“Jesus Only”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 22 August 10, 2008

It is a privilege to speak to you my friends in the name of Him who has called us His friends if we do the things which He commands us.
I've found a Friend, O such a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Him; He drew me with the cords of love, And thus He bound me to Him."
There are many things about which I am too ignorant to speak wisely and, I hope, too wise to speak ignorantly but I can speak of Jesus with freedom. I'd rather know a few things for certain than be sure of a lot of things that ain't so! In a day when men are chasing after a thousand things that "ain't so" I rejoice in "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever."
I have found in Christ a life that is beautifully simple and simply beautiful.
In Him I find, PARDON. "God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." I owed a debt I could not pay, he paid a debt he did not owe! Jesus, with His blood at Calvary, wrote, "your sins be forgiven you." All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow."
Because Christ means Pardon, He also means PEACE to me. Through Him I have peace with God, and as I make my requests known to God with thanksgiving, the peace of God which passes all understanding — and as someone once said, all misunderstanding too! — garrisons my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
This world has no peace: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked." We are all so crazy these days that it has been reported that monkeys have been known to go insane watching people on the outside of their cages!
Someone has spelled modern life in three words, "Hurry, Worry, Bury." The world has insomnia of the soul.
"My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives."
Then Christ gives me a purpose: "To live is Christ."
A philosopher once said, "One reason why some folks never get anywhere is because they weren't going anywhere in the first place." But Christ gives us a purpose, and that purpose is just Himself. To know Christ and to make Him known.
Christ also means POWER, the power to see the purpose through. "All power is given unto me," He said, and Paul declares, "I can do all things through Christ." Jesus is not only our Savior, He is our sustenance, He is "the power of God." His power is made real to us by the Holy Spirit, not that we may brag about it but that we may be His witnesses.
And then He means PLENTY, spiritual abundance. "All things are yours," says Paul to the Christian. Again he speaks of "having nothing, yet possessing all things."
It is the Christian's paradox. He doesn't have to get rich, he is rich, for "the Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him" Romans 10:12
Most of us appreciate but do not appropriate what we have in Christ. We carry checks on the bank of heaven and never cash them at the window of prayer. We are Bible window-shoppers: we stroll up and down through the show-windows of God's Word and never possess what we perceive.
God, who spared not His Son, shall with Him also freely give us all things.
Finally, Christ gives me an eternal PROSPECT. "Where I am, there ye may be also."
Someone has said, with reference to the life to come, that in the Old Testament they were willing to go but wanting to stay, while in the New they were wanting to go but willing to stay.
Jesus had made the difference. And what a difference it makes to be with Christ!
A mother whose little son had died, told her little daughter, "Your brother has gone to be with Jesus." Later, in conversation with a friend, she spoke of having lost her little boy. The daughter spoke up and said, "But, mother, you said he was with Jesus. How can he be lost if you know where he is!"
Truly, the Christian can say of his departed loved ones in Christ: "Death can hide but not divide; Thou art but on Christ's other side. Thou art with Christ and Christ with me; In Christ united still are we."
These are some things Christ means to me.
All I need is found in Him. He is Alpha and Omega and all the letters between.
He is the same yesterday, the historic Christ; the same today, the indwelling Christ; the same tomorrow, the coming Christ.
I am of Paul's persuasion: persuaded that nothing can separate me from God's love in Christ; persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed against that day; and, knowing the terror of the Lord, constrained by the love of Christ, I would persuade men.
The church of God may have many faults and failings but I would rather take Bible believing Christians at their worst than this world at its best. I thank God for the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.

Out of all this I have come to a fixed conclusion: the issue is simply Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said: "In the days of Paul the sum and substance of theology was Jesus Christ. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has made a change in me. In my earlier years I may have sought after this experience or that, but now I can say, “Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord."
I’m embarrassed to think that I have at times made a Santa Claus of the Lord, seeking only His gifts! Happy are we when we seek the Giver rather than the gift.

My message therefore is simply Jesus Christ. He is enough.

There is only one safe and sure center of Christian experience, doctrine and testimony and that is Jesus Christ. Stand at any other point, no matter how good, and you will become lopsided. Stand with Him and you keep your balance, for by Him all things consist.