would to first Timothy chapter
four. First Timothy four. Paul is writing to Timothy on
the subject of the calling to be a preacher. And the responsibility
of that calling and the message of that calling. What it is to be a true preacher
of God. And picking up today with verse
14, I want us to notice that Paul called this calling a gift. He said, it's a gift from God. Verse 14, he said, neglect not
the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with
the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Meditate upon
these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may
appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." He
said, neglect not the gift. Neglect not the gift. The gospel
in every way, shape and form is a gift. The gospel is a gift. And that's what we're gonna focus
on for a minute, really just verse 14, and that point in verse
14. The ability to hear the gospel
is a gift. People can come into a church
building, and they can sit in a pew, and they can listen to
a speaker, but they can't hear unless God gives them the ability
to hear. That's the truth. Men can hear words and hear words
and hear other men and never truly hear the gospel. The ability
to hear the gospel is a gift. The ability to believe the gospel
is a gift. That's a gift. There's something
special. You know, when you, when your
kids go off to school, when we went off to school, our teacher
taught us one plus one is two. I believe every soul here ended
up believing that. That teacher had the ability
to cause the student to believe that. That's not how it is here.
The ability to believe the gospel is a gift. It has just amazed
me how I've had people come to me over the years with questions
and I'll literally open my Bible and with this finger I'll run
it along these black words right here. There it is right there
and they just cannot believe it. They cannot believe it. It hadn't been given. It's a
gift. Every man who's ever been called
to truly preach the gospel knows beyond any shadow of a doubt,
it's a gift. It is a gift. Turn with me over
to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians 3 verse 1 says, for
this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles
if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you word how that by revelation he made known unto
me the mystery by revelation God revealed it As I wrote afore in few words,
whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto
the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit. that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. Verse seven says, whereof I was
made a minister according to the gift. of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me
who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ and to make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery which from the beginning of the world have been hid in
God who created all things by Jesus Christ. He said this knowledge
of the gospel, this understanding of the will and mind and purpose
of God in saving men and women from all over this world. He
said the unsearchable riches of Christ, the privilege, the
ability to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. He said every
bit of that is a gift from God. It's all a gift from God. It
is a gift to preach. I firmly believe that pretty
much any man could stand up here and declare a straighten up and
fly right Sunday school lesson if you want to call it. Anybody
can stand up here and say you really ought to stop doing bad
and start doing good. It would be best if you would
obey the law. You need to be a law-abiding
citizen. I believe any man can stand up here and do that. But
in order for a man to stand up and preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, that's a gift. All right? It's a gift to preach. And it is a gift that we preach. It's a gift to preach. It's a
gift that we preach. Start to finish. The calling
to preach and the subject matter that we preach. All of it is
a gift. When Paul said, neglect not the
gift, what he was saying is don't neglect the task of doing it
and don't neglect the subject matter of the task. We preach a gift. That's our
message. That is our one and only message. Now, let me show you that we're
going to turn to Some scriptures here to prove that not only is.
Preaching the message a gift, but everything concerning our
message is a gift. Starting with this right here.
Look at Ephesians 4 verse 7. Ephesians 4 verse 7 it says. But unto every one of us. Is
given grace all of God's elect people. And every one of us is
given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Every one of God's people are
given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Honestly, if we want to get to
the heart of our message, it's this right here. The gift of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the heart of it. That's
the heart and soul of our message, the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last Sunday morning, we quoted John 3 16. It says, for God so loved the world
he gave. He gave his only begotten son,
the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the heart and soul of
it. That's the glory of the gospel. Look with me at John chapter
four. John chapter four, verse five. It says, then cometh he to a
city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of
ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well
was there. Jesus, therefore being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. For his
disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith
the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou being a Jew
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews
have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God, If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink. If you knew
who was standing here right now, if you knew who was saying this
to you, he said, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would
have given thee living water. Christ is the gift. If you knew,
if you only knew the gift of God, Christ is the gift. Everything we have in Him is
the gift, Christ. All right, look with me at Acts
chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, this is where
Peter preached to Pentecost and many of the ones who brought
the Lord to Pilate and had Him crucified, the Lord saved them
through Peter preaching. And it says in Acts chapter 2,
verse 36, Peter said, therefore, let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when
they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent,
and be baptized, have a new mind, have a changed mind about God
and salvation and who man is and what man's able to do, have
a changed mind and be immersed, baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit of
God, who Romans 8 calls the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the gift. Christ is the
gift. The Christ of God is the gift.
The Spirit of God is the gift. Look with me at Romans chapter
1. Romans 1 verse 9, it says. For God is my witness whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. That without ceasing,
I make mention of you always in my prayers. making request
if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you for I long to see you that
I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established. Verse 12 he said that is here's
what I mean by that that I may be comforted together with you
by the mutual faith, both of you and me. He said this mutual faith that
we share this like precious faith. Like we just said, when we opened
the study, the ability to believe this, this light, precious faith,
he said, that is a gift from God to us. Ephesians 2.8 says,
for by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. So Christ is the gift. His spirit
is the gift. Faith to believe on him. That's
the gift, the gift from God. Everything concerning our gospel
is a gift. I hope that that is hammered
into us. By the time we leave this study, everything's a gift.
Look at Romans 3. Verse 19. Now we know that what
things soever the law saith, It saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. If we want to know why God gave
a law, that's the reason why. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. It proves
our sin to us. Verse 20 says, therefore, by
the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. That is a person, Jesus Christ,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Everything spoke
of him. Verse 22 says, even the righteousness of God, which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe,
for there's no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Verse 24 says, being justified
freely by His grace, by His gift, through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Free, complete, total justification
in Christ. That's the gift. How amazing
is it that God would do all this for us freely? It costs Christ
everything, but To us freely. Free, complete, total justification
in Christ. Redemption through the blood
of Jesus Christ. That's the gift. That's the free
gift. Verse 25 right here says, Whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. That
means an atonement, a covering. through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Remission from sin
through his blood. That's the gift. That's our message.
That's our message. That's the message we preach.
That's the message we do not neglect. That's the message we
do not neglect. We're going to go to something
else. Well, let's, let's get a new message. We've done that
one quite a while now. Let's get a new one. No, look at Romans five, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world and death by sin, And so death passed upon
all men for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law." That
word imputed means acknowledged. Acknowledged to be. If you look
back at chapter four, verse 15, it says, because the law worketh
wrath, For where no law is, there is no transgression. Where no
law is, there's no transgression. If there's no law against an
action, sin against the law can't be acknowledged. We have a brother
and sister who are about to go to Germany. And I heard him say
yesterday, I hope I get on the Autobahn. You know what that
means? It means he can drive as fast
as he wants to drive. Is he going to get a ticket for it? Nope.
Why? No law against it. There's no
posted law. All right? Where no law is, there's
no acknowledgement of it. Look back at chapter 5, verse
14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. The law didn't
come till Moses. Nevertheless, death reigned.
The wages of sin is death. And death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude
of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was
to come." What does that mean? That means Adam is more of a
type of Christ than we could possibly imagine in the opposite
way. In the opposite way. Until God
gave the law to Moses, the only law that was given to man was,
don't touch that tree. Don't touch that tree. And that one sand, just see if
this doesn't bless you, that one sand was enough to sink a
whole world into hell. And that's because every soul
that came from Adam is Adam. Because his DNA is in us, we
touched that tree. We did. You know, people say,
well, that's not fair. I didn't do it. Oh yes, you did. We are Adam. We came from Adam. We are Adam. We ate that fruit. What he did, we did in him. That one sin was enough to condemn
us all. Boom. One. Verse 15 says, but
not as the offense. Thank God. So also was the free
gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more
the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man. Jesus Christ hath abounded unto
many in the same way that the sin of Adam abounded to every
soul in him. The free gift of God's mercy
and God's grace has abounded to every soul in Christ. Verse
16 says, and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense,
death reigned by one, Much more, they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by
the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Righteousness, justification.
As Christ is, so are we. We are born again in Him. If
we are born of God, that's the gift. That's the free
gift that has been given to us. I had you turn, I wrote down
too many of these. I realize that. I'm almost done,
but you get the point, right? Romans 6, 23 says the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Eternal life, that's a gift.
That's a gift. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
At what point does man's works start to play a role in this
thing? At what point? What point do you come to where
it's like, okay, here we go. Now man's work starts to play
a role in this thing. They don't. They don't. People have themselves convinced.
It takes forever to get rid of that baggage. People who don't
know God have themselves convinced that, okay, now it's, all right,
now put the load on me. Now it's my turn to carry the
load from this point on. People who start to know the
living and true God carry a lot of baggage for a long time. Every
time they hear the gospel, the hope is that you'll just Take
one little thing and throw it off. Until after years and years
of, you know what? I think I can get rid of that.
I don't think I have to. I think Christ bore that load.
I think Christ carried that load. Finally, on the day we're called
home, really. That's the moment we'll really
realize Christ, his spirit, his faith, his justification, his
redemption, his righteousness, his eternal life. Every bit of
that is a gift from God. It's all a gift from God to all
of his chosen people. We don't earn it. We're not owed
it. We don't deserve it. It was all
just his unmerited favor and gift to us. A brother brought
this article, this bulletin to me just a minute ago, and I asked
him if I could have it for a second. He was pointing this article
out. This was our bulletin about a year, a year and a half ago,
something like that. But listen to this. A man named
Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote this. But he, the title of it is according
to his own purpose and grace. Okay. He said it is grace at
the beginning and grace at the end. So that when you and I come
to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort
and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in
the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done,
but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian
life starts with grace. It must continue with grace. It ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me. That's good and that's true,
isn't it? So let me finish this. Let
me end it. What do we say to these things? What's our response
to all of this? Turn over to 2 Corinthians 9.
I'll close. 2nd Corinthians 9. What is our response to all of
this? Verse 15, 2nd Corinthians 9 verse
15, it says, thanks. That's all we can do. That's
all we can say. Verse 15 says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. His unspeakable gift. Paul told Timothy, he's saying
the same thing to us. He said, Timothy, don't neglect
the gift. Don't fall away from the responsibility
of preaching and don't fall away from the message that we preach.
Stay on the gift. Stay on the gift. May God bless
us with that ability. I'm not going to have you turn
there. We were going to go to first Peter four and. But let
me just tell you that what he said was in first Peter four,
verse 10, verse 11, you can read it yourself if you want to. He
said, if you have received the gift. Minister, the gift. If therefore you've received
it, minister it in whatever way God has enabled you to minister
it. He said, if you've been given the ability to preach it, preach
it as the oracles of God. You've been given the ability
to preach it, then preach it. If you've been given the ability
to support the ministry, then support it. If you can preach
it, preach it with all your mind. If you can support it, support
it with all your mind. If God has given any of the abilities
or the gifts mentioned in Romans 12, there are gifts given. Preaching, teaching, serving,
giving, leading. I love this one. Showing mercy
to those who need it. That's a gift. Be in a general encouragement
to the entire ministry of the saints. That's a gift. If you
can be an encouragement to your brethren, then encourage away. If God has given us any of those
gifts, then let's not neglect the gift that has been given
to us. Pray the Lord will.