New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 195
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 23, 1858.
“They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.”—Psalm 34:5.
FROM THE CONNECTION we are to understand the pronoun “him” as referring to the word “Lord” in the preceding verse. “They looked unto the Lord Jehovah, and were lightened.” But no man ever yet looked to Jehovah God, as he is in himself, and found any comfort in him, for “our God is a consuming fire.” An absolute God, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, can afford no comfort whatever to a troubled heart. We may look to him, and we shall be blinded, for the light of Godhead is insufferable, and as mortal eye cannot fix its gaze upon the sun, no human intellect could ever look unto God, and find light, for the brightness of God would strike the eye of the mind with eternal blindness. The only way in which are can see God is through the Mediator Jesus Christ.
“Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find,—“
God shrouded and veiled in the manhood,—there we can with steady gaze behold him, for so he cometh down to us, and our poor finite intelligence can understand and lay hold upon him. I shall therefore use my text this morning, and I think very legitimately, in reference to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—“They looked unto him, and were lightened;” for when we look at God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, and behold the Godhead as it is apparent in the Incarnate Man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified by Pontius Pilate, we do see that which enlightens the mind, and casts rays of comfort into our awakened heart.
And now this morning, I shall first invite you, in order to illustrate my text, to look to Jesus Christ in his life on earth, and I hope there are some of you who will be lightened by that. We shall then look to him on his cross. Afterwards we shall look to him in his resurrection. We shall look to him in his intercession; and lastly, we shall look to him in his second coming; and it may be, as with faithful eye we look upon him, the verse shall be fulfilled in our experience, which is the best proof of a truth, when we prove it to be true in our own hearts, We shall “look unto him” and we shall “be lightened.”
I. First, then, we shall LOOK TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN HIS LIFE. And here the troubled saint will find the most to enlighten him. In the example, in the patience, in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, there are stars of glory to cheer the midnight darkness of the sky of your tribulation. Come hither, ye children of God and whatever now are your distresses, whether they be temporal or spiritual, you shall, in the life of Jesus Christ and his sufferings, find sufficient to cheer and comfort you, if the Holy Spirit shall now open your eyes to look unto him. Perhaps I have among my congregation, indeed I am sure I have, some who are plunged in the depths of poverty. You are the children of toil; with much sweat of your brow you eat your bread; the heavy yoke of oppression galls your neck; perhaps at this time you are suffering the very extremity of hunger; you are pinched with famine, and though in the house of God, your body complains, for you feel that you are brought very low. Look unto Him, thou poor distressed brother in Jesus; look unto Him, and be lightened.
“Why dost thou complain of want or distress,
Temptation or pain?—he told thee no less;
The heirs of salvation, we know from his word,
Through much tribulation must follow their Lord.”
See him there! Forty days he fasts and he hungers. See him again, he treads the weary way, and at last all athirst he sits upon the curb of the well of Sychar and he the Lord of glory, he who holds the clouds in the hollow of his hand, said to a woman, “Give me to drink.” And shall the servant be above his master, and the disciple above his Lord? If he suffered hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, O heir of poverty, be of good cheer; in all these thou hast fellowship with Jesus; therefore be comforted, and look unto him and be lightened.
Perhaps your trouble is of another caste. You have come here to-day smarting from the forked tongue of that adder—slander. Your character, though pure and spotless before God, seems to be lost before man; for that foul slanderous thing hath sought to take away that which is dearer to you than life itself, your character, your good fame; and you are this day filled with bitterness and made drunken with wormwood, because you have been accused of crimes which your soul loathes. Come, thou child of mourning, this indeed is a heavy blow; poverty is like Solomon’s whip, but slander is like the scorpion of Rehoboam, to fall into the depths of poverty is to have it on thy little finger, but to be slandered is to have it on thy loins. But in all this thou mayest have comfort from Christ. Come and look unto him and be lightened. The King of kings was called a Samaritan; they said of him that he had a devil and was mad; and yet infinite wisdom dwelt in him, though he was charged with madness. And was he not ever pure and holy? And did they not call him a drunken man and a wine-bibber? He was his father’s glorious Son and yet they said he did cast out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Come! poor slandered one; wipe that tear away! “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call they of his household?” If they had honored him, then might you have expected that they would honor you, but inasmuch as they mocked him and took away his glory and his character blush not to bear the reproach and the shame, for he is with you, carrying his cross before you, and that cross was heavier than yours. Look, then, unto him and be lightened.