Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Yet over and over in the scriptures
from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, the
Lord has manifested His love to His elect bride and His intention
to bring her unto Himself. This is ultimately demonstrated
in His promise to return to the earth at the last trump, to deliver
her bodily from the grave in the day of the resurrection.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. It has not only pleased him to
make those who make up his bride heirs and joint heirs of the
riches of God, but he has seen fit to make their privilege known
unto them. A man is not made an heir of
grace because he has heard the gospel, but rather he is made
to hear the sweet sound of the gospel and believe it because
he has been chosen an heir from the beginning. And because you
are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. There are many who make believing
the gospel, as they define it, to be a part of man's redemption
and are intent on using every device at their disposal to try
to convince people to believe it in order that they might be
saved. Men are not saved by any act
of their own, nor can the salvation of the elect be prevented by
any means or lack thereof. Christ has purchased eternal
redemption for those who are the objects of his love, and
he is presently sending messengers into the earth to inform them
of his work in their behalf. He causes them to hear and gives
them faith to believe that which he has done is sufficient. Many
go about to establish specific dogmas and systems of doctrine
which they say a man must adhere to or agree with in order to
be a child of God. I believe there is a great diversity
among the sheep of God who are scattered across the nations
of the earth. Yet I believe there is one truth with which they
all agree, and it is stated in the text we have selected, He
is altogether lovely. He is altogether lovely and is
the center and substance of the desire of His people when they
have been awakened to flee from the wrath to come. He is their
hope. He is their righteousness. He
is their sanctification. They must each one confess with
Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. They are like Ruth when she entreated
Naomi. And Ruth said, Entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither
thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy
people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God. He is
altogether lovely. That is a way of saying that
he is completely lovely. He has perfections which meet
every need of his sheep. He is the shadow of a great rock
when the sun beats upon them in the valley of Baca. He is
that stream in the desert when they are famished and thirsty.
He is their shelter in the time of storm. He is that eagle which
gathereth her chicks under her wings. He is that rock on which
all of their hoax are built. The true sons of God can listen
to no other shepherd, nor can they find any sufficiency in
the devices of men, however appealing to the flesh they may seem. He
is the only teacher that they can trust, and they must constantly
apply to him, saying, Evermore give us this bread. They can
be satisfied with nothing else but to be closely bound to Him,
even as Paul said, Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. that I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death. He is lacking nothing.
He is altogether lovely. What beauty could be added to
him who is the epitome of perfection in all things? Would we know
what forgiveness is? Look at him who prayed for his
enemies. Would we know what strength is? Look at him who, when he
was reviled, reviled not again. Would we know what mercy is?
Look at him who had no words of condemnation. Would we know
what greatness is? Look at him who girded himself
and served his disciples. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. If you would
like a free transcript of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor
at windstream.net.