Let's go to the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Every day is to be a day of thanksgiving
for the people of God. And Harry is exactly right in
saying that. Those of us who are God's people,
it isn't necessary for us to have a day marked on the calendar
every November when we will think about and give thanks to God
for all of the mercies that He's given to us. And yet, with the
subject of thanksgiving, obviously before us as we observe National
Day of Thanksgiving tomorrow, and that's my favorite, my favorite
holiday. In fact, it's the only legitimate
One, as far as the scriptures are concerned, to give thanks
to God. And with that in mind, I want
to talk to you this evening about giving thanks for God's unspeakable
gift. I want to start here in the third
chapter of this great book of Ecclesiastes. Let me just read
a verse to you, and that's the 13th verse. So that every man should eat
and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift
of God. These are what we might refer
to as those provisions that God gives us everyday temporal provisions. In this, the wise man says, eat
and drink joyfully. As you remember, these things
are a gift of God. It is ever the right thing to
be thankful. and to give thanks to God for
everything. You remember in Romans, the first
chapter, when the apostle spoke of the iniquities that bring
forth the wrath of God, one of those right at the very top of
the list is, he says, neither were thankful. Neither were thankful. Everything God gives us is to
be received with thanksgiving. All what mercies God gives us
day by day. And I'll talk about the spiritual
mercies, but I'm just talking about the physical mercies right
now. Don't you acknowledge that God has given you abundantly
above everything you could ask or think? The Lord gives to us
daily. He gives us our food. He gives us our drink. He gives us our families. He
gives us our friends. He gives us of those things that
we enjoy every day. They just keep on coming. And
you know, you think about those who aren't thankful, they still
keep coming to them as well. Those that use the daily mercies
of God and who never acknowledge who the giver is, yet they'll
find when the sun comes up in the morning, There will still
be temporal mercies given of the Lord. Oh, how faithful our
God is. How good our God is to give us
the things that we enjoy. And I say, if it is written,
he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully, then Surely,
the Lord who sows daily mercies bountifully should daily reap
bountiful thanksgiving." Let's be a thankful people, even more
thankful than we are. But we realize that these mercies
that He gives us every day are not compared with the spiritual
gifts, the blessings which He gives in the Lord Jesus. Look
over with me to John chapter 6. Look in John chapter 6. As I thought about the spiritual
mercies and blessings that God gives to us, I thought of this one. That His
thanks be unto God that He gave us to His Son. We are God's gift
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You notice in John 6.37, All
that the Father giveth me. They shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." When we begin
to think of the gifts of God, let's remember that we're God's
gift to His Son. I know that there is a sense
in which everybody and everything has been given to the Lord Jesus. That is, that He would have the
government over everybody and over everything. Everybody is
subject to the authority of the Lord Jesus. He's been given all
power, all authority over everybody and over everything. But this
is speaking of God's election of us under salvation in the
Lord Jesus. God gave us as a gift to His
Son. He put us in His hands as His
seed, as His bride, as His sheep, as His inheritance. and as His
portion. We were given to Him to be saved
by Him with an everlasting salvation to be His people forever. Oh, what loving kindness this
is on the Father's part. What grace and condescension
on the Son's part to receive us as a gift from the Father
and to save us by His substitutionary death and provide for us everything
that will take us in everlasting glory. We're God's gift to His
Son. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful
for the gifts God's given us. But I'm also thankful we were
God's gift to His Son. Back there in old eternity, God
fixed His love on us. He made us His choice. This is
due to grace and grace alone. God said, I'll have these to
be my people. He gave us to His Son in love
and in mercy. You'll notice here in the 37th
verse, it says, "...all that the Father giveth Me." Giveth. Whatever you see, that E-T-H
at the end of a word, it's something that keeps on going. It is continual. It never ends. As I thought about that today,
I believe by this we're given to understand the unchangeableness. of the grace of God. He's not
going to change on this. God will never go back on His
Word. He gave us to His Son and this is something that nobody
can ever undo. We're God's gift to His Son. Nobody ever can reverse what
God has done. Nobody can ever nullify what
God has done. We're God's gift to His Son. Look over at 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. The book of 2 Thessalonians chapter
number 2. Notice what the Apostle says
here regarding giving thanks. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He
says in verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks all the
way to God for you. For you. Brethren, be loved. Be loved. God loves us. He loves us with an everlasting
love. He says, Brethren, be loved of
the Lord. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. God took delight in us. He loved us. So we give thanks
to God, he says, for you. We don't thank you for believing. We don't thank you. You don't
thank me. We thank God that we belong to
Him. This is all due to His grace. No wonder David said in Psalm
65 and verse 4, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts We shall
be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy temple. Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest." Are you a believer? Do you rest in the Lord Jesus?
You're blessed. You're blessed in that God chose
you. He gave you as a gift to His
Son for safekeeping. And you know what? He's kept
you safe throughout all of these years and years you've been alive. And He'll keep you safe unto
eternity. Blessed is the man that thou
choosest. Therefore, He causes us to approach
unto the Lord. Let me give you another one.
Look at Romans chapter 6. The book of Romans chapter 6. I'm sure you know this verse
very well. Romans 6, verse 23. Here's the first part. For the
wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. By sin is meant every sin. Original sin. Actual sin, every
kind of sin. What is sin? It's the transgression
of God's law. And the death which results from
this is physical death, the destruction of the body. There is spiritual
death, the destruction or the loss of life of the soul. And then if God isn't merciful,
there is everlasting death. The unending separation of the
body and the soul from the Lord. You know, you read the words
of the scriptures and you think, well, I know what these words
mean. I decided today I'd look up the
word wages. Wages. I discovered this. The word wages means a soldier's
wage or pay for a year. Or until the fight is over, the
battle is over, or the war is over. In these last few verses of Romans
chapter 6, in the context, sin is a very cruel king. It's a
ruthless monarch. It is a heartless master. And sinners were his vassals,
were his servants, were his soldiers. And here is the wage that he
pays to his soldiers after a lifetime of service. Death. Death. And all who are the servants
of sin, will someday receive from sin its cruel wages when
your servitude is over. Death. Death. That's why James says in James
1 and 15, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin and sin. When it is finished, bringeth
forth what? Death. The wages of sin, those
wages we have been accumulating throughout the campaign, throughout
our life, is death. And isn't it amazing that we
love sin by nature? We love everything that is opposed
to God. We embrace it. But in embracing
it, we're embracing death. That's what sin has done to us.
It's left us absolutely foolish. We call good evil, and we call
evil good. We're so distorted, we're so
messed up, and that's what sin has done for us. Oh, children
of God, despise sin. and marvel at that which was
necessary to remove it from us, even the death of the Lord Jesus.
Notice what he says in the end of the verse, but the gift of
God, what is the gift of God? Well, it's eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
God freely gives eternal life to His people. And in this life,
there is spiritual life. In this life, there is everlasting
life. There is spiritual life in that
there is regeneration. There is the new birth. Those
of us who are dead in trespasses and sins, He has quickened us. We have life through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Spiritual life is through the
Savior. We also have this eternal life
which is a knowledge of God. Isn't that what the Savior said
in John chapter 17? This is life eternal. that they
might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent." This is everlasting life. It's a life that will never
end, that will never cease, that will never run out, that will
never be taken away from us. Because He says, I give my sheep
eternal life. They'll never perish. And then,
in my Bible, just look right across the page. Thanks be unto
God for the gift of righteousness by grace. Look at Romans 5 and
14. Nevertheless, death rang 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? But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one, that is, Adam, many be dead, and the gift by grace, which
is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many, and
not as it was by one that sinned. So is the gift, for the judgment
was by one the condemnation, but the free gift, free gift,
doesn't cost you anything, is of many offenses, under justification. Look at verse 17. 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, they shall
reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Did you know righteousness is
a gift? We don't have it We're void of
righteousness. In fact, everything about us
is unrighteousness. Isaiah says all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We fade as a leaf. Our iniquities
like the wind, they've taken us away. Our righteousness is
rotten and filthy. We've got to have a righteousness.
But we can't merit it. We can't earn it. We can't work
for it. Thank God it's a free gift. It's a gift of His grace. Let's keep on reading. Look at verse 18. Therefore by
the offense of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. That is, everybody Adam represented
died. Everybody our Lord Jesus represented,
we live. Look at verse 19. For as by one
man's disobedience, that's Adam, you can read that in verse 12.
For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, or literally,
the many that he represented were legally considered to be
sinners. Hey, you became a sinner. By
doing nothing. That's right. You were born a
sinner. You became a sinner through representation. Through imputation. That's how you became guilty.
And I know we're not only guilty of sin by imputation, but also
by practice. But firstly, by imputation and
by representation, even so by the obedience of one, shall many
be made or legally considered to be righteous, justified. That's our Lord Jesus. He was obedient unto death. How
far did that obedience extend? How far did it go? all the way
to death, even the death of the cross. That's why Paul writes
in verse 20, moreover the law entered that the offense might
abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. We're given the gift of righteousness
by grace. What does God demand? Righteousness. Will He settle for anything less? No. Well, where are we going
to get this righteousness from since we can't produce it? We
get it from the Lord, our righteousness. Even Christ Himself. His righteousness established
by His death. It's freely given to us. Reckoned to our account. And then thanks be unto God for
the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit.
Look at Romans 5 and look back up to verse 5. Verse 5. He says, In a hope maketh
not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. The Savior
often referred to the gift of the Holy Spirit. as being the
promise of the Father. In Ephesians 1 and 13, it says,
You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. John 7.39, But this spake he
of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified. God has given us the gift of
His Spirit. But His Spirit is given for this
reason. Redemption has taken place. Reconciliation has already happened. Our Lord Jesus has already been
glorified. It says there in John, the Spirit
wasn't given because the Lord Jesus wasn't yet glorified. He died. He was buried. He arose again. He bore the sins
of all of His people. That's His glory. Redemption
is His glory. Upon the basis of the Lord Jesus
being glorified, God has given to us the gift of His Spirit. Oh, what a precious gift. Remember
the Savior said to His disciples, I'll give you another comforter. another Comforter, that is, one
likened to Myself, to be with us. He convicts us, He convinces
us, He guides us, He abides with us, He indwells with us. Romans
chapter 8 says, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he
is none of His. We are led by the Spirit. We
are indwelt by the Spirit. That is the life of God in us. The Spirit. Thanks be unto God
for His Spirit. And you know what His Spirit
does? He gives us gifts. He gives us a new heart. That's what it says, Ezekiel
36.26. God says a new heart also will
I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. I'll take away
the stony heart out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart of flesh. That is a sensitive heart. Who
does that? There was a time in your life
you weren't sensitive to sin, you weren't sensitive to the
things of God, you weren't sensitive to the Lord Jesus and His glory
or His blood or His righteousness, but now you are. Who gave you
that sensitivity? The Spirit of God did. He took
away the hard heart. He gave you a heart of flesh.
It's alive. The heart is alive. It's like
the quick underneath your nails. You can cut off the end of your
nails, but if you get too deep, you draw blood, you get into
the quick. You get into that which is alive.
The Spirit has quickened us. He's made us alive. And He gives us the gift of faith.
Our brother read to us this past Lord's Day in Ephesians 2. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Thank God for the gift of faith.
For you see, not all men have faith. That's what Paul says.
Everybody doesn't have faith. Everybody doesn't believe this
gospel. You're talking about somebody who's very sincere and
very religious, as religious, as sincere as any of the rest
of us here tonight, maybe more so. But God's got to give faith. He's got to give faith. And He doesn't have to do that.
That's left up to His sovereign will. Thank God He grants us
faith. And then go to this one. This
is where I'll spend the last few moments of this message.
2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. I'm sure
you know that in this chapter, the great apostle Paul is stirring
up the Corinthians to liberality in giving. He is encouraging these Corinthian
believers to give liberally for the Jerusalem church, which was
in poverty. And the motivation that he uses
For liberality is simply this. Verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 9. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. He doesn't set before them rules,
laws, regulation. He doesn't say if you don't tithe,
God will get it at the doctor's office. He doesn't say if you
do tithe, there will be rewards waiting on you in heaven. There
is no legality involved in this motivation whatsoever. The motivation
is Look at what God has given to you. He's given to you the
greatest gift He could ever give. The gift, the unspeakable gift,
the indescribable gift of His Son. That's the motivation. You see, the gospel of God's
grace is founded upon giving. and its spirit is always giving. The gospel is not about you giving
to God. The gospel is about God giving
to you. It's more blessed to give than
receive. And the most blessed one of all
is our God. Thanks be unto God. for His unspeakable
gift. His is a gift that you can't
estimate its value, the value of the Lord Jesus. You see, let
men give liberally of their money, as we ought to, to the cause
of the gospel, and as we want to, and as we do. Yet, whatever
you give, it can be tallied up It can be added up. You can always reckon the worth
of the gifts of men. But the gift of God's Son to
us is a gift you can never put a value on. You don't know how
valuable it is. You only know this, it's an unspeakable
gift. Unspeakably glorious. After all,
God gave Him as a covenant to His people. He gave Him to be
the head of the church. He gave Him to be the Savior
of sinners. He gave Him to be the sacrifice
who would die in the room and the stead of those that He gave
to His Son in the covenant of grace. What a free gift. The gift of
God's Son. Consider Him as being the unspeakable
gift. He's unspeakable in His person. Perfect man. All-glorious God. No tongue of seraph or cherub
can ever describe the full nature of Him, whose name is Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace, He is the bread of life. He said this, I am the
bread of life. I am the light of the world.
I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the
life. I am the vine. He's unspeakable in his person. He's unspeakable in his condescension. Nobody can measure how great
the stoop was for God to leave His throne above, to leave all
of heaven and all of the glories, all the praise of the angels
and come down here to this cursed world. Who can ever estimate
the greatness of that? The infant of days, the infinite
of days, becomes an infant. The ancient of days becomes a
baby. The maker, the sustainer of all
things. He came to this world, didn't
have a place to lay his head. He's unspeakable in his condescension. And he's unspeakable in his offices. He's the prophet. Never a man
spake like this man. He is the priest who offered
to God the sacrifice that put away the sins of His people.
He is the King, for He is the Prince of the kings of the earth. Who can ever estimate the value
of His death? What did it cost Him to save
us? His life. his life. He said, greater love hath no
man than this, a man lay down his life for his friends. His blood is unspeakable, for
it speaks better things than the blood of Abel. The blood
of Abel, it spoke of revenge And God said concerning the one
who killed him, Cain, God said to everybody, leave him alone. He's mine. I'll get him. Abel's blood cried out for revenge. The blood of the Lord Jesus,
it cries out, redeemed. Redeemed! Reconciled! Righteousness brought in! That's
what the blood of Christ cries out. We've been purchased by
His blood, Acts 20, 28. We have propitiation by His blood,
Romans 3, 25. We've been justified by His blood,
Romans 5, 9. We have redemption through His
blood, Ephesians 1, 7. We're sanctified through His
blood, Hebrews 13, 12. We're ransomed by His blood,
1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. We're set free from sin by His
blood. Revelation 1.5. We've been brought
nigh to God by His blood. Ephesians 2.13. We have peace
with God through His blood. Colossians 1.20. And His resurrection
is unspeakable. He's at the right hand of God. And His universal reign is unspeakable. He governs all things to fulfill
His Father's eternal purpose and do His people good. Give thanks to God. Not just
tomorrow, but every day. Give thanks to God for all of
these spiritual blessings. As I was thinking about this
message, I just wrote down here in my
notes, thanks be unto God for all of you, for my church family,
people I can worship with, people who love me, people I love. Thank God for the peace that
we have, for the unity that we have, for the oneness that we
have in the bond of the Spirit. No wonder the Apostle says in
1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18, In everything get thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And He says in Ephesians 5 and
20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for His unspeakable
gift. May the Lord bless these few
words to your hearts and to His glory. Let's sing thanks, O God,
or thank You, Lord, number 221. Number 221. You know the chorus
well.