The speaker spoke about eyes in the first session of this sermon series and will be continuing to speak about our eyes today.

‘Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.’
(I Corinthians 6:19‭-‬20)

We were bought with a price and therefore, we must glorify God in our bodies. In the previous session, the speaker shared three types of eyes to avoid having.

Eve’s eyes: Lustful eyes; eyes that are not satisfied with what they have but always look at what they do not have.
Pharisee’s eyes: Hypocritical eyes that see their brother’s faults but not their own; do not be too quick to look at the faults of others and not look at our own faults which may be even bigger. It is not that we shouldn’t remove the speck in their eyes, but we should first remove the plank in ours.
Saul’s eyes: Eyes of hatred and jealousy; how Saul ‘eyed’ David from that day on, as the Bible says.

As Christians, we should not eye anyone with such eyes.

‘And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
(Matthew 13:14‭-‬15)

There are people who see and hear many things, but nothing touches them. Their eyes are dim - even blind - that they are closed. Do we see things with an open heart, ready to see what God wants us to see? Many do not; that is the problem.

‘But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”’
(1 Corinthians 2:9)

God has prepared things for those who love Him, to enter their hearts. These are the things that those who do not love God will not be able to see nor have enter their hearts.

‘However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.’
(1 Corinthians 2:6‭-‬8)

So what is this thing which some people simply cannot have enter their hearts? The wisdom that God has prepared for those who love Him. These people include even those who have power in this world, like the rulers of this age.

‘But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.’
(1 Corinthians 2:10)

How does God show us these things? Through His Holy Spirit. We must be thankful that in the True Jesus Church, we were not established by many man, but by God Himself. This very precious truth was entrusted to us by God. And if we look at our doctrines closely, we see that they are explained very clearly by the Bible.

‘But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.’
(II Corinthians 3:14‭-‬16)

The Chinese versions says that their minds were ‘hardened’. Many learned people in the Scriptures of the past couldn’t recognise nor understand that Jesus is Christ. Their hearts were hardened. Their mind had a veil. For us today, as we grow more and more mature in our faiths, we must continue to read the word of God with a heart ready to accept what it says humbly.

The speaker has been in the church for many decades and was first exposed to them at the age of 9. He knew what our five basic doctrines were but that was it. When he came back at the age of 15, gradually he began studying the doctrines more. And he has become more convinced of the doctrines of salvation preached by the True Jesus Church. He was a convert and therefore, there had to be a period of search. He also grew more convicted through his conversations with other people.

Talking about being blinded, when he was in Junior College, there was a small Bible study group where he was attending. Because he was preaching to his friends, they were having an open discussion with his friends. One of them said, I don’t have answers for you; let me ask my Sunday school teacher. So on one Saturday morning, they met in their school, each friend having brought someone along. The Sunday school teacher was a final-year theological student. They were having the discussion that baptism was necessary for salvation with Mark 16:16, that “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” There is only one verse, the Sunday school teacher said. They flipped to John 3:5, but the Sunday school teacher said this was not counted, arguing that “being born of water” does not talk about baptism; yet he did not explain what this referred to. Then they went to Titus 3:5 (‘… according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit’).

By this point, the Sunday school teacher was getting frustrated, arguing that these verses did not state baptism. He said that if we could show him a verse that said baptism saves, he would believe. The speaker referred him to 1 Peter 3:21. It is very clear. There was an awkward silence for awhile. And the speaker saw that in the theologian’s Bible, he had highlighted up to 1 Peter 3:20, but not verse 21. The speaker could think of two reasons: that he had not read this verse (which would be unlikely, since he was a theological student), or that he had read this verse but it had not touched his heart.

The speaker is raising this up not as a criticism of anyone but as a lesson for us to learn. Over time as he has had such conversations, the speaker has become more convinced. It is so clear. Yet there are some whose hearts have been dulled, blinded, and they are simply unable to accept. This is also the same for our own members and fallen members, who no longer hold on to very basic beliefs of the truth. For us as we remain the grace of God, let us pray that we do not contract such a ‘spiritual eye disease’. Let us pray in our hearts to be convinced that we can accept the word of God as it is.

Now the second type of eyes.

‘My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.’
(James 2:1‭-‬9)

If we show partiality, have we not become judges with evil thoughts? If we show partiality, we commit sin. These kinds of eyes - tinted eyes, eyes of prejudice - when we treat people with prejudice - as Christians, we must be careful not to treat people with such a mindset. As far as God is concerned, whether you come in poor or rich is completely irrelevant. The poor can be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom of Heaven. If God does not make this distinction, why should we? The speaker thanks God that here we do not treat each other with such an attitude. But he encourages us to continue with this mindset. As our church expands into different parts of the world, some nations are more prosperous while others are still emerging. Inevitably, there will be some of these material differences. But it is important for us not to treat our members differently wherever they are from. We may not have such an issue here, but there may be hidden issues we are not aware of.

‘Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”’
(Matthew 13:53‭-‬57)

If we look at what happened here, Jesus went to His hometown and they knew Him well. But look at the reason they astonished at His wisdom and the mighty works He did. And look at their conclusion: they were offended at Him. It was not because Jesus spouted nonsense in the synagogue nor doing bad things; they recognized that He did many great works. But instead of being inspired and giving thanks to God, they were offended. In their hearts, they simply could not accept it.

“How did he run so fast and get the gold medal? He doesn’t even have money to get shoes or training. This can’t be.”

They could not accept Jesus. Not because He was spouting nonsense, but simply because He was a carpenter’s son. He was a nobody to them. As far as they were concerned, He was not learned to them. Jesus’s mother, brothers, sisters, were ordinary people and they knew their names.

Do we unconsciously also have this mindset, where “So-and-so is speaking the sermon, this person isn’t trained.. His sermons are so boring…” If we have such a mindset and choose speakers, we may lose the opportunity to hear the word of God. Obviously, some speakers are more inspiring to you. But all in all, we need to search ourselves, that we do not come from an angle that we are higher and mightier, that we know more, and we are more focused on criticising a sermon. Because such an attitude would be wrong.

While it is not wrong to give feedback, we must be mindful of how we do so. All of us must be open to continue learning too. The word of God is living. The crux is not about whether someone is more highly educated or not. The crux of the better is whether this person has spent time praying and relying on the Holy Spirit to prepare a message that is biblically sound. If we begin with an attitude that “He is just a carpenter’s son,” this is not an attitude God wants us to have.

Now the third kind of eyes; something more positive: eyes of faith.

‘And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation’
(Luke 2:25‭-‬30)

This old man was a just and devout man. What was his final wish in life? Not to see the world, but to see the Christ - the salvation of Israel. This was the faith he had towards the end. Finally, when he saw the Christ, he truly saw him; these are the eyes of faith, to be able to see what God wants him to see. What are we truly hoping for in our lives? If the Lord says, “Hey, I want to take you back,” what would we say? “I’m not ready yet.. I have not seen the world, I have not seen my children grow up, I have not seen my grandchildren…” Wanting to see our children and grandchildren is reasonable, since these are also our responsibilities. But sometimes we also want to see people’s downfall, because they treated us badly. I want to see my point proven right. Is this why we live our lives?

Simeon was just and devout. Because of this, the Holy Spirit revealed this to him, and this was his hope, day by day. Ultimately, what was he looking for? To go back and see the Lord. And hence, verse 29 was a sigh of relief - Lord, You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word.

Such eyes of faith are what the speaker hopes we all have. Let us not seek to see the downfall of others or to see our point proven as these are not good things to have in our hearts. Instead, may our eyes always be opened to see what God wants us to see. Ultimately, no matter what happens in this world, to see salvation. The heavenly kingdom has been prepared for all of us. Can we see it?