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###### Fewness of Buyers of Heavenly Goods

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Cause for Lamentation, Repentance, and Labor

Symptoms of the Decay of the Heavenly Trade

Fewness of Buyers of Heavenly Goods}

Fewness of buyers shows that business is bad. Among people, when customers are scarce, few take goods off the shelf, and goods stay on the shelves. Then people say that business has fallen off. Thus it is in the heavenly trade; there are few buyers of wisdom’s wares. Choice goods lay on seller’s shelves and stay there. May not the Lord Jesus complain as Wisdom did: “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you” (Proverbs 1:24–27 NASB). It is as the [faithless] servants of God in the parable: “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn’” (Matthew 11:16–17 ESV). Markets are full of crowds and the Lord Jesus has many goods displayed for sale. There are many shoppers, but few buyers. People attend churches and hear sermons, in the same manner as many do at fairs and shows: to see, be seen, and look at goods, but not to buy. Few will take Christ’s wares on His terms and come up to the selling price. God, grace, and glory are too expensive for many people. They like some of the goods, but the price is too high for them. Some people would be content to have Christ, but the cost is too high for them: to deny themselves, take up their crosses, leave all, and follow Christ (Matthew 16:24).272 They view Heaven as desirable after death, but want the world during this life. They would be content to take Heaven and receive their portion there, but only after all is gone here when they die. But now, while they enjoy their earthly goods, to trade with Heaven and give their earthly goods to God—that is too hard for them.273 Thus such heavenly goods and overtures will not move off the shelf. People will not receive the Word of God as the Word of God. They will not take from the shelf threatenings so that they may fear them, warnings so that they may be warned, promises so that they may believe them, or precepts so that they may obey them. May not most ministers [preachers] of the Gospel complain, “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1 NASB). Most like and commend sermons, but few receive and obey them. It is lamentable to consider how little of a sermon is carried away, remembered, and practiced (Ezekiel 33:32).274 This is the sin of professing Christians and of some who pass for more than ordinary: they are guilty of this careless, forgetful, and unprofitable hearing. They entertain truths the same way they do their acquaintances: when they meet them in a public place, they shake hands and embrace them, and are exceedingly glad to see them, but then they bid them farewell. That is the reason the Lord Jesus carries so many goods back to the warehouse; they do not move and people do not buy them. It is for this reason also that Christ rejects their duties.275 He will not accept the inferior goods of such people and this makes bad trading for Heaven.

272“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’” (Matthew 16:24 NKJV).

273Such passages as: “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:33 NASB), have historically created some confusion, resulting in such unsound practices as monastic vows of poverty. But, “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14 NASB), and “For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (1 Corinthians 10:26 ESV). Yet our Lord Jesus also commanded us to ask of our Heavenly Father, “Give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3 NASB). It is from these kinds of passages that Christians use the concept of stewardship: all that we are and have in our care is God’s property, whether people realize that truth or not. So to “give all we have to God” when we become believers is nothing more or less than a thief returning stolen goods to the rightful owner. This giving is both a matter of attitude of the heart and using all things, including our very selves, as Christ’s bondslaves according to His will. “For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave” (1 Corinthians 7:22 NKJV). As part of this obedience to God, He will call some to part with much of what they now possess, as for example in the cases of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8–9) or the rich young ruler (Matthew19:16–22).

274“Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them” (Ezekiel 33:32 NKJV).

275duties: generally anything required of the believer by God, more specifically in many contexts, holy duties such as prayer, fasting, Bible study and reading and meditation thereon, and so forth.

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