Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The scriptures describe the Lord
Jesus Christ as one who is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Even when he was a child, he
had business to attend to that even his own mother could not
comprehend. And he said unto them, how is it that ye sought
me? Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? And
they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them. He
was rejected by the very people into whose nation he was born.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. The people of his own acquaintance
had no regard for him, saying, Is not this the carpenter, the
son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and of Judah, and
Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended
in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet
is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his
own kin, and in his own house. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled. Yet this was no deterrent to
him who, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end. He is a solitary Savior, because
He came to do His Father's will. He had one purpose for which
He lived His life here upon the earth. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
He sought no earthly possessions, nor gave any consideration to
His own comfort. Rather, He says, I gave my back
to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. He describes
the fulfillment of his father's will, and this is the father's
will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. To this single end he lived, died, and arose again on the
third day. Christ is a solitary Savior because
he was a substitute for his elect children. For he hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. It is upon this transaction,
which is known as imputation, that all of the hopes of the
sons of God do rest. The law is very clear that the
wages of sin is death, and that the soul that sinneth shall die.
If the children of God were to pay their own debt, they would
perish forever. Yet he who had no sin of his
own was alone qualified to take their sin as their kinsman, with
its guilt upon himself, and forever settle their debt in full. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He is a
solitary savior because he bore the just wrath of God alone.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there
was none with me. And I looked, and there was none
to help. And I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore
my own arm brought salvation unto me. Did ever any man undergo
greater loss or was plunged into any deeper despair than him whose
chief delight was to please his father? And yet the only way
he could please his father was to become an outcast from his
own father's face. Was there ever sorrow like this?
As he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He
is a solitary Savior because he alone is worthy of all praise.
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the beast and the elders, and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. He is
a solitary Savior because he will not fail to manifest the
total accomplishment of the purpose for which he came into the earth.
For we which live are always deliberate unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us,
but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. O for grace to rejoice in him
alone, he who with single eye and solitary purpose did undertake
and accomplish the redemption of those which he loved from
before the foundation of the world. Is there any like him? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.