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the hills that I have held the.
He must have thought that was.
Crazy, you know, I can't imagine. And we know it was a test of his faith, a culmination. And his faith had been building through those years. And I was just thinking, you know, we can look at it from the eyes of an external person, which would say.
That's crazy. We can look at it through Abraham's eye of faith, which says I'm just going to trust God. He can even raise him from the dead.
And he obeys. And then we can look at it from a third perspective, which is what God saw.
And you know, we don't even it's 2000 years later until we have an inkling of what God saw when He saw that sight. I'd just like to read the two verses in connection with this. This is in Genesis 22. There's two verses about looking to the Lord there that I want to specifically read Genesis 22.
Verse four it says on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off and then later on it says Abraham left it up his eyes and looked and behold.
Behind him a ram caught in the thicket by the horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him.
Up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son, and he names the name of that place.
Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide. That was a momentous occasion in Abraham's life.
What even waiting for for 35 years and was a promise that would go on.
Way into the future.
He was being tested on and that was his perspective. But you know when God looked at that.
Not only was the Lord going to provide a substitute for Abraham, just in that one circumstance for one person, he was going to provide a substitute for the billions in this world, and it was going to be his only thing. You know, you can read through that story and you can look at it from the eye of someone who.
Doesn't know the Lord and it'll seem ridiculous. You can go through it and read it from the eye of Abraham and it has a completely different perspective. You can go through it from the eye of God and it just magnifies it beyond.
Belief. That's the first one. The second one, I'd like to look at it. I was also thinking about this because this is Easter weekend, Exodus 12. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I was thinking, looking, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. You know, to the natural eye, that must have seemed crazy. They were slaves in Egypt. That had been for several 100 years. Things had gone from bad to worse. They were in a terrible situation.
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And.
Then they're told to take a young lamb and kill it and put the blood on the door.
Seems crazy from the natural eye, but from the eye of faith that was going to be for their deliverance. From what we had this afternoon in the world, Egypt is a picture of the world. It was going to be for their deliverance where God would take them out and not only that, protect their the first born from being killed. Totally different perspective.
But when you look at it from God's perspective, it's magnified. When God looks down and he sees that blood on the door, it's not just one family who's worried about their eldest child. It's not just one country of Israel. It is.
Every person who's going to be covered by the blood. And so God looks and ceases, son, in both of those stories. And you know, we go on. And the next one that is in numbers.
Numbers chapter 20 and sorry you don't need to turn to these because I'll have to go through them quickly. Numbers 20 where they sin and the Lord allows serpents to come. These are very well known stories and the Lord tells Moses to take.
A serpent and put it up on a pole.
From the natural perspective, that just seems completely ridiculous.
From the eye of faith.
It would provide.
Healing to a dying person, and it would have meant everything to them. They'd sinned and it was a result of that sin that the serpent had bitten them and they were going to die. But when they looked at that pole.
They would be healed. You know, if you look at it from God's perspective, we see that in John three, it says.
That let me just read it to make sure I get it right.
As Moses left it up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That wasn't just a symbol that we see if you were to go look at an ambulance today.
People wouldn't really have any particular understanding of it. Perhaps it wasn't just for the healing of an individual who had been bitten because they had sinned. To God's eyes, that was His Son being lifted up. For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It just amplified it when the perspective was on the Lord, and particularly how God saw it, you know? Totally.
Different when you looked at it in a different light. You know the next one I'd like to.
Look at is in. I mean, it was David when he sinned. This is in.
First Chronicles.
Umm.
21 You don't need to turn to it, but David sinned in numbering the people and God gives him the choice of what he's going to have for a punishment and he sends, he chooses to fall into the Lords hands and he sends a destroying Angel and you know.
That seems like a crazy story from the natural eye. Why would God punish somebody for counting #1?
But you know, when you look at it through the eye of faith, you know David knew that he had sinned before God and he cast himself on the mercy of God. And the Lord showed mercy when that Angel reached Jerusalem. But the thing that struck me is how did God see that? It says in verse 15, it says God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying.
The Lord beheld.
He saw when he looked at Jerusalem, something that David didn't see, that was far greater, and that was the place where his son was going to die.
You know, the perspective totally changed from the natural eye to a David saw to what God saw, you know, or Nan saw it and he said, I'll give you everything.
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And so when we look at the Lord, it changes everything. If we can see it from God's perspective, it amplifies it even more.
The next one I'd like to look at is in Second Chronicles, and this is at the dedication of the temple. Again, I'm not going to go into the detail of it.
Solomon and interestingly enough, by the way.
The mountains of Moriah was the same place, and I don't know, the same region as Ornan's threshing floor, which is the same region as where the temple was built and in all of those places God saw.
Something that was beyond.
Anything that we could imagine that nobody knew about for 2000 years, he put it there for us to dig it out and understand it and appreciate it. You know, if we go to second Chronicles of the dedication of the temple.
What I wanted to.
Comment on there you know Solomon built this building that was the one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a beautiful building took seven years to build covered in gold, perfectly built didn't require a hammer to put it together and.
God is going to dwell in that place. You know 100,000 plus animals were sacrificed at the dedication of that temple.
So what does a natural man see?
It seems like an understandable opulence. Maybe I don't know. What did Solomon? Solomon recognized the immensity.
Of God wanting to dwell among his people at a place where he put his name.
But what did God see when he looked at that?
He saw a day ahead where his son was going to be glorified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over this whole world in a temple far grander. But to do that he would have to die on a cross and shed his blood.
In a way that was far more precious than those hundreds of thousands of animals that ever died. His perspective was completely different. You know, you go on.
To the cross again, these are all well known stories. You know you can go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, every one of those books. You can see people at that cross looking up at the Lord. See those the chief priests and the scribes mocking saying, if you be Christ, let him come down from the cross. They they that passed by wailed their head saying or.
You can see that the women standing afar off, you can see the Centurion and three of the books. And you know, everyone had a different perspective when they looked up at that cross.
From the natural perspective, he was just a troublemaker. Who.
The Romans decided to kill.
From the Centurions perspective and I just want to read this in Luke 24.
You know he saw something for.
More than that.
He stood afar off, it says now in the centurion saw what was done.
He glorified God, saying certainly this was a righteous man. And the other two other references, it says that he saw that it was the Son of God. You know, he recognized that this man on the cross.
Was the Son of God. But you know what's interesting to me is the perspective of the centurion pales in comparison to what God saw.
He wasn't just the Son of God.
He was taking the sin of every believer from eternity past to forward.
Whose own self bear our sins, and his own body on the cross.
And he there was forsaken of God. It wasn't just that he was the Son of God. He was taking the complete punishment of all of those stories in the Old Testament and it was put on him there. It was far more far more amazing. It changed the entire course of history. And you know, this is Easter weekend. You know, I think sometimes and I know we remember the Lord every week of the opportunity to.
And you know, sometimes we just.
Miss seeing it the way that we should. You know, even, I guess the Jews celebrate, celebrate Passover last weekend and maybe it's Easter this weekend.
For, for Kristen's, it's the timing's a little bit different, but you know.
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The Jews can look at the story of Abraham and they don't see the Lord in it. They can look at the Passover and they don't see the Lord in it. They can look at the story of the serpent on the cross.
And they don't see the Lord in it. They don't see it in any of them. We see something far grander that God just.
Revealed to us in the New Testament, far more incredible than anything that was written. It was completely hidden just for his eyes up to that point. And this gets down to the last one that I wanted to mention. It's really the one that really struck me as I considered this topic. And this is in Revelation 5. You know, in Revelation 5 we have this.
Read in Breaking of Bread, probably.
More times than can be counted. I was trying to just guesstimate how many times you have a verse read from Revelation. It's like one in every three break. Breaking of breads in Reno Ferry. Maybe that's it is a tremendous chapter, but you know, I always looked at that chapter from the perspective of the redeemed.
And seeing that lamb that was slain, you know, this is a story that seems crazy to the natural eye.
Why on earth would they be praising? When you're opening a book of judgment? It doesn't make a particle of sense.
But when you look at it from the redeemed eye, they needed a substitute. They needed a deliverer, they needed someone to cover their sin, they needed someone to stop the angels destroying sword. They needed all of those things. They needed somebody to set this world right that is on a path of self, of complete implosion as it is right now.
And there was one person worthy.
To take that and it was just this one verse that struck me, it says.
The verse about look I'm beholding is 2 verses already says and I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts.
And in the midst of the elder stood a Lamb as it had been slain.
And then later on it says, and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. You know, when I've read that chapter over and over and over and over again and, and seen those verses, you have that chorus break out of those praises that are beyond imagination and they fall down on their faces. And it is amazing. But you know, what I thought about was.
Taking that book and what was when?
God saw the Lamb.
What was in his heart?
Here for the first time you might may not for the first time, but here.
He sees his son.
Perfectly fulfilling everything from past and is going to be able to set it all right and you know that is I can't I'm not a very articulate person, but you know my cousin Harold Smith's funeral. I wasn't his funeral it was about a year before his funeral he spoke in this chapter and it changed my perspective on it ever since to realize what.
Is actually happening.
In Revelation 5, and you know that from the respective of the redeemed, it's absolutely amazing, but from the perspective of God, it's infinitely more beautiful and amazing. You know, as I said, I can't articulate that very well, but there's going to be a day when.
When every eye will see him, it says in Revelation 1.
Every eye is going to see him.
So whether you want to look at him now or not.
Every eye is going to see him.
You know when he comes out of heaven.
For.
As King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this world is going to see him for who he is and there won't be any question at that point. But you know, I was just.
To come back to the point of this verse, that when we look at the Lord, you know from the natural heart, we see nothing. You know, when we look at it through the eye of faith, it is momentous and beautiful. When we look at it from God's perspective, it's infinitely more incredible to consider.
And so, you know, as we go through, I was thinking about this from a practical perspective. You know, this week there's fighting on the Temple Mount on perhaps ordnance threshing floor where the Jews and the Arabs are playing games with each other this week.
What does God see?
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His perspective changes everything.
You know, there's a war in Ukraine right now that is changing the course of power of this whole world.
What does God see?
You know, when we look at the moral foundation of the West completely crumbling, what does God see? He's preparing his bride. He's almost to the point where he's going to call us home. Getting that in our eyes and even the smallest way changes everything. And if I were to tell you that I have this fully understood, I don't when I was in that car driving home.
You know I this is cliche, but I thought of it saying if the Lord brings you to it.
He'll take you through it. And you know, as I thought about it, I thought, you know, I'm enjoying the sunshine here in 31 degrees. My wife sees something completely different and she's only two hours away. You know, when we get our eyes on the Lord, it changes everything. And so there's just one thing that I could say from these few minutes and soriumly is to try and just look through the eye of faith, and not only through the eye of faith, but look at it from God's perspective and it will change everything.
It's just thank the Lord.
Our God and Father, we just thank you for your word.
Lord help us.
To see wondrous things out of your law.
Lord, help us as we face the mundane and difficult situations of every day, the things that seem to drag on for years and years and years. Lord, help us to see it from your perspective. And even more, Lord, help us to see it through the eyes of God. And Lord, we just would pray for your blessing on this weekend. It would be a real help and encouragement. You know the needs of everybody here in this room today.
And so, Lord, we just would ask for your help. We thank you that we can look to you, Lord.
We think of that day so many years ago when you were hung up on a cross.
To bear our sins, and we thank you for it. Lord, know that eternity.
We will be able to praise you for this in a way that perhaps we don't fully understand now, so we just would ask for your help and blessing on the balance of this evening. In Jesus name, Amen.