2nd Corinthians 9. We have been
going through 2nd Corinthians for the Bible study. And we are
going to do what we usually do. We're going to pick up where
we left off. That's what we do. We pick up where we left off.
I cannot think of a more appropriate place to be on December the 24th
than 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Look with me if you would at
verse 15. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Giving is a wonderful thing. It really is. It's a wonderful
thing. Giving goes against the nature
of this flesh and it goes with the nature of God. It is in agreement
with the nature of our God. That's what makes it so wonderful.
We're all going to do a lot of giving in the next 48 hours. Much, much giving. That giving is motivated by love. That's one of the motivations.
It's motivated by an appreciation for each other. It's motivated
by a desire for each other's happiness. I pray the Lord will
bless it. All the giving that's about to
happen, I pray the Lord will bless it. The end of verse seven
says, for God loveth a cheerful giver. He loves a cheerful giver. I want to spend though our time
during this Bible study, and I pray over the next couple of
days that We will spend our time dwelling on his unspeakable gift. His unspeakable gift. I have
three simple points. Here's the first one. And this
is amazing. This is amazing. Here's the first
one. It was a gift. You think about that. It was
a gift. It was a gift. John 3 16 says, for God so loved
the world, he gave, he gave, he did not loan. There's a difference. Can I borrow
that? Sure. You can borrow that. You
loan something expecting to take it back real soon. His gift was
without repentance. He gave never intending to take
it back, never intending to take it back. He did not offer. He didn't loan. He didn't offer. Thank God he didn't offer. There's
not one stony heart on this earth that would have accepted his
offer. Not one. He did not sell in exchange for
a price. He gave. He gave. For God so loved this world,
he gave. That means it was free. It was
free. Everything about God's dealings
with His people is free. What an eye-opening moment to
the gospel. It's free. How much does it cost? It's free.
Every transaction, every provision, every promise concerning them,
it's all free. All of it. Turn with me over
to Hosea 14. It's page 1135 in the Old Testament. For those that have a Bible like
mine, Hosea 14. Verse 1 says, O Israel, return
unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. That's all we can do on our own.
Fall by our iniquity. Verse 2, take with you words
and turn to the Lord and say unto him. Now the Lord is speaking
here and he's saying, I want you to say this to me. That's
what he's telling them. I want you to say this to me. Verse two. take away all our
iniquity." He said, I want you to say that to me. Take away
all our iniquity and receive us graciously. Receive us not
on any merit that we have, just receive us because you're a gracious
God, a God of grace. So will we render, so will we
pay the calves of our lips. That's all we have, just the
calves of our lips. And we'll see more about that
in a second. Verse three, he said, Asher shall
not save us. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands and
watch this. Lord said, I want you to say this to me, neither
will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods. For in thee the fatherless find
mercy. The Lord said, you say that to
me and this will be my answer to you. Verse four, I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them freely. For mine anger is turned away
from him. He said, here's my answer. I
am a gracious God. I am a freely giving God and
all my dealings with you are going to be free. The healing
is free. The love is free. All the forgiveness
is free. It's all free. All right, go
with me to Matthew 17. Matthew 17 verse 24 says, and
when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money
came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute taxes? He said, yes. And when he was
come into the house, Jesus prevented him. That means Peter didn't
even get a word out. The Lord just said to him before
he could say anything, what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the kings
of the earth take custom or tribute of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith unto him of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, then are
the children free. You take money from strangers.
You take a payment from strangers. And then he said in verse 27,
in order to fill all the law, we're going to pay our taxes.
But he said, Peter, I want you to understand something. The
children are free. Everything concerning the king's
dealings with his children is free. It's all free. Now, after opening presents with
our children tomorrow morning, are we going to write out a bill
for the cost of everything that we gave them? Here you go, at
the end of it. It's free. It's free. Somebody had to pay
for it. Nothing in this life is free.
Somebody had to pay for it. If the gift though goes to you,
you don't, you don't have to pay for it. When it comes to
our salvation, because the gift came to us, it's free, but somebody
had to pay for it. That's what makes this gift unspeakable. It's unspeakable. Thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable gift. That doesn't mean that we can't
speak of it. Unspeakable means indescribable. It means unable to expound in
full. What that means is it's not possible
for a man's mouth to utter it. not possible, not in its fullness.
It's a subject that cannot be fully entered into. Not on this
earth. We're never, ever going to adequately,
adequately describe it. Never, never. That's why we get
so many tries. We're just never going to happen.
Never. It's a subject that cannot be exhausted. Unspeakable greatest
gift on this earth look with me at John 3 John 3 verse 16 says For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. He gave his own son. He freely gave his own son over
to the payment that had to be made for our gift. That's what
he paid for the gift with. The gift did come with a price. Redemption and salvation and
forgiveness and acceptance. It comes with a price. The wages
of our sin, that price had to be paid for our sin. The wages
was death. God gave his own son as that
payment. What if I stood up here right
now and announced I have decided to give Isabella It's just, you just can't, you
know, we say God gave his own son, only begotten son as a payment. Verse 14, it says,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the son of man be lifted up in order for this gift to be absolutely
free to us, it had to cost him everything, had to cost him everything. Unspeakable. Turn with me to
Romans three. Romans three, verse 23, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified
freely. By His grace. Freely to us. By His grace. Costing Him everything. Through
the redemption that is in Christ. Free to us. Costing Him everything. Three points. I had three points.
The first one is salvation is a free gift. A free gift. The second point is the price
that our Savior had to pay for this gift is unspeakable. It's
an unspeakable price. He gave it all. Alright, here's
the third point. Every believer's response to
the unspeakable gift. Go with me back to our text,
back to 2 Corinthians 9. Verse 15 says, thanks be unto God. That's all
we can say. That is all we can say. Thanks
be unto God. That's all we can say. That's
all we are saying in our giving and our response. We know that
these two chapters exhort giving all through these two chapters.
The apostle Paul was saying, that's all we're doing is we're
just saying, thanks be unto God. Thank you. Let me show you something
over in Matthew 10. Look with me at Matthew chapter
10. Our Lord right here is calling
his 12 apostles. And in Matthew 10, verse five, it says, these 12, Jesus sent
forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans. Enter ye not, but go rather to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse
the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you have received. Freely give. That's what he said
to them freely. You have received freely. Give the Lord is telling those
12 apostles the same thing. The Apostle Paul is telling us
in our text. These apostles in and of themselves
did not have the ability. to heal the sick. They're just
sinful men and women. They didn't have the ability
to cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. God
freely gave that ability to them. He said, as you have freely received,
I want you to freely give. You give what God has supplied
to you. And that's what we're doing with
this gospel. They were doing all of this through the preaching
of the gospel. Verse seven, he said, as you
go preach, It was all through the preaching of the gospel.
The gospel is what heals the spiritually sick. The gospel
is what cleanses the spiritual leper. It's what raises the spiritual
dead. It's what sets everybody free.
The gospel does. We have freely received. this gospel, and we
freely give. We give the same gospel to everybody
we can. Not just our gospel, everything
the Lord has provided us with. Now the last few verses of our
text, they're going to describe this third point, saying thank
you for this great grace. Go back to our text, 2 Corinthians
9, verse 8, it says, and God is
able, to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having
all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. What that saying is, God is able
to provide you with everything that he gives you a heart to
give. If God lays it on your heart
to give and to do for God's people and to spread this gospel, then
he's able to give you every material and spiritual thing that you
need in order to make that giving happen. What he's saying is don't
hold back. That's what he's saying. Don't
hold back. Look to God in faith. Give him all the glory for the
heart to give for the ability to give and he'll provide you
with all sufficiency in those good works. Verse eight says
God is able to make all grace abound toward you. that you always
having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good
work. And then he's going to quote
Psalm 112 verse 9, as it is written, he hath dispersed abroad he hath
given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that
ministereth seed to the sower, both ministereth bread for your
food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your
righteousness. In this ministry, I'm the sower. A sower went forth to sow seed,
just slinging seed. He just went out and started
slinging seed. The seed is the word. The seed is the gospel.
It's the message. He ministers the minister of
the seed to the sower. He's the one who ministers the
message, this message. I freely received it. He told
me, I want you to freely give it. Give it in the same way you
received it. Verse 10 says, He that ministereth
the seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply
your seed sown. He's the one who gives you your
food. He's the one who will multiply
your seed sown. He's the one who will continue
to As it says, increase the fruits of your righteousness. He'll
increase your love. He'll increase your joy, your
peace, your meekness, your gentleness, your generosity. He'll do all
these things. Verse 11 says, being enriched
in everything to all bountifulness, that means liberality, generosity,
which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. That's our response. That's what it causes, thanksgiving
to God. Verse 12 for the administration
of this service, not only supply the want of the saints, but is
abundant. Also in making in is abundant
also by many thanksgivings unto God, this service, this generous
heart to give, and this, the actual giving itself in response
to what God has done. He said, not only does it supply
the lack of the saints. But he said, it's also abundant
also by many thanksgivings to God. There's no greater way to
say thank you to our Lord than to be kind and loving toward
his people as he has been to us. That's the greatest way to
say thank you. He said in Matthew 25, in as
much as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me. Not only will it support the
lack of a brother or a sister in need, we give and we help
each other. And not only is that going to
support a brother's lack, but in doing so, we're saying thank
you to God. Thank you for the heart to give
and thank you for the ability to give. Thank you for supplying
me with this. And they're also saying, thank
you for supplying all our need. Lord, we had a great need and
we were looking to you for it and you supplied it and we say,
thanks. It's all abounding to the thanks of God. All parties
are crying glory to God for this. Verse 12 for the administration
of this service, not only supply of the want of the saints, but
is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. whilst by the experiment
of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection
unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution
unto them, and unto all men, and by their prayer for you,
which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you."
That's what that's saying. God's going to receive glory
for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, your
obedience to this word. He said, you give to your brethren. And God's going to receive glory
in that liberal, generous, abundant distribution to his people. God's
going to get the glory because they're going to start praying
for you. He said in verse 14, they're going to long after you
because of the exceeding grace of God in you. God's going to
get glory every way you turn, every way you turn, no matter
how you look at it, the glory going to God, it's all going
to God. The more grace. that God puts
in a believer, the more generous that believer will be. I sincerely
beg the Lord, cause me to be a more generous believer. I mean that. Lord, cause me. I used to hear a very wise preacher
all the time. You heard it a lot. You heard
it a lot. All the time, all the time, all
the time, say, hold everything in this world with an open hand. Open hand, it freely comes, freely
give, freely let it go. Lord, make me a generous, generous,
generous believer. And the reason is because the
amount of grace that God, you know, the apostle said, grow
in grace, grow in grace, grow in that grace is love, grow in
these things. The amount of grace that God
puts inside one of his children is evidenced in his generosity. We are earthen vessels. What
that means is not much. Not much to speak of. We just
can't hold much. If God puts a little bit of grace
in there, it might stay in there. If He puts a mustard seed of
grace in there, it might stay in there. But if God starts pouring
any amount of grace at all, it is going to spill over. It's
going to. David said, my cup is running
over. What he was saying is thanks
be unto God. That's what he was saying. Thanks
be unto God. Lord, make me that. Make me that. We give thanks for every gift. Aren't you so glad God has provided
you with the ability? And I'm so glad God has provided
me with the ability to celebrate this holiday. And we're going
to give gifts to our children. We're going to give gifts to
our loved ones and each other. And that's a wonderful thing.
We thank God for all giving. We thank God for everything he
gives to us. I thank God for the clothes I'm
wearing, the house I live in. the friends who helped me work
on it, the car I'm driving, the congregation he put me in, the
building he's provided us. I thank God for everything, but
let's go full circle. Let's come back around where
we started. Thanks be unto God. All this is the result of his
unspeakable gift. Unspeakable. May our hearts just
be fixed right there. Thank God for Christ our Savior.
Thank God. All right, you're dismissed.