Part 1 - http://dailypuritan.blogspot.com/2015/08/Grey.html
Part 2 - http://dailypuritan.blogspot.com/2015/08/Grey2.html
Jesus
Christ is Precious to Believers (Sermon 1)
There
is this third evidence of those to whom Christ is precious.
They will have a desire after more fellowship and communion with God; Song i, 2, “Let him
kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine.” And verse 4, “Draw me, we will run
after thee.” Think
ye absence from Christ, though never so short, an eternity?
If so, it is an evidence that Christ is precious unto
you.
There
is this fourth evidence of those to whom Christ is precious. They are exceedingly burdened
under Christ’s absence
and withdrawing from them. The spouse vented her
respect to Christ, Song iii, where she sought him whom
her soul loved; she sought him, but she found him not;
and she continued seeking until she found him. The spouse
vented her respect to Christ in these three things:
(1)
That she should have undervalued angels, as John xx, 13, “They say unto her, Woman, why weepest
thou? Because they
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” She, as it were,
turned her back
on the angels, because there was none for her but Christ.
The happiness of a Christian lies in these words, My
Lord, Him have they taken away.
(2) A Christian’s anxiety vents itself in
this, there will
be an
unsatisfaction with all the graces, if he is without Christ.
This is clear, Song iii, 1, 2, 3. There she had the grace
of faith, love, diligence, patience and submission; yet
notwithstanding, there is a Him absent that she wishes
for.
(3)
There is this in which a Christian’s anxiety should vent
itself, to have a low esteem of all things under Christ; according to that, Psalm lxxvii, 3,
“In the day of my
trouble I sought the Lord; my sore ran in the night, and
ceased not; my soul refused to be comforted.” There
is the fifth evidence of those to whom Christ is precious,
they have a spiritual observance and Christian record
of the motions of Christ under absence, so far as they
can; and when He is present they take notice when they
are admitted to taste of the apples of the tree of life, whereof
if once ye shall eat, ye shall be as gods, as the devil
(or serpent) said to Eve.
And
there is this sixth evidence of those to whom Christ is
precious. They will be less or more in some measure grieved
for grieving and offending Him. I fear I may say this,
to the confusion and shame of most of us, that sin was
never our burden. O Christians, can Christ be precious to
you and yet ye do not hesitate to offend Him?
There
is this seventh evidence of those to whom Christ is
precious. They will have a high estimation and account of
union and fellowship with Christ. O what do the hearts of
Christians most run upon? I fear it is not after Christ. There
are some whose hearts are upon the world; there are
others whose hearts are upon the pleasures of the world;
there are some whose hearts are upon the applause of
the world; and there are others whose hearts are on
the covetousness of the things of the world. This is
clear, from Ezek. xxxiii, 31, “For with
their mouths they shew
much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” O, therefore, strive to embrace Jesus
Christ. The
devil will let you give all your members to Jesus Christ, but he says, Give me thy heart.’ He
will let you give
your eyes, ears, hands, and feet to Christ, but says he, ‘Give me thy heart.’I shall rank out
these three sorts of
persons to you that are not right in heart.
(1)
There are some that have a divided heart. Certainly the
devil has the hearts of such; James iv, 8. Read the last words, “Purify your hearts, ye double-minded.”
(2)
There are some whose hearts are not divided, namely, atheists.
Their hearts are wholly given to the devil. This is clear, Hosea iv, 17, “Ephraim is joined
to idols; let him alone”; or, as the word is, he is “married
to his idols.” Then
surely Christ is not precious to one of these persons. O
Christians, has not the world your first thoughts when
ye rise in the morning, and your last thoughts when ye
go to bed at night! So that I fear our idols have always more
of our thoughts than Christ.
(3)
There are some whose hearts are wrestling against their
predominant lust (although I may say, there are not many
such amongst us, who make and count it their main design
and business to wrestle against the devil and his temptations),
and yet not right, but falling under them.
I
shall add this last evidence of one to whom Christ is precious.
They will have some delight in duties by which communion
and fellowship with God may be attained; Song iii, 1, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him
not.” She seeks Him
from a principle of delight, of faith, of necessity. O Christians,
why go ye to prayer thus? I think most of us go
to prayer only from this principle to satisfy a natural conscience.
I would shut up our discourse at this time; only
I say, this is an evidence of one that has real delight to
duty, he has a low estimation and account of all things below
Christ, and he has a high esteem only of Christ Himself.
Now,
before I close, I would ask the atheists of this congregation these
four things.
And
first, atheists, is Christ precious to you? Yes, say ye. How
is it then that ye hate the saints and people of God, if
Christ be precious to you? For surely we may be persuaded of
this, that you cannot love God, if ye have not love to His people; 1 John iv, 20, “If any
man say he loves
God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
Secondly,
atheists, think ye Christ precious to you, when the
exercise of religion is your greatest cross and affliction that
you have in the world? Do ye not cry out in the morning,
prayer is our greatest burden; and in the evening, it
is our greatest cross? And surely there are these two
evils that follow such in their prayers; they speak to God
as to one of their companions, but they lack that divine
reverence
that they ought to have in their approaches to
God; and the other evil is this, they count that
time
that is exercised and spent in prayer an exceeding long time; they tire in God’s company; and
may not many
of us apply to ourselves these two?
There
is this thirdly, that I would say. Think ye that Christ is
precious to you whose sins were never your burden? Ye
may be persuaded of it, He is not precious to you!
The
fourth question I would ask is this. Think ye that Christ
is precious to you who never knew what it was to distinguish
betwixt absence and presence with God in prayer?
O Christians, are there not many here who never knew
what it was to distinguish the absence of Christ from
His presence? Are there not some here who have an unchangeable
communion with God which never alters, but
still is the same? But surely such may question the reality
of their communion. O atheists and traitors to the
Son
of God, study in this your day to make peace with Him!
and ye that desire your eternal well-being, study to have
Christ precious to you, otherwise He will be exceedingly terrible.
O Christians, what will ye answer to this,
has not Christ been offered to you, and have not many
of you rejected Him and His offer? O know that matchless
fulness and excellency that is in Jesus Christ. What
can you desire that is not in Christ? And what can you
lack who are in Him, and have Him? He is altogether lovely;
He is all desires; He is all-sufficient; He is all in all.
O be persuaded to fall in love with Christ and His offer;
with Him who is the Desire of nations, the Flower of
the tribe of Jesse, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. O what
can we say to persuade you to embrace Christ, to lay
hold on His offer? Sure we are, when we shall be brought
before the tribunal of God, to receive our sentence of
perpetual condemnation, that then it shall be thought
that our everlasting concernment was to have
embraced
Christ. We shall say no more; but know this of certainty,
that above the clouds Christ is precious, and that
there is not one there but who is crying Hallelujah to Him
that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever. Amen.
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