THE LORD’S LOOK
Peter S Barlow
These passages present the thought that the Lord looked: the Lord looking. Here was a young man, he desired something: “what shall I do”, the young man asked. It says, “Jesus looking upon him loved him”. The wonderful message in the gospel is that the Lord is looking upon each and every one of us, and He loves us. He knows where we are in our hearts; there is nothing hidden from Him; He is looking upon you and me tonight and what I can assure you is that He loves you. The reason I know that is, as our hymn said,
The Lord who healed the leper
Is looking on thee now;
And, though Thy case discerning,
No frown is on His brow.
Not all Thy sin’s dark story
Has turned away His love;
’Twas need like thine that brought Him
Down from His throne above. Hymn 363
The Lord Jesus has come down to meet every need we have. We speak of Him when He was here as a lowly Man walking on His journey. That journey was to lead to Jerusalem; to death, “and that the death of the cross”, Phil 2: 8. None of these four examples that we have read happened by chance; they are all part of the glorious pathway of that wondrous Man as He was down here moving amongst men. He knew this young man was going to come up to Him; He knew exactly what this young man was going to say. The glory of the Lord - and the glory of the record the Holy Spirit gives us - is that Jesus, looking on Him, loved Him. He is looking on each and every one of us tonight. Is your heart given to Him?
This young man had a desire for something, but when the test came, and the One who loved him told him to give all that he had and “come, follow me”; that test at that time for this young man was too great. We do not know the history; the young man could have been Mark himself but one thing that is recorded is that the Lord loved him; and I know that the Lord did not cease to love him just because he turned away. The same appeal has gone out over two thousand years, many people have heard it many times before, but maybe some who have heard it for the first time have been like this young man and gone away sad and grieved.
The wonderful thing about the great love of the Lord Jesus is that nothing could deflect Him from the path that He had to take for our salvation - whether you, me, or this young man. This encounter was not by chance; it was in the pathway of the Lord amongst men. Every step was in perfect obedience to the will of the One who had sent Him, for He was sent by His Father - sent into this world to establish a basis on which the gospel preaching can go forth tonight, and the heart of God can be made fully known, and that the love of God is towards all men. The opportunity of salvation remains for all living men. Some have turned away and rejected the gospel preaching, turned away from the glad tidings which are freely offered. Each one of us must answer to the gospel message for ourselves; the question is, have I? I cannot save anyone; no one else can save me: only the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has loved me, and given Himself for me, can save me. As He looks upon us, He loves us. But this young man went away: I wonder what the feelings of the Lord were. I have some small sense of it: He felt the young man going away for He knew what He had to offer, what He had for this young man; it was far beyond all the riches that this young man had. I know this because the One most precious to God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into the world to save sinners. What a cost it was: One who was most precious to God was given for me and for my salvation. He is available today for the salvation of every sinner.
That shows how much God’s love is towards you. He has given His only begotten Son. We might consider the parable where the father says, “I will send my beloved son: perhaps when they see him they will respect him”, Luke 20: 13. What did they do? They cast him out and they killed him, v 14. That parable was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. This world has no place for Jesus; this world has no place for the glorious Son of God; and yet still God appeals through the glad tidings, and, through the work of the evangelist, He appeals to all men to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus and His completed work; but this young man went away.
It is true of all of these examples that we have read that Jesus loved that person. This woman, who for twelve years had sought to find an answer to her condition, had a flux of blood. We could liken it to the effects of sin upon a person without the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, their life is draining away. This world will entice you and say you can have a wonderful life, find everything you want, push yourself, make much of yourself, and that you have rights, although in the presence of God not one of us has any rights. Only Christ has a right and He has claimed us for Himself, and has given His all for us. This woman took twelve years to reach that point. She had expended all that she had on physicians, everything of this world to try and meet her condition. Satan will try to fill your heart with other things, but underlying it all is this terrible condition: through sin, life is draining away. It says that the condition did not get better, “but had rather got worse”. It is so true, that sin only gets worse; it only gets darker. The enemy would use this to darken your mind and to suggest there is no hope. But there was something else working in this woman because she came to it that, “If I shall touch but his clothes I shall be healed”.
I was interested in what is said of her: “having heard concerning Jesus”. There is not one of us in this room that could say that we have not heard concerning Jesus. The question is what are you going to do about it? This woman sought Him out to touch Him, because she had the faith to believe she would be healed. They were in the crowd, and the Lord knew power had gone out from Him to heal this woman who touched Him. Was His power diminished by what went out to heal her? Not at all. His power always remains the same, it is inexhaustible, and it is available to all. He met the need of the woman and He wanted to have a living relationship with her. It was not sufficient for the heart of the Lord Jesus that He healed this woman, so what did He do? He looked round: “he looked round about to see her who had done this”. Beloved, wherever you are, whatever your condition is, the Lord is looking at you now. He knows our every need, and He knows when there is faith in Him. He would love to have you come as this woman did, and confess before Him what He means to you. She “came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth”. We are not told what she told Him. I think there was far more to tell than that she had had a flux of blood for twelve years; and it had gone when the Lord touched her. The Lord Jesus loves to have us talk to Him of Himself and the things He has done, and of what He and His love mean to us. She “fell down before him, and told him all the truth”: what beautiful words. She was “frightened and trembling”, truly a sinner in the presence of God. The One who was here was God; but she receives His wonderful words: “Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace, and be well of thy scourge”. What is that? Sins have been dealt with. The whole question, every one of my sins has been dealt with by Him in perfection before God. God is satisfied in Jesus and all that He has done.
We have spoken of the young man; we have spoken of this woman’s suffering. Every step the Lord Jesus took was perfection in obedience to the Father’s will, for the Father had sent Him that way for the sake of another needy person whose need the Lord Jesus has met. He can meet your need. Blessed is the God and Father with whom we have to do, who has only in mind what is for our blessing, and He has secured it in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What was due to us as sinners would forever keep us from the favour of God, it would bring us to the great white throne in judgment, but we can say it has been met entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has removed it all, every sin, every scourge, has been met by the Lord Jesus Himself at the cross. Nothing else in this world could meet this woman’s need, but Jesus did. What did men do in spite of this, and all the good things He did? They awarded the cross to the Lord of glory, the One who had the power to heal, who had the power to raise the dead. How foolish to think that nailing Him to the cross was the end. But that was the beginning in which God’s heart could be made fully known to us in the gospel, because there on the cross the Lord Jesus met perfectly for God’s glory every one of my sins; every sin, of every one that places their faith and trust in Him. And He has not only borne our sins, but He has met God’s judgment of sin - sin has been removed for the glory of God. He has died, and He was buried. That means that the first and fallen order of man has gone forever. All those who are secured in the Lord Jesus Christ belong to an entirely different order. He is raised from amongst the dead and they are raised with Him. We speak of Him walking here, but He is no less able where He is in glory. We sing,
Sinner, see thy God beside thee (Hymn 112).
He is there. He is ready for those who put their faith and trust in Him, who find the answer to all their need, perfectly met in all that He has done to the full satisfaction of His God and Father. He has washed away every sin in His precious blood, having given up His life to meet our need. All is gone from the sight of God for those that place their faith and trust in Him. It is available to all, not just to certain persons; we may only be a few in this room, but it is towards every one in East Finchley; the gospel is for them: it is available to them. There may be many other places where the preacher is offering the same appeal. May there be none who rejects the opportunity of grace that is available now, today, at this moment, but may they enter into the joy of salvation. What peace this woman found. The Lord says, “Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace”. What peace is given to the one who places their faith and trust in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we read as to Zacchæus. God had sent the Lord Jesus that way, and Jesus came to where Zacchæus was. He will come to where you are in your soul tonight. He looked up in the sycamore tree and He saw Zacchæus. He said, “make haste and come down, for to-day I must remain in thy house”. What blessing that is, that the Lord Jesus will come to where you are, and will look upon you. Make haste and place your faith and trust in Him. Is that the end; does He move on? No; Zacchæus comes down and the Lord remained in that house that day. We do not have recorded that the Lord Jesus left the house; scripture is very good in what it does not say. If the Lord comes and abides with you today, that is today and forever. That is the wonderful thing about having your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, He comes to where you are, meets you in all your need, and He will remain with you forever. You say, ‘He is in glory’; yes, but there is another promise: He said that he would send another Comforter. The Lord is in glory, but the Holy Spirit is come to all those who believe, all those who ask, all those who are obedient. He will come and dwell in the believer. That is how I know the Lord Jesus is near, because His own Spirit has been given to indwell me. The blessed Holy Spirit keeps me near to the Lord Jesus. Once one has received the Lord Jesus as Saviour, it is not that they are saved today and lost tomorrow; that is impossible. The Lord’s work is complete and the believer is saved forever; the Lord Jesus is always near.
The young man we read of came up to Him, the woman came and touched Him; Zacchæus thought to see who He was, and it was wonderful what he found out. He found the Saviour, the Lord of glory, that is who he found, “who he was”, and that One abode with him, for it says, “for to-day I must remain in thy house”. The Spirit also remains dwelling forever, once you received Him as a precious gift. That is eternal; what a wonderful gift: the Lord’s own Spirit indwelling. Have you had your “to-day”, beloved hearer? It will go on forever. What a blessing, what a glorious, real joy the gospel is. Zacchæus, “made haste and came down, and received him with joy”. Have you received the Lord Jesus as your Saviour with joy? Peace, joy and everything that satisfies your heart are things only the Lord Jesus can give; only the Lord Jesus can satisfy. Only He can fill your heart. Zacchæus proved it on that day. What a day it was for Zacchæus! What a day it is when one comes to know the Lord Jesus as their own personal Saviour and gives themselves to Him.
I did not want to dwell on Peter’s failing in this last passage here, but I wanted to bring out that it only took a look of the Lord Jesus to bring Peter to himself. He went “without” and “wept bitterly”. Was it a harsh look? Was it a hard look? Was it a shaking of the head and a sorrowful look? No, as the hymn says,
And, though thy case discerning,
No frown in on His brow.
I think it was a look of infinite love; that is what broke Peter. We know well in ourselves that when someone is harsh to us, it brings out what we are. I think what Peter saw is that he had let the Lord down, and what was shown to him was the infinite expression of love. What a look! That is the look that is upon you tonight, that infinite expression of love. That glorious One, who was being wickedly and cruelly treated by men, such was His love for Peter; as it was for those that surrounded Him that spat upon Him, that smote Him, that cursed Him, such was His love, tender compassionate love. How He felt the darkness that had descended upon man. How He felt what Peter was going through, and as Peter realised what he had done, there was this glorious expression of love. It is that love that looks on you tonight. Do not despise that glorious look, but make it your own, for His Name’s sake.
East Finchley
9th December 2024