This remark is uttered by way of introduction, it may seem egotistical, but that I cannot help. I must give glory to God in the midst of the great congregation, and pay my vows to the Lord now in the midst of all his saints, in the midst of you, oh Jerusalem.
3. My text states a positive fact, namely, that Christ is precious to believers. This shall be the first part of our sermon; then in the second part we will try to answer the question, Why is Jesus Christ so precious to his believing people? And conclude by declaring the test by which you may test yourselves whether you are believers or not; for if you are believers in Christ, then Christ is precious to you, and if you think little of him, then rest assured you do not have a true and saving faith in him.
4. I. First, this is a positive fact, that TO BELIEVERS JESUS CHRIST IS PRECIOUS. In himself he is of inestimable preciousness, for he is very God of very God. He is moreover, perfect man without sin. The precious gopher wood of his humanity is overlaid with the pure gold of his divinity. He is a mine of jewels, and a mountain of gems. He is altogether lovely, but, alas! this blind world does not see his beauty. The world can only see the painted prostitutions of that witch, Madam Bubble, and all men wander after her. This life, its joy, its lust, its gains, its honours, — these have beauty in the eye of the unregenerate man, but in Christ he sees nothing which he can admire. He hears his name as a common word, and looks upon his cross as a thing in which he has no interest, neglects his gospel, despises his Word, and, perhaps, vents fierce spite upon his people. But it is not so with the believer. The man who has been brought to know that Christ is the only foundation upon which the soul can build its eternal home, he who has been taught that Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the author and the finisher of faith, does not think lightly of Christ. He calls him all his salvation and all his desire; the only glorious and lovely one.
5. Now, this is a fact which has been proven in all ages of the world. Look at the beginning of Christ’s appearance upon earth. No, we might go farther back and note how Christ was precious in prospect to those who lived before his incarnation; but, I say, since he has come into the world, what abundant proofs we have that he is precious to his people! There were men found who were not unwilling to part with houses, and lands, and wife, and children, and country, and reputation, and honour, and wealth, no, with life itself, for Christ’s sake. Such was the charm that Christ had for ancient Christians, that if they must renounce their patrimony and their earthly wealth for his sake, they did it cheerfully and without a murmur. No, they could say, that what things were gain they counted only loss for Christ’s sake, and esteemed them only as dross and dung if they could win Christ and be found in him.
6. We speak lightly of these things, but these were very costly sacrifices. For a man to leave the partner of his bosom, to be despised by her who ought to honour him, to be spit upon by his own children, to be driven out by his countrymen, and have his name mentioned as a hissing, and a reproach, and a byword; this is no easy matter to bear; and yet the Christians in the first ages took up this cross, and not only carried it patiently, but carried it joyfully; rejoicing in tribulations, if those tribulations fell upon them for Christ’s sake and the gospel. No, more than this, Satan has been permitted to put forth his hand and touch Christ’s people, not only in their goods and in their families, but in their bone and in their flesh. And note how Christ’s disciples have counted nothing to be a loss, so that they might win Christ. Stretched upon the rack, their strained nerves have only made them sing the louder, as though they were harp strings, only put in tune when they were drawn out to their extreme length. They have been tortured with hot irons and with the pincers; their backs have been ploughed with scourges, but when have you found any of the true followers of Christ flinch in the hour of pain? They have borne all this, and challenged their persecutors to do more, and invent fresh arts and devices, fresh cruelties, and try them. Christ was so precious, that all the pain of the body could not make them deny him, and when at last they have been taken out to a shameful death — let the axe and the block, let the cross of crucifixion, let the spear, let the fire and the stake, let the wild horse and the desert testify that the believer has always been a man, who would suffer all this, and vastly more, but who would never renounce his confidence in Christ. Look at Polycarp before the lions, when he is brought into the midst of the assembly, and it is demanded of him that he will deny his God. Thousands of savage eyes look down upon him, and there he stands, a feeble man, alone in the arena, but he tells them that “he has known his Lord these many years and he never dishonoured him and he will not deny him at the end.” “To the lions!” they cry, “To the lions!” and the lions rush upon him, and he is speedily devoured; but all this he would have borne at the mouths of a thousand lions, if he had a thousand lives, rather than he would have thought anything amiss against the majesty of Jesus of Nazareth. The whole history of the ancient church of Christ, proves that Jesus has been an object of his peoples’ highest veneration; that they set up nothing in rivalry with him, but cheerfully and readily, without a murmur, or a thought, gave up all for Jesus Christ, and rejoiced to do so.
7. And this is just as true today as it was then. If tomorrow the stake could be set in Smithfield, Christian people are prepared to be fuel for the flame. If once more the block was fixed on Tower hill, and the axe was brought forth from its hiding place, the heads of Christ’s people would be cheerfully given, if they might only crown the head of Jesus and vindicate his cause. Those who declare that the ancient valour of the church is departed, do not know what they saying. The professing church may have lost its masculine vigour; the professors of this day may be only effeminate dwarfs, the offspring of glorious fathers, but the true church, the elect out of the professing church, the remnant whom God has chosen, are as much in love with Jesus as his saints of yesterday, and are as ready to suffer and to die. We challenge hell and its incarnate representative, old Rome herself; let her build her dungeons, let her revive her inquisitions, let her once more get power in the state to cut, and mangle, and burn; we are still able to possess our souls in patience. We sometimes feel it would be a good thing if persecuting days should come again, to try the church once more, and drive away her chaff, and make her like a goodly heap of wheat, all pure and clean. The rotten branches of the forest may tremble at the hurricane, for they shall be swept away, but those that have sap within them do not tremble. Our roots are intertwisted with the Rock of Ages, and the sap of Christ flows within us and we are branches of the living vine, and nothing shall sever us from him. We know that no persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, shall separate us from the love of Christ for in all these things we shall be as the church has been, more than conquerors through him who loved us.
8. Does anyone think that I exaggerate? Note, then, if what I have said is not true, then Christ has no church at all; for the church that is not prepared to suffer, and bleed and die for Christ, is not Christ’s church. For what does he say? “He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me.” {Matthew 10:37,38} Albeit that Christ may not put us fully to the test, yet, if we are true, we must be ready for the ordeal; and if we are sincere, though we may tremble at the thought of it, we shall not tremble in the endurance of it. Many a man who says in his heart, “I do not have a martyr’s faith,” has really that noble virtue; and let him only once be challenged, and the world shall see the grace that has been hidden, rising like a giant from his slumbers. The faith which endures the relaxing of the world’s sunshine, would endure the cutting frost of the world’s persecution. We do not need to fear, if we are true today, we shall be true always.
9. This is not mere fiction, many are the proofs that Christ is still precious. Shall I tell you of the silent sufferers for Christ, who today suffer a martyrdom of which we do not hear, but which is true and real? How many a young girl is there who follows Christ in the midst of an ungodly family; her father upbraids her, laughs at her, makes a scoff of her holiness, and pierces her through the heart with his sarcasm! Her brothers and her sisters call her “Puritan,” “Methodist,” and the like, and she is annoyed day by day with what the apostle calls, “Trial of cruel mockings.” But she bears all this,
