Get To Heaven On Good Looks

Isaiah 45:22-23

     Looks can be very deceptive. A man picked up his grandfather clock from the repair shop and while walking home with it, collided with a drunk. "Why don't you watch where you're going, he said to the drunk." "Why don't you war a watch like everybody else" he replied.

     I was visiting in the hospital one day. From the room across the hall I heard someone say, "Who in the blankety-blank did that?" I looked up to see a nurse with a very pretty face. Normally we do not associate a pretty face with a foul mouth.

     A man spoke in chapel when I was attending Bob Jones University. He had with him a box of rocks as he preached from 1st Peter 2:5; "You also, as living stones are being  built up a spiritual house…" He explained that when a short wave blue light shone on a "living stone" it would glow. He placed several stones in a box with pigeon holes. The auditorium lights were turned out and he turned on the short wave blue light. Several of the stones began to glow. The glowing living stones had been placed in the form of a cross. The lights were turned back on and we could see that many plain stones were living stones. Many of the beautiful stones were dead. So shall it be in the light of God's judgment.

1st Samuel 16:7 says, "…man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We are talking about a look of faith from the bottom of our heart to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of our soul.

We sometimes forget the power of a look:

  • Eve took of the forbidden fruit as the result of a look
  • Sons of God in Noah's day married the daughters of men as a result of their looks.
  • Achan took forbidden treasure at Jericho as a result of a look
  • David committed adultery, murder, and lying as a result of a look.

I. THE COMMAND TO LOOK IS:

Timeless

     The words of Isaiah the Prophet. They speak the same truth as John 3:16 or Romans 10"13.
     Those who lived before the cross were saved by looking forward to the promised sacrifice

  • Abel - Hebrews 11:4   "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…"

  • Enoch - Hebrews 11:5-6

  • Noah - Hebrews 11:7

  • Abraham - Hebrews 11:8-10

  • Moses - Hebrews 11:23-26

  • Rahab -

  • Job - Job 19:25-27

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    Simple - "Look unto me…"

         It doesn't require a college education to look. - "Look at that person. . .!!!"
    In a zoo I have seen giraffes and antelopes in the same pen. They don't put the feed up high where only the giraffes can eat it. Then antelopes can't reach it. They put it down low. The giraffe can come down.

         The word is "look". Not "feel";, not "work"; not "get religious" not "pray all night".
    The student who attended a Pentecostal tent meeting: He went to kneel at the altar to be saved. Many gathered around him and urged him to "Turn loose"; "Hold on", "Pray through"; "Only believe" as the patted him on the back. He said he thought they were going to beat the Devil out of him as well as pray him out.

         If you have to pray through you sure don't have to pray all night to get through. Luke 18:13; Luke 23:42.
    The prodigal son did not have to fall on his knees and plead with his father for hours.

    Universal - "All the ends of the earth."
         An invitation to all races and social classes
    The invitation is just as much for the repulsive and profane as the personable and cultured.

    II.  THE REASONS WE SHOULD LOOK IS BECAUSE:

    God Has Commanded
         The statement is in the imperative.
         To look is to obey and receive salvation
         To refuse to look is to disobey and receive God wrath.

    There Is None Else
         If you want God's salvation there is no other place you can get it
         There are plenty of places that promise salvation if you will look there, but they cannot deliver.

    Every Knee Shall Bow - "Philippians 2:9-11

         It is much wiser to bow the knee in this life. 
         Those who refuse to bow the knee in this life will bow at the judgment. But then it will be too late.

    III.  THE WAY YOU ARE TO LOOK

    Illustrated by Jesus
         John 3:14.and cf. Numbers 21. Every person who looked, lived.

    Explained by Jesus
         John 3:15, 16. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (a world renown preacher during the 1800's) tells of his conversion. He attended a Wesleyan chapel. A lay preacher preached: "Don't look to yourself;…your religion;…your good works; even God the Father or Holy Spirit - you'll look to them bye and bye; Look to Jesus! See Him on the cross! 'Look unto me, I'm sweating great drops of blood…I'm dying for you. Young man, you're miserable! You need to look to Jesus! Look! Look! Look!"

    Copyright © 2002 Thomas E Berry
    All Scripture quoted from NKJV unless otherwise noted