“Open Thou Mine Eyes”

“Open Thou Mine Eyes”

OPEN THOU MINE EYES
Lecture by C. E. McGaughey, February 22, 1950,
at Abilene Christian College (7:30 p. m.) In every age of the world God has wanted his people to have their eyes open. In the Patriarchal Age he took Abraham from his tent out to a lofty place where he would be able to see a great distance and said to him, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward: for all the land that thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever” (Genesis 13:14-15). After the Patriarchal Age had passed and the Jewish Age had come into existence, we find David praying in Psalms 119:18 : “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Centuries later the Lord came, and during the days of preparation as he saw the golden opportunities present he said to his disciples, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest” (John 4:35). Finally his church was brought into existence. About thirty years passed by and the apostle Paul, an old man in prison, wrote to the Ephesians, and in the fifth chapter, he said, “Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise but as wise; redeeming the time,” (the margin says: “buying up the opportunities”), “because the days are evil.” In all these passages we have seen that in every age God wants his people to have their eyes wide open. And certainly in 1950 after these many centuries our Lord is still just as concerned about his people having their eyes open. Consequently the text that we have chosen, the words of David, “Open thou mine eyes,” is very, very appropriate.

What are some of the things that we should see as a group of people? The specific thing that David asked for is an appropriate prayer for us now. “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” In this poverty stricken age, from the standpoint of Biblical knowledge, all of us and all of God’s people everywhere should pray that they will be able to behold wondrous things out of the word of God. God wants us to be capable people; to be able to teach those around about us. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5:12, “By reason of time ye ought to be teachers,” likewise, we read in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to “desire the sincere milk of the word.” And in 2 Peter 3:18 we read, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” In II Peter the first chapter we read the Christian graces, emphasizing the fact that we must add knowledge if we are going to enter into the eternal kingdom. If any group of people, therefore, in all the world should be thoroughly familiar with God’s revelation it should be that group that claims to be Christian and “Christian only.” How unfortunate that there are many Bibles today that have no marks within them, no tear-stained pages and so little evidence of use. May God help us to open our eyes and look in his book so that the word of Christ will dwell in us richly as we are told in Colossians 3:16. But not only do we need to know the Bible that we may be able to teach others, and that we might grow unto salvation, but we need to know the deeper things of God; our knowledge must not be a superficial knowledge. I love that prayer prayed by the apostle Paul for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:15-20). He said, “For this cause I also, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is among you, and the love which you show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places.” In Ephesians 3:13-19, is another remarkable prayer. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all his saints what is the breadth, and the length, and the height, and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that he may be filled unto the fullness of God.” Studying the Bible, therefore, is like mining for gold. The deeper one goes, the greater the nuggets are. Therefore, as a people, let us pray: “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” But we need to open our eyes to the great blessings God has provided for his people, to the lofty position that we have the honor of occupying. 1 John 3:1, we read, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God! and such we are.” 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” No wonder John says, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” We must remember also that great blessing of having Jesus Christ as our high priest at the right hand of God. In the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews beginning with verse fifteen, it is written, “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need.” Also in Romans the eighth chapter, verse twenty-six, Paul says, “The Spirit himself also maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Thus we see that the Holy Spirit of God and the Lord Jesus Christ himself are interested in the welfare of each individual child of God. The providential care of God is about us. For in Romans the eighth chapter and verse twenty-eight, it is recorded, “And we know that to them that love God all. things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.” All these blessings are ours; the Fatherhood of God, the'high priesthood of Christ, the intercessory prayers of the Holy Spirit in our behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered, God’s providential care for us, and a God who hears our prayers; promising that “The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” (James 5:16).

How often we live beneath these privileges. I am reminded of the prodigal son’s brother. You remember when the prodigal returned, his brother would not even come in to greet him but said to his father, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, I never transgressed a command of thine; and yet thou never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends: but when this thy son came who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou killest for him the fatted calf.” The words of the father should sink deeply in our hearts. Listen, “Son, thou art ever with me and all that is mine is thine.” Truly the apostle Paul says, “all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:2). Brethren, let us not live beneath our privileges; let us enjoy them to the fullest. Realizing our great blessings, we should go out with a spring in our step, and happiness on our faces, because we are God’s people.

We should open our eyes also to the beauties of worship. How often people attend worship and go away empty, without having been helped. It is not God’s fault for Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” When we meet, our Lord comes. If we fail to see him, it’s not his fault. We must learn to “walk by faith, and not by sight.” We must learn to see the unseen. And when we sing “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” we must by faith see the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I am confident that in our own private devotions in our own homes at the close of the day or in some closet where we have gone to shut the door or in the meeting house where we may have assembled, that if we worship God in spirit and in truth, a strength will come to us giving us “the people of God that passeth all understanding,” and a “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” permitting us to go out and face the old world heroically, indicating that truly we have been with Jesus. Let us therefore open our eyes to the beauties of worship, and when we approach the services, let us do so reverently, humbly and with great concern. Let us remember that worship is not something that we can turn on and off like we do our radios, but something we must prepare for. When we come, let us learn to see Jesus, feel the nearness of his presence and go out from the place of worship with renewed strength and enthusiasm to do things for God.

We should open our eyes to our great mission as a people. What is the mission of God’s church? Certainly many sermons could be preached on this theme if time permitted. I merely mention a few of the things that compose our great mission. First of all, it is ours to glorify God. Man’s chief function upon this earth is to glorify him who made him. I read the rest of that verse we quoted a few minutes ago. “Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are to show forth the excellencies of God. And Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men; that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Our lives, therefore, must indicate that we have been redeemed. We must be a people that “walk worthily of the calling” wherewith we have been called. We must, in the words of the apostle Paul, “live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;” (Titus 2:12-13). When every boy and girl and man and woman realizes that it is his to glorify God and to watch every word and every thought and every deed, that the world may see Christ within us, then God truly will be pleased with us, and not until then. But our mission in addition to glorifying God by living soberly and righteously and godly, is to live a life of service. It isn’t enough to merely be good. We must be good for something, and consequently, we must remember that the church of the living God has for its function to save those round about and those in regions beyond. It is said in Revelation the twenty-second chapter and verse seventeen, “And he that heareth let him say come.” And we read in Jude 1:22-23, “And on some have mercy, who are in doubt, and some save, snatching them out of the fire.” Each boy and each girl, each man and each woman who is a member of the church of the living God is supposed to be a soul winner for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hearts must be burdened for those who have not yet found the way. We must be a people that learn to lie awake at night and shed tears about the millions round about us who need the gospel of our Lord. It’s our mission then, to be a soul winning people. If we are content merely to worship and forget that the world is waiting for us, we have missed the mark. . But our mission also is to continue to help those whom we have won to Christ, to see that they are trained and educated, and that they are nurtured and cared for. For Jesus in the great commission said, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus wants us to see that the membership of the church is taught all things. We read in Colossians 2:6-7, “As therefore ye have re-ceived the Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith.” Likewise it is said in Hebrews 6:1, “Let us press on unto perfection.” We must not be content, therefore, merely to become members of the church of our Lord. We must be a people that go on unto perfection, trying to attain heights that are lofty where God can use us to the very fullest. But our mission also consists in looking after the members of the church who need special care in a spiritual way. “Admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint hearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all,” wrote Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:14. We ought to see that those who need encouragement get it, that they are admonished in every way possible.

I am also reminded that our mission also consists in what the brethren told Paul and Barnabas to do when they went out to preach to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:9). Also the Holy Spirit says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). As our mission, therefore, we are to remember those who are. in need. We are to have souls. We are to glorify God by the way that we live. All these things compose the great mission of the church of the living God. We ought to pray, “Open thou mine eyes, oh God, that I may understand what it means to be a Christian, that I may not be satisfied with merely coming into Thy church, but that I will live right and do good, thus serving as the Lord Jesus Christ served.” But we must open our eyes also to our pleas as a group of people. There is no group of people under the sun having such a magnificent plea as we have. It is our aim to restore New Testament Christianity, to point men back to the old Jerusalem church, to Christianity as it was 1900 years ago. We are not trying to reform some old denomination and we are not trying to build a new denomination, but we are urging men to lift up their eyes and look back through the mist and fogs of denominationalism, back to Pentecost day and to the old church we read about in the New Testament. Our plea is for no church save the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our plea is for no name but the divine name Christian; no plan of salvation but the plan of salvation preached by Peter upon Pentecost, no plan of worship except the worship we read about in the New Covenant, no organization but that organization we find in the New Testament, no rule to govern us and to guide us save the word of God and the word of God alone. That is our plea as a group of people. And many, blinded by denominationalism, are yearning for the very things that we cling to as the followers of Christ. May we never forget our plea. History has a way of repeating itself. Nineteeen hundred years ago there was only one church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the apostasy came and Catholicism came into existence. Centuries later the restoration movement began. After the restoration movement when it looked as if denominationalism would completely fall before the mighty march of God’s people, there was another apostasy, and the Christian church and Disciples of Christ came into existence, turning away from the plea which had caused the old pioneer preachers to go out and convert men by the thousands.

Now as I look out and see this mighty group of people and when I think of the great membership we have throughout the. world, nearly a million people, I am reminded of a passage in the book of Judges, the second chapter, where it is said in verses seven through ten, that they remembered all the days of Joshua, all that God had done for them, and they remembered all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, but finally Joshua died and all their generation died and a new generation came into existence that knew not Jehovah and forgot the mighty things that Jehovah had done for Israel. We must be careful, my brethhren, that we do not become a denomination in any sense of the word, that we leave off denominational phraseology, de-nominational organization, and anything which we cannot find authority for in the New Testament. Let us remember our plea as a group of people. Let us teach our boys and our girls so that in the years to come in the new generation they will remember the battle that has been fought by men like those who have been preaching Christ forty years, and by those who preached even before them. May we always be content to just restore New Testament Christianity and point men back to the Bible church. If we forget our plea, we have no right to exist. We will then have to close our windows and shut our doors and say we have ceased to be what we ought to be, for we have no right to exist unless we keep before us constantly our plea of returning to the New Testament. So may we have our eyes open to the grandest plea in all the world, the restoration of New Testament Christianity. But it is altogether appropriate now as we think of this marvelous text to open our eyes to the great opportunities that confront us. As this Lectureship has been attended, I have marvelled at the progress that has been made by God’s people in the past few years. I remember that when I used to atend these Lectureships several years ago, there was a mere handful compared to the great multitude that comes now. I recall when we had few workers in various places in the world where we now have many. A few years ago if someone had even dared to suggest that a group of young people would go over into the very shadow of the Vatican and baptize 300 Roman Catholics in one year, many would have thought it fantastic. Not long since if it had been suggested that we would soon have 24 workers in Germany and 800 members of the church, it would have been considered an idle dream. At that time if someone would have prophesied that shortly we would have possibly fifteen thousand members throughout all of southern Africa, many would have said it would never come to pass. But only recently as I listened in Washington to Brother Reuel Lemmons as he gave us an account of the great work that is going on in Africa, as I listened this afternoon to our good brother, Dieter Alten from Germany, as he told us about the great work being done there, and as I have studied about the work being done in Japan, in Italy, in the various other places, my heart has been lifted up and I have been caused to rejoice, for truly there are great opportunities in this old world waiting for us, opportunities we have never seen yet. The words of the Lord Jesus are so appropriate, the words that he spoke to his own disciples when looking up and seeing the host coming out of the city of Samaria, he said, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields that they are white already unto harvest.” And truly they are white even now. When I think of our own great country and the section in which I live, Washington, D. C., and the northeast, where the church is so small, I marvel at the opportunity we have. One-third of the population of this great United States, 40 million people, live in that section and we have about 30 preachers trying to preach to this one-third. I wish that I could take all of you with me on a magic carpet some Sunday morning and drop you gently into various cities in the northeast, cities of over a hundred thousand and tell you to look for a church of the New Testament. I would like to see the look of dismay upon your faces as you sadly realized that you were unable to find a congregation, and as you heard individuals say, “What do you mean by church of Christ?” Then I wish I could come back with you that very night as you tell the congregations where you regularly worship that you looked all morning in a city of a hundred thousand where you found no church. Yes, in our own great United States, in the northwest and many other sections, there are various regions waiting to be evangelized.

I rejoice that the work has been done in Germany, in Italy, in Belgium, the little congregation now being started in France. I rejoice at the work being done in Africa, in the Panama Canal Zone, in Hawaii, in the Philippines, China, Japan, Alaska, in Cuba, in Mexico and any other place where good is Toeing done. I rejoice at the good that is being done, and may God give us courage to continue and do even a greater work at all these places. But we must face the fact that large sections of the world are unevangelized. South America is waiting. Europe and Asia have barely been touched. There are a billion people in the world that haven’t even heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to open our eyes to that vast throng of people. If someone should try to even call the names of all the individuals in the world who never heard of Jesus, and if every time the watch ticks its seconds away, one of those names should be called, minute #after minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, ah, my friends, it would take thirty long’ years to even call the names of them, mentioning a name every second. That many people have not even heard of the Lord Jesus. If all these were to die and we were to dig a grave for them, allowing 36 inches to each individual, that grave would reach out yonder 600,000 miles long, 24 times the circumference of this earth. That many people haven’t heard of the Lord yet. Certainly we must not become satisfied with what we have done. We ought to rejoice that our efforts have been blessed and we ought to thank God from the very depth of our hearts, but we ought to remember that teeming millions are still lost. If there ever was a generation that had an opportunity, it is this one. No greater opportunities have come to the church of the Lord since the days of the apostles and I am glad I live in this age. We ought to pray, “Open thou mine eyes, oh God, that I may see these marvelous opportunities.” But while we are opening our eyes, we also ought to pray the prayer, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may see the resources at my disposal.” So often, my brethren, we as a group of people have not been able to see just what God could do with us if we would only give him a chance. We have too many who say the job cannot be done. We have too many who say it is impossible to win the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is not impossible for us to give people of this generation a chance. Every person should be given an opportunity. Surely all need to be told the story at least one time. And so many of us have heard the gospel day after day and week after week since our childhood. We ought to have upon our hearts the benighted millions who are crying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” Let us not rest until all of them have been given the privilege to learn of Jesus, until all of our neighbors and our friends round about us have been taught and urged to obey. Y.es, we ought to see the strength at our disposal. We must not be guilty of misunderstanding our resources. When the Lord told the little band of disciples to go into all the world, they were few in number and had poor transportation facilities. They had little money. They had practically no conveniences, but they went out with a mighty faith in a mighty God. And during one short generation the gospel was preached unto all creation (Colossians 1:23). Today we live in an age when we have the printing press, the radio, television, telephone, all sorts of means of communication. We live in an age when we have comfortable automobiles, fast trains, safe ships, airliners that can take us to any part of the world in just a few hours. We live in a small world. The inventions and discoveries of today permit us to be very close to the people who live in the remotest sections of the earth. With all of this God expects much of us. We need to open our eyes to the fact that a million people consecrated to God can go out, if they will only say, “Here am I, Oh God, send me,” and conquer this world for Christ. We need to recognize that we are not poverty stricken as a group of people.

We have comfortable homes, good clothes, and comforts that millions of people in this old world have never even dreamed about. God has blessed us with an abundance of everything, and we must not forget the source of all that which has come to us in the providence of God. Remembering this therefore, if you can, I can get upon our hearts the great work that needs to be done, if we can visualize the resources at our command, if we can see the fine group of young people in the church of the living God, well educated and trained, many of whom are waiting for someone to send them, we can do things for God that we did not even dream about five or ten years ago. But someone says, there are some difficulties you have not considered. Yes, I’m sure that there are. There may be difficulties of which I am not aware, but after all, in computing our resources and the strength at our disposal, we must remember that God is an omnipotent God, and if we will remember God is able by the power that he has working through us when we are thoroughly consecrated to him, having given our very life and our silver and gold to him, he is able to work that which seems humanly impossible. Every Christian ought to have this passage of Scripture burned into his very heart, “Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ash or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). And at this point I am reminded of a story in the Old Testament, in II Kings, chapter six. Early in the morning the servant of the prophet Elisha arose and went out to look round about the city of Dothan. What met his eyes brought to him consternation. He saw the host of the Midianites surrounding the little city of Dothan. He ran with a cry of dismay to his master, Elisha, the mighty prophet of God, saying, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” And that mighty prophet of God calmly replied, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” And then Elisha prayed a prayer, brief but full of meaning, “Lord, open his eyes that he may see, and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” His fear vanished. If you and I could see by faith a mighty God and what he has at our disposal, our fear would vanish and then we would be willing to say, “Here am I, oh God, send me.” Let us remember the words of David and let us pray sincerely, “Open thou mine eyes, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”