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
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
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