Overcoming Christ

"Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me."

Song of Solomon 6:5

This is the language of the Heavenly Bridegroom to his spouse. In great condescension, he speaks to her, and bids her take note that her eyes have overcome him. This morning, our subject was, overcoming evil with good. We have a very different subject this evening; for we are to talk about overcoming him who is goodness itself, the perfection of everything that is excellent.

Saints first learn the are of overcoming evil, and then they learn the way to overcome goodness, too. But how different, dear friends, are the weapons employed in these two warfares; for while, this morning, as we spoke of overcoming evil, we saw that there was much for us to do, and think that we all felt it was more than we could do apart from divine grace, yet here there is nothing to be done but just to give a look. The Heavenly Bridegroom confesses himself to be overcome by the very look of the eyes of his spouse; she has but to gaze steadily upon him, and his heart is vanquished by the glances of her eyes.

Now, it must not be supposed, because of the language of the text, that there is any opposition between Christ and his people which has to be overcome. He loves his bride far too well to allow any division of feeling to separate them in heart from one another. Nor is it to be imagined that the spouse had to gain some blessing from an unwilling hand, and therefore pleaded with her eyes as well as with her lips. Oh, no! There is a holy discipline in Christ's house that sometimes withholds the coveted blessing until we have learned to pray in downright earnest; but the power that wins the victory in prayer has its real basis in the love of Christ himself. It is because he loves us so much that he permits our prayers to conquer him; it is not so much because we love him as because he loves us, that he permits the look of our eyes to overcome his heart.

This, then, is the subject for our meditation now -- the way in which God's people overcome the heart of Jesus Christ, and make him say, "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me."

I. First, dear friends, let us notice that LOOKING ON HIS CHURCH HAS ALREADY OVERCOME THE HEART OF OUR HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM. It was so 'in the far-distant past', not when she looked at him, but when he looked at her, that she overcame him. Ages upon ages ago, before ever the earth was, Christ had conceived in his heart the purpose to redeem from among men a people that should be precious in his sight forever and ever. Through the glass of divine foreknowledge, he looked at his people, he recognized the person of every one of them, he saw them all ruined in the Fall, all stained with sin, all contaminated in nature by our first parents' disobedience and rebellion.

As he looked at them, with a steady resolve that he would rescue them, and perfect them, and lift them up to a level with himself, and make them into a race that should praise God forever in heaven with hallelujahs and hosannas beyond all the harmonies of angels, his heart so moved towards those who he longed for the time when he should enter upon the great work of their redemption. Long ago, he said, "My delights were with the sons of men." His heart was always projecting itself forward in anticipation of that happy yet dreadful day when he should be called upon to redeem his people. Every time he thought of them, he was overcome with the very recollection of his great love towards them; and when the long-expected day did at last come--

"Down from the shining seats above
With joyful haste he fled,"

and was found as a babe in Bethlehem's manger, lying among the horned oxen feeding in the stable of the village inn.

Oh, marvellous mystery! that he, whom the heaven of heavens could not contain, was not satisfied to be God over all, blessed forever, but for our sakes he must also become man. He was so overcome by the love he had for his chosen, that he left his Father's throne of light to become one flesh with his people, and to be made a man like ourselves that so he might be next of kin unto us. Ah, gracious Savior, your church's eyes did indeed overcome you when they brought you from amid the royalties of heaven down to the sins and sorrows of earth!

You know, too, 'when he lived down here among men', how often his inmost heart was stirred as he looked upon the people whom he loved. And specially do you recollect the scene on that last night when their redemption-price was about to be paid. He took the cup that he was to drink, and sipped at it; but his holy soul revolted from it, and with the bloody sweat upon his face he cried, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Then he went back, and looked upon his people.

Truly, there was not much to see in them; he had taken three specially privileged apostles to be the representatives of all his chosen, and those three were asleep when he was in his terrible agony; yet, somehow, the sight of them seemed to strengthen him for the awful ordeal that he was enduring. Backward and forward thrice he ran to gaze upon them, and they so overcame him that he turned back, and said to his Father, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as you will;" and he went through with that tremendous work of laying down his life for his people, and drinking the cup of wrath that was their due. They had overcome him as he had looked at them.

And, beloved, now that 'our Lord is risen from the dead', he still feels the power of the sight of his redeemed. The great joy of Christ at this moment is found in gazing at his redeemed ones. Look at him as man, if you will; and what a wondrous Man he is! But remember also that God has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; and what does the glorified and exalted Christ think as he looks on the myriads in heaven, all of whom would have been in hell but for him?

Then he looks down to the saints on earth, and sees the myriads who are all trusting in him, all conquering sin by his might, and all spared from going down to the pit by the merit of his precious blood; and he seems again to say, "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me:" as if Christ felt that a silence of his people brought almost too much joy for him. What a day will that be when he shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; when all his people, raised from the dead, or changed in the twinkling of an eye shall admire him, and he shall be admired in them!

And what will be the joy of his heart when the "great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," all redeemed by blood, shall be gathered unto Christ, to be the delight of his heart forever and ever! That will be a joy sufficient even for the immensity of his infinite heart as he sees in them the reward of his awful agonies, the rich return for the shedding of his precious blood. His benevolence-- that a great mainspring of all that he has done-- will be gratified and satisfied as he looks on each one of his redeemed, and sees the fruit of his travail in every individual child of his grace, in each sinner reclaimed, in each saint preserved and perfected. I can well conceive of him saying in that day, "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me." The joy that Christ will feel in his own sight of his people, and in the glances of the multitudes that he has saved, must be a delight beyond anything we can even imagine.

II. Now I must pass to a second point, which is this, that THE EYES OF CHRIST'S CHOSEN ONES STILL OVERCOME HIM. This is a practical point upon which we may profitably spend some little time: the eyes of Christ's chosen ones still overcome him.

And, first, the eyes of his chosen overcome him, when they look up in deep 'repentance', glancing at him hopefully through their tears. Let me try to give you a picture of such a case. Here is a poor soul, conscious of having sinned, and sinned deeply. Once, sin was thought to be only a trifle; now, it is seen to be a horrible evil, to be trembled at and hated. Once, God was judged to be too severe in sending men to hell; but now, the convinced one has nothing to say against God's justice, for he is all taken up with speaking against himself and his sin.

There stands this poor soul, with red and weeping eyes, saying, "O God, I have sinned, and I am still sinning; and if you do cast me into the abyss, I dare not challenge your justice; yet have pity upon me, O Lord! God, be merciful to me a sinner!" When those tear-filled eyes are turned to the Lord Jesus, and sin is confessed again and again with deep contrition and childlike repentance, it is not possible that he should long refuse to grant the pardon which we seek. He seems to say to the poor penitent, "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. I cannot bear to see you weeping and sorrowing so. Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you, for I have loved you with an everlasting love. Go, and sin no more." There is a wondrous power in the penitent eye, in the full confession that makes a clean breast of every sin before the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, brethren, that when we have once repented, we do not leave off repenting, for penitence is a grace that is as long-lived as faith; and as long as we are capable of believing, we shall also necessarily need to repent, for we shall be always sinning. So, 'whenever the child of God feels that he has gone astray in any way', that, though he did live near to God, he has gone back, and grown cold in heart, he has only to come to Christ again, and cry after him, and confess his folly in having left him, and his ingratitude in having been so indifferent to him, and Christ will receive him back again.

You cannot long mourn his absence, and seek to return to him, and feel that you will die if you do not get back the realization of his sweet love again-- you cannot be long in that state before he will be vanquished by your weeping eyes, and he will say to you "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me." And if a child of God, who has not lost fellowship with his Lord, is, nevertheless, jealous lest he should do so-- if his morning prayer is, "O my Lord, keep me from everything that would take me off from your love:" and if at night he looks back over his conduct during the day, and says, "Cleanse you me from every secret fault, for--

"I am jealous of my heart,
Lest it should once from you depart,"

if there be kept up this delightful tenderness of conscience towards Christ, so that our eyes, with weeping for very fear of sin, still look after him, then shall we hold him spellbound, and the deep sorrow of our loving hearts shall vanquish him, and he will bestow the blessing which our soul is seeking.

Another kind of glance that has great power with the Lord Jesus is 'when the soul looks to Christ for salvation'. Then it is that the eyes vanquish the Savior. It is hard at first to look to Christ, and believe that he can save you. I suppose some of you, dear friends, have a distinct recollection of the first faith-glance you ever took at Christ. I well remember mine; it seemed so strangely simple, and yet so sublime and wonderful, that I could scarcely think it true that there was life in a look at him. I did but glance half furtively at first, as if I thought it could not mean that such a sinner as I was, could receive mercy from Christ simply by looking at him. Did he really mean me when he said, "Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth"? I had long sought him, and I had prayed to him; but I could not conquer him, nor win mercy from him by my seeking and my praying; but oh! when my eyes, already red with weeping, looked at him with a steady glance which seemed to say--

"I do believe, I will believe,
That you did die for me,"

then did he cry, "'Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me,' 'I have blotted out, as a thick: cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins.'"

Many times since then, you and I have looked to Jesus Christ 'when a sense of sin has been very heavy upon us'. I suppose all of you who are really children of God sometimes get into that state in which you begin to ask, "Was I ever truly converted? Did my sin ever roll from my shoulders, and disappear in the tomb of Christ?" When these questions arise within your heart, go and stand once more at the foot of the cross, and look at your suffering Lord. I have looked, and looked, and looked again, until I have seemed to look him all over, and at last I have begun to sing--

"Oh, it is sweet to view the flowing
Of my Savior's precious blood,
With divine assurance knowing,
He has made my peace with God."

While the eyes of faith are thus resting upon Jesus, he is overcome by them, and he darts inexpressible joy into our hearts as he says to us, "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me." His heart is carried by storm by the faith-looks of his children.

We also give another overcoming glance 'when we look to the Lord Jesus Christ for all things'. Worldlings do not understand the terms on which we are linked with Christ. To them, Christ is a somebody who lived eighteen hundred years ago, and then died; but to us, he is alive, he is our familiar Friend, we are intimately acquainted with him, we are in the habit of taking all our troubles to him, and asking him for all that we need; and he removes our sorrows, and grants us the desires of our hearts.

There are times with all of us when we get into trouble of one sort or another; and, blessed be his name, he has taught us, when we are in trouble, to lift up our eyes to the hills where comes our help. Now, perhaps, dear brother, you have for a while been looking to Christ, and saying, "Lord, I believe you will help me; did you die to save me from hell, and will you not supply me with bread and water while I am in the wilderness? Have you covered me with the robe of your perfect righteousness, and will you not find me clothes to cover my nakedness, and shield me from the weather? Have you done the greater, and will you not do the less?"

When another trouble comes, you keep on looking to him still. You will not believe that he can be unkind; you give him credit for loving you, and caring for you, so you look to him, and as you look you submit to his will, and say, "I will never distrust you, my Lord." If he sends yet another rough providence, you continue looking to him, and only say, "Show me why you contend with me. Though you slay me, yet will I trust in you. I have known you too long to doubt you now, my blessed Lord. You have done too much for me in the past for me to turn away, and say, "I will not trust you." My Lord and Master, you can not make me believe that you do not love me, for I know you better. My inmost soul is assured that you do love me, so I look to you still, and watch the movement of your countenance; and as I look, my heart says, "My Lord, I cannot tell why you smite your servant again and again; yet, if it be your love that makes you smite, smite on. Whatever is most for your glory, do with me as you will."

When your eyes are like that, full of submission, full of hope, full of trust, it cannot be long before the Lord will, somehow or other, deliver you, for he will say, "I cannot hold out against you any longer. 'Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me.' I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. I will bring you out of the furnace, for I only sit there as Refiner until I see my own image in you; and when I see my eyes in your eyes, and my heart in your heart, and my character in your character, then will I bring you out of the furnace as gold seven times purified." Blessed Spirit, give us such eyes as these, which shall overcome even the heart of Christ!

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