Author: Pastor David Page 51 of 57

“For he saith to 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 sheweth mercy.” (Romans 9:15-16)

In the midst of this chapter declaring God’s sovereignty in election and salvation, we find this profound exaltation of the mercy and compassion of God. Sometimes we get an idea in our minds that we deserve a lot more than we truly do. The truth is that we don’t deserve anything other than the wrath of God, and anything less or better than that is in God’s holy hand to disperse or withhold, according to his own will. When we consider what we truly deserve, that should make us ever more grateful for what we have been freely given by the Lord.

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“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

King David desired one thing from the Lord, and it was to dwell in the house of the Lord all his life. He desired to view the beauty of the Lord in his house as long as he continued to live on this earth. This makes us wonder, what is the “one thing that we would desire of the Lord”? If we could have one petition to offer up the Lord, what would that one thing be? David placed such a priority on public worship that he desired to have the privilege of dwelling and serving and worshipping in the Lord’s house all the days of his life. I trust we place that same priority on public worship in the house of the Lord as well.

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“And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.” (John 19:19)

Pilate here, like so many events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, unwittingly declares a great spiritual and doctrinal truth, as he gives Jesus the title of “The King of the Jews”. Jesus was by and large rejected by his own natural kindred, the Jews, during his earthly ministry – “he came unto his own and his own received him not” (John 1:11). However, Jesus was and is the King of not the natural Jews (although some natural Jews are certainly included in the broader Israel of God) but rather Jesus is the only Potentate and King for those spiritual Jews who have received the inward circumcision of the heart and been adopted into God’s chosen family.

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