of Ephesians chapter 3, and I
want to read verse 8 and verse 9 for our text this morning. Verse 8 and verse 9 of Ephesians
chapter 3. Unto me, Paul speaking of himself,
who am least We back up to verse 7, and we
read verse 7 and verse 8. 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. 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. I want to speak
primarily this morning on verse 8, where it says, 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 Jesus
Christ. As I read and study and meditate
upon God's holy and precious words, I find that the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to purchase the salvation of His
people. He came into this world to purchase
the salvation of His chosen ones. He came to this earth to secure
for us a place in heaven. And our Lord, when He was here,
He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare
a place for you, I will come and receive you unto myself. I was recently thinking of some
of the great beauty of God's creation, and I thought about
how the Lord made all of this in six days, and how that He's
been gone now for over 1,900 years, to prepare a place for
us. If He could create a place in
six days that have the beauty that we have in creation around
us, how much more beautiful will that place be that our Lord is
preparing for us. But He came into this earth to
secure for us a place in the heavens. He made himself of no
reputation so that we could become the heirs of God. Isn't it wonderful to be an heir
of God? There are some people who feel
themselves greatly honored that they have somebody in their family
line that is well-to-do. that they are their heir. But
my friend, I am an heir of God. I'm a joint heir with God's Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that, my friend, is a great
honor indeed that has been conferred upon us through faith in the
Lord Jesus. And He took upon Him the form
of a servant. Our Lord Jesus was in this world,
and He took upon Himself this form of a servant. He was a humble
man. He was a man acquainted with
grief, a man of sorrows, and he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, the Bible says even the death of the cross,
so that his people would be kings and priests unto God. They would
be kings and priests unto the living God. He dwelt among men.
so that we could finally throughout eternity dwell in the presence
of God, His Father. He walked before men in perfection
so that we could walk before God in righteousness. And how
wonderful it is to have righteousness. Oh, how that we have indeed thought
a great deal about all of our unrighteousness. and all of our
sin, how that in the Word of God often speaks of the life
that we walked and lived, the way that we walked, the way that
we lived prior to our conversion. And it's wonderful that we can
now walk before God in righteousness, and that righteousness being
that of another. the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid
his glory aside when he came into this world for a while to
guarantee us eternal life and eternal glory. He was wrapped
in swaddling clothes in a manger so that we would be clothed with
his royal garments. We're clothed with those royal
garments that are woven from the top to the bottom by His
doing and His dying. So we have on the garments of
salvation. But He humbled Himself to exalt
us. He humbled Himself. Here's the
Lord of glory coming down here to this world of sin and woe.
And He humbled Himself in this world in order that He might
exalt us. and that we might become children
of the living God. He was made lowly to lift us
up on high. He loved us so that we would
love God. And the Bible says we know that
we love Him because He first loved us. And if there's anyone
here this morning that has any love for God in their hearts,
it is because He first loved us. He was made to be sinned
so that we would be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh the unsearchable riches of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now as we come here to verse
8 in our text here this morning, Paul says unto me who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given. In verse
7 he had mentioned the gift of the grace of God that had been
given to him by the effectual working of his power whereby
he was made a minister. Paul was one chosen of God called
to be an apostle and much grace was given to him in order that
he might be a minister of the unsearchable riches of Christ
unto the Gentiles. Now the Apostle Paul felt it
to be a great privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel. He looked upon it to be a great
honor that God had bestowed upon him to be able to convey the
message of salvation and life unto the Gentiles. He did not
look upon his calling as drudgery or servitude, but he entered
upon it with intense delight. He had a great delight in his
heart that he was chosen of God, a chosen vessel unto God, that
he had this treasure of the gospel in his earthen vessel, and he
had this message to declare. All God's truly sent servants
have experienced, I believe, much delight in the declaration
of the gospel of the grace of God. Much delight, how wonderful
it is that God has given us a message of life, a message of salvation,
a message of hope, a message that will lift up those to whom
it is preached. And that is as it should be. Why should we not be made to
rejoice in the gospel and in the declaration of the gospel. Our message, as we said, is one
that is different from the message that Jonah went to Nineveh to
preach. You remember that old Jonah in
chapter 3 of the book of Jonah? He went down to Nineveh. God,
in an unusual way, lifted him up and enabled him to get to
Nineveh. And so he preached to them. and he said to them that in 40
days judgments coming 40 days the wrath of God's going to come
down on you people he preached no mercy he preached no message
of love from God to them he had no message of grace for them
it was all woe and judgment judgments coming judgments coming and you
remember how those people they began to repent. Jonah didn't
tell him to, he just said that the judgment of God's going to
come. And he had no real burden, there was no tear running down
the cheek of old Jonah as he was preaching to these Ninevites.
Nothing in what he had to say or his character that would induce
these people to repent of their sin. But then they said, well,
who can tell? Who can tell? We're going to
repent. And they begin from the least to the greatest. They begin
to turn to God and begin to repent. They said, who can tell? Who
can tell? Maybe God will turn from his
fierce anger. Maybe God will have mercy upon
us. Maybe he will. Who can tell,
they said. But brother, sister, we have
an advantage here. We know that the God of the Bible
He is a God of mercy. We know He's a God of grace.
And we know that the message that we've been instructed to
preach is a message wherein the grace and love and kindness of
the Lord our God is greatly lifted up. Paul said that he was equipped
by the grace of God to preach his message and his message was
full of grace from the beginning to the end. The grace of God
is God's initiative in love to bestow blessing upon a people
who deserve cursing. Now Paul was going to the Gentiles
and he was preaching to a race of men and women that had been
consigned to judgment. And he said, I've got a message
for you from God and you've got an advantage because I come with
a broken heart, I come with a tear in my eye, I come with a burden
upon my soul to preach to you and to tell you of the mercy
and the grace of God. God's grace is God's initiative
in love to bestow a blessing upon people who deserve cursing. And all men under the wrath of
God, the Bible says, that Christ was made a curse for us. Cursed
is everyone who continueth not in all things of the book of
the law to do them. Now in scripture, grace is a
picture word meaning to bend or to stoop. It speaks of condescending
favor. The picture is of a superior
stooping to show favor to an inferior. And Paul says this
is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's come down here to this world. He come down here to bend, to
stoop. He come down to condescend, to
give favor, to bring favor to poor lost sinners. And certainly
He is a superior. Oh, in all things, this one,
the Son of God, is to have the preeminence. And so grace is
the key word, I believe, of Christianity. God is the God of all grace,
1 Peter 5 and 10 says. The Bible says in John 1 and
16 that the Lord Jesus Christ is full. of grace and of truth. And the Holy Spirit, we're told
in 1 Peter chapter, or in Hebrews 10, 29, is the spirit of grace. And the gospel is the gospel
of the grace of God, Acts 20 and 24. And the Bible is called
the very Word of His Grace in Acts 20 and 32. Grace is God's
unmerited love bestowed on people who have no claim to it. God's
unmerited love bestowed on people who have no claim to it. Grace
is God's blessing where He is not obliged. God is not obliged
to bestow mercy and salvation upon the Gentiles. But Paul said,
God has equipped me by his grace, and his grace has moved his heart
to raise up me an apostle to bear the truth and the message
of the unsearchable riches of Christ to you. Now then, God's
blessing, God's blessing has come upon many, many Gentiles.
The Bible tells us in the book of Acts that God is calling out
from among the Gentiles a people for his name. He's calling out
a people for himself, and thanks be unto God that some of us here
are in that number, those that God has chosen and called out
by the message of his grace. Now then, Whitefield called his
pulpit his throne. I was talking about a minute
ago about Paul and how he delighted and how he considered it a great
privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel. Well, others have
felt the same. And Whitefield said his pulpit,
whether it was outside or inside, was his throne. When Dr. Carey
was preaching in India, his son Felix, who was also a preacher,
accepted the office of ambassador to the King of Burma. And Carey
said, Felix has dribbled into an ambassador. In other words,
he became an ambassador to the King of Burma. and to him it
was a step down from being a preacher of the gospel of God's grace.
Now while Paul was thankful for his office, his success in his
office greatly humbled him. We see here where he says, unto
me who am less than the least of all saints. The Apostle Paul,
beloved, had the grace of God bestowed upon him in such a measure
that it cured him of all pride. And certainly the grace of God
will cure us of pride. True religion in the heart will
produce self-abasing thoughts. If a man has really been touched
by the grace of God, then certainly it will produce in him thoughts
that are true about himself. He will not think more highly
of himself than that which is written. The day of conviction
is a day of self-annihilation. I do not, my friend, believe
that once a person has had Holy Spirit conviction, that they
can ever be proud of themselves again. Once God strips you and
shows you what you really are, shows you your sinnerhood, shows
you exactly the depth, the corruption of your heart, shows you how
you stand before God in such a depraved condition, that the
only way that He can save you is by a mediator and through
another. Then, my friend, I do not believe
that you'll have any more of that old pride swelling up in
you, thinking too highly of yourself. Know before God we're loathsome
sinners and only saved by the grace of God. Now, I believe
that there's one word that will comprehend more than another
the substance of true religion. It will be found to be the word
humility. The word humility. Luther, when
asked, what is the first step in religion? He was asked, what
is the second step in religion? He was asked, what is the third
step in religion? He replied, to be clothed with
humility before God, because God resisteth the proud, and
he giveth grace to the humble. Abraham, the father of the faithful. Very many passages in the Old
Testament setting forth his belief and his faith in God. Abraham
said, I am but dust and ashes. That's what I am. I'm but dust
and ashes. Jacob said, I'm not worthy of
the least of all of your mercies, speaking unto God. Humility of
heart. I'm telling you that the heavier
the vessel is loaded, the lower in the water it will sink, because
God's grace in the heart of a man will make him esteem himself
to be nothing in God's sight. Behold, I am vile, Job said. Shall I answer thee? And Isaiah
said, Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips.
Peter said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. John the Baptist said concerning
Christ, Whose shoelatches I am not worthy to stoop down and
unloose. He must increase, but I must
decrease. Now those who lay claim to sinless
perfection, I would have them to take a look. have what Paul
said here and what these others have said, characters of scripture
concerning themselves. Because, my friend, for a man
to believe that he is sinless and that he's perfect, living
in this world in a body of flesh, I would have just as quickly
believed them if they told me they were sixteen feet high,
that their eyes were pure diamonds, and that their hair was Persian
blue. I would have believed him just
as quickly because these people just don't know anything about
themselves. These people need a mirror. They
just simply do not know themselves. And Paul says, unto me who am
less than the least of all saints is this grace given." So the
Apostle Paul was humbled before God that God had given him this
great treasure of the gospel and the privilege of preaching
the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I wanted
to talk to you some about Paul as he was thankful for his office,
it humbled him, and then he was never in another place, I want
to say or in the next place, that he was never troubled or
perplexed. as to the subject matter of his
ministry. And you know that I often emphasize
this for the benefit of anyone who would take up the work of
the ministry. And I emphasize this, that Paul
never troubled himself, he was never perplexed as to the subject
of his ministry. You never find him asking, what
shall I preach? What shall I preach? What shall
I have to say to the people? He said, I determined not to
know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach
not ourselves but Christ Jesus, the Lord. And so, beloved, the
Apostle Paul knew very clearly where the Lord had sent him and
what the Lord would have him to do. Now, I wanted to say a
few things about the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but to do so I think we need to mention the person, the person
of Christ. And the Lord Jesus was the first
promise of God to the sons of men after the fall. You remember
in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17, that the seed of the woman
shall bruise the serpent's head. This was speaking of Christ,
and that Christ was going to come. Now, it was a long time
after that prophecy before the Lord Jesus came. There were many
that were born and many died because of sin in the world before
he came. But the promise was given and
the Lord Jesus did come. He did come to this earth. The
Lord Jesus came down in that time appointed by the Father
and he came down to accomplish and to do the work which the
Father gave him to do. Now Christ crucified was Paul's
theme and there came a time when our Lord Jesus lived in this
world and when he was crucified on a cross. Now I believe that
the message of Christ and him crucified is the message that
every God-called preacher ought to major in. He ought to preach. Let him preach anything else,
and he's not proved his calling. But if he's going to be a gospel
preacher, he must preach Christ and Him crucified. Now in that
way, he proves his calling. And so Paul, over and over, proved
his calling. He preached this glorious person
of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That was his theme, and
he would say that Christ loved us and gave himself for us, the
Lord Jesus. Oh, the dignity of the man, Christ
Jesus, this one who is the Redeemer. He is that one whom God hath
highly exalted, giving him a name above every name. And so Christ,
not only did he come into the world according to the promise
of Genesis 3 and 17, he lived out his life and he was crucified,
but also he rose from the dead. The Lord Jesus was delivered,
Paul said, for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. And so the Savior on the cross
And then on the throne, Christ was exalted up into the heavens
to be seated at the right hand of God. This is this glorious
person that Paul was talking about that he was sent to preach.
Now then, let's talk a little bit about these riches of the
Lord Jesus Christ because I believe that this glorious person that
he was very rich very rich toward God and rich toward sinners and
our master has such riches that we cannot count them all we cannot
guess them all we cannot we cannot convey their fullness in words
because Paul said they're unsearchable they're unsearchable who can
find out the depth of these riches. Say what you will, but Christ
is a greater Christ than you think Him to be when your thoughts
are at their most spiritual, when they're at their highest
level, when they're at their greatest. Christ is greater than
all your thoughts. Christ is more able to pardon
than you are to sin, more able to forgive than you are to transgress. He is more ready to supply than
you are to ask. and 10,000 times more prepared
to save than you are to be saved. Never tolerate low thoughts of
the Lord Jesus Christ because your highest estimate will dishonor
Him, whatever that be. It'll come short. His riches
are unsearchable. The riches of this glorious Son
of God. When you put the crown on His
head, you'll only crown Him with silver when He deserves gold.
When you sing the best song that you have, you will only give
Him poor, discordant music compared with what He deserves. But oh,
do believe that He's a great Christ. Believe that He is a
mighty Savior. Great sinner, come and do Him
honor by trusting Him as a great Savior. Come with your great
sins and your great cares and your heart's wants and turn to
Him because He is a rich, He is a rich Savior. Now then, in
speaking further here, I want to talk a little bit about His
love to sinners as they are. Because this is one of His great
riches. The Bible says that God commendeth
His love. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, you know, we certainly will
love those that are lovable. But God, through Christ, has
commended His love toward us while we were sinners. And that,
I believe, is one of the evidences of His condescension and one
of the evidences of His great riches. Jesus has riches of pardon
for those who repent of their sin, riches of comfort for all
that mourn over their sinfulness and over their vileness and wickedness
in a state of nature. Christ has a hand to wipe away
all the tears from your heart, all the tears from your eyes.
Jesus has riches of wisdom. The desire to know has sent men
roving over the world, but he who finds Christ may stay at
home and be wise. Oh, my friend, the Lord Jesus
Christ can teach you more than Plato or Aristotle. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. And if you would be wise,
turn to Christ, because Christ can be made into you this morning,
the wisdom, the very wisdom of God. And the wisdom of God is
one of the riches that Paul often spoke of, which is Christ and
his wisdom. righteous or riches of happiness
to bestow also upon you." Now, there are many, many people who
feel that they're happy already. But I tell you, if you ever really
discover the truth, you'll find out that you do not have the
capacity to fully understand what true happiness is until
God comes into your life. Until the Spirit of God comes
into you, and until Christ is revealed to your heart, you just
simply do not know what real happiness is. You go out here
in this world and you taste of this world, you drink out of
Jacob's well, and you think, oh, that's satisfying. But my
friend, the day will come when that well will be dry, and when
there will not be anything in this world that will comfort
your heart. And so, lie down in green pastures. The scripture says that he makes
his people to lie down in green pastures and he leads them beside
still water. Now these riches I believe of
Christ will be made known or best known in eternity. Not as
much to be enjoyed here maybe as there. Now if you get to Christ
you'll get riches that you can take with you when you die. And I remember reading a story
about an old man who was very wealthy and when time come for
him to die he took bags of gold and set them upon his chest when
he was about ready to leave this world and he thought for a moment
and he said uh... this will not do this will not
do this will not do away with this my friend if you have christ
dwelling in your heart by faith And if you have the riches of
God's forgiveness and pardon, if you have the richness of His
mercy and the richness of His love abiding in your heart, my
friend, you will have something that you can carry out of this
world into the next. And I'll tell you that, listen,
these riches of Christ are the best antidote for death there
is. And if you want, my friend, to
have something to carry out of this world into the life to come,
then you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and may all these riches
be yours. Well, lastly, there must have
been a royal intention in the heart of Christ in sending out
Paul to preach of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Every man must
have a motive, I suppose, for what he does. And why would God
send out Paul and others to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus
Christ? God surely had a motive. And what was that motive? Well,
did you ever hear of a man who employed a number of people to
go about to proclaim his riches? proclaim how wealthy he was,
to go out into the world and tell others, simply to tell them
that so-and-so is very well off, that so-and-so is very rich.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine somebody hiring
men to go out and spread the word of their fortune? Can you
imagine that? Well, my friend, did you think,
well, what the reaction of people might be? They would say, well,
what's that to us? What's that to us? That don't mean anything
to me that so-and-so's well-to-do, that so-and-so has riches. But if at the conclusion of their
message the messenger would say, all these riches he presents
to you and whoever among you shall desire to be made rich
in him can be enriched now By him, my friend, would that not
make a difference? Now then, you would say, now
we see the sense of it. Now we get the drift of it all.
We get the drift of it. Now this one who is rich, he
became poor that we through his poverty might be rich. Here's
the message. This one who has these unsearchable
riches will give them to us and we can be made partakers of them
by faith. He has all power, He has all
merit, He has grace, and He has glory. He has righteousness,
He has pardoning mercy, His heart is full of love toward perishing
sinners, and He is willing this morning and able to impart unto
you His riches. All those that are in Christ,
they have all things, the Bible says, all things that belong
to God belong to them. So there is a motive. on our
Lord's part for bidding us to preach a full Christ. There's
a reason. There may be somebody here this
morning and maybe God loves you. Maybe He does. Maybe you're one
of those that God has chosen from all eternity. And maybe
there's one here this morning and that God is doing the work
in your heart. He's stirring your heart. He's laying hold
of you this morning, and He would have us to preach a full Christ
to you that you might have these spiritual riches. My dear friend,
you do not need any merit, you do not need any strength, you
do not need any goodness in yourself, for Jesus Christ gives you all
these things Himself. Do not care whether, why would
a man care whether he had money in his pocket? If he had a friend,
right near him, who had all wealth, and he said, everything I have
is thine. Why would he be concerned about whether he had anything
in his pocket or not? Well, I'm telling you, Jesus
has got everything that God demands that you have. And if you have
him, you have all that God demands of you when you have Christ. All God's eggs are in one basket,
in the person of his Son. Now, Do not want to be independent
of him. Now or then, Christ must become
your all before you leave this life. Christ is all in all to
everybody that's in heaven. Christ, to those that are perishing,
Christ must become your all in all here. Leave all and cast
all down and take Christ and believe on him. So how rich those
must be who have Christ for their Savior. If it be true that all
that Christ has, He gives to His people. Jesus is mine. Oh, to be able to say, Jesus
is mine. What a sweet word that that is. There was a man one time, and
he loved a certain fruit that he'd pick in season off another
man's tree. He loved that fruit, but he would
never be satisfied until he himself had that tree, or a tree just
like it, in his own yard. And my friend, it may be that
you might get some benefit from listening to Christian people
talk about the things of God. But oh, how wonderful it'd be
if you had the tree in your own yard. If you had faith in your
own heart, if you believed in a sovereign God, in a God who
had all these riches, if you just believed in Him and trusted
Him, you'd have, as it were, the tree in your own yard. You'd
have the spring in your own field. If you love the water of life,
my friend, have the spring in your own yard. Oh, Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine. How wonderful,
how wonderful, how sweet is that word. How foolish, on the other
hand, must those be who will not have Christ when he is to
be had for the asking. How foolish that one can have
Christ for the asking. Mike mentioned this morning that
those who seek find. Those who seek, the Bible says
that all that seek find. Everyone that asketh receiveth,
and they that seek they find. Our Lord can be had for the asking.
Would you ask of him, oh my friend? You say, may I have him? May I have him? Well, come and
welcome, sinner. John Bunyan preached the sermon,
and that was the title of it. Come and welcome, sinner, come.
Come and welcome. You can have him for the asking,
as God is pleased to reveal. Now, there's an old song that
says, let not conscience make you linger, nor a fitness fondly
dream. Oh, the fitness he requireth,
is to feel your need of Him. This He gives you, tis His Spirit's
rising beam. So the unsearchable riches of
Christ, they're in Him. They're in Him, though unsearchable
poverty may be in you. Now I can preach Christ to you,
but I cannot preach you to Christ. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him But I cannot make you come. There's
no way. Listen, let me tell you, anybody
who gets to Christ, they get there by His enablement. By His enablement. Nobody can
come, the Bible says, without the Spirit drawing them. And I wish this morning that
you would come to Christ. And I have prayed already this
morning that the Lord would enable you to come. And I can preach
Christ to you, but I cannot preach you to Him. Only He can bring
you to the Lord Jesus Christ, to His Son. And that you might
become a partaker of these blessed, unsearchable riches of Christ. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we ask that you will take these few stuttering remarks this morning,
and that you will own them, and that you will bless them. And
Lord, if there be one here that is hungering and thirsting today
after righteousness, one here who wants in their hearts to
be reconciled to God, one here who does not want to die in their
sin, One here, Lord, who wants to find the water of life, who
desires with all their heart to have the true riches, who
is tired of courting this harlot world with its painted face,
that one who desires, Lord, to find the true riches, I pray
that you will enable that one right now, where they are, to
come to Christ. and they'll believe on Him and
trust Him and be saved. Lord, we thank You for Your Word.
We ask that You'll own the message and glorify Yourself through
it. Now bless us in the closing hymn, and may, Father, this message
bring fruit to Your honor and to Your glory. In Jesus' name
we pray, Amen.