If you will, turn back with me
to the chapter that was read at the beginning of the service,
1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want to speak to us this evening
from verse 12. For we have received, we. You've got to go back to verse
1 to see who are included in that word, we. The apostle is
writing to brethren, brethren. Got to go back to chapter 1 in
verse 26, for you see your calling, brethren. So this verse of scripture
that we are looking at tonight is speaking to brethren, to believers. Now, we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. The apostle is speaking to believers,
to brethren, as having received the Holy Spirit that in order
that we might know the things that are freely given to us by
God. The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus
Christ told his disciples, would guide them and teach them. And Paul asked the believers
in the churches of Galatia this question. He said, this only
would I learn of you, receive you the spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith. How is it, as a child
of God, you received God the Holy Spirit? Now, some people,
you know, they would teach, well, you have to be baptized in Jesus'
name. When our Lord Jesus Christ said
that we are to be baptized in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but there are those who deny
the Trinity. And they lay a great emphasis
on the fact that if you would receive the Holy Spirit, you
must be baptized in the name of Jesus only. That's not what
the Apostle Paul asked. This only what I know of you.
Receive you the Spirit by the works of the law, that is, by
your obedience to the law. Is that how you received God
the Holy Spirit into your heart? This verse of scripture declares
unto us that all believers, we have received not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God. That is God,
the Holy Spirit. Every child of God has received
God, the Holy Spirit. How did he come into you? How did he communicate himself
into you? We know as the Apostle Paul said
there to the believers in Galatia, it was through the preaching
of faith. It was by preaching the gospel,
hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on him
for whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. And that's the way, mysterious,
yes, absolutely. I believe one verse of that hymn
we just sang a few minutes ago deals with that fact, how God
the Holy Spirit was made known in us. It is a mystery. The new
birth is a mystery. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
our Lord said. You hear the sound thereof, but
you cannot tell from whence it cometh, nor where it s going.
So is EVERYONE that is born of the Spirit. I believe it was
a Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, at least the first one that I read
who said this. He said, the gospel is a chariot
in which the Holy Spirit comes into the hearts of his chosen
people. This past week, I read an article
about the vocabulary count, word count in our vocabularies. And
I read that a child of four years old has a vocabulary of 4,000
words. And I thought, well, that's something,
isn't it? I mean, we come into this world,
we start with zero. We start at zero, and in four
years, we've got a vocabulary of 4,000 words. Isn't that amazing? And then double the age to eight
years of age, and we've already doubled our vocabulary again.
Now it's 8,000 words. And these are just the average
individuals understand that. And these studies that I read,
at least they all seem to be pretty consistent in these numbers. An average adult has a vocabulary
between 20 and 35,000 words. And I mentioned this to us tonight
because God, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. That's what the
Lord told his disciples in John 14 in verse 26. But the comforter,
he has several names and several office works, doesn't he? But
the comforter, he comforts us. God, the Holy Spirit, he comforts
us in all our tribulations. This is what we read in 2 Corinthians. He comforts us. But our Lord
said, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father
will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. He's our
comforter, he's our teacher, he's our guide, and he leads
us. The Holy Spirit teaches God's
covenant people using the written Word of God. I cannot tell you
over the years how many articles I've read of men who were deceived
into believing that they no longer needed the Word of God, the written
Word of God, that they had a spirit within them, a light within them
that taught them so they didn't need the Word of God, they didn't
need the ministry of preaching. Those very things that God has
given unto us as means for not only our calling, but also our
sanctification, that is our growth in grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit teaches us,
and He does so not by some signal, some sign up in the heavens,
no. with the written word of God. That's the way he comforts us.
He comforts us. That's the way he leads us and
guides us by his providence using his written word. But I want
us tonight in this particular verse, let's read it again. Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God. That's God the Holy Spirit. And
no one is saved, you know this, no one has ever been saved apart
from the ministry, the work of God the Holy Spirit. Just as
much as no one has ever been saved apart from the work of
God the Son coming into this world and being made a sacrifice
for His people, paying our sin debt, so no one has ever been
saved apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. we have
received, not the spirit of this world. That's an evil spirit,
the spirit of this world. That's a spirit that leads man
into deception. It's a spirit of lying. But God,
the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, we've received the spirit
of truth. Now notice, in order that, we
might know the things that are freely. freely given to us of
God. And so I want to talk to us this
evening about this word freely. God, the Holy Spirit, be our
teacher tonight to teach us from the word of God what this exactly
means, freely. I want us to go back to Genesis
chapter two. And look at the first time that
we have this word in our Bibles, in Genesis chapter 2 and verse
16. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the
man, this is Adam, created by God, at first God took some dust,
and made him a body. And then he breathed into him
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Some religions,
you know, they try to teach, well, man's just like an animal.
No, God never breathed into an animal a living soul. A soul that man has received
is an immortal soul. An animal, if it has a soul,
it dies with its body. That soul dies. But the soul
of man, you know this is so, your soul, my soul, is going
to continue throughout all eternity. It's not going to somehow be
erased. It's going to continue. When
God made Adam, placed him in the garden, notice what he said,
and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of
the garden, thou mayest freely eat. There's that word, freely.
Thou mayest freely eat. You see, here we learn the meaning
of the word freely. Think about it. We've been watching
a series called Alone. I don't recommend it, but it's
a series, I guess, a reality show. They take 10 people, men
and women, and the episodes we've seen, they drop them off on Newfoundland
Island there in Canada off the Pacific. They're just out there
on their own. They're separated. And whoever
lasts the longest, there's a prize of $500,000. Now we've seen some,
they call it tapping out. When they push that button, come
get me. Come get me. One man was put
off in a place where there was a lot of bears. And I don't blame
him. He didn't make the night. Come
get me. He tapped out. It's kind of funny,
too, because before he was taken out there, he was with his family,
and they were all joking and everything. And he said, when
I get in a fight with a bear, you better say, come, come rescue
the bear. In other words, I'm going to
take care of the bear. Well, he never actually saw a
bear. He just saw evidence of a bear. Come get me. He didn't even make nightfall. I don't blame him. I don't want
to be in a place with bears, do you? But I couldn't help but
think, here, these people are dropped off in places where they
have to scavenge for their food, for their shelter, everything.
They can take 10 articles with them, and then they're given
certain things as well, and cameras. They've got four cameras because
they want to document everything. But what a difference between
God creating Adam and placing him in that beautiful garden
and Telling him of every tree except one Thou mayest freely
eat Well freely What could Adam have given? Suppose the apples
had cost two cents apiece and the oranges a nickel he didn't
have any money Everything he had, God had given him, right? God had given him, and God had
given him a lot. God had given him two eyes with
which to see and two ears to hear and placed him in a beautiful
situation. And then he said, just freely
eat of every tray except one. What did Adam have to contribute? If God had told Adam, you can
eat, but you've got to pay. Well, how could he pay? He didn't
have anything. He didn't even have any clothes.
He didn't have any clothes on his body. How could he pay? Freely, thou mayest freely eat. The word freely then must mean,
Adam, you are welcome to eat the fruit of every tree except
one. Without you contributing anything. You don't contribute anything,
Adam. You just eat freely. Now freely in the New Testament
has been explained to mean without a cause. Because the scripture
speaks about Christ being hated without a cause. The same word
that's translated freely. It's all here, Adam. It's all
free. Now that's God's word. That's
the way we understand or should understand the word freely, when
God says free, freely. But it's sad to say, but the
next time, let's look in Numbers chapter 11. The very next time
that we have the word freely in our Bibles, we can see how
fallen man has changed the meaning. Numbers chapter 11 and verse
5. These are the Israelites in the
wilderness and they're speaking, complaining. Numbers chapter
11 and verse 5. Here's their words. We remember
the fish. which we did eat in Egypt freely. Do you see how they've changed the
meaning of this word? Freely. Here's sinful man speaking
and saying that while they were servants, they were servants
in Egypt. They had to serve the Egyptians. And now they're talking about
the fact that they were given fish freely. John Gill made this
comment. He said, they forgot how dear
they paid for their fish by their hard toil, labor, and service. But that's man's definition of
freely. The Jewish writers explain this. They explain this verse of scripture
like this. They say that fish were so plentiful
in Egypt that they were bought cheap. Fish were so plentiful. That is, the Nile brought so
many fish into Egypt and overflowed its banks and fish were so plentiful
that they were bought cheap. Get that word, bought cheap. They explained it means they
had fish For nothing, almost. Freely. What does it mean to
them? We had fish, free, almost. Almost. Cheap isn't free. Right? Cheap isn't free. Almost nothing isn't nothing. It's almost nothing. Get this
in your mind, this word freely means without man contributing anything. Nada, nothing. The point I wish to make is that
fallen man has changed the meaning of freely. When God says freely,
it doesn't mean cheap. It doesn't mean almost nothing. It means without man contributing
anything. Lost man's definition of freely
is at best cheap. Almost nothing. You hear men,
and I'm talking about religious men, who say, yes, salvation's
all of grace, but. Almost free, yes, almost free,
but. No, that's not what God means
when He says freely. A second place where we see the
word freely, our second thought about the word freely is in Hosea
chapter 14 and verse 4. And here God is speaking, and
listen now, He says, I will love them freely. I will love them
freely. God loves his own, and he loves
his own freely. In the Song of Solomon, we read
if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would
be utterly contemned. If a man gave all of his house,
all of his substance to obtain love, it would be utterly contemned. No, God said, I will love them
freely. God's love is set upon those
he loves freely. And that's a good word. Set. God sets his love upon those
that he loves. That's a Bible word. That's what
that chapter there in 1 Corinthians 2 tells us, that we should use
Bible terminology and we should compare spiritual things with
spiritual things. Look back to Deuteronomy or look
next to Deuteronomy chapter 7. There may be someone here tonight,
and you may be trying to merit God's love, earn God's love,
pay for God's love. That's not the way God's love
comes. I will love them freely, freely. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 7,
beginning in verse 6, we read God speaking to the nation of
Israel, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.
The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto
himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
You see, God chose Abraham. What was special about Abraham?
He came from a family of idolaters. In all probability, he too had
practiced idolatry. And that's the very thing. If
you look in verse five of that chapter, concerning the idolaters
who were in the land of Canaan, but thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their images
and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with
fire." In other words, you're to have nothing to do with the
idolaters in the land of Canaan. You're to destroy every semblance
of their false worship of pagan gods. For thou art a holy people,
a chosen people, talking to the nation of Israel, holy people
unto the Lord, a separated people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord
thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself
above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Now notice,
the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you, Because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people. But, now here's the reason. Here's the reason God loved you.
Here's the reason God chose you. But because the Lord loved you.
And because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. In other words, just like this
nation of Israel, which is a typical, now know this, you understand
this. The nation of Israel was over
a million strong, I think. when they came out of Egypt.
But there was always only a remnant according to the election of
grace in that nation who were saved. But the nation itself
serves as typical of God's chosen people, of those that God has
set his love upon who he loves freely. They were typical. The inheritance they were given
was an earthly inheritance, the land of Canaan. The inheritance
that God gives us is a heavenly inheritance, that is, those who
are elected and loved freely by God. I don't know how many people
torment themselves over this matter of God's love, feeling
like they've got to live up to it. They've got to somehow merit
it. You can't. And you, by the grace
of God, the teaching of God the Holy Spirit, must understand
that God sets his love upon those he loves, and he does it freely. Now here's a third point. The Holy Spirit teaches us of
the things that are freely given to us of God. That's what our
text tells us. The Holy Spirit teaches us. How
does He teach us? With the Word of God. He calls
ministers, preachers to preach the gospel, to preach the Word
of God. And in these ways He teaches
us. The Holy Spirit does. He teaches
us of the things that are freely, freely given unto us of God. I want to show you three things
in the New Testament that we're told are freely given unto us. These three things God the Holy
Spirit teaches us. First of all, I want you to turn
to Revelation chapter 21 and verse 6. Revelation chapter 21 and verse
6, and we see the same thing in chapter 22, but let's look
here in chapter 21 and verse 6. And he said unto me, it is
done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life, Freely. Freely. Amen? Aren't you thankful for that? You say, what is the water of
life? Well, the water of life is eternal life. It's knowing
Christ. Remember what the Lord Jesus
Christ said unto that woman there at the well, a Samaritan woman. And he told her this, among other
things, he said, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him, shall never thirst, but the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. In Isaiah, we have a place there
where the word is, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters and drink. Come! milk and wine, and come
and buy without price. In other words, I, the Lord Jesus
Christ says, the water of life that I give, I give freely. Freely. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. Freely. All right, here's
the second, back in Romans chapter three. Yes, Romans chapter 3
and verse 24. Romans 3 and verse 24, the apostle
says, is not by the works of the law, but being justified
freely. by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. What is justification? It is
being declared righteous, having all our sins put away. And how
is it that men are justified? It is freely through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. In other words, God is just in
justifying the ungodly because of the substitutionary sacrifice,
the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Lord, the blood of
Christ, death of Christ, and the stead of His people, freely,
freely. justified freely. And then, here's
another place in Romans 8, in verse 32. Romans 8, in verse 32, all things. The water of life is given freely,
justification comes freely, and yes, all things. 32, I mean, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? All things, freely,
all things. You say, well, all, that's an
all-inclusive word, isn't it? Yes, it is. All temporal blessings
that he sees best for you. And He sees best for me all that are for our good and
all spiritual blessings. These are all freely given unto
us. We don't merit them. We don't
deserve them. They're freely given. And there's
one last thing I want to say, and that is, if you turn to Luke
chapter 7 and verse 41 and 42, the translators, for some reason,
I'm not sure why, but this same word which is translated freely
in these places here in the New Testament that we have looked
at, chose not to translate that word freely here. They used a
different word. And it is the word, frankly,
in our Lord's parable in Luke chapter seven, verses 41 and
42. Our Lord is speaking to a Pharisee.
Now, you know, the Pharisees, we have the illustration of the
Pharisee who went up into the temple to pray and he said, Lord,
I thank thee that I'm not like other people. And our Lord is in his house
eating, and this woman comes in, who was a sinner, the scripture
says, probably a prostitute, known in that city. And she came
to the Lord Jesus Christ and began standing at his feet to
weep and wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. And that old Pharisee says, boy,
if he really was a prophet, speaking about Christ. If he really was
a prophet, he would know what manner of woman she is. But what
the Pharisee did not know is that, praise God, the Lord Jesus
Christ came on purpose to save people like that woman, people
like you, and people like me. And so he told Simon this parable
in verses 41 and 42, There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly, freely, that's the same word, he freely forgave
them both. It didn't matter whether the
man owed $50 or $500. He didn't have a penny. He couldn't pay his debt, period.
And so the man forgave him frankly, forgave them frankly, freely. Lord Jesus Christ has paid the
debt of his people and God now forgives us freely without a
cause on our part. And that's the reason we love
him, isn't it? God's people love him because
he first loved us and saw us Polluted in our blood and came
and redeemed us Pray the Lord would bless this word