"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isa. 45:22).
Six years ago today I was "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity," but had yet, by divine grace, been led to feel the bitterness of that bondage, and to cry out by reason of its slavery. Seeking rest and finding none, I stepped within the house of God and sat there, afraid to look upward lest I should be utterly cut off, and lest His fierce wrath should consume me. The minister rose in his pulpit and, as I have done this morning, read this text: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I looked that moment; the grace of faith was granted me in that same instant, and now I think I can say with truth:
"E'er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die."
I shall never forget that day, nor can I help repeating this text whenever I remember that hour when first I knew the Lord. How wonderfully and marvelously kind that he who heard these words so little time ago for his own soul's profit should now address you this morning as his hearers from the same text, in the confident hope that some poor sinner within these walls may hear the glad tidings of salvation for himself also, and may today, on this sixth of January, be turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God."
Salvation is God's greatest work; and therefore, in His greatest work, He specially teaches us this lesson that He is God, and that beside Him there is none else. Our text tells us how He teaches it. He says; "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." He shows us that He is God, and that beside Him there is none else, in three ways. First, by the Person to whom He directs us: "Look unto me, and be ye saved." Second, by the means He tells us to use to obtain mercy: "Look," simply "look." And third, by the persons whom He calls to "look"; "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
Look to Me
First, to whom does God tell us to look for salvation? Oh, does it not lower the pride of man when we hear the Lord say, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth"? It is not "Look to your priest, and be ye saved." If you did, there would be another god, and besides him there would be someone else. It is not "Look to yourself." If so, then there would be a being who might arrogate some of the praise of salvation. But it is "Look unto me." How frequently you who are coming to Christ look to yourselves. "Oh!" you say, "I do not repent enough." That is looking to yourself. "I do not believe enough." That is looking to yourself. "I am too unworthy." That is looking to your self. "I cannot discover," says another, "that I have any righteousness." It is quite right to say that you have not any righteousness, but it is quite wrong to look for any.
God says, "Look unto me." He would have you turn your eyes off yourself and look unto Him. The hardest thing in the world is to turn a man's eyes off himself; as long as he lives, the tendency remains to turn his eyes inside and look at him self, whereas God says, "Look unto me." From the cross of Calvary, where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy; from the Garden of Gethsemane, where the bleeding pores of the Saviour sweat pardons, the cry comes: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." From Calvary's summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished," I hear the shout "Look, and be saved."
But there comes a vile cry from our soul, "No, look to yourself!" Ah, my hearer, look to yourself and you will be damned. As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. Salvation is not a consideration of what you are, but a consideration of what God is, and what Christ is. It is looking from yourself to Jesus. Oh! how many misunderstand the gospel, imagining that righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ, whereas sin is the only qualification for a man to come to Jesus. "Look!" This is all He demands of you, and even this He gives you. If you look to yourself you are damned; you are a vile miscreant, filled with loathsomeness, corrupt and corrupt ing others. But look here! See that Man hanging on the cross? Do you see His agonized head dropping meekly down upon His breast? Do you see that thorny crown causing drops of blood to trickle down His cheeks? Do you see His hands pierced and rent, and His blessed feet, supporting the weight of His own frame, rent nearly in twain with the cruel nails? Sinner! Do you hear Him shriek, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" Do you hear Him cry, "It is finished"? Do you mark His head hung down in death? Can you see His side pierced with the spear, and His body taken from the cross? Oh, come here! Those hands were nailed for you; those feet gushed gore for you; that side was opened wide for you; and if you want to know how you can find mercy, there it is!
Look! "Look unto me!" Look no longer to Moses. Look no longer to Sinai. Come here and look to Calvary, to Calvary's Victim, and to Joseph's grave. And look up there to the Man at the throne who sits with His Father, crowned with light and immortality. "Look, sinner," He says this morning to you, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." This is how God teaches that there is none beside Him: He makes us look entirely to Him, and utterly away from ourselves.
Just look
The second thought is the means of salvation. It is "Look unto me, and be ye saved." Look! There is not an unconverted man who likes this. "Look unto [Christ], and be ye saved." No, he comes to Christ like Naaman to Elisha, and when it is said, "Go, wash in Jordan," he replies, "I verily thought he would come and put his hand on the place, and call on the name of his God; but the idea of telling me to wash in Jordan, what a ridiculous thing! Any body could do that!" If the prophet had instructed him do some great thing, would he not have done it? Ah! certainly he would.
It is a simple gospel that we have to preach. It is only "Look!" "But," you protest, "is that the gospel? I shall not pay any attention to that." But why has God ordered you to do such a simple thing? Just to take down your pride, and to show you that He is God, and that beside Him there is none else. Oh, mark how simple the way of salvation is. It is "Look, look, look!" Four letters, and two of them alike! "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Some divines want a week to tell you what you are to do to be saved, but God the Holy Ghost wants only four letters to do it. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." How simple is that way of salvation! And, oh, how instantaneous! It takes us some time to move our hand, but a look does not require a moment. So a sinner believes in a moment, and the moment that sinner believes and trusts in his crucified God for pardon, at once he receives salvation in full through His blood.
All may look
Finally, mark how God has cut down the pride of man, and has exalted Himself by the people whom He has called to look. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." When the Jew heard Isaiah say that, "Ah!" he exclaimed, "you should have said, 'Look unto Me, O Jerusalem, and be saved,' all the ends of the earth...."
Now, who are the ends of the earth? I think "the ends of the earth" implies those who have gone the furthest away from Christ. "Ah, I have not been one of these, sir, but I have been some thing worse, for I have attended the house of God, and I have stifled convictions and put off all thoughts of Jesus, and now I think He will never have mercy on me." You are one of the "ends of the earth"! So long as I find any who feel like that, I can tell them that they are "the ends of the earth."
"But," says another, "I am so peculiar. If I did not feel as I do, it would be all very well; but I feel that my case is a peculiar one." That is all right; God's people are a peculiar people. You will do. But another one says, "There is nobody in the world like me; I do not think you will find a being under the sun that has had so many calls and put them all away, and so many sins on his head. Besides, I have guilt that I should not like to confess to any living creature." Here we have one of "the ends of the earth" again. And once more I cry out in the Master' s name, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." But you say that sin will not let you look. I tell you, sin will be removed the moment you do look. "But I dare not; He will condemn me; I fear to look." He will condemn you more if you do not look. Fear, then, and look; but do not let your fearing keep you from looking. "But He will cast me out." Try Him. "But I cannot see Him." I tell you, it is not seeing, but looking. "But my eyes are so fixed on the earth, so earthly, so worldly." Ah! poor soul, He gives power to look and live. He says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
Christian! In all your troubles, look unto God and be saved. In all your trials and afflictions, look unto Christ, and find deliverance. In all your agony, poor soul, in all your repentance for your guilt, look unto Christ, and find pardon. Remember to put your eyes heavenward and your heart heavenward, too.
Look unto Christ; fear not.
