“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

Jude 1:24-25

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Yes, He is Altogether Lovely!

Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden in one; put all trees, all flowers, all fragrances, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all loveliness, all sweetness in one. O what a lovely and excellent thing would that be! And yet it would be less compared to that beauteous and dearest well-beloved Christ - than one drop of rain, compared to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and foundations of ten thousand earths!

"...Yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend,..." Song of Songs 5:16 --Samuel Rutherford

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Author: S. Stennett Tune: Amazing Grace (Arr. Norm Johnson)

1. What wisdom, majesty, and grace

Through all the gospel shine!

'Tis God that speaks, and we confess

The doctrine most divine.

2. Down from His shining throne on high

The Almighty Savior comes,

Lays His bright robes of glory by,

And feeble flesh assumes.

3. The mighty debt His chosen owed

Upon the cross He pays;

Then through the clouds ascends to God,

'Midst shouts of loftiest praise.

4. There He, our great High Priest, appears

Before His Father's throne;

Here on His breast our names He wears,

And counts our cause His own.

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"...Yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend,..." Song of Songs 5:16

As if she had said, "Look on Him in what respect or particular you wish; cast your eye upon this lovely One, and view Him any way; consider His person, His offices, His works, or any other thing belonging to Him. You will find Him altogether lovely, there is nothing disagreeable in Him, there is nothing lovely without Him."

Jesus Christ is the loveliest person souls can set their eyes upon. He is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them! As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world--so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet!

Christ infinitely transcends the most excellent and loveliest of created things. The excellencies of our altogether lovely Christ are pure and unmixed. He is a sea of sweetness without one drop of gall. "...Yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend,..." Song of Songs 5:16 --John Flavel

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A minister lay dying in Scotland. A fellow-minister called to see him, and inquired, "Well, my brother, what are you doing?"

"Doing?" answered the dying servant of God. "Doing? I will tell you: I am gathering together all my prayers and sermons, all my good deeds and bad deeds--and am going to throw them all overboard together, and swim to glory on the plank of free grace!"

"But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Acts 15:11

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)!" Ephesians 2:5

--C.H. Spurgeon

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“And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” Acts 13:48. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” Romans 11:29. When we understand that presently we believe in Christ Jesus because we were ordained before the beginning of all times to believe in Him; as in Him we were elected to the society of eternal life; then is our faith assuredly grounded, and that because the gifts and vocation of God are without repentance, and He is faithful that hath called us. His infinite goodness, which moved Him to love us in another then in ourselves, that is in Christ Jesus, according to His free benevolence, which He had purposed in Him, is to us a tower of refuge, which Satan is never able to overthrow, nor the gates of hell shall never prevail against it." --John Knox