The Things Which God has Prepared 2
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1. The apostle first declares that "EYE has not seen" what God has prepared. Now the eye has seen a great many things. The eye has seen and perhaps your eye has rested upon splendid scenes upon earth. The mighty sea, the lofty mountain, the fruitful valley, the verdant forest, the waving corn, the grassy meadow spread with flocks and herds through which a noble river glides– all this beautiful landscape may have lain stretched out before your eye. These I have seen; these I have admired and even now admire them still, especially when I can view them as created by an Almighty hand. When the eye is in some way thus anointed to look upon the works of God, it sees beauty in every bird that flies, in every butterfly that flutters from flower to flower. The eye can also see great beauty in the starry heavens, when the moon walks in glorious brightness, and the skies are studded and spangled as with myriads of diamonds.
The eye, too, of some can see great beauty in the various productions of art and science, in pictures and statues, in noble cities adorned with the triumphs of architecture. The eye can see all this and much more than this; in fact, what is there of an earthly nature that the eye cannot see? But the eye– that is, the natural eye– for it is of this that the apostle speaks, has never seen the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Or if we give the word a little further bearing, and explain it of the eye of him who is destitute of the teaching of God and of the revelation by the Spirit of which we have spoken, in this sense eye has not seen the grace and glory of redemption by the blood of the Lamb, or of justification by Christ's righteousness, or the Person and work of the Son of God, or salvation by free grace, or the visitations of the love and presence of God, or what is reserved in a future state for those who love Christ's appearing– none of these things has eye seen, either the eye of the body or the eye of the carnal mind. Even the Old Testament saints who died in faith did not clearly see the blessings which were to be revealed. The Lord therefore said, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them." (Matt. 13:16, 17.)
2. "Neither has EAR heard."The ear has heard an infinite number, an unbounded variety of sounds; for what an inlet of knowledge and understanding has it been to our mind. As much or probably more has been learned through the medium of the ear than of the eye; for how much more intelligent are those who are born blind than those who are born deaf. What pleasure too has presented itself to the mind through the ear. It has heard the eloquence of oratory; the pleasurable notes of music; the warm, impassioned language of love; the artless, engaging prattlings of infancy, so sweet to a parent's heart. Where would be our mutual communion with each other, or how could we convey to the minds of others our thoughts, feelings, and desires were there no language to which the ear could listen and the mind apprehend? How many things, too, has the ear heard which have pleased and charmed the natural mind and highly gratified the natural taste.
But the ear, the natural ear of man, has never heard the things that God has prepared for those who love him, for they are out of the reach, out of the province of the natural ear. God speaks to the heart– it is not the outward ear that hears his voice when he reveals his love and mercy to the soul; it is not the natural eye that sees either him or what he makes known. There is indeed the inward ear of faith as there is the inward eye of faith; but as the outward eye has never seen the glorious Person of the Son of God, and yet loves him, as the apostle speaks, "Whom not having seen you love," so the outward ear has never heard the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
3. "Neither have entered into the HEART of man."Many things have entered into our heart– many conceptions, many ideas, many wishes, many desires, many longings, many feelings of love and sorrow, of mirth and joy. Our heart is an amazing domain of thought– a very sea, "full of creeping things innumerable," which is never still, even when most apparently calm. Or, to change the figure, like a bee or a butterfly, it is ever roaming from field to field, roaming from object to object, from thought to thought, from idea to idea. But the things that God has prepared for those who love him, in their beauty, blessedness, fullness, sweetness, grace, and glory, have never entered into the natural heart of man. The wisest, the greatest, the noblest, the strongest, the most educated, the most learned– if destitute of grace– have never conceived anything of the beauty and blessedness of Christ and his salvation. It has not ever entered into their heart; no, not a single ray of light has penetrated into the thick darkness so as to make the things of God known by any natural apprehension of them. Need you wonder, then, that men are so ignorant of what true religion and vital godliness are? Need you wonder, that notwithstanding all you say to them or lay before them of divine and spiritual truth, they are unable to comprehend it? Why? They have no inward faculty whereby they can comprehend it. Their eye sees natural objects, and their natural mind apprehends them– their color, shape, and dimensions; their ear hears natural sounds, can discriminate between what is pleasant and painful, or by means of language gather the widest, fullest information upon all mere intellectual subjects. Their heart conceives natural things, can compare them together, reason from them, or think them out in all the hues of fancy and imagination.
But none of these natural faculties, whether eye, ear, or heart, can ever enter into the domain of spiritual things. To see, to hear, to understand, to feel, realize, and enjoy these requires a new eye, a new ear, a new heart; in a word, a new spirit, which springs from being born of God, and being blessed with regenerating grace.
III. This leads me to our next point, which is, that God has revealed them to us by his Spirit.
A. Now if the things that God has prepared for those who love him were things only to be known by and by, things to be enjoyed only in heaven, the apostle would not have said, "God has revealed them to us by his Spirit." They are therefore things revealed by the Spirit to the heart and conscience of God's people upon earth. There is a secret in religion, according to the Lord's own testimony, "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant." There is then a secret called "the secret of the Lord;" and it is the secret which God has prepared for those who love him; for where has he prepared it but in and by his covenant?
B. But now let us see HOW he reveals them. I have already endeavored to show you some of the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
1. One of these was redemption as accomplished by the finished work of Christ, salvation by his blood shedding and death upon the cross, whereby he offered a perfect sacrifice for sin. You never could get into the mystery of redemption by the blood of the Lamb so as to lay hold of it, appropriate it, and feel the saving power of it, by anything your natural eye saw, anything your natural ear heard, or anything your natural heart could conceive. It must have been revealed by the Spirit before you could receive its blessedness, or feel its cleansing power.
2. So with justification, the robe of righteousness, of which I before spoke. You may have heard of the doctrine and accepted it as a grand scriptural truth. But the beauty, blessedness, and suitability of justification to your soul; the glory and dignity of such a garment as Christ wrought out and brought in by his active and passive obedience, its imputation to you to shield and shelter you from the wrath to come, and how you are wrapped up in it from the searching eye of justice and the condemnation of a broken law– the beauty and mystery of a justifying righteousness is only received by faith as revealed by the Spirit of God with his own divine unction to the heart.
3. So again look at the solemn mystery of an incarnate God– Godin the flesh and suffering for sin in the depths of his humiliation. This is beyond all sight and hearing and conception. The doctrine may be received as a doctrine, as a scriptural truth– but the power, the mystery of love and mercy, grace and truth couched in it; the heavenly blessedness, the liberating efficacy, and the feeling enjoyment of the glorious Person of the God-Man– this is hidden from the eye, ear, and heart of the natural man, but is revealed to those who believe by the Spirit.
Have you ever had a view of Christ in your soul, such as you had no conception of before it was given? Can you not look back upon a solemn moment, when the Spirit of God was pleased to reveal and make him known to your heart with a divine power? Or if you cannot lay your hand clearly and plainly upon such a season, have you not had a glimpse at times of the blessedness of the Redeemer as able to save to the uttermost; a view by faith of the exceeding grace and divine glory of a suffering, incarnate God, which you never could express in words, but the power of which you felt in your inmost soul? Here is the Spirit of God revealing to the heart the glorious Person of the Son of God.
4. So it is with the flesh and blood of the Lamb. People go to the sacrament, and call that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ; but that is merely the emblem, the figure, the representation of a divine mystery which can only be received by faith. The flesh and blood of Christ are quite distinct from the mere elements of bread and wine, and can only be received by faith as they are revealed by the Spirit of God to a feeling heart. When we have a view of Christ in his sufferings and love and blood; when we see to what a state of humiliation the darling Son of God submitted his holy body and soul; and when the Holy Spirit is pleased to take of these precious things of Christ, and to show them unto us, and to raise up faith in our hearts to believe them, hope to anchor in them, and love to enjoy them, then the Spirit of God may indeed be said to feed us with the flesh and blood of the Lamb of God.
5. So it is also with the glory that is to be revealed. The foretastes, the sweet anticipations, the dropping in of what is to be enjoyed when time shall be no more– this is what "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." For as our Lord said to Nicodemus, "If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:12.) But the Spirit reveals these things, manifests them, brings them in, makes them known, gives faith in them, makes them life and spirit, invests them with a solemn reality, and clothes them with enduring substance. So that we can say, so far as God has blessed us with faith, "we have not followed cunningly devised fables, in making known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," or in believing them ourselves.
True religion is a divine reality. The things of God are handled, tasted, fed upon and known to be enduring substance. Thus indeed runs the ancient promise– "That I may cause those who love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures." (Prov. 8:21.) Men may call us what they please– fanatics, enthusiasts, blind bigots, pursuing vain dreams or mere delusions of a wild, excited, and sometimes lunatic imaginations. But if the Lord has done anything for our souls by his Spirit and grace, and given us anything to taste, handle, realize, and enjoy for ourselves, we know there is a substance and reality in the things that we believe.
True religion is our chief employment– our daily meditation or exercise– the main concern of our thoughts and what lies with the greatest weight upon our minds. And justly so; for it is our all. If we have true religion, the religion of God's giving, it will be uppermost in our heart. It is true we are surrounded with and often hampered by a body of sin and death; we have many worldly cares and anxieties which will intrude upon our minds; and those engaged in business have many things especially to drag them down from heaven to earth. Still, religion will be for the most part uppermost in a man's soul, where God has begun and is carrying on a gracious work. It is like oil in water; you may try to mix them but you cannot; the oil will float to the top. So true religion will be uppermost in a man's thoughts, be the first thing in a morning and the last at night, and sometimes work in his mind all the day long. Not but what he is often very cold and dead, lifeless in his prayers, and unfeeling in his affections; not but what he may be carried away by the things of time and sense and dragged down into darkness, carnality, and death; but with it all, there is something in his bosom that struggles upward– there is that in his heart which goes after the precious things of Christ, and the solemn realities of eternity. So that if you could take away his hope of eternal life, you would make him of all men the most miserable.
IV. But to come to our last point, the searching of the Spirit into the hidden mysteries of divine truth– "The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God."
A. The Spirit here means the Spirit of God in a believer's heart, and corresponds with that expression in the book of Proverbs– "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of his being" (Proverbs 20:27); for the "spirit of man" there signifies the spirit which is in man– that is, in a believing, regenerate man, which is the Spirit of God in him. Now this inward Spirit "searches all things," that is, it seeks to penetrate into their nature and blessedness, their fullness and power. It does not mean that the Spirit searches all things as distinct from and independent of the things of God; but all things which are connected with the word of God and his work upon the heart.
B. But he is said in our text to search the deep things of God. These are the deep and solemn mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, containing in them depths of grace, mercy, and truth utterly unsearchable by the wit or wisdom of man. Consider, for instance, for a moment what a deep thing the Person of Christ is. An incarnate God, God and man in one glorious Person, Immanuel God with us! O what depth is in this divine mystery! How surpassing all the thought and expression of men or angels!
Look again at the mysteries of electing love, of sovereign grace, of redemption by Christ's finished work, of the teachings, influences, and operations of the Holy Spirit upon the soul; in a word at everything connected with God and godliness; what deep things they all are! The apostle speaks of the love of Christ as having "breadth and length and depth and height," and yet he says that "it passes knowledge." (Ephes. 3:18, 19.) So he speaks also of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." (Ephes. 3:8.) Compared with these deep mysteries, what shallow things all worldly things are.
Perhaps I have read as many books at various times of my life as most people have, who have had the same opportunities and the same desire for knowledge and information; but O, how shallow all these things appear to my mind compared with the deep and weighty realities of eternity. I do not say that I always see and feel this. But when my mind is under any gracious influence, what trifles, what toys, what empty vanities do I see the great bulk of men pursuing, not only those who labor with the hand, but those also who labor with the brain.
But what weight and power there are in the things of God, as they are brought with any measure of divine teaching and testimony into the heart. What solemn feelings the grace of God produces in the soul; what exercises of mind, what breathings after the Lord, what goings forth of spiritual desire to know him and the power of his resurrection; for we feel our ignorance and the deep necessity of divine teaching and divine operation to make the things of God experimentally felt and known.
C. Now the Spirit of God which dwells in a man, making his body his temple, searches the deep things of God; for there is in these deep things a most heavenly treasure, which is to be searched into that it may be found, as the wise man speaks of knowledge and understanding– "Yes, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding; if you do you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." (Proverbs 2:3, 4, 5.) Now as these treasures are thus opened up to the understanding, and their sweetness is felt in the heart, there is a proportionate desire to get into them, to penetrate into their reality, fullness, and power, so as to experimentally know them, appropriate them for ourselves, and enjoy them as having a clear and blessed interest in them.
But this is obtained by searching. The Christian therefore has to read the Scripture perpetually, to come continually to a throne of grace, to meditate upon the things of God, to try his heart by the word of truth, to examine his own state and standing, and thus see how matters stand between God and his soul. Now the more he examines and searches into the things of God, the more depth and solidity, reality and power, does he find in them. But this no man can do of himself, and therefore the Spirit of God in a man's bosom searches for him the deep things of God, so as to lead him into a spiritual and experimental knowledge of them.
What depths do we sometimes see in a single text of Scripture as opened to the understanding, or applied to the heart; what a depth in the blood of Christ– how it "cleanses from all sin," and if from all sin it must cleanse away millions of millions of the foulest sins of the foulest sinners. What a depth in his bleeding, dying love, that could stoop so low to lift us so high! What a depth in his pity and compassion to extend itself to such guilty, vile transgressors as we are. What depth in his rich, free, and distinguishing grace, that it should superabound over all our aggravated iniquities, enormities, and vile abominations. What depth in his sufferings, that he should have voluntarily put himself under such a load of guilt, such outbreakings of the wrath of God, as he felt in his holy soul when he stood in our place and stead to redeem poor sinners from the bottomless pit. What depth in the eternal counsels and unspeakable wisdom of God to contrive such a plan as was accomplished and brought to light in the incarnation and death of his dear Son, that thus mercy and justice might meet together without jar or discord, every attribute of God be fully honored, and yet that those who deserved hell should be lifted up into the enjoyment of heaven.
What depths, too, there are in our own heart, not merely of sin but of grace, for true religion has its depths which the Spirit searches and brings to view. Thus if we have any faith, it lies very deep, for it is hidden in the heart, and sometimes so hidden as to be almost, if not altogether, out of sight. The Spirit then searches for it, and brings it out and up. So if we have any love, it strikes its root into the inmost recesses of our affections; and therefore needs to be searched into; or any hope, it lies like the anchor at the bottom of the sea. It therefore has to be searched into that it may be made manifest that it is sure and steadfast and enters within the veil.
In this way, then, the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And the more He searches, the more we find; the more He looks, the more we wonder; the more He examines, the more room there is for admiration, love, and praise.
You see, then, from all this, if I have handled these matters aright, that true religion is not a thing merely to be attended to on a Sunday. It does not consist in turning over a Bible now and then, reading a chapter or a few verses night and morning, and then falling on your knees and uttering a few words of prayer. All this you may do, and yet be very far from the kingdom of heaven. Religion, if it is from God, will take fast and firm possession of a man's heart, thoughts, and affections. It will make him a new creature, and thus prepare him for an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for the saints of the Most High. But as all is of grace from first to last, so it is the Spirit that keeps searching all these deep things, opening up new wonders in the precious truth of God, and establishing them with greater power and more vital reality in the soul.
Look then and see what you can find of this work in your heart and conscience, and what reason you have to believe that you are one of those who love God, and for whom he has prepared these divine realities. Examine well what testimony you have in your own bosom that the Spirit of God has revealed or is revealing them to you, making them your food and drink, and manifesting to you that personal saving interest in them, that alone can satisfy you that they are eternally yours. May the Lord in his infinite mercy apply what I have thus spoken to your heart; and to him we will willingly and cheerfully give all the praise.
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