Now let us consider THE BELIEVER’S APPRECIATION OF HIS MASTER; and observe, first, that every believer appreciates Christ himself,—his very person: “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” Some think the ordinances, which they call the sacraments, very precious; so they are, but only for his sake. Others reckon the doctrines to be very precious, and always thrust doctrine into the forefront. We will not deny that every doctrine is precious, but it owes its value to the fact that Christ is in it. Dry doctrine is nothing better than a sepulchre for a dead Christ to be buried in; but the doctrine preached in relation to his person becomes a throne on which he is exalted. It is a great pity when any of you Christians forget that you have a Saviour who is alive, and overlook the personality of Christ. Remember that he is a real man, and as a real man on Calvary he died for you, and as a real man he is gone into heaven. He is no ideal personage, but an actual personage; and the very marrow of Christian experience lies in the realization of the personality of the Saviour: “Unto you which believe he is precious.” If you make doctrine the main thing, you are very likely to grow narrow-minded.; if you make your own experience the main thing, you will become gloomy and censorious of others; if you make ordinances the main thing, you will be apt to grow merely formal; but you can never make too much of the living Christ Jesus. Remember that all things else are for his sake. Doctrines and ordinances are the planets, but Christ is the Sun; the stars of doctrine revolve around him as their great primal light. Get to love him best of all. Yea, I know you do if you are truly believing in him. You love the doctrines, and would not like to give one of them up; but, still, the incarnate God is the sum and substance of your confidence; Christ Jesus himself is precious to you.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1908). A Sermon and A Reminiscence. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 54, pp. 471–472). London: Passmore & Alabaster.