Now it's only right that Paul's teaching on giving begin and end like it does. It began in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 1. Look back at that with me if you would. Chapters 8 and 9. The Apostles teaching on giving on the occasion of the Great Generosity of the churches of Macedonia and he began this teaching this way 2nd Corinthians 8 1 moreover brethren. We do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality."

You might think, you know, reading the first verse of that, God bestowed great grace on the churches of Macedonia, you might think that it was the Macedonians that had been blessed with some great gift of temporal things that they needed, but no, God bestowed His grace on them. Oh great, what did they get? They were the ones that gave. They were the ones that gave. The Lord's teachings are never typical of this world's teaching. They're never the same. His thoughts are not our thoughts. People love to say, what would Jesus do? And they don't know what he did after he did it. Our hope is what he did. In a great trial, the Church of Macedonia did something wonderful. How are we going to address that? Oh, God's grace was bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia. That's how you describe their generosity, by leading with the grace of God. And this two-chapter teaching on giving ends with the grace of God. Or it may be a better way to say it might be it starts with God's grace and ends with thanksgiving for His grace.

God is the great giver of all things. James wrote in 117, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. And cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. All things are God's to give. If he doesn't, not only is he the great giver of every good gift, every perfect gift, but everything is his to give. If he doesn't give it, nobody's getting it because it comes from him. It's all his to give. He said in Haggai 2.8, the silver is mine and the gold is mine. He's talking about all of it.

Linda will be all right. Her oxygen makes her cough for a little while. It's something she's used to. Don't feel like you need to go. You're not bothering me a bit. Not a bit. I'm happy to worship together.

Turn with me to Psalm chapter 50. Psalm 50. Look at what the Lord says here. For every beast of the forest is mine. Men like to say mine, mine, mine, I mean mine. If you build your fence three inches too far to the left, somebody is going to take you to court. Try to ruin your life over three. It's all mine. No, the Lord says it's mine. every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills basically if you're going to eat it's you're eating what's mine i know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the fields are mine he knows them he knows every one of them if i were hungry verse 12 i would not tell you Who do we think we're dealing with? If God needs something, He's not going to ask you for it. You're the one that needs Him to give to you. Well, Jesus needs a few good men. No, He don't need anybody or anything. You do. You need Him. If the Lord doesn't teach us that fundamental basic truth, How are we going to know anything about grace? We've got to find out who God is. I wouldn't tell you if I was hungry, if I had a need, and He doesn't have needs. He's completely independent. For the world is mine. The world is mine. He's not dividing things up when he says all the cattle and the beasts and the birds, all the stuff that you eat, basically the whole world is his. He's just mentioning certain things as pertain to the context. The world is mine and the fullness thereof, everything it produces is his.

You know, Cain thought he was giving something great to God. You know, look at all this stuff I grew. That was God's anyway. God has no interest in that. What God is pleased with is a blood sacrifice that's acceptable for sin. And we can't give that. But by His direction and ordination, we're to picture it We were under the old covenant by the sacrifice of a lamb, the shedding of blood, innocent blood. And God would accept that by faith in His lamb. He didn't need groceries. He doesn't need anything. But we need propitiation. We need a sin offering, and God provided that too.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? You see that? Will I eat those vegetables that Cain brought? Will I eat anything? Is it for me? No, it's for you! It's for God's justice and satisfaction for sin, but it's for your sake that Christ said that He shed His blood. For God's sake, for God's glory, but for our sake, for life, for salvation, for forgiveness of sin.

Offer unto God thanksgiving. What have we seen in our text? The reason God still has a world is because His people thank Him and praise Him. That's a big part of it now. I understand He's still saving His people, but as I said, He could do that. He could wrap that up tonight. God's getting glory under these circumstances. That's why these circumstances exist. And how does he get glory? That you bear much fruit, the Savior said. Thanksgiving, praise, love, adoration, worship. and pay thy vows unto the Most High." You see that in our text. It abounded unto many thanksgivings. This giving resulted in the giving of thanks to God. And our very text is an expression of thanksgiving. Thanks be unto God. Offer unto God thanksgiving. And pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I'll save you, and you'll glorify Me." You see, the end result of all of it is His glory, thanksgivings unto Him.

The truth about gifts is that the gift of God's Son is the only gift that matters. Because he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. People talk about the more abundant life. There's either life or there's no life. A more abundant life is not all the earthly blessings that they think the Lord has bestowed upon them. Those are curses if they keep you from the feet of Christ. If you have life at all, it's abundant life, because Christ is our life.

An unbeliever might say, well, I have a good life. I don't know what you're talking about. I have a real good life. Yeah, I know you say that, but turn with me to Revelation chapter three, verse 17. You say that. If you have not the Son, you don't have life at all. Look at what he said in Revelation 3, 17, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods. There they are. I've got a good life. I don't know what that preacher is talking about. I have a real good life. Really? Yeah, I know you say that. I get that. You say I'm rich. I'm increased with goods. I have need of nothing. But here's what you don't know. You're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. What you need is the counsel of God, and here's God's counsel. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. I counsel thee to obtain from me that which truly is precious. That's the symbolism here. The gold tried in the fire. What they're talking about, rich and increased, that's fool's gold. It's fool's gold. The things of this world are fool's gold. I counsel to obtain from me by whatever means necessary, true, that which is truly precious, that thou mayest be rich. You don't know what it means to be rich.

And white raiment, how are you going to get righteousness before God? You say, boy, I wear the best clothes. No. no no if you don't have on the wedding garment you're not allowed in at all not into god's presence white raiment that thou mayest be clothed if you don't have the white raiment of the righteousness of christ you're completely naked like in the garden shameful guilty exposed as sinners and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Because otherwise, if you don't have the perfectly white robe washed in the blood of Christ, then you're in shame and disgrace.

And anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. If you had the eye salve, you know, the Lord demonstrated that Where did the ISAF come from for the blind man in John chapter 9? From his mouth. That's how you're going to be able to see. He spit. He spit on the ground. That dust is what we were made from. The Son of God came down here where we are and stood in the dust that we stand in. And when what comes out of his mouth is applied to mine eyes, I can see that by nature I'm miserable and wretched and poor and blind and naked. And I'm gonna cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, clothe me, cleanse me, save me.

If you do not have God's son, you literally have nothing, not even life. You say, well, I've got a lot of money. Well, that's nice. That's nice. But God said, labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. If they don't fly away from you in this life, they're going to at the end of this life. They're going to fly away one way or the other. and they're not gonna do anything for you that matters. It's nice to have money, there's nothing wrong with that. If it comes from God and you honor him with it, that's a wonderful, that's a great blessing. But what's it gonna do for you really? What's it gonna do for me?

So if you don't have him, you have nothing. If you don't know him, you know nothing. And some might say, well, he's not a believer, but he's real smart in earthly things. Does it seem smart to you to do what you do for yourself and not acknowledge God in any way in it? Does it seem smart to you to thumb your nose every day at the one who made you and who determines everything about you, what happens to you, your fortunes in this life and the next, your eternal destiny, who's able to kill you and throw you in hell if it pleases him to do so? Does that seem smart to you?

Well, he's got a lot of street smarts. No, he don't have any smarts. If you don't know Christ, you don't know anything. The scripture's pretty clear about this. You don't know how to plow a field if you don't have Christ. Well, I had a good crop last year. Yeah, but you consumed it on your own lust. You were proud of it. You thumbed your nose in God's face. And so it is a curse unto you. What you did was horrible and detestable and a failure. Every bit of it. Apart from Christ. Every bit of it, every success is a disaster, a tragedy. If you have not the Son of God, you can do nothing. He said that pretty plainly, didn't he? Without me, you can do nothing. Well, I guess I'll just do my best. Apart from Christ, your best is sin. It's sin. We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our best things, our good deeds, are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Read Isaiah chapter 1 again. Even what you call worship is repugnant to God. There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.

Ah, but listen to this grace. But now, O Lord, you're our Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand. You see the the dichotomy, I guess that's the right word of that verse. The first part is talking about how everything you do is evil. You can't do anything to please God. And the last part is this, you're the potter and we're the clay. We can't do anything. Oh, but in the hands of the potter, a vessel and the honor, if he's gracious to us,

Without Christ, you have nothing, know nothing, can do nothing, and you are nothing. John 15, four, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can you except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. And by the way, fruit means God is glorified, not you. If you are truly bearing fruit, the fruit of his spirit, people aren't gonna say, what a great spiritual person he is. They're gonna say, glory to God. Look at his grace in action. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

If a man abide not in me, remember what are we talking about? Without Christ, you are nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If that sounds harsh to you, that you literally are nothing, then maybe run to Christ. Maybe run to Christ because He's everything. Nothings need Him who's everything. And God's unspeakable gift is everything. The gift of God's son is everything. You know this verse well, 831 of Romans. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. There's the unspeakable gift. He so loved his world, his elect, his people, that he gave his only begotten son. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all thing? That's not Christ plus a bunch of stuff. That's Christ. who is a lot of things to us. All earthly blessings, all of them.

Turn to Daniel chapter four, verse 25 with me. Daniel chapter four. Daniel 4.25. All right, everything we just saw where the Lord said the world is mine and all of the fullness of it, all of the produce from it, all of everything that happens in it is mine. Daniel 4 25 this is talking to Nebuchadnezzar now you remember he had a dream and Daniel was able to interpret it and here's what he interpreted that they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field And they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it. You see that? Nebuchadnezzar had everything. He had everything. But you remember why God did this to Nebuchadnezzar? Look at verse 28 of the same chapter.

all this came upon the king nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of babylon the king spake and said is not this great babylon that i have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power for the honor of my majesty and while the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying oh king nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee daniel said god's gonna take it all away from you you're gonna be cast out into the field And you're going to be an animal. Your fingernails and toenails are going to grow like claws. Your hair is going to grow long. You're going to be an animal eating grass. And the dew of heaven is going to fall on you because you're not going to have any enough sense to even find shelter at night when you sleep. And all of it came upon him.

And Daniel told him, here's why this is going to happen. You need to know that God's on the throne. And he rules in the kingdom of men. He rules down here on this earth. And he gives it to whomsoever he will. Everything you have is given to you by God. And Nebuchadnezzar showed that he didn't know that. Do we know that?

Isaiah would again. Isaiah prophesied that even an animal, an ox, knows that his master provided a place for him to sleep and eat. Are we that stupid? Did God have to make him stupid? Or was he already stupid? No, he didn't make him stupid. He was stupid before God put him out in the grass. Because he said, look what I've done. And everything he had was from God's hand. All earthly blessings in this world. God said, I'm taking it away. I gave it to you. You're glorifying yourself and not me in it, and I'm taking it away now until you figure out who's on the throne and where everything you have comes from.

God, teach us that. Teach us that from your word, and don't take our mind away from us in order to teach us that. Don't take my mind away from me in order to teach me, give me grace to see it in your word and to know, to bow to you, to lift up my hand to you for everything. To know that everything I have comes from you. God took his mind away from him.

You know, God, there's an infinite number of ways Who was the king that the people were calling him a god? Was it Nero? Is that who it was? The people were calling him a god. They were shouting, he's a god, he's a god, and Nero didn't correct them. I'm pretty sure he didn't even say, I'm a god, but they said it, and he didn't say, hold on a minute now, there's a god in heaven. God is God, not me, he didn't correct them. And it says that he was eaten up of worms. He took Nebuchadnezzar's mind away from him, and he ate that evil king up with worms, because they glorified him not as God, and they knew better. Read Romans chapter one. They knew he was God, and they lifted themselves up. They knew he was God, and they said, I'm my own man. They knew he was God, and they said, look what I've done. Look how good I am. Look what I've accomplished.

It's a subtle thing, isn't it? You don't have to be the ruler of a great kingdom in order to be guilty of that same sin. Every earthly blessing is from Him. He gives it to whomsoever He will. All heavenly blessings. Ephesians 1.3. Turn there with me. Let's look at the context of the verse you know that I'm going to read for sure.

Ephesians 1.3. Every spiritual heavenly blessing is from Christ. He is the gift that includes everything. That's what He was saying. He spared not His own Son, and in giving us His Son, He gave us all things. All things. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, in that he blessed us with Christ, in that he gave us his Son, he gave us everything.

According as he has chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, we have electing grace in Christ. All of the promises of God are yes, so be it, in Christ. Every promise of mercy, grace, blessing, and salvation ever made to a sinner are ours in Christ. So He gave us His only Son, and having Him, we have everything God can give.

according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. He decided that we would be holy in His sight, in His Son, before we were ever born or had done any good or evil. And what decision are you going to make now? I'd be scared to make a decision if I'd mess it up.

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, he determined everything that would happen unto us from eternity to eternity to cause us to be his child, joint heirs with his son. according to the good pleasure of His will." Whose will? Salvation is by whose will now? To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved, every spiritual blessing, acceptance with God, righteousness, adoption, were his children because of Christ, chosen, eternally blessed.

And verse 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood. You see why Paul said in our text that this gift is indescribable? We have redemption. God bought us with the blood of His Son, with His own precious blood, the forgiveness of sins. And notice that redemption through His blood, comma, the forgiveness of sin. Same thing. You see that?

According to the riches of His grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. He did all those things before. He redeemed us, he adopted us, he chose us before we ever knew anything, but then he told us about it. He made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. We couldn't know anything about God's purposes of grace toward us until he told us about it by the preaching of the gospel.

That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together all in one, all things in Christ. In the fullness of time, when time is no more, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. He determined everything about me that culminated in me being just like his son. And I say past tense because he said glorified past tense in Romans chapter eight. It's done, in Christ it's done.

What earthly blessings does a sinner need? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spend not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Solomon worked hard, I'm sure. Can you imagine ruling over an enormous kingdom like that and making judgments? He was the one that decided cases. It's unthinkable. But that which doesn't do anything and gets everything just from God is more beautiful than him. It's not saying don't work. Of course we do. But understand this, we are what we are by the grace of God.

You see how it's the simple things we need to know and learn, not complicated points to take stances on. I just need to know more about Christ. I need to know more of His grace, more of the power of His resurrection. More of His love. We sing that beautiful song more about Jesus. That's what we need to know.

All earthly blessings. If God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you? Oh, ye of little faith. And we are, aren't we? Oh, we are. And seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink, not in the sense that, boy, it's all up to me. No, no. People say work like it's all up to you and trust like it's all up to you. No, work and trust like it's all up to God because it is up to God. Why would you want to work considering a lie? It's not up to you. What encourages me to labor is that God gives the increase. What lifts me up and strengthens me in the labor is that it's not up to me. It's in the hands of the righteous God.

For all these things do the nations of the world seek, that's what everybody's worried about. People have billions of dollars and all it amounts to is you eat food, you wear clothes, Maybe they cost a little bit more. But that's what everybody's at. I just want to eat food that costs more money. It ain't better than beans and cornbread, it just costs more money. If then God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith, and seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind."

Don't worry about that. Don't say things like, what am I going to do? The prices are so high. Believers don't talk like that because we know what we're gonna do. We're gonna trust the Lord Jesus to give us everything we need. God, help us not to think like that. Don't be of doubtful mind about these things. It'll change you now. It'll drive your whole attitude in this life if you're of doubtful mind in these things. God, give us faith. Give us trust, the trust of a little child.

All these things the world's the nations of the world seek after your father know it that you have needed these things I knew what my children needed. I knew what they wanted They made that clear. I knew what they needed They didn't have to worry about that But rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Even in telling us that he will provide for all of our earthly needs, he reminds us that our true concerns, even in this world, are in the kingdom that is not of this world. We are beautiful for situation, as David wrote, as he sang, because we dwell in the city of the great king.

What does a sinner need spiritually? Well, Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. We got to be as holy as God. He's the propitiation for our sins. He's our rock and our fortress and our exceeding great reward. He's our king. Do we live like that? He's the reason that we press toward the mark and he is the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. Our strength to walk in our destination. He's our heaven. the indescribable gift that's so indescribable that the best thing we do in this world is try to describe him and hear him described. Father, describe to us your son And God forbid that we should glory except in Him.