You may be seated. It is truly a wonderful thing to be able to come together with
believers. For the Lord to bless and to
give a kindred spirit is a marvelous thing, to be knit together and the common, Jude says, salvation. I appreciate so much the kind
words of Brother Paul, and I appreciate the hospitality that's been shown
to us. It's good to see everyone again. And I pray that tonight, truly,
that the Lord might be pleased to let us just see something
of Him. Who knows? Peradventure. God
might be pleased tonight to say something to somebody. I hope it's me. Ephesians chapter 3, from a passage
that Brother Paul read in the 8th
verse, Paul says, 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." It's an easy thing for the carnal mind to think.
that the things of God are easily found out. It's an easy thing for the carnal
mind to think that by hearing a formula or a set of rules that the mind or the head can
comprehend and then The head can apply to the heart. That's the carnal way of thinking.
That the head hears, figures it out, applies it to the heart,
and then is able to make practical application of day-by-day living. We live by Christian standards. That's the carnal way of thinking.
head knowledge. But unless the Spirit of God
Himself speaks to the heart, the gospel is a heart message
understood only through the power of the Spirit of God. The unsearchable riches Unsearchable. Unsearchable. Paul, a man that at one time was so convinced that he was
right, he persecuted the church. He talked about zealous. He said,
You think you're zealous? He knew all that there was to
know about God. Ask Him. But here's a man that God has
taught something, and the first thing that God taught him was that he was nothing. First
place that God meets a man When a man begins to hear something
about the gospel, it is in his inability. Paul said, I'm less than the
least of all saints. Oh no, Paul. No, Paul, you can't
be because, see, you're a mighty man with God. You wrote all these
epistles and you're just wonderful. When a man begins to be taught
by the Spirit of God, there's a true feeling of unworthiness.
As Paul was saying a few moments ago, quoting Scripture, who's
sufficient for these things? To realize that God in His mercy will allow a man to stand up
and to say some things. You begin to feel the weight of what you're saying,
all the while realizing these things are unsearchable. I don't perceive the depth. Now,
we've got one hope tonight, and that's that the Spirit of God
would take a message that I am not able
to sufficiently preach and that the Spirit of God would take
what God Himself has said and speak to a heart. And if we hear
anything, it's going to be because God Himself has said something. The more a person learns or is
taught by the Spirit of God The more he begins to see, the more he realizes his weakness. Paul saw himself as weak, but there was one thing that
he truly realized. The message of the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. cannot possibly comprehend the
depth of what I'm saying. I proclaim what the Word of God
says, all the while realizing that it's going to take the Spirit
of God to bless His own Word to my heart, or I'm not going
to hear anything. God Himself is going to have
to bless this Word. A man that God's taught something
never has to struggle with the subject of his message. Don't
have to worry about what we're going to preach. But you see,
to a child of God, the only message that'll ever truly feed is the
message of Christ. I can tell you all kinds of things. The only thing that a child of
God wants to hear is Christ. The only kind of message that
feeds my soul is the message of Christ, the gospel. I never tire of hearing of my
weakness. I agree with you. I agree with
the Word of God. I know some, or I don't know
the depth. of my rebellion. God in his mercy has kept me
from seeing myself as I really am. I couldn't handle that. But I know this, though I don't
realize the depth of my rebellion, I know I'm not worthy for these
things. I realize that. I never tire
of hearing the same message of Christ. I've thought many times
about blind Barnabas. There's a few, some stories,
you know, that the Lord is really blessed to your heart. And the
one about blind Barnabas just seems to me to just be so good. Here's a blind man. I don't know
how many times he had heard the stories that others had been
telling about this Jesus of Nazareth. There was a story that he had
heard about this Jesus of Nazareth that had turned water into wine.
That's an amazing story. And there was another story about
this young boy that had died and he raised him from the dead.
And there were other stories that he had heard about Jesus
of Nazareth that had walked on the water. Can you imagine that,
walking on the water? But there was one story that
really he never tired of. How about that story about when
he spit on the ground and he took some mud, put it on a man's
eyes, and he could see. He's blind. How many times do
you think he was tired of hearing that story? Oh, just tell me
one more time. Tell me that story again, made
somebody see. That's a good story. I like that.
And to hear him, to hear that he was coming through, and he
began to cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Do you think that realizing that this one
that had caused someone else to see, do you think that someone
could cause him to hush? Who knows? He might have mercy on me. He
might do something for me. Do you think blind Barnabas saw
himself as being worthy? I'm not looking to my unworthiness. I'm looking to His mercy. I'm
not looking for that which I can't do or which I can do. I just want to see Him. on a sinner that would cause
one that absolutely could do nothing for himself. Do you know
it's the mercy of God that God would reveal to a person that
they're a sinner? The mercy of God. It's a merciful thing. to be a sinner, because most
people are not. That in itself is the grace of
God. What can lift the downcast and
give hope like hearing the message of the gospel one more time? Who knows? This could be for
someone here, the last time you ever hear of the mercy of God. One of these days, you're going
to hear it for the last time. God has been pleased through
the foolishness of preaching to save His own, to bless His
message, to call out those that from the foundation of the world
he had purposed to set his affection on. Why did he do that? Because it
pleased him. He had a right. He was right. Mr. Spurgeon said God had been
pleased to send men, he said, but one time the angels preached. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
born, the angels went to the shepherds that were
abiding, their flocks, and began to say, Glory to God
in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men. And I looked up the literal translation
of that, and it says, Glory to God in the highest and on earth,
peace among men with whom He is pleased. Boy, that just brings
it so much closer. Those for whom God is pleased. What does it take for a man to
be at peace with God? It takes God to be pleased with
him. Oh, what is it going to take
for God to be pleased with me? I tell you, it's going to take
more than my little fickle obedience. I tell you, the Lord
God of heaven is pleased with His Son. He's pleased with His
Son. He's pleased with his son. This
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased
with him. The only one that God's pleased
with is his son. Do you know where I want to be?
I want to be in his son, because that's the only one he's pleased
with. I've got to be in Christ. I tell you, the unsearchable
riches of the grace of God are proclaimed by men that are undeserving,
who realize their insufficiency, but they know that the message
that they preach is sufficient. Because it's the message that
God himself has ordained. The gospel. It's the gospel. The gospel is a person. It's
Christ. It's a message that honors Him
only. He's pleased. God the Father
is pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ became a man, took upon Himself
the form of sinful flesh, and lived in perfect obedience. He said, I do only always those
things that please the Father. You know why I know that so?
Because He said it. And it makes it so. You say,
how do you know it's so? It's so because He said it's
so. There are some things that you're
going to believe you're going to have to believe by faith.
My hope is in Christ. The law has been fulfilled. The
justice of God has been satisfied. The sting of death And the victory
of the grave for all of his elect has been removed. And I'll tell
you now, a robe of righteousness has been imputed to all those for whom Christ died.
That's their hope right there. They said, Why do you deserve?
Why do you deserve? what you have. In and of myself,
I don't deserve it. It's pleased him to show some
mercy. He deserves everything. I know that in me there dwelleth
no good thing. And for you to view this spiritual
anemic, I know that you can find fault in me. But I'm not here
to proclaim me. I'm here to proclaim one that
is worthy. And that he's done something
for me. Is all of him. I owe him all the praise and
all the glory and all the honor. I can stand here and my family's
here and I know I can sit here and think my family knows me.
They see me when I get mad and they see me when I make mistakes
and they see me when I do this and I do that. You don't see me every day, but
I'll tell you this. I'm just like you are. I fail
every day. I'm not sufficient for these
things. See, there's the mercy of God that would take a nobody
and in Christ, in His Son, declare me to be somebody that God Himself would say to me in that day,
Enter in, my beloved. Enter in to all those things
that have been prepared from the foundation of the world That's
the mercy and grace of God that is unsearchable. How in the world can I but declare those things? Insufficient, I know. Unworthy,
I know. I looked up this word, unsearchable, and the word unsearchable is Can also be translated unfathomable. And the word fathom. You know, we said I can't I can't
fathom those things. The word fathom in its simplest
form is a measurement. For measuring water. In its simplest form. a measurement
for water. If something is unfathomable,
that means that you cannot measure the depth of it. There's no way that we can measure. It's the
unsearchable, it's the unfathomable. They cannot be measured, the unsearchable riches of the
grace of God, too deep to be understood or to be measured. If they could be, if they could be, then there would be, there would
be an end somewhere to the measurement of the riches of God. They can't
be measured. If they could be understood,
then I could understand God. The unsearchable riches. I'll
tell you the first point is that the attitude of the messengers
is that these riches are unsearchable because God himself says they're
unsearchable. Secondly, why are these riches
unfathomable or unsearchable? Why? Well, first of all, I'll tell
you why they're unsearchable. It's because, verse 3, Paul says
of that third chapter, He says how that by revelation, by revelation,
these riches are unsearchable because they must be revealed.
You can't search them out. You can't search out these riches.
Remember, the gospel is a, it's a message to the heart. That which I can understand with
my head is searchable. I can by reason and by study
and by, you know, craftiness, I can figure it out. They're
unsearchable. They must be given by revelation
because the carnal mind is enmity against God. I cannot figure
out. I can figure out a formula. I
can figure out the Roman road, you know. I can take six or eight
different, you know, kinds of passages and convince you, I thought, I can make you religious. But it takes God to birth. A sinner. Man must be reborn. They're unsearchable. You can't
figure them out. We're sinners. We're dead. With an inherent darkened nature
that shuns the very God that created us. Why are they unsearchable? I was telling someone the other
day, Bill Sasser from Franklin, Tennessee's
dad died last Saturday afternoon when his life, when the soul
of a man leaves, that which makes this body move, life itself, is the only reason that I'm standing
here. If God Himself removes my life,
this body is nothing. It's just, it's dead. There's
nothing there. To try to speak to a corpse,
get in your mind a corpse in a casket and try to get that corpse to
read that. Why can't it? Because there's
nothing there. There's nothing to respond. Do you want to know why a man
He cannot know the things of God in and of Himself. There's
nothing there to spiritually respond. He's dead spiritually. Why are these riches unsearchable? Because there's nothing to respond
in and of myself to the Gospel. Come unto Me, all you that are
weak and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. It means nothing to me outside
of the grace of God. If God Himself were to open my
eyes and to reveal to me, I'm lost. I'm not lost. They're unsearchable. I cannot
comprehend. I can't grasp hold. There's nothing
there. first place that God is going
to meet a man. He's going to realize his inability. God, be merciful to me. I'm a
sinner. I'll tell you why they're unsearchable. Because God, who has the power
and the right, has hidden these riches. They're unsearchable. If God hides, how are you going to find Him? His eyes are blind. They're blind. I can't perceive
the unsearchableness of these riches. Romans chapter 9, Romans 9, 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and on whom he will he
hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why
doth he yet find say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honour
and another under dishonour? What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Let me ask
you this. If God Himself has been pleased
of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another
vessel under dishonor, and to, in and of Himself, because it
pleased Show mercy on one vessel and
on another vessel not to show his mercy. Is he right? He's right. You say that's not fair? I told someone one time, Paul,
they were talking about predestination being unfair. I said, well, predestination means to determine
the destination beforehand. Let me ask you this. God said,
in Adam all die. You want to talk about fair?
In Adam, all die. Anybody in Adam here? That's
predestination. I mean, he's determined. Is that
to determine before him? In Adam, in Adam, all die. But because of election, of a
people, because of God's mercy from the foundation of the world,
there's going to be some that God in His Son is going to show
some mercy to. When you start talking about
fair, oh, the unsearchableness of the
riches of the grace of God that pass finding out. Thirdly, and this is the part
I like, I can look at the messenger of these unsearchable riches.
Who's sufficient for these things? I can look and I can see why
these riches are unsearchable, because the carnal mind is enmity,
it's dead. God has hidden them, but the object of these unsearchable
riches. There's nothing that stirs the
mind. of a child of God like hearing
a message of Christ. There's nothing that gives you
any hope like hearing of Christ. I can sit here and tell you all
day long, and to myself, we're unworthy. I know we're unworthy. in and of ourselves. We're dead.
I agree with you. But, oh, isn't he lovely? The
unsearchable riches of Christ. Hearing the message of God's
sovereign grace. Hearing the message of Christ that has taken upon
Himself My sin, God himself, I'm going
to tell you something right here. You're not going to figure it
out, but you're going to believe it if God's touched your heart.
God himself took my sin and put it on his son. Now, how did he
do that? Unsearchable. He judged his son in my stead
for me. Paul says that I was crucified
with Christ. Unsearchable. Word of God says
that God himself took the righteousness of his son and imputed it to
my account, charged it to my account. unsearchable by faith. Now, I've got some hope. Now,
there's some hope in Christ. I'm a preacher. You find any hope in that? For my deacons, my leads are
singing. Well, I read my Bible every day. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. But let me
ask you this. Would you want to stand before
God Himself and plead your case about how much you've studied
or how much you've prayed? Listen, all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. How unsearchable are the riches
of the grace of God Oh, that God tonight might blow
upon my heart and cause the coals, the embers that so
often begin to grow dim when I hear the message of the gospel,
how it causes that fire to once again glow with hope that Christ
himself has paid my debt, the atonement, my covering, my mercy
seat, my propitiation, the one who has appeased the wrath of
God for me. There's nothing that I can say but to say of Him. This is the
only message that has any hope whatsoever. Oh, that God, by His marvelous
Spirit, would continuously cause me to
realize this gospel is not a formula. It's a message of hope. John 129 says, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Hebrews 12 says, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and
faint in your mind. John 1.14 says, ìThe Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, a glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.î
Paul and I were talking this afternoon. Do you know the only thing that
gives us any hope is truth, is the truth? It's the truth. The Lord Jesus
Christ says, I am the way and I'm the truth. A man says, I'm
going to preach the truth. The only thing that a man can
preach then is Christ because he said, I am the truth. There's
nothing else to preach. Do you know what causes a man to remain faithful? truth, God Himself is who keeps. He keeps me by His power. That's the only reason you're
here. You know why you believe tonight, if you believe anything?
You know why you believe? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
said, as He said to Peter, I prayed for you that your faith fail
not. Do you realize it takes the truth
of God Himself to keep you? The only hope you have is Christ. I like this, John 12, 20. There's
a lot of things that can be said John 12, 20 and 21, there were
certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came, therefore, to
Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him saying,
Sir, we would see Jesus. To a child of God, that's the
only thing I want. If I hear a man preach Tell me
about Christ. You see, this Bartimaeus right
here never gets tired of hearing of
God who has had mercy on sinners. He's been merciful. He elected me. in time by his gospel called
me, he has kept me, and in that day
will receive me unto himself. And it's all in his Son, because
it has pleased him. Job said, though he slayed me,
I'm going to trust I won't trust him. God kills me. Still, the
only hope I've got is Christ. In closing, I want to read Ephesians
1, verses 7 through 12. We were talking this afternoon,
talking about these unsearchable riches. Now listen, this right
here It takes God to reveal to my heart these unsearchable riches
right here, Ephesians 1, 7 to 12, in whom we have redemption
through His blood as the atonement right there. The forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in Him. in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ." Let me ask you something. Are those not unsearchable riches? The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon You
tonight, truly our heart is made to realize once again, how can we but say anything but,
O, to grace. Truly, we're debtors. O, the unsearchableness the unfathomableness
of the riches of the grace of God that would cause a sinner to be brought unto himself,
to take that which alone pleased him, and to take the rebellion of those that he loved before
the world was. And because you could do no wrong, because sin had
a wage, you took the sin, the rebellion of your elect and put them on
the one in whom you were well pleased, and the wages of sin were paid
in full, once and for all, and then would take that absolute
perfection and would wrap those that you loved and would give a righteousness, perfection that you yourself
would look upon and would declare to be perfect, unsearchable riches. How can these things be but by
the grace of God? Cause us this night to muse upon
these things, cause us to see Christ, and to say we would see Jesus. Cause us to view Him, and by Your grace, cause us to enter in and to worship. Bless, I pray, this word to our
hearts. For Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. So rich. Come by and
say hello to Martha. Thank you. It is good.