The Unsearchable Riches Of christ
A sermon
(No. 745)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 14, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Agricultural Hall, Newington
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this Grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ."- Ephesians 3:8.
THE Apostle Paul felt it to be a great privilege to be allowed to
preach the Gospel. He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery or a
servitude, but he entered upon it with intense delight. All God's
truly-sent servants have experienced much delight in the declaration of
the Gospel of Jesus, and it is natural that they should, for their
message is one of mercy and love. If a herald were sent to a besieged
city with the tidings that no terms of mercy would be offered, but that
every rebel without exception should be put to death, I think he would
go with lingering footsteps, stopping by the way to let out his heavy
heart in sobs and groans.
But if he were commissioned to go to the gates with the white flag to
proclaim a free pardon, a general act of amnesty and oblivion, surely
he would run as though he had wings on his heels. With a joyful
alacrity he would tell his fellow citizens the good pleasure of their
merciful king! Heralds of salvation, you carry the most joyful of all
messages to the sons of men! When the angels were commissioned for once
to become preachers of the Gospel, and it was but for once, they made
the sky ring at midnight with their choral songs, "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
They did not moan out a dolorous dirge as of those proclaiming death,
but the glad tidings of great joy were set to music and announced with
holy mirth and celestial song. "Peace on earth! Glory to God in the
highest" is the joyous note of the Gospel–and in such a key should it
ever be proclaimed! We find the most eminent of God's servants
frequently magnifying their office as preachers of the Gospel.
Whitfield was accustomed to call his pulpit his throne–and when he
stood upon some rising knoll to preach to the thousands gathered in the
open air–he was more happy than if he had assumed the imperial purple,
for he ruled the hearts of men more gloriously than does a king!
Carey was laboring in India and his son Felix had accepted the office
of ambassador to the king of Burmah–Carey said, "Felix has driveled
into an ambassador"–as though he looked upon the highest earthly
office as an utter degradation if for it the minister of the Gospel
forsook his lofty vocation. Paul blesses God that this great Grace was
given to him, that he might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ! He looked upon it not as toil, but as a Divine Grace.
Aspire to this office, young men whose souls are full of love to Jesus!
Fired with sacred enthusiasm, covet earnestly the best gifts, and out
of love to Jesus try whether you cannot in your measure tell to your
fellow men the story of the Cross. Men of zeal and ability, if you love
Jesus, make the ministry your aim! Train your minds to it! Exercise
your souls towards it, and may God the Holy Spirit call you to it, that
you also may preach the Word of reconciliation to the dying thousands.
The laborers still are few–may the Lord of the harvest thrust you into
His work.
But while Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success in it
greatly humbled him. The fuller a vessel becomes the deeper it sinks in
the water. A plenitude of Grace is a cure for pride. Those who are
empty, and those especially who have little or nothing to do, may
indulge a fond conceit of their abilities because they are untried. But
those who are called to the stern work of ministering among the sons of
men will often mourn their weakness, and in the sense of that weakness
and unworthiness they will go before God and confess that they are less
than the least of all saints.
I prescribe to any of you who seek humility, try hard work! If you
world know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus. If you
would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the living God,
attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable
riches of Christ! You will come back from the proclamation thankful
that you
were permitted to attempt it, but crying, "Who has believed our report?
And to whom is the arm the Lord revealed?" And you will know, as you
never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are!
Although our Apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness, there is one
thing which never troubled him–he was never perplexed as to the
subject of his ministry. I do not find the Apostle in all his writings
proposing to himself the question, "What shall I preach?" No, my
Friends, he had been taught in the college of Christ, and had
thoroughly learned his one Subject, so that preferring it beyond all
else, he said, with solemn decision, "I determined not to know any
thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." From his first
sermon to his last, when he laid down his neck upon the block to seal
his testimony with his blood, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but
Christ!
He lifted up the Cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled on it. His
one and only calling here below was to cry, "Behold the Lamb! Behold
the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world." I pause, to
ask, on my own account, the prayers of God's people yet again, that the
Holy Spirit may be my Helper this morning. O deny not my earnest
request! I call the attention of you all to this great master subject
which engrossed all the powers and passions of such a one as Paul. And
I shall beg you to notice first, a glorious Person mentioned–the Lord
Jesus Christ. Secondly, unsearchable riches spoken of. And thirdly,
which shall make our practical conclusion–a royal intention
implied–the intention which Jesus had in His heart when He bade His
servants preach His unsearchable riches.
I. First then, may the Spirit of God strengthen us in our weakness
while we try to speak upon THIS GLORIOUS PERSON, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the first promise of God to the sons of men
after the Fall. When our first parents had been banished from the
Garden all was dark before them. There was not a star to gild the
cheerless midnight of their guilty and despairing souls until their God
appeared to them, and said in mercy, "The Seed of the woman shall
bruise the serpent's head."
That was the first star which God set in the sky of man's hope. Years
rolled after years and the faithful looked up to it with comfort. That
one promise stayed the soul of many a faithful one so that he died in
hope, not having received the promise, but having seen it afar off, and
having rejoiced in its beams. Whole centuries rolled away, but the Seed
of the woman did not come. Messiah, the great bruiser of the serpent's
head, did not appear. Why did He tarry? The world was foul with sin and
full of woe! Where was the Shiloh who should bring it peace? Graves
were dug by millions. Hell was filled with lost spirits, but where was
the Promised One, mighty to save?
He was waiting till the fullness of time should come. He had not
forgotten, for He had God's will in His inmost heart. His desire to
save souls was consuming His heart. He was but waiting until the word
should be given. And when it was given, lo, He came delighting to do
the Father's will! Do you seek him? Behold, in Bethlehem's manger
Emmanuel is born, God is with us! Before your eyes He lies who was both
the Son of Mary, and the Son of the Blessed! An Infant, and yet
Infinite, of a span long, and yet filling all eternity, wrapped in
swaddling cloths, and yet too great for space to hold
Him!
Thirty and more years He lived on earth. The latter part of His life
was spent in a ministry full of suffering to Himself, but filled with
good to others. "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten
of the Father, full of Grace and truth." Never man spoke like that Man,
He was a Man on fire with love. A Man without human imperfections, but
with all human sympathies. A Man without the sins of manhood, but with
something more than the sorrows of common manhood piled upon Him. There
was never such a Man as He, so great, so glorious in His life, and yet
He is the pattern and type of manhood. He reached His greatest when He
stooped the lowest. He was seized by His enemies one night when
wrestling in prayer. He was betrayed by the man who had eaten bread
with Him. He was dragged before tribunal after tribunal through that
long and sorrowful night and wrongfully accused of blasphemy and
sedition.
They scourged Him, though none of His works deserved a blow! But still
the plowers made deep furrows on His back. They mocked Him. Though He
merited the homage of all intelligent beings, yet they spat in His
face, and smote Him with their mailed fists, and said, "Prophesy, who
is he that smote You?" He was made lower than a slave. Even the abject
opened their mouths with laughter at Him, and the slaves scoffed at
Him. To end the scene, they took Him through the streets of the
Jerusalem over which He had wept–they hounded Him along the Via
Dolorosa, out through the gate, to the mount of doom.
I think I see Him, with eyes all red with weeping He turns to the
matrons of Salem, and cries, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me,
but for yourselves, and for your children." Can you see Him bearing
that heavy Cross, ready to
faint beneath the burden? Can you endure to see Him, when, having
reached the little mound outside the city, they hurl Him on His back,
and drive the cruel iron through His hands and feet? Can you bear to
see the spectacle of blood and anguish as they lift Him up between
Heaven and earth, made a Sacrifice for the sin of His people?
My words shall be few, for the vision is too sad for language to
depict. He bleeds, He thirsts, He groans, He cries–at last He dies–a
death whose unknown griefs are not to be imagined, and were they known
would be beyond expression by human tongue.
Now, it was the history of the Crucifixion which Paul delighted to
preach–Christ crucified was his theme–this old, old story, which you
have heard from your childhood, the story of the Son of God who loved
us and gave Himself for us. You all know that our Lord, after He had
been taken down from the Cross and laid in the tomb, lingered there but
a few short hours. And then on the third day rose again from the dead,
the same, yet not the same–a Man, but no more despised and rejected.
He communed with His servants in a familiar and yet glorious manner for
forty days, and cheered and comforted their hearts. And then, from the
top of Olivet, in the sight of the company, He ascended to His Father's
Throne.
Follow Him with your hearts if you cannot with your eyes. Behold Him as
the angels meet Him, and–
"Bring His chariot from on high, To bear Him to His Throne. Clap their
triumphant hands, and cry, 'The glorious work is done.'"
There He sits–faith sees Him this very day–at the right hand of God,
even the Father, pleading with authority for His people. He rules
Heaven, and earth, and Hell, for the keys thereof swing at His
waist–waiting till, on the flying cloud, He shall descend to judge the
quick and dead, and distribute the vengeance or the reward. It was this
glorious Person of whom Paul delighted to speak!
He preached the doctrines of the Gospel, but he did not preach them
apart from the Person of Christ. Do not many preachers make a great
mistake by preaching doctrine instead of preaching the Savior?
Certainly the doctrines are to be preached, but they ought to be looked
upon as the robes and vestments of the Man Christ Jesus, and not as
complete in themselves. I love justification by faith–I hope I shall
never have a doubt about that grand Truth of God! But the cleansing
efficacy of the precious blood appears to me to be the best way of
putting it. I delight in sanctification by the Spirit–but to be
conformed to the image of Jesus is a still sweeter and more forcible
way of viewing it.
The doctrines of the Gospel are a golden throne upon which Jesus sits
as king–not a hard, cold stone rolled at the door of the sepulcher in
which Christ is hidden. Brethren, I believe this to be the mark of
God's true minister that he preaches Christ as his one choice and
delightful theme. In the old romance they tell us that at the gate of a
certain noble hall there hung a horn, and none could blow that horn but
the true heir to the castle and its wide domains. Many tried it. They
could make sweet music on other instruments. They could wake the echoes
by other bugles. But that horn was mute, let them blow as they might.
At last, the true heir came, and when he set his lips to the horn,
shrill was the sound and indisputable his claim.
The true minister is he who can preach Christ. Let him preach anything
else in the world, he has not proved his calling, but if he shall
preach Jesus and the resurrection, he is in the Apostolic succession!
If Christ crucified is the great delight of his soul, the very marrow
of his teaching, the fatness of his ministry–he has proved his calling
as an ambassador of Christ. Brethren, the Christian minister should be
like these golden spring flowers which we are so glad to see. Have you
observed them when the sun is shining? They open their golden cups and
each one whispers to the great sun, "Fill me with your beams!" But when
the sun is hidden behind a cloud, where are they? They close their cups
and droop their heads.
So should the Christian feel the sweet influences of Jesus–so
especially should the Christian minister be subject to his Lord. Jesus
must be his Sun and he must be the flower which yields itself to the
Sun of Righteousness. Happy would it be for us if our hearts and our
lips could become like Anacreon's harp which was wedded to one subject
and would learn no other. He wished to sing of the sons of Atreus, and
the mighty deeds of Hercules, but his harp resounded love alone. And
when he would have sung of Cadmus, his harp refused–it would sing of
love alone. Oh, to speak of Christ alone– to be tied and bound to this
one theme forever–to speak alone of Jesus and of the amazing love of
the glorious Son of God, who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes
became poor." This is the subject which is both "seed for the sower,
and bread for the eater." This is the live coal for the lips of the
preacher, and the master key to the heart of the hearer. This is the
tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of
Heaven! Lord, teach it to us more and more, and we will tell it out to
others!
Before I leave this subject I feel bound to make two or three remarks.
You will perceive that the Apostle Paul preached the unsearchable
riches of Christ, not the dignity of manhood, or the grandeur of human
nature. He preached not man, but man's Redeemer. Let us do the same.
Moreover, he did not preach up the clergy and the church, but Christ
alone. Some of the gentlemen who claim to be in the Apostolic
succession could hardly have the effrontery to claim to be the
successors of Paul.
I believe that our modern "priests" of Rome are in the Apostolic
succession–I have never doubted that they are the lineal successors of
Judas Iscariot who betrayed his Master! But no other Apostle would
endure them for so much as an hour. If Paul had been their leader would
he have preached the unsearchable riches of priestcraft as they do? Do
not they preach up their own priestly power? Did Paul do this? Is not
their one great theme the unsearchable riches of baptism? The
unsearchable riches of the Eucharist, the blessed bread and the blessed
wine? The unsearchable riches of their confession and absolution? The
unsearchable riches of their albs, and their dalmatics, and their
chasubles and I know not what else of the rags of the Whore of Babylon?
A fine day is this in which we are to go back to the superstitions of
the Dark Ages–so dark that our forefathers could not bear them–and
for the unsearchable cunning of priests are to give up the unsearchable
riches of Christ! We are told that the Reformation was a mistake–but
we tell these false priests to their faces that they are liars and know
not the Truth of God! Beloved, Paul cared nothing for priestcraft! And
this Book has not a word in it in favor of priestcraft. With Paul and
with this Book all believers in Jesus are priests, and God's only
clergy.
Paul never posted bills upon the walls of Jerusalem, with black crosses
on them, warning men that they would not be able to meet Christ at the
Day of Judgment if they did not keep Good Friday! But I will tell you
what Paul did–he wrote to the Galatians, "You observe days, months,
and times, and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have bestowed upon
you labor in vain."
This whole abomination of ritualism was the utter abhorrence of the
Apostle. In its first form of Judaism it stirred up his whole soul with
indignation. It brought the blood into his cheek. He never was mightier
in denouncing anything than when dealing heavy blows at ceremonialism!
He said, "Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but
faith that works by love." Paul preached up no priest whether he lived
at Rome or Canterbury! He exalted no class of men arrogantly pretending
to have power to save. He would have been out of all patience with a
set of simpletons decked out as Guys [effigy of Guy Fawkes paraded and
burned on Guy Fawkes Day] and dressed up as if they were meant to amuse
children in a nursery! He never taught the worship of these
calves–Jesus alone was his subject, and the unsearchable riches of His
Grace.
Mark you, on the other hand, Paul did not preach up the unsearchable
riches of philosophy, as some do. "Yes," say some, "We must please this
thinking age, this thoughtful people. We must educate a people who will
reject all testimony because they will not be credulous–who will
believe nothing but what they can understand, because, indeed, their
understanding is so amazingly clear, so perfect, so all but divine!"
Not so, the Apostle. He would have said to these philosophical
gentlemen, "Stand away. I have nothing at all that can make me kindred
with you. I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, not the
uncertainties of philosophical speculation! I give the people something
to believe, something tangible to lay hold of, not superstitious, it is
true, but Divinely accredited! Not concocted by the wisdom of man, but
revealed by the wisdom of God."
My dear Friends, we must come back to the Gospel of Paul, and may God
bring all His ministering servants more and more clearly back to it
that we may have nothing to preach but that which clusters around the
Cross! Nothing but that which glows and glistens like a sacred halo of
light around the head of the Crucified One–that we may lift up nothing
but Jesus, and say, "God forbid that we should glory, save in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
II. Secondly, Paul preached THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST. Paul had
no stinted Savior to present
to a few. No narrow-hearted Christ to be the head of a clique. No weak
Redeemer who could pardon only those little offenders who scarcely
needed it. He preached a great Savior to the great masses! A great
Savior to great sinners. He preached the Conqueror with dyed garments,
traveling in the greatness of His strength, whose name is "mighty to
save."
Let us enquire in what respects we may ascribe to our Lord Jesus the
possession of unsearchable riches. Our answer is, first, He has
unsearchable riches of love to sinners as they are. Jesus so loved the
souls of men that we can only use the "so," but we cannot find the word
to match it. In the French Revolution there was a young man condemned
to the guillotine and shut up in one of the prisons. He was greatly
loved by many, but there was one who loved him more than all put
together.
How do we know this? It was his own father, and the love he bore his
son was proved in this way: when the lists were called, the father,
whose name was exactly the same as his son's, answered to the name and
the father rode in the gloomy wagon out to the place of execution. And
his head rolled beneath the axe instead of his son's, a victim to
mighty love. See here an image of the love of Christ to sinners–for
thus Jesus died for the ungodly, viewed as such. If they had not been
ungodly, neither they nor He had needed to have died. If they had not
sinned, there would have been no need for a suffering Savior, but Jesus
proved His boundless love in, "that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us."
Your name was in the condemned list, my fellow Sinner, but, if you
believe in Jesus, you shall find that your name is there no longer, for
Christ's name is put in your place, and you shall learn that He
suffered for you, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring you to
God. Is not this the greatest wonder of Divine love, that it should be
set upon us as sinners? I can understand God's loving reformed sinners
and repenting sinners–but here is the glory of it–"God commends His
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners [yet sinners!] Christ
died for us." O my Hearers, from my inmost heart I pray that this
boundless wealth of love on the part of Jesus to those who were rebels
and enemies may win your hearts to love the heavenly Lover in return!
In the next place, Jesus has riches of pardon for those who repent of
their sins. My Lord Jesus, by His death, has become immensely rich in
pardoning power–so rich, indeed, that no guiltiness can possibly
transcend the efficacy of His precious blood. There is one sin which He
never will forgive–there is but one–and I am convinced that you have
not committed that sin against the Holy Spirit if you have any feeling
of repentance or desire towards God. For the sin which is unto death
brings death with it to the conscience, so that when once committed the
man ceases to feel. If you desire pardon, Sinner, there is no reason
why you should not have it, and have it now!
The blood of Christ can wash out blasphemy, adultery, fornication,
lying, slander, perjury, theft, murder. Though you have raked in the
very kennels of Hell till you have blackened yourself to the color of a
devil, yet, if you will come to Christ and ask mercy, He will absolve
you from all sin! Do but wash in the bath which He has filled with
blood and "though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Do not
misunderstand me, I mean just this–that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
not meant exclusively for you respectable people who always appear to
be so religious–but for you who are irreligious! For you who are not
even moral, or sober, or honest!
I tell you the Gospel of Christ is meant for the scum of the
population! It is meant for the lowest of the low, for the worst of the
worst. There is no den in London where the Savior cannot work! There is
no loathsome haunt of sin too foul for Him to cleanse. The heathen
dreamed of their Hercules that he cleansed the Augean stables by
turning a river through them, and so washing away the filth of ages. If
your heart is such a stable, Christ is greater than the mightiest
Hercules– He can cause the river of His cleansing blood to flow right
through your heart, and your iniquities, though they are a heap of
abominations, shall be put away forever! Riches of love to sinners as
such, and riches of pardon to sinners who repent are stored up in the
Lord Jesus.
Again, Christ has riches of comfort for all that mourn. Have I the
happiness of having before me some who mourn before the Lord? Blessed
are you, for you shall be filled! What is the cause of your weeping? Is
it your sin? Christ has a handkerchief that can wipe away such tears.
He can blot out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your
iniquities. Do but come to Him, and your deepest sorrow shall disappear
beneath the influence of His sympathetic love. Are you sorrowful
because you have lost a friend? He will be a Friend to you. Have you
been deceived and betrayed? My Master can meet that craving of your
nature after friendship and sympathy. Confide in Him, and He will never
forsake you.
Oh, I cannot tell you how rich He is in consolation, but the Holy
Spirit can tell you. If you do but get Jesus, you shall find, as
Bernard used to say, that He is "honey to the mouth, music to the ear,
and Heaven to the heart." Win Christ, and you shall want nothing beyond
Him. Lay hold of Him, and you shall say with the Apostle, "I have
learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content," for He has
said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
My Master's unsearchable riches are also of another kind. Do you thirst
for knowledge? Jesus has riches of wisdom! The desire to know has sent
men roving over all the world, but he who finds Jesus may stay at home
and be wise. If you sit at His feet, you shall know what Plato could
not teach you, and what Socrates never learned. When the old school men
could not answer and defend a proposition, they were apt to say, "I
will go to Aristotle: he shall help me out." If you do but learn of
Christ, He shall help you out of all difficulties–and that which is
most useful for your soul to know–the knowledge which will last you in
eternity, Christ shall teach you!
Think not that the Gospel of Christ, because it is simple, is therefore
mere child's play. Oh, no! It has that in it which an angel's intellect
unillumined of the Holy Spirit might fail to master. The highest ranks
of seraphim, still lost in wonder, gaze upon it. Come to my Master and
you shall be made wise unto salvation. Let me not weary you with so
great a message. Perhaps I tell it badly, but the matter of it is
worthy of your ears, and worthy of your hearts. My Master has riches of
happiness to bestow upon you. After all, he is the rich man who wears
heart's-ease in his button hole. The man who can say, "I have enough,"
is richer than the peer of the realm who is discontented.
Believe me, my Lord can make you to lie down in green pastures, and
lead you beside still waters. There is no music like the music of His
pipe when He is the Shepherd and you are the sheep, and you lie down at
His feet. There is no love like His–neither earth or Heaven can match
it. If you did but know it, you would prize it beyond all mortal joys,
and say with our poet–
"Such as find You find such sweetness Deep, mysterious, and unknown.
Far above all worldly pleasures, If they were to meet in one;
MyBeloved,
Over the mountains haste away." I speak experimentally. I have had more
joy in half-an-hour's communion with Christ than I have found in months
of other comforts. I have had much to make me happy–many successes and
smiles of Providence which have cheered and comforted my heart. But
they are all froth on the cup, mere bubbles–the foam of life, and not
its true depths of bliss. To know Christ and to be found in Him–oh,
this is life! This is joy! This is marrow and fatness, wine on the lees
well refined! My Master does not treat His servants churlishly. He
gives to them as a king gives to a king. He gives them two Heavens–a
Heaven below in serving Him here, and a Heaven above in delighting in
Him forever.
And now I shall close this poor talk of mine about these priceless
riches by saying that the unsearchable riches of Christ will be best
known in eternity. The riches of Christ are not so much to be enjoyed
here as there. He will give you by the road and on the way to Heaven
all your needs. Your place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks,
your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure. But it is
there, there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of them that
triumph, the shout of them that feast!
My dear Hearer, if you get Christ you have obtained riches which you
can take with you in the hour of death. The rich man clutched his bags
of money, and as he laid them on his heart, he murmured, "They will not
do, they will not do. Take them away!" If you receive Jesus into your
heart, He will be death's best antidote. When your disembodied spirit
quits this poor clay carcass, as it must, what will your silver and
gold do for you then? What will your farms and your broad acres do for
you then? You must leave them all behind. Even if men buy you a coffin
of gold, or bury you in a tomb of marble, yet of what good will that
be? But oh, if you have Christ, you can fly up to Heaven, your
Treasure, and there you shall be rich to all the intents of bliss world
without end!
Now, dear Friends, if I could have spoken as I would have spoken, I
would have done so, but the subject would have been the same. Paul
preached the Gospel better than I do, but even he could not preach a
better Gospel. Let me close this point by a few words. My Master has
such riches that you cannot count them! You cannot guess them, much
less can you convey their fullness in words. They are unsearchable! You
may look, and search, and weigh, but Christ is a greater Christ than
you think Him to be when your thoughts are at their greatest. My Master
is more able to pardon than you to sin! He is more able to forgive than
you to transgress. My Master is more ready to supply than you are to
ask, and ten thousand times more prepared to save than you are to be
saved!
Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. Your highest estimates
will dishonor Him. When you put the crown on His head, you will only
crown Him with silver when He deserves gold. When you sing the best of
your songs, you will
only give Him poor, discordant music compared with what He deserves.
But oh, do believe in Him, that He is a great Christ, a mighty Savior!
Great Sinner, come and do Him honor by trusting in Him as a great
Savior! Come with your great sins and your great cares, and your great
needs! Come, and welcome! Come to Him now, and the Lord will accept
you, and accept you without upbraiding you.
III. Lastly, there must have been A ROYAL INTENTION in the heart of
Christ in sending out Paul to preach of His unsearchable riches because
every man must have a motive for what he does. And beyond all question,
Jesus Christ has a motive. Did you ever hear of a man who employed a
number of persons to go about to proclaim his riches, and call hundreds
of people together, and thousands, as on this occasion, simply to tell
them that So-and-So was very rich? Why, the crowds would say, "What is
that to us?"
But if at the conclusion, the messenger could say, "But all these
riches he presents to you, and whoever among you shall desire to be
made rich, can be enriched now by him." Ah, then you would say, "Now we
see the sense of it! Now we perceive the gracious drift of it all."
Now, my Lord Jesus Christ is very strong, but all that strength is
pledged to help a poor weak sinner to enter into Heaven. My Lord Christ
is a great king, and He reigns with irresistible power–but all that
Sovereign power He swears to give to Believers to help them to reign
over their sins. My Lord Jesus is as full of merit as the sea is full
of salt, but every atom of that merit He vows to give to sinners who
will confess that they have no merits of their own, and will trust in
Him!
Yes, and once more, my Lord Christ is so glorious that the very angels
are not bright in His Presence, for He is the Sun, and they are but as
twinkling stars. And all this glory He will give you, poor Sinner, and
make you glorious in His glory if you will but trust Him! There is a
motive, then, on our Lord's part for bidding us preach a full Christ. I
think I hear a whisper somewhere–there is a poor heart standing
crowded in the aisle, and it is saying to itself, "Ah, I am full of
sin. I am weak. I am lost. I have no merit." My dear Hearer, you do not
need any merit, nor any strength, nor any goodness in yourself, for
Jesus presents you with an abundance of all these in Himself!
I will not care whether I have money in my own purse or not, if I have
a kind friend who says, "All that I have is yours." If I may go and
draw upon him whenever I please for whatever I wish, I will not desire
to be independent of him, but I will live upon his fullness. Poor
Sinner, you must do the same. You do not need merits or strength apart
from Christ. Take my Master, and He will be enough for you while you
shall joyfully sing, "Christ is my All."
Two or three words, then. The first is this–How rich those must be who
have Christ for a Friend! Will you not seek to be friends with Him? If
it is true that all Christ has He gives to His people–and this is
asserted over and over again in this Book–then, oh, how unspeakably
blessed must those be who can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His!"
They who get Christ to be their own, properly are like the man who,
having long eaten of fruit from a certain tree, was no longer satisfied
with having the fruit, but he needed take up the tree and plant it in
his own garden!
Happy those who have Christ planted as the Tree of Life in the soil of
their hearts! You not only have His Grace, and His love, and His merit,
but you have HIMSELF! He is all your own. Oh, that sweet word, Jesus is
mine! Jesus is mine! All that there is in His Humanity, in His Deity,
in His living and in His dying–in His reigning and in His second
Advent–all is mine, for Christ is mine!
How foolish, on the other hand, must those be who will not have Christ
when He is to be had for the asking! Who prefer the baubles and the
bubbles of this world, and let the solid gold of eternity go by! O
Fools! You play with shadows and miss the substance! You dig and toil,
and cover your faces with sweat, and lose your nightly rest to get this
world's fleeting good, while you neglect Him who is the eternal good! O
Fools and slow of heart! You court this harlot world, with her painted
face, when the beauties of my Master are infinitely more rich and rare!
Oh, if you did but know Him! If you could but see His unspeakable
riches you would fling your toys to the wind and follow after Him with
all your heart and soul.
"But may I have Him?" asks one. May you, indeed? Who is to say no to
you? Did not you hear the sweet notes of the hymn just now, "Come and
welcome. Come and welcome"? When Heaven's big bell rings, it always
sounds forth that silver note for sinners–"Come and welcome! Come and
welcome!" Leave your sins, leave your follies, leave your
self-righteousness! Jesus Christ stands at the open door of Divine
Grace more willing to receive you than you are to be received by Him.
"Come and welcome, come and welcome." At the top of the Hospice of St.
Bernard, in the storm, when
the snow is falling fast, the monks ring the great bell and when the
way cannot be seen, the traveler can almost hear the way to the house
of refuge across the snowy waste.
So would I ring that bell this morning. Poor lost Traveler, with your
sins and your fears blowing cold into your face, "Come and welcome.
Come and welcome," to a Savior once dead and buried for you, but now
risen and pleading at the right hand of God! If you cannot see your
way, yet hear it. "Hear, and your soul shall live. And He will make an
Everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." You
need nothing but Christ, dear Heart. You need pump up no tears of
repentance to help Christ, for He will give you repentance if you seek
it of Him. You must come to Him to get repentance! You must not seek
that Gospel blessing anywhere but at the Cross.
You will need no Baptisms and Lord's Suppers to rely upon. It will be
your duty as a Believer to profess your faith in Him and to remember
Him at His table, but these things will not help your salvation. You
will be saved by Jesus and by Him alone. You need experience no
terrors. You need undergo no preparation. Christ is ready to receive
you now. Like the surgeon whose door is open for every accident that
may occur. Like the great hospitals on our side the river, where, let
the case be what it may, the door swings open the moment an entrance is
demanded–such is my Master. Unsearchable riches are in Him, though
unsearchable poverty may be in you–
"Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness He requires,
Is to feel your need of Him–
This He gives you,
'Tis His Spirit's rising beam."
All this week long I have been fretting and worrying because I cannot
preach to you as I wish. And when each of my sermons, here, has been
over, I have wished that I could preach it again in a more earnest and
fervent manner. But what can I do? O my Hearers, I can preach Christ to
you, but I cannot preach you to Christ! I can tell you that if you
trust Him you shall be saved. I can declare to you that as the Son of
God now risen He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to
Him–but I cannot make you come!
Yet, I thank God that since last Sunday I have heard of some who have
come! I have heard good news of some who, by the Holy Spirit's power,
have believed in Jesus! Are there no more eyes that will look at my
Master's wounds? Are there no more hearts that will fall in love with
my Master's beauties? Must I come a wooing for Him, and get so small a
return? Must it be ones and twos out of the 20,000 of you? God forbid
it! God send us a greater rate of fruit than this! A hundred-fold
harvest to a hundred-fold congregation! Pray, Believers, pray for a
blessing! Pray that God may strike these lips dumb before next Sunday
if He will do more good by some other preacher than by me!
Ask nothing for me, but ask large things for my Lord, for the Crucified
One! Pray that these great gatherings may not be without a permanent
result which shall tell upon the impiety of this city! Yes, and tell
upon the piety of it, too, slaying the first, and stimulating the
second! God send forth the Spirit of His Grace, and unto Him shall be
the praise, world without end. Amen.
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The End of the Righteous Desired
A sermon