vagabond, a nomad. He said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20). Nothing can break us more thoroughly, we are told, than not to be wanted. The sense of rejection is devastating to personality, and the solitude for Him grew greater as the end came nearer. Jerusalem would have none of Him. One of His own band covenanted to betray Him. His own few followers forsook Him and fled. At length He hung upon a cross isolated between heaven and earth, naked and forsaken and alone. There was no room for the body of Jesus in the cemetery. He had to be buried in a borrowed tomb. He was an unwelcome visitor. Nobody wanted Him. That ought to break your heart and mine. Never was a greater welcome afforded to any by so many as to our astronauts when they returned from the lunar landing. In contrast, the great leap of God was, for the most part, unnoticed. Progres sive secularism, humanistic sophistries, material ego tism, specious modernism, are all blind to Christ. The reason our world balances on the edge of thermo nuclear holocaust on the one side, and the oblivion of moral decay on the other, is because men have continued to say, “ We will not have this Man to reign over us.” Jesus said, “ For this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). More than we need anything in this world we need a vital relation ship with God, and we can only find that relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. He alone can fill that indescribable emptiness, that unrelieved ache in the hearts and souls of man alienated from God. Yes, “ He was in the world and the world knew Him not." Without Him there is nothing ahead but darkness. “ But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). When 0. Henry was dying, the nurse thought the end had come and began lowering the shades. He opened his eyes and said, “ Put up the shades; I don’t want to go home in the dark.” God made the great leap in the miracle of the incarnation to make it possible for us to have light, unfailing light, for Jesus Christ said, “ I am the light of the world.” The first words of man on lunar soil were, "That's one small step for men, one giant leap for mankind." But we can say the giant leap God made for man, in the miracle of the incarnation, has made it possible for man to discover God, by taking one small step toward Jesus Christ. “ All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). Dr. Jack MacArthur is Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Eugene, Oregon. He has written numerous books and has a radio and television program entitled “Voice of Calvary." THE KING’S BUSINESS
dirt, and tells me that He loves me enough to for sake the courts of heaven, that He did not abhor the virgin’s womb, but came as a babe and lived this life to show me how it could be done, and stretched Himself on the wood at the last, and died to redeem me. . . . Let no man tell me now that I am worthless." The second great fact from John 1:10 is: "The world was made by him.” What a thing it is to realize that when we look up into the mysterious night sky, strewn with heavenly bodies, to recall, that the An dromeda galaxy is outside our galaxy, and is two and one-half million light years away from us, and light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second. Beyond that there are 200 million galaxies left for us to explore. Think, then, of what these words mean, “ For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Col. 1:16, 17). Yes, “ the world was made by Him.” He is not only the Creator; He is the Sus- tainer. Believe it. The Christ who was born of a woman to walk the earth, weary, sorrowing and suf fering, is the Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe. The third amazing fact from John 1:10 is: "The world knew Him not.” “ And the light shineth in dark ness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). The one who gave all men breath and mingled among them 30 years, they did not recognize. For 4,000 years angels' tongues and holy men told of His coming. Abraham saw His day afar off and was glad. Job, in his misery, looked for the day when the Redeemer would stand on the earth. Balaam saw the star rising out of Jacob and the King coming to the world. David, in the Psalms, sang over and over again of His coming. Isaiah said He would be born of a virgin. Micah said He would come out of Beth lehem. Daniel told of the time of His birth. Isaiah painted a picture of the Saviour’s cross that ought to have broken the heart of every sinner; yet, when He came, they knew Him not. From the very beginning they had no room for Him. There was no room for Him in the inn, and so He was born in a place that was never intended for human use, a dirty, stinking place that no American community would tolerate, that today’s laws of sani tation would declare a nuisance and a source of dis ease and demand its removal as utterly unfit even for animals, let alone for human habitation. How this epitomized and typified His reception by the hostile world! All his life Christ was a stranger among men, despised and rejected of men. They had no interest in Him. He was unwanted. They did not want Him in Galilee. Capernaum did not want Him. They drove Him out of Nazareth. The Gadarenes asked Him to leave their country, although they, witnessed His mighty works. The Samaritans would not receive Him. Wherever He went, He was a homeless wanderer, a 12
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