Go with me, if you would, back
to Ephesians chapter 3. Just a moment ago, in the Bible
study, we saw how the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians what he knew about the gospel. Now he's going to tell them what
he feels about it. Alright? Verse 8 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. The Apostle Paul clearly was
a man who thought very little of himself in the flesh. Very little. Just like John the
Baptist did. Just like all of God's true preachers
do. In religion, just look on TV. That's all you got to do is just
go on TV. God's preachers are the opposite of what you see
today in religion. Everybody's just so proud and
I'm just a man of God and you just... God's men are the opposite
of that. They asked John the Baptist,
what's your name? Well, you see these men today
plastering their names on everything. They asked John the Baptist,
what's your name? He said, It's not even worth it. He wouldn't
tell him. Are you that prophet? Not even
worthy to tie his shoes. Paul had that same view of himself,
that same feeling about himself in the flesh. He said in first
Timothy chapter one, I'm the chief of sinners. When he looked within and saw
himself, when he looked at himself, he was disgusted. He said in Romans 7, I am a wretched
man. Paul said, thank God, it's not
about what a man sees on the inside. It's not what's on the
inside that counts. It's not what I see in this flesh.
When I look inside this flesh, I see a wretched, wretched man. That's what he felt about himself.
That's why it was so shocking to him that God would give this
stewardship of the gospel to him. He said, unto me. He told Timothy, before I was
a persecutor of the very people I'm preaching to right now. Think
about that. I was injurious toward them. I murdered them. I blasphemed
the very God I am preaching right now. So he said, you can see my shock.
You can understand my absolute shock over the fact that God
would choose me. That God would choose me. Every
true preacher, every true saint, every believer, every believer
cries right along with him, why me? Why me? He said, I'm the least of all
saints. I love what Charles Spurgeon had to say about this verse of
scripture. I just love this. He said, I
do not quarrel with Paul's language, but I do dispute his right to
push me out of my place. He said, less than the least,
is a position which I had hoped to occupy. But He has taken it
from me. And I would fain give Him a touch
on the shoulder and say, Friend, go up higher. And I would like to humbly tap
Mr. Spurgeon on the shoulder. Less than the least. Handling
the gospel in any way is a very humbling thing. It brings you
down. It brings you down. It's lowering. It's a very lowering thing. But even though Paul felt very
lowly toward himself, he felt very highly of the ones he preached
to. He did not say, I am the least
of all the apostles. He said, I'm the least of all
the saints. I'm the least of every saint. Every saint God has ever called. And the thing to know is, if
God allowed that to be written in the Word, it's true. He felt
it. He was not buttering them up. He meant it. He meant every word
of it. Paul had a falling out with Barnabas. They didn't want
to have anything to do with each other. They didn't want to see
each other. He still felt, Barnabas is a greater saint than I am.
He had to rebuke Peter to his face. He still felt, Peter is
a greater saint than I am. All these letters he wrote under
the authority of God, especially to the Corinthians, all the mess
they were in, that poor congregation of people, bless their hearts.
He still called them brethren, and he still considered them
to be greater than himself. He esteemed them more highly
than he esteemed himself. Verse 8, he said, unto me who
am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that
I should preach. Paul felt very lowly of himself. He felt very highly of the ones
that he preached to. And he felt in his heart that
the ministry of preaching the gospel was the greatest gift
God could have ever given him. Sometimes, it hits me sometimes
it just just for a minute it just hits me that God has allowed
me to preach the gospel you realize what a privilege of God Almighty
throughout all the ages in all generations and all people everywhere
that he would allow us to believe the gospel Greatest gift anybody
could ever receive. You get to believe the gospel. Paul was never acknowledged.
He was never given a title or a position by the religious circle
of that day. He never had a best-selling book. in his own lifetime. God allowed
him to write half of the New Testament. Paul never had a big fat salary. Paul was not even received by
most of the people he preached to. He was hated by most everybody,
including his own kinsmen after the flesh. His own personal assurance
in his calling was in his sufferings for preaching the gospel. That
was his own stamp of approval. His sufferings for preaching
the gospel. He was beaten for it. He was
whipped. He was stoned. He was shipwrecked.
He was robbed. He is at this moment in time
sitting in prison writing this letter and he says, I cannot
believe that God would bestow so much favor on me. I just can't believe God would
show so much kindness to me in giving me this wonderful gift.
Look up at verse 7. He said, Whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto
me by the effectual working of His power. I was made to be this. I was chosen to be this. I am
what I am by the grace and the power of God. Verse 8, Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles. I get to go tell sinners. Sinners who do not realize their
great need of it. Sinners who are not owed it.
Sinners who are not deserving of it. I get to go tell them
how great things the Lord has done for them. He said, I've suffered the loss
of all things, but I count it all done because God has given
me the great gift and the great honor of preaching the unsearchable
riches of Christ. We have one message to preach. One message to preach. By God's grace, we will never
stop preaching throughout this time here on earth, throughout
all of eternity, the glory and the praise and the honor and
the work of Christ. Our one message is Christ, Christ,
Christ. That's it. Christ. That is it. The reason is because the message
of Him, The message that looks into the things of Him, and sees
Him, and hears Him, and knows Him, that message is unsearchable
riches. Now go with me back to the verse
of Scripture we just ended the Bible study with. Romans 11 verse
33. Romans 11 verse 33 says, Oh the
depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. That's what unsearchable means. Past finding out. They go infinitely farther than
a man or a woman could ever dream of searching. Now for those to whom this grace
is not given, God's grace is freely bestowed, freely given
to whom He will. To those that it is not given
to, there is no beauty in Him that they should even desire
Him. No beauty at all. A man was appalled one time over
the fact that the world naturally does not see Christ in the Scriptures. Just appalled over the fact that
the world does not see Christ in the Scriptures. A man responded
to him by saying, the world didn't see Christ in the Christ. He walked this earth for 33 and
a half years. They did not see God manifest
in the flesh. They could not. It must be given. Eyes to see must be given. Ears to hear must be given. A
heart to believe must be given. But to you who have received
the gift of grace, He is altogether lovely, isn't He? Altogether
lovely. Unsearchable riches. He is unsearchable
riches. Now let's try to search just
a little bit of the unsearchable. I'm not even going to pretend
like we're going to search out the unsearchable. But just for
a moment, let's try to fathom a small piece of the unfathomable. Let's try to describe just a
little bit of the indescribable. Let's start with the riches of
His person. Alright? The riches of who He
is. Go with me over to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In Him dwells all the fullness,
all of the wisdom, all of the knowledge, all of the judgment,
all of the power, all of the ability of the Godhead. Everything that God is capable
of is contained in Him. Everything that we can see on
this earth, everything that we can see in space, He thought
of it, He designed it, He spoke it into existence. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. Everything that is actively continuing
right now, is being sustained by Him. Everything that is breathing
right now. Every single thing that is breathing. Every heart that is beating. The perfect order of all things. By Him, all things consist. All things. Think about that.
All things. Everything. is continuing by
His doing. Everything that is obeys Him. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
His sovereignty and His power, His power. While He walked this
earth, the wind obeyed Him. The waves obeyed Him. The angels obeyed Him. The devils obeyed Him. Diseases obeyed Him. The dead obeyed Him. Everything obeyed the voice of
the Almighty. And in seeing that, we have to
realize that that is Him hiding His power. That's Him hiding it from us. That's Him veiling it from us. That's seeing Him at the lowest
point of His own self-humiliation. That's Him humbling Himself before
us. Wait till you see Him now. Wait
till you see Him now. High and lifted up. The things,
the glory of the Godhead that we know of Him in His flesh down
here on earth. Wait till you see Him high and
lifted up. In all of His strength, in all
of His exaltation. Wait till you see the Person
of the Almighty. The power, the sovereignty is
absolutely unsearchable. It's unsearchable. His kingdom
is unsearchable. Of His kingdom, there shall be
no end. His throne is forever and ever. How long do you think forever
is? Do something. In your mind, go
into forever. Try to search out forever. How
far can you go? It's unsearchable. We get so
torn up over the 70 years that we have to live on this earth.
Oh, it's just so cruel, you know, we have to live here for 70 years
compared to eternity. What is anything that happens
on this earth during this 70 years compared to forever? His person is unsearchable riches. His kingdom is unsearchable riches. His riches are unsearchable riches. He owns everything. He said it's all mine. The Father said He inherits all
things. All things. If it is a thing,
it belongs to Him. The Apostle Paul was called up
to the third heaven after he saw the unsearchable riches of
His person. the unsearchable riches of His
kingdom, the unsearchable riches of all that He has, Paul cried,
I count everything here on this earth to be dumb. It's dumb that I might win Christ
and be found in Him. What unsearchable riches that
is. To have Him is to have everything. If you have Him, you have everything. You have everything. Let's see
if we can get a small glimpse of the riches of His love. Go
with me over to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9 says, For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. Oh, the riches of his condescension.
the riches of his substitution though he was rich indescribably
rich yet for your sakes he became indescribably poor that you through
his poverty might be rich that's love that's love all the riches
of his love and the riches of his compassion I love every time
in the New Testament, in the Gospels, when the Lord looked
on a people and He had compassion on them. And He helped them. Oh, the riches of His indescribable
love. Greater love hath no man. We
think we know something of love. Herein is love. God gave His
only begotten Son. Not a sinful son. The spotless
Son of God. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The payment. The atonement. The covering. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
that atonement. That sin that the Apostle Paul
described in himself. The sin that every single one
of us has. Where that sin abounded, the
unsearchable riches of God's own blood, His grace, His mercy,
much more abounded. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
the cross. People see that cross and you
talk about take something for granted. Take what happened,
you know, last weekend everybody wanted to put He is Risen on
their church sign. You know, talk about all that.
Oh, the unsearchable riches of the cross. His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness,
His love, His accomplishment, His victory. Every bit of that
abounded in the unsearchable riches of His death on the cross. We had a debt no man could pay. We were bankrupt, hopeless, helpless. And then all of a sudden, the
unsearchable riches of the gospel rang out. God has put you in
Christ, the Christ of the cross. And in Christ, there's no condemnation.
Paid in full, free to go. Now let's take a look at something
of indescribable value. Go with me to 1 John 2. This
is indescribable value. 1 John 2 verse 1 says, My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh, the riches of His resurrection,
His ascension, and His intercession for us. Does it not bring indescribable
comfort to your heart? Knowing that He ever liveth to
make intercession for you. The God of all heaven and earth
is daily making intercession on behalf of His people. The
Father hears Him pray. His dear anointed one He cannot
turn away the presence of His Son. Why? It's because five bleeding
wounds He bears received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. Aren't you so glad those scars
aren't gone? They pour effectual fervent prayers
from the righteous man. They pour effectual prayers.
They strongly plead for me. Every time I do something in
all my sin and wickedness, forgive him. Oh, forgive, they cry, nor
let that ransom sinner die. Don't kill him. Then I do it
again. Don't kill him. Don't let that
ransom sinner die. Can you imagine the riches? of
the fact that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
His person, His kingdom, His riches. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of His love, His compassion, His condescension, His grace. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
His mercy, His forgiveness, His redemption, in his death. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
his resurrection, his ascension, and his intercession for us.
And we cannot leave the subject without acknowledging one more
thing. The unsearchable riches of his return. Go with me to
1 Thessalonians chapter 4. This is one of my favorite passages
of Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13, But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, Even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him. Can you imagine that moment?
They're all coming back with Him. You talk about riches. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and
with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Where will that be? Where are we going to be with
him? He said it's a place where sin cannot enter in. He said it's a place where instead
of the thorn shall come up the fir tree. And instead of the
briar shall come up the myrtle tree. He said it's a place where
the desert will blossom and flourish as a rose. He said it's a place
where lions and lambs are going to dwell side by side together.
He said it's a place where everything breaks out into constant rejoicing. And the reason is because Christ
is there. Christ is there. He said it is
a life like you have never seen, never heard, and never imagined. Our Lord said, it's paradise. Now if I say it's paradise, who
knows what it is. You may not think so, but if
God says it's paradise, it's paradise. Paul said, I cannot
believe that I get to go tell sinners that. And I say the same
thing. I cannot believe that 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? Unsearchable riches. Come to
Him. Don't bring anything in your
hand. He does not need it. Just come to Him. All right,
let's all stand together.