Desirable Riches

Rev. W.C. Lamain (1904-1984)

In the perfectly glorious state of rectitude, Adam and Eve were rich. Of what did those riches consist? On the sixth day, after God created the heavens and the earth and all that is therein, He created man. Adam was the crown jewel of the Creation. He was related to heaven and earth. His body was formed out of the dust of the earth, and his soul came directly from God in heaven. Adam was adorned with the image of God which existed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Adam was clothed with the glory of God. The honor of God was the purpose of his life, and the communion with God was the pleasure of his life. Adam knew God, Adam served God, and Adam glorified God. He delighted himself in God by day and by night. Oh, what riches!

We can only stammer about the riches which our first father possessed in the Garden of Eden. Alas, in a moment he lost all of those riches. Wantonly and freely he has torn himself away from God. By listening to the devil, he robbed himself of all of those treasures and gifts which God had given him. Adam fell, and we in him (because he was our covenant head) have become guilty and corrupt. Yea, in one word, we have become poor, indescribably poor. In a narrower sense, Adam lost God’s image. He lost God’s glory, and he sank away in an eternal abyss of misery. There are no words to describe how rich man once was, but neither are there words to describe the deep misery wherein we have fallen. Ah, my friends, by nature, we do not comprehend how miserable, wretched, poor, blind, and naked we are. Light from heaven is necessary to receive knowledge of that. Without the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we miss the profound knowledge of the state of our misery and, consequently, also the sorrow which flows out of this knowledge and the essential concern to be delivered out of that state.

As a result of our deep fall we are not worthy but to be cast away forever. We have forfeited our life and have earned eternal death. Everything which we have received in this life more than hell and damnation is free grace and mercy. We have made ourselves unworthy of all blessings, but God blesses both man and beast, and His help is never asked in vain. Both man and beast are blessed by God.

Asaph became a great beast before God (Psalm 73), and for such ones the blessings of heaven and earth which God grants for Christ’s sake receive value. When we become before God what we truly are, then God also becomes for us what He is in Christ Jesus. Life here upon earth is full of tribulations, disappointments, and sorrows. On the other side, it is full of the evidences of God’s mercies.

If God would do with us according to His righteousness and justice, then we could no longer exist upon this earth, but now the earth is still full of the mercies of the Lord. Day after day He loadeth us with benefits. His faithfulness is new every morning. Where can we begin, and where will we end in naming everything wherewith God still surrounds us? Words fail us to do so.

Of what do these riches of the Lord consist—riches which we read about here? Many and manifold are the blessings of God. They are great both in our personal and family lives. We do not have eyes to see it, and we do not have a heart to realize it. We will only see it and take it to heart when God opens our eyes for it. Outwardly, the blessings are also great in the realm of nature, and also these blessings make one rich. Oh, let us never think so little of the fact that God still gives us health, desire, and strength for our daily labor and also that He crowns our tables with the fatness of flocks and field, we may still go covered with clothing over the earth, and we have a roof over our heads. Yea, there is so much more that we cannot mention in these few lines. When God opens our eyes, then they are all forfeited blessings and benefits. All those good and perfect gifts come from the Father of lights. They come to us, as it was written by an English divine, through the channel of Jesus’ blood. If we, then, would observe to whom they are given, namely, to those who have lost all rights thereto, how we should call out by day and by night, “Oh, all that is within me, bless His holy Name.”

Also in our natural life we can toil and slave from the early morning until the evening and still remain poor. How many examples cannot we find in God’s Word. Read about it in Psalm 127; also, experience time and again confirms that only the blessing of the Lord maketh rich. Oh, that we would acknowledge Him in all our ways, looking with our eye only upon God, also in our daily life.

God is also a God for this time state. Lay your needs before Him without fear. Especially, however, the blessings out of the eternal covenant of grace make rich. It is the same in grace as in natural life, for whatever our efforts cannot attain, God will provide. Whatever God’s people may become in this life is all unearned and not the fruit of their own decisions or desires. It all flows from the one-sided good pleasure of God and is the fruit of Christ’s merits. He merited for His people all the blessings, also the temporal ones, and the world may share therein. He merited all spiritual blessings through His suffering and perfect obedience.

It is an indescribable blessing to be one of God’s elect, an unspeakable blessing to be purchased and saved by the blood of the Lamb. It is an inexpressible blessing to have been made alive by the Holy Spirit and convinced and assured of our portion in God through Christ. It is expressly written that it should be seen as a blessing “that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets and that our garners may be full, affording all manner of store,” but our greatest blessing is to have God as our portion.

Esau said to Jacob when they met each other after twenty years, “I have much.” Jacob did not have as much of that which Esau had in abundance, but he was so blessed that he could say, “I have everything!” At Peniel he had received the God of Abraham and Isaac as his portion, and certainly, that is everything. With that portion, everything else fades away. Outside of God everything is perishable and corrupt. The church sings in Psalm 48:14: “For this God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death.” To have God as our portion in that high and adorable way, opened and revealed in Christ Jesus the Surety of the Covenant, to again receive God, to again receive His image to live restored in His communion, that is everything. With less we cannot do, and more we do not need.

Why is that all so? Certainly, it is because that blessing alone is all-fulfilling, but most important is that God is glorified and praised thereby in His eternal attributes. The honor of God stands above all. That is now the blessing which makes rich, that makes one happy, that is fulfilling for time and eternity, and in those riches there is no sorrow. The poet of the Proverbs says, “And He addeth no sorrow to it.”

With everything which is of the world there is sorrow. The good that is performed without and against the will of the Lord will bring us nothing but unrest. What agony of conscience does it occasion. Even if a person receives it in an orderly way, how much care and trouble does it bring along with it. How much care is necessary to maintain it. For thousands and ten thousands, it brings sleepless nights.

In addition to that, how much vexation of spirit is experienced in the enjoyment of it in this life. What painful sorrow when we again have to lose what we have obtained. How many who could not get over the loss of their worldly goods have died in despair. Some have wasted away their lives because of it. Earthly riches do not make us truly rich.

The blessing of the Lord, however, is worth everything; it alone makes a person truly rich, “And the Lord addeth no sorrow with it.” The blessing of the Lord is desirable riches. God’s favor, communion, and grace in Christ is everything. In those heavenly riches lie contentment and joy. In those we can find fulfillment and satisfaction. Those are riches which we receive in a right way. God Himself has prepared that way in Christ. They are riches which have been merited by His blood. All those who may share in those riches, when applied by God’s Spirit and received in faith, will nevermore lose them.

Oh, my friends, have we ever experienced a longing for those riches in our lives; have we ever experienced a longing for God? Has God already opened our eyes for our deep misery and poverty? Have you ever realized that you have lost all rights and claims to any blessings for this time state and for eternity?

By nature, we do not realize any of these things. We live in a state of death, and we are become completely foolish because of sin. We must not only be made alive by God’s Spirit but we must also be convinced, uncovered, and enlightened. Oh, that His Spirit would work mightily and irresistibly in our heart and in our posterity. The fruit would then become visible. There would then be an acknowledgment of God’s justice and a being bound to heaven to receive freely, for Christ’s sake, the blessing of the Lord. It would not be a time of keeping quiet but a looking out and upward to the God of all grace, to be blessed by Him with those blessings which would be to the glory of God and to the fulfillment and joy of our heart.

For the most miserable and poorest, those blessings are still to be obtained. We can buy them without money and without price. The offer of the gospel is so abundant, even though only the elect shall share in the blessings of heaven according to God’s sovereign good pleasure in Christ Jesus. God does not diminish with His giving and does not become greater with withholding these blessings. He is the All Sufficient One in Himself. Oh, that our souls might look up to that God who gives liberally and upbraideth not. Out of the force of His eternal covenant, He calls out to His people.

I will, if thou plead,
Fill thine every need,
All thy wants relieving.

What God commands there becomes the prayer of His people. It is all God’s own work. He causes us to see what we are missing and what we are lacking. He gives us a true soul’s longing, and He also grants the fulfillment.

God Himself binds His people to heaven. Who of those people is not aware of that? No, not one of them is a stranger of that life. Many times, both by day and night, they have lain before God’s throne in their deep unworthiness to beg of God that which is so indispensable for God’s honor and their salvation. They are acquainted with that believing persistence of the Canaanitish woman and that crying to God which David once experienced. Oh, that we would have much of it in our soul. Our lack here below is much greater than our possessing.

Under the old covenant dispensation God blessed His people by means of the priests. In Numbers 6:24-26, they had to lay a special blessing upon the people. There, the blessing of a Triune God is imparted to God’s elect. Oh, that a desire for it would be born in our heart and that our soul would long for it by day and night; that we would lose all of our supposed and imagined riches so that we could receive God as our portion.

Christ said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” The apostle Paul said: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:8&9).

All that we have stolen or taken in this life, we will lose. Such riches will fall away in the hour of trouble and death. What God grants His people out of sovereign grace for Christ’s sake remains. Yea, they are riches which multiply, and they increase in value more and more. They are riches which will last to all eternity.

People of the Lord, that you with the enlightened eyes of your understanding may see more and more in those riches which have been granted unto you. That your soul may delight itself in a Triune God. You have not sought out those riches yourself. It is not a fruit of your own field, but it has all been granted you only out of sovereign grace.

• Acknowledge the Father who thought out and made you fit for those riches.

• Praise the Son who merited these great riches for you. They are riches which have been purchased with His precious blood.

• Praise the Holy Spirit who made room for it in your heart and applied it in the time of His good pleasure.

• Glorify a Triune God in both soul and body which belong to God.

The Triune God is the greatest riches of the Church, both here below and in heaven. Such rich ones are truly blessed! Certainly, they cannot fully express what they possess in those riches. Heaven and earth belong unto them. They have God for their portion, and in those riches there is no sorrow. Yet, their heart is often filled with sorrow because on this side of the grave they are unable to experience fully those riches to the desire of their heart and to the honor and glory of God. They do not have to complain about God but do have to complain about themselves.

Such people remain miserable and poor in and of themselves. It has pleased God, in His eternal wisdom, that here, in this time state, they be continually placed in their spiritual poverty—no, not to perish in that poverty, but in the experiencing of this spiritual poverty, through faith to appropriate Christ who from God has become unto them wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption.

Here, in this time state, they are the first fruits of the Spirit which are granted to God’s children, but one day they will receive the perfect satisfaction of joy in both soul and body, to be lovely in God’s right hand eternally and forever. Then, all sorrow is put away, and they will spring up with joy when they have received the desire of their heart.

The Duty of Parents

For you that are parents or to whom the education of children is committed, I beseech you—mind the duty which lies on you. For to what purpose do we desire them before we have them, rejoice in them when we have them, value them so highly, sympathize with them so tenderly, grieve their death so excessively, if in the meantime no care be taken what shall become of them in eternity? If you neglect to instruct them in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness? No, no. If you will not teach them to pray, he will teach them to curse, swear, and lie. If ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring up.

— John Flavel

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