Revelation 3:18

THE DIVINE MERCHANTMAN*

‘I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.’

Revelation 3:18

No doubt the scene depicted in these words was suggested by the market-place or bazaar of some great Eastern city. There appears in the market-place the Divine Merchantman, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is His own description. Not even did He leave it to an Apostle to so describe Him. Notice what His wares are.

I. The offer of gold.—The first that He offers to you and me is gold. Gold is the symbol of power. Why do men care for gold? It is simply because it gives them power, and it gives position, and it gives influence. No man, except the mere money-grubber, the mere miser, cares for gold simply to finger it. So Christ says, ‘You want power. I am prepared to give you power. I am prepared to give you a power greater and mightier in its influence than the gold of Ophir.’ ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.’ Christ is made unto us not only wisdom and righteousness, but He is made unto us power; and so we read of the Christ being the power of God, and the Apostle Paul, who was face to face with the greatest world-power of the age, the Roman world-power—St. Paul preached to the Roman people and to the people subject to them that the power of the Christ is the power of God, and the gospel is the mightiest power that the world has ever seen.

II. The offer of purity.—But the second thing He offers to us is purity. ‘White raiment, that the shame of thy nakedness [thy moral nakedness] be not manifest.’ Men want what God knows all men have lost—purity. You remember how Sir Galahad, the knight of purity of Arthur’s Round Table, how Tennyson sings of him that his strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure. Power and purity linked together. Christ offers you not only pardon for sin but what we want besides, and that is innate purity; the cleansing of the very centres of our moral life. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ Ah! the strength of purity, and the strength that comes to a man when he feels that God has put away the sin and created in him a clean heart. The joy of it, instead of having to fight with this evil beast, this wild passion, to be able to stand and feel that God has actually purified the heart.

III. The offer of penetration.—And then He offers us penetration. ‘Eyesalve that our eyes may be opened.’ What a strange thing for sharp, keen-witted men to be wanting their eyes opened! You are very keen and shrewd and clear-sighted as regards business, and yet blind as regards the most important business transaction of life—your eternal salvation. ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ Think of that kind of profit and loss. Where is your keenness? You need eye-salve that your eyes may be opened; the anointing of the Holy Ghost that you may see straight and clear. The one great important thing in life is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yes, and we are putting God second, if we are putting Him anywhere at all. Self first, business first; God nowhere at all. Oh, that your eyes might be opened!

IV. ‘Buy of Me.’—‘Buy of Me.’ What does it mean? A business transaction, a definite transaction. Have you been to Christ for a definite business transaction with Him about your soul? ‘Buy of Me.’ It means an exchange. That was the old custom of buying: an exchange of property for property. So is this buying. I give myself to Christ; He gives Himself to me. Wondrous exchange! A poor sinner, blind, miserable, naked, impure, with powers weakened and sinful, I give myself to Him. He wants me, just as I am. ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy Cross I cling.’ And He gives me Himself. ‘I will come in to him,’ we read in the twentieth verse of this very chapter, ‘and you shall have My power, My purity, My own anointing’ that shall open our eyes that we may see what God has for us as men redeemed in Christ.

—Archdeacon Madden.