I will cling to the Christ of
the Cross, for He is the King I must crown. To the Christ of the cross I
must ever be true His shame and reproach gladly bear For in love
He constrains till all shall be gain His glory forevermore So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to
the Christ of the cross For He is the King I must crown. What prompted this message was
my studies in Genesis we were doing on Wednesday night. I was
looking at the account of the flood and how humanity was described in
its wretchedness, in its ruin, that the evil, the imagination
of its thoughts was evil continually. Men were rebels, hated God, despised
His name, yet they were very religious people. And he said, Noah, but in spite
of all that, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That
did not mean that Noah did something that recommended him to God or
did something to make God take notice of him. God had picked
Noah out from the foundation of the world, chose him unto
salvation. Noah had been put in Jesus Christ,
and Christ had become his surety before the foundation of the
world. And because of that, God showed grace to Noah. God viewed
Noah in grace. As I was thinking about these
things, I was reminded of this passage of scripture here, especially
verse 4, of how God looks at His people. We know that religion
has misused and mistaught and taught in error the love of God.
Saying that God loves all men when scripture says that's not
true. That God has a wonderful plan for all men when scripture
says that's not true. When you read about the love
of God in scriptures, almost always exclusively, about 99.3%
of the time in past tense, because if God loves you, it is because
He has always loved you and He will continue to love you to
the end. And because He loved you, He
sent His Son to die in your room instead and redeemed you by His
blood. Because that's how love works.
That's how love works. God loves you because He's always
loved you. And if you love someone, you
know that you have their best interest in your heart. You know
that if they are in a fix and in trouble, you will do anything
within your power to save them. Though your love is often inadequate
and unrequited and can't quite get the job done, I love my daughter
immensely. She's the light of my life and
has been since she was a tiny little thing. When I held her
first, when we first brought her up here when she was four
years old and she caused all kind of a ruckus up here. I love her dearly. I would gladly,
and I don't say this without reservation, I would gladly die
this moment for her to be well. I love her,
but my love for her will not cure her. My dying for her will
not help her. That's not the case with Jesus
Christ, nor is it the case with the love of God. When God loves
someone, He saves them, because He can. His love is without limit, full
of power. Moses, or rather Noah, was a
wicked man just like the rest of the world. Said, oh, he is
a righteous man. Well, found out what he did after
the flood. He got drunk. Probably had a relationship with
his own daughters after the flood. So what kind of man is that?
That's the man who has found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Found grace. The world views
believers, the elect of God, with hatred
and contempt, while at the same time embracing religion as a
respectable, commendable thing. The world loves its own. Our
Lord said that if you were of the world, the whole world would
love its own because I chose you out of the world. The world
hates you. The fact is that the redeemed
of the Lord look upon themselves as the world looks upon them
to a great degree. They see themselves as contemptible.
They see themselves as sinful. They see themselves as unworthy
of the least of God's favor. Truth be told, the world, though
full of hate, cannot say or believe any bad thing about us that we
do not already know is worse than they could ever imagine.
I have no problem with people saying horrible things about
me because they don't know half the story. I'm worse than they
could ever come up with. We know that by birth and by
nature and by practice, we are sinners who deserve eternal damnation. Paul was not trying to sound
humble when he said he was the chief of sinners. Job was not at some braggamony
or testimony meeting when he said, Behold, I am vile, I hate
myself. David was not feigning religiosity
when he said, My sin is ever before me. The world despises
the church and God's people are sick with themselves. The believer knows that he has
nothing in him or about him that would recommend him to God. But
here is the wonder and the magnificent majesty that
the believer knows. The Lord God, the thrice holy God Himself,
whose eyes are too pure to behold evil, before whom the sun, moon,
and stars are not pure in his sight, sees his people in Jesus
Christ, and sees them as described in verse 4 of Isaiah chapter
43. And here's what God says about
us wretched, vile, maggots on a dunghill. He said, Since thou
was precious in my sight, Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable. Are you sure he's talking about
me? Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Since thou
wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have
loved thee. This statement is God's view
of His entire church, and likewise is the view of each and every
individual that make up the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. As
I said, this is the view of the entire church called the Church
Aggregate by O.B.H. Carroll. Whether we're talking
about the church universal, the whole body of Christ, or the
local church, which is the outward visible manifestation of a great
mystical spiritual body called the body of Christ. When Christ
describes His church, He says, Since thou was precious in my
sight, and I was honorable, and I have loved thee. There is a
church universal. It's made up of all of God's
elect, from Adam until the last one brought into the fold. Those
who've been given faith to believe Him make up that body. And they're
given faith only one way, and that is through the preaching
of the Word of God. That's to hear the Word of God, and God
gives them faith to believe His Word. And this body of believers
is the family of God. They are His sons and daughters.
They are the kingdom of God. They are under His rule and His
domain. They are the body of Christ, of which He is the head. This is the church Christ loved
and gave himself for according to Acts 20, 28 and Ephesians
5, 25. This is the general assembly
of the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven
according to Hebrews chapter 12. There is also the local church,
which is what we are, a local body of believers. It is where Christ meets with
his people in this world. He said, where two or three gather
in my name, I'll be in the midst of them. And Zephaniah says,
he who is in the midst of thee is mighty to save. It is the
temple of God. It is God's temple, this church,
this local body. It has the gospel, and it's the
only thing that has a right to have the gospel. And it's the
singular warrant to preach the gospel, and that's what their
warrant of the church is. It's not a social organization,
nor is it a political organization. Nor is it a civil organization.
It is a religious organization. No, that's not right. It's a
sacred organism. A body. A body. And it's God's temple. What does
that mean? That's where God lives. As far as we can understand where
God the Spirit lives in this world, He lives in His church.
You say, God's everywhere. Indeed He is. He's omnipresent,
but he says, I live in my people, I dwell in them, I tabernacle
with them. Where? In his church. The church
has the gospel, but the church and the kingdom of our God is
bigger than any local assembly. It consists of a great multitude
of such magnitude that no man can number. And let me be clear,
everything that calls itself a church is not necessarily one
in this day. Nor is there any occasion that every local church
is part of the body of Christ. Babylon, the great whore, was
a church, is a church, made up of many false churches. However,
all of God's true people in heaven and on earth are one body and
one church. And this is what he says of them.
And every one of them are sinners. Church is not made up of good
people. Only sinners are welcome at this
bar. Only sinners are welcome at this
table. If you're good, you think you're good, you believe you've
merited a righteousness before God, or you believe you can stand
on your own merit, you're not to be here. And I don't have
anything for you either. I really don't. You can come
if you hope to, but I don't have anything for you. If you're a
sinner, and you know it in your heart, This is the church of
God, and he says of these wretched, vile things, since thou was precious
in my sight. I was precious in my sight. We
understand that kind of language, don't we? Of course we do. We look at our young babies,
our little girls running around here in their pretty skirts.
We look at the young men who play football and are strong
and growing up. They're precious to us. They're precious to us. And we
hardly ever see anything wrong about them. Now, we might see
something wrong about them, but we won't allow you to see anything
wrong about them. Isn't that right? The way it is. That's
true. I mean, I know my kids. I know what they are, but you
better not know what they are. You better not tell me what you know
they are. Why? Because I love them and they're
precious in my sight. I think it's the same with God,
you know. Be careful what you say about God's people. Be careful. He knows what they are. He doesn't
want to hear it from you. Because you see, He sent His
Son to die and remove all their sin. He remembers their sin no
more. He counts them as absolutely righteous before Him and holy.
Don't be talking about them. Precious in my sight. Precious because He loved us
with an everlasting love and chose us to be the heirs of eternal
salvation. Those whom He foreloved, He did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son. The
history of all things are subservient to His purpose of grace toward
His church. All is for the glory of His grace. As Spurgeon said, The bounds
of the nations hath He set according to the number of the chosen.
The number of the chosen. The arrangements of providence
have all been disposed with an eye on them. All things work
together for their good and for their achievement. of their ultimate
perfection. God is pleased to reckon them
as His crown jewels, His peculiar treasure, because He sees them
the purchase of His Son's agonies. They have been bought with a
price far above gold and silver, and they are precious in His
sight. Can you say and think that about
yourself? Not looking at yourself, you
can't. But if you're a believer, You can believe it. Because God
said it. The church is precious because
in her alone His glory of salvation is revealed. We see His glory
in the creation and providence. There is no doubt about that.
But He displays all His glory and all His attributes singularly
in the redemption and salvation of His church by Jesus Christ.
This is God's glory. I will make my goodness pass
before you. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And I will have compassion
upon or grace upon whom I will have grace. This is His glory.
He said that's my glory. When our Lord said in His High
Priestly Prayer in John 17, Lord glorify me now with the glory
which I had with thee before the world began. Glorify me.
Our Lord said in John 12, I have glorified thee and will glorify
thee. But our Lord said glorify me on this basis. The basis that
you sent me to this world for. Glorify me as thou hast given
me authority over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. You glorify me on that basis. And this is the glory of Christ.
If one for whom he died perishes eternally, he cannot glorify
God. But Christ said, I finished the
work. I have glorified Thee on earth. How did He do it? Everyone
whom God gave to Him, He has given eternal life. This is the
glory of God. And He did that because she's
precious in His sight. He sees her as honorable. Honorable. Like I said, we never say that
about ourselves. Why and in what way? She is honorable. She is honorable by marital association
with Christ. She is His bride, the Lamb's
wife. She is honorable because she
is sanctified, made holy by God Himself. Christ being made to
be her holiness. She is a holy nation, a purchased
people, a royal priesthood. She is honorable because of the
work of God has entrusted her with. God has given her the most
precious thing on this earth. And that's the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. There is no finer thing on this earth. This earth is
going to pass away. Everything you see and hold dear
to and put your hands on and clutch to is going to melt from
your fingers. It's going to go away. But the
Word of God abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. This is the finest thing that
a person will ever hear in this world is the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's entrusted to you and
me. the church of the living God. Our Lord says go into all
the world because I have authority. All authority is given to me
in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore into all the world and preach
the gospel. Go preach the gospel. She is called the pillar of the
ground of truth. Never diminish the value of the
church. God holds her in high esteem. The world is blessed
because she's in it. The world exists because she's
in it. When the last one is called out, the world will exist no
more. Who speaks for God in this world?
The church. The next words that flow in grace
from the mouth of God are, I have loved thee. I have loved thee. The measure of that love is boundless.
It does not fit the scheme of the anemic unrequited love that
men accuse God of in this day. Verse 3 it says this, in this
text it says, For I am the Lord God. Notice that's capital L-O-R-D,
that's Jehovah Savior. I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Savior. Now he couldn't call himself
that if he didn't say Savior. He's not applying for a job.
He's not applying for a job. He's a Savior. He's the Savior.
He said, I wiped out nations for you. Wow! I gave Egypt and
Sheba for thee, since thou was precious in my sight. The cause of God, His church,
His truth is in no danger because God has loved them. This is how
God views every believer individually. If you are a believer, hear what
the Lord says to you. Can you hear it in your heart?
Since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable,
and I have loved thee. This is God speaking to his people.
Three things. To God, you're precious. You're precious. that we may not feel so, and
even may feel ashamed at such kind words directed toward us,
knowing that we are, knowing what we are. He says, God says,
you're precious to me. God cannot lie, you see. He's
not a man that He should lie. Do you know what that means?
You are precious. His thoughts about us are not
mistaken. His judgment is not cloudy. He knows exactly what
we are. He knows what we have been and what we shall be and
what we are going to do before we die. Notice again, He says, Thou wast
past tense precious in my sight. Why? Because you have always
been precious in His sight. Since before the world began
you were precious in His sight. You were precious in His sight
because of what He has done. Not because of what you have
done. Not because of what you have done. We are precious in
His sight because of the price He paid for our redemption. He
sent His own Son to die in our room instead, to die in our place. We are His workmanship, His poema,
we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus and two good
works which God has foreordained that we should walk in them. His work for you, the work that
makes you precious in election, substitution, redemption, regeneration,
revelation, sanctification, justification, preservation and adoption, all
those things are His work for you. You see, the whole course of
human history, all of it, and I like history. I like to read
about history. I'm a big World War II buff.
I like anything on the TV about the World War II, I'll watch
it. My dad served in World War II and several of my uncles did
too. I'm very interested in it. I love history. You know what
history's about? God's people. You know what's
going on in this world today seems alarming, I know. People
are struggling. The love of many waxes cold.
Hatred seems to be the order of the day. Worlds in chaos. Rumors of war. All kinds of things going on. You know what? It's working for
your good and for God's glory. I know that's hard to grasp.
I know we know it. by faith, but intellectually
we go, how can that be? It just is. It just is. Human history is the account
of God working everything since creation to this singular end. All providence works to this
singular end that His children whom He chose before the foundation
of the world are going to be just like Jesus Christ and He's
going to populate heaven with them. It's already a settled
thing. The reason why I'm happy in this
world is because I know the end of the story. You do too, don't
you? Don't you know how this thing
ends? Then why are we so troubled? All this other stuff and little
things in the way and you know here and there and all that.
Don't worry about that. We know how the story ends. Jesus Christ
comes again and calls His people to Himself. And they meet Him
in the air and come back with Him. And He with one word from
His mouth ends everything. And a new heaven and a new earth
He creates for us to dwell in. Welcome. That's how it ends. The rest
of the stuff is just filler. But it's God who did the filling.
And so all these things work for His purpose and His glory. Why? Because we're precious in
His sight. And He has loved us. To the Holy God you're honorable.
Thou hast been honorable. Honor. That's not a word people
talk about a great deal today. When I was growing up, that word
was used a lot. I remember when I wanted to get
a job and go into the workforce. When I was 14, I had to go get
a work permit and a blood test and things like that before I
could go into the workforce. My dad said, oh, work is honorable.
My dad told me that. He said an honorable man is not
afraid to, he don't have to back up, pick up his paycheck, because
he's giving a man a full day's job for a full day's pay, give
him a full day's work. The work is honorable. I taught
that to my children. I said, going out there in the workforce
and making your way in life and be a part of society and contributing
to society. I said, that's honorable. How
many people even talk like that today? Honor and integrity. Our Lord says, My children are
honorable. They're honorable in His sight.
Those who wear the title of honorable in this day don't seem to measure
up. Our nation's politicians and judges are thieves and adulterers
and perverts. Their names are preceded by the
word honorable. The name reverend. Oh, they like
that name. Years ago I informed every funeral
home in this area when if I was performing a funeral, do not
precede my name with the word reverend. You can say pastor
because that's what I am, but I ain't reverend. If you know
me, you know I'm irreverent. You know that's true. Reverend the right holy reverend
is attached to every foul carrying crew that feels a pulpit in this
day Honor is lost in the malaise of corruption at the age But
in God's sight there are those who are honorable That is true
of every believer Every believer in God's sight honorable because
electing sanctifying grace has made him precious How are you
honorable? You're born to it when you're
born again. You're born to it. You see, you're
a child of the King, born to the royal house, joint heir with
Christ, the Son of God. You're honorable in rank among
the creatures of the world. You've been called to honorable
service as witness of His grace and glory. You have the honor
and privilege, access to the throne of the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. God said, Thou hast been honorable.
Grace has made you so. Again, past tense, Thou hast
been honorable. When's He talking about it? Always. In His sight. To the Sovereign God, You are
beloved. I have loved You. I'll be honest with you, sometimes
I lay my head down at night before I go to sleep. This floats my boat, just thinking
about this. God has loved me. God, the Creator, Sustainer and
Consummator of all the Earth, has loved me. I don't take that lightly. And I'm amazed at it every time
I say it. This is a thing too wonderful to express with limited
ability of human language. This works better in the realm
of meditation, I think. You just pause and stop and think
about it. God says, I have loved thee. Here are some words to
consider as you meditate upon those words. I have loved thee.
I have loved thee eternally. I have loved thee particularly.
I have loved Thee effectually. I have loved Thee preeminently. I have loved Thee unchangeably.
I have loved Thee immeasurably. I have loved Thee freely. This
is what God sees in His people. Not what we see in ourselves,
and it takes the sovereign act of giving us faith for us to
believe it. But He said, since thou was precious in my sight,
Now it's been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Father,
bless us to understand Him. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
All right.