Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. We are now living in a post-Christian
era when the foundational fabric of our society is not in any
sense built upon a consideration of God as an absolute sovereign.
There was a time, by the grace of God, when voices thundered
from the pulpits of the land and served to shape and mold
society and its mores to some extent. Today, we're living in
a time when the message which comes from pulpits is no longer
thundered but soothingly spoken and is shaped by the philosophies
of forgers of lies and physicians of no value. The world has more
influence in the churches of our day than the synagogues of
Satan have upon the world. Smiley-faced preachers and money-hungry
thieves tailor their sermons to draw the biggest crowds and
tell their constituents exactly what they want to hear and keep
them entertained. The power of positive thinking is now the
basis of theology, as predominant numbers of so-called Christians
exhibit more confidence in the arm of the flesh and the abilities
of men than they do in the power of an Almighty God. The gospel
has been reduced to a formula whose effectiveness is enhanced
by those with great powers of persuasion to conjole and convince
men of the ease with which they can avail themselves of a ticket
to heaven. Job never heard a motivational speaker or attended any self-help
seminars, but he was given a clear understanding of the state of
man, the purpose of God, and the absolute bleakness of the
prospects of this flesh when he made this declaration, man
that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. He
never read the latest book which told him how to pick himself
up by the bootstraps, nor was he able to avail himself of all
the motivational stories or counseling that could assure him that he
could overcome his various problems, since others had already done
it before him. No, his confession was much simpler and without
the least consideration of his own ability, when he said, Behold,
he taketh away who can hinder him. Who will say unto him, What
doest thou? He understood that all things,
whether judged good or bad, according to men, were given to him in
God's ordained purpose. And he said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. He knew that he had nothing wherein to boast, and
had no other hope or expectation than one given to him by an absolute
God. As he confessed, though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. The Scripture teaches that God
is the dictating force in the world, and His purpose cannot
be altered any more than the word that has gone out of His
mouth can be changed. The Scriptures are full of many
exhortations and admonitions, but they are given to those who
have ears to hear and eyes to see. The purpose of the exhortations
and admonitions is to bring the people of God low before His
footstool, to cry out for mercy, as they recognize their own inability
to perform even one good deed apart from His grace bestowed
upon them. The man who is spiritually minded
knows that in his flesh dwells no good thing, and that he cannot
even perform the things that he knows to do, nor avoid the
things which he knows to avoid. As Job said, man is a few days. The Lord has set the bounds of
our habitation, and we cannot pass the number of years allotted
to us. The prophet said, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. The wisest
of men, Solomon, when surveying the grandeur of all that he possessed
and had accomplished, said, Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher.
Vanity of vanity is all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all
his labor, which he taketh under the sun? Job also said that man
is full of trouble. Why should it be that men grow
angry at God when calamities come and they are troubled on
every hand? Should we be surprised when things
don't work out as we planned or our desires and dreams are
not fulfilled? Not if we have any understanding
at all of the sin nature of men and the blackness of sin's night.
which has fallen like the Stygian darkness upon the whole human
race. Rather than complaining when things don't occur as we
would like, we should rather be thankful that we ever receive
even one blessing from the Lord, since we deserve nothing but
death and destruction. That is not the message of the
miserable comforters, who apply tainted salves to the wounds
of men and promise them that they can solve their problems
by their own effort, whether it be by some great endeavor
or by following some formula of faith and obedience. There
is only one hope or help for those who are the objects of
God's mercy and have been awakened to their own dire condition.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For
I am God, and there is none else. Do you seek Him? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.