DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1870
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."
Ephesians 3:10.
THE "principalities and powers in heavenly places" to whom the Apostle
here refers, are, no doubt, the angels. These bright and glorious
spirits, never having fallen into sin, did not need to be redeemed, and
therefore, in the sense of being cleansed from guilt, they have no
share in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Yet it is interesting to
notice how our Lord did, as it were, pass and pass again their shining
ranks when He sped His way down to the regions of death, and when He
came back triumphant to the realms of Glory.
Thus in one place "we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death," and in another place we learn, "that the
Father raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might
and dominion." It is possible that the mediation of Christ has a
bearing upon them, and has from now on confirmed them in their
holiness, so that by no means shall they ever be tempted or led into
sin in the future. It may be so, but this much seems to be evident,
that though they had no direct share in redemption, they feel,
nevertheless, an interest in it, and are to be instructed by its
results.
The sublime plan of the Gospel of the Grace of God, which is so
entirely beyond the compass of our natural faculties that we could
never, by searching, have found it out, appears to have been equally
beyond the grasp of angelic intelligence. It was a mystery that excited
their wistful enquiry–until by the Church (that is to say, by the
Divine Counsel and conduct in forming and perfecting the Church) there
is made known unto them the manifold wisdom of God as they have never
learned it before. They have kept their first estate, and have been
obedient to God's behests. They delight to be known as the servants of
God, doing His commandments, and hearkening unto the voice of His Word.
They are appointed to exercise some sort of power over various parts of
God's creation, therefore they are called "principalities and powers."
Certainly they are engaged in singing Jehovah's praise. Much of the
music that rises up before His Throne comes from the harps of spirits,
pure and immaculate, who have never known sin. Yet, though they are
thus pure, thus engaged in worship, of such eminent rank in the
universe of God, they are never represented as indifferent spectators
of anything which our mortal race can do or suffer, but their sympathy
with men is constant.
Do they not watch over the saints? Is it not written, that they "encamp
round about them that fear the Lord"? Are they not charged to take care
of the saints, to bear them up in their hands, lest they dash their
feet against the stones? Angels, we know, have often been messengers of
God's will to the sons of men. They have never shown any reluctance–
on the contrary, great has been their joy to bear God's tidings down
from Heaven to earth. And their sympathy even with fallen men, with men
who have grievously sinned and gone astray, is shown by the fact that
they "rejoice over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and
nine just persons that need no repentance."
They are, as it were, in yonder gilded vessel, untossed of tempest. But
they have sympathy with us in this poor heavy-laden boat, tossed with
tempest and not comforted. I see them there on yonder sea of glass
mingled with fire. I hear their harps, as incessantly their joy goes up
in music to the Throne of the Most High. But they do not look down with
scorn on us poor denizens of this dusky planet. On the contrary, they
delight to think of us as their Brethren, as their fellow servants, as
it will be the consummation of their happiness when we shall all be
gathered to the Church of the First-Born, that they shall make up the
innumerable company of angels that surround the blood-washed throng.
I. The subject of our meditation, which will be brief, resolves itself
into a question, HOW EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH THE CHURCH DO ANGELS COME TO
SEE THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD? Some other matters in connection with
this we shall have to speak of afterwards.
Who can doubt that the angels had seen much of the wisdom of God in
creation? With faculties keener and more elevated than ours, faculties
that have never been blunted by sin, they can perceive the various
contrivances of God's skill both in the animate and the inanimate
world. Doubtless as each new star has been minted by God, as each
planet has been struck off like a spark from the everlasting anvil,
angels, those sons of the morning, have lifted up their songs, and have
poured forth their paeans of joy and gladness.
They have seen the wisdom of God in the greatness of creation–in every
sphere they have been able to perceive it, for their vision is far more
comprehensive than ours. And they have also, no doubt, seen that wisdom
in all its minuteness as manifest in the delicate structure of
organized beings, and the skillful economy of the operations of
creative power. For there again they are able with the singleness and
certainty of superior optics to perceive what only after long years we
have been able to discover–and that by reasoning from the ingenuity of
the works to the excellence of the design.
What a scale of survey must a seraph have! How readily can we imagine
an eye that takes in at once the landscape of the world! He need not
confine himself to one single spot in God's universe, but with rapid
wings he can steer far and wide over the infinity of space. May he not
pause here a moment and there a moment, and with a glance peer into the
multiform wisdom of God in all the ten thousand thousand worlds that
stud the realms of space? Yet with all that facility of observation, it
seems that the angels have some parts of the wisdom of God to learn.
They have some lessons of heavenly science to study which creation
cannot unfold to their view–to be ascertained and certified by them
only through the transcendent work of Redemption which the Lord has
carried on in His Church.
Fix your attention for a moment on the word "now" as it is used in the
text. On that word, it seems to me, much of the meaning hangs. Long
before our Lord came into the world God had been pleased to reveal
somewhat of the wisdom of His Grace in the types of the old Law. These
were full of significance, but at the same time not free from
perplexity to the minds of most men. They appear not to have been very
intelligible, even to the angels, for they are pictured as standing
over the Mercy Seat, with wings outspread, looking down upon its golden
lid, anxiously enquiring, but not clearly discovering the secret of the
old Covenant dispensation.
Peter says, I suppose in allusion to this, "which things the angels
desire to look into." But Paul here vehemently sets forth the yearnings
of his heart in the exercise of his ministry, "to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places,
might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."
May we not infer from this that though angels saw Moses and Aaron, and
the long succession of priests that followed them. Though they
doubtless mingled invisibly in the solemn gatherings that went up to
Mount Zion, and heard the chants of the glorious Psalms. Though they
saw the streams of blood that flowed at the altar of burnt offering,
and marked the rising clouds of smoke that went up from the altar of
incense that was in the Holy Place before the Lord, they had not as yet
discovered the wisdom of God in its fullness and clearness, the
spotless mirror of His power, the reflex image of His glorious
perfection?
But it must have remained for them to learn it from the Church! Since
Christ has come, angels are to be students of the manifold wisdom of
God as revealed in His work towards His people, preparing them for that
grand climax–the espousal of the Church and the marriage of the Lamb.
To come closer to the matter we must trace it progressively, as though
it were step by step that the angels pursued their study, and acquired
an insight into this manifold wisdom. It may be they do so. Certainly
among the children of men there is much pleasure in the getting of
knowledge. The merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of
silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
As we gradually break up fresh ground, decipher that which is obscure,
sift out analogies, solve difficulties, and follow out the tracks of
history in one continuous line, our enjoyment of study rises to
enthusiasm. Do you not think that the angels perceived the manifold
wisdom of God now that they began to understand what man was and what
man is? They must have already seen that God had created an order of
pure spirits who served Him faithfully and never sinned. There was one
form of wisdom displayed in that. Other spirits, equally pure, went
astray, and in the wisdom of God– for there is wisdom in it–these
were suffered to continue astray, reserved in chains until the
judgment.
Soon the angels perceived that God was about to make another
intelligent creature, not altogether spiritual, but a spiritual
creature that should be linked with materialism, a creature that should
abide in a body of clay. And that God intended to make this creature a
mixture of earth and Heaven–such a one that he should occupy the place
which fallen
angels had left vacant. They discerned in this at once the wisdom of
God. He had formed a pure spirit. He had fashioned material substances.
Now He was about to make a creature in which the two should be
combined, a creature that should be spiritual, and yet should be
material.
But before this creature should be permitted to take his place forever
at the right hand of God, he was to be permitted to pass the test of
temptation. Being tempted, he was to fall into sin. Out of the
condemnation into which he should sink he was to be elevated by an act
of Divine Grace. From the guilt of that sin he was to be cleansed by a
matchless system of substitutionary sacrifice. And then, after having
been alienated in heart, he should nevertheless become as pure as if he
had never been conscious of evil! And contaminated with it, he should
be redeemed from it and stand in allegiance to the Most High, to serve
Him with as absolute a perfection as if he had never transgressed or
lost his first estate.
Herein is manifold wisdom, that the Lord God should make so strange a
creature, that He should be formed of the dust of the ground, and yet
created in the image of God. A creature that should know sin, and
whatever of pleasure there might be in it, and yet be restored to
purity and holiness. A creature who though awhile estranged in heart,
and guilty of rebelling with a high hand against his Creator, should
return to its allegiance through the infinitely wise workings of God's
Spirit, and from now on should remain forever the liege servant of God!
And, something more, the child of God would be lifted up and exalted
into a nearness of connection and intimacy of communion with the Great
Father of Spirits into which no creature had ever been brought before!
In that grand design, the angels must have seen much of the sublime
wisdom of God, and that conspicuously through the Church.
But, Brethren, may not the admiration of angels at the unfolding of
this wisdom have been increased by the mystery in which it had long
been shrouded from their apprehension? Observe that Paul was exulting
in a revelation "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men as it is now revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by the
Spirit." What use will he make of it? First he looks round among the
saints and sounds the note of welcome. Then he looks out among his
fellow men and proclaims it to the Gentile world. And at length he
looks up and descries among the angelic throng, creatures of noble mind
and exalted rank, who could sympathize the joy and hail the solution of
so grand a problem.
Be it remembered that the decree had previously been proclaimed from
the throne of the Most High, for, "when He brings the First-Begotten
into the world, He says, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." Yet
the means by which the counsels of God concerning Christ and the Church
should be brought to pass had not thus far been shown. With what
pleasing wonderment, therefore, would the principalities and powers in
heavenly places regard the plan as it was unsealed! How well might the
Apostle look forward to those ages to come which have yet to prove the
reality of all that has been foreshadowed!
The Truth of all that has been prophesied. And (the work now in
progress being completed) the actual form and fashion of all that from
the beginning was predestinated. Even while the mystery was
unexplained, it was not for pure angelic minds to doubt. Still their
thoughts must have been full of marvel, and startling questions must
have occurred to them. Shall the Only-Begotten Son of the Father take
the nature of man into union with the Godhead? Can it be safe to put
such a creature as man into so sublime a relationship with the Creator?
Will pride never inflame his breast and provoke his soul to transgress?
By what strange process shall he be made meet to partake of the
inheritance of the saints in
light?
While the details are concealed, the destiny seems incomprehensible. It
is therefore that the Church becomes as a museum which angels may visit
with ever-expanding interest and ever-increasing delight. Over the
minutest particulars of the Divine workmanship in the saints they may
pore with pleasure. For there they have open to their observation by
the Church the manifold wisdom of God. And all this redounds to the
glory of the Savior. That creature, man, when thus elevated, can never
be proud, for he remembers what he was. If ever the feeling of
exultation crosses his mind, he transfers the honor to Christ, who can
receive it as his rightful due.
There is not in Heaven, of all the creatures, a humbler creature,
though none more elevated–made to have dominion over all the works of
God's hands, with all things put under his feet. He is made to be akin
to Deity itself by virtue of union with the Son of God, and yet safe to
stand there, without cause to fear that he should pervert his high
prerogative or usurp any adoration or prerogative which does not belong
to him. The process through which he has passed–his annealing, as it
were, in the fire of his fall and of his repentance–his deep
obligations to Sovereign Grace, shall make it
safe to grant that he shall sit with Christ on His Throne. Even as
Christ also overcame, and is set down with his Father on His Throne.
I talk of these things feebly and superficially, but I am persuaded
that this is a subject which angels can think of with enchantment, and
as they think it over they see transparent proofs of the manifold
wisdom of God. But to come down to more familiar topics. Probably you
will be more impressed with the excellence of this wisdom as you look
at the first principles of Christianity, than if you would arrest your
attention in any refinements of reasoning. The wisdom of God is clearly
seen by angels in this–that though God was dishonored in this world by
sin–that sin has redounded to His greater honor.
Satan, when he led men astray and tempted them to rebel, thought he had
marred the Glory of God, but he never did more palpably outwit God. As
Augustine ventured to say of the Fall, "Happy thought," so, when we see
how God's mercy and His love have shone resplendent through that
dreadful breach, we can only admire the wisdom of God which has thus
outmatched the subtlety of Hell. The serpent was exceedingly wise, but
God was far wiser. Satan's craft was dexterous, but God's wisdom was
infinite in its prescience. Wisdom has outmatched craft. Is it not
glorious to think that this world where God was dishonored most is the
world where He shall be most revered?
There is no such display of the attributes and perfections of Godhead
in the whole universe beside as there is here. On our blighted soil God
has stood foot to foot with moral evil. God incarnate, the Son of God,
has sustained the conflict, and won the victory! While the heel of
Christ was bruised, the head of the dragon has been most effectually
broken! A triumph that God would have us commemorate in time and in
eternity has come through the sin that threatened the destruction of
the world.
This wisdom of God is to be seen in the way that our redemption was
worked. The doctrine of Substitution is a marvel which, if God had
never revealed, none of us could by any possibility have discovered.
You remember how it was. We had sinned and were condemned. How could
God be gracious and yet be just? How could He keep His Law and yet at
the same time show His mercy towards us? Of old that problem was solved
by the Suretyship of Christ. He who had determined to be Man put
Himself from before the foundation of the world into our place, and
offered Himself to God as the Head of the race in Covenant that He
might make recompense to the broken Law.
Angels could not have conjectured this, but when it was made known to
them, how could they refrain to chant fresh songs to the praise of Him
who could undertake so loving a responsibility? It became necessary
when Christ was our Surety, that He should afterwards take upon Himself
our nature. Oh, how it must have surprised the angels when they heard
that the Son of God was coming down to earth to be born of a virgin!
What marvel must there have been when the announcement was made through
the courts of Paradise that He was going down to Bethlehem!
One of the angelic number who had been sent to attend Him proclaimed
His advent, but while he was making the announcement, "Suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host," who now came in
to swell the song, "Glory to God in the highest! On earth peace, good
will toward men." The swell of that music–how grand! The cadence of
those simple words–how charming! Yes, the angels must have discovered
something of the wisdom of God when they saw that God thus tabernacled
among men, that the Word was made flesh in order to be capable of
carrying out His surety-engagements, and really become a Substitute for
those who had offended.
I think His whole life must have struck them with wonder. They must
often have observed wisdom in His actions and in His prayers, in His
speech and in His silence. But, when at last He came to die, methinks
even cherubim and seraphim were wrapt in amazement. That He should
stoop from Heaven and become a friend to the fallen race might surprise
them much. But that He should stoop to die must have appeared utterly
incomprehensible! Something more of the love and wisdom of God should
yet be revealed to them. I think our hymn must fitly describe how they
gathered round that Cross–
"And could their eyes have known a tear, They must have wept it there."
When they beheld the griefs and torments of the dying Son of God, the
Lamb of God's Passover–when they heard Him say, "It is
finished!"–what a door must have been opened to them! They saw, then,
that He had finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in
an everlasting righteousness. And then, perhaps, they saw more clearly
than before how Christ, by suffering, put an end to our sufferings. And
by being made a curse for us had made us the right-
eousness of God in Him. If they marvelled during the three days of His
slumber in the tomb, His Resurrection must have opened up another door
to them. And, when after His forty days' sojourn, they came to meet Him
with glad acclaim.
When they joined Him, and with Him rode up to the gates of Heaven,
singing, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lift up, you
everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in." When they came
in triumph with "the Lord mighty in battle, the King of Glory," in that
procession to His Throne, they must still have been more and more
amazed, and said one to another, "What thing is this? What mighty
marvel! He that became Man to suffer, is the very One that now rises to
reign. He who was born to die now lives forevermore. Behold, He is now
the Head over all things, and made to have dominion over all the works
of God's hands, for it has pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell!"
Thus, Brethren, though time and voice fail me, permit me to say the
whole history of our blessed Lord, who is the Head of the Church, is
making known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the
manifold wisdom of God in such a way as they never could have otherwise
seen it.
The wisdom of God is seen through the Church in the Holy Spirit's work
as well as in the work of Christ. It is "manifold wisdom." You know the
children's toy, the kaleidoscope. Every time you turn it there is some
fresh form of beauty. You seldom see the same form twice. So it is with
nature, each time and season has its special beauty. There is always
variety in its scenery–diversities of form and color are strewn
throughout the world. You never saw two hills molded in the same
pattern, or two rivers that wound after the same fashion from their
source down to the sea. Nature is full of variety. So is the work of
the Holy Spirit.
In calling sinners to Christ, there is singleness of purpose but no
uniformity of means. Your conversion, my dear Friend, in the main
outline, is very much like mine–yet your conversion has its
distinctive incidents. God's wisdom is displayed equally in bringing
you in that way, and in bringing me in another way. I believe there
will be found evidence at the last of the wisdom of God in the very
date, the very place, the very means in and by which every soul is
brought to believe in Jesus. And angels will, no doubt, be able to
perceive in every conversion some singular marks of beautiful
originality proceeding from the inexhaustible Artist of Grace, the Holy
Spirit.
That same wisdom will be seen in the biography of every convert–how
the Lord afflicts, or how He comforts. How He upholds us, how He keeps
back that which cannot yet be endured. How He gently leads us, how He
makes us to lie down. We find fault, sometimes, with the way of
Providence because we do not understand it. When we shall get a clearer
sight of it we shall see that every mark and line was dictated by His
love, and ordered by His Infinite Counsel. As each Christian shall be
conformed to the likeness of Christ, angels will see in the products of
Grace fresh displays of the manifold wisdom of God.
I could suppose that the death of a martyr must be such a spectacle as
those holy watchers regard with extraordinary interest. Would they not
have gathered around such a woman as Blandina, for instance, who was
made to sit in a red-hot chair, after having been tossed upon the horns
of a wild bull? Yet constant to the last, she maintained her faith in
Christ while passing through the torture! Pure spirits as they were,
they must have commiserated the physical anguish and admired the
spiritual triumph of this feeble woman thus devoted in her love to
their Lord and Master.
Yes, you ministering spirits, you who live to serve our Eternal King,
surely you must rejoice at the loyalty of those servants of His who die
for His Truth. In late years, since this House of Prayer was built,
when the martyrs of Madagascar were burned at their stakes for
Christ–as they stood erect in the fire, and began to sing–the angels,
celestial vocalists as they are, must have been ravished with a music
that they could not emulate. And when they breathed the prayer, "Into
your hands we commend our spirits," the angels must almost have envied
them the ability of serving God in that sphere of suffering, and the
possibility of bearing in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Yes, and when they have seen your boldness and your constancy, your
self-denial, and your patience. And when they have heard your
importunate prayers and groans, as you have pleaded for the souls of
others, seeking with tears to bring others to Jesus, I do not doubt
that they have ascribed to the manifold wisdom of God the production of
such luscious fruits from such inferior creatures! Fruits that bring to
His name so much of Glory, and so much of renown to His Grace. In all
the saints, through the history of their vocation and the development
of their sanctification, angels can discern the manifold wisdom of God.
The subject is far too large for me. I shall leave you to think it out,
after thus introducing you to but a few aspects of it. There is much
room for meditation as to how these bright and happy spirits do and
shall see the wisdom of God in the salvation of the Church.
II. But do you now ask, DO ANGELS GAIN ANYTHING BY THE CHURCH OF GOD? I
think they do. Certainly they acquire increased knowledge. With us
knowledge is sometimes sorrow. To know is often to mourn. What the eye
does not see the heart does not rue. "Where ignorance is bliss"–and it
sometimes is–there are those who think, "it is folly to be wise." But
ignorance is not bliss in Heaven. Knowledge increases the joy of the
angels, and I will tell you why–because it makes them take a greater
delight in God when they see how wise and gracious He is. If it is
possible for the angels to be happier than natural innocence and
honorable service can render them, they must be happier through knowing
and seeing more of God, as His attributes are reflected and His
perfections mirrored forth in the Church.
Angels, methinks, will be enriched by the society of the saints in
Heaven. Commerce always enriches, and commerce between angelic and
human natures will be enriching to them both. They love in Heaven–they
show their love by rejoicing over repenting men. They will be glad to
see us there. I do believe they will make much of us, as we do if we
have seen some poor child reclaimed, and afterwards grow up to honor.
We like to think of such an one. It brings the tears into our eyes that
our Father did so good a deed for the orphan, the pauper, or the
outcast. And will not the angels rejoice over those in whom the
Father's mercy has worked such wonderful happiness?
Again, to my imagining (can it be illusive?) angels are gainers by the
Church because they get nearer to the Throne of God than they were
before. Another order of beings, our own to wit, is advanced. Surely
when one creature gets near to God, all unfallen creatures are
promoted. God, in vital union with the creature, was not to be
conceived of until Christ came down to earth, and clothed Himself in
manhood, thus raising creatureship nearer to God by just that length.
So angels, by inference, seem to me interested in the honor that
Jehovah has put on His works–the endowed works of His own formation.
Do you not think, too, that perhaps they can see God better in Christ
than even they did before? Is it not possible that even they who first
did veil their faces with their wings in the presence of the Almighty,
because the brightness of glory was excessive, may now stand with
unveiled faces and worship God in Christ? I think it is so. They never
saw much of God before until they saw God veiled in human flesh. There
was too dazzling a splendor for them till the interposing medium of the
manhood of Christ came in between them and the absolute Deity. It may
be so.
And may not there be a reflex sense of gratitude in the very heart of
angels when they see us in Heaven, or while they see us wending our way
there? They perceive what it would have cost to have restored them had
they been beguiled by sin, and therefore what debtors they are to God
that they were never suffered to fall. Does it not make their state and
standing more and more joyful to them when they see in us how the
righteous scarcely are saved, and at what an expense men were lifted up
from the ruins of death and the dread doom of the damned?
Why, methinks they say not one to another, with Phariseeism–"We thank
You, great God, that we are not as men are." No, they say, with
lowliness of mind–"We bless You, O God, that we were permitted to
stand in our fidelity, and were not left to the natural weakness which
might have succumbed to temptation, for You charged even Your angels
with folly, but You have held us, and here we are to bless Your name."
It may be so. It may be so.
III. Let me detain you one minute more while we meet the question, WHAT
IS ALL THIS TO US? Ought it not to make us prize the Gospel? If the
angels think so much of it, oh, what should we think? If they who have
only seen it, esteem it so, how ought we to value it who have tasted
it? If they admire the veins that filled the Fountain, what shall we
say who have washed in that Fountain? If they wonder at Christ, who
took not on Him the nature of angels, how shall we admire Him who
espoused the house of Abraham and the seed of Adam? Let us appreciate
the Gospel beyond all price, emolument, or honor.
How, too, should we study it, if it is the research of angelic
intellects! Is the Church their schoolbook from where they learn
lessons of the Divine wisdom, because no science is equal to that of
the wisdom of God in Christ revealed in His Church? O be not, you
converts, ignorant of the Word of God! Be not oblivious of the
operations of God in your own souls! The angels desire to look into
these things. Do you look into them? Blessed shall you be if you abide
in the study of the Word of God! You shall be like trees planted by the
rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season. O do
apply every faculty you have to acquire increasing knowledge of that
which angels love to study.
And now take courage, you feeble-minded ones, and never fear again the
sneer of the man who calls the Gospel folly. Account him to be the
victim of folly who despises this manifold wisdom. Shall I set the
judgment of a poor puny mortal against the judgment of an angel? I
suppose that even Newton, and Kepler, and Locke, and those mighty
master spirits, would be mere infants compared with seraphs. Those
great men loved to study the Scriptures, and when your modern
pretenders to a little smack of philosophy come in and sneer at our
holy Gospel, we can well afford to sneer at them. What are their sneers
to us?
In proportion to a man's ignorance is generally his impudence when he
meddles with the Gospel. I think it was Hume who confessed that he had
never read the New Testament and said he never would. Yet he was one of
the most glib in caviling at that of which he knew nothing. Ah, you
skeptics, pretenders, and scoffers–we can well afford to let you rail.
But you can ill afford to rail when angels are awed into wonder, and so
would you be if there were anything angelic about your temper, or
anything of right wisdom in your attainments.
Last of all. If this is so, how we ought to love Christ, we who has a
saving interest in it, and how they ought to tremble who have it not!
Unsaved Men! Unsaved Women! If it needs manifold wisdom to save men,
then men's ruin must be very great, and your peril must be very
imminent. If it amazes angels to see how God saves, it must be a
terrible destruction from which He saves them. That destruction is
coming upon you–its dark shadows have already began to gather round
you. How great your folly to refuse a salvation so wise, to reject a
Savior so attractive as Jesus!
Think of His loving gentleness and consider the simple way in which He
saves–believe and live! The supplies necessary for your salvation are
all waiting. There is nothing to be done. It is all complete. There is
nothing to be found. It is all ready. Salvation is finished. What a
fool must he be that will not have it! O stretch out your withered hand
and take it! God give you power. If you say "How? "I answer
thus–Trust, trust, trust! Come and confide in Christ. Rely upon
Christ, and He will save you. God grant you Grace to do it at once, and
He shall have the praise. Amen.
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Bands Of Love