Jesus
Christ is Precious to Believers (Sermon 1)
1
Peter ii. 7 - Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious.
O
Beloved of the Lord, how long will ye halt between these
two opinions? If Christ be precious (as He is), then let
the soul embrace Him; and if your idols be precious, then
may your souls embrace them, and delight in them. But
this we may say of precious Christ, eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of
man to conceive and take up these endless and precious perfections
that are in precious Christ. We shall never
be able to comprehend that excellency, and transcendent comeliness
and beauty that is in the face of Him: “He is white and ruddy, the chief among ten
thousand; yea, he is altogether lovely.” And O but He
be precious. Certainly
if this question were asked of them above, “What think ye of Christ?” the angels, and
all the saints that
are about the throne, would venture this answer to the
question, Christ is excellent and exceeding precious, and
rather a subject to admiration than to speech. And I shall
say these six things, all of which, no doubt, do preach
this doctrine, that Christ is precious. And,
first, do not all these excellent graces of the Spirit, preach
this, that Christ is precious? Does not that noble grace
of faith preach this doctrine, that Christ is precious? For
by it we must be partakers of communion and fellowship
with Him. And does not that excellent grace of
love preach that doctrine? For love is that grace that unites
the soul of a Christian to Christ. And does not the grace
of mortification and the grace of patience preach this,
that Christ is precious?
Secondly.
Ye may read His preciousness from these senses
of the enjoyment of God that the saints in former times
have had. Does not their enjoyment say that Christ is
precious? And to be brought under the shadow of the Tree
of Life, and to be dandled on His knees; for what are
all enjoyments that a Christian meets with, but streams
of sweetness that flow from that ocean and fountain of
everlasting pleasure? And do not all these enjoyments preach
this, that Christ is precious?
But,
Thirdly. Do not these love-sicknesses that the saints of
old have had under absence and distance from Christ preach
this doctrine to you, that Christ is precious? (tho' we
confess these diseases are rare in these days); then, O must
He not be precious, whose absence for an hour is as an
eternity, and whose presence for a thousand years is but
as a little moment? O deserted Christians, did ye ever
see
Him whom your soul loveth? But I fear presence and communion
with God is a mystery, and an unknown thing
to the most of us.
Fourthly.
Ye may read the preciousness of Christ from that
unspeakable sorrow and grief that the saints have had
under their absence and distance from Christ, their souls
refusing to be comforted, and putting on their mourning
apparel, and eating their bread with ashes in the
heaviness of their spirits. I would ask this question of you
- Why is Christ so little precious to you? Is He less precious
in Himself now than He was under the dark Mosaic dispensation
of the gospel? No certainly; He is no less
precious now than He was then.
And, fifthly, we may read Christ’s
preciousness from these
blessed names that are given to Him in the scriptures; whose name is “the Desire of all nations”;
whose name is that ‘‘Plant of Renown,” and “the
Light of that city above,” and the “express Image of the
Father’s person”; He is that “bright and morning star,” and
that “flower of the tribe of Jesse.” And do not
all these blessed
names of His preach this blessed doctrine, that Christ
is precious?
Sixthly. There is this, lastly, that
preaches Christ’s preciousness, and
it is this - -that the most unpleasant thing in
Christ (if so we may say), is more joyful and precious than
the choicest of all created comforts. This is clear, Heb. xi, 26, “Esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” And,
O, if His reproaches be
so excellent and precious, what must His blessings
and favourable manifestations be! O Christians, were
ye never constrained to desire the tongue of an
angel, that ye might be fit to express the praises of that Plant
of Renown, even Jesus Christ? O Christians, were ye
never constrained, under the sense of your enjoyment of God, to cry out, “It is good for me to be here: let me make tabernacles, and a place of abode?” O
therefore account Christ
precious.
But
to come to the words: In them we have three things to
be considered.
First,
we have a Christian described from that which is his
noble and cardinal excellency, believing; he is a believer.
Secondly,
we have the precious advantage that flows to a
Christian from the excellency of that noble and excellent grace
of faith. And there are these two advantages:
(1)
It makes Christ precious unto the soul.
(2)
It will keep a soul under the impression of Christ’s preciousness:
the believing soul will always account Christ
exceeding precious.
The
third thing in the words is, that divine reasonableness that
faith keeps in its exercise. It is not blind; it looks to
the former verse, that because He is a corner-stone, it counts
Christ precious, which is imported in that word “therefore.” As for the first thing in the
words, the description of
a Christian, he is a believer. Having spoken of
faith before, we shall not now much insist on it; only we
shall propose these three considerations to enforce your
pursuit after this noble grace of faith.
First.
Faith is that grace that gives a Christian a most broad
and comprehensive sight of Christ. It draws aside the
veil off the face of Christ, and presents His beauty to the soul. This is clear, Heb. xi, 27, “He
endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” It gives as clear a
sight of the invisible God
to the soul (in a manner) as if he did visibly behold
Him. And there are these four principal parts of Christ’s body that faith lets a Christian
see.
(1) It will let the Christian see Christ’s
heart. Sense will say
of Him, and to Him, thou hast the heart of an enemy; but
faith will cry out, I know the thoughts of His heart to be
good towards me, to give me an expected and blessed end.
(2) Faith (if so I may speak) looks to
Christ’s feet. It takes notice
of the actings and motions of Christ; it will cry out, “His legs are as pillars of marble,
set upon sockets of fine gold.”
(3)
Faith beholds the smilings of Christ’s countenance. When
sense can read nothing in His face hut wrath and displeasure,
then faith draws aside the vail from His countenance,
and reads love.
(4)
Faith lets a Christian see the hands of Christ. It beholds all
His dispensations; it sees infinite love shining in
all the actions of Christ. Faith is an intelligent grace. This is clear, Col. ii, 2, “That their
hearts might be comforted, being
knit together in love, and unto all riches of the
full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God.”
The
second consideration to enforce your pursuit after this
noble grace of faith is this: Faith is that grace by which
a Christian keeps most communion and fellowship with God; Eph. iii, 17, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,” as if He had said,
“By the exercise of
all other graces, Christ is to you as a sojourner, that turns
in to you but to remain for a night; but, by the exercise of
faith, Christ becomes an indweller in your house.” Faith will entertain communion with God in crosses,
in promises, and in all duties. The believing Christian
can keep fellowship with God under his most sad
and bitter afflictions.
The
third consideration is this, that faith is the mother of a Christian’s fruitfulness. This is clear,
John xv., 5, “He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit”; that is, he that believeth in
me, etc. It is likewise clear, 2 Pet. i., 5, “And beside this,
giving all diligence, add
to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge”; there He puts faith in the
first place; faith is always
fruitful, and never barren. I would say these two words
concerning it; first, I confess, though there be a great
and marvellous barrenness amongst us, there is not great
barrenness in gifts, but in fruitfulness. O what can be
the reason of this our unfruitfulness? Surely it is because of
the much abounding of that evil of misbelief.
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