Now, if you will open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. Now, I enjoy
going verse by verse through a chapter, but we just do not
have time to do that and bring out the points that I'd like
to show you from one verse of Scripture, verse 8. Ephesians
3 verse 8, unto me who am less, now look carefully at each word,
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. You know, if you considered this
sentence for the first time, suppose you saw it for the first
time, you didn't know anything about the author, you saw this
for the first time, it'd be most remarkable, wouldn't it? Most
unusual. You'd see, first of all, a remarkable
lesson in humility. This man says, unto me, who am
not the least of the saints. He says, who am less than the
least of the saints. the most unworthy, unnoticed
novice in the church of the Lord Jesus. And he said, I'm under
him. I'm less than he is. A remarkable lesson in humility. And then secondly, we have a
remarkable lesson in inability and sovereignty. He said, is
this grace given? What I have, somebody gave me. We like to talk about being self-made
men. I started from nothing and now
I have everything. We talk as if we did it. But
who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst
not freely, freely receive? You didn't certainly earn it.
You didn't produce it. God took an empty vessel and
filled it. That's all. God make it rich
and God make it poor. God lift it up and God bring
it down. Isn't that right? You're a little
smarter than someone else, but God made you smarter. He gave
you the brain power. You're a little better looking
than somebody else, but God's the one that drew the picture.
You didn't. These are graces given, given. I have nothing,
really nothing in myself or of myself, what I have, God gave
me. That's a wonderful lesson in
inability and in sovereignty. This grace, he said, is given,
given, given, given to me. Then there's a wonderful, remarkable
lesson in mercy, that I. Now watch this. He's already
said, I'm less than the least. I'm less. I'm a nobody. I'm less. And I don't have anything
by nature what I have somebody gave me. And here's a remarkable
lesson in God's mercy. God took this less. this nothing,
this empty vessel, and made a preacher out of him. Made a preacher out
of him. Made him the preacher. And not
only a preacher, but a preacher of glad tidings. And not only
a preacher of glad tidings, but a preacher to the Gentiles, the
pagans, the heathens of this world. Nations that knew not
God shall run to God, and God chose this He chose this less
than nothing, this less than the least, this nothing, to accomplish
this remarkable job, to do this most important work, to take
His name to the Gentiles. Now you think about that. A remarkable lesson in humility. Me, less. Have you ever thought
maybe the reason God doesn't use some of us is we're too useful?
Have you ever said, well, why don't they use me down there?
I can teach better than anybody else. Maybe that's the reason
God doesn't use you, because you can teach better than anybody else. If
you couldn't teach at all, God just might make one out of you.
See what I mean? Why don't they let me sing? I can sing better than anybody
else. Maybe that's the reason you're not a singer, because you're so good. I think I could be a pastor because
I can sure run that thing better than he can. Maybe that's the
reason I'm him and you ain't. Because I can't run it at all.
That's what he's saying now. Isn't, is this what he's saying?
Unto me who am less, less, less than the least, God chose to
give this grace. And make me a preacher. And make
me a preacher of this grace. and give me the hardest job a
man ever had, to take it to the Gentiles. Now watch this next
remarkable message. The unsearchable riches of Christ. I tell you, this less than the
least, this nothing. This recipient of pure grace,
this man who had put on his shoulders and in his hand the most difficult
task God ever laid on a man, a human, other than his son. But he had a hold of the message,
the unsearchable riches of Christ. But you know, secondly, if I
just picked that, if I picked this text up and read it for
the first time, it'd be most remarkable. But here, when I
read it, knowing who wrote it, now it becomes truly remarkable.
when I read this verse, knowing who wrote it. The writer of this
verse right here, the man who wrote this, and what he writes
with his pen, he believes in his heart, or God wouldn't have
let him put it on this book, in this book. Isn't that right?
This is a wholly inspired Word of God. And what Paul is writing
with his pen, he experienced in his heart. And this man is
the Apostle Paul. This man is the man who, one
born out of due time, saw the Lord. This is the man God took
aside and personally taught him the gospel. This is the man who
wrote fourteen of the epistles in the New Testament. This is
the man, the greatest preacher other than his sinless master.
This is the man whom God took to the third heaven and showed
him around. This is the man who literally
turned the world upside down, and such a statement coming from
this man deserves our closest scrutiny, wouldn't you say? It deserves my particular attention. If God would take it and bless
it to me as He blessed this truth to Paul, my, what a gift. And I tell you this, as I read
the verse and considered it, contemplated it, it encouraged
me to take another shot at preaching. One more time, to preach. It
encouraged me. And secondly, it comforted me.
If God is pleased to take the less than the least, maybe He'll
take the less than the less than the least. It convicted me of any thoughts
of importance, I'll tell you that. If we have just one little bird
flying through this head of ours, carrying the banner of our own
self-importance, this would sure drive him out, wouldn't it? And
this verse instructed me in dependence on Him, and really it confirmed
me in the faith of Christ Jesus. God delights to show mercy. And
it reassured me, it reassured me of what I already knew, that
everything or anything worth my attention and devotion will
be found in Christ. That's literally true, literally
true. Anything worth my attention or my true devotion I'll find
only in Christ. Now let's see three things, if
you will, from this verse right here. Let's read it again. Unto
me, unto me, who am less, 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."
Now, what does Paul say about himself? What does he say about
his ministry? And what does he say about his
message? Himself, his ministry, his message. Well, first of all, he says about
himself, I am less than the least of all the saints. Now, my friend,
there's no alternative. There is no alternative. If I
would know Jesus Christ, if I would know Jesus Christ, if I would
live for the glory of the Son of God, if I would be useful
in any manner to accomplish the purpose of God Almighty, I've
got to learn what this praise means. Unto me who am less than
the least of all the saints. I've got to learn this. I do
know this. This is a truth like the blood
of Christ that runs through the whole Bible. This is a truth
like the immutable sovereignty of God that runs through the
whole Bible. This is a cardinal truth. like the presence and
power of the Spirit of God that runs through this whole Bible.
God resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. Now, that's
a proof that runs throughout this Bible. Pride goeth before
destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. Our Lord Jesus
Christ one day lifted his eyes to heaven and he said, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, I thank thee. I'm thankful that you've
hid these things, these mysteries, from the wise and the prudent,
and you've revealed them unto babes. Our Lord, His disciples
were debating and disputing about who was going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of the Messiah. And our Lord just reached and
took a little child out of the midst of the crowd and brought
him up here and stood him in the center of these grown men
who were quibbling and arguing over who is going to be the most
important, who's going to be the spokesman or the leader or
the general's right-hand man? And he said to these disciples,
he said, except you be converted, humbled, and become like this
little child, you're not even going to enter the kingdom of
the Messiah. And then the wise man Solomon wrote seven things
God hates. And the first one he mentioned
was a proud, proud look. And a proud look comes from a
proud heart. So I'm saying there's no alternative. This is a truth
like the blood of the Son of God that goes through this Bible.
If I would know God, if I would live for the glory of God, if
I would be used in any matter as an instrument to accomplish
the purpose of Almighty God, I'm going to have to find out
what this man's talking about here in reality, not in doctrine,
but in heart. I've got to find it out. Paul wrote to the Philippians,
he said, I have not arrived, I have not attained, I have not
reached that for which the Lord reached out to me, I have not
accomplished that which the Lord is purposed to accomplish in
me. He wrote to the Corinthians,
I am least of the apostles, I am not need to be called an apostle. He wrote to Timothy, I'm the
chief of sinners. He wrote to Rome, O wretched
man that I am, and he wrote twice, I obtain mercy. I can tell you this. Now you
write down three things here. Here are three things. Inescapable
truth. He that desires to be saved.
S-A-V-E-D. You say, what's this got to do
with salvation? Well, I can tell you this. He who desires to be
saved. And I know we're getting the
whole world saved today with this big gospel net that we're
throwing out there and drawing them all in. But I'll tell you,
salvation, God saves men individually and personally by a visit of
His Spirit. And it's the enthronement of
Christ in the heart as Lord and King. If any man desires to be
saved, let him know, let her know, that the first steps any
son of Adam or daughter of Adam takes toward heaven, the first
steps are a deep sense of our sin and a low estimate of ourselves
before God. That's the first step. I mean
a deep sense of inability, unworthiness, sin, and a low estimate of ourselves
before God. And I'll tell you, we'd better
cast out, we'd better close our ears and shake our heads and
refuse to listen to the religious tradition which encourages us
to feel good about ourselves. It's not of God. We must feel good about ourselves.
We must have a positive mental attitude. We're going to have
to look on the bright side. Happy is the man who learns what
this means. Our Lord said, I am come not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Happy is the man
or woman who has learned that. Happy is the man or woman who
has learned to pray from his heart the prayer of the public,
that God be merciful to me, the sinner. Genuine humility. Paul, when
he said this, unto me, unto me, do you think for a moment that
he was just being eloquent? Under me, under me, I'm talking
about me. Can you out there where you're sitting, and I up here,
can I say, under me, who last and the least of all the saints,
last and the least of all the saints. Oh, I'm somebody, and
I demand attention, I demand attention, I demand notice, I
demand affection, I demand fame, I demand popularity, I demand
recognition, I demand it. Well, the least doesn't demand
it, and less than the least sure
doesn't demand it, or require it, or expect it. And I'll tell
you, God be merciful to me, these sinners. I just know, I know
we've accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, and that's fixed it all
up. And we're on our road to hell, swearing on a stack of
Bibles that we are saved. But until a man learns this truth,
the first steps he takes toward heaven are a deep sense of sin
and a low estimate of himself. And I tell you this, he never
loses that estimation. In fact, actually, he has a lower
estimate of himself later than he did here. Because the longer
he lives and the more he reads the Word, the more he sees the
holiness of God, the more he sees his own sin. Right? Secondly, humility. There's no grace that
suits a human being like humility. If there's anything that we ought
to have, it's humility. What in the world are we that
we should be proud of? Now, you think about that. You
won't let anybody into your mind to take part in your thoughts.
You keep them closed out, don't you? Why? You're shamed of them. That's exactly right, what you
got to be proud of. You let people see what you let them see. You
let them hear what you want them to hear. You don't dare let them
into the quiet recesses of your innermost personality and thoughts. No admittance. Now the only reason
you got that no admittance sign up there is it ain't fit to see.
That's exactly right, and what you got to be proud of. What do you have? Watch this.
Now we got three areas. Physically, four areas. Physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Now watch this. Physically, human
beings are the weakest, frailest, dyingest creature there is on
earth. We're the weakest creature on
earth. We think we're the strongest, but we're the weakest. What body
requires so much care and so much attention? A deer can live
out there in the woods. You can't. You have to pamper
your body. You have to take care of it.
You have to take medicine all the time. You have to brush your
teeth, keep them from falling out. A shark just replaces his
when he loses one. That's right. You have to wash
your hair every day to keep your scalp from turning into a scaly
bark. You have to pamper this body.
A bird doesn't. A bird can live in the wind and
the rain, eat worms. But you got to be sure you get
everything with no cholesterol, no sugar, no salt. You got to
take care of that thing or it'll drop dead any time now. You have
to take insulin, you have to take heart medicine. You're the
weakest thing God ever let live. Did you know that? And you're
proud. Weakest thing God ever let live.
You can't survive. You can't survive like an animal
can survive. Physically. Physically, we're
the weakest, frailest, deadest, most helpless creature. Go out
there and a cow bites herself, gives birth to a child, a young
cat, licks it off, thing stands up and starts nursing. We have
to go to a specialist down at the hospital, get waited on four
days, and the baby has to take care of it for three years. It
can't do nothing. Is that right? Physically, this
human flesh is the weakest thing creature God ever let live. And
we're the proudest. Secondly, mentally. Mentally. Turn to Job 8 and 9. I want you
to look at it. What I'm trying to say is, if
a fellow's humble, he ought to be. He ought to be. Nothing suits you quite like
humility. In Job chapter 8, verse 9, listen, I'm just telling the
truth. Job, the build-ad says, we are but of yesterday. We know
nothing. We know nothing. And our days
upon the earth are a shadow. Job 8, 9. How little the wisest man knows.
Every generation proves the other one wrong. Every generation. And let me tell you, emotionally,
I know men know emotionally we're governed by what? What are we
governed by emotionally? I'll tell you what we're governed
by. Fear, despair, and hate. Fear, despair, and hate. Not
faith, hope, and love. We're governed. We're controlled.
Controlled by fear. Fear. Fear controls us, and despair
We are sadder a lot more than we are happy. And we've got more
people we dislike than we love. That's exactly right. And spiritually,
turn back just one page, I'll take a look at us spiritually
in Ephesians 2 verse 12. He said at that time, Talking
about us Gentiles, Ephesians 2, 12, at that time, you were
without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
you were strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and
without God Almighty in this world. My friends, no grace suits
a human being like humility. Nothing. Nothing. Our Lord said a man
can receive nothing except it be given him Now then, here's
the third thing I want you to think about. When you come to
die, as Mr. J.C. Ryle said, with one
foot in the grave and one breath left in your body, now he said,
tell me, tell me of your strength. Now tell me of your riches. Now tell me of your beauty. Now tell me of your wisdom. Paul got a hold of this thing,
I wish I could, I wish you could. Most of our conflicts would be
over if we could. And as helpless creatures, we'd
cast ourselves on the mercy of God. Unto me, who am less, less,
than the least of all the saints, I'm less. All right, what does
he say about his ministry? Watch this next statement, I'll
hurry. He said, is this grace given? Grace is given to me that
I should preach. Is this grace given that I should
preach? Unto me is this grace given that
I should preach. First thing Paul says is the
chief business of God's minister is to preach. Not even to baptize. He said, God didn't call me to
baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's the chief ministry of
God's servant is to preach. He gave me this grace that I
should preach, not organize, not entertain, but preach. As
our Lord gathered His disciples about Him, He said to them before
He ascended, go into all the world and preach, and preach. And then the second thing I see
here is the chief of sinners is chosen to preach unto Me,
who am less than the least of all the saints, unto Me. is this
grace given that I should preach. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. I want
you, I felt like this reference here fits so beautifully here.
And I think Paul must have been thinking about it when he wrote
it. 1 Corinthians 1, unto me, I persecuted the church. Unto
me, I hated the name of Jesus Christ. Unto me, I put men and
women and children in prison. Unto me, I consented to the death
of His servants. But unto me, Verse 26 of 1 Corinthians
1, you see your calling, brethren? Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak, the weak things of the world. Beware of
intellectualism. Beware of men who are knowledgeable
and capable, and know it. Beware. It's the foolish things of the
world. It's the weak things of the world. Look at verse 20.
It's the base things of the world. This is what God has chosen,
the base things, and things which are despised. I don't like him. I won't go to hear him preach
because I don't like him. He did something I didn't approve
of. Despised him. But he's the one you're going
to hear, because he's the one God chose. And things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are. Why is this arrangement? Why
has God made this arrangement that no flesh? Because some of
us, if God gave us a responsibility, we'd glory in it. Yeah, we would. We'd glory in it. God gave Paul a thorn in the
flesh. I don't have any idea what it
was. Nobody else does. Some say poor eyesight, some
say this, that, and the other. Nobody knows. But God gave him,
in the flesh, a reminder, a messenger of faith. To remind him of what? That he wasn't much after all. That's exactly what it was. It
was to keep him informed that he was a human being. with all
the frailties and emptiness and inability and shortcoming of
F-L-E-S-H, flesh. That's right. That's where Paul
got most of this. No flesh should glory in his
presence. No flesh. The chief of sinners God chooses
to preach. And then, listen to this. What's
the chief need of every preacher, of every believer? It's the gift
of God's grace. And my friends, You can take
all the education and all the perspiration and
all the preparation, and I'm telling you, it'll be totally
useless without divine revelation. That's exactly right. I'd rather
have five words in the power of the Spirit understandably
preached and revealed in my heart than 10,000 of your finest, oratorical,
eloquent words that men could speak, painting the awesome pictures. Somebody wrote one time, we've
listened to the preacher and truth by him has been shown,
but we need and must have a greater teacher from the everlasting
throne. For revelation is the work of
God alone. That's what Paul had to say about
his ministry. All right, let's look at it again. Verse 8, unto
me, what he had to say about himself. I'm less than the least
of all the saints. I'm less than the least. I'm
down on the bottom rung. In my own estimation, in my own
opinion, I'm down there unworthy. Don't claim any merit, scholarship,
wisdom, education, whatever. And unto me that nothing, that
less than nothing, less than the least that nothing. God has
been pleased in His grace, in His sovereign grace, and it's
all grace. Grace is God giving me what I
don't deserve, what I don't earn and don't merit. God gave it.
It's God gave it unto me. Is this grace what? Loaned? No,
sir. Sold? No, sir. Given. Given. That I, of all people,
that I should sing or witness or write or preach, that I should
preach. I was sitting down in front of
a church one time trying to struggle through prepared to preach, and
one more time get in the pulpit, and some fella came by me, cocky
as a two-year-old racehorse, and he said, if you ain't got
anything to say, I have. I guarantee you, he's the last
man God would use. Man's got something to say, he's
the last man God would use. Now, God's got something to say.
If He could find somebody that He could say it through, in such
a way as to give the glory to Him. That's right. That I should
preach among the Gentiles what? Here's what Paul had to say about
his ministry. The unsearchable riches of Christ. Now bear with me. You would expect
Paul to preach Christ. He met Christ in that remarkable
revelation on the road to Damascus. Of course he's going to preach
Christ. Of course he's going to preach Christ. The question
is, how's he going to preach Christ? He's going to preach Christ because
he met Christ. There's some folks talking about Christ. Secondly,
you would expect him to preach Christ to the Gentiles because
that's what Ananias said God called him to do. In Acts 9,
15, if you want to look it up later, he said, God said, Ananias,
he's a chosen vessel to bear my name to the Gentiles. God
said that before he ever preached. But here's his subject. Here's
his subject. Not so simple that a little child
can understand it. The unsearchable. Unsearchable. Turn to Romans 11. Paul's subject
is the unsearchable. Unsearchable. Romans 11.33. Oh, the depth. You talk about the Titanic being
way down, it's not very far down compared to the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. They'll reach
the Titanic a long time before you and I'll ever reach the wisdom
and mercies and merits of God by searching, by deep divers. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out who hath known the mind of the
Lord. who hath been his counselor.
Let's go to Job 11. I think you ought to look at
this one. I ask you to turn to it because I think you ought
to look at it. Job 11. Job 11, verse 7. Now here, Paul
said, I'm, he said, I'm less than the least of all the saints,
and unto me is this grace given that I should preach Christ.
Yeah? But the unsearchable riches of Christ. Job 11, verse 7. Listen, can you by searching
find God? Out, find out God. Can you find out the Almighty
unto perfection? Can you apply your brain and
your mental powers and find out God? What's higher than the heavens?
Now, we've shot a man to the moon, but he hasn't been anywhere.
He hasn't been anywhere. Just about that far is all he's
been. Them millions of light years on out yonder farther than
he's been. It's higher than the heavens. What can you do? It's
deeper than hell. We don't even know where that
is. What can you know the measure thou? This God business is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. So when Paul here in
our text says he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ,
he's talking about this, the unsearchable riches of his person. The God-man. God in human flesh. The God-man. whom the heavens can't contain
was contained in a human body. God the ancient of days became
an infant of days. God who made woman was made of
a woman. God-man, all the unsearchable
riches of his person, who can know, who can understand, who
can fathom, who can lay hold upon all that's in that
in that statement, the unsearchable riches of His office, prophet,
priest, king, the unsearchable riches of His work, Christ in
His obedience, imputing unto us a perfect righteousness, perfecting
for us a holiness with which God Himself would be well pleased,
His blood redeeming, purchasing our souls satisfying, honoring
the law and justice in the sacrifice of himself, his burial. How can
God die? How can his body lie in a tomb
raised by his own power from the grave? The unsearchable riches
of his ascension, the unsearchable riches of his mediatorial intercession,
the forerunner, the right hand of God, the majesty, the unsearchable
riches of his name, Lamb of God, Bread of Life, the fountain of
life, the Lord our righteousness, the way, the truth, Christ, that
name which is above every name, the name of Jesus at which all
the cherubims and seraphims and heavenly hosts bow down, the
unsearchable riches of that name, the unsearchable riches of His
inheritance. Turn to 1 Corinthians again,
chapter 2. Unsearchable riches. My friends, when you think you've
got a corner on it, go back and read that word again, unsearchable
riches. When you think you're smart enough
that you don't have to read your Bible much or hear the preacher
preach or study or listen to anybody else, just look at that
word again, unsearchable riches. Unsearchable. When you think
you know a little something so that you can answer the question,
read the word again, unsearchable. We hadn't touched the hem of
the garment on his name, let alone his word, on his person,
let alone his glory. We just commenced to begin to
get started. That's right. He that thinks
he knows, knows nothing, as he ought to know it. He said in
verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 2, we speak the wisdom, we speak wisdom
of God in a mystery, hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world
knew. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory. But as it written, I hath not seen, e'er hath not
heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, hath not even
thought about it, the things which God has prepared, the inheritance
we have in Christ. But God hath revealed them unto
us by Spirit, not all of it, not all of it. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the things of God. I tell you, when
the Apostle Paul came forth to preach, he said, Here I am, here
I am, Mr. Nobody-to-nowhere, my less-than-the-least-of-all-the-saints, unworthy to be called an apostle
chief of saints. Not fit to be an apostle, but
unto me is this grace, grace, grace, grace given freely given,
given of God, that of all people I should preach, that I should
preach. But I got a subject, and that
subject's not the simple plan of salvation. That subject's
not the simple creed of our denomination. That subject is the unsearchable,
the unsearchable, the incomprehensible, the unknown, the mystery, The
riches far beyond explanation or expression or understanding. The riches of Christ. Spend a
hundred thousand lifetimes and you just begin to peep in the
door. Just a little bit. At those riches. Some of us think
we've been in there watering around in them. We're still outside
looking through the dim glass. Trying to find out something,
what's in there. Boy, I tell you, one of these
days, God's going to open it up when He kills you. And you're
going to see all those riches. I'm going to know as I have been
known. I preach in piety. Piety. Just piety. All these
landmark Baptists and primitive Baptists and all these other
Baptists, they think they've got a corner on the truth. They
ain't even smelled it yet, let alone seen it. Don't even have
a hint of it. They've got their little sectarian
organized groups over here running everybody down because they're
not like them. Thank God. But if we could just get a glimpse
of the unsearchable riches of Christ, and God would be pleased
to widen the gap, I tell you, we'd get smaller
and he'd get bigger. Our little, oh, makes me sick. Religious people make me sick. Playing church. to any understanding of the glory
of God, who they are and what they are.