Good morning. I invite your attention to the
epistle of Paul to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians chapter
3. My text is found in verse number
8. But let me tell you a story. As you well know, your pastor has been unable to
preach to you from this pulpit for some months now. And it has
been necessary to schedule a visiting preacher to preach to you every
Lord's day. You undoubtedly pick up a copy
of the bulletin when you walk in on the Lord's Day and want
you to know that I am subscribed to it so I get it a day or two
early and I know who's going to preach to you a day or two
early. And the preachers are always
introduced in this fashion. 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
Frank Hall will preach to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. Or Brother Luke Coffey will preach
to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now, you've noticed
and it reads that way every week. So, since my son is one of those
who is scheduled from time to time, I telephoned him to inquire
about this matter. I asked him, does Maurice tell
you to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ? No, he never
does. Okay. And do you tell him that
you're going to? No, never do. Okay. So, but there it reads, every
week he'll preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. So it is confirmed
that Maurice does not assign it and does not ask it. So I thought, okay, I'll telephone
Maurice. So I telephoned him a few weeks
ago. And I did so because I was going
to write an article about it. So I wanted to verify everything.
Brother Maurice, every week in your bulletin it says somebody's
going to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And I am told
you do not assign the subject. And I am told that you are not
told that's what it's going to be. And he said in his rather
sincere but blunt way, he said, Nobody preaches in this pulpit
unless it is known that's what he preaches. So, all right. Then I was told I was to come
and preach. Well, lo and behold, it does not read in today's bulletin
that I'm supposed to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
It does not read that. And, you know, I was a little
surprised because I was going to make a point of it. So I asked Friday night, Brother
Maurice doesn't say that I'm supposed to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and he let me know it was assumed that I
would. And so since I am not assigned to the subject, I assume
that I can preach whatever I want to. All right? So I'm going to
preach. from Ephesians 3, 8 on the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Look at my text, Ephesians 3,
verse 8. Paul writes, to me, who am less than the least, of
all of the saints, this grace was given that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Well, if it
was good enough for Paul, it ought to be good enough for me. The unsearchable riches of Christ,
dear, the wonder about this is, You can just take any text you
want to from the scriptures and preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ. I think it's a good subject,
the unsearchable riches of Christ. But before we get into that subject,
I want you to notice something about the preacher, Paul. He
is here typical of God's preachers in four regards. Now notice what
he writes. Notice his personal humility. He writes that, I am less than
the least of all the saints. You don't hear many preachers
talk. You don't hear many people of any sort talking like that. I am less than the least of all
the saints. In another place, he said, I
am the chief of sinners. Let me tell you something, my
friends. God's preachers willingly acknowledge themselves as the
least of saints and the greatest of sinners, all God's preachers
do. And you beware of the preacher who considers himself among the
least of sinners and among the greatest of saints, beware of
that man. Second, observe Paul's divine
enablement. He says, this grace was given.
God's preachers are by Him graciously chosen, gifted, enabled, and
directed. And so beware of the man or woman
who chose the ministry for a career and depends upon his own gifts
and abilities and is directed by himself or some religious
organization. Paul says, I preach because this
grace was given. Third, observe his ministerial
calling. He said, I should preach among
the Gentiles. In the first place, God's preachers
preach. You expect that, do you not?
What does a preacher do? Teachers teach. Preachers preach. We do not minister as priests
at altars, as enforcers of the law, as dictators of morality. As propagators of ceremonies
and rituals, as enlargers of churches, as religious entertainers,
nor whatever else ministries in man-made religion do, we preach.
We preach. And we preach among the Gentiles,
people who are estranged from God and then notice His content. He says, I preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ, unsearchable. That's his content, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. That which is unsearchable is
incalculable, unfathomable, incomprehensible, immeasurable, and inexhaustible. So we'll preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ but never search them out completely. That's why. Your pastor's been preaching
these unsearchable riches of Christ for lo these many years
and there are still more to preach. He has other preachers coming
in and they preach other unsearchable riches of Christ and there's
still more to preach. All God's preachers from the
first preacher to this one have been preaching the unsearchable
riches of Christ and the subject still is not exhausted. These
riches are unsearchable. Some riches are unsearchable
because they are undiscovered. Geologists tell us that under
this earth are undoubtedly oil fields and veins of precious
metals that have never been discovered. Since they are not yet discovered,
they are, of course, unsearchable. but not so with the unsearchable
riches of Christ. They are all discovered and God
has revealed to them. Some riches are unsearchable
because they are lost. In parts of our oceans are said
to be graveyards for ships. And this is particularly true
in the Caribbean where ships were laden with precious cargo. headed for Europe, got caught
in hurricanes or storms and sank to the bottom of the seas. And
there they rest in graves that are yet undiscovered. And they
know that some of these ships left with very, very precious
cargo. How much was on board? We do
not know. We cannot find the ships, so
the riches are unsearchable because they're lost. Not true with the
riches of Christ. None of them is ever lost. Some
riches are unsearchable because they are off limits. Many a tyrant has wealth that even he does
not know and it's under lock and key and even he does not
know what he has. You may remember not too long
ago, U.S. military toppled a leader in
another country and he tried to make his escape And he had,
he knew about, you know, that the best money to take would
be greenbacks, American currency. He had a semi-trailer full of
American currency. I mean, a trailer, folks. This
man had no idea what he was worth. If he can, you know, just go
and back a truck up and fill it full of that kind, what's
he worth? Ask him. I don't know. Count it. Nobody
needs to know. Put it under lock and guard.
Some riches are unsearchable because they're off limits. These
riches, I tell you, are not off limits. Come, you can have them
all. You can have all you can take. They're here, the riches
of Christ. They are accessible to all who
will have them. What are these unsearchable riches
of Christ? Well, that's kind of a needless
question, is it not? If they're unsearchable, then
surely I cannot enumerate them, can I? I cannot even fully expound one
of them. Remember, they are unsearchable
riches, unsearchable. So I cannot enumerate them all.
I cannot fully expound even one of them, but I'll tell you what
I can do. I can introduce some of these unsearchable riches
of Christ to you. especially some that are directly
related to your salvation. First, consider the unsearchable
riches of Christ's deity. He is very God of very God. In the beginning, before the
foundation, the earth, from all eternity, the Word was with God
and the Word was God. Very God of very God. In him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2
verse 9. I want you to think about that
and try to fathom it if you will. That every bit of the eternal
and infinite and incomprehensible Godhead is in Christ. That's beyond me. That's beyond
me. You mean to tell me that God
who cannot be contained is in Christ? That's right. In him
dwells all the fullness, every bit of it, of the Godhead bodily
in his body. Now, that is a subject that is
completely unfathomable to me. How can that be? I do not know,
but then again, We are talking about unsearchable riches, are
we not? Deity cannot be comprehended
by mortals because it is eternal and infinite and perfect, and
false preachers deny it all the time. Anytime a preacher says
that God cannot save you unless you let him and he's powerless
to save you unless you permit him, he has denied God's omnipotence
and denied God's sovereignty. He's denied God's deity. He's
denied Christ's deity. And I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to tell you he has sovereignty that you cannot fathom. He has power that is omnipotent
you cannot measure. We declare His deity. Jehovah said, when I send my
Son into the world, Isaiah chapter 40, when I send my Son into the
world, here's what I want my preachers to say. I want you
to point to my Son and say, behold your God. That's what He says. They pointed
to Christ and Jehovah said, Behold your God! And we said in the words of Isaiah
25, verse 9, Behold, this is our God! We have waited for Him
and He will save us. This is Jehovah! We have waited
for Him and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Isaiah
25, verse 9, this is our God. We point to Christ and say, this
is our God. We point to Christ and say, my
Lord, Jehovah, and my God. The unsearchable riches of deity
are in Christ. Deity is unfathomable. It is
eternal. It is infinite. It is perfect.
And it is in Christ. I can talk to you all day long
about the riches of Christ in His deity and cannot exhaust
the subject because it is unsearchable. Let me tell you, that's the God
I'm preaching to you. This is the Savior that I preach
to you. You cannot fathom Him. And He's
more than all that you ever need. Second, the unsearchable riches
of Christ's sovereignty. We hear false preachers say,
Christ will save you if you let him. They thereby have denied
the sovereignty of their Christ and of their Messiah. Its will is subject to man's
will. It wants to do something and
it can't because puny man will not let it. Well, this is not
true with regard to the Christ I preach to you. His sovereignty
is unsearchable. He declares that all authority
has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. The Holy Spirit
declares that He is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, 1 Timothy 6.15. I say to you that this
Christ that I preach to you, He does as He pleases, when He
pleases, how He pleases, to whom He pleases, and answers to nobody
the unsearchable riches of His sovereignty. If He determines
to save a sinner, no one will stop Him. And if you question,
He won't even answer, because He says, I'm not subject to you.
I save whom I will. And you can't stop Him. You can't
hinder Him. You can't hold Him up. I'm telling
you, this sovereign Christ I preach to you, His sovereignty is unsearchable. I say to you that if you call
on Him to save you, there's nothing that can prevent Him from saving
you because He is sovereign, absolutely. And His sovereignty
is unsearchable. Number three, we find the unsearchable
riches of Christ's power. We hear false preachers say,
Christ is powerless to save you unless you let him. Now, remember
that the first preacher said, he needs your permission. This
one says, he needs your help. Now, let me ask you, who in his
right mind would look to such an impotent pretender Who but a fool stands in a pulpit
and preaches a Christ who cannot save you and is powerless to
do so unless you help him out a little bit. You know he did
his part, and you've got to do yours. He'll meet you halfway, but he
can't come all the way. That would embarrass me. And I'd be afraid for my life
behind a pulpit if I spoke that way. To the God who's sovereign and
omnipotent, and this Christ I preach to you is omnipotent. He had power to create the universe. In the beginning, God, in the
person of Jesus Christ, created it all. Gaze up into the heavens. We know a little bit of what's
there. He knows everything that's there. What we do not know is
there and says, I made it all. Behold this earth. He made every boulder, every
rock, every grain of sand. Every grain of the finest silt
you can find. He made every drop of water.
He made that sun that shines on us. He made the wind that
blows. He made one attempt to do it
and got it right the first time, made no mistake. And it was so
well done that God himself said, perfect. You may rest. Think about it. The trees. He did it. Do you suppose that
if he's got that much power, he can save me? Do you suppose? Here he is. He's on a boat. He's fast asleep. Wind starts
blowing and the waves start billowing. The little boat is being tossed
around. It's a little ship actually,
a big fishing boat. The disciples devout believers
in Christ and followers of Him and now they're fearing for their
lives and they're a little concerned because they're about to perish
and Jesus is still asleep. He can sleep through the worst
storm there is. And so they waken him. They say,
Master, we perish. He looked around. Wind, stop blowing. Save me still. wind stop blowing,
sea is still." And they said, what manner of man is this? I'll
tell you what manner of man this is. This is an omnipotent man. This man has all power. What can he do? He has power to exorcise demons,
heal the sick, give sight to the blind, give hearing to the
deaf, put words in the mouths of the mute, raise the dead.
He did that too. He can do that. Behold Him on
Calvary in the weakest moment of His humanity, humanly speaking. His blood has drained from His
body. His strength is gone. He is confined
to a tree, hanging there in the weakest moment of his
humanity. And a thief says, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. And in his weakest moment, he's
able to save one of the worst of sinners. Think about it. Today
you're with me because I just saved you. In his weakest, let me tell you
something, folks. He has more power than you ever
need. And you cannot fathom his power
because it is unsearchable, the unsearchable riches of his power.
If you call upon him to save you, He'll not need help to get
there. He'll not say, well, please meet
me halfway. I've done all I can do. You won't
hear him say, I've done all I can do and now the rest is up to
you. You won't hear him say that. You call on him, I'll tell you
right now, nothing stops him from coming and nothing stops
him from saving. And he'll not require your help
and no one will hinder the unsearchable riches of his power. Fourth, the unsearchable riches
of Christ's grace. Paul speaks in Ephesians 2, 7
of the exceeding riches. When you read Paul, and remember that he was a lawyer.
Lawyers are quite often hard to read. Now, read Paul. I want you to notice particularly
his use of adjectives and prepositions. The exceeding riches of God's
grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Exceeding
riches of His grace. Let me tell you about His grace.
Christ's grace is invincible in many regards. First of all,
no sinner is too big to save. Saul of Tarsus says, when he
saved me, he saved the chief of sinners. So you need not worry
that you're too big a sinner for Christ to save, because he's
already saved the biggest. No sinner is too bad for Christ
to save. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
6, he says, these folks will not inherit God's kingdom. Now,
I want you to listen to this very carefully. These folks will
not inherit God's kingdom. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers,
and extortioners. Ten, I think that's kind of a
perfect number. He just about covered a complete list. He said,
not a one of them will inherit God's kingdom. Now, guess what
he said next. And such were some of you." Did
you catch that? Such were some of you. He nailed me. He nailed me in that list. Now
be honest, he nailed you too somewhere along in there, did
he not? And such were some of you. You see the kind of people he
can save? He saved that blasphemous and insolent and murderous and
Christ-hating chief of sinners named Saul of Tarsus. I say to
you, there's no sinner too bad for Christ to save. Now I hear
people, I'm bad, I'm bad. No, you're not. In your mind,
yes. Christ saves sinners and no one's
too bad. You have never done anything
that is too big. for him to not be able to save.
Nothing. No sinner is too far away for
Christ to save. I don't care where you are. You
may be sitting in a church pew. You may be lying in the deepest
hell hole. You may be languishing at the
end of the earth. But I'll tell you this, you're
not too far away for Christ to save. He said, take my gospel
to the far ends of the earth and anybody there who calls.
I'll come." You cannot be too far away. Do not ever wonder
if you're too far away for Christ to save. You cannot be. His grace
is unsearchable. His grace is eternal. Not only
is it invincible, but it also is eternal. Every sinner saved
by Christ is eternally secured in Christ. and will never be
graceless, first of all, because no saint can be taken from Christ. He says, of those he saves, I
give them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall
anyone snatch them out of my hand. No one, the devil and all
his demons and every power of hell, Not a one can pull back
a single knuckle on the hand of Jesus Christ and snatch one
of His little ones. Not a one. Not a one. Oh, that's
eternal grace. No saint can be taken from Christ
and furthermore, no saint will be cast from Christ. He says
that the one who comes to me, I will be by no means cast out. You know what that means? It
means that No one who comes to Christ will be cast out regardless
of what they do. If you're in Christ, he'll not
cast you away. Look at that. On that bed, there
lies a man, drunk and naked, exposed himself in his drunkenness. You wonder who that is? The Lord
just saved that man and his family in an ark when God destroyed
the earth. And that man Noah got out of
the ark, made a sacrifice to God, and then got drunk and passed
out. And I tell you right now, that'll
get you cast out of almost any society. Did Christ cast him
away? No. He's still there. Does that
condone what he did? No. It does not condone it. I'm
just saying that Noah was still in Christ's hand and Christ did
not cast him out. Here's the king of Judah and Israel. He should be off to war because
he just sent his army and the army should be led by the king,
but he stayed back. Relax a little, walking around
the palace. Whoa, what is that? That woman's
taking a bath. Go get her. I want her. They
get her. They bring her. He commits adultery
with her, then has her husband murdered. That'll get you cast
out of almost any society. Did Christ cast him away? No,
he's still there. Still there. Does that condone
what he did? Absolutely not. Read David's
own confession and prayer of repentance about it. What I'm
saying to you, David's still there. Here's Moses out in the
wilderness. Oh, they've tried his patience
over and over and over. Moses, we don't have water. You
brought us out here to kill us?" And he goes, and he and Aaron,
and they fall prostrate before the Lord. And the Lord said,
Moses, I told you one time before, strike the rock, but don't strike
it this time. Just talk to it. It'll give you
water, all they need. Moses is somewhat of a tizzy.
He's a little upset. I mean, he's just doing what
the Lord told him to do. Why are they blaming him for
all this? Now, he takes his rod, walks out there, and he says,
must I always give you water? Bang, bang. And the Lord said,
you're not going to Canaan. Now, what Moses did, he struck
Christ. Christ is that rock. Moses struck
the rock from which the water came. That's Christ. That'll get you cast out of most
societies. Christ did not cast him away. You see the point that I'm making
about this? Here's Peter. Lord said, you folks are going
to deny me, my disciples. Lord, they might, not me. I never will. I'll not deny you. So Jesus is taken to be tried. His disciples run. It appears only two of them were
close by. John might have been right close
to the Savior, but here's Peter right here, and he's warming
his hands at the devil's fire while they try Jesus. Somebody
says, you're one of his. Not me. I'm not one of that man's. Still warming his hands at the
devil's fire. Your accent gives you away. You're
one of his. Uh-uh, not me. No, I'm not one
of that man's. Third time, he denied. Jesus had said before the cock
crows, you'll deny me thrice. The cock crew. Peter had denied his Lord thrice. And Jesus looked back at him.
What a look that must have been. But He didn't cast him away. Peter, I know what you did, but
I'm not casting you away. What can you do to make Christ
cast you away? Nothing. Does that condone these
things they did? Absolutely not. The ones who
did it were sorely grieved because they did, but the point that
I make is, That'll get you kicked out of about any church or any
society, but Christ says, you're here, and I'll not cast you out. His grace is inexhaustible. He
has dispensed His grace from the dawn of creation. The recipients
of His grace are already a great multitude which no one can number.
And he's still giving it out today to anybody who wants it.
Now think about this. For thousands of years and for
millennia, he has been dispensing his grace. And he still has it. He's never turned a sinner away
and never said, sorry, sold out, have no more. Fifth, the unsearchable
riches of his blood. His blood saved, redeemed, ransomed,
justified, sanctified, healed, and reconciled to God every single
sinner for whom it was shed. And not one single sinner for
whom that blood was shed will perish because of the unsearchable
riches of Christ's blood. Six, the unsearchable riches
of Christ's righteousness. His righteousness is the only
righteousness that satisfies God. in the requirements of his
law. Christ has imputed his righteousness
to believers from the dawn of creation, and he still has plenty
more to go. And not one single sinner to
whom he gave righteousness was ever condemned, not a one. The
unsearchable riches of his righteousness. Seventh, the unsearchable riches
of Christ's holiness. His holiness is the only holiness
that is acceptable in God's presence. And Christ has imparted His holiness
to the regenerate from the dawn of creation. And not a single
one of them ever became unholy. And He still has holiness left.
He still does. It's inexhaustible. And I could
go on and on and on talking to you about these unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now, your pastor's been preaching
them to you for years and years. He's not exhausted it. The brethren who come in to preach
for him, they preach the same thing, but they've not exhausted
it. I've been preaching it for quite
a few years and I've not exhausted it. From the dawn of creation,
these preachers have been preaching this same riches of Christ And
we'll be preaching them until the Lord returns. And still,
there'll be more riches to preach. In fact, I fully expect to learn
really something about the unsearchable riches of Christ in glory. In
glory. I don't know that I will ever
fathom them. But I think I'm going to know a whole lot more
about them there than I do now. The unsearchable riches of Christ,
all center. Listen to me, listen. You're not too bad to save. You're not too big to save. You're not too far away for Christ
to save. You call upon Him and He'll be
there right now. In fact, He will hear your call
before you call and be there before you give it. Just call
Him. Call Him right now. His grace is greater than your
sin. His blood goes deeper than your stain has gone. His grace will sustain you all
the way through life. and take you all the way to glory.
And there, you just might finally understand something about the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Trust Him.