Oh, Father, we are glad because we are meeting unto the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are glad because we know that He is here in our midst.
We do desire that we may see no one but Jesus. Please open our hearts to Him, and let Him fill us until we are possessed wholly by Him. We desire that we may be so filled by Him that our life on earth may be a testimony unto the praise of Your glory.
Lord, how we praise and thank You that You have spoken to us. Our hearts do go out to You in worship and love. We look to You tonight that, if it should please You, You will continue to speak to us.
Lord, we look to You for Your Spirit working among us and in each one of us. We pray that You will so speak above the earthly instrument and speak directly to us. We ask that, as Your Word goes forth, the work of Your Spirit may operate. We commit this time into Your hands, and we seek for Your glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do thank the Lord for what He has spoken to us in the morning. Our brother has led us back to the very beginning of all things, and there we find that the mind of God, the purpose of God, is centered upon His own Son.
Then our brother continued to tell us that in this Son all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. How rich He is! We thank the Lord that the gospel presented to us is not a limited one. It is the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
I believe that, as time goes on, the Lord will use our two brothers to unveil to us more and more fully His purpose and the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Before the evening is over, God willing, I feel that perhaps it is of the Lord that we should come down to the practical side of it. That is to say: this eternal purpose of God concerning His Son, these riches of Christ—how do they come to us to affect, to change, and to transform our life?
In other words, how do the unsearchable riches of Christ become our life, and how will this life work out on this earth?
Brothers and sisters, you have to bear with me, because it seems as if we are coming down from heaven to earth. We do thank the Lord that the day is coming when we shall all be caught up, and we will be there. But at present, we are still in the flesh; we are still on earth.
I believe it is the will of God that the unsearchable riches of Christ shall be our life today, and that He shall be lived out as a testimony unto God.
I do not dare to show you the panoramic vision, the great outline of the purpose of God. I believe God entrusted our brothers with that. By the grace of God, I am only thinking of filling in a few details. So I do hope that you will bear with me as we go on.
Please turn to a few portions of the Word of God.
But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
(by grace have ye been saved).
I thank Him that gave me power, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful, appointing me to His service;
though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all His longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter believe on Him unto eternal life.
Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that hath mercy.
What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy,
which He afore prepared unto glory,
even us, whom He also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
The apostle Paul was called to preach the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Naturally, we would like to look into him to see whether the unsearchable riches of Christ were something real in him or not.
He was not merely called to preach a gospel which tells us of the unsearchable riches of Christ, while his own life lived in spiritual poverty. If that were the case, it would not be a very good demonstration. It would be lacking in power.
People would say, “Well, is it true? Is it real? Does it work? Is it just a theory, or is it a reality? We want to see it work in your life before we are willing to accept it.” I think that is quite natural.
So, brothers and sisters, after the Lord has shown us the unsearchable riches that are in Christ, it may be profitable for us to go to a laboratory and try to demonstrate them. Probably Paul is a good demonstration.
Of course, our Christ is so great, so infinite, that even the apostle Paul could not tell the whole story. Yes, in the life of the apostle Paul there is a very distinctive display, a glorious display, of the unsearchable riches of Christ; but still, it is only a part.
It takes the whole church. It takes all the saints to demonstrate the unsearchable riches of Christ. But at least, I feel, in the life of Paul we can have a very good demonstration of what the gospel really is.
In the life of the apostle Paul with the Lord, I think the first thing he discovered was the riches of God’s mercy.
Dear brothers and sisters, I believe you are familiar with his life story. He was born a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was reared in the best tradition of Judaism. If you could find any better opportunities in life, certainly Saul of Tarsus had them all.
And yet, you find that he grew up to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent and overbearing man.
When you read of Saul before his conversion, probably you get the impression that this man was raised up by God to be a vessel of wrath, to show forth the power and wrath of God. He was given all the best things, so far as we can think of them.
Who had better opportunities than Paul? He had the Word of God. He had education and training at the feet of Gamaliel, the great rabbi. He had all the benefits that one could expect, and yet he turned out to be such a person.
Yes, he was very zealous. He was much advanced beyond those of his contemporaries, and yet we find how he became a blasphemer. He thought he was serving God, but he was serving himself. Worse still, he was serving the adversary of God.
Such a man, it would seem, must be destined to be a vessel of wrath. We find that he went from bad to worse.
When Stephen was martyred, Saul consented, and he stood there as a witness to see Stephen stoned by the people. After that, he went into different homes and houses to seize Christians, to condemn them, and to force them to blaspheme. He even went to foreign cities. He went that far.
When you read such a history, you have the feeling that certainly this man was raised up for the purpose of demonstrating the power of God unto destruction.
So he went to Damascus. Brothers and sisters, you all remember that story. While he was on the way to Damascus, approaching that city with the intent of persecuting those who belonged to the Lord Jesus, at midday suddenly a light shone upon him, brighter than the sun.
He was smitten by the light. When I read this, I said, “Now this was the end. His iniquity was full. God could not allow him to continue in this way. God had given him enough opportunities.”
Surely, while he was reading the Word of God, there must have been times when light broke through into his heart. You remember the story of Martin Luther. Before his conversion, when he read the Scriptures, again and again light broke forth through the Word of God into his heart.
God did the same thing to this man, and more so. When Stephen was stoned, Saul saw how Stephen died. He heard Stephen’s prayer. He heard Stephen’s testimony. His conscience must have been pricked, and in order to ease his conscience, he hardened his conscience and doubled his effort in persecuting the Christians.
Such a person—surely there was no hope for such a man. He was doomed for destruction. Now the end had come. That light came down from heaven and put him to the ground. We would expect that he was dead. God had vindicated Himself. God had proven Himself more powerful than this man, Saul.
Certainly, when that light came upon Saul and he fell upon the ground, perhaps in his heart he said, “Now it is finished. That is the end of me.” He knew it. His conscience bothered him. Stephen was always in his mind; he could not get away from that.
He had witnessed something that was so real. He knew that he was fighting against God. He was trying to have his own way and go his own way, but now the end had come.
It must have been a great surprise to Saul, and I believe it is a great surprise to us. If we were spectators at that time, witnessing this thing, we might clap our hands and say, “Praise the Lord! The end has come.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, how God surprised us! I believe none of us would be here if the Lord had not surprised us.
Ever since that day, one note was prominent in the life of Paul: mercy. “Mercy was shown to me. Even to me, I received mercy.” What a thing! What a surprise!
A vessel that, from all appearances, would be a vessel of wrath, yet in God’s sovereignty, God appointed that Saul of Tarsus should be a vessel of mercy and not of wrath. God desired to show forth the riches of His glory upon this vessel of mercy unto glory.
In the life of Saul, the first thing he met in Christ, the first thing that he discovered of Christ, was the unsearchable riches of His mercy.
Did Paul expect mercy? Certainly not. He was not a man who knew mercy. He entered into homes and seized even women and children. He showed no mercy. Mercy was not in his nature.
And yet, brothers and sisters, God had reigned in his heart the battle of mercy. This is a demonstration, a proof, of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Paul told us himself: “For this reason mercy was shown to me, that God might display His longsuffering unto all who might believe unto eternal life.”
What is mercy? Mercy, commonly speaking, is the outward manifestation of pity. It assumes that there is someone in need, and that his need is supplied by another who has the resources.
It implies that someone is in distress, someone is miserable, and he cannot get himself out of it. Here comes another one who shows pity upon that man, who is compassionate towards him, and out of the abundance of his resources, he gives mercy to that man.
In Scripture, God’s mercy is His loving-kindness. In some versions, they translate the word mercy as loving-kindness. Mercy is the expression of love—God’s own love—that pities us.
He knows that we are in misery and distress. He could justly leave us there because we got into it ourselves. This is our portion, our due. We cannot expect anything else. Yet because of the great love of God, He is rich in mercy. He loves us in kindness, and He gave His only begotten Son to us. That is grace.
Mercy is an act of God. Mercy is love shown to the undeserving. Mercy is God’s compassion toward us, the guilty.
Is it not true that the first thing we meet in Christ is His mercy?
It is of the Lord’s loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
great is Thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul;
therefore will I hope in Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, if it were not for the mercy of God, where would we be? You would not be here. I would not be here. We should all be consumed.
If we know ourselves, if we know what we are, if we come face to face with God, immediately we shall be consumed. We deserve nothing but eternal death. This is our due, our portion.
But thank God, He has mercy. His compassion never fails. Great is His faithfulness. They are new every morning.
The prophet Jeremiah said, “The Lord is my portion; therefore will I hope in Him.” Dear brothers and sisters, where is our hope? Do you hang your hope upon anything else? Do you put your hope upon yourself, upon your merits, upon your work?
If you do, you are doing the wrong thing. But thank God, our hope is in Him, because His mercy endureth forever.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, the mercy of God is unsearchable. You remember the story of the Israelites. God had been so gracious to them. God brought them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness, even to Mount Horeb.
There God called Moses to the mountain to receive the law. Yet, while Moses was on the mountaintop receiving the Word of God, the people of Israel below rebelled against God and turned away from Him. They made and worshipped a golden calf.
God sent Moses down. God said, “I will wipe out these people, a stiff-necked people. I will consume them and raise up a seed from thee.” But we all remember the story of how Moses pleaded before God.
Then God called Moses again to the mountain. When Moses climbed up into the presence of God, God showed His glory to Moses. You remember that in Exodus. God showed His glory to Moses.
What was God’s glory?
When Moses came before the presence of God, God proclaimed Himself. What was that proclamation?
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the glory of God? The glory of God is His mercy. God is merciful to the undeserving. This is our God.
Of course, mercy is of God. Mercy is the sovereign will of God. He said:
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Our brother told us in the morning that we have to go back to the very beginning. So far as God’s purpose is concerned, in the beginning is the Son. But so far as our history with Christ is concerned, it begins with mercy—the unsearchable mercy of Christ.
We are shut up to the mercy of God. Do not think that you can will your way into something. Yes, you can will your way into many things on the human level, so far as this present world is concerned. But when you come to the kingdom of God, you are shut up to only one thing, and that is the mercy of God.
You cannot will your way into the kingdom of God. You cannot run your way into the kingdom of God. It is the mercy of God that brings you here.
This is a principle. It is not only true in the beginning of our life in Christ, but this principle governs all along our life with Christ. This is a principle we should never forget, because this is how God deals with us from the beginning to the end. We are shut up to the mercy of God.
Perhaps you will say, “Well, if that is the case, then what shall we do? We can do nothing. If God chooses not to show mercy to us, then why?”
But, dear brothers and sisters, you remember that precious verse in Hosea 6:6:
For I desire loving-kindness, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.
Our God delights in mercy. If He delights in mercy, that means He is free to show mercy. It would be extraordinary, unusual, for Him not to show mercy. His usual way is to show mercy. Is that not our hope? “I delight in mercy, and not in sacrifice.”
Our Lord Jesus, while on earth, often quoted this verse. You remember that once He called Matthew from the custom house. Matthew gathered all his friends—the tax collectors and sinners—and they sat with the Lord. The Lord feasted with them.
The Pharisees murmured and said, “Why does your Master eat with sinners and tax collectors?” Our Lord Jesus used this word: “If only you knew what it means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Again, on another occasion, on a Sabbath, our Lord Jesus was passing through a grainfield with His disciples. His disciples were hungry, and they plucked ears of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate.
Those ever-present eyes of the Pharisees noticed every little thing, and immediately they raised an objection. “How can one do such a thing? It is unlawful.”
Again, our Lord Jesus used this quotation: “If only you understood, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ then you would not condemn the guiltless.”
This is the way our Lord Jesus deals with us. He loves mercy and not sacrifice.
Even though sometimes, when we are at our end and realize our misery, we cry out for mercy, yet mercy is not natural to us. We do not know mercy. In our mind, there is no such thing as mercy.
Even when we come to God, is it not strange that the idea of mercy does not come to us? It is the idea of sacrifice that is always with us. Whenever we feel that we have sinned, whenever we feel that we have failed God, whenever we feel there is something that makes it impossible to approach God, immediately our first reaction is, “All right, let me sacrifice and make it up.”
That is our reaction. That is human nature. Mercy is not human nature.
What can you offer to God? What sacrifice can you make? What work can you do?
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They are nothing in the sight of God—worse than nothing. They are an abomination to God; they are an insult to the holiness of God. Dare you depend upon your sacrifice?
When we come to God, the only way to approach Him is mercy: “Have mercy upon us.”
How we praise God. In Romans 3:24-25, we find:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood,
to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God.
I read from a different version from yours; I hope you will bear with me. Literally, the word translated propitiation is mercy seat. God has set forth Christ as a mercy seat.
This immediately brings us back to Old Testament times. God desired to dwell among His people, but this was impossible. How could a righteous God dwell among an iniquitous and unjust people? It was against His very nature.
Yet He so loved to dwell among His people that He made a provision. What was that provision?
At the center of the tabernacle was the ark. The ark is also called the testimony. In other words, the ark stands for the presence of God. The ark represents God; the ark speaks of God.
What was in the ark? The law—the demands and requirements of God to man. God is holy, just, and righteous. He justly and righteously demands that we should be this and should not do that. Otherwise, we cannot see Him; we will be consumed.
Anyone who entered behind the veil without God’s provision would be struck down. There was the ark, with the law in the ark. There were God’s laws, His righteous demands upon us. But who could answer them? Who could get near to God without being smitten to death?
The ark was an open chest. It was not built as one piece, as a box with a cover. So God had an opening, and the law was in the ark. But thank God, a cover was made. A lid was put on the ark, and that lid was called the mercy seat.
God said, “I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim.” Thank God, there is a way out.
In His great love, God made provision for sinful men. Our Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied all the demands of God. He has fulfilled all the law of God in Himself. Because He has done that, He has become a mercy seat to us.
Today, God has set Him forth as a mercy seat. God today is speaking to us in Christ. God today is communing with us in Christ. God today dwells with us in Christ. That is the only way.
Once a year, the high priest entered behind the veil and sprinkled blood upon the mercy seat. Thus, in Romans 3, you find the blood, Christ, and the mercy seat with the blood shed.
What is left for us to do? Believe. Believe, and you shall be saved.
Oh, we praise and thank the Lord that it is His desire, His longing, to dwell with man. We do not know why He should have such a desire. We might say it would be much simpler if He did not desire to live with us.
Some people say that if you try to live with God, it is a very hard life. But let us turn it around and say: for God to live with us, what must that be?
Yet out of the Father’s heart, He longs, He desires, He yearns to live with us. He cannot rest until He rests in us. He wants to make us a home to Him, as we make Him our home. How? In Christ, by the mercy seat.
God speaks to us today upon the mercy seat. God lives with us today in Christ. This is our way.
The mercy of God in Christ Jesus is the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is the first experience that comes to us. The first thing we realize, as we come into contact with Christ, is His unsearchable mercy—the riches of His mercy.
If there is anyone here tonight who is still trying to approach God with your own sacrifice, dear friend, may I warn you? Drop your sacrifice and come asking for His mercy, and you will find it.
You remember the parable of the Pharisee who went into the temple and prayed. He looked around. He was very happy with himself, very happy with his spiritual condition. He stood there and murmured to himself, “O God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I tithe all that I get.”
After he finished his report, he went back unjustified.
Yet the publican stood afar off. He did not even dare to lift up his eyes, but out of his heart he cried, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And the Lord said that he went back justified.
Are you coming to God as a Pharisee, or do you come to Him as the sinner who cries for mercy?
Remember, brothers and sisters, this is not just something that happened at our conversion. Do not leave the mercy of God at conversion.
How often, after we have received mercy, do we immediately go off again and revert to our own self? When we come to God, how often we bring a great deal with us: “Look here—my spiritual knowledge of the Bible, my spiritual experience, my spiritual work. Look here, I have a lot to offer You. Are You not pleased with me?”
Perhaps the Lord would say, “Go away, you wicked person. I do not know you.”
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, we come to the throne of grace on the basis of nothing else but the pure mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
The more we know ourselves, and the more we know Him, the more we feel there is no other ground but His mercy.
Every time the Lord has brought us into a crisis, every time the Lord has brought us to our end, the only plea we have with God is mercy.
When you have not been brought to your end, when you can still stand on your own two feet, you do not ask for mercy because you feel it is beneath your status. God will show mercy to the humble, but to the proud, no mercy.
Why is it that God has to bring us again and again to our end? For one reason: to learn the unsearchable riches of God in mercy, in Christ Jesus.
You remember Jacob—how self-confident he was. He was clever. He could do anything. He could outwit anybody. He could maneuver around anyone. He was still on his own ground. He knew what he should do.
But you remember why he came to that place called Peniel. He was at his wit’s end. He did not know what to do. He made every provision for his family, and yet he still felt unsafe. He ought to have felt that way; he was unsafe.
Finally, you remember how he prayed before God. His prayer before God was just one thing:
I am not worthy of the least of all the loving-kindnesses,
and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant;
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan;
and now I am become two companies.
When you are brought to the end of yourself, the only thing you can come to God with is this: “I am too small for all Thy mercies. Be gracious with me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness, and according to Thy tender mercies.”
The mercy of God is not something we leave behind after we are saved. The psalmist, in Psalm 23, concludes with this note:
Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Do we know the mercy of God? Do we know the unsearchable riches of His mercy? Do we know Christ Jesus as the mercy of God? How much have we experienced and entered into that mercy of God in Christ Jesus?
The first effect that will come into our life when we know the mercy of God in Christ Jesus is that it keeps us humble. We cannot believe it is all the pure mercy of God.
It keeps us in our place, our rightful place before God. It also keeps us in that place where God can work in us and where God can bless us.
Do we expect in these days that the Spirit of God will work in us and with us until the realization of His glorious purpose in Christ Jesus? Do you expect that? If you do, brothers and sisters, you have to go back to that rightful place before God. You have to be on the ground of His mercy.
You have to come to Him with nothing but His mercy in view. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to begin from the very beginning—that is, the ground of mercy?
The second effect is found in Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
If you know all the mercies of God, you cannot live for yourself. There is only one way: you must present your body as a living sacrifice to God.
The third effect will be this: if He is merciful to us, must we not be merciful to one another?
Remember the parable our Lord Jesus used. A king showed compassion to a servant who owed him ten thousand talents. He had no way to repay it. The servant fell down on his knees and said, “Lord, be merciful. Give me time.” The lord showed mercy to him.
Then that servant went out and saw a fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii. He laid hold on him, seized him by the throat, and said, “Pay what thou owest.” That man said, “Have mercy. Give me time.” But he would not; he put him in prison.
You remember what our Lord Jesus said: “If I have shown mercy to you, ought you not to show mercy to your fellow man?” Because he would not show mercy, he had to go back and pay for it.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
May the Lord be merciful to us, that He may recreate us into those who know mercy and know how to show mercy. That shall be our testimony to Him.
Oh, heavenly Father, how we praise and thank You that You are rich in mercy. You have set forth Your Son, our Lord Jesus, as the mercy seat, and by Him we come to You.
How we praise and thank You that every time we come to You, we stand on the ground of Your mercy. We praise and thank You because You delight in mercy and not sacrifice.
Lord, we pray that we may know more of Your mercy. Oh, that we may experience that infinite mercy of God in Christ. May it be so real to us, may it be our life, that we may be not only vessels of Your mercy but also channels of Your mercy to this miserable world.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.