1760. “He Shall Be Great”

No. 1760-30:25. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, December 2, 1883, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

Being his last sermon before his journey to the south of France.

He shall be great. {Lu 1:32}

1. Strictly speaking, I suppose these words refer to the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is concerning his humanity that Christ was born of Mary. The context runs like this — “Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and shall call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” The angel of the Lord spoke like this concerning the manhood of “that holy one” who should be born of the favoured virgin by the overshadowing of the power of the Highest. As for his divinity, we must speak concerning him in another manner than this: but, as a man, he was born of the virgin, and it was said to her before his birth, “He shall be great.”

2. The man Christ Jesus stooped very low. In his first estate he was not great; he was very little when he nursed on his mother’s breast. In his later life he was not great; but despised, rejected, and crucified. Indeed, he was so poor that he had nowhere to lay his head; and he was so cast out by the tongues of men that they called him a “fellow,” mentioned him among drunken men and wine-bibbers, and even accused him of having a devil, and being mad. In the esteem of the great ones of the earth he was an ignorant Galilean of whom they said, “We do not know where he comes from.” His life binds up more fitly with the lowly annals of the poor than with the court circular or whatever stood for that in Caesar’s day. In his own time his enemies could not find a word base enough to express their contempt for him. He was brought very low in his trial, condemnation, and suffering. Who thought him great when he was covered with bloody sweat, or when he was sold at the price of a slave, or when a guard came out against him with swords, and with lanterns, and with torches, as if he had been a thief? Who thought him great when they bound him and led him to the judgment seat as a malefactor? or when the abjects struck him, blindfolded him, and spat in his face? or when he was scourged, led through the streets bearing his cross, and afterwards hung up between two thieves to die? Truly he was brought very low, and a sword pierced through his mother’s heart as she saw the sufferings of her holy Son. When she knew that he was dead, and buried in a borrowed tomb, she must have painfully pondered in her heart the words from heaven concerning him, and thought within herself, “The angel said he should be great, but who is made so vile as he? He said that he should be called the ‘Son of the Highest,’ but, lo! he is brought into the dust of death; and men seal his sepulchre, and cast out his name as evil.”

3. Still, while I think that our text most fitly applies to the manhood of Christ in the first place, I rejoice to think that — 

   He who on earth as man was known,
      And bore our sins and pains,
   Now, seated on th’ eternal throne,
      The God of glory reigns.

4. The very man who was despised and spat upon sits glorious on his Father’s throne. As man he is anointed “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” As man he has been lifted up from the lowest depths, and set in the greatest heights to reign for ever and ever. Peter and the apostles testified, “God has raised up this Jesus of which we all are witnesses, he being exalted at the right hand of God.” Stephen also said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” While we believe that, and rejoice in it, we shall be wise never to disassociate the deity of Christ from his humanity, for they make up one person. I cannot help remarking that in the New Testament you find a disregard of all rigid distinction of the two natures in the person of our Lord when the Spirit speaks concerning him. The two natures are so thoroughly united in the person of Christ that the Holy Spirit does not speak of the Lord Jesus with theological exactness, like one who writes a creed, but he speaks as to men of understanding, who know and rejoice in the truth of the one indivisible person of the Mediator. For example, we read in Scripture of “the blood of God”: Paul says in Acts, “Feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.” {Ac 20:28} Now, strictly speaking, there can be no blood of God, and the expression looks like a confusion of the two natures; but this is intentional, so that we may clearly see that the two natures are so joined together that the Holy Spirit does not stop to dissect and set out differences; but he says of the united person of our blessed Lord what is strictly true either of his humanity or of his deity. He is called both “God, our Saviour,” and “the man Christ Jesus.” The combined natures of the man, the God, Christ Jesus our Lord, are one person; and all the acts of either nature may be ascribed to that one person. Hence I, for one, do not hesitate to sing such verses as these — 

   He that distributes crowns and thrones,
   Hangs on a tree, and bleeds and groans:
   The Prince of Life resigns his breath;
   The King of Glory bows to death.
   Well might the sun in darkness hide,
      And shut his glories in,
   When God, the mighty Maker, died
      For man, the creature’s sin.
   See how the patient Jesus stands,
      Insulted in his lowest case!
   Sinners have bound the Almighty hands,
      And spit in their Creator’s face.

5. We shall not labour, therefore, to preserve the niceties of theology, but we shall at this time freely speak of our Lord as he is in his Godhead and in his manhood, and apply our text to the whole Christ, declaring the divine promise that “He shall be great.”

6. While my brother was praying for me I was wishing that I had the tongues of men and of angels with which to speak on my theme tonight; and yet I shall retract my wish, for the subject is such, that if my words were the most common that could be found — yes, if they were ungrammatical, and if they were put together most uncouthly, it would matter little; for a failure awaits me in any case: the subject far transcends all utterance. Jesus is such a one that no oratory can ever reach the height of his glory, and the simplest words are best suited to a subject so sublime. Fine words would be only tawdry things to hang beside the unspeakably glorious Lord. I can say no more than that he is great. If I could proclaim his greatness with choral symphonies of cherubim, yet I should fail to reach the height of this great argument. I will be content if I can touch the hem of the garment of his greatness. If the Lord will only set us in a cleft of the rock, and only make us see the back parts of his character, we shall be overcome by the vision. As yet, even of Jesus, the face of his full glory cannot be seen, or if seen, it cannot be described. If we were caught up to the third heaven we would have little to say on coming back, for we should have seen things which would not be lawful for us to utter. I shall not therefore fail with loss of honour if I tell you that my utmost success at this time will only touch the fringe of the splendour of the Son of man. This is not the time of his clearest revealing. The day is coming for the revelation of the Lord; as yet he does not shine out among men in his noontide. His second advent shall more fully reveal him. Then his people shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” because he also shall rise in the clear face of heaven as the Sun of Righteousness, greatly blessing the sons of men.

7. I. Let me touch my theme as best I can by, first of all, saying of our adorable Lord Jesus that HE IS GREAT FROM MANY POINTS OF VIEW. I might have said from every point of view; but that is too large a truth to be surveyed at one sitting. Mind would fail us, life would fail us, time would fail us: only eternity and perfection will suffice for that boundless meditation. But from the points of view to which I would conduct you for a moment, the Lord Jesus Christ is emphatically great.

8. First, in the perfection of his nature. Think, my brethren. There was never such a being as our Well-Beloved. He is peerless and incomparable. He is divine, and therefore unique. He is “Light of light, very God of very God.” Jesus is truly equal with God, one with the Father. Oh, the greatness of Godhead! Jehovah is a being infinite, immeasurable, incomprehensible, inconceivable! He fills all things, and yet is not contained by all things. He is indeed great beyond any idea of greatness that has ever dawned upon us. All this is true of the Only-Begotten. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” “He is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

9. But our Lord Jesus is also man, and this makes the uniqueness of his person, that he should be perfectly and purely God, and as truly and really man. He is not humanity deified: he is not Godhead humanized. I have admitted latitude of expression; but there is, in fact, no confusion of the substance. He is God. He is man. He is all that God is, and all that man is as God created him. He is as truly God as if he were not man, and yet as completely and perfectly man as if he were not God. Think of this wondrous combination! a perfect manhood without spot or stain of original or actual sin, and then the glorious Godhead combined with it! Did I not truly say that Jesus stands alone? He is not greatest of the great; but great where all others are little. He is not something among all; but all where all others are nothing. Who shall be compared with him? He does not think it robbery to be equal with God, and among men he is the First-born of every creature; among the risen ones he is the First-born by his resurrection from the dead; among the glorified he is the source and object of glory. I cannot comprehend his nature: who shall declare his generation? He is one with us, and yet inconceivably beyond us. Our nature is limited, sinful, fallen; but his nature is unbounded, holy, divine. When Jehovah looks on us we ask, “What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?” But “when he brings in the first begotten into the world, he says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship him.’ ” Shall it not truly be said concerning his nature, “He is great?”

10. He is great also in the grandeur of his offices. Remember that he has for our sakes undertaken to be our Redeemer. You see your bondage, brethren. You know it, for some of you have worn the fetters until they have entered into your soul: he came to redeem us from such slavery. Behold his Zion in ruins, heaps on heaps, smoking, consumed! He comes to rebuild and to restore. This is his office — to build up the old wastes, and to restore the temple of the living God, which had been cast down by the foe. To accomplish this he came to be our Priest, our Prophet, and our King; in each office glorious beyond compare. He came to be our Saviour, our Sacrifice, our Substitute, our Surety, our Head, our Friend, our Lord, our Life, our All. Pile up the offices, and remember that each one is worthy of a God. Mention them as you may, and truly you shall never remember them all; for he, the express image of his Father’s glory, has undertaken every kind of office, so that he might perfectly redeem his people, and make them to be his own for ever. In each office he has gained the summit of glory, and he is and shall be great in it.

11. Have you ever stood in Westminster Abbey when some great warrior was being buried, and when the herald pronounced his various titles? He has been greatly honoured by his queen, and by the nation, for which he has fought so valiantly, and he is prince of this, and duke of that, and count of the other, and earl of something else: and the titles are many and brilliant. What a parade it is! “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” What advantage is it to the senseless clay that it is buried with pomp of heraldry? But I stand at the tomb of Christ, and I say of his offices that they are superlatively grand; and, moreover, that they are not buried, neither is he among the dead. He lives and still bears his honours in the fulness of their splendour. He still is all to his people; he still carries on every office, and will carry on until he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all. Oh, the splendour of this Christ of God in the mighty offices which he sustains! He is the Standard-Bearer among ten thousand. Who is like him in all eternity? “The government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Let our hearts give him our adoring praise tonight, for he is great in the glorious offices which God has heaped upon him.

12. His nature and his offices would only furnish us with a lengthened theme; but oh! my brethren, the Lord Jesus is great in the splendour of his achievements. He does not wear an office whose duty is neglected; but his name is faithful and true. He is no holder of a sinecure; {a} he claims to have finished the work which his Father gave him to do. He has undertaken great things, and, glory be to his name, he has achieved them. His people’s sins were laid upon him, and he bore them up to the cross, and on the cross he made an end of them, so that they will never be mentioned against them any more for ever. Then he went down into the grave, and slept there for a little season; but he tore away the bars of the sepulchre and left death dead at his feet, bringing life and immortality to light by his resurrection. This was his high calling, and he has fulfilled it. His victory is complete, the defeat of the foe is perfect. “Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?” Springing upward from the tomb when the appointed days were come, he opened heaven’s gates to all believers, according to the word, — “The breaker is come up before them, and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them.” As he opened the golden gates, he led captives captive; and, receiving gifts for men, he cast down a royal largesse among the poorest of his people so that they might be enriched by it. This was his object, and the purpose has been carried out without flaw or failure. Within the veil he went, our Representative, to take possession of our crowns and thrones, which he holds for us to this day by the tenure of his own cross. Having purchased the inheritance, and paid off the heavy mortgage that lay upon it, he has taken possession of the Canaan where our souls shall dwell at the end of the days when we shall stand in our lot. Is it not proven that he is great? Conquerors are great, and he is the greatest of them. Deliverers are great, and he is the greatest of them. Liberators are great, and he is the greatest of them. Saviours are great, and he is the greatest of them. Those who multiply the joys of men are truly great, and what shall I say of him who has bestowed everlasting joy upon his people, and secured it for them by a covenant of salt for ever and ever? Well did you say, oh Gabriel, “He shall be great,” for he is indeed great!

13. He shall be great, again, in the prevalence of his merits. Never a being had such merit as Christ. His life and death cover all believers from head to foot with a perfect obedience to the law. They are clad with royal vesture: Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of those. His blood has washed believers white as the driven snow, and his righteousness has made them to be “accepted in the Beloved.” He has such merit with God that he deserves from the Most High whatever he wishes to ask for; and he asks for his people that they shall have every blessing necessary for eternal life and perfection. He is great, indeed, my brethren, when we think that he has clothed us all in his righteousness, and washed us all in his blood. Nor us alone, but ten thousand times ten thousand of his redeemed stand today in the wedding dress of his eternal merit, and plead before God a claim that never can be denied — the claim of a perfect obedience which must always please the Father’s heart. Oh, what a mercy that has turned our hell to heaven, transformed our disease into health, and lifted us from the dunghill, and set us among the princes of his people! In infinite power to remove sin, to perfume with acceptance, to clothe with righteousness, to win blessings, to preserve saints, and to save to the uttermost, the Lord Jesus is great beyond all greatness.

14. My theme will never be exhausted, though I may be. Let me not delay to add that our Lord Jesus Christ is great in the number of his saved ones. I do not believe in a little Christ, or a little heaven, or a little company before the throne, or a few that shall be saved. Hear this, for I would gladly reply to a lie that is often stated, and is the last resort of those who assail the doctrines of grace. They say that we believe that God has left the great majority of his creatures to perish, and has arbitrarily chosen an elect few. We have never thought such a thing. We believe that the Lord has many elect; and it is our joy and delight to think of them as a number that no man can number. “Oh,” they say, “you think that the few who go to your little Bethel or Salem are the elect of God.” That, sirs, is what you invent for your own purposes, but we have never said anything of the kind. We rejoice to believe that as many as the stars of heaven shall the redeemed of Christ be — that as many as the sands that are upon the sea-shore, even an innumerable company, are those for whom Christ has shed his precious blood so that he might effectively redeem them. As I look up to the heaven of the sanctified, my mind’s eye does not see a few dozen saints met together in select circles of exclusiveness; but my eyes are dazzled with the countless lights which shine each one from the illustrious brows of the redeemed; lustrous I say, for each glorified one wears upon his forehead the name of the Most High. My heart is glad to turn away from the multitude that throng the broad way, and to see a greater multitude that throng the heavenly fields, and, day without night, celebrate redemption by the blood of the Lamb. Have they not washed their robes, and made them white in his blood? In all things our Lord will have the preeminence, and this shall be the case in the number of his followers: he shall vanquish his great enemy in it. His redeemed shall fly as a cloud, as doves to their windows. Countless as the drops of morning dew shall his people be in the day of his power. He shall be great in the host of his adherents in glory.

15. Multitudes upon earth are even now pursuing their road to heaven, and greater hosts are yet to follow them. A day shall be when the people of God shall be increased greatly, above anything that we see at this present time; they shall spring up as the grass and as willows by the watercourses, as if every stone that heard the ripple of the brook had been turned into a man. The seed of the Lord Jesus Christ shall multiply until arithmetic shall be utterly baffled, and enumeration shall fail. He is great — a great Saviour of a great mass of great sinners, who shall by his redeeming arm be brought safely, without fail, to his right hand in the endless glory. Just as the tribes of the natural Israel increased greatly, so also shall the spiritual Israel. The Lord shall multiply his Zion with men as with a flock, and so the King of Israel shall be great.

16. Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus Christ shall be great in the estimation of his people. If I were to try tonight to praise my Lord to the highest heavens, my brother might well follow me, and extol our Lord much more. Then I would get up from my seat again, and I would not rest until I found even loftier praises for my Lord and God. You indeed dear brother might return to the happy task, and excel me yet again, and then, for sure, I would be on my feet a third time, and keep up the hallowed rivalry, lauding and magnifying Jesus to my mind’s utmost, and, if the Lord permitted, we would never stop, for I would give in to no man in my desire to extol my Lord Jesus. I am sure that none of his people would give way to others in a humble sense of supreme indebtedness; but each one would say, “There is something which he has done for me which he never did for you. There is some point of view in which he is greater to me than he is to you.” Brothers, I admit that there are many points in which he is greater to you than he is to me; but yet to me he is higher than heaven, vaster than eternity, more delightful than Paradise, more blessed than blessedness itself. If I could speak of him according to my soul’s desire, I would speak in great capital letters, and not in the small italics which I am compelled to use. If I could speak as I wish, I would make winds and waves my orators, and cause the whole universe to become one open mouth with which to proclaim the praises of Emmanuel. If all eternity would speak, as though it, too, were only one tongue, yet it could not proclaim all the charms of his love and the certainty of his faithfulness and his truth. We must stop somewhere, but, truly, if it is the point of our estimation of him we never can express our overwhelming sense of his honour, his excellence, his sweetness. Oh, that he were praised by every creature that has breath! Oh, that every minute placed another gem in his crown! Oh, that every soul that breathes continued to breathe out nothing but hosannas and hallelujahs to him, for he deserves all possible praises! Do you hear the sound of the multitudinous music of heaven? It is like many waters, and like the mighty waves of the sea, but it is all for him. Can you catch the charming notes of “harpists harping with their harps?” Their music is all for him. Can you conceive of the unutterable joys of the glorified? Every felicity of eternity is a song to his honour. Heaven and earth shall still be full of the shinings of his glory. Who can look the sun in the face in the height of its noontide? Who can tell the illimitable greatnesses of the Son of God? To him, even to him, let all praises be, for he has redeemed our souls with blood, and set the captives free: he has made us to our God both kings and priests, and we shall reign with him for ever and for ever. Truly, he is great, and shall be great eternally.

17. But, oh, brethren, how great must Christ be in the glory of heaven! We have never seen that. Some of us shall see it very soon.

   For we are in the border-land,
   The heavenly country’s near at hand:
   A step is all ’twixt us and rest,
   E’en now we converse with the blest.

But the greatness of Christ in heaven — surely this is the grand sight for which we long to go to heaven, — so that we may behold his glory, “the glory which he had with the Father before the world was,” and the glory which he has gained by his service for the Father here below. Has he not said, “Father, I will that they also, whom you have given to me, be with me where I am; so that they may behold my glory?” What honour and majesty surround our Prince in the metropolis of his empire! What is this city? Where does its brightness come from? The sun is dim, the moon no more displays itself. “The glory of God illuminates it, and the Lamb is its light”: the whole city shines in the Redeemer’s glory. And who are these who come trooping down the golden streets? — these shining ones, each one comparable to a living, moving sun? each one as bright as the star of the morning? Ask them where their brightness comes from, and they tell you that the glory of Christ has risen upon them, and they are reflecting his brightness as the moon reflects the effulgence of the sun. If you sit down with one of these shining ones, and hear him tell his story, the sum of the matter will be, “Not to us; but to him who loved us, be honour and glory.” This will be the substance of every testimony, — “He loved me, and gave himself for me”; only they will say it something like this — “HE loved me. He, that great HE.” How they will pronounce it as they point to his glory — “HE loved me — that little me.” They will sink their voices, oh, so low, as with wonder and surprise they express their admiration that he ever could have loved such unworthy ones as they were.

18. But I must not — dare not — try to touch upon the glory of Christ upon the throne of the Father. Certain great divines have written upon the glory of Christ, but I will warrant you that, when they died and went to heaven, they half wished that they could come back again to amend their most glowing pages. Ah me, what can ignorance say of the all-wise? What do blinking owls know of high noon? What do we poor limited creatures, babes of yesterday, know of the Infinite, the Ancient of days, and of the splendour that flames from the First-born at the right hand of the Most High? It would need an angel to tell us that; but, perhaps, if he did, either we should not understand, or else what we did understand would overpower us, and we should fall before our Lord as dead. The heavens are now telling the glory of our Lord, but the half of it will never be told throughout ages of ages. Assuredly, concerning our adorable Lord Jesus it is true — “He shall be great.”

19. II. Now, by your permission, I want to turn the subject around a little, and look at it in another light. “He shall be great,” and he is so, for HE DEALS WITH GREAT THINGS.

20. He is a Saviour, and a great one. As I have already said, it was a great ruin which he came to restore. The wind came from the abyss and struck the four corners of the house of manhood, and it fell and lay flat. Demons laughed and triumphed as they saw God’s handiwork despoiled. Human nature sank in shame, Paradise was blasted, sin was triumphant, and the fiery sword was set at Eden’s gate to exclude us. It was a hideous ruin. But, oh! when Christ came, he brought a great salvation. He came to prepare a better Paradise, and to plant in it a better tree of life, and to give us possession of it upon a better tenure than before. Oh, he is a great Saviour; he worked amid the chaos of the fall, and restored what Adam had destroyed!

21. And, beloved, we were covered with great sin — some of us especially so. But “he shall be great,” and therefore he makes short work of great sin. Great sinners, what a joy it ought to be to you to think that he is great, and, therefore, has come to rescue such as you are, and deal with such difficulties as beset and surround you; for what if sin is great? His arrangement for its removal is great too. Look there at Calvary, and, if you can see it through your blinding tears, behold the sacrifice he offered once and for all to put away sin. Regard the old Tabernacle and its faulty types: — Aaron has offered his young bull which has smoked to heaven, but no result has followed. Aaron has brought his lambs, and goats, and rams, and their blood in basins is thrown at the base of the altar: the whole soil of the Tabernacle is saturated with the blood of young bulls and of goats: but no result has come of it. These can never take away sin. See now the greater sacrifice which Jesus brings. That great High Priest of ours is great indeed, for he has offered up himself without spot to God! Lo, on his great altar there smokes to heaven no longer clouding incense or burning flesh, but the body and soul of the appointed Substitute are offered up in sacrifice for men. None of us have a due conception of the grandeur of that vicarious offering, which at once and for ever made an end of sin. Think of it carefully and in detail. Consider it no light thing that he who was the Father’s equal, that he who was pure and perfect in both natures, became a curse for us, and was made sin for us, and presented himself as a victim to justice on our behalf. This is a wonder among wonders, as much a great miracle as a miracle exceeds the most commonplace fact. It overshadows the highest Alps of thought, that he who was offended should expiate the offence, he who was perfect should suffer punishment, he who was all goodness should be made sin, and he who was all love should be forsaken by the God of love. What merit and majesty are found in his glorious oblation! Great is the sin, but greater is the sacrifice. The atonement has covered the guilt, and left a margin of abounding righteousness.

22. Beloved, what a mercy it is for us that we have such a High Priest, for if you and I are burdened tonight with great transgression, there is great pardon to be had — pardon so great that it actually annihilates the sin — pardon so great that the sin is cast behind Jehovah’s back, while the pardon rings out perpetual notes of joy and peace in the soul.

   His the pardon, ours the sin, — 
   Great the sin, the pardon great;
   Great his good which healed our ill,
   Great his love which killed our hate.

He shall be great indeed who has accomplished for us so great a salvation.

23. And now, dear friends, you and I, being greatly pardoned through the great sacrifice, are journeying through the wilderness towards Canaan, and we have great needs and many, pressing upon us every day. We are poverty itself, and only All-Sufficiency can supply us; but that is found in Jesus. We need great abundance of food: the heavenly bread lies all around the camp, and each may fill his omer. We require rivers of living water: the struck rock yields us a ceaseless flood; the outflow never ceases. We have great demands, but Christ has great supplies. Between here and heaven we shall have, perhaps, greater needs than we have yet known; but, all along, every halting-place is ready, provender is laid up, good cheer is stored, nothing has been overlooked. The commissariat {b} of the Eternal is absolutely perfect. Do you feel sometimes so thirsty for grace that like Behemoth you could drink up Jordan at a draught? more than that river could hold is given to you. Drink abundantly, for Christ has prepared for you a bottomless sea of grace to fill you with all the fulness of God. Do not stint yourselves, and do not doubt your Saviour: why should you limit the Holy One of Israel? Be great in your experience of his all-sufficiency, and great in your praises of his bounty, and then in heaven you shall pour at his feet great treasures of gratitude for ever and ever.

24. Yes, and he is a Christ of great preparations. He is engaged before the throne today in preparing a great heaven for his people; it will be made up of great deliverance, great peace, great rest, great joy, great victory, great discovery, great fellowship, great rapture, great glory. He is preparing for his redeemed no little heaven, no starveling banquet, no little delight. He is a great Creator, and he is creating a great Paradise where a great multitude shall be greatly happy for ever and ever. “He shall be great” — great in the bliss of his innumerable elect. If we once get within the pearly gates, and walk those golden streets, we are not ashamed tonight to affirm that he shall be great; we will make him glorious before his holy angels. If praises can make him great, our praises shall ring out day and night at the very loudest, and ten thousand times ten thousand of the glorified shall join with us in perpetual hallelujahs to him who loved us before all worlds, and will love us when all worlds shall cease to be. “He shall be great.” He must be great. If we live it shall be our business to sing like the Virgin, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

25. III. I have come to a close when I have said a few words upon the last point, which is this: HIS GREATNESS WILL SOON APPEAR.

26. It now lies under a cloud to men’s bleary eyes. They still belittle him with their vague and vain thoughts; but it shall not always be so. It is midnight with his honour here just now; or if it is not midnight, it is much the same, for men are stone-blind. But it will not be darkness for long, nor shall human minds be blinded for ever. My eyes foresee the dawning. Did you hear the clarion just now? I do not dream that ears of flesh can catch the sound as yet; but the ears of faith can hear it. The trumpet rings out extremely loud and long, and after the trumpet there is heard this voice: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes! Go out to meet him.” Do you not hear the shouts of armies, — “Lo, he comes! Lo, he comes! Lo, he comes!” Very gladly I hear the cry. Let the world ring with the note of joy. He comes. That trumpet proclaims him. I shall propound no order now concerning how predicted events shall happen; but I know this, that the Lord shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! “He shall be great.” The nations shall bow at his feet. Rebellious enemies shall acknowledge him as their King. The whole universe shall be filled with the glory of God. There shall be left no place where this light shall not shine. “He shall be great.” To him “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

27. Do not fret, brethren, because of the false doctrine which roams through the world today. Do not worry your hearts as though the Christ were defeated. He is clad in shining armour, through which no dart of error can ever pierce. He lingers for a little while upon the hills, surveying the battle-field with eagle eye. He leaves his poor servants to prove how weak they are, as they almost turn their backs in the day of battle. He lets heaven and earth see the weakness of an arm of flesh. But courage, brethren! The Prince Emmanuel hurries! You may hear his horse hoofs on the road. He is near to come. On white horses shall his chosen follow him, going out “conquering and to conquer,” for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will deliver the enemy into our hands. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever; King of kings! Hallelujah! “He must reign, until he has put all enemies under his feet.”

28. The day is coming when the mighty progress of the gospel shall make Christ to be great among men, and then you need not listen long to hear that other trumpet which shall awaken the sleeping dead. The Risen One descends. Resurrection is at hand! Oh, what greatness will be upon Christ in that hour when all shall leave their graves, even the whole multitude of the slain of death! He shall be glorious among them, the First-fruits of the resurrection, illustrious in those who rise by virtue of his rising. Oh, what honour will he have that day! Jesus, you are he whom your brethren shall praise as they see you victorious over death in all those quickened myriads.

29. Then shall come the Judgment; and oh, how great will Christ be in men’s eyes in that day when he sits upon the throne and holds the scales of justice, and judges men for the deeds done in the body! I warrant you that no one will deny his Godhead in that day. No one will proclaim themselves his adversaries in that dread hour. The earth is reeling! The sky is crumbling! The stars are falling! The sun is quenched! The moon is black as sackcloth of hair! and Jesus is sitting on the throne! A cry is heard from all his enemies. “Hide us, mountains. Rocks fall upon us. Hide us from his face.” That face of his — calm, quiet, and triumphant, shall be terrible to them. They will cry in horror, “Hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” But they cannot be hidden. Flee where they may, those eyes pursue them — those eyes of love more terrible than flames of wrath. Oil, though it is soft, still burns very furiously; and love on fire is hell. Fiercer than a lion on his prey is love when once it grows angry for holiness’ sake and truth’s sake. In that day those who know his love shall admire him beyond measure; but those who know his wrath shall equally feel that “he is great.” Though it is their hell to feel it, yet they shall know that there is no one so great as he, when he shall take the iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Their cries of remorse and despair, as they rise up to the throne of his awful majesty, shall proclaim to an awe-struck universe that Jesus is great. “Kiss the Son, lest he is angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled only a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.”

30. He shall be great, finally, when he shall gather all his elect around him — when all the souls redeemed by blood shall assemble within his palace gate to worship him. Oh, what a sight it will be when he is seen as the centre, while, far away from north, south, east, and west, a blazing host of shining ones, all glorious in his glory, shall in ever-widening circles surround his person and his throne, all bowing down before the Son of God, and crying, “Hallelujah!” as they adore him! No one will doubt him there, nor oppose him there. Oh, what a sight it shall be when everyone shall praise him to the uttermost; when from every heart shall leap up reverent love, when every tongue shall sound out his honours, when there shall be no division, no discord, no jarring notes; but countless armies shall as one man adore the Lord whom they love! Again they say, “Hallelujah!” and the incense of their adoration goes up for ever and ever. Oh, for that grandest of cries, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigns, and his Son is exalted to sit with him upon the throne of his glory for ever and ever.” Truly, he shall be great.

31. Oh, make him great tonight, poor sinner, by trusting him! Make him great tonight, dear child of God, by longing for him. Make him great as you come to the table by hungering after him. Consider it a great privilege to eat and drink with him with overflowing delight. Come with a great hunger and a great thirst for him, and take him into your very self, and say, “He is my bread: he is my drink: he is my life: he is my all.” All the while let your spirit live by adoring, and let every pulse of your body beat to his honour. Tune your hand, your heart, your tongue to this one song, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! To him who loved us and died for us, and rose again, be glory for ever and ever!”

   To the Lamb that was slain all honour be paid,
   Let crowns without number encircle his head:
   Let blessing, and glory, and riches, and might,
   Be ascribed evermore by angels of light.
[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Lu 1:5-80]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Names and Titles — Jesus” 387}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, His Praise — Christ’s Humiliation And Exaltation” 414}

{a} Sinecure: Any office or position which has no work or duties attached to it, esp. one which yields some stipend or emolument. OED.
{b} Commissariat: Any non-military department or organisation for the supply of provisions. OED.

Jesus Christ, Names and Titles
387 — Jesus
1 Jesus! Oh word divinely sweet!
   How charming is the sound!
   What joyful news! what heavenly sense
   In that dear name is found!
2 Our souls, all guilty and condemn’d,
   In hopeless fetters lay;
   Our souls, with numerous sins depraved,
   To death and hell a prey.
3 Jesus, to purge away our guilt,
   A willing victim fell,
   And on his cross triumphant broke
   The bands of death and hell.
4 Our foes were mighty to destroy,
   He mightier was to save;
   He died, but could not long be held
   A prisoner in the grave.
5 Jesus! who mighty art to save,
   Still push thy conquests on;
   Extend the triumphs of thy cross,
   Where’er the sun has shone.
6 OH Captain of Salvation! make
   Thy power and mercy known;
   Till crowds of willing converts come
   And worship at thy throne.
                     Joseph Stennett, 1709.

Jesus Christ, His Praise
414 — Christ’s Humiliation And Exaltation
1 What equal honour shall we bring
   To thee, oh Lord our God, the Lamb
   When all the notes that angels sing
   Are far inferior to thy name?
2 Worthy is he that once was slain,
   The Prince of Peace that groan’d and died
   Worthy to rise, and live, and reign
   At his Almighty Father’s side.
3 Power and dominion are his due
   Who stood condemn’d at Pilate’s bar;
   Wisdom belongs to Jesus too,
   though he was charged with madness here.
4 All riches are his native right,
   Yet he sustain’d amazing loss:
   To him ascribe eternal might,
   Who left his weakness on the cross.
5 Honour immortal must be paid,
   Instead of scandal and of scorn:
   While glory shines around his head,
   And a bright crown without a thorn.
6 Blessings for ever on the Lamb,
   Who bore the curse for wretched men:
   Let angels sound his sacred name.
   And every creature say, Amen.
                           Isaac Watts, 1709.