Grand Central Station – Romans 16:27

Have you ever heard of “Grand Central Station”? There are few adults who haven’t. I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t exist – at least it doesn’t exactly exist – or doesn’t exist anymore. The place in all the movies and TV shows is officially called “Grand Central Terminal.” There is currently a Grand Central Station, but it is a post office which is nearby. The place mistakenly called “Grand Central Station” is a fabulous structure. It is a train terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York. It was originally built by Cornelius Vanderbilt to act as the station for the New York Central Railroad.

Now here is the thing: It is three levels deep although you might get shot trying to get to the lowest level – the secret level. It is 48 acres in size, and has 44 different platforms servicing 67 different train tracks. Furthermore it is currently being expanded. It has served the people of New York long before 1913 when this particular version was completed. The primary concourse is cavernous, with a ceiling rivaling the Sistine Chapel. Branching out from the concourse are other halls where there are several famous restaurants. Up and down, in and out, like a modern shopping mall are boutiques, shops and even a museum. At its center is a four-sided clock, which both Christie’s and Sothbey’s value at close to $20 million. Not only are there the long distance trains there, but the New York Subway system is involved as well. Perhaps, with the advent of air travel, the importance of Grand Central Terminal isn’t what it once was, but can you imagine how many people might be shuffling on and off trains, or going from one train to another, when there are as many as 50 or 60 trains coming and going all at the same time.

And here is my point: Grand Central Station is synonymous with the coming and going of a great many people. It is like the hub of a great wheel, through which the energy of motion has to pass from one spoke to every other spoke. It is like the kitchen in your home, through which all the family and all your guests eventually pass. They may have their own bedrooms, use different bathrooms and have different homes or activity rooms, but eventually every comes into the kitchen.

And Grand Central Station might be used as an illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. How? We have a glimpse of that here in our text: “To God only wise, be glory THROUGH Jesus Christ for ever.” Once again, I feel like I’ve bitten off more subject than I can adequately chew. But if you bear with me for the next few minutes, I hope to be a blessing by pointing out a little theology.

Paul declares that God is FOREVER GLORIFIED through Jesus Christ.Indirectly, here is another attack upon the ego of man. Everything about Jehovah is much, much higher, larger, better, purer, and greater than any of us. He is a majestic mountain, like Rainier, while we’re a just a clod of dirt laying in the road waiting for a truck to run over us. That divine mountain is spectacularly beautiful and seems to change in appearance every day. His peak is crowned in a perfect blanket of the purest snow. He is the source of a hundred different rivulets of fresh water, and the home to millions of creatures. But He is also a volcano, which could, and undoubtedly will erupt at His appointed time, raining judgment down upon the sinful people living below. The Lord is a blazing star a million times brighter than our sun, and we are less than candles. The Lord will shine and glow for eternity, while we can only rarely get to a century. Like the really large stars, whose light reaches us thousands of light years after emitting that beam, we are feeling the Lord’s light and grace which was emitted in our direction from eternity past. And when we start to talk about holiness and righteousness, I can’t think of adequate comparisons. There aren’t words large enough and small enough to describe the difference between our natures and the nature of the Lord. I am at a loss.

Nevertheless, along comes an egotistical man, thinking that he is going to bless and honour the Lord in ways that God might be surprised. But there is no sum of money that he can give which will increase the treasury of God. There is no service that he can perform which will improve the Lord’s lot in life. There is not a hymn of praise that a man can sing which is more perfect than what the Lord has been hearing from His angels for the last 6,000 years. There is nothing that any man can add to God. In fact, because God is so high and holy and we are so wretched and lowly, all those gifts, services and words or praise are unfit and unworthy of the Lord. He will not accept a single gift that passes directly from our hand to His.

When will we get it through our thick heads that our only access to God is through the Son of God. “To God only wise, be glory THROUGH Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.” “Unto him be glory in the church BY Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Perhaps there was a day, when the only way to get from Boston to Chicago, was through Grand Central Station. And if someone wanted to travel from Providence, R.I., he had to pass through Grand Central. And if a family wanted to go to Washington, D.C. from Bangor, ME, again, it had to be through Grand Central Station.

If you want to praise God, to be accepted by the Lord, it must be through Christ. When Paul wanted to praise God for the salvation of his friends in Rome he said, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” In another place he wanted to praise God for victory over sin so he said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And in talking about the joy of his ministry he said, “I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.” Peter said essentially the same sort of thing: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

If you want to properly PRAY it must be in the Name of the Lord Jesus. If your FINANCIAL OFFERINGS are not given to God through Christ then they are going to end up in someone else’s account. If MY SERMON glorifies anyone before magnifying the name of the Lord, then I am doing nothing but beating the air. Christ is the Grand Central Station of our glorification of God. And that will be true “for ever, and ever.”

In addition to this, I hope that you are absolutely clear about the fact that

God’s highest blessing TO US comes through this same Christ Jesus.How many scriptures declare that salvation from sin is through Jesus Christ? “The God of all grace… hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.” “Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.“

I will not dwell long on this subject, because I have tried to make it a recurring theme throughout my ministry. There is no salvation – no deliverance from sin – except through the Lord Jesus Christ. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” Christ carried our sins to the mercy Seat, and there He covered them with His blood. He rose from the dead supplying his saints with eternal life. There is no such thing as salvation from sin, when Jesus is not the sum and substance of that salvation. In fact, He must be every part of that gospel story, or there will never be any salvation.

If there is ever any glory given to God, it must pass through the Grand Central Station of Christ. And there will not be any acceptable glory given to God, except what come from those whom God has saved through Christ. He is the hub of every aspect of man’s relationship with God. And that brings me to my third point.

For the saint, Christ is the Grand Central Station of a great many other blessings as well.We might say that he is the means by which we receive any and all blessings. I’ve chosen not to elaborate very much on these scriptures. It shouldn’t be necessary. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” “All that live godly, do so in Jesus Christ.” “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

And then finally, there is nothing that we can do in the way of service for God, which doesn’t pass through the Lord Jesus. In myself, I am nothing, but “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”

Without Christ Jesus, we are nothing, we are nobodies. Without Him we are fodder for the Lake of Fire. Without Him we have no means of serving the Lord. And without Him we can’t even properly glorify the name of God. We need to recognize Him as the Grand Central Station of our existence.