Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 367
“Ascribe you greatness to our God.” Deuteronomy 32:3. OUR God is one God. He is none other than the Infinite Jehovah who of old spoke unto His people, and revealed Himself by that marvelous incommunicable name—the name Jehovah! And yet though He is one God, we are taught in Scripture that He is one God in three most glorious Persons. While we rightly believe in the unity of the Godhead, and are so far Unitarians, we believe there are three Persons in one God, and thus we are Trinitarian Unitarians. We believe that the Father is God, and we ascribe unto Him greatness, for we believe that He made the world, and settled the pillars thereof. We believe that He fashioned the universe, and that He moves the starry orbs through space. We look up to the wondrous depths of a shoreless night, and we see the starry fleet sailing alone, and we believe that God is their Captain. We look still further and as by the aid of science we discover the void illimitable, we believe that God dwells there, and is the Infinite Creator and Preserver of all things that exist and subsist. We ascribe greatness unto Him, the Creator and the Protector of the world. We equally believe that Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate in the flesh, is very God of very God. We conceive the work of our Redemption to be as Divine a work as that of Creation. We consider that the miracles He did partly furnish us with, the abundant proofs that He must have been none other than God. We behold Him rising by His own might from the tomb. We see Him standing at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. We expect with joy His Second Coming. We look forward to the Day of Judgment, wherein He shall hold the great Assize of nations. And for these reasons, believing Him to be God, we ascribe greatness unto Jesus Christ, the Surety of the better Covenant. And as for the Holy Spirit, believing that the work of Conversion is as great as even that of Redemption, or creation, we believe Him to be the Everlasting God. We see Him so described in Scripture, that we dare not speak of Him as an influence, as a new emanationfrom the Deity; but we conceive Him to be a Person as very God of very God, as is the Father, so is the Son. We solemnly subscribe to the creed of St. Athanasius, that though there are not three Gods, but one God, yet there are three Persons in the glorious Trinity in unity of the everlasting Jehovah, unto whom belong the shouts of the universe, the songs of angels, and the ascription of our united praise. Our God, then, is to be understood as Father, Son, Holy Spirit! One God whom we adore—and the words of Moses apply to the God of Christians as well as to the God of Jews—“Ascribe you greatness to our God.”
I shall use the text, first, as a caution; secondly, as a command. I shall be but brief upon each particular, for my strength I feel may speedily fail me, but I trust in God to make some impressions on our hearts.
I. First, then, I shall use it as A CAUTION.
Inasmuch as Moses has said, “Ascribe you greatness to our God,” we believe that he intended thereby to hint to us that we ought to ascribe greatness to none else. If greatness is to be ascribed to God, then none of God’s creatures may in the least share the honor of that mighty attribute of greatness! Now as there are many who violate this Truth of God, and need this caution, they must allow me, if any of them are here, to caution them.
First, then, the man who trusts his salvation in the least degree to priests or pope, or any dignitary of any church, violates this great command—“Ascribe you greatness to our God.” If I bow my knee before a saint; if I worship a created being; if I seek the intercession of any save the one Person who is ordained to be the Mediator between God and man, the Man, Christ Jesus, I do in that degree derogate from the greatness of God! Some think not. They suppose that by using some influence with the Virgin Mary, or with the saints, these may also be induced to plead with God. No, they consider it to be honorable to employ some ambassador, seeing they conceive themselves to be unworthy to go to God with their own suit, and do not think Christ to be an all-sufficient Mediator to go for them! We reply that however humble they may think it on their part; however they may really and honestly suppose that they are magnifying God Himself; it be-comes them to know this—that they are not doing homage to His greatness in supposing that a saint is more merciful than God/In imagining that a saint shall have more influence with God than His own Son, I suppose that His heart is not tender enough to be open to my cry without the use of influence—which is to say the very least of it—throwing some slur on the Infinity of His mercy, and detracting in no small degree from the benignity of His Grace. God has one Mediator because man needed it! He has no more mediators because neither God nor man requires any! Christ is All-Sufficient. You do need a Mediator between yourselves and God, but you need none between yourselves and Christ. You may go to Christ just as you are, with all your filthiness, with all your sins, for He came to save you from what you now are, and to make you a people for Himself who should show forth His praise. Detract not, then, from the Glory of His Grace by bowing down before others, and asking them to intercede for you!