Jesus Alone

TITLE: Jesus Alone
DATE:  January 11, 2020
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

TEXT: John 14:6 – ESV - 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

In the 1800’s, Queen Victoria was crossing the English Channel on her royal yacht.

Her eye spied a tiny bird with fluttering wings following the ship. It had been attracted by the brightness of the silk flag that floated at the masthead. The queen turned to her daughter and pointed to the bird. It was weak and weary, darting down to the waves, then climbing back up, trying to find some place to rest. But it was a feeble creature of the woods and field. With a faint cry it rose from the waves, soared up to the masthead and tried to rest upon the flag which had drawn it from the land - away from safety, shelter and home.

The heart of the queen was full of pity, and she commanded her sailors to save the weary bird.
They sprang to do her bidding and used every art and device to capture the little thing in vain. All their efforts to rescue the bird only terrified it more. At last it fell upon the deck at the feet of the queen - dead!

Her majesty stooped and picked it up and held it tenderly in her hands. Victoria, queen and empress, had washed to spare the life of the bird, but she had not been able. The lesson? In this life there are those who love you, who would willingly save you if they could; they are willing, but they are simply not able.

Nobody can save you other than Jesus.

Sometimes the wisdom of the world comes marching boldly up to you, looks you in the face and says, "I can save you." But, the best advice and the wisdom of the world can't do the job. If you doubt it, look: we have hundreds of books on how people can save their marriage, but well over 1/3 of our marriages end in divorce. We have hundreds of books telling us how to be  happy, yet millions remain miserable. These authors are filled with the best of intentions, they would save you if they could, but they simply are not able. Nobody can save you other than Jesus.

Sometimes government says, "I can save you." Now, understand, I do not regard our government in a bad light. We are blessed to have the system that we do. It is far better than anything else I have seen on this planet. Most of our elected officials sincerely try to do what is right. They try and save the people. That is why government is willing to spend billions of dollars for low income housing, but we have more homeless this morning than we had twenty years ago. Government has declared war on drugs, but we have more users than we had ten years ago. Equality between all people has been a mainstay of our nation's laws for almost 200 years, but there is still prejudice, inequity in the job market, discrimination, bigotry and hatred.

Government, seeing the pain of the people, has developed social programs to take care of the less fortunate. Honesty compels us to say they have done some great things. But the bottom line is, no matter how good their intentions are in taking care of the less fortunate, the country has been reduced to red-ink poverty, and we have perpetuated the very class of poor people that we were trying to help eliminate. That is why our children's' portion of the national debt is becoming an amount they will never be able to pay.

Yes, government would save you if it could, but it isn't able. All these groups are well intentioned, but authors, government, social leaders just aren't able to save you. Nobody can save you other than Jesus.

And He has. From birth to death and through resurrection He has done all which was necessary to bridge the sin-created  gulf  between God and man. He did it all and we can say, “Jesus saves.”

PRAYER: Lord, the world may have style and flash. It may try to steal us away from our Savior. Help us remember Jesus saves.  In His holy Name I pray it. Amen.

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html