How beautifully pure and clean is the appearance of this graceful swan, and what a charming picture it must make as it glides over the clear water. And yet, boys and girls, God says this is an unclean bird, and classes it with such unlovely birds as the vulture, the raven and the owl (Lev. 11:1818And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, (Leviticus 11:18)). One can almost hear this beautiful creature saying,
“I am better than ugly black ravens and nasty vultures. See how spotlessly clean I am. Surely I am different.”
But God’s Word must be taken rather than any thoughts the swan might have about itself, and He sees them all alike.
Many of you boys and girls are “goodly” to look upon, too. You dress nicely, have kind manners, try to be willing and obedient, go to Sunday School, and in many other ways are outwardly as pleasing as this lovely swan. But then, God does not look on the outward appearance, but on the heart, as He told Samuel when Jesse’s handsome sons came before him when he went to choose a king for Israel (see 1 Sam. 16:77But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)). He says our hearts are “deceitful and desperately wicked” and that we are all unclean, if still in our sins, and there is no difference for all have sinned.
Thus we must all be saved by faith in Christ Jesus and His work on the cross for us, we receive a new nature that is pleasing to God.
Nicodemus, in the third chapter of John, was also very fair to look upon—very religious and upright but Jesus at once told him he had no goodness at all before God, and that he must be “born again.”
But what a great comfort it is, dear children, that as none of us, not even the best, are fit for God’s presence, God Himself has found the way by which we can appear before Him in all the wondrous beauty of the Lord Jesus. When we take our places as unclean, ungodly sinners then we can, by faith, take Jesus as our Saviour, Who died that His blood might cleanse us from all sin, and Who gives His Own spoess righteousness to all who receive Him as their Saviour. Then, indeed, are we found to be clothed in the “best robe,” in all the beauty and loveliness of Christ Himself. All this is perfectly free to any who wish to take God’s gift of salvation—free, because Jesus paid for it with His own life. Thus we become “Accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)).
ML 10/14/1945