Does the song leader know number
495? Does the church know number 495? The unsearchable riches of Christ,
can you lead it at the end please? Thank you. I'm going to invite your attention
to the epistle of Paul to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians
chapter 3. My text is verse number 8, and
my subject comes directly from the text itself. This message
is titled, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. But before I do, let me tell
you a story. I returned from five years on
the mission field in 1984 and had undergone a change of conviction
concerning a certain doctrine that I formerly had held dear
and came back home early 1984 and announced that I had left
that doctrine. And I lost 90% of my supporters in
one month, and I was low. I had conversed with Henry Mahan
regarding it, and he had encouraged me. I happened to go to check my
mail one day. My family was in the States for
a while. We had been in the Virgin Islands for five years. I went
to pick up my mail at my father's house. My father and your late
pastor were good friends. I saw a notice in the mail that
my father had received regarding your conference in the spring
of 1984. And as I said, I was very low
at the time. And I called Pastor Scott Richardson. I said, you do not know me, but
you know my father. And I want to come up for your
conference. You've got, I see, some names
here that I know. Don Fortner and I went to high
school together. and Henry Mahan and some others,
and I want to come up. And he said, well, come in and
check in at Stalds. And I said, okay. So I came up,
and on the Saturday morning, during that conference, Henry
Mahan stood up and spoke a word in my regard, and it was right
here that my whole ministry turned around This place is somewhat
dear to me, so I'm delighted to be here. It is now twenty-nine
and a half years later. We were young once, weren't we? I appreciate the Lord's servants,
his pastors, and especially those of that generation that gone
on or are going on, and some of us probably walking down that
valley behind them. But I appreciate you. In the
book of Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 8, Paul has written to
me who am less than the least of
all the saints this grace was given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Our dear friend Maurice Montgomery
in Madisonville, Kentucky, has been unable to preach Miss Pulpit
for some months. You probably are aware of that
failing health. And therefore he has found it
necessary to have a visiting preacher every Lord's Day to
come and to minister to the church. I am subscribed to the email
version of their bulletins and so I received the bulletin a
day or so before it is presented to the church. And I always look
to see who's preaching. My son gets to go up there and
preach quite often, so I read in there that Brother D. Parks will preach to us the unsearchable
riches of Christ, or Brother Bob Coffey will preach to us
the unsearchable riches of Christ, or Brother Luke Coffey will preach
to us the unsearchable riches of Christ, but every preacher
is always introduced in the same way. He will preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Well, I like somewhat to be precise
and to know of which I speak, so I telephoned my son and I
said, son, it says that you are to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Maurice telephoned you and assigned
that subject to you?" And he said, no, never does. Did you
telephone him and tell him that's what you would be preaching?
He said, no, did not. And yet there it is, no matter
who the preacher is, he's going to be preaching the unsearchable
riches of Christ. So, still wanting to be precise
and knowledgeable of what I speak, I telephoned my dear friend Maurice
Montgomery, and I said, Brother Maurice, every week I say the
same thing, that such and such brother will preach to us the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and I have it on good authority
that you have not assigned the subject, and I have it on good
authority that you have not been informed that's what the subject
will be. said, nobody gets invited to
preach in this pulpit unless it's known that's what he preaches. I think that's good. No matter
what the text, what are you going to preach? The unsearchable riches
of Christ. Is it in that text? Well, when
I'm done, we'll find out. But whatever the text, What are
you preaching? The unsearchable riches of Christ.
What's your subject? The unsearchable riches of Christ. Now we may have a different name
for the subject, but that's what it's going to turn out to be.
But tonight, I'm going to make it easy for me. I'm taking the
text, the unsearchable riches of Christ. I want to preach to
you tonight on that subject. the unsearchable riches of Christ. Let me introduce my subject by
bringing to you or to your attention four things. that Paul mentions
regarding himself that should be and are typical of every gospel
preacher. First of all, Paul is typical
of gospel preachers in personal humility. He says, in essence,
I am less than the least of all the saints. In another place,
Paul says, I am the chief of sinners. Every one of God's preachers
that I know willingly acknowledges himself as less than least of
all the saints and the chief of sinners. And I would say to
you, beware of the preacher who considers himself among the chief
of saints and among the least of sinners. Second, Paul is typical
of God's creatures in divine enablement. He says, this grace
was given. God's creatures are by Him graciously
chosen, graciously gifted, graciously enabled, and graciously directed
in everything they do. It is by divine enablement and
it is by God's grace. I would say to you, beware of
the man or woman who chose the ministry for a career, who depends
upon his or her own gifts and talents, and is directed by him
or herself or some religious organization. God's preachers
are divinely enabled. This grace was given. Third,
observe that Paul is typical in ministerial calling. He says,
I should preach among the Gentiles. What do God's preachers do? We
do what the name indicates. We preach. God's preachers preach. We do not minister as priests
at altars, enforcers of the law, dictators of morality, propagators
of ceremonies and rituals, enlargers of churches, religious entertainers,
nor anything else that ministers in man-made religion do. We preach. And we preach among Gentiles,
which in the widest sense of the term is everyone estranged
from God. That's what we do. We preach
among Gentiles. And fourth, observe that Paul
is typical of God's preachers in preaching content. What do
we preach? The unsearchable riches of Christ. What is that which is unsearchable?
It is incalculable, unfathomable, incomprehensible, immeasurable,
and inexhaustible. It's unsearchable riches of Christ. Some riches are unsearchable
because they are not yet discovered. Geologists tell us that under
this earth are coal fields and oil fields Loads and streaks
of gold and silver that have never been discovered. What's
it worth? We have no idea. It's not yet been discovered.
You cannot search out what has not been discovered. Well, Christ
has been discovered, God has revealed Him, and yet it is unsearchable. Some riches are unsearchable
because they are lost. I live in the Caribbean. Our sea is a graveyard of ships,
many of them laden with treasures from the New World many centuries
ago, headed back to Europe and got caught in hurricanes and
some of our violent Caribbean storms or sunk by pirates. We know that many of those ships
had great treasures on board. What's the treasure worth? We
do not know. It's lost. You cannot search
and discover the worth of what is lost. But Christ's treasures
have never been lost. They're unsearchable, but God
has revealed them and you may find them, but you cannot search
them out. Some riches are unsearchable
because they are off limits. Many a tyrant, many A man who
is a dictator or such has accumulated wealth and even he does not know
what he's worth, but his wealth and his riches are under lock
and key and in vaults, in safes, maybe in different places. You
cannot know the value of it, but he does not even know because
it's off limits. But I say to you that the riches
of Christ are never off limits. Come, you may have them all.
Here they are, these unsearchable riches. They are revealed, they
are not lost, they are available, but they are unsearchable. Now, what are these unsearchable
riches of Christ? That is somewhat of a needless
question. If these riches are unsearchable, therefore I cannot
enumerate them all, can I? They're unsearchable. And since
they are unsearchable, I cannot fully describe even one of them. Remember, they are unsearchable,
unfathomable, inexhaustible. You cannot measure them. I'll
tell you what I can do. I can tonight briefly introduce
a few of these unsearchable riches of Christ to you, particularly
some of those with regard to the salvation and the security
of God's people. First, the unsearchable riches
of Christ's deity. He is very God of very God. That itself is unsearchable. In Him Paul says, dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now what is the Godhead? It is
eternal, it is infinite, and it is perfect. It cannot be contained. And yet, There in that vessel
of clay, when the Son of God assumes humanity, in that body
is the Godhead that cannot be contained. In that One who was
born is the Godhead that is eternal. Folks, anybody want to try to
stand up and explain that to me? You can't. It's unsearchable. It's unsearchable. The unsearchable riches of His
deity. I hear preachers deny Christ's
deity when they say, He will save you if you let Him. And
He's powerless to do so unless you enable Him. That is an outright
denial of the deity of Christ. And that is not the Christ I
declare to you. When Jehovah sent his Son into
the world, he told his preachers to present Christ and to say
to the people, Behold your God. That's what he said. Isaiah 40
verse 9. Behold your God. Points to my
Son. and say, Behold your God. And we beheld our God and we
responded in these words, Isaiah 25 verse 9, Behold, this is our
God. We have waited for Him. He will
save us. This is Jehovah. We have waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. And in this one, God manifested
in the flesh is to be found the unsearchable riches of Christ's
deity. I say with Thomas, he is my Lord
Jehovah and my God and you cannot search him out. Second, observe
the unsearchable riches of Christ's sovereignty. We hear false preachers
say Christ will save you if you let him. When they say so, they
have denied the sovereignty of Christ. When they deny His sovereignty,
they have denied His deity, because a God lacking sovereignty is
a vain idol of man's wild imagination. Not the Christ I preach to you.
He is sovereign. He declares, all authority has
been given to me. in heaven and on earth, all authority. The Holy Spirit declares that
he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of
lords. He therefore does as he pleases,
when he pleases, how he pleases, and to whom he pleases. And if
he determines to save a sinner, no one stops him. And if you call upon him to save
you, he does not need your permission. He needs no one's permission,
and no one will stop him. Now call upon him. He'll save you. He has the power
to do so. He's omnipotent. Folks, that
is unsearchable sovereignty. Furthermore, he is, or let's
look at number three, the unsearchable riches of Christ's power. Because we hear false preachers
say, Christ is powerless to save you unless you let him. Now in
the first place, who in his right mind wants that kind of a God
anyway? Who? I'm going to say that anybody
who wants a God who cannot save you unless you enable him, there's
one kind of a person who wants that kind of a God, That's one
who wants to be God of a God. That's who it is. Who says, I'll
let him do what I'll let him do. Well, not this Christ I'll
preach to you, you won't. No sir. No ma'am. The unsearchable
riches of Christ's power. He is omnipotent. He possesses
all power. He stepped out of eternity and said, let
there be an earth. Let there be heavens. Let the
stars appear. And it happened just as he said. His power did it. He created
everything you see and everything you do not see. He created the
stars that are so far up into the heavens that man with his
best knowledge of science has not yet discovered. He created
those things in the depths of the sea that no one yet even
knows what's there. And he got it right the first
time. Made no mistake, made no error. When he got through, he
said, it's perfect. I'm done creating, and he rested. That's the power of my Christ. In the days of his incarnation,
he's out there on the Sea of Galilee one night with his disciples
and the wind is blowing and the waves are billowing on that little
ship and it's about to go under. The disciples think they're doing
all they can And lo and behold, the master is asleep in the boat. Master, they awaken him. Do you
not care that we perish? When you're in control of the
storm, you can sleep through it, okay? When you're in control
of the sea, you can sleep no matter what it's like. Master,
we perish. Do you not care? He stood up,
which is a dangerous thing to do in a boat that's about to
go under. He stood up in the boat, and
he said, wind, stop blowing, and sea, be still. And the sea
was still as glass, and the wind quit blowing, and the disciples
said, what manner of man is this? I'll tell you what manner of
man this is. It is one with unsearchable power. Here is the Christ who has power
to exorcise demons, heal the sick, give sight to the blind,
give hearing to the deaf, enable the mute to speak. He can raise
the dead. He has raised the dead. And now
if you will come back with me about 2,000 years ago and behold
Him in the weakest moment of His humanity. There He is on
the tree. the weakest moment of his humanity. The blood has drained from his
body. His strength has been sapped. He is confined to a tree. He
is going nowhere. He is nailed. There he is, suspended
between heaven and earth. The weakest physical moment of
all his humanity And a thief says, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. And Jesus saved him on the spot. Right there. The weakest moment
of his humanity. And he can save a thief and take
him to glory. Oh, my friend, this Christ I
preach to you, unsearchable power. That's the Christ I preach to
you. You call upon Him to save you, and I tell you right now,
He has more power than you need, and He'll save you. You call
upon Him. Nothing stops Him. He'll not require your help.
He'll do it all by Himself. The unsearchable riches of His
power. Fourth, observe the unsearchable
riches of Christ's grace. Unsearchable riches. Paul in
Ephesians 2 verse 7 speaks of the exceeding riches of God's
grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Exceeding
riches of His grace. Let me tell you something about
the unsearchable riches of Christ's grace. First of all, His grace
is invincible. in many regards. First of all,
consider that no sinner is too big for Christ to save. He has already saved the chief
of sinners. Already he has. Therefore, you
need not worry about being too big a sinner for Christ to save.
He has already saved the chief. He can save you. Consider that no sinner is too
bad for Christ to save. I hear people say, I'm just too
bad a sinner. You're not so bad except in your
own eyes. You're not so bad in His. Paul
will elsewhere give us a catalog of people whom he says will not
inherit God's kingdom. Now I want you to listen to this
list. These will not inherit God's kingdom. pornocators, idolaters,
adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards,
revilers, and extortioners. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, will
not inherit God's kingdom. He just said it. Now what does he say next? Next
he says, And such were some of you. Such were some of you. He nailed me. He nailed me. And such were some of you. But
you were washed, justified, and sanctified by Jesus Christ. I say to you, no sinner is too
bad for Christ to save. Furthermore, no sinner is too
far away for Christ to save. No sinner is. You may be sitting
in a church pew, and in some places that's about as far from
God as you can be. You may be sitting in a church
pew. You may be in the deepest hell
hole. You may be at the farthest end
of the earth, but I'll tell you this, you call upon Christ He'll
be there. No sinner is too big. No sinner
is too bad. No sinner is too far away for
Christ to save. His grace is invincible, and
furthermore, His grace is eternal. Eternal. Once you're in this
grace, you're always in it. And then you'll learn you have
been in it from eternity. And we'll be in it through eternity,
all ages to come. Consider first of all that no
saint can be taken from Christ. He says of those whom he saves,
I give them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall
anyone snatch them out of my hand. He said that. I give them
eternal life. What is eternal life? In the
simplest of terms, eternal life is eternal life. Now you know
what life is, it's the opposite of death. And you know what eternal
is, it never ends. I give them eternal life. You'll never perish and no one
can snatch you out of my hand. I say to you that if Christ saves
you, if you trust in him to save you, you're in his hand and all
the gates of hell The devil himself and all his minions and demons
and all the world itself cannot bend back one knuckle of the
hand of Christ and pluck one of his little ones out. Not a
one. Not a one. He says, no one can snatch you
out. There you are. The unsearchable
riches of his eternal grace. You may hear religionists say,
You may be saved today and lost tomorrow. Well, in the first
place, he just denied he had eternal life, because if you
can be saved today and lost tomorrow, you never had eternal life. You
never did. And if you can be saved today
and lost tomorrow, you're trusting in the wrong Christ. Somebody
can snatch you out of the hand of your Christ. You've got the
wrong one. Not the Christ I preached to you. Furthermore, no one can
snatch you out. And He will never cast you away.
He declares that the one who comes to Me, I will by no means
cast out. John 6, verse 37. No one. If you are ever in the hand of
Christ, not only can no one snatch you out, but He will never cast
you away. Now listen to me carefully. Nothing
a child of God ever does results in Christ casting that one away. Nothing. Who is that man? I'll tell you who that man is.
Right now he's in a drunken stupor. Passed out drunk and naked on
his bed. Who is that man? He is the only
man in his entire generation who found grace in the sight
of the Lord. The only one. God said, I'm going
to destroy the earth. You? I'm giving you grace. Now go build me an ark because
I'm going to destroy the earth and I'm going to save you because
you found grace in my sight. Noah built that ark. God saved
him. He came out of the ark. made
a sacrifice to God, worshipped God, and then got drunk and passed
out in about as shameful a condition as you can imagine. Well, I'm ready to cast him out
of my society. We would, would we not? We'd
cast him out of our society. Let me tell you something. You
see that man right there, passed out drunk? The grace of Christ
was just as effectual to him when he was in that drunken stupor
as it was when God put him in the ark. The grace had never
changed. Does that justify the drunkenness?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. All I'm saying
is, Christ did not cast him away. Poor old Moses. I feel sorry
for Moses. Yet, Pastor, a good number of
sweet folks. Imagine a few hundred thousand,
if not a million, cantankerous, murmuring people all the time.
Now, where would you rather be? Moses has got a few hundred thousand
of them, and they have murmured ever since the day they come
out of Egypt. Murmured and complained all the way, every footstep. Complained and murmured. And
God had been so good. And one day they come and said,
Moses, why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did you bring us out
here to kill us? Because as you notice, we have no water. Okay? We have no water. What did you
do? Bring us out to kill us? Poor old Moses. I mean, what's
he supposed to do? You know, you can't go down to
the grocery store and buy water. No lakes around. And he falls
prostrate before the Lord and says, Lord, what am I going to
do? What am I going to do? The Lord said, Moses, there's
a rock out there. Take your rod and speak to the
rock. Moses, take your rod and speak
to the rock. Well, Moses, he's about had enough
of this stuff. He comes out in a tizzy. Walks
out with his rod and he says, must I always give you water?
And he hit that rock. When he did, he hit Christ. was that rock, he smoked Christ. Did Christ cast him away? No.
No. Moses is in a mad fit. Smoked
Christ. And yet Christ said, I'm not
throwing you away. You won't go to Canaan, but I'm
not casting you out. Now, behold that man. He's king. And he's walking around. The wall of his palace. He's in the wrong place, by the
way. His army is at war. He's the king. He's supposed
to be leading the army, but he's not. It's like he's in a state
of peace, walking around, looking. And whoa, what is that? That is one beautiful woman down
there. Go get her, bring her to me."
They did, he's king. He brings her up, commits adultery
with her, then has her husband murdered. Who is that man? This is the man whom Christ said,
he's a man after my own heart. And when David was in Bathsheba's
arms, in adultery, He was as much a man after God's heart
as he was when he slew Goliath. And Christ did not cast him away.
Does that condone it? Absolutely not. Read Psalm 51.
Read it. It does not condone it. What
I'm saying to you is, this grace never changes. It is as immutable
as the Savior. And the Lord says to his disciples, You folks are about to desert
me." Peter said, Ha, ha, ha, ha, not me. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Oh, they might, not me. They come for the Savior. They
arrest him. The disciples flee. It is probable
that John was with the Lord when he was taken to trial. The others
have fled, and here's Peter right here, warming his hands at the
devil's fire. Looking in there, Jesus is on
trial in there, and he's out here with the Lord's enemies,
warming his hands at their fire. Sir, you're one of his. His? Not me. No, I'm not one of his. Another one says, you are one
of his. I told you, no, I'm not one of his. Third one says, I
know you're one of his. I'm not one of his. and the rooster
crowed. Just like Jesus had said it would.
Before the rooster crows, you will deny me thrice. Peter has
denied thrice. The rooster crows and Jesus on
trial looks back at Peter. Just looked. What a look. But he did not cast him out. This man denied to the Lord.
Do you see the point I'm making at this? We do not in any way condone
any of these sins, but the point I make is this. Christ did not
cast them out. That will get you cast out of
most societies, but Christ holds on and then uses. I'm saying to you that this grace
of Christ is invincible and it is inexhaustible. This grace
has been given to sinners from the very dawn of creation. From
the very dawn of creation, since God sent the first sinners down
through the ages, And now for lo, these thousands of years
our Lord's been saving sinners, same grace from the same place.
Two thousand years ago, one writer describing the number said it
is a multitude that no man can number, and still others are
receiving it. And yet, I'm telling you, there's
still grace for you. Still grace for you. And still
grace for me. It's inexhaustible. Now quickly, number five, the
unsearchable riches of Christ's blood. His blood saved, redeemed,
ransomed, justified, sanctified, healed, and reconciled to God
every sinner for whom it was shed. And not one single sinner
for whom this blood was shed has ever perished because of
the unsearchable riches of Christ's blood. Sixth, the unsearchable
riches of Christ's righteousness. Here is a righteousness, the
only righteousness that satisfies God's law, and Christ gives it
to every believer, been doing it from the dawn of creation,
and he still has righteousness for me and righteousness for
you. And no one who ever received
it became unrighteous. The unsearchable riches of his
righteousness. And seventh and last, the unsearchable
riches of Christ's holiness. the only holiness that satisfies
God's demand. And he has been giving that holiness
to regenerate people from the very dawn of creation, and this
holiness is his own divine nature given to believers and given
to the regenerate from the dawn of creation, and he still has
enough for me and enough for you. if you'll have it. And no
one who ever received it became ever unsanctified. No one. Not even one of those
men I just described to you a moment ago. Now friend, I could go on
and on and on. On and on. Maurice Montgomery
has been preaching these unsearchable riches of Christ for oh, many
years. Many years. And he never exhausted
it. Your late pastor preached these
unsearchable riches of Christ for many, many years. He never
exhausted it. And his successor has continued
preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you'll never exhaust
them. I'll never exhaust them. They
are inexhaustible, these unsearchable riches of Christ. And I want
you to know, they're more than sufficient for you. Oh, sinner,
listen to me, listen to me. You're not too big, and you're
not too bad, and you're not too far away from the unsearchable
riches of Christ. And saint, listen to me, listen
to me carefully. No one will ever snatch you from
him, and no one will ever, or nothing you do will cause him
to cast you away. These are the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Trust Him, and they're yours.