Gospel is good news, good news. And by God's grace, I know that
that's why we're here this morning, is to hear some good news. And
I thought David wrote in Psalm 63, he said, O God, thou art
my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth. for thee,
my flesh longing for thee in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. And that's this world, this wilderness
that we live in. There's no comfort, there's no
peace, there's nothing in this world. The waters that are in
this world are like the waters of, what is it, Mara. They're just bitter, they're
bitter. But David's desire was to see
the power and the glory as he seen me in the sanctuary. The gospel is good news. And
it's by the preaching of the gospel, by the word of God, that
we hear, that we see, that we understand. And that's why we're
here this morning. We need some good news. I want to hear some
good news this morning. I do. Now, David said, I was
happy when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the
Lord. But David had one desire, and
he said, and that's what I'm gonna seek after, and that's
to be in the house of God, to behold his glory. And the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. We are told that the word of
God is not gonna return unto him void. It's going to accomplish
the purpose that he sent it for. And it's by the preaching of
the gospel that God saves sinners. It's how he reveals himself unto
us. It's how we grow. It's by the
preaching of the gospel that the body of Christ is edified,
that we come in the unity of the faith of the knowledge of
son of God unto a perfect man, unto a pure man. And when the
gospel of Christ goes forth in saving power, when we receive
the spirit of the word, he causes us to know the things that are
freely given to us of God. And that's what our text. Our
text points to, as Paul said in our text, he said, thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift. His unspeakable gift. And this morning I have some
good news for you. And I pray it is for you. I pray
it is. I pray this morning as the word
goes forth that it doesn't fall to the wayside. I pray that it
doesn't fall upon the rocks. I pray that it doesn't fall upon
the thorns. As the word of God goes forth, I pray that it goes
into the good ground, that God would be pleased to sow that
seed of his word into our hearts and water it and nourish it and
by his grace may it grow and bring forth fruit. There is a gift from the God
of heaven The God of heaven who's sovereign, who knows all things,
who does all things. There's a gift from the throne
of God to men. It's not a gift for all men.
It's a precious gift. It's a gift, particularly for
his people, for those who are in Christ. Every gift of God
is in Christ. Paul said, we're blessed with
all spiritual blessings in Christ. The love of God is in Christ. And this gift is described as
unspeakable. And it's unspeakable because
man and language are incapable of describing this gift. It's
too high, it's too wide, it's too deep. It's the vastness of
it. I mean, we haven't even explored
parts of the ocean in this world. We discover new creatures all
the time. And the glory of God is manifested
in creation, is revealed in those things. We see his power and
his wisdom and his mind and his strength. How do we enter into
the spiritual things, which are unspeakable or unsearchable or
unknowable? And if we're to know it, God
must speak to our hearts. He has to reveal this. He has
to show us this. He has to declare it unto us.
And then the simple words of this message can't even accomplish
that. That's why the gospel, when it
goes forth, it has to go forth through the power of the spirit.
The words of a man can't communicate and reveal these things unto
you. It's by preaching of the gospel that he does this, but
There's no power that I have. Paul said that he planteth and
Apollo watereth, but as God, they give it the increase. If it's not for the power of
the spirit, these are just words. That's all they are. They're
just words, but they are the words of the truth. They are
the words of the gospel. And this is the means by which
God does it. God uses vessels like in just
vessels of clay. that are absolutely nothing to
declare the unspeakable gift of God. But by his spirit, he
reveals these things unto us. By his spirit, he causes us to
know and to understand. And like David said, there's
no water in this world for my flesh and for my soul. What I
have to have is I have to have the word of God. Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word of God. That's what we live
by. That's what gives us strength. That's what gives us comfort.
That's what gives us peace. That's what we rested. And that's
why we're here this morning, because there's nothing else
in this world that's going to satisfy the hunger and the thirst
that I have for righteousness. There's nothing in this world
that's going to satisfy the desire that I have, that I need. I need
this this morning. I need the presence of Christ.
I need it. I have to have it. And even this morning as I sat
down and I looked at my message, it just, you know, there's almost
like a certain fear that fell upon me because I realized the
incapability that I have to even communicate this. It's almost, I don't know, how
do you describe these things? How do you, I don't know. I mean, as we look at this passage
in the light, or as we look at this passage, I want us to, and
we have to, it's of necessity that as we consider the unspeakable
gift of God, we see it in the person and work of Christ. You
know, that this book, everything in this book is concerning him
from the very beginning, in the beginning, God, all the way to
the very end, every word, every picture, every example, every
declaration, everything is all Christ, every single bit of it. And when we need him to reveal
these things to us, because if we, if he doesn't, then, then
we're not going to know it. I mean, so many times, you know,
it's like, even before a message will be preached, we'll read
the passage. And, and just from, you know, first glance, you look
at it and you don't even, you don't even see Christ in it,
but it's then all of a sudden, when the, when the message is
preached, you see those things. You're like, all of a sudden,
it's like, that's it. And that's what the Lord does. And as pastors, like I said,
we're gonna look at it in the person and work of Christ. And
the thing is, you cannot separate the work of Christ from Christ.
You just can't. When you see Christ, when you
know Christ, it's in who he is and what he accomplished on the
cross. And that's the message of the gospel from the very beginning
all the way to the end. It declares a person and work
of Christ, who he did and what he did for those whom God the
Father gave him in the covenant of salvation before the foundation
of the world. And we must begin by declaring
who the gift of God is. The gift of God is not a what,
it's a who. It's a who, it's a person, just
like my salvation. My salvation is a person, my
salvation is Christ. It's him, I have to have him. The gift of God to his people
is a person and it's his precious son. And it's like even this
morning as I just sat down and I thought about that, God gave
us his son, that which was most precious to him, that which has
been the object of his love for all eternity. There are many gifts that God
bestows upon us. When Christ ascended up on high,
he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Every gift
that God has, he gives us in Christ. Every single one, he
holds nothing back. He gives us peace and comfort
and joy. He gives us righteousness, pardon,
forgiveness, redemption, sanctification, justification. He gives us, in
summation of all of that, what is that? It's salvation. However, all of these gifts are
the result of the gift. The unspeakable gift of God is
Christ. In Him, we have redemption. In Him, we have justification. In Him, we have rest. In Him,
we have salvation. In Him, we have all things. As
I said before, in Christ, we've been given all spiritual blessings.
In him, we have all things. Christ is my righteousness and
my redemption. He's my rest. He's my peace.
He's my salvation. All the gifts of God are in Christ,
the gift of God. And when you consider the gift
of God, the precious, perfect son of God, whom he loved and
loves for all eternity, that's where it becomes unspeakable.
I mean, we're talking about a covenant of salvation that was struck
between God the Father and God the Son before the foundation
of the world. I mean, how does flesh even enter into that? John 3.16, the most probably
popular and misunderstood, misrepresented, misused by wicked men. But John
3.16, God so loved the world that he gave, he gave. What did he give? The gift of
God. He gave his son. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that's it right there.
That's the person and the work of Christ. He gave his son. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, the gift of God to his people is
his son. And whoever believes in him has
life. Whoever looks to him, Right before
John 3, 16, the Lord said, you know, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted
up. And we know the account, I believe it's in Numbers, where,
you know, the children of Israel sinned against God and God sent
fiery serpents unto them and many of them died, many died.
But the Lord told Moses to make a brazen serpent. Whoever looked
at that serpent was healed. And that serpent was Christ,
that picture was Christ. And that's who God gave to this
world. Look at Isaiah chapter 69. Like
I said, I just, this morning as I was sitting here looking
at it, there were just a certain passages that kind of came to
my mind. But look at Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. Isaiah writes, for unto us a
child is born. A child, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the son of God, who sits on the throne of heaven, he who is life,
was born a child. But unto us a son is given. He
wasn't born a son. Unto us a son is given, the son,
the son of God. and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. What is his power? What is his
might? What is his control? What is
his reign, his sovereignty? The government is upon his shoulders. He doeth all things. He said,
I form the light and I create darkness. God doeth all things
and he doeth all things well. All power is his, all power is
Christ. The Lord declared that unto,
you know, who was he stood before, and he said, you know, do I not
have power to set you free? And the Lord put him in his place.
And he said, you'd have no power unless the father gave it unto
you. He controls all things. The heart of the king is in his
hand and he turneth it howsoever he pleases. We have to understand
who it is that was born a child and given unto us as the son
of God, God in human flesh. God who had power to calm the
storms. They said, what manner of man
is this that even the wind and the sea obeys him? I'll tell
you what manner of man this is, it's the son of God. The son
of God who has power on earth to forgive sins. He said, your
sins are forgiven. And then he healed that man of
his disease. And what do we call him? What
is his name? His name's called the Wonderful.
You know, we use certain words like wonderful and amazing, and
we use them so easily in our language. But the truth of the
matter is, you know, we even call things good. The Lord said
there's only one thing that's good. So why do we go around
calling other things good? I mean, we do, but you know what
I'm saying? I mean, like wonderful, his name
is wonderful. If you want to know what wonderful
is, that's him. See him, know him, learn of him, and you'll
understand what wonderful is. You'll understand what amazing
is. His name shall be called Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Peace. Look at Isaiah chapter 42. That's
right, Isaiah. Look at Isaiah chapter 42. Who is this gift
of God? Isaiah chapter 42, verse one,
behold my servant. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
came down to this earth to do the will of the Father. He came
as a servant. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He said,
behold, my servant, whom I will uphold, my elect, and whom my
soul delighteth. And this is who we're talking
about. The soul of God delighteth in him and has for all eternity.
This is his precious son. This is the object of his love.
I mean, you read John 17 and you look at, you know, and that
word giveth is used so many times, those whom thou has given me
and I giveth unto them and the love that thou giveth me, I giveth
unto them and we dwell in that love. But this is his delight.
You know, it's like our children. Our children are a delight, aren't
they? Our lives, they're our delight. We see these things, pictures
given to us in the word of God, pictures that we live in our
actual life that are a testimony, an example, a picture of the
love of God. He said, this my soul delighteth.
I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. There's no question in this.
It shall be done. It will be accomplished. It was
accomplished. It is accomplished. He shall not cry nor lift up
his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall
not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment unto truth. And God does all things in truth.
I am the way, the truth. God is truth. He speaks truth
to us. This word is the word of truth.
Everything he says is truth. He shall not fail. nor be discouraged
till he have said judgment in the earth and the isles shall
wait for his law. Thus saith God the Lord, he that
created the heavens and stretched them out. You know, I think so
much about Job, especially like in the 38th chapter where the,
you know, Job talks about God in the world when he said, where
were you, Job? Where were you when I did all
these things? Where were you? How does man have such high thoughts
of himself? I don't understand. I do understand. Unfortunately, it's just the
pride of our hearts. He that spread forth the earth
and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto
the people upon it. God gives us breath, the very
breath that we breathe, the very life that we have, that's from
God. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't
have our next breath. and spirit to them that walk
therein. I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and that's
what the Lord, he called them in righteousness, and will hold
thy hand, and will keep thee, and will give thee for a covenant
of the people a light of the Gentiles. God gave his Son a
covenant, a covenant, a covenant of salvation, as I've said, a
covenant that was between God the Father and God the Son, and
in that covenant, Christ, the Son of God, became surety for
his people. That's why He came to this earth.
He came to this earth to live as their representative, establishing
righteousness for them, righteousness which we must have because one
day we're gonna stand before God and we're gonna be judged,
every single one of us. Every single one of us. And God
is holy, God is just. If you're gonna stand before
God, you have to be perfect. And the thing is, we're not perfect.
From the time we're born, we're nothing but trouble. We go astray,
we lie, we sinned against God. We've transgressed his law. We've
broken his commandments. We've done, there's none that
do with good. No, not one. What we deserve
is death. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is what? Whosoever believeth on him shall
live. I've called thee in righteousness.
He gave thee for a covenant of the people. And this is what
it is. We talk about the person and
the work of Christ, right? Christ is salvation. Christ is
that covenant. And we talk about the gifts of
God. Christ is the gift of God. And
in Christ, we receive the gifts of God. What is that? See, open
the eyes of the blind. By nature, we can't see. We don't
understand. We don't know. God's gonna open
our eyes. That's why God gave us Bartimaeus
as an example, as an example of salvation. Bartimaeus is sitting
there on the side and he hears that the Lord Jesus Christ is
coming out and what was his declaration? Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. That's what he needed was mercy.
And what is God's mercy? Causing us to see him, opening
up our eyes so that we can see him, so that we know him. So
we're no longer looking to ourself. We're no longer looking to, you
know, our abilities, our capability, feeling like we deserve, you
know, the salvation of God, or we deserve the love of God. We
don't deserve those things. As I've said, what we deserve
is the wrath of God. If we're gonna be blessed with
anything, it's because God has given us the gift of Christ,
and in him are all the gifts of Christ. And to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, by nature, we're bound. We're bound. But he brings out the prisoners. You know, Christ was crucified
between two men, And there was another man who before had been determined
to hang on that cross. That man went free. That man
was set free. And Christ, our substitute, suffered
and died in his place. And that's what he does. He sets
the prisoners free. Look at Isaiah chapter 61. I just, I hope to be able to
communicate this and what better way to communicate this and just
look and see what God said. That's all we do. That's all
of it. We just open up God's word and
see what he says. As Chris says all the time, the
best commentary on scripture is scripture. But the Lord said, the spirit
of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to what?
To preach good tidings unto the meek. The gospel, good news,
and who is the good news? What is the news good to? Who
is it good to? It's the meek, right? The meek,
the poor, the needy, the destitute, the hopeless, the helpless. And
he sent me to do what? To bind up the brokenhearted.
those who are broken over their sin, those who are broken over
their depravity, those who have an understanding of who they
truly are. And the only way that we're gonna
fully understand who we truly are and what we truly are is
when we see it in the light of the holiness of God. That's why
man goes about boasting of his righteousness, boasting of his
works, boasting of him, because he hasn't seen who God is, that's
why. And the problem is that in man's
estimation, we are gods. That's what it's been from the
very beginning. When Satan said, you shall be as gods, and that's
what we wanted. That's what we think we are.
Everything that revolves around the religion of this world is
setting up man as God, that he has the power to accept God's
salvation, that he has the power to do this and that. We have
no power. But when God the Spirit reveals Himself unto us, when
He opens up the eyes of our understanding, when God causes the light to
shine in our hearts, He breaks us, He humbles us, He brings
us to the dust where we belong. We realize that we are nothing,
that we can do nothing, and that the only hope of salvation that
we have is Him. And that's why we come to His
feet as beggars, begging for mercy and for grace. Lord, if
thou will, thou canst. I know you're able, I know you
can, I know you have the power, but are you willing? Are you
willing? And we rest upon Him to be willing. And by God's grace, we have the
promises of God that all that come to him, he'll cast out none. If we come to him brokenhearted,
meek, humble, poor, needy, beggars, God, because he is merciful and
loving and kind and gracious, has mercy upon us. And that's
the gift of God. We don't deserve that. It's a
gift. When a gift is given, there is,
and I'm not even gonna be able to get to any of this, but it's
a gift. A gift is freely given. There's
no cost for a gift. If we pay something, then we've
purchased it. But a gift is freely given. And
the gift came at great cost. To us, it's freely given, but
the cost was borne by Him. The cost was paid by Him, by
His precious blood, when He suffered and died on the cross and gave
everything, suffered the wrath of God, was forsaken by God the
Father, suffered and endured the hell that we deserve, the
punishment that we deserve. That's the cost of the gift,
but to us, it's freely given. God gave His Son. come and buy
without money, without price. It's a gift. To proclaim liberty to the captives
in the opening of the prison that them that are bound to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God to comfort all that mourn. And that's what God does in salvation. We mourn over our sins. We groan
this body of death, this flesh, this sin, this pride, this everything
that dwells in me. and this natural man, but he
comforts us. He comforts us. To appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Why? That
they may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he may be glorified. And that's what we are. We are
trees planted by God. Trees of righteousness. And we
grow up. And by God's grace, we actually
produce fruit and leaves and we bud. The scriptures talk about
the trees planted in the houses, the houses of the people in the
courts of God. And we're planted, planted, planted. planted by God. God does the
planting. This isn't some wild weed that
just springs up. This is a tree planted by God. Why? Why? He might be glorified. All glory
belongs to him. Every single bit of it, all glory
belongs to him. We see that in our calling. Why
did God call the ignorant and the weak and the base and the
despised, why? The no flesh is gonna glory in
his sight, that's why. And the unspeakable of this,
the unspeakableness of the gift of God is manifested in the recipients
of God's gift. Those to whom he's given it to.
He was not given to the rich, but to the poor and needy. He
was not given to the wise, but to the foolish, those who have
no understanding. He was not given to the strong,
but those who are weak and feeble. He was not given to the righteous.
There are none righteous, no, not one. He was given to the
corrupt, the base, the defiled, the depraved. He was not given
to those who deserve the gift. There are none that deserve the
gift. There is none righteous, no, not one. As I've said before,
the wages of sin is death. If you want to get what you deserve,
it's going to be death, because that's what you deserve. That's
what we deserve. That's what I deserve, because
we've sinned against God. And that's not who this gift
is given to. The unspeakable gift of God was given to sinners.
The Lord said, they that are whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. The son of man has come to save
and seek that which is lost. And that picture is given to
us throughout the whole entire word of God. He came to save
and seek that which was lost, that which has gone astray. He
left the 99 and went and found the one. He went out into the
wilderness and found that sheep and put that sheep upon his shoulders
and carried it back. And he said, I've made, I've
carried, I've borne all the way to the end. We see that in our calling. Hannah,
when she prayed, she declared, the Lord raises up the poor out
of the dust and lifted the beggar from the dunghill to set him
among princes. to make him to inherit the throne
of glory. The objects of God's mercy and
grace, the objects of his salvation, the recipients of the gift of
God is demonstrated in the Pharisee and the publican, is it not?
The Pharisee sat there and he prayed. He said, God, I thank
thee, I'm not like other men. I do this and I do that and I
do this and I do that. And what was the prayer of the
publican? The prayer of the publican was, Lord, have mercy upon me,
the sinner. It's a gift. The Pharisee had no need of a
gift, did he? He had already earned everything.
He already deserved everything. Paul talked about that in Philippians,
where he said, you know, those things which are gained to me,
and that's everything this Pharisee's talking about, is those things
which are gained to him. But God's gift is to sinners,
is to those who don't deserve it. And what is the value of the
gift? I'll just close with this. What is the value of the gift
to those who believe he is precious? The scriptures talk about, who
are you gonna compare me to that we should be alike? What are we gonna compare to
this gift? That's why it's unspeakable. I mean, what are you gonna compare
to the son of God? And He's precious. And those
to whom God has given the gift, those to whom God, or those to
whom receive the gift, to them, Christ is all, Christ is everything.
Christ is the fullness of God, and in Him we're complete. He
is all of our desire, He is our need. He is the gift and that's
what we need. We need him. It's just like,
you know, with Jacob, Esau was, when Jacob was going to Esau,
he was met with all these gifts from Esau, all these gifts, these
gifts. And Jacob said, I got no need for these gifts. I have
enough. And if you look at that word enough, that word is all,
it's whole, it's everything. I have everything. If I have
Christ, I have everything. Everything else is done and I
cast it away. I don't want that. What I want
is I want to know him. I wanna be found in him, not
having my own righteousness. I want him, I need him. This morning we need his presence.
This morning we need him, him. There's nothing in this world
that can compare to that. And only by God's grace can we
even enter into the unspeakable gift of God, which is his precious
son. Through his, though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty
might be rich. God the Father made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made what? The righteousness
of God in him, by him, and through him. We receive all the gifts
of God. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto
us, what, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Paul said, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall ye not also with him freely give us
all things? All things. And we're called upon by Paul
this morning to give thanks unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Give thanks unto him. And I pray by God's grace that
he causes us to know who the gift is, and that he causes us
to be thankful, to worship him, to praise him, to, may that be
what we do this morning by God's grace, just to be able to worship
him. And if we're going to actually
truly worship him, he's gotta give us the ability to do that. And may he be pleased this morning,
just to cause us to be thankful. And may we know who that gift
is. May we know the person and work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And may we rest in him. May we
this morning come to him and continually come to him and never
stop coming to him constantly. Because by nature, we are prone
to go astray. By nature, we are prone to look
to self. By nature, we are prone to forget
But God pities us as a father doth his child and he remembers
our frame. He knows that we're dust. He knows that we're nothing.
He knows that we're incapable of doing anything. I just pray this morning that,
I don't know, that by these words,
maybe God will give us some wisdom and understanding concerning
the unspeakable gift of God. All right, let's pray.