Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1665
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 18, 1882
“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7.
FROM this verse it is clear that Paul fully expected the Gospel of the Grace of God to be preached in the ages to come. He had no notion of a temporary Gospel to develop into a better, but he was assured that the same Gospel would be preached to the end of the dispensation. Nor this alone, for as I take it, he looked to the perpetuity of the Gospel, not only through the ages which have already elapsed since the first Advent of our blessed Lord, but throughout the ages after He shall have come a second time. Eternity, itself will not improve upon the Gospel. When all the saints shall be gathered Home they shall still talk and speak of the wonders of Jehovah’s love in Christ Jesus! And in the golden streets they shall stand up and tell what the Lord has done for them to listening crowds of angels, principalities and powers.
Paul did not believe in the quenching of the light of the testimony of Grace, but expected that throughout the ages to come it would burn on with the same brilliance. This I infer from the fact that he looked upon the believing Ephesians and himself as having been converted in the dawn of Christianity, on purpose, that to later ages they might serve as specimens of what the Gospel can do. He looked upon these Ephesians, newly drawn out from the cesspool of idolatry, in the same light as he looked upon himself when he said that the Lord had shown towards him all long-suffering for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on His name. Paul and these Ephesians—and all those early Christians—were types to us of what God can do by the Gospel and of what He will continue to do until the present dispensation shall close.
From this statement we may gather with most sure logic that the Gospel is altogether unalterable, for if its results 1,800 years ago are to serve us as proofs of its power, then it must be the same Gospel. It is clear that the converts of the first century would not be, to us, any kind of testimony to the power of the Gospel as it now exists among us if, meanwhile, there had been a change in the Gospel, itself! At best, such facts could only show what the old-fashioned Gospel did in its day, but we could not infer from them what a new-fangled Gospel will now accomplish. Paul did not at all anticipate any removal of the old landmarks. He held it forth that the same results would follow in all ages from the preaching of the same Gospel with the same power from Heaven and, therefore, he regarded the first converts as pledges and proofs to all succeeding ages of what the Gospel could achieve.
Hold, my Brothers and Sisters, to that Gospel which has been delivered unto you, which we have received by the Spirit of God through the teaching of Christ and of His Apostles, and you shall yet see repeated in your midst the same things which were worked in those early days! Those who will, may drink the new wine of the modern vintage—my conviction is that the old is better! Learn, also, from this language of Paul, that every age is a gainer by those which preceded it. I have smiled, often, in this place, at the conceit of this 19th Century which holds up its head among the ages as far excelling them all, though if it knew itself, it would sing to a more modest tune. But now I will moderate my tone, and admit that this century is superior to all the ages that have been before it—superior in this one respect—that it has received by the lapse of time the fullest and most repeated evidence of the Gospel’s power!
Whereas in the Second Century men could only refer to the experience of the saints during 100 years, we have, at this hour, the accumulated evidence of almost 1,900 years—and all this is put in evidence as proof of what Divine Grace can do. Whereas in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries men had the accumulated personal testimonies of those who had, till then, believed in Christ and had been saved thereby, we, upon whom the ends of the earth have come, have now far larger evidence, because the time has supplied us with a greater cloud of witnesses! For nearly 2,000 years, this Gospel has been
preached among men! And every year has brought fresh trophies to its power—every day, I might say, is now producing evidence of its Divine power!
We have not, today, dear Friends, to begin to test the Gospel. The ice is broken for us—experiments have been made so frequently that we have now entered upon another stage. It is not ours to analyze the bread, but to feed upon it! We have not, today, to enquire, “Can we ford the stream?” Lo, these 19 centuries the hosts of God have gone through the flood in safety and we have but to join their ranks and follow where they lead the way! Surrounded by evidence that is altogether overwhelming, we behold the Gospel of Jesus going forth, conquering and to conquer! We hear from ten thousand times ten thousand voices the cry, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” We cannot cease to proclaim the mercy of God as displayed in the atoning Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, for infallible assurances strengthen our confidence and set our hearts on fire!