Thomas Cooper: The Riches of Christ

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[00:00:30] Revived Thoughts is a production of revived studios

[00:00:38] This is Troy Angel and you're listening to Revived Thoughts

[00:00:48] Paul who could say for me to live is Christ and to die as game

[00:00:53] How could Paul be the least of all saints?

[00:00:56] And St Paul felt that he had a strong reason to think of himself this way

[00:01:00] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon that they delivered

[00:01:06] Today we're listening to a sermon given by Thomas Cooper in the late 1800s and Wales

[00:01:11] Troy, how are you doing?

[00:01:13] I'm doing great. This is honestly a pretty good day

[00:01:16] Not sick like I was a few weeks back. I'm just feeling yeah honestly feeling great

[00:01:20] Things are pretty good here. The weather has finally begun to shift out of rainy season and the dry season

[00:01:27] And we're in this rare weekend and half where there's a breeze

[00:01:31] And it's really nice, I can't complain at all

[00:01:34] So yeah Joel things are good over here. How about over there?

[00:01:37] Not too shabby. Not too shabby. I'm excited to talk about this episode

[00:01:41] Thomas Cooper, a prolific atheist, would you say?

[00:01:46] Yeah, no. So I actually got this book called The Crisis of Down, a guy was moving out of the community

[00:01:52] I was able to get my hands on it. He really wanted me to have it

[00:01:55] He thought I would read it and enjoy it and he was correct

[00:01:57] It's a great book and the author of it is Timothy Larson

[00:02:01] I don't know any of his other works but he did a good job with this

[00:02:04] And in this book there are these different people who were atheists like hardcore anti-god

[00:02:11] Imagine I would rid your dockins or whoever the big atheist names are that you heard of today

[00:02:18] And they were that far against God

[00:02:20] And then each of them in their later years became Christians again

[00:02:24] And they gave their reasons why

[00:02:26] And Thomas Cooper is one of those guys

[00:02:30] And I would say of all of the six to eight men I think in the book

[00:02:34] He had, in my opinion, one of the most compelling

[00:02:37] Just witnesses after his life or you could really see how much he changed

[00:02:42] How much the Lord moved on him

[00:02:44] But before we jump into that, Joel, I wanted to give just a couple positive responses

[00:02:48] We've had out here to revive. I thought we'd try to read comments and things on the show

[00:02:53] And when we see comments on Spotify, YouTube, Twitter, I try to collect them

[00:02:57] I don't always get all of them

[00:02:59] In fact, I often miss many of them but I do try to take little screenshots here and there

[00:03:02] And I have a little folder for them

[00:03:04] So these are a few things we had this week on Twitter

[00:03:08] Listeners slash, I remember this guy

[00:03:10] He has spoken for us

[00:03:11] He's been a friend of the show for a long time

[00:03:13] Plez was responding to somebody's comments on what would be a good podcast to listen to

[00:03:19] And the guy actually said is there anybody out there who's recording sermons by people like Luther and Christosdom and Plez

[00:03:25] Thank you for grabbing our back here

[00:03:27] He said he got a listener of I thought say we'll have what you're looking for

[00:03:30] I can't remember if Christosdom has been covered but others have

[00:03:33] They also have many others you may or may or may not be interested in

[00:03:36] You have to sift what you want out of it but it's an awesome podcast

[00:03:39] Thank you Plez

[00:03:40] I do think all of the sermons are going to be great and I think they'll enjoy it

[00:03:43] And yes, we do have Christosdom

[00:03:44] We've done Christosdom twice on our show

[00:03:47] And he's always somebody I think you can learn a lot from

[00:03:49] So thank you so much for telling others about us when they're looking for a show like ours

[00:03:53] We have another one

[00:03:54] Now this one I don't know what to do with this email that came in

[00:03:59] But I love it so much and it reminds me of those of you who have listened for a while

[00:04:05] Get the reference when we talk about Eric

[00:04:08] This is basically another Eric on our hands where this gentleman named Daniel Daribu

[00:04:13] Or Daribu, I don't know how to say it. Daribu looks like

[00:04:16] He just emailed, he literally writes in an email

[00:04:19] And he just wrote the word Bible

[00:04:22] And that was it

[00:04:23] We just got one word from a Bible I messaged him and I was like,

[00:04:26] Was there more to this?

[00:04:28] Nothing

[00:04:30] See again, this is writing the fence of

[00:04:34] Could be a very old person that just doesn't understand what he's doing at a computer

[00:04:41] Or it could be a young person messing with us

[00:04:45] It's impossible to tell I really feel like

[00:04:47] Because I do feel like

[00:04:49] You just go, go, you tell me

[00:04:51] The part of me was like, is this a bot?

[00:04:53] But they messaged a church history podcast Bible

[00:04:56] So that's such a specific, if it's a bot

[00:05:00] It's a clever enough bot to figure out that we like Bible stuff

[00:05:03] But it wasn't clever enough to write an email

[00:05:06] And so it's got to be a person

[00:05:08] But I just don't know what happened there

[00:05:11] Where they just wrote in the word Bible

[00:05:13] So Daniel, thank you for the email

[00:05:18] It's inspiring words like that that keep us going

[00:05:21] You know, I know for me many dark days I look at an email like Bible

[00:05:24] And I'm like, I can do this

[00:05:25] I can keep the show going and have a little bit longer

[00:05:27] Anything that's good for you back in my book

[00:05:29] I'll take it

[00:05:30] You know maybe it was just reminding us

[00:05:33] Don't forget Bible

[00:05:34] But anyway Daniel, I appreciate it. Daniel, if you get this

[00:05:36] And you go, wait a second, I thought I wrote more

[00:05:38] We'd love to hear the rest of that email

[00:05:39] If it really was just Bible, you give us a lot of the ponder

[00:05:42] Alright, we have one more email

[00:05:43] This one really made me laugh

[00:05:45] So this one is by a guy and he says, Troy, thanks for reading my post on Twitter

[00:05:49] I got a chuckle out of here and he say, my Twitter handle

[00:05:52] And I was like, wait a second, I say it wrong

[00:05:54] So if you remember, I said, hey, we got to listen, this was weeks ago

[00:05:57] Our noodle show you wouldn't have heard this

[00:05:59] But I said, hey, this guy named Kaewbuck who liked our show

[00:06:02] And apparently he said no, it's KY for Kentucky

[00:06:05] Double Aught, like double zero buck

[00:06:08] And it refers to a shotgun shell

[00:06:10] And so when I read Kaewbuck, I was way off there

[00:06:13] Now, it's to be fair, I've never shot a shotgun

[00:06:16] I was about to say Troy, I'm surprised you missed that being the season hunter that you are

[00:06:20] You know me, Joel, we're usually recording from the stand where the deer are

[00:06:24] But I'm not

[00:06:27] So thank you Brent for correcting us in such a loving kind way

[00:06:31] And he was very, the rest of the email is very nice

[00:06:33] He says love hearing you guys talk back and forth

[00:06:35] Listeners feel like we know you

[00:06:37] We love church history and he signed it

[00:06:39] I don't think it's wrong to say his first name is Brent

[00:06:42] And he has Shack Eric

[00:06:44] So thank you so much, we appreciate it and thank you for correcting me on your name

[00:06:48] But yeah, that one just made me laugh

[00:06:50] You know, I get the names of a lot of our speakers sometimes wrong

[00:06:53] Like sometimes I'll miss pronounced, I haven't done a while

[00:06:55] But sometimes we'll miss pronounced like Levi Lestadian

[00:06:58] And everyone was like, there's less Stadius

[00:07:00] Anyway, got a bunch of people upset with that one

[00:07:02] But I've never had a listener say hey, you said my username wrong

[00:07:05] So that was a first for me

[00:07:07] And then we also have someone else who'd like to shout out who just joined us on Patreon

[00:07:11] Sarah, see, Sarah without an age, a capital C

[00:07:14] Thank you so much

[00:07:15] It still blows my mind that every month people

[00:07:18] Decide that they want to contribute to revive, to revive studios

[00:07:22] And keep our project alive here

[00:07:25] It's so encouraging, so exciting to see

[00:07:27] And genuinely enabling and helpful

[00:07:30] Because this show doesn't get produced for free

[00:07:33] There are subscriptions, there's bandwidth that we have to pay for and everything

[00:07:36] And you guys quite literally enable it to happen

[00:07:40] And it's super encouraging

[00:07:43] Troy, we should do...

[00:07:45] You were talking about that book that someone gave you earlier

[00:07:47] I'm just saying this before I forget but we should do a...

[00:07:50] I don't think we've done a revived combo book recommendation episode

[00:07:54] Have we done something like that?

[00:07:55] You know, we actually have it

[00:07:57] We know we do

[00:07:58] We actually, especially after our How to Not Teach Church History episode

[00:08:02] We have been flooded with emails, comments, etc.

[00:08:05] People going, okay, you told us not how not to teach it

[00:08:08] So, how are we supposed to teach it?

[00:08:10] And I'll be honest with you, I don't know why

[00:08:12] But I hadn't really considered that was going to come up

[00:08:14] Which should've been the very obvious next step

[00:08:16] So, I'm actually pondering some ideas

[00:08:18] Hopefully we'll get some chance to kind of workshops and stuff

[00:08:21] Because I do want to teach this better to you

[00:08:23] And I actually have physically taught in a classroom with high schoolers

[00:08:27] This subject

[00:08:28] And so, I've gotten a bit of an idea of what works, what doesn't

[00:08:31] You know, with young people and I'm working on it

[00:08:34] Got some ideas? It'll be a while before maybe this come out

[00:08:36] But you're right Joel, we get asked a lot

[00:08:38] Hey, so give us some book recommendations

[00:08:40] And we should put that on the docket probably pretty soon

[00:08:43] Here's some books we recommend

[00:08:44] And yes, I would put this book crisis of doubt as...

[00:08:48] Especially if you kind of like slightly made me more academic reading

[00:08:52] It's not, you know, it's not a fictional fun

[00:08:54] It's not an easy breezy

[00:08:56] It does take some work

[00:08:57] But I did think it was very, very good

[00:09:00] I've already used some of the quotes and some of the stories from it

[00:09:03] In my classes and stuff

[00:09:04] So I do think it's a really good book if you can get the time to put into it

[00:09:07] Nino, alright

[00:09:09] Should we jump into Tom Scooper now?

[00:09:11] Let's do it, they're waiting

[00:09:12] Yeah, they're waiting

[00:09:13] They're waiting patiently, Tom Scooper

[00:09:15] Born in March of 1805

[00:09:19] His father was a clothing dire

[00:09:22] Like dire as in made close certain colors

[00:09:26] You dyed the clothes

[00:09:27] Every time, every...

[00:09:28] It's not the first time we've had a dire on there

[00:09:30] And I always have to put like clothing

[00:09:31] Because I'm like if you...

[00:09:32] I just say he's a dire

[00:09:33] My immediate thought would be like he's a guy who dies slowly or something

[00:09:36] Yeah

[00:09:37] Yeah, the English language is betrayed us a little bit

[00:09:39] There a dire

[00:09:40] He's dyed clothing

[00:09:42] Have you...

[00:09:43] This is way off topic

[00:09:44] But very fascinating

[00:09:46] Very fascinating

[00:09:47] Have you heard about this like

[00:09:50] Theory slash study of why we don't see the color blue historically

[00:09:55] In ancient literature?

[00:09:57] No

[00:09:58] I mean, I'm wearing blue right now

[00:10:00] But no, I don't know it

[00:10:01] Why?

[00:10:02] Do they not know what blue is?

[00:10:03] They don't know what blue is

[00:10:04] There is...

[00:10:05] There's like

[00:10:06] And I watched a couple videos on it and read up on it

[00:10:09] Because I found it fascinating

[00:10:10] But like historically

[00:10:12] Like ancient writings

[00:10:14] They never use the word blue

[00:10:17] It's just not something that seems to be a part of anyone's vocabulary

[00:10:20] Whenever they talk about sky

[00:10:22] Or the ocean

[00:10:24] Yes, the sky or the ocean

[00:10:26] It's usually described as like a dark green

[00:10:28] They'll say dark green sky

[00:10:30] Apparently although I didn't actually like look it up in sources properly

[00:10:33] And the Bible said do not quote me on this

[00:10:35] There's even passages

[00:10:37] In the Old Testament

[00:10:39] That are literally translated

[00:10:41] Like in describing the sky as a dark green

[00:10:44] Just because they didn't

[00:10:46] They didn't use the word blue

[00:10:48] And so people...

[00:10:49] I don't know

[00:10:50] Or extravagant internet people

[00:10:54] You know, or have these conspiracies that like

[00:10:56] Oh the human eye has changed

[00:10:58] And now we can see blue and we couldn't see blue back then

[00:11:01] But what more so appears to be

[00:11:04] The real case of it

[00:11:06] Is really interesting

[00:11:07] It makes a lot of sense

[00:11:08] It seems to just be a natural progression

[00:11:11] Of how linguistics evolves over time

[00:11:16] Because historically

[00:11:18] So there's not a lot of blue things in nature that we can source

[00:11:22] There's like a couple birds

[00:11:24] I can think of but like yeah your dogs aren't blue

[00:11:26] And most of the things in nature that are blue

[00:11:30] Like your birds or certain insects

[00:11:32] Or certain flowers

[00:11:34] Aren't like they're not made up a blue pigment

[00:11:37] Like it's a certain

[00:11:39] The way that the feathers and the bird refract the light

[00:11:42] Make give it a blue shimmer

[00:11:44] But you couldn't actually like take that feather

[00:11:46] And grind it up and make a blue pigment out of it

[00:11:50] It's the properties of the physical structure of the skin that reflect blue light

[00:11:57] But again, blue pigments are not something that are super rare

[00:12:03] They're just not accessible

[00:12:05] And so when these linguistic experts are analyzing language in colors

[00:12:11] And just how words come to be in general

[00:12:15] It's almost always around like the need to say that word

[00:12:19] And the need to say that word arises when it becomes involved in commerce and trading

[00:12:27] You know, like you need to be able to specify what you want to buy

[00:12:29] And since you couldn't really buy anything that was manufactured as blue

[00:12:34] You couldn't buy a blue shirt

[00:12:37] In the past because they didn't know how to make blue dyes

[00:12:40] Because nothing was blue with pigment that they could actually do

[00:12:43] There was no reason to specify something as blue

[00:12:46] I mean, again people will talk about stuff

[00:12:49] But when it came to like okay we actually need to facilitate a word for it

[00:12:53] It coincides with the manufacturing of blue pigments that they could actually use to dye stuff now

[00:12:59] So now people could request oh I would like a blue blanket or any blue things

[00:13:06] And they actually said okay we have to... that's when it got its own

[00:13:11] The word in the way that it seems to be shown up in history and documented

[00:13:15] Because before then I guess yeah just wasn't there wasn't a whole lot of need to quantify it

[00:13:21] In the way that commerce introduced once commerce was introduced they had to...

[00:13:26] You know, does that make sense?

[00:13:28] No it doesn't. You did a really good job

[00:13:30] And it actually does make sense because there's a lot like we don't realize just how many things

[00:13:35] Commerce and like just the world we live in marketing stuff has shifted

[00:13:39] The way we view words and stuff like that

[00:13:41] I can't think of a good example off the top of my head

[00:13:43] It totally does make sense but the whole time you're talking too

[00:13:46] I'm like... the thing that keeps going through my head is just like so today

[00:13:50] We have sky blue

[00:13:51] But back then it would've been like sky green

[00:13:53] And you're like oh yeah

[00:13:54] It's a beautiful sky green today

[00:13:55] And that just was like such a funny weird thing to be thinking about

[00:13:59] But I think it's perfectly made sense

[00:14:01] And it even makes sense too

[00:14:02] We see that with colors today

[00:14:03] Like when girls go shopping for like wallpaper

[00:14:06] You know they're like egg white versus pastel white

[00:14:09] And I can't see those colors

[00:14:11] But like they're all white but we had to create names for them

[00:14:15] So that we could buy the paint to paint our walls to look one way versus the other

[00:14:18] Exactly

[00:14:19] Or all of your inventory

[00:14:20] Or it's different

[00:14:21] I mean your pinks like those are really just different shades of...

[00:14:24] Of you know a blue or like your gray's different

[00:14:27] Yeah

[00:14:28] It's just a light black really

[00:14:30] But we say gray now because it's got its own classification

[00:14:33] Wow

[00:14:34] Also just...

[00:14:35] Alright well you definitely I had not considered all that

[00:14:38] I need to go look up my color history

[00:14:40] It seems more but no I actually think that was really interesting

[00:14:43] And now we know...

[00:14:45] Fun rabbit hole

[00:14:46] And now we have a really good example of what a clothing dire

[00:14:48] What an important part of our life say where actually were

[00:14:51] Yeah 1800s

[00:14:52] He would've had access to blue dyes by then

[00:14:54] So completely unrelated

[00:14:58] His dad died when he was young

[00:15:01] And so he was sent off

[00:15:03] He became a shoemaker

[00:15:04] We're talking about Thomas Cooper

[00:15:06] If anyone forgot about that long rant

[00:15:08] Thomas Cooper

[00:15:10] Sent off to be a shoemaker

[00:15:12] But wasn't love and shoemaking

[00:15:14] He was an academic

[00:15:15] He loved her read

[00:15:16] He loved to educate himself

[00:15:17] He was a self educator

[00:15:19] He was raised in a Methodist area with Methodist people, Methodist family

[00:15:24] A particular...

[00:15:25] I mean it's...

[00:15:26] I don't get this since all Methodists were like this

[00:15:28] But it seems like his specific group Methodist

[00:15:30] We're not huge on reading

[00:15:31] We're not big on encouraging the type of behavior that he was doing

[00:15:35] And so he would have to sneak books around

[00:15:37] And he would read books by Voltaire and other skeptics

[00:15:42] And he would eventually, you know as a young man

[00:15:44] Become a local preacher

[00:15:46] And become quite popular

[00:15:48] He had a large crowd on Sunday mornings

[00:15:51] And this is again despite any formal training

[00:15:53] This is all self taught

[00:15:55] And as he grew up

[00:15:57] It became more established, you know

[00:15:59] I'm thinking like young 20s here

[00:16:01] He established a school himself for children to come

[00:16:04] I think kind of based on

[00:16:06] Evolving out of his lack

[00:16:08] Of having proper resources

[00:16:10] To learn, to read, and to study, and to educate

[00:16:13] He wanted to provide that for others

[00:16:16] And so he started a small school

[00:16:19] All of this while...

[00:16:21] Again, so he credits his conversion

[00:16:24] To later in his life

[00:16:26] In like his 50s

[00:16:28] And so he's doing all of this

[00:16:30] Again, I don't know...

[00:16:32] I don't know what his faith was like here

[00:16:34] If it was a

[00:16:36] Result of his culture

[00:16:38] Of his Methodist community

[00:16:40] That he took to preaching

[00:16:42] Or if there was some genuine faith and conviction there

[00:16:46] That was guiding him on this

[00:16:48] It didn't last, which makes me think that

[00:16:50] Maybe it was just a byproduct of his environment

[00:16:54] But that is pure speculation

[00:16:56] Because eventually he'd shift to gears

[00:16:58] A little bit with a square path

[00:17:00] And he decided he wanted to be a journalist

[00:17:02] And he actually ended up

[00:17:04] Kind of budding heads

[00:17:06] With some of the Methodists in his area

[00:17:08] And would end up

[00:17:10] Just phasing out of preaching all together

[00:17:12] And leaning into this journalism

[00:17:14] Cooper then left for London

[00:17:16] To continue and do his

[00:17:18] Journalistic work, you know

[00:17:19] If you're gonna be a journalist

[00:17:21] You gotta be in the big city, you gotta be in the London

[00:17:23] He joined what was called at the time

[00:17:25] A group called the quote free thinkers

[00:17:27] Now, if you were like me

[00:17:29] And before I read this book, you didn't know what the free thinkers are

[00:17:31] These are basically...

[00:17:33] Then they wouldn't say they're atheists

[00:17:35] Many of them would say, well, I'm not an atheist

[00:17:37] I'm a deist or I'm a non-sticker

[00:17:39] But basically this was the equivalent of

[00:17:41] You know, the 19th century version of your atheists

[00:17:43] Your people who were pushing back

[00:17:45] Against Christianity

[00:17:47] I always say, yeah, I am an atheist

[00:17:49] I don't believe in any of this

[00:17:51] But this was a group in England at the time

[00:17:53] That is pushing back and fighting against

[00:17:55] Organized religion

[00:17:57] Fighting against Christianity

[00:17:59] This is a Victorian era

[00:18:01] And their goal is to bring

[00:18:03] And into that kind of stuff

[00:18:05] And they're writing books

[00:18:07] They're writing newspapers

[00:18:09] They're writing magazines

[00:18:11] They're giving lectures

[00:18:13] They're giving seminars

[00:18:15] There is no God

[00:18:17] Or at least the Christian God is not

[00:18:19] Real

[00:18:20] Now Kooper also began at this time to join a radical group of politics

[00:18:23] He basically became...

[00:18:25] Not just a communist

[00:18:27] It hasn't been written about at this point

[00:18:29] Karl Marx and Ingalls haven't put it on the paper

[00:18:32] But it's kind of an early version

[00:18:34] Of that

[00:18:35] He was actually such an extremist

[00:18:36] He had gotten so radically

[00:18:38] to rallied up so many of the crowds

[00:18:40] That they actually arrested him

[00:18:42] And put him in jail

[00:18:43] two years and I don't think he like caused any particular violence, but he was just such

[00:18:47] an animator of the cause so intense.

[00:18:50] And so I put him in a modern lens.

[00:18:54] This guy is like your radical Marxist atheist on like a college campus or something like that.

[00:18:59] I mean this guy is about as far from any kind of orthodox Christianity that you can put

[00:19:06] a person in that person in that time using our lenses today.

[00:19:10] Just if you were to dive into his politics and stuff, he wouldn't land in that camp.

[00:19:14] But just for using our stereotypes today, that's the thing of that guy and you're kind

[00:19:18] of imagining Thomas Cooper.

[00:19:20] Now he loved poetry and he used the time in jail to write a poem called The Purgatory

[00:19:26] of Suicides.

[00:19:27] It was very famous.

[00:19:28] A lot of people really liked it because it was very satirical at times.

[00:19:31] It was really good at making you feel things they enjoyed poetry but it was by far definitely

[00:19:38] not any kind of a pro-Christian work.

[00:19:41] That was just one of his poems.

[00:19:42] He went on to write many others.

[00:19:43] In fact, if you look up Thomas Cooper on Google, the first thing it will tell you on his Wikipedia

[00:19:48] pages of like that is it marks him as a poet.

[00:19:51] Before all of his other things, his lasting legacy at least in the eyes of the world is

[00:19:56] that he was a poet.

[00:19:57] Now when he left jail, he actually was kind of a rock star.

[00:20:01] If you're in the atheist group and you're fighting back against Christianity, a guy who

[00:20:04] goes to jail for being a radical.

[00:20:07] That's kind of like their version of martyrdom.

[00:20:09] He's a big name.

[00:20:10] He was even more popular leaving jail than he was before.

[00:20:14] However, I don't know if it was just, I didn't like jail, I don't want to go back or if

[00:20:18] he just in his time in jail, he kind of cooled off of it but he was less radical in politics.

[00:20:23] He wasn't really going down that road anymore.

[00:20:25] He had now settled more into the atheistic philosophical route.

[00:20:31] He was really now like, he had really settled into, I want to be the guy who goes around

[00:20:35] giving seminars and lectures and doing public debates which he would do.

[00:20:39] He would go up against Christians and people like that in public debates.

[00:20:42] He wants to be the guy whose goal it is is to take down Christianity.

[00:20:46] And he was pretty good at that too.

[00:20:50] When I came to the public speaker aspect of it, he seemed to like a very persuasive,

[00:20:55] very engaging person but boy did he attack everything there was about Christianity.

[00:21:02] He would even take other attacks on Christianity that were from other countries and other languages

[00:21:08] and translate them into English and then lecture on those.

[00:21:12] And his lectures were popular.

[00:21:16] He was the only lecturer, free thinker at the time that he would give two lectures on

[00:21:21] Sundays, a morning one in the evening one and both of those were full with people which

[00:21:28] is normally a slow day in the lecture world.

[00:21:30] He wrote books, he edited newspapers and journals.

[00:21:33] And he was considered a friend of the atheists all the time.

[00:21:37] That was the circles that he traveled in.

[00:21:39] He traveled and everyone wanted to hear him speak.

[00:21:43] Charles Kingsley who's another preach we've had on this show.

[00:21:47] He himself wrote a letter that Cooper was attacking Christianity and that was one of the most

[00:21:53] effective atheists of that day.

[00:21:56] So that is an interesting crossover between now we have

[00:22:00] pastors that we've covered on this show that are adamantly opposed to another one that

[00:22:05] we have on this show.

[00:22:07] Again, pre-conversion here but it's interesting to see those paths overlap.

[00:22:11] But he lectured on lots of stuff.

[00:22:13] It wasn't just atheism.

[00:22:15] I think he probably would have been very upset to hear it's just talking about all of his

[00:22:18] atheistic work because he regarded himself as very versed in several different topics

[00:22:26] that he would talk about.

[00:22:28] For example, his lecture curriculum throughout the year would cover an assorted list of Thomas

[00:22:35] Pain, Voltaire, secularism, politics in Ireland, life of Shakespeare and Milton, a history

[00:22:41] of Greece and Rome, Cromwell, George Washington, the French Revolution, the history of England,

[00:22:48] different styles of painting, Russian history, handle and Mozart and Beethoven.

[00:22:53] pastors on discoverers such as Columbus and Newton also lectured on Muhammad in slavery,

[00:22:59] national debt, charity in justis and Poland, treatment of gypsies, Alexander the Great, Egypt,

[00:23:05] the history of Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, the philosophy of bacon and lock, vegetation,

[00:23:12] astronomy, geology, and much more.

[00:23:15] So quite a well-rounded, well you know it seems very knowledgeable on a lot of things.

[00:23:20] I don't know about that, Joel.

[00:23:21] I think most of us could give lectures on pretty much all of those subjects.

[00:23:25] Who doesn't regularly fit in a lecture on the history of Italy and the different painting

[00:23:31] styles and Muhammad on a regular basis?

[00:23:35] I can pick two or three for that.

[00:23:37] I think I could handle maybe one or two of those so I could confidently...

[00:23:42] But you could, in those days, getting a lecture was a big deal.

[00:23:45] I mean, getting in front of a crowd of eager academics and being able to answer their

[00:23:49] questions and speak intellectually.

[00:23:51] It's basically the course of giving almost a college course on each of those things that

[00:23:57] is impressive.

[00:23:59] And honestly, one of that out probably one of the most well-read guys we've had on

[00:24:04] this show.

[00:24:05] I almost say it's the most.

[00:24:06] Yes, we have lots of well-read guys.

[00:24:07] He's definitely on that top tier of people who he can speak on a lot of different things.

[00:24:11] Now despite this, Kooper continued struggle with his atheism for many years but he started

[00:24:17] to question things.

[00:24:18] One of the big things that made him kind of start to go, he kind of lose the rose-colored

[00:24:22] glasses for atheism was just the lifestyles of different atheists at the time.

[00:24:26] He believed that atheists could be just as moral as Christians but as he moved more in

[00:24:31] the circles he was in, he kept seeing just a really stark difference and the lifestyles

[00:24:35] of the Christians that he knew and the Methodists he had grown up with and the atheists that

[00:24:41] he knew.

[00:24:42] He had been taught basically, oh, we don't need Christianity to be moral.

[00:24:45] But, you know, and true, the Methodists he grew up with didn't really let him read books

[00:24:49] phone.

[00:24:50] He looks around and he just sees a bunch of people getting divorces, a bunch of people

[00:24:53] living licentious lifestyles, addictions and he goes this is not what I was expecting.

[00:24:58] I thought we would be even better without Christianity and I see you guys are actually

[00:25:02] doing a lot worse without it.

[00:25:03] And he began writing letters to Charles Kingsley, the man before, the guy who was a pastor

[00:25:08] on this show that we've covered before.

[00:25:10] He kind of said look, I'm struggling with somebody else about God.

[00:25:12] But I want to bounce them, you know, off somebody and Kingsley ran at a bunch of intellectual

[00:25:16] elite circles.

[00:25:17] And people would kind of point if you were starting to question your faith, people would

[00:25:19] point you and say hey, go to Kingsley, he can really help you with that.

[00:25:22] It's a very smart guy.

[00:25:24] And the other thing that he really said he was focused on was the person of Jesus Christ.

[00:25:28] To him, Christ just seemed too perfect to be made up and he was just kind of the argument

[00:25:34] he made basically was if Christ didn't actually live, how did someone make up somebody that

[00:25:41] really is so perfect?

[00:25:44] You can't think of anything wrong he did.

[00:25:47] And yet he's the, you know, his and his worldview was made up by somebody, how did somebody

[00:25:50] create through four different gospels this perfect person with these perfect teachings that

[00:25:56] are just so good yet it's all made up by human like he just, he was really struggling

[00:26:00] with that.

[00:26:01] And the other arguments he said that he really struggled with that brought him back over

[00:26:05] where the arguments from design.

[00:26:06] He said I just look around the world and I can't get away from the fact that it seems

[00:26:10] to be perfectly designed.

[00:26:12] And this was during the time in case you're wondering like this is pre evolution, evolution

[00:26:16] was actually making its big splash into the world.

[00:26:20] Darwin, you know, was publishing his books at the same time that he's currently kind of

[00:26:24] really beginning to question how can the world be so perfectly designed on top of that

[00:26:28] he also said again that morality argument why are the Christians living better lives

[00:26:32] when they're supposed to be uneducated superstitious fools?

[00:26:35] Now some people I've sometimes seen kind of out there like oh, you know does apologetics

[00:26:39] work?

[00:26:40] He really worked on Cooper.

[00:26:41] He read the books, he kind of kept trying to argue with them but over time it seemed

[00:26:45] to break him down.

[00:26:46] Now he becomes a Christian, he converts and to do so back in those days it's not a thing

[00:26:51] that's going to make you friends.

[00:26:53] All of his atheist friends turned on it, it wasn't like they said hey you know I see

[00:26:56] you came to a different conclusion to me.

[00:26:57] No they attacked him publicly, they wrote articles about him, they were very upset because

[00:27:01] they had a lot of trust in him and they really thought he was a great guy and so to lose

[00:27:06] him this leader of the movement really hurt their feelings and they took it out on them,

[00:27:11] they said he did it for money even though he made more money as a free thinker by a lot.

[00:27:16] They said that he did it for fame or that he was never a serious atheist in the first

[00:27:19] place.

[00:27:20] All these kind of things that you can just look at his decades of work and you know it's

[00:27:23] just absolute nonsense, he certainly believed what he was saying.

[00:27:27] And so he got hammered and but after a few years he kind of wanted to go into ministry

[00:27:33] not for the money but he started to tour because he really had this opinion like I'll go

[00:27:38] anywhere, I don't care how small the church is, I don't care how out of the way it is,

[00:27:41] I want to go and speak and I want to start writing books for the ministry.

[00:27:44] And he said his reason was you know he had hurt the kingdom by all of his atheism for years,

[00:27:49] his books, his lectures, he had harmed the kingdom of God for decades and he was hoping

[00:27:55] with this latter half of his life he could use his time that was left in some kind of service

[00:28:00] towards God to kind of undo some of that damage he had spent so many years putting together.

[00:28:05] From when I can tell, when Cooper became a Christian he was give or take around the years

[00:28:08] of 50 years old and again that depends on if you think he was a Christian before when

[00:28:13] he was preaching or not but you know we're going with the idea that he probably wasn't

[00:28:16] a believer during that time but I mean the crowd certainly thought he was so it is a little

[00:28:20] odd there but he'll spend the next give or take 30 to 40 years of his life.

[00:28:25] I mean I don't know how much he was actually lecturing when he was in his late 80s but

[00:28:28] you know he's using those latter parts of his life to turn around.

[00:28:31] He'll deliver about 2500 sermons over those years, he'll also speak at about 500 different

[00:28:38] locations and that might in Wales, England, Scotland and to give you an idea London only

[00:28:43] counts as one of those locations and he spoke in London a lot so I mean he was doing a

[00:28:48] lot of speaking going everywhere he could and he would speak at you know little prairie

[00:28:54] churches that would have him come but he would also go speak big churches like Spurgeon's

[00:28:59] tap metropolitan tabernacle as well.

[00:29:01] He would just if you will have me speak and defend God I will go.

[00:29:05] Now he actually would say please don't call these sermons, I'm not a pastor, I'm just

[00:29:09] a guy giving my beliefs on God but they're very clearly our sermons.

[00:29:22] Now Cooper went from this famous electioneer who was like an aristocrat smart guy you

[00:29:26] know Mr. Professor atheist guy to the man to go anywhere just to share what God was doing

[00:29:31] and how he changed his life so much of this came from his relationship with in my opinion

[00:29:36] with Charles Kingsley and the letters they wrote back and forth and it really made me

[00:29:39] ask the question is kind of aside but I wonder if there's any kind of ministry like that

[00:29:43] out there today are there any people reaching out to the big named atheists and having

[00:29:47] letters or you know emails go messages go back and forth and opening that door.

[00:29:51] I don't necessarily mean going online fighting in the atheist comment sections but you know

[00:29:56] I wonder if that kind of thing still exists and if it doesn't maybe it's something someone

[00:30:00] out there should maybe get started on it really made a big difference in Cooper's life

[00:30:03] maybe who knows what kind of difference it can make for the world.

[00:30:06] But anyway as we were now about to listen to a sermon from a man who spent decades attacking

[00:30:10] Christ only to have Christ turn him around and get him back on the right path.

[00:30:14] Listen as he preaches the story, preaches about the riches of Christ those riches that

[00:30:19] change his heart forever.

[00:30:36] The Unsearchable Riches of Christ Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8

[00:30:41] For the Christian believer to know the extent of his privileges let him read this letter

[00:30:45] of Saint Paul often.

[00:30:46] In fact let him sometimes read it on his knees and if his soul is still alive in faith

[00:30:52] and prayer while he reads he can scarcely felt comprehend in some measure at least what

[00:30:57] God's will is respecting his own personal holiness and respecting the holiness of the

[00:31:02] Christian church.

[00:31:03] Nowhere does the large mind of Paul seem to glow and burn and thrill and intensify as

[00:31:09] it does while he is dictating this letter from his Roman prison.

[00:31:13] As a mere literary composition the letter is a very remarkable one.

[00:31:17] It abounds with the great apostles' native splendor of diction, the natural opulence

[00:31:21] of his power of expression, the gorgeousness of his rhetoric, the subtlety of his logic,

[00:31:27] his skill and the use of his favorite figure in logic contrast.

[00:31:31] And above all it gives felicitous examples of that singular power of mind which he possessed,

[00:31:36] of being able to leave his subject and go out and take a large detour of new thought

[00:31:42] and return with increased power of illustrating his theme, rendering it more forcible,

[00:31:47] more beautiful and more attractive.

[00:31:50] The whole of the chapter from which our text is taken may be said to form one of these

[00:31:54] great loops of thought.

[00:31:56] The name ethicist would seem is not found attached to this letter in our most ancient manuscripts.

[00:32:01] And Saint Basil says it was not in the best manuscripts of his time.

[00:32:05] The writers are of the opinion that the letter was originally addressed to a group of Asian

[00:32:09] churches, of which Ephesus, the metropolis of the lesser Asia as Chrysostom calls it,

[00:32:15] was the chief.

[00:32:17] Something that the elevated style of this letter was adopted by Saint Paul as a complement

[00:32:21] to the high rank of Ephesus as a city and the polish of its people.

[00:32:26] But one would judge from internal evidence that it was his regard for the advanced piety

[00:32:31] of this Asian church, which caused Paul to address it with so much fervor of feeling

[00:32:35] and eloquence of expression.

[00:32:37] See how he commences his letter.

[00:32:39] He calls the members of this church the saints or holy ones which are at Ephesus, and the

[00:32:44] faithful in Christ Jesus.

[00:32:46] And in the 15th verse he says he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and love for

[00:32:52] all the saints.

[00:32:53] Paul could not write to a church like that which he so describes as if they had been mere

[00:32:57] babes in Christ but as strong men in Christ Jesus.

[00:33:00] And so the whole burden of his letter is spiritual privilege.

[00:33:04] He reminds them that God has blessed them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places

[00:33:08] in Christ.

[00:33:09] Accordingly he says, as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,

[00:33:15] that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

[00:33:19] He reminds them that they have redemption through Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins

[00:33:24] according to the riches of his grace.

[00:33:26] Yes, he reminds them that the church is Christ's body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.

[00:33:34] Twice during the time that he is dictating this remarkable letter to the Ephesian church,

[00:33:37] his heart is drawn out into large prayer for them.

[00:33:40] And what is the subject of these prayers?

[00:33:43] Spiritual privilege.

[00:33:44] You have one of these prayers in the first chapter beginning at the 16th verse.

[00:33:48] I cease not to give thanks for you," he says, making mention of you and my prayers that

[00:33:53] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom

[00:33:58] and revelation in the knowledge of him.

[00:34:01] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling

[00:34:05] and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness

[00:34:10] of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he

[00:34:15] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

[00:34:18] And so on.

[00:34:20] Then we have another of these large prayers in the third chapter beginning at the 14th verse.

[00:34:25] For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family

[00:34:30] in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory.

[00:34:35] Again, the same rapt expression, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man,

[00:34:41] that Christ being dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

[00:34:46] may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,

[00:34:52] and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, surpassing mere human knowledge,

[00:34:57] that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

[00:35:00] No, he reminds him that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that they can ask or

[00:35:06] think, according to the power that works in them.

[00:35:09] Then in the fourth and fifth chapters St. Paul still continues the strain of spiritual

[00:35:14] privilege.

[00:35:15] He reminds them of it, and urges them that, all come in the unity of the faith and of

[00:35:20] the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness

[00:35:25] of Christ.

[00:35:27] And then he addresses them as wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters,

[00:35:32] as if he wished to show that Christianity has a relation to all man's relations and conditions

[00:35:37] in life, and that it unfolds something suited to his condition, whatever it may be.

[00:35:42] And lastly, St. Paul addresses the members of this Asian church as soldiers and calls

[00:35:47] upon them to put on the whole armor of God.

[00:35:51] What is this armor?

[00:35:52] They are to have their loins skirt about with truth.

[00:35:55] They are to put on the breastplate of righteousness.

[00:35:57] They are to have their feet guarded with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

[00:36:01] They are to have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit.

[00:36:06] And above all, they are to have what bunion so fitly calls the grand battle-axe, all prayer.

[00:36:13] And they are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

[00:36:18] There never was a letterwriter so great as St. Paul since the world began.

[00:36:22] His letter to the Christians at Rome is the most powerful piece of logic and argumentation

[00:36:27] in the form of a letter that was ever written.

[00:36:30] And this letter to the Ephesian Church is one of the most peerless letters for eloquence

[00:36:34] that ever sprung from the mind of man.

[00:36:36] It abounds as I have already observed with examples of St. Paul's felicitous use of his

[00:36:40] favorite figure in rhetoric, antithesis or contrast.

[00:36:45] And the whole verse from which this text is taken is a fine example of it.

[00:36:48] For me, who am less than the least of all saints?

[00:36:52] Less than the least of all saints?

[00:36:55] How could St. Paul give himself such a description?

[00:36:58] Less than the least of all saints?

[00:36:59] What?

[00:37:00] Paul the zealous and active missionary for Christ?

[00:37:03] Paul, who is ready to be offered up for the cause of his divine master?

[00:37:07] Paul the deeply experienced Christian.

[00:37:10] Paul who could say, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain?

[00:37:14] How could Paul be the least of all saints?

[00:37:17] Are you surprised at the expression?

[00:37:20] And St. Paul felt that he had a strong reason to think of himself this way.

[00:37:23] He remembered that he had once persecuted that faith of Christ which he now preached.

[00:37:28] It was the constant remembrance of that which kept Paul humble.

[00:37:31] When God had forgiven him, he could not forgive himself.

[00:37:34] And it is this conscientious humility which brings out the force and the beauty of the

[00:37:39] contrast in this verse.

[00:37:41] For me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I, either persecutor,

[00:37:48] should preach among the Gentiles?

[00:37:50] What?

[00:37:51] A diminutive salvation?

[00:37:53] A salvation fenced about and ditched about and hedged in so that only a few can get in.

[00:37:59] A small salvation which enables believers to sin a little bit and sometimes a good deal

[00:38:05] every day and yet retain their title of children of God?

[00:38:09] One would think that a preacher who was less than the least of all saints could not have

[00:38:14] much to preach about.

[00:38:15] But now comes out the apostles' glorious conception of the grand and happy contrast between

[00:38:21] himself, the insignificant and unworthy preacher, and the unlimited greatness of his subject.

[00:38:28] For me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach

[00:38:33] among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[00:38:36] Imagine if we could raise up Paul and bring him before us tonight and let him explain on

[00:38:41] his own grand theme, I mean in our own tongue for he would not despise it.

[00:38:46] What do you think would be the first item of his master's unsurgeable riches that he

[00:38:50] would select for explanation?

[00:38:52] I has a date not to say that St. Paul's first item would be the unsearchable riches of

[00:38:57] Christ's divinity.

[00:38:59] St. Paul would be sure to begin there.

[00:39:02] St. Paul knew that there is neither foundation for a Christian faith nor consistency in it,

[00:39:07] without this item being put first.

[00:39:09] There was no guess, no surmise, no conjecture in the apostles' mind about this primal

[00:39:14] article of the Christian faith.

[00:39:16] He never says if or maybe or perhaps when he states this truth.

[00:39:22] His own mind is fully made up that it is a truth.

[00:39:25] Whenever he writes to a Christian church, he takes care to enthrone his master's divinity

[00:39:30] and when he addresses his spiritual son Timothy, he most superbly proclaims his master's

[00:39:35] Godhead.

[00:39:36] I profess to all who hear me that I cannot understand how any thoughtful and earnest man receives

[00:39:42] this volume of the New Testament as a divine revelation and stops short at the cold halfway

[00:39:48] house of unitarianism.

[00:39:51] If I did not receive the doctrine of the divine and human natures being united in Christ,

[00:39:55] the New Testament could not be to me what it is now—a complete guide and rest for my

[00:40:00] spiritual nature.

[00:40:02] I am not talking intolerantly.

[00:40:04] Let that be clearly understood.

[00:40:06] Christians cannot be intolerant.

[00:40:08] What has intolerance done for the Church of Christ?

[00:40:11] It has multiplied hatred, martyrdoms, and inquisitions.

[00:40:15] I dare not attempt to usurp the judgment seat of our Maker and pronounce the sentence

[00:40:19] of everlasting perdition on such men.

[00:40:22] Yet I am here to declare my own convictions as to the divinity of the Savior most decidedly

[00:40:27] and determinedly.

[00:40:29] I am just wondering how any unitarian could open the Gospel of Saint John with the knowledge

[00:40:34] that the Age of Disciple was commissioned and inspired to write his gospel so long after

[00:40:39] the other three gospels were written and to publish it when false doctrine was already

[00:40:43] abroad, and that he should commence with the emphatic words in the beginning was the

[00:40:48] word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

[00:40:52] And yet somehow the unitarians should deny that these words proclaim the divinity of

[00:40:57] that word, which as we read a little lower down, was made flesh and dwelt among men.

[00:41:03] Doubtless, they'll say, the introduction to John's gospel was written long after the

[00:41:09] gospel itself.

[00:41:10] It most likely embodies the conceit of a later time, when a part of the Christian Church

[00:41:15] was no longer content to regard Jesus as a perfect human example, but wished to have

[00:41:20] him adored as divine.

[00:41:22] If Christ himself had ever asserted his own divinity, it would have been a very different

[00:41:26] question altogether.

[00:41:28] Well, didn't the Savior assert his own divinity over and over again?

[00:41:33] One can't turn over two pages of this very gospel of Saint John without meeting one

[00:41:38] of these assertions of the Savior himself.

[00:41:41] Doubtless philosophy will explain it away.

[00:41:44] I allude to the words of Christ in this conversation with Nicodemus at the twelfth and thirteenth

[00:41:48] verses of the well-known third chapter.

[00:41:51] If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell

[00:41:55] you of heavenly things?

[00:41:57] And no one has ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son

[00:42:01] of man which is in heaven.

[00:42:03] Which is in heaven?

[00:42:05] What?

[00:42:06] Talking with Nicodemus, does he really sit in the company of the Jewish ruler in a body

[00:42:10] of flesh and blood and yet save himself that he is in heaven?

[00:42:15] Then he cannot be a mere man.

[00:42:17] A mere man cannot be in heaven and upon this earth also.

[00:42:21] Since Christ affirmed of himself that he was in heaven, he must be divine as well as human.

[00:42:27] Turn to the fifteenth chapter of this same gospel of Saint John and to the twenty-sixth verse.

[00:42:32] When the comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of

[00:42:37] truth which proceeds from the Father.

[00:42:40] What?

[00:42:41] Can Christ send the eternal Spirit to men?

[00:42:44] Then he must be eternal himself.

[00:42:47] What is this passage in the twenty-th chapter at the twenty-second verse?

[00:42:51] He breathed on them and says to them, receive you the Holy Ghost.

[00:42:55] Oh, what profaneness!

[00:42:57] No, what wickedness it would have been for Jesus if he had been a mere man to have attempted

[00:43:04] to breathe the Holy Spirit upon men.

[00:43:06] He must have been deity himself or Jesus would not have uttered those words.

[00:43:11] No, but listen again to the language of this same gospel at the thirteen-th and fourteen-th

[00:43:15] verses of the fourteenth chapter.

[00:43:18] Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in

[00:43:22] the Son.

[00:43:23] If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.

[00:43:26] Does Christ assert omnipotence to himself?

[00:43:30] Then let all men honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

[00:43:34] Can one wonder after such a declaration of Christ that St. Paul in addressing the Colossian

[00:43:39] Church uses those bold, clear words in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily?

[00:43:47] But can you tell us, ask some doubter, how Christ is God and man?

[00:43:52] No, I cannot tell you what the model union of divinity and humanity in the person of Christ

[00:43:57] is.

[00:43:58] It is not revealed in Scripture.

[00:44:00] Oh, then it is a mystery, I suppose.

[00:44:03] Observes the doubter.

[00:44:04] I don't like mysteries.

[00:44:06] I dare say you don't, but you are compelled to have millions of them whether you like them

[00:44:11] or not.

[00:44:12] You comprehend nothing.

[00:44:14] You only apprehend some things.

[00:44:17] I must believe in millions of mysteries and cannot help myself out of the mystery.

[00:44:22] And this union of the divine and human nature is a mystery.

[00:44:27] What would be the value of a unitarian savior to me?

[00:44:30] What is a unitarian savior?

[00:44:32] A sort of superior Socrates or Plato or Confucius?

[00:44:37] But a Socrates could not save you and me.

[00:44:40] Socrates never saved half a dozen Greeks in his life, and he can save nobody now that

[00:44:45] he is dead.

[00:44:46] I want a savior to deliver me from the guilt and penalty of sin.

[00:44:51] And blessed be God, here in the person of my divine Lord is the very savior I need.

[00:44:57] Again I ask, imagining the mind of the great apostle could once more come and he could stand

[00:45:02] before us tonight, and himself expand on his own glorious theme.

[00:45:07] What do you think would he select as the second item of his divine master?

[00:45:12] I hesitate not to say what I believe the second item would be because it comes next in logical

[00:45:17] order, and the mind of St. Paul was highly logical.

[00:45:21] I hold that the second item would be the unsurczable riches of Christ's condescension.

[00:45:26] In St. Paul's own beautiful language he who was rich for arsick became poor, that we through

[00:45:32] his poverty might become rich.

[00:45:34] He who being in the form of God could be the only one who could be the only one who could

[00:45:39] be rich.

[00:45:40] He who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made

[00:45:44] himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and humbled himself

[00:45:49] and became obedient to death even the death of the cross.

[00:45:54] Condescension?

[00:45:55] Christ's life on earth was all condescension, born of a poor virgin, born in a stable

[00:46:01] and laid in a manger.

[00:46:02] To whom was the celestial anthem of the angels sung glory to God in the highest on earth

[00:46:07] peace good will toward men?

[00:46:09] To the princes of Judea, to the magnates of the land.

[00:46:13] No, to the lowly shepherds watching their flocks by night on the fields of Bethlehem.

[00:46:18] They were the first selected to go and worship the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and

[00:46:22] lying in a manger.

[00:46:24] Whom did Christ select as his companions and familiar friends?

[00:46:27] The learned rabbis of the land, the doctors' indivinity and masters of arts of their time,

[00:46:33] the educated in colleges and universities, the philosophers of the age.

[00:46:38] A few poor fishermen from the lake of Galilee.

[00:46:41] "'I thank you, O Father,' said he, "'that you have hidden these things from the wise

[00:46:46] and prudent and have revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in

[00:46:51] your sight.'

[00:46:52] Yes, and it was good too.

[00:46:54] We would never have had these four simple and heart-touching narratives of their master's

[00:46:59] life if philosophers had been selected as apostles.

[00:47:03] What did philosophers do when they began to enter the Christian ranks in the second and

[00:47:06] third centuries?

[00:47:08] They began to introduce their systematic theologies and discourses and metaphysical

[00:47:13] cobwebs, until people who asked the question of the philosophers were puzzled to know what

[00:47:18] Christianity was.

[00:47:20] No, we should never have had a pure and simple gospel at Christ-selected philosophers

[00:47:25] for his disciples.

[00:47:27] He chose the rank of poverty for himself, and he wisely selected his companions from among

[00:47:32] the poor.

[00:47:33] Was he clothed with purple and fine linen?

[00:47:36] Did he feast every day?

[00:47:38] His coat was woven without a seam from the top to the bottom.

[00:47:42] And when the scribe in a patronizing way talked of becoming his disciple, what kind

[00:47:46] of a welcome was held out to the scribe by the Savior?

[00:47:49] The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere

[00:47:54] to lay his head.

[00:47:56] Yet there was none of the pride of poverty about Christ.

[00:48:00] Poverty is sometimes done proud, and we generally say in England that we like to see a little

[00:48:05] pride of poverty, a little independence, a little ragged self-reliance, but poverty

[00:48:11] is sometimes extravagantly proud.

[00:48:13] You remember the account of the old cynic philosopher Diogenes who had taken it into his head

[00:48:18] to live in a tub?

[00:48:20] He scoffed at Plato for his refinement and respectability and put away all the upholstery

[00:48:24] and carpets.

[00:48:26] He would have nothing to do anymore with what men in term comforts and delicacies.

[00:48:30] He would show Plato and the Athenians what it was to be a true philosopher.

[00:48:36] At last he threw away even the earthen cup with which he took water from the brook when

[00:48:39] he saw a boy drink out of the hollow of his hand.

[00:48:42] Alexander the Great went to see him.

[00:48:44] What can I do for you, Diogenes?

[00:48:47] The king asked after he aghased on the strange inhabitant of the tub for a short time.

[00:48:52] He turned out of my sunshine, answered the disciple of poverty waving his hand in scorn.

[00:48:58] That was the pride of poverty, but there was none of the pride of poverty in Christ.

[00:49:04] Condescension of Christ?

[00:49:06] Think of that attractive instance of his condescension when he sat by the well of Samaria and talked

[00:49:11] to the poor woman.

[00:49:12] His disciples seemed to have been far more stuck up sort of people than their master,

[00:49:17] though they were but plain fishermen.

[00:49:19] It's silly pride there is among you working men.

[00:49:22] And these beggarly fishermen felt scandalized by their master lowering himself and spending

[00:49:26] his time in such earnest instruction of a woman that was a Samaritan.

[00:49:30] And indeed, the woman herself was surprised at the condescension of the stranger.

[00:49:35] I often think it should be an encouragement to preachers who get small audiences to

[00:49:39] remember that Jesus preached two of his greatest sermons to single individuals.

[00:49:44] That great sermon on the new birth which he preached to the lurking Nicodemus, who came

[00:49:48] to see him by night because he lacked the courage to come in broad daylight.

[00:49:52] And this effective sermon that he preached to the poor Samaritan woman.

[00:49:56] How conscientious she was!

[00:49:58] For she went out into the city and said, Come see a man that told me all things that ever

[00:50:02] I did.

[00:50:03] Isn't this the Christ?

[00:50:05] And the Samaritan said he was the Christ when they heard him.

[00:50:08] For Jesus spent two days with the despised Samaritans.

[00:50:12] He did not despise them.

[00:50:14] Oh, what beautiful preaching there would be during those two days, although we have no

[00:50:18] record of it.

[00:50:19] Record of it?

[00:50:20] It is not likely we have a record to the amount of a hundredth part of the good and beautiful

[00:50:24] things that Jesus said while he was on earth.

[00:50:27] Listen to St. John, who was 100 years old, how in the closing of his gospel he bursts out

[00:50:32] into Eastern hyperbole and says, And there are also many other things which Jesus did,

[00:50:37] the witch if they should be written everyone I suppose that even the world itself could

[00:50:42] not contain the books that should be written.

[00:50:45] Well, I was going to say there will be plenty of time to know it, but I mean there will

[00:50:49] be plenty of time in heaven for listening to Holy John and others as to the delightful

[00:50:53] words they heard from their divine master in which they lacked the time to record on

[00:50:58] earth.

[00:50:59] Condescension of Christ?

[00:51:01] Think of that last act of condescension set before his disciples at the last supper.

[00:51:06] What does he do?

[00:51:07] He wraps a towel around his waist, takes a basin of water, and begins to wash his disciple's

[00:51:12] feet.

[00:51:13] He has a lot of time's speeches with amazement till he comes to Peter, passionate Peter who

[00:51:16] alone has courage to speak.

[00:51:19] Surely the angels themselves hovered over the hallowed scene and also gazed and wondered

[00:51:23] at the condescension of the prince of life and glory.

[00:51:26] And what does the Savior say when He has finished His self-imposed task of condescension?

[00:51:31] If I, your Lord and master have washed your feet so what you also to wash one another's

[00:51:36] feet.

[00:51:37] Brethren, can you do that?

[00:51:39] Can you perform a lowly act of service for a poor child of God, willingly and gladly?

[00:51:45] You young men who are strong and healthy and profess to belong to Christ.

[00:51:49] Could you feel more pleasure tonight in waiting upon a dying saint in a small room where there

[00:51:54] are no carpets on the floor and no hangs to the bed and we're all around you denoted

[00:51:58] poverty than you could in sitting down to a banquet with a gambling duke?

[00:52:04] That is to say, are you willing to submit to self-denial in order that your fellow members

[00:52:09] of the Church of Christ may be relieved when they are in need?

[00:52:12] If I, your Lord and master have washed your feet so ought you also to wash one another's

[00:52:17] feet.

[00:52:18] Remember the sweet words, brethren, and learn how sweet the practice of them.

[00:52:22] Again, I ask, imagine that Paul could be here and stand before us tonight and preach

[00:52:27] from his own great text.

[00:52:28] What do you think when you select work expanding as another of the items of his divine master's

[00:52:33] riches?

[00:52:34] We cannot know what all the items would be that he would enumerate or what would be the

[00:52:37] exact order in which he would name them, but I am sure he would not forget the unsurgeable

[00:52:42] riches of Christ's tenderness.

[00:52:44] Oh, the sweet tenderness of Christ!

[00:52:47] Suffer little children to come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom

[00:52:51] of heaven.

[00:52:52] "'Take him away!

[00:52:53] Take him away,' said the disciples.

[00:52:55] They were afraid of another rebuke.

[00:52:57] On a former occasion when they were disputing among themselves who should be the greatest,

[00:53:02] Christ took a little child and placed it in the middle of them, saying they were to

[00:53:05] be like that child, and he that was least among them should be the greatest.

[00:53:10] They had not grown better by the gentle reproof, and were evidently fearful of another!

[00:53:16] For when the parents of children brought their babies to Christ then he might put his hands

[00:53:19] upon them and bless them, the disciples rebuke to the parents.

[00:53:23] But Jesus said, "'Allow little children to come to me and do not forbid them for of such

[00:53:28] is the kingdom of heaven.'"

[00:53:30] Oh, whenever we feel inclined to harshness, let us call to mind Jesus' sweet tenderness in

[00:53:35] the blessing of children.

[00:53:37] Surely if we remember his dear example often we should be gentler with all and more tender

[00:53:41] with the weak.

[00:53:43] Again, think of Christ's tenderness even for the deeply airing if it were all true that

[00:53:48] they accused of the poor woman that they dragged into his presence, saying she had been

[00:53:52] taken well in the very act of adultery, and demanding if she were not to be instantly

[00:53:56] stone to death in the open street according to the rigid law of Moses.

[00:54:01] What does the Savior do?

[00:54:02] He stooped down to right on the earth with his finger, to let their rage and clamor cool

[00:54:07] and subside so that his lesson may strike home.

[00:54:10] Ah, he knew who they really were.

[00:54:13] Some of them old greybeards were steeped to the very lips in sin.

[00:54:17] Yes, the very sin they were charging the woman with so fiercely.

[00:54:21] This is what is implied in Christ's rebuke.

[00:54:24] She that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

[00:54:28] And then he stooped down again to right on the ground, to let the barbeiro have time

[00:54:33] to go home.

[00:54:34] Yes, and it did go home too.

[00:54:36] Home to the quick, they snuck away every one of them from the oldest to the youngest.

[00:54:41] They were all guilty.

[00:54:43] And when they were all gone so guiltily Jesus looked up again and said,

[00:54:47] woman, where are your accusers?

[00:54:50] Does no man condemn you?

[00:54:52] Does no one condemn you to be stoned to death?

[00:54:55] He does not mean that he does not condemn her sin.

[00:54:58] No man, Lord, answers the poor trembling and let us hope repentant woman.

[00:55:03] Neither do I condemn you, so go and sin no more.

[00:55:06] Jesus would not encourage their hypocritical fierceness, and so he spared the poor sinful

[00:55:12] woman's life that she might repent.

[00:55:15] One think of the Savior's large heart of patriotic tenderness.

[00:55:19] His disciples tell him of the splendor of the temple buildings, and he shows them that

[00:55:23] the time is nearly at hand when not one stone will be left on another, and that unspeakable

[00:55:28] woe and calamity will come upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[00:55:32] And then bursting into tears he cries, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

[00:55:37] How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings?

[00:55:41] And you would not!

[00:55:43] Think too of his large heart of friendly tenderness.

[00:55:46] See him by the grave of Lazarus, and listen to that shortest and beautiful verse of the New

[00:55:50] Testament.

[00:55:51] Jesus wept.

[00:55:53] Beautiful verse?

[00:55:54] Ask some critical heart.

[00:55:56] Why do you give it that name?

[00:55:58] I want to know why there is such a verse in the narrative.

[00:56:01] You have been maintaining the doctrine of Christ's divinity.

[00:56:04] Since Christ was God as well as man, he must have known that he intended to raise Lazarus

[00:56:09] from the dead.

[00:56:10] Why then did he weep for the death of Lazarus?

[00:56:14] Because he was perfect man as well as God, and to therefore had every human sympathy in

[00:56:19] its strength and fullness.

[00:56:21] And because the union of the divine with his human nature did not dwarf Christ's humanity,

[00:56:26] did not annihilate his human attributes, but rather served to sustain them in all their

[00:56:31] most lovable fullness.

[00:56:34] Instead of raising a doubt, the grief of Jesus for the death of his friend Lazarus should

[00:56:38] raise our thankfulness.

[00:56:39] How unmeasurably close to us, it proves Jesus to be.

[00:56:43] How intimately one with us.

[00:56:45] Mother, do not think it wrong to weep for your dear child when God takes it.

[00:56:50] So long as your grief is not complaining grief and rebellious grief, do not check the

[00:56:55] tear of nature.

[00:56:57] Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus.

[00:57:00] Friend, do not think it wrong to weep for your dear friend when God takes him home

[00:57:04] to himself.

[00:57:05] So long as your grief is not discontented and rebellious grief, do not check the tear

[00:57:10] of nature.

[00:57:11] Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus.

[00:57:14] But above all, think of that last act of the Savior's tenderness as he hung upon the

[00:57:18] cross.

[00:57:19] He can forget his own agony, the pain of his wounds, the death thirst and the fever,

[00:57:23] to think of his dear mother who stands by the cross.

[00:57:27] The sword at length piercing through her own soul also.

[00:57:31] He will not leave the world without seeing his dear mother provided for.

[00:57:35] He addresses her and the beloved disciple.

[00:57:38] Mother, behold your son!

[00:57:40] Behold your mother!

[00:57:42] What says St. John?

[00:57:43] And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

[00:57:47] Is there any young lad here who is thinking of sending his mother off?

[00:57:51] Is there some person called respectable in this chapel who has cast the maintenance of an

[00:57:56] aged parent upon the world?

[00:57:57] Oh, hide your faces in shame while you think of your Savior!

[00:58:02] Is that young man one of the working classes who has it in his heart to desert his poor

[00:58:06] mother?

[00:58:07] Oh my lad, work those fingers of yours through the skin and flesh to the bone rather

[00:58:12] than desert your poor mother.

[00:58:13] What?

[00:58:14] The heart that has cared for you and the head that has ached for you so often?

[00:58:19] Think of your Savior!

[00:58:21] He will not leave his dear mother unprovided for.

[00:58:24] He hold your mother and from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

[00:58:29] And a loving tender home it would be, the home of the loving disciple who leaned on Jesus

[00:58:34] pressed.

[00:58:35] Again, I ask, supposing the mind of Holy Paul could once more be here with us tonight,

[00:58:40] from this his own rich subject, what do you think would he choose as another item on

[00:58:45] his divine master's riches?

[00:58:47] I repeat, we cannot presume to know what all the items would be which would present themselves

[00:58:52] to the mind of Paul, which was so exuberant, so perfect in its powers of illustration.

[00:58:57] But certainly, the unsurczable riches of Christ's redeeming love.

[00:59:02] I am sure St. Paul could not forget this exaltant theme if he could live on Earth again.

[00:59:08] For he never forgot it when he lived on Earth 1800 years ago.

[00:59:11] God forbid that I should glory save in the cross was his greatful exclamation.

[00:59:17] I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord

[00:59:22] and where would the great apostle begin with his explanation on the redeeming love of

[00:59:25] his Lord?

[00:59:26] He must go back where he went in his mind when he addressed the Ephesian church, in

[00:59:31] the very words exceeding the text.

[00:59:33] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of

[00:59:38] the world has been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.

[00:59:42] To the intent that now for the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known

[00:59:47] by the church, the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he

[00:59:51] purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[00:59:54] And this eternal purpose is the mystery which from the beginning of the world has been

[00:59:59] hid in God.

[01:00:01] It is, as the great apostle says in the conclusion of his letter to the church at Rome, the mystery

[01:00:05] which was kept secret since the world began.

[01:00:09] It is the mystery of God's essence.

[01:00:12] The redeeming love of Christ, Paul would have to show dates from all eternity and will

[01:00:16] reach into all eternity.

[01:00:18] God does not reason by feeble steps like man and so come to a purpose.

[01:00:24] His purposes are eternal.

[01:00:26] The all wise is eternally all wise.

[01:00:29] The eternal triune God knew from all eternity that he would make man.

[01:00:34] Triune God, wait, stop sir!

[01:00:37] Christ out some objector.

[01:00:38] You now show your belief in the doctrine of what is called the Trinity.

[01:00:42] But you know there is not such a word in the New Testament and that it was only invented

[01:00:46] by the fathers in the second century.

[01:00:48] But the doctrine of the Trinity is in the New Testament, I reply, even if the name is not

[01:00:53] there.

[01:00:55] But is not the doctrine a contradiction in itself that three are one?

[01:00:59] No, it is not.

[01:01:02] It would be a contradiction to say that three persons are one person.

[01:01:06] But that is not the doctrine of the Trinity.

[01:01:09] The doctrine is that three persons are one God.

[01:01:14] But can you tell us how three persons are one deity?

[01:01:17] No.

[01:01:18] And perhaps all the angels in heaven, all the created intelligences in God's universe

[01:01:22] could not tell you.

[01:01:24] You mean to say then that this also is a mystery?

[01:01:27] Of course I do.

[01:01:29] But how can any term descriptive of the nature of God fail to be mysterious to creatures

[01:01:33] of limited capacity?

[01:01:35] If God had not told us that his nature was triune, all other terms descriptive of his nature

[01:01:41] are necessarily mysterious.

[01:01:43] What is it to be infinite?

[01:01:45] We cannot tell.

[01:01:46] What is it to be almighty, unnished, self-existent?

[01:01:50] We cannot tell.

[01:01:52] And yet there must be terms properly and truly descriptive of the nature of God or he would

[01:01:58] not be God.

[01:01:59] But do you think there is any strict necessity for using such a term or such terms as person

[01:02:05] and persons when we are talking about God?

[01:02:08] I do.

[01:02:09] And I will tell you my simple reason for it.

[01:02:12] I find that when Christ speaks of himself, he says, I, when he addresses the Father, he

[01:02:18] says, you.

[01:02:20] And when he speaks of the Holy Spirit, he says he.

[01:02:23] Now I know no clearer way of indicating personality than the use of the three common personal

[01:02:28] pronouns and I see no way of refining their plain and evident use into fantastical

[01:02:34] metaphors or redefinitions without a violation of common sense.

[01:02:39] But when the Comforter comes whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit

[01:02:43] of Truth which proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me.

[01:02:48] I will resume.

[01:02:50] I say, the holy and ever-blessed Trinity planned man's creation from all eternity, purposed

[01:02:57] to make man a moral agent, a being with the full power of choice, knew infallibly what

[01:03:02] choice man would make, and provided the remedy.

[01:03:06] God the Father so loved his moral and intelligent creation as to give his son, and God the

[01:03:12] Son so loved it as to give himself to redeem it, and God the Holy Ghost gave himself to

[01:03:17] the work of man's regeneration.

[01:03:20] And did God know from all eternity who would accept redemption?

[01:03:24] Doubtless he did, but his foreign knowledge did not rob man of moral agency, of free choice.

[01:03:31] The Redeemer knew who would accept his redemption, and he knew it from all eternity.

[01:03:36] And he knew also that he would redeem them to all eternity.

[01:03:40] So Paul's theme would have extended in its scope through all the ages, not one saved

[01:03:45] child of the human race that will ever live on the earth except those that would have been

[01:03:50] included in Paul's great theme of Christ's redeeming love.

[01:03:54] For no patriarch of old, no prophet or seer, no worshiper of God under any former dispensation

[01:04:00] has ever reached heaven but through Christ's redeeming love.

[01:04:04] Christ is the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, given in the first

[01:04:08] promise to man.

[01:04:10] Christ is the great anti-type prefigured by all the types of the Old Testament.

[01:04:14] He is the great sacrifice precursor to all the sacrifices of old.

[01:04:19] Those sacrifices were nothing in themselves.

[01:04:21] They were but the signs and shadows of the great sacrifice.

[01:04:25] And you believe in the actual and veritable atonement of Christ for human sin?

[01:04:30] Demands some hesitating inquirer.

[01:04:32] I do.

[01:04:34] I believe that he is the propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but for the sins

[01:04:39] of the whole world.

[01:04:41] I hide my face in awe and anguish when I think of what Christ suffered.

[01:04:45] But again, I go on to say that not all the possible suffering of one human soul, however

[01:04:50] spotless and holy, conjoined with all the possible suffering of one sinless body, could

[01:04:55] be a sufficient atonement for the sins of the whole world.

[01:04:59] In what then did the fullness of Christ's atonement consist?

[01:05:03] You know, and I know, what the reply has been and still is from many who are considered

[01:05:08] high authorities in theology.

[01:05:10] That the union of the divine nature, with the human nature, in the person of Christ,

[01:05:15] stamped such a value on the sufferings of Christ's human soul and body as to render those sufferings

[01:05:20] a sufficient atonement for the sins of the world.

[01:05:24] I am compelled to tell you that I cannot accept that attempt at an explanation as satisfactory,

[01:05:28] if by union be meant mere union and no participation in the sufferings.

[01:05:35] Nor would it suffice to tell me that God can choose to consider the mere union as equivalent

[01:05:40] to participation in the sufferings.

[01:05:42] That would not accord with the revelation that God can be just and the justifier of him

[01:05:47] that believes.

[01:05:49] It is not the payment of the debt.

[01:05:50] Yes, I am valiantly again for what is nearer called the commercial view of the atonement.

[01:05:56] I accept the word commercial.

[01:05:58] You are bought with a price, and I glory in it since it is the price of the precious blood

[01:06:03] of Christ.

[01:06:04] Finally, on this point I tell you with awe, but I tell you the true and solemn conviction

[01:06:09] of my own mind that the fullness of the atonement of Christ consists in his divine suffering.

[01:06:15] Not alone knows the awful depth of the divine and human sufferings of Christ.

[01:06:20] But whatever the indescribable bitterness of the cut might be, the holy and eternal atoning

[01:06:25] one drank it to the drags and cried, it is finished!

[01:06:30] Such were the unsearchable riches of Christ's redeeming love, and if St. Paul were preaching

[01:06:34] to you tonight he would show how the unsearchable riches of Christ's redeeming love are

[01:06:39] riches for all who will consent to be enriched by receiving them.

[01:06:43] But if the sinner only feels his real poverty and comes to Christ, Christ will in no way cast

[01:06:49] him out.

[01:06:50] That these unsearchable riches are offered to all and refused to none who truly seek

[01:06:55] them.

[01:06:56] And in my master's name I offer these riches to you, poor sinner, whoever you are,

[01:07:01] however vile, however fallen, however poor.

[01:07:05] I offer these riches though you may be poor indeed, even an outcast from mankind.

[01:07:11] Poor drunkard, I offer them to you.

[01:07:13] Will you come to Christ who has so loved you that he died to save you?

[01:07:18] Poor infatuated gambler, poor loiterer inale houses, making bets on trifles and wasting

[01:07:24] the money your poor wife and children should have for bread.

[01:07:28] Poor miserable spend-thrift who are at often thinking of committing suicide and feeling

[01:07:32] your sinful life to be a curse.

[01:07:35] Poor wanderers in the kennels of vice and sensuality.

[01:07:39] I offer these riches to you.

[01:07:41] Oh, if you can only breathe one breath of prayer, God will help you.

[01:07:45] He is helping you.

[01:07:47] The Holy Spirit has begun his work in you if you are breathing the humblest and faintest

[01:07:51] breath of heartfelt prayer.

[01:07:53] I am praying, says some poor sinner, I am trying to come to Christ.

[01:07:58] Thank God for that!

[01:08:00] Pray on my dear fellow sinner!

[01:08:02] Christ is nearer to you than you do think, and you will soon feel him filling your poor

[01:08:06] heart with joy.

[01:08:08] Is Satan saying to that other poor broken-hearted one, there is no forgiveness for you?

[01:08:13] You can never share the unsurigible riches of Christ's three-daming love for you are

[01:08:18] not one of the elect.

[01:08:19] Say you do not know that, Satan!

[01:08:22] I am sure God does not tell his secrets to you.

[01:08:25] You are an old and crafty one but you can't deceive me with such a pretense.

[01:08:29] Of all the intelligent beings in this universe, you are the last to whom God will tell his

[01:08:34] secrets.

[01:08:35] You do not know that I am not one of the elect.

[01:08:38] And God has not told me that I am, but I know that his word declares that, God so loved

[01:08:43] the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not

[01:08:48] perish but have everlasting life.

[01:08:50] And so I am determined to cast myself at the footstool of the divine mercy and cry,

[01:08:56] Lord, if I do perish, I will perish crying for mercy in the name of your Son!

[01:09:02] You did not send your Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through

[01:09:05] him might be saved.

[01:09:07] I am a sinner and you did send your Son to save sinners.

[01:09:11] If I perish, I will perish pleading for mercy in your Son's name!

[01:09:16] Only get there, poor sinner!

[01:09:18] Only get to the footstool of your Maker and resolve to plead for mercy in Christ's

[01:09:23] name and never to be turned away, and you never will be turned away!

[01:09:28] Take care that you have no plea but Christ, no prayer but in his name, no cry for pardon

[01:09:33] but through him.

[01:09:34] Remember that these unsearchable riches belong to Christ and you can only have them by pleading

[01:09:39] in his name!

[01:09:41] God can only pardon you through Christ!

[01:09:44] And therefore seek pardon no other way.

[01:09:47] Be assured there is fullness of forgiveness through Christ such are the riches of his redeeming

[01:09:52] love.

[01:09:53] I cannot tell you, brethren, or lead you to reckon up all the other items of his divine

[01:09:57] master's unsearchable riches which would have been enumerated by Holy Paul, if he could

[01:10:01] have preached to us from his own great text.

[01:10:04] But what are we to do with the word unsearchable?

[01:10:07] For Paul would have done something with it!

[01:10:10] He would not only have shown that the riches of Christ's divinity are unsearchable and

[01:10:14] the riches of his condescension are unsearchable and the riches of his tenderness are unsearchable

[01:10:20] and the riches of his redeeming love are unsearchable.

[01:10:24] But he would more fully have shown us his rich meaning while using such a word as this

[01:10:28] word unsearchable.

[01:10:31] What can we do?

[01:10:32] What can we say?

[01:10:33] What will we do with the word unsearchable?

[01:10:37] There are three quarters of a million words in this blessed book that lies before me.

[01:10:41] There are three and a half millions of letters in this blessed book, but if every letter

[01:10:45] were a word and every word the word riches, that would not express the unsearchable riches

[01:10:50] of Christ!

[01:10:52] There are millions of stars in the Milky Way and astronomers assure us that every star is

[01:10:56] a sun and that every sun has its system of planets.

[01:10:59] But if the word riches were emblazoned on every sun and planet of the galaxy, that would

[01:11:05] not express the unsearchable riches of Christ!

[01:11:08] There are millions of millions of blades of grass in the field and millions of millions

[01:11:13] of leaves in the forest.

[01:11:15] But if the word riches were impressed on every blade of grass and every leaf of every

[01:11:19] tree which is grown amid the influences of sun and air since the creation, that would

[01:11:24] not express the unsearchable riches of Christ!

[01:11:28] There are unnumbered millions of millions of grains of sand by the seashore.

[01:11:34] But if the word riches were stamped microscopically on every grain of sand that lies by the broad

[01:11:40] Atlantic and by the vast Pacific and by every ocean in sea in the known world, that

[01:11:45] would not express the unsearchable riches of Christ!

[01:11:49] And if all the minds of power that ever existed among men and all the minds that worshipped

[01:11:53] and enthroned intellectual beauty and all the minds of large discourse looking before

[01:11:58] and after could be restored to human bodies and be consecrated and set apart for the transcendent

[01:12:04] investigation, they could not even unitesedly conceive and explain and fully express to

[01:12:11] us the unsearchable riches of Christ!

[01:12:14] Now if the highest archangel were to let down the best of his intelligence into the abyss

[01:12:19] of far-reaching investigation, he could never ascertain so as to be able to explain and

[01:12:24] fully express the unsearchable riches of Christ!

[01:12:28] These riches never will be expressed fully even to all eternity.

[01:12:33] No, not by the noble army of martyrs nor the glorious company of the apostles nor

[01:12:38] the goodly fellowship of the prophets nor the general assembly and church of the first

[01:12:42] born nor the innumerable company of angels nor the spirits of just men made perfect nor

[01:12:48] by all the ransomed throng of heaven.

[01:12:51] Saints and martyrs, prophets and patriarchs, in glory will try to express the unsearchable

[01:12:56] riches!

[01:12:57] It will form their most ecstatic employment in heaven!

[01:13:00] Join all you happy throngs in heaven!

[01:13:03] Join the spirits of holy able and holy ennick!

[01:13:06] Join the spirits of upright Job and perfect Noah!

[01:13:09] Join the souls of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob!

[01:13:12] Join the grand souls of Moses and Samuel and Elijah!

[01:13:15] Join the souls of pardon David and pardoned Manasseh!

[01:13:19] Join the soul of Isaiah, the prophet who in his old age was sauna-sunder by the wicked

[01:13:23] king!

[01:13:24] Join all you whose souls under the altar of heaven cry, how long O Lord will you not

[01:13:29] avenge our blood upon the earth!

[01:13:31] Join Holy Stephen and Polycarp!

[01:13:33] Join Holy Latimer and Ridley and Hooper and Roland Taylor and Anne Ask You!

[01:13:38] Join all you who labored so stately for your Lord and were favored to die in natural

[01:13:43] death!

[01:13:44] Join Brave Wycliffe and Gallant Luther and Stern John Knox and Sweet John Bunyan and

[01:13:49] praying George Fox.

[01:13:51] Join Pious Dodridge and Tune Full Watts, join Noble George Whitfield and Holy John Fletcher

[01:13:57] and Exhaustless John Wesley and Dauntless Rowland Hill and Grand Loli Robert Hall.

[01:14:03] Join all you saints of God around his throne!

[01:14:06] You sweetest trebles of the eternal choir!

[01:14:08] Two million, million babes who died without life lived!

[01:14:12] Join all your notes of praise!

[01:14:14] Pull out every stop of the great organ of heaven from the deep, deep swell of base to

[01:14:18] the lofty flutin' cornet!

[01:14:21] Gabriel strike the loftiest note of thy harp of gold!

[01:14:24] Let the bright seraphim in burning row, their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow!

[01:14:30] And let the full gathered host of heaven, angels and men begin the grand anthem.

[01:14:35] Wesley is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength

[01:14:41] and honor and glory and blessing!

[01:14:44] And let the bold line be struck, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him

[01:14:49] that sits upon the throne and for the Lamb forever and ever!

[01:14:53] And let the eternal amen, peel and roll and reverberate through all the arches of heaven.

[01:14:59] But never will the gathered host through all eternity be able to express the unsearchable

[01:15:05] riches of Christ!

[01:15:07] Oh, poor sinner, these riches are for you.

[01:15:11] This heaven is provided for you.

[01:15:13] Will you leave this chapel tonight still clothed in the beggary and rags of sin rather

[01:15:18] than accept the unsearchable riches of Christ?

[01:15:21] What, poor criminal, will you go away and feed on the husks that the swine eat rather

[01:15:26] than come home to your father and be saved by redeeming love?

[01:15:30] Your father sees you afar off.

[01:15:32] He inclines his ear to listen for your cry.

[01:15:36] Begin to cry now before it is too late.

[01:15:38] How will you escape if you neglect to accept his present offer of mercy?

[01:15:43] What will be the awful issue?

[01:15:45] You have not a moment beyond the present to call your own!

[01:15:49] Except pardon now, just now be an earnest.

[01:15:53] Christ was an earnest when he blood and died for you.

[01:15:56] God the Father isn't earnest in waiting for you.

[01:15:59] But God the Holy Ghost is an earnest in working on your mind and making you feel your duty

[01:16:04] and need to come to Christ.

[01:16:06] Sinner, I entreat you, be also an earnest.

[01:16:10] Can you still resist?

[01:16:12] Can you find it in your heart to withstand such love and to remain in your sin and on

[01:16:17] the side of your Savior's foes?

[01:16:19] Say no but I yield, I yield, I can hold out no more!

[01:16:25] Surrender.

[01:16:26] Sing to the compelling love of the one who conquers all.

[01:16:29] May God help you to yield for Christ's sake.

[01:16:33] Amen.

[01:16:37] There is this one part in this sermon where he is talking about the riches of Christ, where

[01:16:49] he says he is talking about how Paul used to persecute the church.

[01:16:54] I almost forgot about this the first time.

[01:16:57] But I just have to wonder, is there, I bet you as somebody who spent, and I have not spent

[01:17:02] 25 years going after Christians and being an atheist and trying to convince people

[01:17:07] not to believe in God like Cooper did, I wonder if there's a part of him where he really

[01:17:11] stood out to him that God showed such rich and good mercy to Paul because he himself

[01:17:17] wasn't killing people, he wasn't dragging them out of their houses to take them to jail

[01:17:21] like Paul.

[01:17:22] But he was spiritually attacking them, he wasn't atheist, he was going after them and

[01:17:27] I wonder if that resonated with Cooper probably on some level in a way that it maybe

[01:17:32] doesn't resonate with all of us where he's probably looking at that and going, yeah,

[01:17:35] I know what it's like to go after the church, I know what it's like to dedicate yourself

[01:17:38] to tearing down God, I really resonate with that and I can tell you know just I'm sure

[01:17:44] you can experience the mercy of God in a sense that in a way that maybe many of us don't

[01:17:48] where you're an enemy of God, a true, we all were but I mean you were truly dedicated

[01:17:53] to taking down Christ in the church and the fact that he would bring you into his family.

[01:17:58] I bet that just spoke to Cooper in a way that I don't know that all of us will get

[01:18:02] to experience quite that same level of just wow.

[01:18:05] And I think that might have been why he mentions this in the sermon and why he put that

[01:18:09] in there just like man that I just again I just imagine how much I spoke to him.

[01:18:13] His story really spoke to me too.

[01:18:15] You know we've done hundreds of people throughout church history.

[01:18:18] We have hit so many different people but I don't think we've ever had a guy who was

[01:18:23] you know in his 50s before he came to Christ and has been his life attacking the church

[01:18:28] it really stood out to me because you know in the book crisis of doubt there are several

[01:18:32] of these guys actually but it's just such an interesting group of people and what a testimony

[01:18:37] they have that they walked away from God for so long and then they came back and they

[01:18:41] dedicated themselves to God and tried to you know undo some of the messes that they had

[01:18:45] made.

[01:18:46] It's a group of people you don't really think about and maybe a little bit sad I can't

[01:18:49] think of a lot of people like that today so maybe we need to get working on those atheists

[01:18:54] around us in our life to prove that God no one's too far gone.

[01:18:58] You can't spend too many decades away from Christ you can't still use you.

[01:19:12] Thank you for listening to today's episode of revived thoughts.

[01:19:16] Today's sermon was narrated by David Cave Martin.

[01:19:19] Thank you so much David for being a part of the revived thoughts production here.

[01:19:23] Yeah David has read multiple sermons for us we're really grateful to all the work he's

[01:19:28] put in.

[01:19:29] He's always a very good reader and even he read this and he is like I looked up Cooper

[01:19:34] he's like I like him a lot he has a couple issues and yeah Cooper I'm not saying go out

[01:19:38] and get the next Cooper book there are some things about Cooper where I'm like okay I don't

[01:19:41] know if I grew up that but considering where he started as an anti God person to where

[01:19:45] he ended I go it's probably it's probably pretty good he ended where he did.

[01:19:50] Alright if you enjoyed this episode of revived thoughts if you if you liked it we ask you

[01:19:55] send it to other people let them hear this story I think it's really encouraging to hear

[01:20:00] a story like this I don't know if you feel that way but I know for me when I hear about

[01:20:03] people who are really far gone from God and especially honestly the intellectual elite

[01:20:08] people who you know we hear stories maybe sometimes about the drug dealer who comes to

[01:20:13] Christ or you know those kind of people who are far from those kind of but God saves them

[01:20:16] but they don't hear a lot of stories about that intellectually I'm better than you kind

[01:20:21] of almost smug person coming to Christ I found it really encouraging to see that yes

[01:20:24] even those people will come to Christ and can turn it around and I hope you can share

[01:20:28] that with some of your friends let them see it who knows maybe you will help somebody

[01:20:33] else get the get the courage to start talking to their intellectual atheist friend and who

[01:20:37] knows maybe maybe the Lord will work on their hearts and maybe some people can you know

[01:20:41] can get saved from this so this is Troy and Joel and this is Revive Thoughts.