Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3117
“And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray you, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, on the same text, is #2215, Volume 37—YOUNG MAN! A PRAYER FOR YOU]
THE Believer in Christ sees much more than any other man sees. There is a proverb which says, “Seeing is believing,” but that is not true, for there are many things that we see, which, if we are sensible persons, we shall notbelieve, since our eyes are very apt, indeed, to be deceived, and optical illusions are very common. If you turn the proverb around the other way and say, “Believing is seeing,” you will often find it come true. The man who has believed has “the evidence of things not seen” as yet. He is like Moses who is described as “seeing Him who is invisible.” Faith is to a man like new eyes—eyes with a far wider range of vision than natural eyes ever have—eyes which see the Truths of God, which natural eyes often do not—eyes which wax not dim, but which, as age increases, grow yet more bright and farseeing! Blessed is the man who has the eyesight of faith! Elisha had it and, therefore, when he saw the hosts of Syria, with their horses and chariots encompassing the city of Dothan, he also saw the angelic hosts with their horses and chariots of fire which God had sent to guard him from the Syrians.
The eyesight of faith produces, in the man who possesses it, a calm and quiet frame of mind. Elisha’s servant said, “Alas, my master!” but Elisha did not say, “Alas, my servant!” for there was nothing to cause him to be alarmed. The servant said, “What shall we do?” but his master said nothing of the kind—with those horses and chariots of fire visible to his eyes, he had no need to be dismayed and no reason for asking the question, “What shall we do?” It is a grand thing to have a calm, serene frame of mind, so as not readily to be put out of temper and to grow angry, or to become depressed and anxious, but to possess one’s soul in patience and peacefulness. This is to be a king among the sons of men! When others are driven here and there, like the thistledown upon the hillside, this man stands like the royal oak in the midst of the tempest, too deeply rooted to be easily swept away. He is the man who is not “afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He can say, with David, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” And he is of the same mind as that Psalmist who said, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is removed, and though the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea.” Oh, that we all had these eyes of faith, that we might enjoy such calm, quiet patience as Elisha enjoyed! If we could see what Elisha saw, we would be as quiet and serene as Elisha was. But most men have not this calmness of mind because they have not the spiritual eyesight which would bring it to them. The narrative before us, if we use it as a kind of illustration, will help us to realize the blindness of those who as yet have not had their eyes opened. And I trust that it will also lead us to admire the rich Grace of God which has been manifested in those of us who have had our eyes opened that we may see the things of God.
I. My first observation shall be that THE NATURAL EYES ARE BLIND TO HEAVENLY THINGS.
Man boasts that he can see, but he cannot. He sees natural things and he often sees them very clearly. His penetrating eyes have looked deep into the earth and the depths of the sea, and has peered among the stars. Scarcely anything has been able to conceal itself from the wondrous power of research possessed by the human mind. For natural things, the natural eyes are sufficient but, as the natural man understands not the things of the Spirit of God, seeing that they are
spiritual and must be spiritually discerned, so the natural eyes discern not spiritual things. Let me prove this, as I can very readily do.
For instance, God is everywhere, yet sin-blinded eyes see Him not When our eyes are opened, we can see God everywhere! It would be impossible to place a Christian where he would not feel the Presence of his Maker in creation. Whatever landscape his eyes gaze upon, he says at once, “My Father made all this,” and he can see traces of his Father’s handiwork, not merely when he looks upon the face of the earth, but also when he looks up to the stars. Not only in a calm, clear night, but amidst the hurly-burly of the tempest, the Christian realizes that God is there—he does not need anybody to point out to him the fact that God is present, for he knows it. How often have some of us walked out when the storm has been raging—and delighted to look up to the flashing lightning because we saw in it the glances of our Father’s eyes—and to listen to the peals of thunder because we believed them to be our Father’s voice, that voice of the Lord which is full of majesty and which “breaks the cedars of Lebanon.”