The Wednesday Word! 01 February, 2023 A.D.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

by D. G. Miles McKee

 
Ephesians 3:8, "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."
 
The unsearchable riches of Christ were the driving force of the apostolic message and should be ours today (Ephesians 3:8).  The preacher's main pulpit subject is discovered in neither politics, nor morality, but in the preaching of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
 
The riches of Christ are "Unsearchable"… what a mystifying term!  It takes us to the treasure house of God’s grace and shows us that the riches of Christ are,

A) Inexhaustible, they are like having a bank account that no matter how much we spend we can never empty. These riches are also,

B) Unfathomable, they are like a bottomless ocean of limitless reserves. These riches are,

C) Unexplorable. They cannot be mapped out or fully comprehended or explored. Try as we might, we can never plumb the depths of Christ’s worth.
 
 D) Indescribable. Just when we think we have arrived, these riches keep showing us that there is more beyond. They are dynamic and ongoing (see Colossians 2:3). In other words, there is no limit to the riches of Christ; they are past finding out.

Believers in their evangelism are to declare primarily the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Unsurprisingly He is the subject of, ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ Evangelism is not about telling people how good they can feel if they ask Jesus into their hearts.  No, we are to boldly tell people about the doing, dying and rising again of the Lord Jesus.
 
But what about preachers?  Aren’t we here to preach doctrine? Yes indeed, As ministers, we of course preach doctrine, but our doctrines are to be clothed with Christ.  We preach Election but our election is not separated from Christ (Ephesians 1:3-4). We preach assurance, however our assurance is not in ourselves, but in Christ (Ephesians 3:12; 2 Timothy 1:12).  We preach reconciliation unto God, but reconciliation is only in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18).  We preach redemption but not without Christ (Romans 3:23-24).  We preach the One true living God but not without the revelation of Jesus the Christ who is God manifest in the flesh (John 1:18; John 14:9).
 
As Spurgeon says, ‘The doctrines of the Gospel are a golden throne upon which Jesus sits as King … not a hard, cold stone rolled at the door of the sepulchre in which Christ is hidden.‘
 
The able minister of the New Covenant preaches Christ crucified (Romans 15:16, 25).
 
Spurgeon again tells us the following story. It’s about a young man who had been preaching in the presence of a highly respected older minister, and after he had done, went to the old gentleman, and said, "What did you think of my sermon?"
 
"A very poor sermon indeed," was the reply.
 
"A poor sermon?" said the young man, "it took me a long time to study it."
 
"Aye, no doubt."
 
"Did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?"
 
"Oh, yes," said the old preacher, "very good indeed."
 
"Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn't you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?"
 
"Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon."
 
"Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?"
 
"Because," said he, "there was no Christ in it."
 
"Well," said the young man, "Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text."
 
So the old man said,
 
"Don't you know young man that from every town and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?"
 
"Yes," said the young man.
 
"Ah!" said the old divine "and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, 'Now what is the road to Christ?' and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis—Christ. "And," said he, "I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch to get to my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it."
 
And that’s the Gospel Truth!