Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Good religious men will hold
on to various vestiges of true worship and will not reject all
of its precepts as long as they continue to worship God as they
please. There is a mongrel religion which
masquerades today as true Christianity, having a form of godliness but
denying the power thereof. Men who think that it is within
their own power to influence God have no qualms at all in
considering that they have the power to change the hearts of
men. If you begin with a false assumption, you will always arrive
at a false conclusion. Yet who can argue with success?
We see the soul winners tally up their conquests and apprising
us of all their successes. The last 250 years has seen one
of the most concerted efforts on the part of multitudes who
have claimed to be the disciples of Christ to convert the world.
The folly that has become associated with these endeavors is not in
the desire to declare the truth of God to the world, but in the
presumptuous notions that men have that they can actually measure
the success of their efforts by pronouncing that the disciples
which they have made are indeed those who truly fear the Lord.
It has become unthinkable to even question the legitimacy
of such campaigns, let alone to speak words of opposition
against such presumptuous notions. It is thought to be blasphemous
to point out that men cannot perform a task which the Lord
has reserved for Himself. When the Lord Jesus came on to
the scene, he declared, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
He went on to say that this prophecy was fulfilled in him the very
day that he spoke it. The writer of Hebrews declares
the prophecy given to Jeremiah, saying, This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I
will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds while I write
them. He declares that it is brought to pass according to
the same One who orders all things, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The basis upon which this new
covenant rests is, their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. Those who are the inheritors
of this covenant promise are one in the same with those for
whom Jesus Christ is entered in once into the holy place,
having shed his blood for the remission of their sins. The
Lord has sent men into the earth to testify of Christ and not
to teach men to fear the Lord by the precept of men. When the
Lord is pleased to awaken his elect, he will teach them things
which men are unable to teach. Even as Jeremiah goes on to say,
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all
know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith
the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more. Men do not become the sons of
God by blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. When God is pleased to write
His precepts upon a man's heart, then that man will be transformed
by the power of God. No other power in earth or hell
can overturn it. Contrarywise, unless the Lord
is pleased to open a man's eyes to behold the glories of Christ
alone and causes him to delight in Him, then all of the preaching
of men, however eloquent, learned, or fervent, will not cause it
to occur. They are merely those who receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved, regardless
of their religious devotion and involvement. What makes mistaken
men afraid of sovereign grace to preach? The reason is, if
truth be said, because they are so rich. Why so offensive in
their eyes does God's election seem? Because they think themselves
so wise that they have chosen Him. Whence is imputed righteousness
a point so little known? Because men think they all possess
some righteousness their own. Not so the needy, helpless soul
prefers his humble prayer. He looks to him that works the
whole and seeks his treasure there. His language is, let me,
my God, on sovereign grace rely, and owned is free because bestowed
on one so vile as I. Election is a word divine, for
Lord, I plainly see. Had not thy choice prevented
mine, I ne'er had chosen thee. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.