Good evening. Let's turn, if
you would, in your Bibles to John chapter 7. read a passage of scripture and
then I'll tell you the title of my message. So we're going
to start reading chapter 7, verse 31. And many of the people believed
on him and said, when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles
than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that
the people murmured such things concerning him. And the Pharisees
and chief priests sent officers to take him. Then said Jesus
unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go
unto him that sent me. You shall seek me, and shall
not find me. Where I am, thither you cannot come. Then said the
Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we should not
find him? And will he go unto the dispersed
among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of
saying is this that he said, You shall seek me, and not find
me? and wither I am, thither you cannot come. In the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, if any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this spake he of the spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Many of the people, therefore, when they had heard this saying,
said, of a truth, this is the prophet. And others said, this
is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that
Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of
Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him. And some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to
the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto him, Why have
you not brought him? And the officers answered, Never
man spake like this man. And then answered them the Pharisees,
Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the
Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not
the law are cursed. And Nicodemus said unto them,
He that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, doth our law
judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
And they answered and said of him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet, and every man went into his own house.
My message tonight in our subject is there was a division because
of him. If you, in reading this passage,
we see that there are three types of people that it talks about
that the people are seeing. First is, some say that he's
the prophet. Others say that he is the very
Christ. And others said that he's no
prophet at all. No prophet came out of Galilee.
So we see that those who looked at him as no prophet at all,
that there's none that came out of Galilee, they're only looking
at this as a very mechanical sort of thing. They're saying,
well, it's not written here and it's not in our rules, so therefore
he can't be. And so they're looking at it
as in terms, they're making it a law into itself because it
doesn't follow the order that they expect, yet that they didn't
even realize that he was born in Bethlehem, yet they made this
judgment. The second person here, they
see him as the prophet. This is the one who sees this
as an experience. Instead of law and mechanics,
it's an experience. It's the emotions. Because they
say, back in verse 31, they said, he did many great signs. When
the Christ cometh, will he do more signs than these, than this
man? So they were just looking to the signs that he did. But
there are those who saw him as the very Christ, God's anointed
prophet, priest, and king. And this division that rose among
these people even exists today. And the division is viewing him
as less than what he is. And this extends over into salvation
itself. To some, it's a, how were you
saved? It's an experience. Others, it's
a, what saved you? How did you get saved? What did
you do? This, this is the mechanics and law again. Did you do enough
good works? What about stopping all the bad
ones? Did you give enough? Did you witness truthfully? Have
you been born again? What about being baptized? Do
you believe the five points even? To others, to those who see Him
as the Christ, it's, who saved you? You see, those that see
Him and know Him as Christ, we have a present salvation. And
what I mean by that is a present salvation is it's here now. It's not something that we're
working toward and then we get to salvation because that's what
these other things are saying. If you don't do enough things,
if you experience enough signs, if your experience and emotions
or the law side are not a component of it, you're building up towards
some eventual thing which is salvation. But to those who see
him as the Christ, we have a present salvation which is now. Second
Timothy 1.9 begins with saying, who hath saved us? James 4.12
said, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Jude 1.24 says, now unto him
who is able to keep you from falling, because you can't, and
presents you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. The glory of salvation is a who,
it's not a what, it's not a how. And when we ask, what do you
believe? We need to not say what we believe,
we need to tell who we believe. We don't start with, well, let
me ask you, do you believe in an election? Well, do you believe
that God is sovereign? God is sovereign. God did elect
people. These aren't up for debate. So
that's why we don't start talking about those things as if it's
something that we have to defend. These things are true. We tell
whom we believe. It's not up for debate and telling
who he is, the rest of the stuff will come out. The rest being
election, sanctification, justification, all these things will come out
in telling who he is. I don't need to go and define
what these things are because these are already established
and true in his person. So let the division be over him
and who he is, not a doctrine that can be taken out of context
and twisted. Election did save me, but what
is election without Christ, who stood for me, who died for me,
and who I'm united and by whom I live? You see, you can't preach
election without preaching Christ. And if you preach Christ, you
will preach election. And if someone rejects any part
of scripture or a doctrine found therein, it's not that you're
just having a division over a doctrine. It's over the very Jesus Christ
himself and who he is. The division is because of him.
And there are four points that I'd like to make tonight about
the division concerning him. The first is the division because
of him, the man. The second is the division concerning
his law. The third is the division concerning
his judgment. And the last is the division
concerning him in experience. And so the first one is division
concerning Jesus Christ the man. Why is there a division over
him? Was it because he healed people or did many good works
or expounded the scriptures in ways that they didn't understand
and they didn't like it when he showed them something they
didn't know? Now, turn over, we'll look at a few scriptures.
John 7, in verse 28, let's back up to verse 27. He says, how
be it we know this man from whence he is, but when Christ cometh,
no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple
as he taught, saying, you both know me, and you know from whence
I am. And I have not come of myself,
but he that sent me is true, whom you know not. But I know
him, for I am from him, and he has sent me. So he's saying here,
you don't even know the person that sent me, I'm from him. Turn
over to Luke chapter four. In verse 24, and he said, Verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country,
But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias. And when the heaven was shut
up for three years and six months, when a great famine was throughout
all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto
Sarepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And
many lepers were in Israel at the time of Eliseus the prophet,
but none of them were cleansed, saving Nahum and the Syramen.
And all in the synagogue, when they heard these words, were
filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down head first."
So there were many lepers in the land, and what he was saying
at this point, he was sent to a Gentile. It wasn't because
of you, of who you are. So God does what he does because
it's up to his will and not you because you're birthed here.
Go over to John chapter 10 in verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me,
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father Then the Jews took up stones
to stone him. And Jesus answered them, Many
good works have I showed you from my Father, for which of
these works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him, saying,
For good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because thou,
being a man, makest thyself God. It's not just equal to God. Thou,
being a man, makest thyself God. Because he said, I and my Father
are one. This is where the division occurs,
and this is true today and true then. Men hate the Jesus Christ,
who is one with the Father, who is God himself. Everything about
him offended them. He's not what they wanted. The
Pharisees, the people that separated themselves from the other people
in a way in saying that we're better than you and different
than you because of what we do. He's saying, you don't even know
me, and you don't know my Father, and you don't believe me because
you're not one of my sheep. If you will turn to the first
chapter of the book of Hebrews. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness,
in the hope of eternal life. I'm reading Titus, I'm sorry.
I thought that was wrong. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last times spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the
worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and the upholding of all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so
much better than the angels, that as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than any." So you see, if God
views his son this way, and when he says that he is the express
image of the glory of his person, This is everything that is glorious
about God and his person in the man Christ Jesus. Ought we not
view him the same way? Paul said, if any man love not
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. That
word anathema means something devoted to God without hope of
it ever being redeemed, an animal fit for sacrifice. It's strong language, but yet
it's warranted, because God will have no division over Christ
and his kingdom. They cried when, before they
crucified him, we will not have this man to reign over us. And
this is the crime, and this is what they will hear one day,
probably in the judgment, and it will ring in their ears that
they will remember saying this when he divides the sheep from
the goats, wanting for themselves, oh, that he might reign over
me. So you see the division was over him, the man, Jesus Christ,
that he made himself one with the Father. The second division
is a division because of him and his law. The Lord said, I
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Galatians
4.2 says, tell me you that desire to be under the law. Do you not
hear the law? There are those in that day and
those in our present day. who are trusting in what they
do, trusting in their works. Now, it may be holy in that they
totally are resigned to, my works make a difference whether I'm
saved or not, and there may be those who partly trust in it.
They claim to believe salvation is all grace, but I had to believe,
or I had to do something. There's some component of works
in there. Romans 3.20 says, therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. You and I look at the law as
a bad thing, because the law can't save us. We see the law
as something that only condemns us. But the law is not bad. The
law is a good thing. God gave the law. But we could
not fulfill the law. We couldn't keep any part of
the law. So the law can only condemn you and I. That's why
we view the law as bad. The law exposes. That's all that
it does. It exposes that which is crooked,
that which is corrupt, that which is imperfect, and that which
is sin. And that's all that it can expose
in us. But Jesus Christ didn't view the law as bad. He kept
it. And the law exposed something
in him as well. that he was perfect, that he was true, that he was
righteous, and that he was holy. So you see, the law was not bad. The Lord kept the law. He never
spoke against the law in that way because he kept it. That
was his father's law. So what does man do? Because
we can't keep the law, we lower the bar. We lower the minimum
requirement because we can't certainly attain to that, so
that's not fair that the requirement's that high. We have to dumb the
law down to give equal credit to him who kept the law. And
that's the offense, is that Christ kept the law in its entirety,
but yet we, as men, we lower the law and lower the requirements
so that we try to make ourselves equal with what he did by trying
to say that I'm righteous by doing certain things. So, for
those who say, God knows I did my best. He knows what my intentions
were. I've heard both those things,
and I'm sure you have too. But that's not anywhere in the
law of God. That's not anywhere in the Bible.
That's just something people have made up to feel better about
them not keeping the law, but yet they keep trying to keep
it even though they're not, and they lower the requirements.
That's the only thing that gives them any consolation. So there's
no honorable mention with God, and that's what man tries to
set up. It's somehow that it's maybe lesser than Christ, but
it's of some value. They ask the Lord the question,
why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? When you ask a question
like that, that's saying that I'm not a publican and I'm not
a sinner. Why is he eating with them? Well, they didn't know
that he's the friend of sinners. He's the friend of those who
can't keep the law, who can't have any righteousness in and
of themselves, but yet he's their friend. He only dealt harshly
with those who tried to lower the bar, those who tried to make
a lesser way that they could appear righteous. Turn with me
to Matthew chapter 23. The only people the Lord ever
dealt harshly with were those who tried to lower the bar and
tried to appear righteous, and that's Him speaking with the
Pharisees here in Matthew 23, in verse 23. He says, Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees! Hypocrites, for you pay tithe
of mint, and of anise, and of cumin, and have omitted the weightier
matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought
ye to have done, but to not leave the other undone." I find this
in a way kind of humorous, what he's saying to them, because
what they were trying to do, keeping this, you know, tie,
the mint, anise, and cumin, would be about like you and I owing
a hundred million dollars. Me owe it, and you do too. But
yet, I say to you that I've paid my water bill every month on
time. Well, I may have been able to do that, but I have no way
of paying the $100 million that I owe. And neither do you either.
But yet, I'm trying to glory in the fact that I'm doing one
tiny little bit that really the big part is, why don't you pay
the $100 million? And so that's what he's saying to them. You're
taking the most small part of it and trying to glory in it
over somebody else when you can't keep the main things that you
should anyway. So they're trusting in that day in what they do. The division was because of his
law. So they tried to lower the bar and were trying to make themselves
righteous through partially keeping the law in their own eyes. But
in reality, if we're honest with ourselves, we haven't kept the
law ever. So the third thing I want to look at is the division
because of him and his judgment. He fulfilled the law. He died
as a substitute, and he was raised again unto life, and he's seated
on the throne with all power and with all authority. In Romans
chapter 9, if you'll turn over there, verse 15 he says, he saith
unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens." So this
thing of judgment in this case, it's in the Lord's hands, it's
not in yours to influence, and this is where What most religious
people are met is they have some degree of something that they
want to influence either to feel like they're earning it or to
get God to do something for them because they are serving or have
for many years been faithful. They try to have some means or
measure to have earned or get somebody to do something for
them. John 5.21 says, the son quickeneth whom he will. What's
that mean? It means exactly what it says.
The Son quickeneth whom He will, not whom decides that they're
going to have Him do something for Him, not who has earned anything,
but it's in His hands. Salvation and life are in His
hands. God is no respecter of persons, and men have no control. So I'm going to ask you some
questions you may have heard before, and you may know the
answers to it, but I think it serves a good illustration. First
question is, are you saved? Every person in here should have
some idea. Are you saved? Either you fit
as a reprobate or you are someone who says, yes, I believe I'm
saved. Well, then who saved you? Did you do it or did somebody
else do it? Well, you say God did it. Well, was it on purpose
or was it an accident? Was it something you just woke
up one day and realized, I'm saved? No, it doesn't happen
that way in experience. It's always on purpose. So if
it's on purpose, you have to bear the question is, could God
have looked at all of your works? And that means not just the stuff
you do outwardly, but the stuff that's in your heart, the stuff
that's in your mind, the stuff that nobody knows, the stuff
that I can't even tell my wife, that I can't tell anybody, the
stuff that's inside me, in my heart. Can God look upon even
that part too and say, there's a reason that I would say this
one? I think if we're honest with ourselves, we'd say, no,
he can't look on any of my works that I've done. Because even
if you want to look at what you would say is in your estimation
of the good pile, the bad pile is so big, you don't even want
to look over there. So, no, there's no good works
that I can say that could recommend me. So then if you're saved,
the choosing had to be done before you were born. And it didn't
depend on you doing anything. That, our friends, is election. That is God's choice. It's not
of works that you do. It's being chosen in Christ and
being saved by Christ. Salvation is a person. But then
somebody says, but I had to believe. Well, of course you do. Nobody
was ever saved that didn't believe. But people try to make a work
out of believing. The problem is the human response
is not a reason for salvation. The human response is a reason
because of salvation. It's evidence that you do believe
the gospel. John chapter 3, turn over there
please. John chapter 3 verse 18. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already." The literal words of that read, he who is
believing in him is not judged, but he who is not believing in
him hath been judged already. Well, how? How can he have been
judged already? He's not dead yet. Well, it's
because he never was going to believe. He was from ordained
that those who were ordained to life believe and those who
were not ordained to life do not believe. And so those who
were not ordained to life have been judged already because God
doesn't operate in time. And so immediately your heart
kind of spikes up a little bit and you start saying, well, do
I really believe? No, I have doubts and I'm not
quite sure. Well, let me give you a couple
scriptures. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. Are you thirsty? Being thirsty is something that
is a desire that won't leave until it's satisfied. You see,
I may be thirsty, but I can forget about it. But I may forget about
it for a minute, but I'm going to realize later, I'm still thirsty.
And the longer I wait, the worse it's going to get. And so, if
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. But the Lord says, you will
not come unto me that you might have life. And this is the crime. the division concerning Him.
We will not come unto Him. We'll come to anything else,
but we won't come to Him. If you do come to Him, you know
that it's Christ in you that caused you to come. It's nothing
in you that made you just realize, I need to go do this. It's Christ
in you, and it's all in how we see Him. You see, there's one
way we see Him is He is life itself. He saved me. I would have been lost otherwise
if he didn't save me. He has forgiven my sins by paying
the price for my sins in his body on the tree. He did this
for me. He made me free from the law
through fulfilling the entire law and putting me in Christ. And I love him and I want to
serve and I want to thank him. And that's one way of viewing
him. Yet the divisive way of viewing him is that they hate
him because he exposes your sin. He exposes that everything that
you thought was good is not good. Everything that you thought was
valuable for God is not at all. And he says that you can't even
come to the Father but by me. And so these people will never
come. He says you will not come to
me that you might have life because if it means coming to him through
Christ, I would rather not come at all. That's what they say.
So that's a division in him concerning his judgments. And now we have
a division in him concerning experience. The first thing I
thought of is gain. And so in John 6, 26, he says,
you didn't come after me because, you know, you wanted to see the
miracles I did. You came because of the loaves.
You came because you were fed. So maybe there's some physical
gain in experience with him. So we really don't maybe enter
into that the same way they did in that day where he fed them.
So, you know, feeding physical food. There's nobody coming here
just because they're being fed food. But it might be in terms
of attending a place where the gospel is not preached. Just
because there's other people that could gain me something
in this life. There are influential, important people who go here.
It's a popular church. This is where we go. With that
respect to what's being preached there, I'm just going because
I can see some worldly gain out of it. Maybe it's a heavenly
gain people are seeking and experience. A higher reward in heaven. some
sort of service that they're relying on. I've served the church
for 20 years, done something. At the end, they want something
for it. But in the end, both of these
things, whether it's a physical, material gain in this world,
or whether it's a heavenly gain, they both serve self. They don't
serve him. The other way would be, in terms
of division in him and experience, would be looking back. Scripture
says, remember Lot's wife. It's not that she turned around,
and that's why she was turned to a pillar of salt, physically
turning around. It's what that represented. Something
was in her heart where she was told to leave. God said, me and
my people, we're leaving here, and you need to leave now, and
don't look back, meaning leave it behind forever, but something
in her heart longed for it. There was something there she
didn't want to give up that was more important to her that she
loved than fallen God. Or maybe it's in looking back
a feeling that we're trying to recapture. If you think back
to different points in time of your life that you feel your
faith was stronger, that you sat under preaching the gospel
a time that you just really had a unique experience where you
were blessed, and you think, if I could just get back to there,
I'd believe. Maybe it's a place. The church
in Sardis, the Lord said unto them, I know thy works, that
thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead. It's because they're
living on an old faith. It's not today's faith. The manna,
as the Lord gave it, it was rotten after a day. You couldn't save
it for the next day. So my faith that I maybe once
had 10 years ago is no good today. Today's faith has to be for today.
Just because many great things came from a place, sermons, many
great conversions, faithful men, don't build your house on what
used to be. And the thing I was thinking of as I was writing
that, I remember in some of the areas I grew up that they would
dam some of the creeks up and then make man-made lakes that,
you know, you may have looked back to that place as a friendly
place where you had a house and family and people you love, but
now that's flooded under 60 feet of water. I can't look back to
that place and say that's where I want to be. It's moved on from
there. So I have to deal with today,
not with what used to be. Build your house upon the rock,
which is Christ. The rock moved. Follow Christ,
not the institution, not the building, not the man. Follow
Christ. Where he goes, that's where we're
to go. The Lord said, follow me. Three things you do when you
follow. First is you look to something or someone. You're
not looking back. The second is, you follow because
you don't know the way. You don't follow somebody if
you know the way. You can lead your own self. You don't need
to follow. The third thing is, you're trusting the one you're
following to get you there. And all those things are contained
in what the Lord is saying when he says, follow me. You trust
me because you don't know the way. You're looking to me and
trusting in me to get you where you need to go. And you don't
do anything but follow. And if I'm not following, then
the division is concerning him. The sum and the substance of
the words of this book all point to Jesus Christ. He's the head
of the church and the glory of God the Father. He's the light
and the life of the gospel. His face reveals your total inability
and insufficiency and his holiness at the same time. But yet to
those who know him, it's the face of a friend that cares for
you. His work on the cross finished the plan from before the foundation
of the world for all those who are united to his person. Now
let's turn over to Colossians chapter 1. We've spent some time
in here with our pastor preaching through it, and I think that
what I would like you to remember through each verse I'm going
to read here, I'm going to read 10 verses, is what he did, and
I think that I can't find a more clear picture of what he did
in this Colossians 1, starting verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
And here we go, what he did. in whom we have the redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." You could stop right
there and that would be enough, wouldn't it? That he would forgive
us of our sins totally and redeem us, buy us back. Who is Christ,
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature?
What he did For by him were all things created that are in heaven
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created
by him, and all things were created for him. And he is before all
things, and by him all things consist. He is the head of the
body, the head of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead. that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. I want to make one comment about
that verse, all fullness. The illustration, well not the
illustration, but one of the commentaries I read on this used
the illustration of a ship and saying that in a ship you have
sailors, you have cargo they're going to deliver, and then they
also have provisions so that they can get where they're going.
And so where we read here, in Him should all fullness dwell,
there's a body of believers in Christ, just like that there
are some sailors in a ship. And in Christ, He's provided
everything that we need, that we're going to need to get on
our voyage. And we're in the body of Christ, and all in one
ship, so there's not a different experience for one than the other.
We're all fellows in the same ship. And so I thought that was
a good comment. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight."
Now if someone doesn't believe the gospel after reading those
things of what he did, then the division is concerning him. It's
not an area of doctrine, it's not something that you have some
minor disagreement with. All these things that he did
represent everything in the gospel. It's all been authored and accomplished
by him. I'm going to turn back to Ephesians 3 verse 12. It says, "...in whom we have
boldness." with access, with confidence, by the faith of Him. Wherefore, I desire that you
faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
You see, that was something that just struck me. In whom we have
boldness. It's not in what I have boldness,
it's in Him. I've got all confidence in Him. Does God accept Him? Is He all
that I would ever need? Is there anything greater that
I could add to what He's done? No. I have boldness because I
can come in on the merits of Christ knowing that because of
what He did, I have access to the Father Himself through Him.
And so we can have boldness when we approach because of that.
It's not just something that we skate in and your slate is
wiped clean and you kind of hide to yourself hoping that you're
not discovered and don't say much because you feel like you
were guilty before. No, He has given us boldness that we can
come in and call upon His name and His Father's name through
His, that if we need anything, we're to ask. When I consider
these things and the magnitude of who He is, I find an ever-present
feeling of wonder as to why He would have anything to do with
me at all, because I feel so small and so insignificant in
comparison in the magnitude of who He is. But I draw hope from
this, that even in his weakest hour, when he was spit on, when
his beard was pulled out, when he was punched in the face, with
a crown of thorns jammed down on his head, and he was nailed
to a tree, even in that moment of weakness and cruelty by man,
that he still had mercy reserved for somebody else on the cross
when he was there. And he looked, even after all
that, he looked over and said, today you're going to be with
me in paradise. He sought to even reveal himself
to that one that was there with him who was reviling him just
earlier. I take comfort in the fact that
he will show mercy even in that hour. So may God give grace to
each of us. to be divided for His sake, to
stand with Christ in the face of a doubting world, giving Him
the glory that is due unto His great name.