stone in the eyes of him that
hath it, whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. Now the word gift
here also means bribe, which forces us to consider what's
the difference. A bribe is really different from
a gift only in that something is expected in return from the
one the gift is given to or the bribe. It's a matter of the motive
of it. Why are you giving the gift?
There's really just two reasons. You give gifts because you love
somebody or because you expect something. It's a selfish motive,
the second one. There's a purpose. There's an
agenda behind it. Now bribe seems to be the primary
meaning of our text, because there is a result. And in human
terms, that would normally be what you would think of here.
There's a prospering or an accomplishment of a desired result in our text. Bribe's work seems to be the
message, and we know that's true. It's in the eyes of him that
hath it to give, and the eyes of him to whom it's given. It's
a precious thing, it's a valued thing. And it brings about a
desired result. Nothing motivates a sinner like
a gift, money, something. Return on investment. That's
what all religion is based on. Every bit of it. This world's religion. So we know this from experience.
If you want somebody to do something for you, how are you going to
get them to do it? People do things for one another because
they love each other. People carry out legitimate business
when a service or a product is advertised for a certain amount
of money and then a business transaction takes place and there
doesn't need to be any love involved in that, there rarely is. But then there are things that
people want or need done for them that are not marketable
in the normal way. A man may give a woman extravagant
gifts for a purpose. A politician promises favors
for endorsements or votes or something in return. And uniquely, politicians don't
even have to use their own money to bribe people with. They'll
do it with our money and get away with it. The point of our text is it works,
and of course, there's a spiritual lesson in the fact that it works. Our text is powerfully illustrated
in Matthew 26, 14. If you'd like to turn there,
Matthew 26, 14. This is the essence of our text,
and you know how the word of God illustrates the word of God,
and it does so not in defining terms like a dictionary would,
but in life, in action, in stories. But listen to this, Matthew 26,
14, then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the
chief priests and said unto them, what will you give me? And I
will deliver him unto you. and they covenanted with him
for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought
opportunity to betray him. It took very little. There's
pretty much consensus on the fact that this 30 pieces of silver
in our money, as an equivalent to what it would be worth today,
is about 600 bucks. That's what it took to betray
the Son of God. Wanted something Judas wanted
something And there's a bribe offered there was they covenanted
together. They offered him a certain amount
To get the job done and think about what Judas represents and
how that applies to our text He feigned love for the Son of
God He faked it He traveled with him. He said good things he was
trusted member of the group He kissed him on the cheek publicly
But privately he was the enemy privately he betrayed the Lord
for a bribe and That is a perfect description of the modern-day
preacher Publicly they kissed the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cheek, but privately they betrayed Privately they're the enemy And
what do they do it for a bride they do it for money For good standing in the world's
Church If you are a member of the Catholic Church in good standing
that means you give money When they tell you to Did you know if you're a member
in good standing of the world's church, you can get your sins
forgiven. Isn't that amazing? Not really,
of course, but what does reality have to do with the world's church
anyway? This shameful truth about sinners,
that they can be bought, they can be bought. But that
truth highlights the love of our Savior and his glorious gospel. Think of it. That which passes
for a gospel in this world is based on the shameful truth of
our text. And if you do enough, give enough, you can get what you want from the God of this world. If
you will, God will. Remember this guy Acts 8 18 when
Simon saw Not Simon Peter, but this man named Simon saw That
through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost
was given the Apostles were able to transfer gifts of the Holy
Spirit and Only they were He offered them money and Because only the apostles were
able to give that gift, to transfer those gifts. And of course, when
the apostles died and everybody that they transferred those gifts
died, that they transferred them to, then there's no more of those
type of gifts of the Holy Spirit. So he offered them money saying,
give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he
may receive the Holy Ghost. It doesn't take A lot of imagination
here to think what this guy's probably thinking. Man, if I
could go around doing that, people would pay me a lot of money.
You know, the Lord deliberately and very specifically told his
disciples, freely you have received, freely give. In other words,
don't be selling this stuff, the power that I give you. because that would be the tendency
of our flesh. What do you think Catholic priests
would do if they had that gift? You'd have to be a member of
the church in good standing, wouldn't you, to get that? Of
course you would. You'd have to be in very good standing with
them. They're doing it now and they
don't have any power. What if they really did have
some power? Thank God they don't. But he said, give me also this
power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy
Ghost. But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee. Take
your money and go to hell with it, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in
the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness, and pray God if perhaps The thought of thine heart may
be forgiven thee. You know, when you come to God
for forgiveness, you can't be presumptuous about it. He might
forgive you. He might forgive you. I can tell you on the basis of
the gospel, anybody that's ever come to him truly by faith, they come by faith
because he gave them that faith. They come as a mercy beggar.
He'll give him mercy There's no question about that But don't
be presumptuous about it Don't come down and make a little decision
and think God's gonna do something for you It's not it doesn't work
like that with the God of heaven the God of this Bible He might for I perceive that
thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity That's
where this world's religion is right now today the gall of bitterness
and the bond of iniquity The gospel is in the other reading
of our text If you take that word as being
a true gift, which is one given because of love Not for reciprocity of some kind
but because of The giver loves the one to whom he gives the
gift. Religion has God bribing the
sinner, promising things in return for money, like God needs our
money. You ever wonder how somebody
could be that stupid as to think they could pay off their loved
ones being in purgatory, pay them out of purgatory and things
like that? What we really ought to be wondering is how we can
be that stupid. But we know the answer. We're
utterly insane without Christ. But they have that, they have
God bribing the sinner. If you will, I will. and they
themselves bribe God into blessing them with the same incentives.
Money, service, allegiance, proselytizing. You know, God's running a racket.
You know, it's kind of a pyramid scheme. Somebody brought you
in and you gotta go out and bring 10 more in and that's how God
builds his kingdom. No. It's a relationship based on
return on investment. It's worse than the old covenant,
which is done away because it depended on us. This is worse
than that. This arrangement has the sinner
having the upper hand. God needs you more than you need
him. It's an abomination, an absolute,
utter abomination. In either sense of the word in
our text, gift or bribe. Again, the only difference is
the motive. In either sense, there's a result. Bribes work among sinners. They get the job done. They prosper. But also, a gift, the gift of
God gets the job done. Think about it. God so loved
the world that He gave his only begotten son That Whosoever believeth in him
should not perish But have everlasting life what God gave worked but
not in the same way as bribes among sinners He didn't get anything from us
in this transaction. Nothing. Worse than nothing,
less than nothing. And I'm not saying that there
was nothing in it for the Lord. But what was in it for him did
not come from us. What was in it for him as a result
of what he did for us That's the difference between a bribe
and a gift. It's love. And God's love always does. It prospereth on every hand. Every way it turns, it accomplishes. God gave what he did. the unspeakable
gift, a cause of love for his sheep, and whithersoever it turneth,
it prospereth. God's love for his own gets the
job done. His love has prospered in the
thing whereto he sent it. And he said this, I will love
them freely, not for something in return, not because they do
something, they do what they do because I love them. He said, I will love them freely
and he has. He does. God commendeth his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And this love is the reason for
everything he's done for us. It's the same. with what we do
for Him, as pathetic as it is. It's love. Not because we expect
something from Him or think that we could buy the gift of God
with our service or our money or anything about us. We don't
make deals with God. It's not a question of if we
will he will the faith that he gives to us worketh by love It's an arrangement based on
love and grace free sovereign grace And it has prospered in
every way Amen let's pray