Look Yonder To Calvary’s Mountain
Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
Job 33:29-30 (KJV)
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Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:22 (NKJV)
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The great work in conversion is not to make people better, so that they may come to God on good footing; it is to strip them completely and lay them low, so that God may come to them when they are on a bad footing, or rather on no footing at all, but down in the dust at His feet.
The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost, but it wants God Himself to convince men that they are lost; and the Spirit’s work of soul-humbling is just this - to get man to feel so diseased that he will accept the physician; to get him to feel so poor that he will accept the charity of heaven; to get him to know that he is so stripped, that he will no longer be proud of his fig leaves, but will be willing to take the robe of righteousness which Christ has wrought out.
Conviction is sent to kill the man, to break him in pieces, to bury him, to let him know his own corruption; and all this as a preliminary to his quickening and restoration. We must see the bones in the valley to be dead and dry, or we shall not hear the voice out of the excellent glory, saying, “Thus saith the Lord, ‘Ye dry bones live!”
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I acknowledge that I was brought to God by agony of soul. I have often said from this pulpit that no man ever steers his barque towards the port of peace till he is driven there by stress of weather. We never come to Christ till we feel we cannot do without Him. We must feel our poverty before we shall ever come and beg at the door of His mercy for help.
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O, dear souls, who are in the dark, if you want light, there is light nowhere but at the cross. Do not look within for light; the only benefit of looking within is to be more and more convinced that all is dark as midnight apart from Jesus. Look within if you want to despair, but if you wish for hope, look yonder to Calvary’s mountain, where the Son of God lays down His life that sinners may not die...Look where God looks, and your comfort will begin.
- ‘An Old-Fashioned Conversion’ - The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 19 pg. 154-155 (C.H. Spurgeon)
So here’s what I’m thinking, beloved…
Our King, in His mercy, has laid us low, yes? We know that we are lost, sick, poor, helpless, dim-witted, weak, naked, dead. We know that, apart from Him, we would succumb to despair almost immediately, darkness flooding in and claiming us, body and soul. We know that eyes on self equals hopelessness and futility and pain. We now know just how very depraved we are, beloved.
This has been His first gift to us, a slow and painful lesson; us, face down in the dust - confessing, repenting, pleading. But painful like the removing of a sliver, beloved. Sure, it hurts at the time, but it’s necessary to prevent further infection - even amputation or death!
And do you know what I think His next gift to us may be, beloved? {One of many, no doubt!} I think He delights to raise us up! He delights, now that we have been convinced of our immense need, to be the One who will meet our every need! He reaches down for our hand, and slowly, tenderly lifts us.
At first, our eyes, unaccustomed to such Beauty and Light, are cast down. All we can see is the dust on our feet, the blood on our hands; we don’t feel worthy to lift our eyes. We know shame and pain and despair, and even though we don’t want to stay there, there’s something vaguely ‘comfortable’ in that place.
But O, beloved! The beginning of our comfort, do you know?! It’s when our eyes are drawn up, off of self, and up yonder, to Calvary’s mountain, beloved! There we look into the most beautiful eyes of our Beloved Savior! What tenderness! What meekness! What Love! There He is, on the Cross! Taking all that is ours upon Himself, so that we might take all that is His upon ourselves! O beloved! What Love! What comfort! What consolation! Do you see?!
Perhaps we can practice this Together, beloved? Perhaps most of the work is His and our part is simply asking and submitting? I don’t rightly know. But I pray that we can desire this Together, sweet one. Desire eyes up and ask for His help in this.
We can learn this, slowly, can we not? How to choose where our eyes focus? On the clouds, the mountains, the sun, the light, the heavens, all that is Glorious and Good? Our Risen, Reigning, Victorious King?
Yes, beloved. We will choose lifted eyes, Together. And as we do, we will delight in the reality that despair dies and Hope lives! We will fix our eyes on Christ, the author of Hope and the only One who can save us!
Amen.