Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2187
“Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.” Psalm 72:17.
THERE are many famous names in human history, but many of them are connected with deeds which have brought no blessing upon mankind. To bless and to be blessed is the noblest sort of fame and yet how few have thought it worth the seeking! Full many a name in the roll of fame has been written there with a finger dipped in blood. It would seem as if men loved those most who have killed the most of them! They call those greatest who have been the greatest cutthroats! They make their greatest illuminations over massacres of their fellows, calling them victories. To be set aloft upon a column, or represented by a public statue, or to have poets ringing out your name, it seems necessary to grasp the sword and to hack and slay your fellow men! Is it not too sadly true that when men have been cursed by one of their leaders, they, from then on call him great? O misery, that wholesale murder should be the shortest method of becoming illustrious!
There is one name that will last when all others shall have died out—and that name is connected with blessing—and only with blessing. Jesus Christ came into the world on purpose to bless men. Men, as a race, find in Him a blessing wide as the world. While He was here, He blessed and cursed not. All around Him, both by speech, act, glance and thought, He was an Incarnate blessing. All that came to Him, unless they willfully rejected Him, obtained blessings at His hands. The home of His infancy, the friends of His youth, the comrades of His manhood, He blessed unsparingly! He labored to bless men. To bless men, He parted with everything and became poor. To bless men, at last He died. Those outstretched hands upon the Cross are spread wide in benediction—and they are fastened there as if they would remain outstretched till the whole world is blessed!
Our Lord’s resurrection from the dead brings blessings to mankind. He has won for us redemption from the grave and eternal life. He waited on earth, a while, until He ascended, blessing men as He went up. His last attitude below the skies was that of pronouncing a blessing upon His disciples. He is gone into Glory, but He has not ceased to bless our race. The Holy Spirit came among us soon after the Ascension, because Jesus had received gifts for men—yes, also for the rebellious. The wonderful blessings which are comprised in the work, Person and offices of the Holy Spirit—all these come to us through Jesus Christ, the ever-blessed and ever-blessing One! He still loves to bless. Standing at the helm of all affairs, He guides the tiller of Providence with a view to the blessing of His chosen. He still spends His time in making intercession for transgressors, that the blessing of God may rest upon them, while His Spirit, who is His Vicegerent here below, is always occupied with blessing the sons of men.
Our Lord Jesus will soon come a second time and in that glorious hour, though His left hand must deal out justice, His right hand will lavish blessing! His chief end and bent in His coming will be that He may largely bless those loving hearts that watch for His appearing. Christ is all blessing. When you have written down His name, you have pointed to the Fountain from which all blessings flow—you have named that Sun of Righteousness to whose beams we owe every good and perfect gift! From the beginning, throughout all eternity, the Lord Jesus blesses men—
“Over every foe victorious,
He on His Throne shall rest!
From age to age more glorious
All blessing and all blessed.
The tide of time shall never
His covenantremove,
His name shall stand forever,
That name to us is—Love.”
I purpose, at this time, if the Lord shall help me, to speak very simply about the fullness of blessing which comes from our Master and Lord. First saying, dear Friends, that we ourselves are living proofs of the statement that men shall be blessed in Him. Then, desiring to say, in the second place, that we have seen it to be true, also, in others. And, thirdly, expressing our conviction that it shall be true, on the largest scale, with the nations—“All nations shall be blessed in Him,” and, therefore, they shall call Him blessed.
I. First, then, WE OURSELVES ARE LIVING WITNESSES THAT MEN ARE BLESSED IN CHRIST. You and I do not pretend to be great sages, famous philosophers, or learned divines. We feel when a pin pricks us, or when a dog bites us. We have sense enough to know when a thing tastes well or bad. We know chalk from cheese, as the proverb has it. We know something about our own needs and we also know when we get those needs supplied. We have not mastered the extraordinary, but in the commonplace we feel at home. A man is none the worse witness in court because he does not know all the technical terms used in science. A judge is never better pleased than when he sees, in the witness box, some plain, blunt, honest fellow who will blunder out the truth. We will speak the Truth of God at this time, so far as we know it, whether we offend or please. Every man is to speak as he finds and we will speak concerning Jesus Christ as we have found Him. I will try, if I can, to be spokesman for all present who are believers in Christ. And I ask a patient hearing.