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{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15
The Doctrine Explained
Precisians Are Proved to Be Not Fools
They Have the Treasures of Wisdom
They Have Gotten the Kingdom}
The fifth great treasure that Precisians have obtained is the Kingdom. Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3). “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32 NASB). To whom is the kingdom given? To the little flock; not to the herds of swine, the droves of wild beasts, the profane multitudes of this wild and wicked world, but to the little flock of Christ, those few whom He has called out of the world, those who follow Him; theirs is the kingdom. What kingdom? Why, the kingdom of Heaven, a kingdom of glory, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of joy and blessedness, the everlasting kingdom. And here we have come upon that height, depth, length, and breadth (Ephesians 3:18) that cannot be fathomed or measured. Here is the wisdom of Christians: they have gotten the birthright, the blessing, the sonship, and the inheritance. Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Here on earth are the faith, patience, hope, prayers, sufferings, and toil of the saints. But in the everlasting kingdom they inherit the riches of their faith, the fruit of their patience, the fulfillment of their hope, the return of their prayers, the reward of their sufferings, and the end of their toil.
Now by all this that has been said, judge whom you will consider to be wise people. Will those be considered to be wise whom people consider to be wise, or those whom God considers to be wise? Should those pass for fools now who will be found wise at last? Are these wise people: people who never understood why they are on earth, and thus never paid attention to nor heeded that necessary work for which they were sent into the world? Are you infants and children who think of nothing else except their play, food, and clothes? Are those the wiser ones of the world? Are those who have laid their foundation on the sand the wise builders? When the winds, floods, and waves have broken down and blown away all that you have been building, will you then boast of your wisdom? You who count yourselves such wise people, and demand that which the saints have gotten, tell us what you have gotten by all your wisdom? The saints have something to show for themselves as evidence of their prudence: Christ. He is the hidden manna, that living bread whom they have laid up for themselves against a time of need. Christ is the peace that they have gotten to support them in a time of trouble. These are some blessings in Christ that show that they have not foolishly lost their time: For every grace that they have gotten and every comfort that they have treasured up, there is something more to show. Every dead lust pleads for them; Sampson’s dead lion (Judges 14:5–6) was not greater proof of his strength than Christians’ dead lusts are of their wisdom. They have gotten the birthright and the blessing. Who was the wiser of the two: Esau who sold his birthright and lost the blessing, or Jacob who got both? Precisians have gotten the kingdom also; theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. While others have been dividing the spoils here below, scrambling for shadows and fancies, and sharing the dominions, dignities, preferments, and pleasures of this world among themselves, Precisians have been laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come. Does this show them to be such a foolish company as you would deem them? Having made such a wise choice and taken such a wise course, must they pass for fools? Is this your serious and sober judgment? Do you earnestly think that the change that the Gospel has made in them has changed them for the worse? Do you think that in the choice that they have made for God rather than the world, of Christ instead of their lusts, and of things eternal before things temporal, that they have chosen to their loss? Is this your thought? Will you write this down as your judgment and put your signature on it? Will you then be content that your writing will be produced at the last judgment as the test by which you will be tried whether you were wise or foolish? Are you Christians? Do you believe the Scriptures? And are you not yet ashamed that any such thoughts should come into your hearts? Will you say that the devil is the best master and he is a fool that will not be his servant, but that Christ is a hard Master and none who are wise will venture to follow Him? Will you say that Moses was a fool for refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season? (Hebrews 11:24–26). Will you say that the apostles and disciples were fools, and that Peter, Paul, John, and James were fools with the rest of those holy men and women who denied themselves, took up their crosses, and followed Christ? Will you say that the scribes, Pharisees, tax collectors, harlots, drunkards, and gluttons who mocked and scorned Him and them had more sense than they did? Is this not the very thing you say when you accuse as foolish those whose aim and desire is to walk in the same steps that those primitive Christians walked in before them? Is this your Christianity, reason, religion, and honesty? Speak in plain terms what is in your hearts: Nobody would listen to Christ unless he were a fool. Nobody would be holy unless he were a fool. Nobody would leave his lusts, pleasures, liberties, and vanities unless he had first lost his mind. Or at least, no wise person would take up more of Christianity than the name, the shell, and the shadow. Only a fool would make more work for his soul, would go through with Christ and Christianity, or would be an inward, hearty, resolved, complete, and sincere Christian. Would any wise person bother to put it out of doubt that Christ is his, that his soul is safe, that he has passed from death to life, and will never come into condemnation? So sinners, is it not the case that your brutish hearts and ways show that you actually think these kinds of things? Is this all the wisdom or honesty you have that you thus speak or think? If so, let it be known to all of you that these supposedly foolish saints know better than to count the reproaches of such brutish spirits as any disparagement against them or their profession of Christianity. Therefore: Will you mock on and go on to admire yourselves, the oaks107 that you have chosen, and the garden108 that you have desired, while you despise Precisians and their ways? If so, know that Precisians have assurance that God does not consider them to be what you call them, and at the last, neither will you. Therefore, you must give them leave to have high thoughts of their God, their Gospel, and that holy profession and way that they have chosen, however lowly they deem themselves.
107In the context of Isaiah 1:29, as an object of idolatrous worship.
108In the context of Isaiah 1:29, as an object of idolatrous worship.
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