God Is Beautiful
For many years (a phrase which seems to introduce almost everything I say or write these days), I have thought about and preached on the subject of the beauty of God. I have never heard anyone teach on the subject, but I did through the decades come across two written sermons on the topic, “The Beauty of the Lord” by J. D. Jones and “Are There Shortcuts to the Beauty of Holiness?” (the short answer is “No!”) by A. W. Tozer. More recently, I read a review of a scholarly article about the American preacher Jonathan Edwards (of “sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” fame) that mentioned in passing that the beauty of God was one of the great themes in his preaching. I was thus encouraged that I have not headed off on an unprofitable tangent. In simple terms, beauty is that which attracts, causes a favorable interest, and creates an affinity. Such real, eternal beauty is found in our God. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
` In Psalm 110:5-7, David, the martial music man, honors the coming Messiah as an unparalleled warrior. Some are uncomfortable with the military imagery used prophetically of Jesus Christ, God the Son. However, the sad reality is that a certain number of people will always choose to war against God. Our Lord is patient; as we read in II Peter 3:9, He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Sadly, unbearably sadly, many will persist in rejecting the grace of God. There is no middle ground for mankind. The songwriter Johnny Cash confessed, “How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, and in that chasm is no place for any man.” Those who continue to fight against God cannot expect that He will never thwart their evil intentions and actions. Revelation 19:11-21 presents a powerful picture of the Second Coming of Christ. His conquest of the rebellious rejecters will be rapid and absolute. The preacher Charles Spurgeon said of Jesus, “He shall not forever sit in waiting posture, but shall come into the fight to end the weary war by His own victorious presence.” He must win, for He is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” There is great beauty in His gracious, longsuffering warnings to all, and there is also great beauty in His final victory over all wickedness.