God, in His infinite love and mercy, has provided for the needs of sinners such as we are, out of the riches of His grace. In Christ Jesus is stored the infinite fulness of His grace and mercy and love. Our greatest need is that we would be partakers of His grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The fulness is in Him and to Him we are to come to receive out of that fulness. As God has provided in Christ the riches of His grace, so also has He given the means whereby sinners, lost and undone in themselves, may obtain these riches. It is in the due use of the means of grace, and not in the neglect of them, that sinners are to be saved. There is one caution we would give in relation to these means. We are not to rely on the means as though they were a Saviour in themselves. They were not so intended. They are but a means to an end, even to the obtaining of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Through them we are led to Christ.
What are the means of grace? The first we would mention is the reading of the Word of God. It has pleased God to give us a written revelation of His will in the Scriptures of truth. The Bible has not been given to men to lie unused and dust covered on a bookshelf or in a cupboard. It is intended to be read, meditated on and prayed over. It contains a message from the God of heaven to the children of men. How unreasonable we would think it to be for someone who had received a letter from some distant place to leave it unopened and unread, and much more so if we knew that it contained news of a fortune awaiting the recipient of the letter. Such is the way of many with the Bible though it contains good news from a far country, even from heaven itself. This written revelation makes known to sinners, ready to perish, how they may be delivered from the wrath to come and be put in possession of eternal life. The Bible is a priceless possession as one of the chief means of grace for sinners. Without it men can never attain to the knowledge of God, or to the knowledge of God as a reconciled God in Christ Jesus but in the due use of this means of grace. Surely then we ought to prize the Bible and make that use of it which Christ commands us in His Word. “Search the Scriptures”, He said to the unbelieving Jews, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life and these are they which testify of Me”. Of the Bereans it is said: “These were more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they searched the Scriptures whether these things were so.”
Another means of grace is prayer. It has pleased God to set up a Throne of grace. This throne is set up in Jesus Christ. To this throne sinners are commanded to come. It was so in Old Testament times. Of the mercy seat, which was the throne of grace for them, it was said by God Himself: “There will I meet with thee, and will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims.” That invitation remains open to sinners under the New Testament. We are to come to God through Jesus Christ. We are to approach the mercy seat pleading that Name that is above every name — the name of the Lord Jesus, who saves His people from their sins. How many have obtained mercy and grace at the footstool of mercy in approaching unto the God of salvation and seeking for their never-dying soul a free and a full salvation through a crucified, risen and exalted Saviour. What use, then, are we making of this means of grace in the pouring out of our hearts to God in fervent supplications at His footstool seeking mercy and grace to help in time of need? How neglected a means of grace this is so far as multitudes are concerned — and not only among those who are totally ignorant of its existence but also among those who ought to know better and whose neglect of it will be a witness against them in the Day of Judgment if they persist in the neglect of it. Let it not be so with us. Let us not perish in the neglect of the throne of grace. If we must perish let it be prostrate at the Throne of grace where no needy sinner ever perished.
The principal means of grace by divine appointment is the preaching of the Gospel. Because of this Satan has set up many counterfeits of it to lead sinners to destruction. But this is no excuse for the neglect of it. As men would value their souls, so they must search for the true preaching of the Word so that this means of grace may prove a blessing to them in their spiritual experience. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. To the carnal eyes of men it is an instrument of little worth yet all the while it is the power of God unto salvation. How many souls have been blessed for eternity under the preaching of the Word! It proved indeed a potent means of grace to them. It is not only a means of grace to bring sinners to salvation but also for believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How many believing souls have, in the due use of this means, put on Christ more and more, and were changed more and more into His image. How much of good do men lose through their undervaluing and neglect of the preaching of the Word.
Another means of grace is found in the Sacraments which Christ has appointed and which are neglected and despised by many. Has Christ instituted these means of grace in His Church and are men to despise them and count them of little worth? If so, a day of reckoning must come. The ordinance of baptism, it is true, is to be administered but once, but the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a feeding ordinance for the children of God, the neglect of which must have a retarding effect upon their growth. What comfort the people of God have enjoyed around the table of the Lord in partaking of the symbols of the broken body and shed blood of the Redeemer! What tokens of His love He has bestowed upon them at such a time, so that they were enabled to say in the secret of their soul: “My beloved is mine and I am his!” What living fellowship and communion they have at times enjoyed with their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and also with His believing people! Yet how much more they might have enjoyed if they had not been so careless in their approach to Him at His table. They are to seek preparation for such a solemn season and the Lord alone is able to prepare their hearts to seek Him.
The next means of grace we are to refer to is the singing of God’s praises. This is a precious means of grace and has often led the gracious soul into foretastes of that heavenly joy which the people of God shall know throughout eternity in the singing of the praises of redeeming love. Through preaching and praying in the formal sense will end at death, the singing of the praises of Jehovah shall never end. As we sing His praises here who has redeemed us from death, should we not ask ourselves: “Shall I be praising Him eternally?” Those who in truth begin to praise the Lord here in time, will never cease to praise Him throughout the endless ages of eternity. What a song that shall be! What unison there shall be in the singing of that song! A song surely that will fill the angels’ hearts with wonder. And what a wonder to those who shall be singing it that they were ever brought to sing it. This will only make the song rise higher. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy, and Thy truth’s sake.
The discipline of the Church of God is another means of grace but it is a large subject and we cannot go into it at present but of this we are sure that many will be praising God eternally for the rod of correction administered in love by His own Hand or by the Courts of the Church.
How many then are the means of grace! Have they become in our experience means of grace to us for which we will be praising God eternally? If so, let us make even more diligent use of them than hitherto, so that we may enter in more and more to the riches of divine grace stored up in Jesus Christ, and enjoy that living fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ to which they lead the exercised soul.