Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Men are, by and large, content
to live their lives without much of any consideration of God except
as a creator, and they see little reason to fear him. It is rare
to find a man who trembles at the mention of his name and fears
his presence. The natural man cannot conceive
of a God who will not allow imperfect men into his presence under any
conditions. And it is impossible for him to have any perception
of the One who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to
whom be honor and power everlasting. The true and living God is both
inapproachable by men and invisible to any efforts they may undertake
on their own to discover Him. Yet this has never stopped man
from devising religions and myths designed to satisfy his quest
for the unknown. In fact, it is this very desire
that fuels all of man's futile devotions. But in all of this,
men will not bow down and worship the eternal God, because their
sin has blinded their eyes to His glory, and their natural
enmity towards Him has stripped them of any desire to worship
Him in spirit and truth. So men have carved out an image
of a God which suits them. They have given God different
names and characteristics in every culture and religion around
the world. The God of the Bible reveals himself as the one who
is an absolute God, who needs no one, and is dependent on nothing
in his creation. His thoughts are as high above
the thoughts of men as the heavens are above the earth. His creation
adds nothing to Him, and no member of it may even so much as question
His doing. There are no necessities upon
Him except those which arise out of His own character and
purpose. In other words, He does not have to do anything that
He does not want to do. It is this God, the eternal and
pure invisible Spirit, who has robed Himself in flesh and blood
and dwelt among men. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. This is the most glorious truth
that causes us to fall at his feet in adoring worship. God
has clothed himself in flesh and blood, and while doing so,
divested himself of none of his deity, establishing his glory. In doing so, he became subject
to the weakness of sinful flesh, and was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. It pleased the Lord to undergo
all of the sorrows and heartaches which are common to mankind in
order to become the perfect substitute and Savior of His people. He
walked among men, not as one robed in the glory of His deity,
but He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. But to the
man who has been given eyes to see, his ultimate glory can be
seen. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He could have come in the power
of the flesh as an apparent conqueror, with bulging biceps, steely eyes,
and a swashbuckling demeanor. He could have run roughshod over
every man who dared stand in his way. He could have destroyed
his enemies on the field of battle and triumphed over them in such
a way that no one could have doubted his power. In fact, the
Jews were looking for just such a deliverer, and they did not
know him when he came, even though the prophet of old had said,
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so openeth not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. Even his disciples
were expecting that he would fight the oppressors with the
arm of his flesh and were dismayed and distraught when he was led
to his death and in their fleshly minds to an end of their hopes.
The Lord will allow no man to glory in the flesh, so it is
in the weakness of flesh that he came in order to hide himself
from the wise and prudent. His body was bruised and gashed
because of our sin, but it is not the suffering of his broken
body that is at the very core of his suffering for us. Rather,
he made his soul an offering for our sin. He became sin for
us and underwent the terrors of being cast out and forsaken
by his Father for our sake, not that we might glory in his flesh,
but that we might be acquainted with the weakness of our own.
My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Do you see his
glory and tremble before him? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.