None like Christ. It'll be part
one and part two will be tonight. None like Christ. None. None
like Christ. Now the power of contrast is
known by all. The poets study it in the construction
of their poems. The artists in the coloring of
their picture. And the lover of nature sees contrast as their
eyes rove over the outspread landscape before us. And all
are conscious of the power and the presence of contrast. The
object of contrast is not to create the ideal or to foster
the fictitious, but to confirm the existence and heighten the
power and impression of the true. That which then is true becomes
even more beautiful and even more attractive. It is often,
through contrast, it often becomes more grand and more awe-inspiring. Such as looking at nature and
when we look at nature now as believers, we don't look at nature
the way we used to. Now we see the hand of God. We see his mighty hand. We see the colors. We see what
he's created, the different animals. We see it all different than
we saw it before. And it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. We see the handiwork of our almighty
God. I used to look at the mountains
in Oregon before the Lord saved me and said, well, they're beautiful.
And then afterwards, I'm like, oh, my, my God made those. My God made those. It's a whole
different perspective, beloved. It's a whole different perspective.
We know it all comes from His almighty hand and all by His
power. Those great lakes we have near
us here, they were all created by our great God. The Word of His power. The Word
of His power. Oh my. And we've seen in our
study in 1 John on Wednesday nights that John used contrast
to bring forth He contrasts Christ with Antichrist. He contrasts
light with darkness. He contrasts the true believer
with the unbeliever. And he also contrasts true love
for the brethren with false love. All through the study, he's been
doing that. And the believer walks in the
light of Christ, opposed to the unbeliever walking in darkness
and groping around in their own natural state. So contrasts are
used all through the Bible, all through the scriptures. And it's true as well in Paul's
epistles, the true record of God that salvation is in and
through Christ alone as opposed to works-based salvation. Paul
in his epistles is contrasting the true grace of God, the true
gospel, with a false gospel. You see it all through, again,
all through scripture. And even in the Old Testament,
idols, dumb stone idols are contrasted with the true and living God.
The one true and living God. And the Word of God is full of
contrast. The Holy Spirit of God places again in contrast
the vanity of idols in the existence of our great and living God.
It also bought forth by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, because
remember, He's the author of the scriptures. Also bought forth
is the insignificance of man, and the almighty power of God.
In contrast, we can't save ourselves, but God saves whomever He wills,
when He wills, by His almighty power. Oh my. Also the beauty of our God, His
holiness, His righteousness, in comparison to our sinfulness,
is bought forth in the Scriptures too. He's holy, He's righteous,
and we're sinners. by birth, nature, and choice. Also brought forth in this wonderful
book is our waywardness and our unworthiness of salvation in
contrast to God's mercy and love and the grace of God in salvation
through the free and sovereign grace of our great Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And our powerlessness to save
ourselves again is also bought forth in contrast to the only
one who has all power to save, the Almighty God. And what power
and beauty, what power and beauty are the great things of God then
to those who are objects of his eternal love. The power and beauty of our great
God, which we never saw before he saved us, leaves us in awe. Today we'll look at some of the
contrasts which are brought forth out in this wonderful book. And
the born-again believer cannot but rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. And we cannot but give all the
glory to our great God for these wonderful things. Turn, if you
would, to Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. We'll read verses 8 to 16. Song
of Solomon, chapter 5, verses 8 to 16. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that she tell him that I am sick
of love. That means lovesick. The bride is lovesick. She's
enamored with the groom. Head over heels, we would say. And then the daughters of Jerusalem
ask in verse 9, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among women. And
she, remember when we studied Song of Solomon, she's only fairest
among women because she's clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost
so charge us? His brother Tim bought forth,
come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That's what
the Lord says. And so the bride is telling the daughters of Jerusalem,
come to Christ. And then they're saying, well
why? What's the difference between him and another groom? Now look,
I want us to read verses 10. to 16, because look at this response
by the bride. My beloved is white and ruddy,
the cheapest among 10,000. He is distinguished among 10,000. His head is the most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black
as raven. Bushy there means wavy. His eyes
are as the eyes of doves by the rivers and waters, washed with
milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as the bed of
spices, as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dripping sweet
smelling mirth. His hands are as gold rings set
with a burl. His belly is as bright silver
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold, immovable, immovable. His countenance
is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet,
yea, he is altogether Isn't that a song? All that thrills my soul
is Jesus. He's altogether lovely to the
believer. That's a wonderful little portion
right there. He's altogether lovely. This is my beloved. This
is my friend. And as Sister Kathy said, He'll
never leave us. Oh, I love that. Often my daughter takes my hand
still. Even though she's 30 years old, she'll still take my hand.
He says, Daddy, I'm never too old to walk and take your hand.
And oftentimes, like when you sang that, sister, that bought
that forth. We just put our hand in his hand,
don't we? And he carries us and guides us and leads us. He's
our loving father. He's our loving father. It's
amazing. He's altogether, this is my beloved and this is my
friend, oh, daughters of Jerusalem. And this is what we proclaim.
He's altogether lovely. There's none like Christ. There's
none like Christ, and that's what we tell folks. There's none
like him, none like him at all. My hope today is to present before
you the Lord Jesus Christ and how there's none in comparison
to him, none in comparison to him. And I pray that the Holy
Spirit of God would illuminate the scriptures, because if he
doesn't illuminate the scriptures and teach us, we won't know anything.
But I pray that we as God's people are comforted by this precious
truth. And if it be the Lord's will
to draw in one of his lost sheep, that would be a wonderful blessing.
But we always put that in his hands, don't we? But I hope to
bring before you Christ and to magnify who he is, magnify who
he is. He's the fairest among 10,000.
There's none like Him. None like Him at all. Look at
verse 9. What is my beloved more than
another, beloved? O thou fairest among women. What
is thy beloved more than another, beloved, that thou dost so charge
us? Now we know from our study again
in this wonderful book, studying this wonderful book, that it's
all about Christ, isn't it? It's all about Christ in the
Old Testament and in the New Testament. And his bride here,
which is the elect of God, is asked a question about what is
the difference between the bride, which is the church, and the
beloved, which is Christ, over other grooms? What difference is he? Well, we know there's none like him.
There's none like him. Look at the two questions asked
in our text. And this will be our text, it's verse nine. What
is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among
women? First question. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved that thou dost so charge us? What does the bride say to the
daughters of Jerusalem? Flee to Christ. There's none
like him. There's none like him. None like
him. So we see it's clear from this
question that the daughters of the Jews want to know the difference
between the brides' beloved, which is Christ, as opposed to
others. Think of this in light of how
unregenerate men and women will place people and things of the
world above all other things and will delight in those things
to the exclusion of the Lord Jesus Christ. having no care
for their soul, having no care for their soul, no care for the
things of Christ, and no care for their eternal soul. Let us
consider some of the things that natural man place in competition
with Christ, or choose in preference to Christ. And remember, these
are natural man's rivals to Christ. And lest we get puffed up, we
were all there, we who are his people. But Christ revealed Himself to
us, didn't He? And now we cry, there's none like our Lord. There's
none like Christ. None like Him. Now, there's nothing
new under the sun, is there? There's nothing new under the
sun. Remember, this is natural men and women, and natural men
and women have not changed. They haven't changed from the
time when Song of Solomon was written, they haven't changed
from the time of the fall. There's nothing new under the
sun. There's nothing that we can do or someone else can't
do that somebody else hasn't already done. Nothing new under the sun. Because
you know why? Because natural men and women
have not changed, therefore there's no phase or development in the
depravity of humanity. We're still depraved. We're still
born dead in trespasses and sins. And that dead means lifeless.
Ephesians 2, that means lifeless. I had someone this week try to
tell me, well it doesn't say that. It says that in the Greek,
lifeless. And I asked that man, can a dead
man make a decision? Just let's get right to the point.
Can a dead man pray a prayer? Can a dead man get up off the
slab that they lay upon, if they're in a coroner's office, and can
they walk out of that room? No, they're lifeless. There's
no life. There's no life. And that's the natural state
that God finds us in. Alive physically, but dead spiritually
to the things of God. To the things of God. And our world has ever been a
Christ-rejecting world. We come into this world, again,
rejecting Christ, born dead in trespasses and sins. As the Christ-exalting
prophet of Isaiah wrote, he is despised and rejected of man.
That's our natural state, beloved. We despise him and we reject
him. Even though we might not say,
well I despise you and I reject you. But in our actions, we do
that. In our sinfulness, we do that.
And that's the state that the Lord saves us from, beloved. My, and we're still sinners even
after we're saved, aren't we? You don't have to tell any of
us that. We're still sinners after we're saved. Oh my, but
praise God, we're saved sinners. Now the rivals of natural man
with Christ, one of the main rivals is self. Self. Oh, and self comes in many, many
faces. Self-righteousness, self-seeking,
self-indulgence, and perhaps the worst is self-worship. Self-worship. This is the acknowledged
and enthroned God of the natural man and woman. It is their beloved
themselves. Themselves. It is the object
of the unrenewed mind's supreme affection and worship. Self. Self. On Wednesday, a group of us were
standing outside, just out here, and we were talking.
And Brother Tim, he brought up a scripture, the last verse in
Judges. I want to read this to us. Listen
to this. It's so true. Ties right in. In those days,
Judges 21-25, in those days, there was no king in Israel,
and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That's
natural man. We'll not have this man reign
over us. Remember Joseph's brethren, how
they reacted when Joseph told them, well, you're gonna bow
down to me. No, will we have you reign? Well, natural man
does the same thing with Christ. We'll not have this man reign
over us. Well, he reigns over you, even
if you don't believe it. Oh my. And again, there's nothing
new under the sun. Same as in judges, same as in
now. Every man does that which is
right in their own eyes. Every man's a law to himself
now. A law to himself. And there's nothing new under
the sun. Man's not changed or gotten any better in any way.
No. Man is born dead in trespasses
and sins and in complete lawlessness before our great God. I know,
I was there. And I still struggle with sin,
do you? Why? But God, by his mercy and grace,
saved me. And if you're a born-again believer,
he saved you. It's amazing. Praise be to God for his mercy
and his grace. Show him to God's people, in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And sinner friend, there's none
like Jesus. There's none like Jesus. None like him. And all
that a sinner needs is found in Christ. Everything that a
sinner needs is found in Christ. And outside of Christ there is
no hope. No redemption. No life. Now, with some also, it is the
world which is preferred before Christ. It's achievements, it's
opinions, it's pleasures. And what a multitude this has
slain. Drowning man's souls in perdition, the world, the world,
the world with its riches and its honors, its religions of
workspace salvation in preference to Christ who's done it all. And I ask you who will listen
to this message and all who prefer the world over Christ, if you
should die this year, What will the world you have chosen over
the Savior do for you as eternity stares you in the face? Because
the scriptures declare this. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world? Everything in the world. Everything. Riches, fame, and lose his own
soul. And then the question comes forth
right after that. or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? What can we give in exchange
for our soul that God, that would satisfy the law and justice of
God? Nothing, nothing. God is only satisfied
with the Lord Jesus Christ in his finished work on Calvary's
cross. When he died as the substitute
of his people, in his life, he fully satisfied the law of God,
beloved, in our place. Never forget that. Never forget
that. And then when he died on the
cross, he purchased our eternal souls. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And we come before the Lord with
nothing Bankrupt sinners, don't we? Begging for mercy. Don't
even so much as lift their head and cry, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Oh, be merciful to me, Lord.
I've sinned against you and you alone. That's what he shows us,
isn't it? He shows us that we've sinned against him. But oh, what
mercy the believer receives. What grace and mercy is poured
out on us. The undeserving sinner is saved
by the grace of God. And all their sins are pardoned,
every one of them. There's none like Him. There's
none like Christ. None at all. No one compares
to Him. No one compares to our great
God. And praise be to God again for
His mercy and His grace, which is shown to God's people, in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. This world and everything in it is owned by the Lord, beloved. It's owned by the Lord. He is
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Everything that we see is temporary. Everything, including ourselves. We will one day step into eternity. Eternity, oh, eternity. Nothing
in this world compares to our great Savior. Nothing in this
world. No money, none of our works. We can give nothing in exchange
for our soul, beloved. Nothing. We must flee to Christ. We must look to him and live.
And so what a fearful thing to vault the created over the creator. What a fearful thing. When people
exalt the world over Christ, they're exalting the created
thing over the creator. What a fearful thing to do. Oh,
and some choose the creature in competition with Christ. They
make the creature and not the savior their beloved. My, what
a fearful crime are they chargeable with, who worship and serve the
creature more or rather than the creator, as Paul penned in
Romans chapter one. The creator who is blessed forever.
and is worthy of all our praise. We are ruined by the fall, and
so to prefer the ruined creature over the glorious being of our
great God is to place yourself on a level
with idolatrous people. It's nothing but idolatry. And man in the blindness worships
the sun as the image of deity. I ask you then what superior
excellence and attraction has an earthly beloved that you should
choose and love and adore it in preference to the heavenly
one. The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, tempted in all things
but yet without sin, perfect, spotless, sinless, the Lamb of
God, God over all, blessed forevermore. That's who he is, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's no mere man. He's God incarnate
in the flesh. And God will not hold guiltless
those who love and worship and serve the creature rather than
the creator. He will not hold them guiltless.
No. No. Natural men and women will put
their estate, their rank, their talents, their reputation, their
very person over the great God themselves. Vaulting themselves
over God in the process, making themselves sovereign. But one
day it will be revealed to them just who is the sovereign king
of the universe. Oh my. And sinner friend, my
prayer is that God would grant you faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And cast aside all these earthly
things. Cast aside all hope in yourself,
in things of this world. Because there's no hope in any
of those. And there's none like Christ.
The born-again, blood-bought believer, we've been taught by
our great God that there's none like Christ, haven't we? We've
been taught that. We've been taught that. In the words, none
like Christ brings great joy to God's people. I received a call on Friday from
a dear preacher brother. He asked what I was preaching
on this weekend, and I told him the title of the message, None
Like Christ. None Like Christ. Well, we rejoiced
for about 10 more minutes after that, after we talked about other
things, but for about 10 minutes, we just rejoiced in the fact
that there was none like him. There's none like him. He's incomparable. He's incomparable. None like
our great God. None like our great Redeemer.
None. None. None like our Savior. There's
nothing like this wondrous gospel, is there? Nothing like this wondrous
gospel, which proclaims salvation in and through Christ alone. Christ alone. Not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy
He has saved us. And God's people say, praise
be to God. Because we know we can't save
ourselves. We know we're receivers of mercy
and grace. And there's no joy like the joy
which Jesus inspires in the heart of the believer. No happiness
in this world like the happiness that the forgiven sinner feels
in Christ. And no love like his love. No
love like His love. It's eternal love. It's unchanging
love. It's unchanging love. It's sacrificial
love. And this fills the believer's
heart with great joy, doesn't it? Because we know amidst all
the things that we go through in this life, His love for us
is unchanging. It's unchanging. And it's being
said upon us from eternity. My. And so the believer can only
find true rest in Christ. Now some, some cherish friendships,
don't they? Some cherish friendship. We ought
to cherish our friendships, but they can become chilled sometimes.
They can become chilled sometimes. Even with family. Family can
become chilled against the born again believer. Oh my. And some bow before Some bow
before an idol god. People got statues and crucifixes
and all this stuff all over the place. Driving down the road and some
guy's got a big statue. And I thank God, every time I
see one of those, I thank God that he delivered me from that.
You know that? Because that's what I was in. And I thank God
that he delivered me from that. Every time I see one of those.
I just think, there's a piece of dumb, it's a dumb idol. It's
a piece of stone, that's what it is. That's what it is, it's
an idol. It's an idol. And it can do absolutely
no good. No good. There's only one Savior
and that's Christ and Him alone. It's a worthless piece of wood
or stone. And the believer has fled all
these things. They fled all these things because
at one time we did worship self. or we clung to the things of
the world. But we flee all these things,
don't we? Mine. Our only hope is Christ,
and we find, we are hemmed up to find that there's none like
Christ. There's only true rest in Christ. There's no rest in
works. There's no rest in works. But,
beloved, there's true rest in Christ, and there's none like
him. There are none like Him. Let
us consider the One who is worthy of all the preeminence, the One
in whom the bride says, This is my Beloved, and His name is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of God's people. Let us consider
a few things today and we'll consider a few things tonight
about our Savior. In contrast to that which man
exalts. And we will soon conclude by
looking at these points that there's none like Jesus. There's
none like Him. First of all, there's no glory
like His. There's no glory like Christ's
glory. No glory like Christ's glory. Now a man likes the glory. A man likes the glory. Natural
men and natural religious men, they like the glory in their
accomplishments. You just start talking to them and they'll just
start telling you. And they're proud of them. Religious man will exalt their
will. Oh, it's my will. I made a decision. Again, can
a dead man make a decision? It's a good question, isn't it?
Dead man can't make, but if that man's made alive, born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Oh, he can run to Christ then by God-given faith. Do you
see? Do you see how precious it is? See how precious it is? See the contrast? Oh, it's precious. There's no glory like Christ.
So man likes to glory in their accomplishments and like to tell
you the things that they've supposedly... And I used to do this myself
when I was in religion. They like to tell you the things
they've done for God. You know, it's like the first thing you
wanna, and I remember doing this, first thing you wanna do when
you get together with a bunch of buddies, you're like, oh yeah, well I
went out and knocked on 50 doors and had prayed the prayer with
three or four people. I used to do that stuff, beloved.
And you can't wait to tell people about that. But you know who
gets all the glory now? Christ. He gets all the glory. There's
no glory, we don't want the glory, do we? We tell, what do we tell
now? The great things that he's done
for us. This is my savior. Look what he's done. And when
he saves the soul, we give him all the glory, because he's the
one who saved the soul by his almighty power. It's not man's
doing. It's all by the power of God.
It's all by the power of God. There's no glory lie. The universe,
just look around, just look around. You know this universe is full
of his glory? It's just full of his glory, just full of his
glory. And knowing that he is the one
who created it and just spoke it all into existence, the word
of God, listen to what the holy angels proclaim about Christ.
And in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah has a vision. And that's Christ
on that throne, beloved. And listen to what the holy angel,
holy angel, sinless beings. They have to cover their faces
and they have to cover their bodies in the presence of our
great God. And you know what they say? Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
what? Glory. Full of his glory. There is no
glory like the glory of Christ, beloved. There's no glory like
His. The whole universe is full of
His glory. The angels proclaim this. It's
also said of the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity,
God incarnated in the flesh and Him, or in the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Behold His
glory. Behold His glory as the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Christ alone
is the head of all principalities and powers, and the scriptures
declare that all men, all men should honor the Son, even as
they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son,
he who does not honor Christ, honoreth not the Father, which
hath sent him. O beloved, there's no glory like
Christ's glory. He is the Son of God, descended
from heaven. Marvel, not at the fact that
all the angels of heaven bow down before our great God, because
He alone is worthy for that. But marvel and wonder in awe,
the fact that the divinity could stoop so low, could stoop so
low, and not be any less divine. that He could come to this earth
and not be any less divine. When Christ the God-man walked
upon this earth, and marvel that Christ is the God-man, right
now, in glory, risen. He was God in heaven, He was
God while He walked upon this earth, and He is God right now
in glory. My, oh my, that's our Savior.
That's our Savior. One commentator said this, marvel
that Christ the God-man is in glory, the risen, exalted Savior,
and marvel that humanity could rise so high and not be less
human. He's the God-man in glory. Oh my. He's a God-man in glory. And what glory is manifest before
us. And note the Apostle John, he says, he writes this, that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes. Turn if you would to 1st John. Let's
turn there. Let's read this. 1st John. This is important to
read. 1st John, chapter 1. In light of Christ's glory. In
His glory. In who He is. Who He is. 1st
John, chapter 1, verses 1 to 5. And watch how John manifests
and just speaks of the glory of Christ. That which was from
the beginning, God, the word of God, the second person of
the Trinity, which we have heard. Oh, they heard him. They heard
him. They heard him like you and I
hear each other, which we have seen with our eyes. They looked
upon him like you and I look upon him. Remember, the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. They looked upon him just
like we look upon one another. And our hands are handled. of
the word of life. John's the one who laid his head
on the breast of Christ. For the life was what manifested,
and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life, which was with the father, was manifested unto
us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you that
ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship.
Our fellowship is with the father and with the son. The Lord Jesus
Christ. And these things write we unto
you that your joy may be full. Oh, John spoke of his glory.
He saw his glory manifested. And he spoke of him. And when
a sinner is born again by the Holy Spirit of God and granted
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they are a pardoned
sinner, a justified sinner. An adopted child. And they are
robed in the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ. And
in light of that, do we not see him as the fairest of 10,000
to our souls? For the fact that we have all
that through him. Through him and him alone. There's
none like Christ. There's none like him, beloved.
None like him at all. None like him. Second point is there's no beauty
like His. There's no beauty like His. Now some again vault up their
beauty in this world, but all that comes from the Lord, even
if they don't acknowledge it. But there's no beauty in this
world that compares to Christ's beauty to the believer. Now, one might have expected
the Messiah. As a matter of fact, the Israelites expected this.
They expected Him to come as a king. They may have expected Him to
come as a handsome man, but we know from the Scriptures that
our Lord did not stand out from among men. No? Listen to what
the Prophet Isaiah declares about our great king when he was here
upon this earth. The scripture says, for he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root of dry ground.
He hath no form nor calmliness, beauty, when we shall see him.
There is no beauty that we should desire him. He didn't stand out
from amongst men. He was a normal looking fellow.
But yet he's God incarnate in flesh. God incarnate in flesh,
but he didn't stand out from amongst men. And God the Father
had prepared a body for the Word of God. And it says in scriptures,
there's no beauty that we should desire him. Now, remember the
temple? It was covered in skins and everything
from the outside when they were going through the wilderness.
And when they put that up, you could not tell that temple area
from any other area outside. But inside, oh, there's gold
and all kinds of stuff. He's without form. He doesn't
stand out. But inside, all the fullness
of God dwells in model. Oh my. What a king. What a king. And surely, he's
a root on a dry ground. We do not know that he's the
sinless, spotless Lamb of God, as the Scriptures declare. Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me." It was a body prepared by the
Holy Spirit. Real, yet sinless. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, but yet sinless. In which the Son of God, the
Word of God, the second of the persons of the Trinity, dwelt. Fully God and yet fully man. And to God's people, oh to God's
people, He is fairer than 10,000 to our
souls. There's no beauty like Christ
being As we sing in that song, all that thrills my soul is Jesus. All these other things used to
thrill my soul before the Lord saved me. And I know it's so
for you. But now, our souls are thrilled
when we contemplate about our Savior. When we come to worship
and sing praises and hear a message from the Word of God all about
our Savior. It thrills our souls, doesn't
it? Think of this. What made you to differ and who
made you to differ? From the state that you were
in before the Lord saved you. And now, when all you see is
beauty in Christ. The only one who made us to differ
is God. The Holy Spirit, we're born again. Oh my, God made the
difference, beloved. God made the difference. So to
God's people, Christ our Redeemer is fairer than 10,000 to our
souls. Think of how we look at nature
and we're moved by the beauty of nature and what we see. I
like to look up at the stars and just see the constellations.
It just moves you, doesn't it? It leaves you in awe, especially
if you can find a place where there's not a lot of light. And
it's just breathtaking. It's absolutely breathtaking.
Beautiful, beautiful. But you know it pales in comparison
to the beauty of Christ. It pales in comparison to the
beauty of Christ to his people. Look at the great mountains of
the earth. Beautiful mountains. Beautiful. Take your breath away
when you look at them. Marvel at the beauty of them.
But let us never forget that it's Christ who created all those.
It's Christ who created all those. He raised those mountains. He
created the beautiful valleys. And as beautiful as they are,
they don't hold a candle to our Lord. They don't hold a candle
to His beauty. One commentator brings forth
this, that the wayside violet that screens the dewdrop from
the sun, that winding stream, that leafy grove, Christ formed
and penciled it all. Christ clad the magnificent landscape
with its robe of living green. scented the air with its fragrance
and hauled out the depth of the expanding ocean. He created it
all. And as beautiful as it is, it
pales in comparison to the beauty that God's people feel and see
in Him. Who can describe His person?
Who can describe His person? He's altogether lovely. His nature
is holy. His voice so soothing to the
believer. He's perfect, sinless, and He
alone is chief among 10,000, and altogether lovely to the
believer. There's none like Christ. There's
none who compares to Him in beauty. And for those who are the blood-washed,
born-again saints of God, robed with His righteousness, we have
all spiritual blessings in Him, don't we? In Him. And he is lovely. Marvel, for one day we'll see
him face to face. And oh, how beautiful he'll be
to us then. See, we see through a glass darkly
right now, don't we? But then face to face, oh my. We will cry, there's none like
him. Oh, beloved, we're joined the blood brought strong to encircle
the throne of God, the lamb of God, and we're singing all together
of his glory and his honor, and we're praising with our lips
forever. We shall gaze upon he when we
get the glory. We shall gaze upon he who is
altogether loved. Last point I'd like us to consider
in light of there's none like Jesus is there's no savior like
him. There's no savior like him. There's no savior like Christ.
None. When one has their need revealed
to them that we are but sinners in desperate need to be saved,
in desperate need of a savior, And when the Holy Ghost reveals
Christ to us, we see then that all these things, including self,
that we were counting on to gain us merit and favor with God,
are nothing, and in no way can save us. God sent His Son to be the sacrifice, to be the
propitiation, for the sins of his people. And it is he who
has redeemed us by his precious, precious blood. It is he who
has finished the work. It is he who cried, it is finished. The atoning work, the salvation
of the souls of God's people is finished. by His atoning sacrifice on Calvary's
cross. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one and only Savior of man. The scriptures declare, neither
is there salvation in any other. No other man, no other creature,
nothing. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. Only in Christ. And all that the sinner needs
is found in Him. Christianity is the only religion
that fully recognizes the natural and utter depravity of our nature
and our inability to save ourselves. All other religions tell you
something you have to do. Including works-based salvation
that masks itself as Christianity. They all tell you something you
have to do. But we have no ability to save
ourselves. Jesus, therefore, is the Savior
of who? Sinners. He alone is the Savior of sinners.
And He, on Calvary's cross, saved His people from their sins. Praise
His holy name. We are ruined by the fall, dead
to the things of God, and having a nature that is at enmity with
God. And that's where he finds his
lost sheep. That's the state we're in. Physically alive and dead spiritually. And he finds us fallen, doesn't
he? Paul wrote, and such were some
of you. And he goes on to list a whole bunch of things that
the Lord saved us from. All the grace and strength of
our salvation dwells in the infinite fullness of Christ. We are powerless to save ourselves.
And he is strong. And he becomes all in all to
us. And he finds us fallen. And he raises us up. We're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. And then he takes us all through
our journey through this world and takes us home to be with
Him forever. Undeserved mercy and grace, beloved. Christ is all in all to the believer.
Nothing will save me but Christ. And it is He who is the object
of God-given faith. It's Christ. One may adopt the
soundest creed and believe certain doctrines and yet still not know
Christ. See, you can't educate somebody
into the kingdom of God, can you? You must be born again. You must be born again. Christ
must reveal himself to us. Christ separated. If you're separated
from Christ, there's no salvation. There's no salvation in the church.
There's only salvation in Christ and Him alone. Nowhere else.
Nowhere else. Think of this. Think of this. People get rescued from different
situations and they would call the person, the person saved
me. Well, think of the peril we were
in. Think of the peril we were in.
And there's no savior, no rescuer like Christ. He's the great rescuer. He's
the great savior. Because He saves us from that
which we can never save ourselves from. Our sins. Our sins. My. What a salvation. Marvel at this
wonderful salvation. It's provided to God's people
in Christ. By God. By God. My. And we're washed clean. We're washed clean from all our
sins. Pardoned fully. Fully. Some say, well, you don't know
how much I've sinned. Well, you don't know how much
I've sinned. But let me tell you, God forgave
all my sins, past, present, and future. Glory to his name. Washed in the precious blood
of Christ. There's none like him. There's
no savior like Christ. There's none, none like him. And we see, we say with the publicans
and sinner, the publican and the sinner, God be merciful to
me. We say with all that we're the chief of sinners. And this,
we say this after we're saved, don't we? Oh my. But we keep looking to
him, don't we? We keep looking to Christ alone. Think of this, just as that dying
thief did. Could that dying thief do anything?
Could he do anything? He's hanging beside Christ with
nails in his hands and in his feet. Could he do anything? Nothing
to gain merit and favor with God, could he? Oh, he's born
again in the Holy Spirit of God and he says, we're here justly.
We're getting what we deserve. Because he's born again. And
what does he do? He looks to Christ. Oh, what
a beautiful picture. He looks to Christ and he says,
Lord, just remember me. And the Lord says, today thou
shall be in paradise with him. What a Savior! What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. There's none like Christ. We
can cry with us in Psalm 73, 25. We can say this. Whom have
I in heaven but thee? I don't have no one but Christ.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And then he says this, and there
is none on earth that I desire beside you. That's God given
faith, beloved. And we say the same with our
dear brother. Whom have we in heaven but thee?
And there's none on earth that we desire like him. Glory to
his name. What a savior. What a redeemer.