Thomas Brooks
3. If Christ is so rich, then take heed of three things.
(1.) Take heed of sitting down dejected and discouraged under any losses or troubles that have happened or shall happen to you for the name of Christ. He is universally rich; He is able to make up all your losses and needs: “But my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19). The fountain has no less water for the vessel it fills; so the Lord Jesus Christ has never a whit the less for what He gives to His saints.
1Some points of application, as edited, from Brooks’ book, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, in Works, vol 3.
When Zedislaus, a Polish general, had lost his hand in the King’s service, the King sent him a golden hand. Ah, Christians, when you lose this or that for Him, He will send you a golden hand; if you lose a penny for Him, He will give you a pearl. Christ will not live long in any man’s debt; if He did, He would lose His glory.
(2.) Take heed of despairing by reason of your sins. I confess, the least sin should humble the soul, but certainly the greatest sin should never discourage the soul, much less should it work the soul to despair. Read 1 Timothy 1:13-15, and (I had almost said) despair if thou canst. Despairing Judas perished, while murderers of Christ, believing on Christ, were saved. Despair is an exceeding vile sin; it is a word of eternal reproach, dishonour and confusion; it declares the devil a conqueror; and what greater dishonour can be done to Christ than for a soul to proclaim, before all the world, the devil a crowned conqueror?
A despairing soul is “magor missabib”, a terror to himself; his heart a hell of horror; his conscience an “aceldama”, a field of black blood. He has no rest at home or abroad, at bed or board, but is as if infernal devils followed him in fearful shapes, terrifying and tormenting his perplexed soul. An eternity of misery, feared or felt, begets that monster which, like Medusa’s head, astonishes with its very aspect and strangles hope, which is the breath of the soul. Other miseries may wound the spirit, but despair kills it dead.
(3.) Take heed of presuming. Take heed of taking encouragement to sin because Christ is rich in grace and mercy. Christ is a lion as well as a lamb; He has a sword as well as a sceptre. To argue from the riches of mercy to liberty in sin is the devil’s logic. A soul that thus reasons is a soul left by God, a soul that is on the last step of the ladder, a soul that Satan is leading by the hand; and only the eternal God knows where Satan will lead him. What the women sang of Saul and David, that Saul had slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1 Sam 18:6,7), I may say of despair and presumption: Despair has slain her thousands, but presumption has slain her ten thousands.
“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:1,2). Rather the shining of God’s mercy on us should extinguish sin in us, as the Apostle argues in Romans 2:4. Christ seems to say to souls, as Theseus said once, “Go and tell Creon, Theseus offers you a gracious offer, yet I am pleased to be friends if you will submit. This is my first message, but if this offer does not prevail, look for me to be up in arms.” Ah souls, if you shall abuse the riches of grace by sinning presumptuously against Christ, Christ will take up arms, and you shall die for it.
4. If Christ is so rich, open to Christ when He knocks.
Christ knocks by His Word; He knocks by His rod; He knocks by His Spirit; He knocks by His messengers; and He knocks by conscience. O open to Him, for He is very rich. Though you shut the door against a poor man, yet you will open it to one that is rich; and why then not to Christ, who would fain have entrance? “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20).
“Behold, I stand.” I that am the King of glory, I that am King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Ps 24:7-9, Rev 17:14). I that am rich in mercy, rich in goodness, rich in grace, rich in glory, I stand at the door and knock. I that have gold to enrich you, I that have eyesalve to enlighten you, I that have glorious apparel to clothe you, I that have mercy to pardon you, I that have power to save you, I that have wisdom to counsel you, I that have happiness to crown you, stand at the door and knock.
“If any man open.” If the master will not, yet if the servant will; if the mistress will not, yet if the maid will; if the parent will not, yet if the child will; if the rich man will not, yet if the poor man will; if the Pharisee will not, yet if the publican will; I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.
Jesus Christ has the greatest worth and wealth. As the worth and value of many pieces of silver is in one piece of gold, so all the heavenly excellencies that are scattered abroad in angels and men are united in Christ, indeed all the whole volume of perfection which is spread through heaven and earth is epitomised in Christ. They say it is true of the oil at Rheims that, though it is continually spent in the inauguration of the kings of France, yet it never wastes. Christ is a pot of manna, a cruse of oil, a bottomless ocean of all comforts and contents that never fail. A saint may say, In having nothing, I have all things, because I have Christ; having therefore all things in Him, I seek no other reward, for He is the universal reward.
5. If Christ is so rich, sit down and wonder at His condescending love:
that One so rich should fall in love with those that are poor, wretched, miserable, blind and naked (Rev 3:17-21), that One so high should look so low as poor we, that One so great, that One who is the Lord and heir of all, should match with us that have nothing at all! O the breadth, the length, the depth, the height of Christ’s love to unlovely souls, to those that had neither external or internal worth which might in the least draw His love towards them (Heb 1:2-4, Eph 3:17-19, Ezek 16:6). They were indebted to God for the clothes they wore, the bread they ate, the houses they lived in, the air they breathed in, the beds they lay on, and the ground they trode on. Now for Christ to love such people and to be willing to bestow Himself upon such nothings, how should this work on them to spend their days in admiring and contemplating His kindness!
6. If Christ is as rich as you have discovered, prize Him above all.
As the people prized David above themselves, saying, “Thou art worth ten thousand of us” (2 Sam 18:3), so should saints lift up Jesus Christ above themselves, and above everything else. He that does not lift Christ up above all has no interest in Christ at all; he that does not set Christ above all is not one of His disciples: “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Lk 14:26). Surely they do not truly love Christ who love anything more than Christ. Other saints have lifted up Christ above all their lands, relations and lives, as you may see in Hebrews 11, and so did a multitude of the martyrs. As Pharaoh set up Joseph above all and made him governor of the land, and as Darius set up Daniel over all, so you must prize Christ and set Him up above all.
Remember a few things, that this may stick the better upon your hearts.
[1.] A Christ highly prized will be a Christ greatly delighted in.
Every soul delights in Christ as he prizes Christ and no otherwise. The reason of reasons why Christ is no more delighted in is because He is no more prized among the sons of men. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste” (Song 2:3). To see this object delights the eye of a believer; to hear this object delights the ear of a believer; to enjoy, to possess this object delights the heart of a believer.
The apple tree is delightful for shadow; so is Christ. He is a shadow to poor souls when they are scorched with troubles within and terrors without. “And a man [that is, Christ] shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Is 32:2).
The apple tree is delightful for pleasantness of fruit; so is the Lord Jesus for those pleasant fruits of righteousness and holiness that grow upon Him.
And the apple tree is delightful for varieties; so is Christ, for there are all varieties of excellencies in Him. “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell” (Col 1:19). We delight in persons and things as we prize them, and no otherwise. Jonathan highly prized David and delighted in him accordingly. Jacob highly prized Rachel and delighted in her answerably. You will delight in Christ as you prize Him; if you prize Him but a little, you will delight in Him but a little.
[2.] A Christ highly prized will be a Christ gloriously obeyed.
Every man obeys Christ as he prizes Christ, and no otherwise. The higher price any soul sets upon Christ, the more noble will that soul be in his obedience to Christ. If Christ were more prized in the world, He would be more obeyed in the world. A soul that prizes Christ highly is better at obeying than at disputing any command of Christ. If Christ will command such a soul to step over the world’s crown to take up his cross, the soul will do it, as you may see in Moses (Heb 11:24-26). He sets a higher price on Christ’s cross than on Pharaoh’s crown. When Christ’s cross and the world’s crown stood in competition, Moses stepped over the world’s crown, at God’s bare command, to take up Christ’s cross. He chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”.
So Abraham, at God’s bare command, left his country and his near and dear relations. He wholly resigned himself up to God; he put his hand into God’s, and was willing that God should lead him whither He pleased and do with him what He pleased.