Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Paul's epistle to the Romans,
Romans and chapter 8. I read for our text verse 32. Romans 8 and verse 32. 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 things? Romans 8 and verse 32. And what specifically is upon
my spirit is this link, this giving of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and where he has given him, then He will also give every other
gift, every other grace that the Church of God needs. So when a child of God has been
quickened, has been called, those gifts are coming through the
Lord Jesus Christ, but as they then begin to walk a Christian
life, all that they need to walk in that life is all provided
as well through the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only has He suffered,
bled and died, but He has also provided every grace, every favour,
every gift for the Church of God. It's important that we do
see this link and this that is joined with Christ's sin-atoning
sacrifice which is in our text. Paul in Romans 5 also deals in
a similar way and he says in verse 8 of God commanding his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us. That is, while we were enemies
to Him, while we were going our own way, even hating God, Christ
died for us. And then He says, if when we
were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
how much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And so in verse 9 he says, once
much more than being justified by his blood or accounted free
from condemnation, we shall be saved from wrath through him. And so he is saying that those
that find themselves in a called position and for the first time
really realise how much they are sinners, how much they need
mercy and grace and help, and maybe in looking at themselves,
feel despair, fear, how can they ever walk the Christian life?
How can they ever persevere unto the end? And the apostle says,
the very fact that you're called, that Christ died for you, and
that he quickened you when you were dead and enemies to him,
proves that once now you are quickened, He will save you. He will save you from your sin.
He will give you what is needed. He won't withhold those things.
Now, for the first time in your life, you are feeling your sin
and your need. There's every encouragement in
this. And so not only in the portion
that we've read with our text, but previous as well, He's bringing
in this truth. We could use it as the illustration
with the children of Israel being brought out of Egypt as if God
would say, would he have formed a people from Abraham? Would he have brought them into
Egypt and built them up and brought them out in such remarkable way
and then not provide for them in the wilderness, not give them
food and water and protection and not bring them into the promised
land. Well, we wouldn't think that
God would do that because God already had owned them and shown
his love to them in bringing them out of Egypt. And so it
is with us as well. And so it is to be our encouragement. We are to be really encouraged.
Those of us who have hope, the Lord has become with us and that
Christ has died for us. that though we may feel so lacking,
so needing of much gifts and grace and faith and every blessing,
that they are not to be found in us, they are to be found in
Christ. And it is God's good pleasure
to give them to us, to provide us with those gifts and with
those blessings. So this is what our text says,
see, that spared not, His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? So, we have these first words,
He that, that is God the Father, that is what is speaking of God
the Father, the Eternal God, that same God, that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, that same God
shall with him, along with his gift, along with what he has
done, also freely give us all things. I want to look at two
main points this evening. Firstly, the gift of God's own
Son, the first part of our text, and then secondly, the gifts
given with Christ, and we'll divide that into two points concerning
the gifts themselves, and then lastly the gifts. Firstly, the gift of God's own
Son. The way it is put before us in
our text is, He that spared not His own Son. If you remember
in the account of David, and David had made a covenant with
Jonathan, that he would spare his seed after him, and David
had found Mephibosheth lame in both his feet and brought him
to the king's table. Later on, God sent three years'
famine in Israel, and David inquired of the Lord why, and he was told
that it was because of Saul and what he'd done to the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites had been sworn
to by the children of Israel. The children of Israel would
not kill them. They would be hewers of timber,
drawers of water, servants for the Israelites, but they wouldn't
kill them. But Saul, in his false zeal,
he did. He persecuted them. He killed
some of them. And it was for this reason, even
after Saul had died, and so David asked the Gibbonites what should
be done, and they said, well, no one in Israel should be put
to death for this, but Saul's own house, those of his own sons. And so seven of his sons were
slain. And we read this, that David,
he withheld Mephibosheth. Because of the covenant, because
of the promise with Jonathan, because of the blessings he'd
already shown, to Mephibosheth, he didn't allow him, though he
was of Saul's sons and could have been slain the rest of the
others, he withheld him and didn't allow him to be slain because
of that covenant. But here, what is set forth regarding
God's own son, our Lord Jesus Christ, he did not spare him. He did not hold him back. He
did. sent him forth into this world
sent him forth to be made of a woman and made under the law
under the sentence of death not because of any sin that was in
him but for sins laid upon him thus laid upon him the iniquity
of us all and so we have the type with abraham When he was
told to go and offer up his son on a mountain, God would tell
him off and he was sent to Mount Moriah. And Isaac, as they went
up the mountain, he said, my father, the fire, the wood, but
where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham's answer
was, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. But he got to the point of raising
the knife on abound Isaac before God stopped him and showed him
a ram in the thicket. Well, the type was the Lord Jesus
Christ would be the substitutionary offering instead of Isaac. But what God said to Abraham,
because thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, whom
thou lovest, In blessing I will bless thee, and in thee and in
thy seed shall all nations be blessed. And Paul says, he says
not seeds, but seed that is one, that in Christ shall all nations
be blessed. And so the father sent the son
and sent him to endure 33 years on this earth, how long, he says,
shall I endure you? How long shall I suffer you?
Enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself, and
then to have laid on him those iniquities that God hates sin,
and yet to have that laid upon him. Now those that are most
pure, to have laid upon them things that are filthy and evil,
how galling, how horrible that is, and to feel not only the
weight of those sins that his own soul abhorred, but to have
then the wrath of God against those sins poured out upon him,
the hiding of the Father's face, and to endure the punishment
of the people for whom he was dying. Now remember this chapter,
in Romans 8 is speaking of those that are justified, those that,
in verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. So when we read in our text,
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
this is the all that he's speaking of. Not every man, woman and
child in the world. Our Lord did not offer him up
for the lost, for those that shall be lost. He laid down his
life for his sheep. He clearly says that. And that
sacrifice that he offered was, according to the law, a just
weight, a just balance. It was not just paying an indefinite
price for an indefinite people. hoping that someone would respond. But the sacrifice paid and settled
a debt for a people, and those people for whom that debt was
paid will most surely be brought to heaven, will most surely be
brought to be called by grace while they are in this world,
and they will be blessed with the gifts that flow forth from
the Lord Jesus Christ, enabling them to do again, as in verse
1, walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is
what is the gifts that flow from the Lord Jesus Christ. So the
gift of God's only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was a
gift that entailed His sufferings and His death to be delivered
up to be made a sacrifice, to be made an offering, to be not
withheld. And as he said to Abraham, it
was a mark of divine love, mark of love. In Abraham, it's a mark
of love of the father to his people that he should so offer
up his son. When we think of what our Lord
Jesus Christ suffered and endured, there must be a tremendous love
of the Father to His people that enabled Him, that caused Him
to offer up His Son like this, and that there could be no other
way that justice could be satisfied, and that our Lord Jesus Christ
would realize that as well. And in the covenant, of course,
it was provided that the people given by the Father to the Son
He was to redeem, He must redeem them, He must save them. The
Lord is spoken of as the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. What a terrible thing it is for
some to think there is salvation in another way. If there was
another way that was holy, righteous and good, then why? did not the Eternal Father use
that way instead of punishing His Beloved Son. Any that think
that there's another way are virtually saying to the Father
that they are offered Him up for nothing. It was a worthless
sacrifice because there's other faiths and other ways of being
saved other than that, but there is no other way. The Lord said,
if you believe not that I am He, you shall perish in your
sins. There is one name given among
men whereby we must be saved, none other name but the name
of Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And so bound up with what the
Lord Jesus Christ was called to do, is all of the blessings
and everything that the Church of God needs comes through that
same sacrifice, that same offering up. An offering up to take away
the wrath of God, to open heaven for His people, to unlock the
mercies of God, to unlock the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ
to be bestowed upon His people. Every blessing we sung in our
hymn comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. 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 things? So there is a binding up together
with the Lord Jesus Christ, with his offering up, all things to
be freely given to the Church of God, to those who are quickened
into divine life. And remember, the Lord said,
because I live, you shall live also. I give unto them eternal
life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of mine hand. The gifts of calling make known
election, they make known that Christ has died for us, they
make known the love of God, not only to His Son, but to us through
His Son. They make known to us that provision
that is in Christ, that is ours. and that will be bestowed upon
us. I want to look then at our second
point, which is the gifts given with Christ. So firstly I want to look at
points concerning the gifts. And the first is this, which
we've, in respect, already covered, that these gifts are purchase
gifts. You know, if someone was to give
us a gift, and we said to them, but we didn't know you were very
wealthy, how did you manage to get this gift for us? our thought
would immediately be, this that is given to us must be purchased. Now of course if it was maybe
a farmer and he'd got some cattle or he'd got something grown up
in his field, then in that sense it wouldn't be purchased. But
in most cases, if we're going to give someone something, then
we've purchased it. And if we haven't, Then we've
stolen it. Then we've taken it. It's not
really ours to give. And so we must be clear on this
when God gives things to his people, they are his to give. He may freely, sovereignly give
them. They are, they're sovereignly
given to his people. They're not given to those for
whom He did not die because He has not purchased them for them.
He's laid down His life for the sheep. He's purchased those blessings
for them. And we must remember that. Otherwise, we pass by the tokens
of these gifts. When we receive the gifts, we
receive them as an evidence and a token of the love of God and
of Christ dying for us. They are not gifts common to
mankind. And the more that we see of those
that have not these gifts, we realize, or we should realize,
how particular that they are. So may I remember that? There's
blood stamped upon them. They are purchased gifts. And they are sovereignly, then,
and graciously given. There's no merit in us. We haven't
earned them. We're not deserving of them.
We are no better than others who have not received them. The apostle is very clear on
this, that those things that we have received, what hast thou? But thou hast not received it.
In other words, we are not born with it. We did not have it before. If any is going to rise up in
pride and say, look at me, I've got this and this and this in
the spiritual realm. We'll come to these points in
a moment. Then Paul says, well, just remember this. Everything
that you have that you're liable to be proud of, you were given
it. It wasn't yours at all by nature. And it's been sovereignly and
freely given. What a humbling thing. Most of
us, in one sense, we work for our living. We do our labours,
and we're given wages for that. But in some cases, we may be
given a grant or given a gift, or those that are without job,
they receive benefits from the government, and they're receiving
these gifts. They are freely given, they haven't
earned them, they haven't come to them through any work that
they've done. Those gifts that God gives to
his children are given by grace, free, unmerited favour of God. None can say I've been given
this because in some way I've been diligent, I've earned it,
I'm better than others, No. Everyone is to be received as
by a hell-deserving sinner. And those very gifts, they have
an influence, an effect upon that sinner. But then we're not
to turn around and think, well, aren't I a holy and godly person? I've deserved these blessings.
No. If you are holy and godly, you
are because God has given you those gifts and made you what
you are. While these gifts, the most part,
all of them, are given at the new birth, yet they are to be
asked of the Lord. We are to seek them. As we feel
our need of them, then we are to come before the Lord in prayer
and ask. We are to seek them with a diligent
use of the means of grace. In the Word of God, in the house
of God, we're to seek these blessings from the Lord. He gives them
through those channels of His Word, of preaching, and He gives
them an answer to prayer. I would yet be inquired of by
the House of Israel to do it for them. These gifts that we
are to look at, they are indispensable to the Christian life and assurance
of salvation. Without those gifts we will not
have assurance of salvation and we will not be able to live the
Christian life. The Apostle says, what I am,
I am by the grace of God. He has made me to be what I am. Our Lord says, without me ye
can do nothing. And he has said in the parable
of the vine, that the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are
the branches. and the Lord there setting forth,
where flows the fruitfulness of the people of God. And by
their fruit ye shall know them, and there is the assurance and
comfort of our salvation. That the grace, as Paul says,
the grace of God was not bestowed upon me in vain. It had an effect,
and it should be with us that we should be able to see or discern
something of the effect of grace, a change, a difference in our
lives that has made us to be sanctified, separated from others
because of what God has given to us. And so also we may say
concerning these gifts, it is the only way that we can live
godly lives. There's no way that we can on
ourselves or without these gifts. And so we have to bear these
things in mind when we come to look at the gifts themselves. Our text says, and it joins it
together, and he says that it is all things. How shall he not
with Him, that is with Christ, also freely, there's the sovereignty
and grace, freely give us all things? What are these all things? I want to suggest several of
these things for us this evening. The first thing is life. The
Lord says, I give unto them eternal life, They shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He says of the
Jews that ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. The life that is given at the
new birth will make a sinner aware that they are a sinner,
will open their eyes, give them a hearing ear, give them to know
their need of the Saviour, and bring them to seek after Him. And it is that very life that
makes to feel in themselves how dead and dry that they are, and
their need of life from without. And all of God's teaching, and
we must remember this, in our experience and in our lives,
will be from time to time to make us feel how dead, spiritually
dead, lifeless, cold, unable to move our own hearts we are. And we're to look then for that
fresh life from the Lord, that He would pour fresh life upon
the whole. They that have no changes fear
not God. And don't be surprised, especially
if you've been tried and tempted, whether you are a child of God
or not. And the Lord answers it by taking
away The feeling sense, not taking it away, he will never take away
that eternal life from his children, but the sense of it, making them
feel to his back slidden and to be lifeless and cold, and
see no attraction in the word of God, feel their prayers hard
and cold, and feel far off from the Lord. And they say to him,
Ryder, how can I ever live at such a poor dying rate? And it
is when we feel so lifeless that we then realize what we had did
not come from ourselves. We cannot quicken it again. We
cannot bring ourselves to life. And there it is that we are to
cry unto the Lord. Lord, I am so dead. I'm so cold. I'm so lifeless. I'm so worldly. Lord, quicken me again. Give
me fresh life. Pour fresh life into my soul. And it is this gift the Lord
is pleased to give in His time and way again to enliven us and
bring us again to seek Him and to feel the life of God within. Oh, the happiness, says the hymn
writer, of the soul when feeling the life of God within. And those are blessed times when
we feel warm when they're two on the way to Emmaus, that under
a sermon we may be drawn and our heart burn within us. And
we feel that life bubbling up, spiritual life, instead of spiritual
death. And it is this gift, given at
the first, but is to be given again and again as we feel afresh,
our need of fresh life from the Lord. One of these gifts, these
all things the Lord gives to his people. Then there's grace. Again, we are saved. By grace
you are saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. But we read this, that when Paul
came into the situation when he had the thought in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan, then the Lord didn't take it away,
but he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul was taught
the need of grace to be able to bear, to be able to go through
the trials that the Lord caused him to go through. And we read
in James that he giveth more grace and it's grace to help
in time of need. The free unmerited favour of
God and help of God. Grace is poured upon his lips
and the means of grace is the reading of the word, is praise,
the preaching of the word. This is the way the Lord gives
that grace and help to his people, help from the sanctuary, strength
out of Zion. And these are gifts that flow
forth from the Lord to enable us to walk the Christian life,
to walk after him, to mortify the deeds of the body, to bear
with those thorns in the flesh, the messengers of Satan, We need
the grace of God. That shapes our character, shapes
our lives as it did the apostle. What I am, I am by the grace
of God. May that be what we seek. Lord,
give me more grace. Give me grace to be able to bear
this trial, to be delivered from the bitterness of my heart and
my thoughts and the affections that I have of my sin defiled. Give more grace. Then faith, we had on the Lord's
Day, I believe. Lord, increase our faith. The apostles asking the Lord
for this. The Lord says if you had faith,
the grain of mustard seed, you could move mountains. But the
disciples, the apostles, they felt an increase of it. And there's
sometimes we feel to have such little faith. Faith is built
on the word of God. It is trust. in the Word of God,
trust in the Lord. It enables us to see what we
cannot see with our natural eyes. It's faith that shows us we are
the Lord. It's faith that looks upon the
evidences that sees that we are calling. It's faith that believes
that when we die, our soul returns to God that gave it, that He
has made a place for us in heaven, that as He has given grace, so
He shall give glory as is set before us in Psalm 84. And so again, rather than be
moaning our lack of faith, maybe think of this. This is given
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the gifts that
is bound up with him. And we are to seek that of him,
just like the apostles. Lord, increase our faith. Give
us more. assurance, give us more clearly
to see our title to mansions in the skies and to see the reality
of the Word of God. Oh how often we try to put common
sense as we would call it or man's wisdom in the place of
the Word of God instead of trusting God's way, God's plan, God's
remedies and His faith that says no. to the law, to the testimony. If it does not speak according
to these things, there is no life in them. Do we need that
increase of faith? And what of love? We love Him
because He first loved us. But it is that blessing, the
love of God, shared abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The Lord says the Father himself
loveth you. That love He gives. That's why
He gives it as a token of being a child of God. We know that
we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. But where we don't feel that
love, are we to throw up our hands and say, I can't be a child
of God. I feel lifeless. No love at all. No love to the
Word of God. No love to the Lord's house.
No love to the Lord. And just as it were, thinking,
well, God has called me, but these things aren't in me. I
can't be a child of God. Instead of thinking, the Lord
has made me then to feel that I haven't got these things. Not
to despair, not to give up, but to run to the Lord for them and
ask him for these things. Beg him for this, confess that
lack of love. and asked him to shed it abroad
in our hearts again. You know, if we had been looking
after our children and feeding them and nourishing them, and
then they had need of something, wouldn't we be offended if they
went to the neighbour and we said, what are we going to the
neighbour for? Well, I just felt hungry. I was going to go and
get something to eat. or I needed some clothes so when
they were wealthy, we could get something from them. You say,
but haven't I provided for you all your life? Aren't you my
child? Have I not done all these things? Is it not bound up with being
a child that I feed you, I clothe you? Why didn't you tell me?
Why didn't you ask me the need of these things? Now remember,
of course, the Lord knows our need of them. Your Father knoweth
ye have need of these things before ye ask him, but he will
be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. He is honoured and glorified
in his coming to him, coming empty. Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. What about repentance? How vital
is repentance? that the Lord is exalted to give
repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. What is repentance?
A turning away from sin, a sorrow for sin, a hatred of sin, and
showing it by not continuing to walk in it, by confession
of it and forsaking it, and bound up with that is remission of
sins. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Again, not thinking, well, I
love those sins so much, I don't want to give them up. I don't
want to part from them, but I know I should part from them, I shouldn't
continue with those thoughts, patterns, and with those feelings,
or doing those things. Instead of waiting until we can
get the a good will and willpower and some device of man to forsake
them. Well, if we were able to do that,
we'd never give the honour and glory to God and we wouldn't
have a token of receiving a gift from Him either. But to come
before Him and say, Lord, I have not got repentance in my heart.
I feel the need of it. I feel the need of, like Thou
hast said, just casting out taking out a right eye or cutting off
a hand, but I find it too hard. I can't do that. Lord, give that
to me, impart to me the willingness and that real desire to be free
of these sins, even though while I'm asking Thee, part of me is
saying, no, no, no, don't ask for that, because I still want
to indulge it, I want to go on in doing that. And you tell the
Lord that is what is going on in your heart, that wrestling
that doesn't even like to pray for that repentance. But the Lord is exalted to give
that. This is the gospel. This is the
provisions. It's not the law says, repent,
repent. If you don't, you're damned.
The law does, but it doesn't give any life and it doesn't
give any power. But the Gospel says Christ has
died and died to give these things to his people. Those that feel
their need, those that are empty, those that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, those that say with the publican, God be
merciful to me a sinner, beating upon his breast. He's not saying,
God be merciful to me a sinner. I'm a good sinner. I'm a humble
sinner. I'm a sinner. and is seeking
mercy. No, he's still struggling with
his sin. You know, when the Lord came
to the mad Gadarene, he was cutting himself. He's in a hopeless condition. The Lord made him what he was,
brought him to sit at his feet. That was the Lord's work, not
his. The gospel is to encourage us
to hope, to look, to not give up. And so another gift is hope. You think of the psalmist, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise Him who
is the health of my countenance and my God. Where does that hope
come from? Hope is given. Good hope through
grace. The saints possess the fruit
of Jesus' righteousness and by his spirit given. That is one
of the hymn writers. Echoing the word of God. Saved
by hope, but a hope that is not seen. Hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man doth hope for,
or seeth, what doth he yet hope for? And so it is for me. not able to even see that we
have then hope given us, to hope Thou in God. May we pray for
that and seek for that to be raised up through the ministry,
the hope, hope in His mercy, the hope that He'll answer our
prayers, that He'll give us repentance, that He'll give us these grace
and gifts that we so need. What about the gifts of patience
and endurance? We're told concerning Job, you've
heard of the patience of Job or endurance of Job. He that
endureth unto the ends shall be saved. That doctrine that we hold so
precious, the perseverance of the saints, they shall endure. And yet how many times we think
we've come to the end. We cannot stand anymore. We cannot
endure anymore and cannot continue anymore in this trial or in this
affliction. And yet to ask of the Lord that
he'll give us patience and endurance to continue another day, to keep
going. This is a gift from the Lord. What about of righteousness?
Christ is made unto us righteousness, sanctification, and wisdom. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and that braideth
not, and it shall be given him. How blessed it is if we view
the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness. If we view hymn
as our sanctification, Christ says the hymn writer has holiness
enough to sanctify us all. But we need that holiness, we
need that cleansing, but that is not in us. Again, we are to
seek that gift and that blessing from the Lord. What about the
beginning of wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of the wisdom. hymns as his line is that we
might ask that to us be given the fear of the Lord. That reverence
of his great and holy name, that trembling before him, that seeing
his eye before us, a childlike filial fear where a child would
have a love of that parent and yet really esteem them and fear
them knowing that they are able to chastise, to correct, but
also that they love their child dearly and would do everything
to help them. Fear is a blessed grace that
keeps us from the light, frivolous, empty profession of our day and
makes us truly see the Lord as he is in all his glory. and majesty,
but doesn't fright us away. You know, when the New Testament
church, great fear fell upon them when Ananias and Sapphira
were cut down dead. It didn't stop the growth of
the church. It didn't drive people away and
say, well, if this is what God is, then we're not going to follow
this religion. No, there are many that were
saved, many that were blessed. And so it will be when we have
this blessing of the fear of the Lord, it will be for our
good and not for evil. And so the child of God, he needs
provision, he needs food, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. These
gifts, he opened his hand, he satisfies the desire of every
living soul. The children of Israel through
the wilderness, He withheld not the manna from their mouths.
May we ask of that gift, day by day, week by week, service
by service, to receive here a crumb, or there a handful of mercy,
a handful of purpose. These gifts, they come through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And our text is very clear on
this, the joining together He that delivered Him up for us
all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? When we then are given these
things, there is a stamp on it that He has delivered His beloved
Son up for us. And that's why He is giving us
these things. That's why He's made us feel
the need of them and to give room for Him. There's countless
millions that see no need of salvation. They feel no need
of any of these gifts. They don't seek the Lord for
them because they don't feel the need of them. There's countless millions that
still go on without God, without hope in the world. Why are we
different? Why are we ever interested in
receiving any of these things or concerned that we do not have
them? Sometimes it's good. I was going to say to compare ourselves
with others. There's one sense that it's not
good because some will say, well, I'm better than others, I'm not
so bad, and use it as an excuse to go on in sin. But there's
many comparisons in the Word of God, and I begin right at
the very beginning with Cain and Abel. And God has put it
in there for a purpose, and we see with the parable of the publican
in the temple and the Pharisee praying, the Lord is not just
giving one side, he's giving the other side. So extending
that to us, when we do see those that are round about us, that
do not see anything in the Lord, that do not ask anything of Him,
that give no evidence whatsoever that Christ has died for them. Now, many of the Lord's dear
people, if not all the Lord's people, have been in that situation. We're not to think, well, just
because that one doesn't show any signs of grace now, that
they're not God's people. Because if that was the case,
John Newton, We've seen him, Saul of Tarsus, Paul as he later
was. We were seeing them in unregeneracy.
We said, there's a lost character. And yes, if they continued in
that way, they would be. But God stopped them. God changed
them. God made a difference. And I
trust that that has been so with us as well. God has stopped us. God has made a difference. And
when we see those that are so hardened or not interested, we
try to share the gospel with them, try to warn them, and they
don't want to know. They say, don't tell me, I'd
rather be in ignorance. I don't want to know. And the
opportunity of being able to tell them anything is, the door
is slammed shut. Others are more receptive, and
that is very hopeful where that is the case, where there's an
open door. But what is it with us? Has the
Lord begun and given us some of these gifts that then want
more? We want more. If we have tasted
that the Lord is gracious, then we want more, and more blessings. We may be encouraged to come
to the Lord and ask for these blessings and where He has given
them, that we might be able to see that this flows through His
precious blood. that He has redeemed us and has
saved us. And let us not despair when we
see ourselves so sinful and so much in need of these gifts.
God's people, all of them, are dependent upon His gifts and
grace. He is exalted, He is honoured
in giving them to us. We are, as it were, like the
lightbulb that shows that there is electricity, there is power. And God's people, like Barnabas,
he saw the grace of God at those in Antioch. He saw the grace
of God and was glad. He saw poor sinners benefiting
from the gifts and graces of God in their lives. They were
different like he was different. They tasted those same blessings
that he'd received. May the Lord bless this word
to us. 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 things? And just in closing, maybe there's
one that may listen to this message. and you have not asked, you have
not mindful of your need of any of these gifts, may it be a real
concern for you. May the Lord use it. Use it to
open your eyes, to quicken you, to make you to feel your need
of salvation. That here are things that have
been spoken that you are a stranger to. Or may that be a real concern
for you. And if it is things that you're
not a stranger to, it may be a comfort and blessing that you
do know them.