that passage one time when I
was in Kingston, Jamaica. And it was the largest congregation
I think I had ever preached for. There was easily seven, eight
hundred people in that congregation, maybe more. It was a conference
and they brought in busloads, trailways, what we would call
a trailways bus, but busloads of people in from all over the
island. And I didn't know a soul there.
It was the first time I'd ever met the pastor that invited me. But as I preached, I could tell
who the members of his congregation were, because they were smiling
and shaking their heads, yes, the whole time. And I do pray
that our Elijah would pray and intercede for us Ask God to let
the spirit of one of these spiritually dead sons come into them that
they may live. Alright, let's go to 2 Corinthians
chapter 9. When it comes to God's thanksgiving
of their substance to help one another, always remember that
every aspect of giving is of God. I know that some are hesitant
to preach on the subject of giving. I personally believe it is one
of the The closest things that we have
that really helps us to enter into what God did for us is personal. And what God did for us is personal.
And giving His own Son. And you know, giving has to do
with where you see the faith of somebody, their faithfulness. It's where we see the faithfulness
of God. So I'm not hesitant to preach on it, and it's not my
habit to spend a lot of time reviewing what we've seen, but
because we've looked at this so thoroughly in chapters 8 and
9, and we've seen it's all of God, I want to review it. I want
to just go over it briefly with you. We've seen here that the
source began by saying, the grace of God bestowed, the source of
giving, is the grace of God given to us. We saw the willing, joyful,
generous spirit of a cheerful giver, and that is the gift of
God's grace to us. We saw the order, first to God,
then to your brethren. That's the hearts, first given
to God, and then whatever we have to our brethren. And that
order is the gift of God to us. We saw the character that God
gives in a sinner. He has a new heart now and wants
to honor God. He wants to prove that all that
God has done for him is the genuine gift of God. And that is the
gift of God, to have that character. We saw the encouragement to give.
And Paul didn't command them to give. Paul said, I encourage
you, I beseech you. It's the commandment to give,
the law to give is an encouragement. It's not law, it's grace. And that's the gift of God to
bring us out from under law and give us a gracious rule. And then we saw the motive, Christ's
love for His people. For he who is rich, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was rich became poor that
you through his poverty might be made rich. That's our motive. That's what constrains the heart
and God's motive is everything. And then we saw the acceptance.
What does God accept? First a willing mind. God accepts
nothing that's not willing on the part of His people. A willing
mind and we give according to that which we have, not according
to what we have not. God doesn't expect you to give
something you don't have to give, just what you have. And that's
a gift of God, to have that willing heart and to have something to
give. That's the gift of God. We saw
the purpose of it is that there may be equality among brethren,
that the burden of helping those in need might not just be on
one people all the time, but that it might be shared and we
might help to help one another. One day I'm prospered, I can
help you. One day you're prospered, you
can help me. So there's an equality. So that was the gift of God's
grace. It's not communism, it's not
socialism. Only God can work that in our
heart where He makes nobody, all the people involved don't
want to take advantage of one another. They want Christ to
be honored in it. And then we saw the glory. And we're not
talking about us giving God glory. We're talking about the fact
that all this work and all this that His people do and are is
the workmanship of Christ so that He holds us up like a crown
and says, you're my glory. My glory is seen in you, what
I've created. And that's the gift of God to
do that for His people. We saw the law of giving, the
rule of giving. God is able to make all grace
abound to us so that we having all sufficiency may abound to
every good work. That's a standing law. That's
a sure and certain law that can never change. God will supply
all your need according to the riches of His glory in Christ
Jesus. and you'll be able to abound
and have a good work. That's a standing rule that God declares. Now today we come to the end
of giving. What's the end purpose of all
this? What's the end to which all this
brings everybody involved? Let's read verse 11. Being enriched
in everything to all bountifulness which causeth through us Thanksgiving
to God. That's the end. As we've seen
from this review, God is the one who enriches us in all things. All things in salvation, all
things temporally, God is the one who enriches us in all things. And He does it to all bountifulness. We have a bounty. of provision
for us. His grace abounds toward us exceeding
all our wants. And His ability infinitely outstretches
all our necessities. And so by Him enriching us so
that we have the ability, we have the the stuff, the money
to give, we have the heart to give, we have the occasion to
give, there's a need to give to, all this being God's gift
to us and us being willing to do it, all this being of God,
Him enriching us, He causes through us thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving to God. The end
of giving is to bring everyone involved to give thanks to God,
to give God all the glory for giving to us. Now brethren, the
fact that we come to this passage the Sunday before Thanksgiving
day is another example of God giving the message for the hour.
I didn't plan it. In fact, it didn't even dawn
on me until I sat down to work on this message this week that
I'm going to be preaching this the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
And it's the end of giving. It's the end purpose for giving.
We preach through several books and we've been going through
those books and I preach out of whichever one I get the message
from for that week. I go to one and if I don't get
the message out of Exodus, I go to the question series. If I
don't get the message there, I'll go to 2 Corinthians. If
I don't get it there, I'll go to Psalms. I just go through
those four until I get the messages for the week. And yet we end
up this week and here's the passage for all. Well, first of all, I want you
to see the ministry of giving is not only to provide for our
needy brethren. Don't just get hung up that,
you know, that's the only purpose of it. That's not the only purpose
of it. It's also to cause thanksgiving to God. It says in verse 12,
the administration of this service not only supplies the want of
the saints, but is abundant also with many thanksgivings unto
God. Now, the twofold purpose for which God leaves His people
in this earth is that we might do good to others and that we
might glorify God. That's the two-fold purpose for
which we're in this earth. Two-fold purpose. That we might
glorify God and do good unto His people. And as Paul and these
apostles minister the gift that Corinth has given, as they minister
it to the needy saints at Jerusalem, both of those ends are served.
They're doing good for God's people, but here's the chief
end. They're glorifying God. They're giving all the glory
to God. It's causing all those that are being given to to give
all the glory to God. It's causing those that are doing
the giving to give all the glory to God. Because when you do this
correctly or in the true spirit, you know everything you have
is of God. There's no reason we can boast
of anything. It's all of God. So bringing
His people to give thanks and bringing us to give Him all the
glory and to His great name, brethren, that's the end reason
why God sent His Son into the world and saves us in Christ
without us doing any works whatsoever. That's the purpose of it. That's
why you've heard me say this, you've heard other pastors say
this. The test on whether or not a man is preaching the gospel
is very simple. Who gets the glory? Is He putting
something in your hand to do? Is He putting something in your
hand so that you can pat yourself on the back, so that you're going
to get some praise, you're going to get some glory for doing something?
If so, that's not the gospel. The gospel gives God all the
glory. in every aspect of our salvation. John 1, John's message was this. The Word was made flesh and we
beheld what? His glory. His glory as of the
only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Go to Isaiah
42.5. I want you to see this. Isaiah 42 and verse 5. He says, Thus saith God the Lord,
He that created the heavens and stretched them out, He that spread
forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, He that giveth
breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk
therein. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness. He is
speaking to Christ His Son right there. I have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee,
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a like of
the Gentiles." God gave. God gave. He gave His Son. He
gave Him to be a covenant of God's elect, Jew and Gentile.
God gave Christ to do all the work in saving us. And He says,
verse 7, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from
the prison, and them to sit in darkness out of the prison house.
I'm the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give
to another. Neither my praise to graven images."
You see, His glory is to send His Son and to do these things
in saving His people. That's His glory. Read on. Behold, the former things are
come to pass, and new things do I declare before they spring
forth. I tell you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song. and His praise from the end of
the earth. You that go down to the sea and
all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof,
let the wilderness and the cities, His regenerated people in the
wilderness and cities, He say, let My people wherever they are,
lift up their voice. The villages that Kedar doth
inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rocks sing, let them shout
from the top of the mountains, let them give glory unto the
Lord. and declare His praise in the
islands. Giving thanks and glory to the
Lord, that's the end for which He sent His Son and the end for
which He saves His people. It's His glory. He's going to
be praised. He's going to be honored. We're
not going to be praised. And this end, this giving thanks,
this giving glory to God, brethren, this is the end for which Christ
justified His people. This is the end for which all
is elect to be redeemed by His blood, is to bring us to glorify
Christ, give Him all the glory. He said this, Isaiah 45, 25,
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. In the Lord. It's going to be
in the Lord that we're justified. That's what happened at Calvary's
Cross. And it's going to be in the Lord, therefore, that we
glory. We don't glory in ourselves. Jeremiah 4.2, he says, Thou shalt
swear the Lord liveth in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness.
And the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him shall they
glory. Why did He come? That He might
make known. the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He afford prepared unto glory. He came
to make us see the riches of His glory. That's why He came. Giving thanks and glory to God,
that's the end purpose for which He makes His church triumphant
over all our enemies in this earth. You look at us, brethren. This is what Paul said to the
Corinthians. Look at yourselves. Do you see any mighty men among
you? Do you see any noble men? Do
you see any educated people that are going to help preserve this
church and keep this church together and keep this church going through
this waste, howling wilderness? Is there anybody among us that
has that power? No. Not any of us. But He says, Thou shalt fan them,
and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall
scatter them, and Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt
glory in the Holy One of Israel. Because He is the power. He is
the wisdom. God doesn't enrich His people.
Turn to Jeremiah 9. God doesn't enrich His people
in any way for us to glory in ourselves. And these folks that
are preaching works and telling you that there's something that
you can do that's going to make you accepted with God, that's
going to justify you or make you holy or grow you in holiness
by your works and all these things, brethren, that's a lie. That's
stealing God's glory. That's breaking every commandment
there is because first and foremost it's stealing, it's thieving
the glory that belongs to God. He said, this is my glory to
save my people. So God doesn't give us anything
in which to glory. Jeremiah 9 verse 23, look here. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this. that He understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." Go to 1 Corinthians 1. That passage that we just
read, that's where Paul is quoting from in 1 Corinthians 1. After
he said, now you look around, look at you, look at yourself,
look among you. You don't see many mighty, many
noble, many... God's chosen nobodies and nothings
to bring to nothing people that think they are. Why did He do
that? And He quotes from Jeremiah,
verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of
Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it's written in Jeremiah 9, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. You see that? That's how every
sinner regenerated by God the Holy Spirit wants it. We don't
want glory. We don't want glory. An unregenerate
man gives himself away too because he wants glory. You ask him,
what's your hope of salvation? Just listen. Well, I... That's where it'll start. I... If your salvation begins
with I, It's not God's salvation and it's not salvation. Our salvation
begins with, in the beginning, God. God chose, God redeemed,
God regenerated, God preserved, God, God, God, that's my hope,
God. And the spirit of God that's
working in a man brings him to have a heart where he don't want
the glory. He wants God to have the glory. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and
Thy truth's sake. The psalmist said that I may
publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all Thy wondrous
works. I know sometimes probably young
people, if you go listen, I don't encourage you to go listen to
false preachers, but, you know, if you listen to preachers today
preach, I mean, it's very uplifting and motivating. It's better than
going to a high school pep rally. But it's not the gospel. There's
no gospel in it. You leave out of there thinking,
well, if I do these things and I think positive thoughts, positive
things are going to happen. Well, God's not in that. But
you come here and what do we declare? We declare God's wonderful
works. And it's a lot different from
what you hear in the devil's churches, the synagogue of Satan.
Here you hear God being talked about. He said, enter into my
gates with thanksgiving and into my courts with praise and be
thankful unto me and bless my name. That's God's commandment
to His people. Paul wanted us to be rooted and
built up in Him, established in the faith as you've been taught,
so that you can abound therein with thanksgiving. You know,
if you have something to do with your salvation, you can't thank
God for it. That's true. If I have anything to do with
my salvation, I can't abound in thanksgiving to God. Because
ultimately, I had something to do with it. The only way you
can truly abound in thanksgiving to God is you had nothing to
do with any part of your salvation. He's doing it all. That's right. So this ministry of giving, brethren,
the end of it is so that God will be glorified. Verse 12,
the administration of this service not only supplies the world of
the saints but is abundant also with many thanksgiving unto God. Paul said back in chapter 4 and
verse 15, All things are for your sakes, that the abundant
grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory
of God. You can say rebound. It might
help us understand it better. God gives us everything. Paul
comes down to us. He gives it all to us so that
the calves of our lips might rebound back to Him with thanksgiving. glorifying Him, praising Him
for what He's done. Mothers and fathers, why do you
do what you do for your children? Ultimately, why do you provide
everything you do for them? Why do you teach them everything
you teach them? Why do you do everything you do for them? I'll
tell you why I do it for mine. I want them to thank me and praise
me. I want one day for them to say,
you were a good father. That's true. What's wrong with
that? That's a good motive, isn't it?
That's what God does it for. It all redounds to thanking Him
and glorying in Him for being such a good Father. So, now secondly,
because of this, brethren, there's no gift to a believer, no greater
gift to a believer than to know that God is receiving all the
glory and all the thanks and all the praise. For a believer,
honestly, what could be a greater gift to you than that, than to
know through this administration, God's going to be glorified.
His people everywhere are going to glorify Him. So that is the
gift. That's the great gift that we
receive by giving is knowing our brethren who receive are
giving God all the glory. Look here in verse 13. Whilst
by the experiment of this administration or by the going through with
this, they glorify God. There's three things here. for
your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, they give
God all the glory for that. Number two, for your liberal
distribution unto them and unto all men, they give God all the
glory for that. And by their prayer for you, which long after
you, for the exceeding grace of God to continue to work in
you, they give God all the glory for that. Let's look at these
briefly. They glorify God for your professed
subjection unto the gospel of Christ. You see, giving to the
needs of their brethren. These Corinthian brethren were
showing, they were proving that God indeed had really called
them and blessed them and made them to see Christ and trust
Christ. They manifested, just like they
trusted Christ to provide their salvation, they trusted Christ
to provide for them temporally. That's why James said, faith
without works is dead. You know, he gave the illustration
of like a man without the spirit is dead. How do you know if a
man is dead? He doesn't breathe. You know if the man's dead, he's
got no pulse. He's dead. Well, James said a
man that does no good works, has no love for his brethren
to do good for him, it's just like the spirit gone out of a
man. And you tell that's just a corpse. He can say he knows
the grace of God and talk about it inside and out. That's knowing
Him in word only. Believers believe Him in word
and deed. That's what they proved here. And that's how he knew.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 1.4. 1 Thessalonians 1.4. Paul said
this about the Thessalonians. Watch this. He said, Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God. How did they know they
were chosen of God? For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. How did they know that? Verse
8, For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place that your faith
to God is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything. We
don't even have to say that God saved you. Everybody can tell.
Verse 9, "...for they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you." They themselves, all these works you do and all
those brethren you provide for, they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turn to
God from idols to serve the living and true God and wait for His
Son from heaven. You see that? And so these brethren that received,
they saw when they looked at those Corinthian brethren who
gave to them so bountifully, they said, This is of God's grace. They thought of all those things
we went through at the beginning that we've seen in these two
chapters and they glorified God for giving those brethren all
these spiritual blessings and all these temporal blessings.
They gave God the glory for it. That's the only reason a man
is going to be in subjection to Christ and profess the gospel. It's because Christ made him
do it and blessed him. And wherever God works, God is
going to make certain that it's justified that he genuinely has
worked the work of grace in the heart of his people. Just like
Abraham, you know how Abraham was justified, not in righteousness,
not before the law of God, that's not what he's talking about.
He's saying Abraham was justified that God had really given him
faith and he really believed God because when God called him
to offer up Isaac, he went and offered up Isaac. And Rahab,
That was a work of faith toward God. Rahab did a work of faith
for her brethren, a work of love. When the spies came, she could
have been killed because of that, but instead of denying the Lord
and not trusting the Lord, she trusted the Lord. And she sent
those spies out a different way to spare them and told the king
of Jericho, I don't know where they are. And God said, that
manifests she believed me. She trusted me. See what I'm
saying? Faith is going to be equipped
with some good work because God's working it. And so they glorify
God for that. Then number two, they glorify
God for the fellowship God had given them with one another.
He says, and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto
all. That Greek word from which liberal is translated means single-mindedness,
openness of heart and simplicity as opposed to self-seeking hypocrisy. It doesn't really have as much
to do with generosity as what we think liberality does. It
has more to do with single-mindedness towards Christ and open heart
toward brethren and simplicity, not tooting a horn, not being
hypocritical. That's what it has to do with.
And you remember now that these are Jews in Achaia, in Corinth,
and they're giving this to be taken to Jerusalem. I'm sorry,
these are Gentiles in Achaia, Corinth, and they're giving this
gift to be taken to Jews in Jerusalem. They're all brethren now, and
that's what they're confessing here. They're showing by this,
and that's what they glorify God for, is that here we are.
We once hated one another, despised one another, And God's put love
in their heart. They sent us this gift because
they love us Jews. We're their brethren. We're one
in Christ. And they've proven it by their
love for us. I like the fact that this church
is a melting pot. I think one time I counted it
up 20-something different nationalities represented here. I'm talking about people being
half this and half that. But in Christ we're one. It doesn't matter. In Christ
we're one. That's what they manifest here.
And it's God alone that gives that love in the heart. And so
they glorify God for it. John said, Beloved, let us love
one another for love is of God. Everyone that loveth is born
of God and knows God. He said, loves of God, the only
way a true believer is going to have the true love of God
in his heart is to be born of God and to know God. That's the
only way you're going to have it. And he said, no man has seen
God at any time. It's not like we love Him just
because we've seen Him and are attracted to Him. But if we love
one another, God dwells in us. That's why. And His love is perfected
in us. brought to this end to where
we glorify God for it. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And
what does that cause? He goes on in 1 John 4 to end
to talk about faith in Christ. It causes us to believe Christ.
And then He says this in chapter 5, Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God and Everyone that loveth Him
that begot loveth Him also that has forgotten of Him. He said,
wherever the Spirit of God is, He gives you faith in Christ
and love for your brethren. That's just so. Love for your
brethren. But whoso hath this world's good
and sees his brother has a need and shuts up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? So you see, that's
what they glorified God for. They said, we see this liberal
distribution unto us and to all. We see in this that you are our
brethren. God's given you a love in your heart. We're brethren.
We're one in Christ. They glorified God for that.
And then here's the third thing they glorified God by. Verse
14, by their prayer for you, which long after you, what do
they long for? For the exceeding grace of God
in you. those whose needs are supplied
by your generosity." He's saying, we'll respond by returning to
you the best gift they could ever give to you by praying to
God for you. You know what prayer is? Prayer
is glorifying to God because prayer is casting all your care
on Him. Prayer is calling on God to do
for us things that we know we can't do. And this is what they
were praying for God to do. They were longing after you for
the exceeding grace of God to be worked in you. They saw the
exceeding grace of God worked in them and they longing, they
prayed and they longed for God to work more of that exceeding
grace in their Corinthian brethren. And that's glorifying God because
God's the only one that can do that. And to call on God to do
that for your brethren is to glorify God. You know when you
have your child comes to you, comes to the father, his father,
and there's something he wants done and he can't get it done. He can't do it himself. But by
coming to you and asking you to do it, he's glorifying you. He's saying, you're the one who
can do this. I can't do it. And that's what
they were doing. They were glorifying God while
they longed for the brethren. Now believer, is that not the
greatest gift you could receive? To know God's glorified for making
you be subject to Christ, for giving you a love in your heart
for your brethren and that they're longing for you, that God's exceeding
grace might be working in you more. Glorifying God and all
of that. That's the best gift you could
get. So that brings Paul to say this, now verse 15. Thanks be
unto God for His unspeakable gift. Christ is the unspeakable
gift. Christ is the unspeakable gift
that God gave. I want you to think about this.
Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. There was a child born. He took
flesh and he was a man. But that one was a son, the son
of God, given by God. Talk about a gift. Talk about
a gift. Did y'all hear that illustration
that Paul Mahan gave at the conference down in the Crossville? He described
a prison with rapists murderers and convicts and everything.
Paul doesn't have a son, he has a daughter, so he used Hannah
as an example. He said, do you think I would
give my daughter to go in there and live amongst them and die
for them to set them free? I couldn't do it. God did that. He sent his son
here for a bunch of criminals. A bunch of murderers, a bunch
of rapists, a bunch of thugs. That's who he sent his son for. The wages of sin is death. That's
all we'd earn. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What do you pay for a gift? Nothing. Do you purchase a gift
and just hope somebody will come get it? You purchase a gift and
you take it to the person you bought it for. You ever bought
a gift and they buy it for somebody? You buy a gift for a person and
you take it to them and make sure they get it. That's what
God does. He bought this gift for a particular
people and He makes sure they get it. The gift of eternal life
in His Son. And this is the record God hath
given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
Then think about Christ. Christ also has loved us and
has given Himself for us as substitution. He gave Himself for us to be
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
We were an abomination. We were a stench. So He gave
Himself for these stinking sinners that He might make us a sweet-smelling
savor to God. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus that though He was rich, oh He was rich, He had
need of nothing. And yet for our sakes He became
poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. The gift
of God can't be expressed in words. That's why it's an unspeakable
gift. Acceptance with God, justification
with God, free forgiveness with God, our sins put away before
God. This is the gift of God and this
gift is all in this unspeakable gift of Christ Jesus the Lord.
And go to Ephesians 2. I want to show you one more thing.
Having just spoken of the manifest fellowship between believers
who once hated each other, and talk about all this generosity
that God's given to make us willing givers to one another. All these
things He's been talking about how we've been enriched. This
too in Christ is His unspeakable gift. It's just unspeakable what
a gift it is for God to make you a cheerful giver. We don't
enter into what an unspeakable gift that is. Because here's
what it manifests, Ephesians 2.14, He is our peace who has
made both one. Us who are enemies with each
other, who hated each other, because we would take the law
and try to say, well, I'm better than you because I've done this
better than you have. Oh, look at that, the law says she shouldn't
wear that and she's wearing that. I'm better than her because I
don't wear that. So what did Christ do? He broke down that
middle wall of petition between us, having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. He came
and fulfilled the law perfectly for us and took it out of the
way. So now we can't use the law to hate each other and kill
each other and exalt ourselves over each other anymore. He did
it to make in Himself of two, one new man, so make in peace.
And that He might reconcile both, Jew and Gentile, bond and free,
male and female, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, whatever
your status is. He reconciled both of us unto
God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
And He came and He preached peace to you which were far off and
to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit to the Father, now therefore, You're no more
strangers and foreigners, but all together we're fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. One family. And so when I read this and I
see these, I think of these Corinthian brethren. Go to Ephesians 3.
I think of these Corinthian brethren and they are down there glorifying
God, praying for their, I mean the Jerusalem brethren. They
are praying and thanking God, glorifying God for these Corinthian
brethren. I think I know what they were
praying. Longing for the grace of God to be worked in them.
I think I know exactly what they were praying. Look here at Ephesians
3.14. This is Paul's prayer. I think their prayer was about
the same. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that
you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which is unspeakable, which passes
knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness
of God and now unto Him. that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the
power that worketh in us unto Him, be all the glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Brethren, what a gift God
has given to us by giving us His Son and making us complete
in Him. What a gift He has given to us to give us Christ's righteousness
through giving us faith in Him. What a gift He has given to us
to give us love in our hearts and brethren in this earth to
care for and to provide for. What a gift He has given to us
so that in all of this He receives all the glory. Did you notice
there He said through us? Causing through us thanksgiving
to God? What a gift! What a gift! So I hope you all now have a
very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy yourselves with
your families. We won't have service Thursday.
Enjoy yourself with your families. And when you're giving thanks,
be certain to thank God for His unspeakable gift. What a blessing! What a blessing! We have so much
to thank God for, don't we? Amen.