Of Seeing Him That Is Invisible, Part II
Adapted From A Sermon By
Philip Doddridge
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
(Hebrews 11:27 ESV)
Our last sermon about Seeing Him That Is Invisible touched on a subject so rich and vast that it simply could not be done justice in one message. In particular, when we came to the application, so many useful and important thoughts arose that they clearly deserve fuller treatment. Therefore, we will take them up again this morning as we continue our consideration of this great subject.
We have already heard how thought God is a great invisible Being, there is a way by which he may be seen. Yet many do not obtain the sight of him. But where this sight is obtained, it becomes a principle of universal and exalted goodness.
We then moved to the improvement. After we were exhorted to adore the invisible God as if he were actually present, and to implore him to fix a sense of himself, of his perfections and glories, upon our minds, we were led to two other reflections. How lamentable a thing it is that the blessed God is no more seen. And how eager we should be for the future to retain more frequent and affectionate thoughts of God.
We will resume these two topics today. We will treat them not as particulars in the order in which they stood before, but as general heads.
I. We will first consider how lamentable a thing it is that God is not more seen.
II. Second, we will consider such directions as have the happiest tendency toward maintaining such a sight. May the Lord make the challenges under the former head of use to awaken some. And the directions under the latter a means of guiding others to a better and happier disposition.
I. We will first consider how lamentable a thing it is that the blessed God should be seen no more by the generality of mankind.
There are those who see him that is invisible. But sadly, how few they are. By far the greater part of mankind see him not, and desire not to see him. The language of their actions is such that, by it, they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of your ways, nor the enjoyment of your love. How deplorable will this appear if we consider what advantages there are for seeing God, and what evils are incurred by not seeing and regarding him.
1. Let us seriously consider what advantages men have for seeing God.
Well does the apostle observe, in an assembly of philosophers, that the blessed God is not far from any one of us, "for in him we live and move and have our being."{Acts 17:27, 28} Well does he assert, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, that the invisible things of God were clearly seen from the creation of the world.
The sacred lesson is, in a literal sense, written with the sunbeams; "for the heavens declare the glory of God."{Psalm 19:1} The most barbarous nations, unskilled as they are in all other aspects, may read this. As their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. And we alone, of all the visible creation of God, are capable of discerning this intellectual language.
Lamentable is it, then, that the heathens should not see and know him. But let us reflect on the advantages which we enjoy in consequence of Divine Revelation. God has given to us his statutes, and speaks to us by his Son. He has shown to us his agency and care in the most extraordinary instances.
One would think that as soon as a man has once read over his Bible, its histories and institutions, its promises and threatenings, he should immediately see God. Especially should he see him, if he looked with any attention upon the reflection of his beautiful image from the face of Christ. Yet men have not only their Bibles in their hands, but they have them explained. They come and hear God adored in prayer, and in singing. They hear his perfections celebrated. They are expressly instructed in his nature, and in their duty to him. They are called to turn away their eyes from vanity, and to fix them on God. And yet they will not see him, though they have line upon line, and precept upon precept, every Sunday, and almost on every day.
How slow of heart to believe, and to understand. Such an unnatural aversion, from the sight and company of the great Father of spirits, have they contracted in this fallen and degenerate state.
2. Consider what loss and damage men sustain by this kind of blindness, and it will fully prove how lamentable a case it is. They lose the present satisfaction and happy influence of seeing God, and they make provision for a terrible interview. The present pleasure and advantage must necessarily be lost. And do you think even this a little thing? David did not, when he preferred it to all the joys of harvest he said, Many say, who will show us any good? but you (that is, by the light of your countenance) have put gladness into my heart.
This is a special and unique joy. Let a man see it, though it be in a dungeon, and though he were set fast in the stocks, like Paul and Silas, he will sing praises to God. How can he be seen if a man will not look upon him? And this is the unhappy case. There many who profess to worship God, but there are comparatively few who hold any acquaintance and conversation with him. The generality might write upon their altars, An inscription to the unknown God.
And so it comes to pass that they are weary of Divine service. They come to it with so much regret, and leave it with so much joy. They are ready to hurry out of the place before it be fairly concluded. And it is to be feard unblessed. It is because they see not God here. And then we have little reason to think that they see him anywhere else.
The good man sets the Lord always before him. And this gives comfort to his most solitary moments. He can say, like his Master, when he seems to be left alone, I am not alone, for my Father is with me. This gives a sweet relish to many a wakeful hour of the night. When a man can say, I remember you on my bed, and meditate on you in the night watches.
But all this is lost for want of seeing God. And the mind is filled by night and by day with low thoughts, with mean pursuits, and very often with tormenting passions. These make a man as miserable as his heart can endure to be.
It is a sad thing to reflect how vain and how wretched the generality of men are. A noble, sublime, and rational happiness is so near. But sadly, they are like blind men feeling out their way in dark uncertainty. And it may be they fall into a pit or from a precipice at noonday. They lose all the happy consequences of seeing God. That is its tendency to regulate and reform the mind and its tendency to animate and encourage it.
They encounter temptations, and not seeing God, they are vanquished by them. Their heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Their conscience is debauched, so that perhaps they are grown past feeling and incapable of being convinced that their ways are evil. And is this not the most wretched state in which the human mind can possibly be? A soul in this state has reason to fear that it will be very soon in that other state which we are next to mention. Where it will find that by living without God in this world, it has been laying a foundation for a terrible meeting with him in another.
O sinner! The blessed God will not be always unseen. He will wait a certain limited time. Then he will awaken his terrors. You will see and hear whether you will or not. Remember those words: "These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. Mark this, then, you who forget God!"{Psalm 50:21, 22}
Death will come and hurry you into the presence of God. There you will be more aware that he is near to you than you can now be of anything which you see. In the great judgment day, you will see the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the name and authority and glory of his Father. Then you will be convicted by him.
Sinner! You are charged on the testimony of God himself, who saw and knew your heart. You are charged with this great and horrible crime. You lived without him in the world. You took no notice of him. Indeed, in many instances you made as it were an impious attack upon him, that is, on his laws and government. For this you are now accursed by him. As such you are sentenced to depart forever from him and from the blessed society of those who, having seen him by faith or reason, will see his face forever and forever rejoice in the reviving beams of his love.
How deplorable it is to look upon the ruins of so many souls. So many thousands and millions are lost and undone beyond all recovery. They might have known God now and have enjoyed him forever if we consider the constitution of their natures alone. Ought it not to affect our hearts? Ought it not to engage us to do what we can in our respective stations? We should promote a sense of God in the world. We should promote such a behaviour among men as may become those that see him. Ought it not to suggest to us many a warm and ardent prayer? We pray that God would display his presence and glory before the eyes of poor sinners who are now utterly insensible of it.
And now, what is the result of these words upon you? Are you all impressed with this matter? Is anyone secretly saying, I do not desire to see him that is invisible. This communion with God by faith, of which I have been hearing, I am willing that it should remain a secret to me. Let me see corn, and wine, and oil. Let me see the grain spring in my field, my harvest flourishing, my trade increasing and thriving, my family healthy and cheerful about me, that part of the land in which I dwell safe from invading enemies, and my home from devouring flames. I am not much concerned whether I see God or not. I can be content to live, in that respect, as I have done. Is this the language of you all?
Or are there any of you that can say, like Philip to Christ, Show us the Father and it suffices us? O that I knew where I might find him! O that I knew how I might attain to a more settled view of him, that I might so see him as to feel more of his presence, and to live more with him, so as to be restrained from sin and quickened to devotion, so as to be enlarged in benevolence, and inspired with courage and intrepidity of soul in the way of my duty. In a word, that I might so see him as to anticipate more every day the interview which I expect with him in the heavenly world. If these be your sentiments, then do pay attention while we go over what Doodridge intended and prepared for such as you. This is,
II. To propose and illustrate at large such directions as may, by the Divine blessing, have the happiest tendency toward maintaining such a sight.
These were breifly mentioned in the conclusion of the former sermon. But it will be profitatble to explained then more fully, for they are lessons which we must learn, otherwise we will make very little progress in the Christian life, in any view of it.
1. Endeavour to get a firm and rational persuasion of the existence, providence, and presence of God. You all allow the thing at first hearing. But do you have a firm persuasion of it on your own minds? Do you consider how evident, how apparent, how certain it is? Look around you. Look within you. Reflect seriously. Could these things be without a God? Could I be without him? Did I call myself into being?
How were the sun and moon formed, and the host of heaven? Who gave to them all their beauty? Who fixed them in their orbits? Who moves them with that swiftness and steadiness, so that all the process and order of them is the same from generation to generation?
Look at the clear tokens of God’s goodness and power in the way He has formed your body and your mind. He is the One who keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your blood circulating, and all the countless unseen processes working every moment to keep you alive. These vital functions are happening inside you right now, yet you are not the one doing them. You don’t even fully understand how they work. And yet, if God were not constantly sustaining them, you would die in an instant and this body would simply collapse.
Look about into the world. Wherever you direct your eyes, you may trace the footsteps of Deity. You must say, I am sure that God has been here, by the blessings which he has scattered, and left behind him. Or rather, I am sure that he is here, by the blessings which at every moment he is dealing out. How does the grass grow, the fruit ripen, the animals live? It is because God gives grass for the cattle, and corn and wheat for the service of man. It is because God feeds the fowls of the air, and they fly by his power.
Let us not,, then, set it down among possibilities, among probabilities, that there may probably or possibly be a God. We will set it down among the greatest certainties of which the mind of man is capable. It is a thing of which we have as much evidence as that there is any visible being at all. It is as great as that we have ourselves the power of thought.
2. Endeavour to view the blessed God in the light in which the gospel of his Son has placed him.
It is so noble and so amiable a view. If you accustom yourselves to it, you will delight to dwell upon it and to review it again and again. It represents God not as slighting this world of ours, even when it had offended him. It does not represent him as immediately destroying it or as marking its inhabitants for a day of slaughter, as traitors maintained at the expense of the king till their execution day is come.
Instead, it represents him as having thoughts of love and mercy toward poor sinful man. It shows him as caring for us with a great care. He used his counsels, even long before we were born, for our deliverance and for our salvation. It represents him as busying himself much about us and our concerns. He sent his own Son to inform us who he himself is and what he would have us to be. He sent him to show what he expects from us on the one hand and what we may expect from him on the other.
Indeed, he sent his Son in a mortal body that he might have interaction with us for a long time and sow the seeds of true religion in our world. Those seeds were to last as long as this world itself. At length he might die for us too and redeem us to God by shedding his own blood and leave a gospel behind him, written by the inspiration of his Spirit.
Under Divine blessing and grace, that that gospel might be the food and comfort of souls from one generation to another. It is that gospel which he brought down from heaven. Did those poor blind heathens reverence and adore a senseless image of Deity because they supposed it of heavenly original? They thought it was the image that fell down from Jupiter out of heaven. What reason have we to value Christ and his gospel as actually descending from heaven. What reason have we to love that God who sent us such a present, a blessing so much more valuable than the sun in the firmament! How delightful should it be to us to look to the blessed God in this light. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In and through him he is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.
3. Strive to secure an interest in God through Christ and then it will be pleasant to maintain a sight of him.
The great reason why men look at God no more than they do is that they dread the sight of him. Their consciences tell them that he is their enemy or at least that he may be so. It is at best a very doubtful case whether they have any interest in him or not. Strive therefore I urge you to make it clear to your own souls as a plain and evident thing that you have a covenant interest in God.
And how can this be done but by solemnly laying hold of his covenant in Christ and by setting your seal to it? Will you not, says God, from this time on, cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? And surely it is a pleasant thing for a dutiful and affectionate child to look to his Father. View him not merely as reconcilable as one who may perhaps lay aside his wrath and become your friend but as one who is actually reconciled.
Go to him therefore this day and say "Lord, I have been a rebel, and I have deserved to die for my rebellion. I deserve that he, who made me, should not have mercy on me; and that he, who formed me, should show me no favour. But I have heard that you are a merciful God. I have been told that you have condescended to say, and even to swear, that you do not desire the death of a sinner. I have been told that you sent your own dear and gracious Son into this world of ours, to call back poor lost creatures to you, and to purchase pardon for them, and to declare it to them; indeed, that you have assured us by him that he who believes shall have eternal life. Now, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I have been told that you have been pleased to make a covenant, a new and better covenant, with poor sinners, of which he is the Surety. I desire to enter myself into this covenant; I am heartily willing to be saved by you in your own way, and therefore I beseech you that you would save me. I beseech you that you would become my God and Father in Christ, and I present myself to you in token of this desire. I desire daily to give myself to you, and to receive you, through Christ, into my soul as my portion, and hope, and God."
With this attitude you will view God not only with pleasure but with humble joy and triumph as the Psalmist proclaims, behold this God is our God! How I delight to fix my eyes upon him and survey him in this way! This God with all his infinite wisdom and almighty power and immense inexhaustible treasure of goodness and mercy and faithfulness and love is mine and mine for ever.
Shall one man view his estate and another his honour with satisfaction? And another perhaps his person and another even his dress and inwardly congratulate himself that he is so rich and so powerful and so beautiful and so fine? And shall not I with infinitely greater satisfaction view my God and congratulate my own soul that I am so happy as to possess him and to stand in such a relation to him? I would do it every day and every hour.
4. If you desire to maintain such views of him who is invisible, then guard against an undue attachment to all things that are seen, to this world and its interests.
These things stand in the way of God. They create such a crowd around us that we cannot see him. They alienate the heart from his love and service. So says the apostle in those remarkable words, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."{1 John 2:15}
If you are much attached to worldly interests, you will venture to displease God for the sake of them. Then when you have displeased him, you will not care to see him with those marks of displeasure which his awful countenance will wear. As our Lord says, No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money. And the soul that does not serve God with some degree of zeal as well as of fidelity cannot love seeing him. Thus the world prevails.
Whereas the heart in which God has dwelt and which has been used to live in his sight, when flesh and heart fail, has something for the strength of its heart and its portion for ever. But someone may ask Must we then go out of the world and become hermits that we may preserve religion in our hearts? By no means. We may do it with much greater honour to religion by remaining in the world, even were are able to leave it.
We may show more of the force of it and we may spread more of the spirit of it by a godly disposition in it. But then let us be careful that business and conversation do not possess our minds so much as to leave in them no room for God. Let us take care that we be often looking at the blessed God while we are conversing in the world. And let us guard against a fond affection for anything in this world which would give us a dislike of devotion and the exercises of it. The greatest and noblest exercise is not to run from the world but to meet and conquer it. Nor can it be better expressed than by the apostle that those who rejoice should be as though they rejoiced not.
5. If we would maintain habitual communion with God, let us think frequently and solemnly of the invisible world to which we are going.
This advice stands in connection with the former. Both give and receive strength. Therefore they are joined by the apostle, "Look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen."{2 Corinthians 4:18} How happy would it be for us in this respect if we could look at the things which are unseen. Is there not a world of spirits, of a nature quite different from, and vastly superior to this world of bodies, in which we dwell.
Let my thoughts travel freely in this immense region. And what inhabitants do you see here. I see on the one hand the Paradise of God, where Jehovah dwells. On the other, millions of bright and happy creatures who, during the many thousand years for which they have existed, and God only knows how many thousand, have never known a sentiment of guilt, or a perception of misery. Is there not such a species of beings. I certainly know from the word of God that there is, and that among them there are human spirits, who once dwelt in such bodies as mine, and having broken their way through the entanglements, temptations, and dangers of life, are received by the angels as their brethren and friends, and dwell with them, sharing, in some considerable degree, in their business and their pleasures.
And is there not another kind of a region, of darkness and despair, where the fallen spirits dwell. The angels that did not remain in their first state, but sinned, and upon that were cast down from heaven. And are there not, likewise, among them vast numbers that once dwelt upon earth, who saw the sun, and tasted, but abused the bounty of their Creator. Thousands and thousands, no doubt, who heard his word, but trifled with the grace of his gospel, during the precious time which God had allotted to them for their trial, and who are cut off, and are under condemnation, to whom nothing remains but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation.
And are these scenes which have no connection with my concerns. I see one and another of my fellow creatures, drop the body and disappear. The invisible spirit flies off, and the poor abandoned carcass is laid in the dust, that it may not affect the living, and thus it becomes invisible too, as to any certain remainder which can be traced of it. And must this not shortly be the case for me?
I am even now surrounded by these invisible beings. The angels wait to guard me, and are the instruments of a gracious Providence for my preservation. The devils are near too, and wait for opportunities for mischief. And before long I shall see myself in the hands of the one or of the other, and know that they are bearing me on my way to heaven or to hell, as my final, as my everlasting dwelling place.
When this thought enters deep into the mind it will be natural to look to an invisible God, the great Lord of both these worlds, and of all their various inhabitants. It is natural to commit a soul, an immortal soul, the importance of which will then be felt, to his powerful and faithful care.
6. We should often set ourselves to think clearly about God and to speak directly to him.
Visible objects have a great advantage over us. We must therefore have our proper seasons of retirement. We must have our proper times for calling our thoughts away from the world. We must charge them to have done with it so that we may have communion with God and divine things. We should summon up our souls to the work. Just as David said, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," {Psalm 103:1, 2} and so on. In the same way we should say, "View the Lord, O my soul. Contemplate him and his glories."
Think what a mysterious, what a marvellous, what an amiable being he is. Look through the whole creation and see what deserves your esteem, your love, and your trust in comparison with him. He is accessible through Christ. He hears prayers. He listens to the cry of his servants and his people. Resolve therefore that you will have communion with him. Address him therefore by daily prayer and particularly in secret. Enter into your private space. It will assist your conceptions of him. It will remind you of his existence and of your business with him there.
See to it that this part of duty does not degenerate into a form. See that the soul is right with God while it is performed. It will surely have a most happy influence. This practice will so train your mind and heart that, even between your set times of prayer and worship, you will often find yourself naturally turning the eyes of your soul toward God. In the middle of your daily tasks, you will be able to look up to Him with faith and affection
As a pious native of France expresses it, that when he passed through the streets of Paris, where one may well imagine there would be diversions enough, his soul was no more moved than if he were in a desert.
7. Let us cry earnestly to the great Father of spirits to direct our fallen and degenerate minds to himself if we desire to maintain our frequent views of him.
We might, says that same excellent person just referred to, as soon bring down fire from heaven or draw the stars from their orbits as kindle devotion in our own cold dead hearts without a Divine agency and operation.
The Lord opened the eyes of Hagar and she saw the relief which he had prepared for her in the wilderness. He must open our eyes or we will not see him. Cry therefore to him with all your souls and if you feel your hearts raised to him consider it a token for good as an assurance not only of his providential but gracious presence.
"O King eternal immortal and invisible! you are ever with me and yet I do not see you: ever near to me and yet I do not perceive you and important as your presence is I am often insensible of it: and shall it be always thus? Lord! I cannot bear it. I am persuaded that I see; and blessed be your name I feel it that it were better to die than to live as at a distance from you: better to have no being at all than to lose God among his creatures though it were the most excellent of them: and therefore O Lord I earnestly entreat this favour of you not that you would make me rich and great, that you would prosper me in my worldly affairs, though I desire such prosperity as you shall see best, but that the eye of my soul may be directed to you.
I would say as your servant Moses O Lord! I beseech you show me your glory in a spiritual sense! Give me such a view of you as may fix my roving mind upon you more than ever! Let me see you so as to rejoice if it be your blessed will; but if not let me see you so as to fear you and to love you and to conduct myself in a manner that may be agreeable to you: that in whatever darkness I now walk I may at last come to see light in your light so to behold your face in righteousness as to be satisfied with your complete likeness; and when my foolish heart would lose sight of you in the midst of these surrounding vanities let me rather be made to feel your discipline than to live in a forgetfulness of your presence!
Is there a heart here that can say amen to these petitions? If there is, then we can say that it is a heart that has already seen God.
A heart that persisting in these sentiments will see and enjoy him for ever.