In conclusion let me tell you —
1. Who they are that are especially interested in this great mystery —
1 Rom. xv. 13
[It was manifested for " those who by Christ do believe in God :" these arc the persons interested in it, these universal h/, and these alone. Shew me a poor self-condemning sinner, one who under a sense of his utter guilt and helplessness comes to God through Christ, renouncing all dependence on himself, and hoping for acceptance solely through the merits and me- diation of the Lord Jesus, he is the person for whom God sent his only-begotten Son ; he is the person for whose benefit God raised up and glorified his Son, and for whose complete salvation he has invested his Son with all power in heaven and in earth. A man who feels not his own guilt and danger has no interest in all this ; nor has the man who relies in any measure on his own righteousness or strength for his accept- ance with God. It is the penitent believer, and he alone, that can derive any comfort from this stupendous mystery. Dear brethren, let this sink deep into your hearts ; you must come to God through Christ, and " believe in God in and by Christ." I pray you, do not forget this: for, till you come to God in this way, you have no saving faith, no scriptural hope. But, if once you be brought to this state of affiance in the Lord Jesus, whatever you may have been, or whatever you may have done, in times past, God's promises are made to you, and shall be fulfilled in you ; for " they are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus." " All things are yours, if ye are Christ's ; and, as Christ is God's," so shall ye be to all eternity.]
2. What more particularly this mystery speaks to them —
[God's design in all was, " that your faith and hope might be in God.'" This then it says to you ; Believe in God, and hope in God. Did God fail in any thing which he had pro- mised to his dear Son ? Neither then will he fail you, if only you believe in him. Look at the Lord Jesus : see his dis- couragements : see him in the manger at Bethlehem : what can that infant ever do ? see him in the garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross, and in the grave : what can be hoped for from him ? But behold him rising from the grave, ascending to heaven, seated on his throne, and invested with all power in heaven and in earth; and then you will see what God can and will do for you in your most desperate condition. The power exercised for Christ is the same that is engaged for you : yea, and the work ivrought in and for Christ, is the very pattern and pledge of what shall be wrought for you. Do I speak too strongly here ? Consult the Apostle Paul : it is the very thing which he himself speaks by inspiration of God: he declares, that " the exceeding greatness of God's power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him up from the dead, and set him at his own right hand above all the princi-