Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Paul's first epistle to the
Corinthians, chapter 2. And reading for our text, verse
12. particularly the latter part
of that verse, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. The whole verse reads, Now we
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. Very evident from the words of
our text that for a believer, for the people of God, there
are things that are freely given to them. And that it is bound
up with the Holy Spirit not only the gift of them without the
Holy Spirit, those things would not be given. But also, so that
those things that are given are actually recognized as coming
not from the world, not from the flesh, but from God himself. There is a tracing up to the
source and to the fountain. And that is very important that
that should be so. When our Lord healed in a natural
way, the miracle but healing of a body, those ten lepers,
there were ten that were healed, but only one returned to give
glory to God. Ten had received the gift of
healing. but only one would trace it back
and give that glory to the giver. So our text says that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. It is vital that we have the
Holy Spirit. Now the apostle tells the Corinthians
here the manner of his preaching. Central in his preaching is the
Lord Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, his sufferings, his death. But
the manner of his preaching, though it set forth, and the
apostle of all people was very methodical in his ministry and
how he set things forth, but he was not looking to his natural blessing of the Lord to be upon
the Word. One of our hymns says, we must
not learn God's truth as schoolboys learn their task. And though
it is right, as ministers, we study the Word and seek to carefully
open it up, we are not relying on our own wisdom or wisdom of
words as the Apostle speaks it to bring the blessing down. It is the Lord that said to the
Apostles, tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power
from on high. They needed the Spirit to help
them preach. They needed the Spirit to bless
that word. The Apostle says to the Thessalonians
that the Word came unto them, not in word only, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. And that is the sovereign work
of God. That is a real comfort to the
people of God. Because we don't just want to
know God's truth, What we want to know is that from the high
decree of heaven, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has conveyed
to us these gifts, without which we shall never see God, we shall
never be saved. And not only receiving the gifts,
but tracing up to where they come from discerning that these
are given us because Christ has suffered for us and died on Calvary's
tree. If it could be said, well, you
can come at the knowledge of this just by studying the Word
and applying it or taking it to yourself, then we would have
no witness within. But if we are told, no, naturally,
The natural man receives not the things of God, they are foolishness
to him, that those things that are received, truly received,
they come from heaven, they come from the high decree of heaven.
Then not only are those gifts a blessing, but it is a blessing
knowing where they come from. how we've actually got them. So really it is a double word
that is before us, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God, the things themselves given because the
Spirit is given to us, and actually discerning and knowing where
they come from, the same Spirit bearing witness of what He has
given And to that end, we have received, believers have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. You know, two spirits, the spirit
which is of this world, that is of Satan's kingdom, and of
that which he is over. The apostle, when he writes to
the Ephesians, he speaks of that change that has been wrought. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Then he says this, wherein in
time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That is the
spirit of the world to what Paul is referring to in his letter
to the Corinthians. We have also in John's epistles
the world set forth and what that is in 1 John chapter 5. And we have in verse 19, Thereby, hereby, we know that
we are of God shall assure our hearts before him." Sorry, that is chapter 3. In
chapter 5, verse 19, we know that we are of God. The whole
world lieth in wickedness. He says, we know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. There's a distinct difference
between the world and the church, the spirit in the world and the
spirit in the church. The difference is also referred
to in this chapter of our text, that it is the natural things,
the natural man, Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. It needs to be a spiritual
birth, a spiritual gift to know those things. And in verse 11,
he gives an illustration He says, for what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. That is, in
a natural way, the things that we know is by the spirit that
is in us. We do things and we know what
we do. We have things given to us naturally. And we know what he's given us,
we have minds, we have wills, we have an understanding, all
in a natural way. And the apostle uses that as
an illustration. And then says, even so, the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. And so we have
the natural things that we may know naturally, and the spiritual
things that are only to be known by the Spirit of God. And it
is that Spirit that is given to the people of God and to the
Church of God, a gift from the Lord. The Old Testament, which
is referred to in verse nine, the prophecy in Isaiah, but as
it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him, that God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit. And the Old Testament saints,
with all the types and the shadows, they could never have envisaged
a New Testament church as we see it today. They saw through
a glass darkly, and yet now, as revealed to us by the Spirit,
through the Apostles' letters, through the inspired Word of
God, we have the perfect, complete will of God that is known. Looking forward, we are in the
same position as the Old Testament Church, as we view what it shall
be at the end of the world and in heaven. It has not entered
into our hearts what God hath prepared for them that love him,
as they couldn't anticipate this day, so we cannot anticipate
that which is above. We're told little parts of it
as they were, that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge
of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea, in every nation kindred
and tongue, they were told that the Gentiles also shall come
to his light, and they have." So they had that light and that
understanding, but we see it now so much more clearer. And yet those things that are
yet to come, we rely on them being opened up in due time by
the Lord. We know that when we see him
we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is. But we have little concept of
what really heaven is and that is when Christ shall be there.
We know about the multitude, we know of the heavenly host,
We know there's no need of the sun, the moon. Christ should
be the light of that place. We know those things revealed
to us through the Holy Word of God. But when it comes to the
spiritual things of God, when it comes to the real truth that
is to be known in the heart, then those things must be revealed
by the Holy Spirit of God. In Christ's day upon earth, he
told many parables. The many that heard them, parables
are natural story with a spiritual meaning. Many were quite happy
with the natural story. They never inquired the spiritual
meaning. Disciples often, they came to
the Lord and asked him to declare unto them these parables. And
he taught them, he taught them the spiritual meaning. They knew
there was a double meaning, they knew there was a deep that counts
beneath, a depth that was hidden from them, and they inquired
after it. And we have in the Word of God,
you might say, in a natural sense, and there's many, many that have
studied the Word of God, they've seen a beauty in it, they could
articulate all of the doctrines and yet never has it entered
into their hearts, never have they been touched by it, never
have they had faith, never have they seen the Lord by faith,
never have they really realized those blessings at all. And is that what is so vital
that we should have? That we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God, to that end the Spirit was
given, the Spirit which is of God. I want to then just notice
firstly that we might know, and secondly the things that are
given to us, and then thirdly just notice how they are given,
that is, freely, that firstly that we might know. May this be a ray of hope or
light in our hearts. Many of the Lord's dear people
might use the language of the hymn writer, "'Tis a point I
long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not?" How should
we know? And yet when we get a word like
this, and it begins in this way, that we might know. That we might know. God himself
has made a provision. A provision that every one that
is born of God everyone that has been chosen in Christ from
eternity, everyone for whom he has suffered, bled and died,
that they might know it. And how they might know it is
because he gives them the Spirit of God. That is the secret. That is the
only way that God bears witness with our spirit that we are born
of God. That is the sovereign way. And
it is as ministers like the apostle who said, I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And he preaches and he says,
His preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. May it be our desire and our
constant prayer that the Lord would grant His word in power,
that it be effectual to the promised end, The centurion who had a sick
servant had his faith commended as being a great faith. And one of the things, the evidences
of that great faith was he said to the Lord, speak the word only
and my servant shall be healed. He knew the Lord was one of authority. He knew that word would be in
power from the Lord. And may we know the same. The Lord said to the rich man
who thought if one was to rise from the dead then his brethren
would believe, they are Moses and the prophets. If they believe
not them, neither will they believe. though one rose from the dead. It is the word with power that
is needed by the Spirit of God, emphasized by the apostles having
to tarry at Jerusalem. If you and I want to know our
interest in Christ's blood, the provision God has made is by
His Spirit. that ye may know. And not only
know, but that same provision of the Spirit gives those gifts
and gives those blessings. Those things that are actually
received and identified, as we hope to set a few of them forth
this evening, it is again through the Spirit that it is known. that we might know. May Lord help us to turn it into
a prayer that he would give us and grant us his spirit that
we might know these things and know our interest in him. But secondly, what are the things
that are given unto us? where the apostle goes on to
speak in verse 13, which things also we speak. So that starts
to tell us what those things are. It's things that are spoken. It is things that he is preaching. But not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual." The commission to Paul and to
all of us in the ministry is to preach the Word. The Bereans,
when they heard Paul preach, they searched the Scriptures
daily, and of course that's the Old Testament Scriptures, to
see whether these things were so. Therefore many believed. So Paul was preaching the Scriptures. And the Scriptures are the inspired
Word of God. So what he was setting forth
was spiritual things. He was preaching the Word, which
things also we speak. The same things that the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke on the way to Emmaus, in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. The same things that Philip spoke
to the Enoch when he began at the same scripture, Isaiah 53,
and preached unto him Jesus. The Word of God is a spiritual
book. It is inspired. It is the words
of the Holy Ghost. It's the words of the Lord, it
is the words of the Father. Thy words were found, and I did
eat them. They were to the joy and rejoicing
of my heart. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so the apostle was preaching
these words. that the Holy Ghost has taught,
has revealed and opened up. Our Lord says in John 17, I have
given them thy word and the world hath hated them. The spirit of
the world does not like the word of God. Our Lord says that light
is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. He says that those that come
to the light, their desire is that their deeds might be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God. And so, as the apostle
preaches, is shown to us, these things, what Paul says, are given
to us of God. The first gift I mention is Christ
himself. In the prophecy of Isaiah, and
we think of this time of the year and the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 9 and verse 6, for
unto us A child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. The gift the great gift of the
Lord Jesus Christ, God providing his only begotten Son. The apostle, when he writes to
the Romans, he says this in Romans 8 and verse 32, What shall, from verse 31, what
shall we then say 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, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? And so in the gift of his son
is given us all things, every gift and every favour. It comes to us through Jesus'
precious blood. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ Jesus. And that is to be preached and
set forth as tracing everything up to Christ. How precious then
And how true it is unto you which believe he is precious, because
there is discerning that our everything is bound up in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord says, I give unto them
eternal life, They shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of mine hand." In John 3, he speaks of the new
birth, a spiritual birth, that birth that God is the author
of, that is vital, you must be born again. And that is what
is given to us, life. Time comes, says our Lord in
John 10, that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. He speaks of himself as the vine
in John 15. Ye are the branches. The branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can
ye except ye abide in me. From me is thy fruit found. And so the blessing of life,
every fruit of life, comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. With that eternal life comes
new ears, new eyes, new perception, the ability to understand the
things of God, to see past those external things. Sometimes it
is just as in a few moments, it is just as if the veil is
drawn back and be able to perceive and see and understand. With the disciples, when the
Lord stilled the waves and the winds, they said, what manner
is this? What manner of man is this, that
even the winds and the waves obey him? A little glimpse, as
it were, of the Godhead, says the hymn writer, shining through
the man. and able to see him, never man
spake like this man. But those are sacred times when
we get a little glimpse of it. Reading the other day in our
family readings with John VIII and of our Lord speaking with
the scribes, the Pharisees, their reasoning with him, arguing with
him, as it were, and our Lord speaking to them. Just a little
while in reading that portion, felt something of the wonder
that this dear man there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
was the God that made heaven and earth, the sun the moon,
the stars, he of whom Solomon said, the heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee, how much less this house that I have built, but
will God in very deed dwell upon the earth? And he did, and there
he was upon the earth, but veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. And
yet those are sacred moments when through the Word, through
the preaching, we get a little glimpse and we see Him who fills
immensity. We see such a great, great God,
and yet made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, of grace and truth. It's only the Holy Spirit that
can really open that up to us and to show it to us. When we
read of those in the scriptures that the Lord revealed himself
to and they worshipped him, they worshipped him. You never do
that naturally, not to a mere man. It should never be done. that they saw who he was, they
realized who he was. Most solemnly, there were those,
even of the devils, they knew him, they knew who he was, not
savingly, not by the spirit, but the people for whom he died
to redeem the sons of Abraham, the sons of Adam, when they know,
when that is revealed to them, then they know by the Spirit
of God. Blessed thing, if we have a life
now that we did not have before. The Apostle says, the life that
I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave himself,
who loved me and gave himself for me. For me to live is Christ,
to die is gain." He testified of a real difference between
before and after that Damascus Road experience. God had wrought
that change. God had given him the Spirit
in a special way as the Apostle, inspired to write these things. is given the spirit so that when
the word is preached, as Paul is preaching here, that word
is received, not into a natural heart, but spiritually discerned,
received and believed. Another one of those things that
is received is redemption through his precious blood. Again turning
to Ephesians, this time in chapter 1 and verse 7. In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. And a very similar word is also
written to the Colossian church as well. the gift of redemption,
setting free by the payment of a price, and the gift of forgiveness. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. We know
remission of sins by repentance. We know our need of repentance
as a gift by feeling so unable to do so ourselves, to turn to
change our own heart, to be sorry for our sins. We might know them,
we might recognize them, but to actually have Godly sorrow,
that is given by the Lord. And those are sweet yet bitter
times when the Lord gives it. And then there is a mourning
over our sins and after Him. David testifies in Psalm 51,
the sacrifices of God, a broken and contrite heart of God, they
will not despise. Another one of the gifts is the
grace of God, saving grace, and not only saving grace, but as
the apostle proved, grace to help in time of need. In his
weakness, my strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace
is sufficient for thee. He giveth grace for grace. That is the help and strength
of God given by God. The Lord's people do not have
to look back to a spiritual birth to have an ongoing witness within. God's grace continually, they
need his spirit continually. And sometimes the Lord leaves
them to know what they are themselves, what is in their heart. Much
of the way is proving that, as in Deuteronomy, thou shalt remember
all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee these 40 years
in the wilderness. There is the proving, there is
the testing. Is the religion natural? Is it
just learned? Or is it given by the Spirit
of God? Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's Progress,
had his Christian taken to the interpreter's house. And there
was the fire that would not go out, though water was thrown
on it. The secret was the grace, the
flame that was, and the oil that was poured on it. from behind
the wall, secretly kept alive, a secret supply, a spiritual
supply, pointing to what is in our text. We have in Psalm 84, he shall
give grace and glory. No good thing shall the Lord
withhold from him that walketh uprightly. It is the Lord that
brings his people to walk in his ways, and the grace that
he gives here is the certain link to glory. A prepared people for a prepared
place. Peter speaks of an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you, those who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
and that grace comes first here and that is given by God and
it is the Spirit of God that gives it and maintains it. The Lord has said to his people,
lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world, and
he is with his people by his Spirit and by his grace. The Lord himself bodily is in
heaven, but God is everywhere, and it is through his Spirit
that he is with his people. The Lord said of another gift,
and that is a gift that is preached, and that is the peace of God.
In me you shall have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. That is the
gift of God. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth unto you. The blessing of the peace of
God that passeth all understanding. is only conveyed by the Spirit,
cannot be imagined or imitated or learned of man, but God gives
that. And sometimes it is in the most
trying circumstances and situations that the Lord gives his people
that drop of that peace of God in their souls. It is the Lord that gives faith. He is the author and finisher
of faith. That comes from God and it is
through that gift that we are kept. And that's why the Lord
prayed for Peter, not that he should be kept from, denying
him, but that his faith fail not. That was what was vital. But that is what will never fail
because it is given by the Lord, it is in the Lord's hand and
the Lord emphasises it in that way. There are those things that
are given to the people of God, by God. And in preaching we set
forth those things that Christ has purchased, is purchased not
for himself but for his people and to be given them, given them
as tokens, given them for their eternal blessing and eternal
life, that which they need vitally, and given them that they might
actually know those blessings and realize those blessings.
And I want to then look lastly at how they are given. And that
is that they are given freely. They are purchased. They are not earned by man, but
they are freely given by God. And we need them to be freely
given. We cannot, we do not deserve
these things at all. And how we need that when we
do believe, when we have these things, that we might actually
know we have them. In John's first epistle and chapter
five, We have in verse 13, these things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God, and that is the gift
and blessing to believe on Him. But He's written that ye might
know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Could it be possible that one
actually be a believer and not know that they have eternal life? Without the preached word, they
do not know. But God, through his word, reveals
that those things are joined together. Go into all the world,
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. With the heart, man believeth.
With the mouth, Confession is made unto salvation. So when
the Lord gives gifts, he gives them and then makes known that
he has given them and he makes known that they are freely given,
that they are not being merited or deserved by us, but have been
given from the eternal counsels and purposes
of God. chosen in Christ from the foundation
of the world, and those blessings stored up in Him and given by
Him, that are purchased with His precious blood. It is not
a gift without cost, no cost to us, but the cost to the Lord
Jesus Christ. His sufferings, His death, that
which He has done, He has purchased those things. Everything that
is set before us in the Word should make the Lord Jesus Christ
more precious, more needed, more to be praised. And in realizing
those gifts that are given to us, the double blessing is tracing
them back to the source every time. Really in many things in
this life, there is to be a tracing to actually the source of it. Much is lost when we start to
ascribe things to chance or to man or even to the devil. And we think of Rehoboam when
God had separated the kingdom away because of Solomon's sin,
and Rehoboam tried to take the kingdom back, but God sent a
servant, a prophet to him, and one thing that he said, was this
thing is of me. It is not Jeroboam. It is not man. It is not you
to fight against this and to bring the kingdom again. This
thing is done of me. And may we be able to see that
in all How God appointed wicked Babylon,
Babylon whose soldiers were said to be so ruthless of strange
speech, the people that were worse, more wicked than God's
own children. And yet God appointed Nebuchadnezzar
as his servant to chasten his own people Israel. And those
of Israel that would not bow before Nebuchadnezzar they were
destroyed. Israel were told to submit and
bow before Nebuchadnezzar and the Lord brought them out afterwards. And so it's not just discerning
the blessings and tracing them to the Lord, really our whole
life, our life's minutest circumstance, our providences, our provision
of our employments, our wives, our husbands, everything in our
lives. It should be our desire to admire
and to trace those appointments. At the end of Psalm 107, we read,
who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall
understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And that is a great
blessing when we're able to trace to the Lord's hand. You know, wherever you have that
language, it is the Lord. That is what Eli said when it
was said of how his sons would be judged. It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Or with Aaron, when his two sons
died before the Lord, What a hard and severe judgment that was. And yet we read those simple
words, he held his peace. That takes a lot of grace. Although
Job, he doesn't rise up, as it were, against the Sabaeans or
the wind or anything like that. He says the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he looks right past all of those second causes. Doesn't
even include Satan. Not even Satan. And yet a Satan
that the Lord said has stirred me up against Job without a cause. But Job, he leads straight, straight
to the Lord. And we see the same with David
when he numbered Israel. He told them those two accounts.
One it was Satan that stood up against Israel. The other was
it was the Lord moved David to number Israel because of Israel's
sin. But David says, I have sinned. And he bowed before the Lord.
And this exercise, this word of our text that is looking,
to those things that are given and to tracing that they are
given us of God. The actual exercise of it in
a spiritual way is walking by faith here below and sees the
mark of the Lord on everything. Sees his handiwork in all creation,
in all providence, in everything, in everything that happens. And
a soul exercised that way will also see it. For this soul's
blessing, eternal comfort, that this is the same spirit, the
same God, that is revealed unto them salvation and the blessing
of eternal life. That we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.