As we all know or as we should know, this is the last Christmas. This is it. Many of us have experienced Christmas seasons for decades, while others have just experienced Christmas for maybe a shorter period of time; but we have finally come to the end. We have come to the end of time.
This actually means that from here on out, everything is the last thing that we will ever experience. It was the last Thanksgiving just a little while ago. Now we are coming to the last Christmas. Shortly after this, there will be the last New Year. Then each day will lead us closer to May 21, 2011, which will be Judgment Day and the end of all things, even though there will be five months of time left after this.
We know that at Christmastime, we give gifts to one another. This is a good thing to do. The Bible speaks of gifts and has a lot to say about gifts, and so I am going to take a look at a few verses where God discusses the gifts that He gives to the world and to man and especially to His elect people.
For instance, turn to John 3:16. It 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.
This is the gift of God. This is His gift. Salvation is completely the gift of God and all that it encompasses, such as eternal life and a new heaven and a new earth, all of the wonderful things that are associated with the salvation of God as He lays it out in the Bible.
If we go to Luke 11, we also read language of the gift of God. In Luke 11:11-13, it says:
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children…
This is appropriate, is it not? For this time of year, there are many parents who are thinking, “What gift am I going to give to my son or to my daughter? What gift am I going to give them? They are asking for this and they are asking for that”; and yet they may not get these things because the parent also has to consider, “Is this a good thing for them?”
At this time, a lot of consideration and thought should go into the gift that we are giving to others. Is it a time-consuming gift? Are we going to give them something like a video game that they can spend hours on end playing? Would this be an appropriate gift to give someone when we understand and realize that there are only about five months of time left and that time is very precious? Are we going to give them something like a novel or a book that will take them many hours and days to read?
We really should consider and think about what we will be giving to our children. Will it be a good thing? We do not want to give our children bad gifts. Even evil men, even evil fathers want to give good gifts to their children. We want to do what is best for them, and so we really should pray for wisdom as to what would be a good gift to give. I do not have the answer, except, of course, the Word of God.
With whatever we give to others this year, we might want to include something like the calendar that has May 21 as the last day showing on it, or maybe a Bible or a tract or a booklet like We Are Almost There! or To God be the Glory! We would want to include something like this.
Even though others may not realize this, this would be the best possible gift. To them, this might be something that is just in the box, along with whatever it is that they might have wanted; but, actually, this is the greatest of gifts because it is through the Word of God that it is possible for someone who is dead to become alive, to be quickened, for God to save them, for their sins to be forgiven, for them to have the gift of faith and eternal life where they will live forever in the new heaven and the new earth. This is all wrapped up in the one gift that God gives, which is the salvation that God gives generously and abundantly with His grace to the one whom He saves.
So I think that this would be one thing that we would definitely want to make sure that we are doing. No matter what we give, we should include the message that time is almost at an end and that the appointed Day of Judgment is almost here.
But here God says again in Luke 11:13:
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
God is indicating that we are sinful, that we are not good. The Bible tells us, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” If we are not good, then we are evil, and yet God says that we have a concern and a desire to give good things to our children.
The only One who is good is God. Jesus pointed this out to the rich young ruler, “Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.” God is the One who is pure and holy and He will do that which is right.
So if we go to God to beseech Him of something, would it not be a good thing to ask for the Holy Spirit? We should get right to the point, “O God, I beseech You. Have mercy upon me. Grant me Your Holy Spirit.”
If we receive the Holy Spirit, what does this mean? You are saved if you have the Spirit of Christ. It is not in the sense that the Holy Spirit came upon King Saul and moved him to do such and such, but the indwelling Spirit of Christ that comes with salvation. This is what we should be praying God for, “O Lord, give me Your Holy Spirit today and for Christmas and forever. This is the gift that I really want.”
Can you really not see how everything in the world pales in comparison to this gift? If you do not get anything for Christmas but the Holy Spirit, should anyone feel sorry for you? On the other hand, if you get everything that you want for Christmas, if you get it all and yet lack the Holy Spirit, should anyone feel happy for you? Not really; because no matter what you get, it is going to be gone in a very short time if it is something that is just part of this world.
We are all beginning to realize how short this time is. Even the younger children are beginning to realize that five months is not very long. It is not very long at all. If someone asks you how old you are and you say that you are three and a half, well, five months is not even a half. It is less than a half; and so each of us should realize that this is going to be here super fast.
Children, of course, there is no Santa; but the world encourages children to go ask Santa for something. They do this because he is really nothing more than a substitute god and a very poor substitute for the real God. However, the eternal God of the Bible has all power and all might and He has this ability. Santa does not, because Santa does not exist; but the eternal God of the Bible has the ability to grant and to give what people ask Him for. He really is there. He is not a make-believe individual in some make-believe place like the North Pole. He is seated upon His throne and He can give forgiveness. He can give the gift of eternal life.
One other place that I wanted to go before looking specifically at some of God’s gifts is 2 Corinthians 9:15. It says:
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
It is unspeakable because, really, it is unknowable and indescribable. It is beyond comprehension and super-abundant beyond anything that we could ever imagine to receive the gift of God’s salvation and eternal life, because how could you know how great and how good this actually is until you experience this?
We are limited in time. We are finite creatures. We have a beginning and we have an end, and yet God is saying that He is going to give a gift that goes on and on and on into eternity future with no end forevermore.
We know that this is good. We know that this is great. If we had our wits and if we were spiritually sane and rational, we would want this above all because we would realize that this is the greatest of all things. This is the greatest of all things because it is eternal.
Of course, as God says in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The salvation of God is a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” than anything else in this world, than anything else that we can see around us. This is to be desired above all things, and the reason for this is because it is above all things.
We can give thanks to God for this “unspeakable gift,” a gift that we cannot really describe. We cannot fully comprehend this; none of us can. This is just something that is super wonderful that God’s people will experience. Because of this gift, we will give Him praise and thanksgiving and glory and honor forever and ever in the new heaven and the new earth; and so I would like to specifically look at five of God’s gifts that He gives His people, the gifts that He gives to the child of God.
The number one gift that God gives to someone whom He saves is repentance. We do not normally think of this. The reason for this is because the churches of our day have really changed the idea of what repentance is. They think and teach that people must repent, “You must turn from your sin. You must go the way of God. If you do, if you are able to accomplish this, then you will be saved.” They believe this because the Bible says, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and God does want us to take this step and repent.
So the Bible does indicate that anyone who truly repents will be saved, but what the churches fail to tell people is that repentance cannot save anyone. Yes, like the Ninevites, He wants us to cry to Him for mercy and He wants us to turn from whatever is in our life that is sinful; that is, He wants us to put forth effort. He wants us to do this work. He wants us to throw out the cigarettes or to not go to the bar or to not think sinful thoughts or to not lie or to not steal or to not curse. Whatever it is, God wants us to do this and to move in this direction; but He does not want us to think, as many churches imply, that movement in this direction will save us. It cannot. This is impossible.
Lack of movement in this direction, however, is not pleasing to God. If we just say, “I understand that I cannot repent unto salvation, so I am not going to do anything; I am not going to try to give anything up; I am not even going to try to stop anything that I am doing,” then this is not pleasing to God either. He wants us to turn and to pray to Him, “O Lord, strengthen me. Strengthen me as I turn.”
The problem with repentance is something that I will quickly try to use an analogy of, which is the Gulf oil spill. For awhile, if you remember, they could not shut off the source of this oil spill, because it was too far down. It was deep in the ocean about five miles down. Even though they were trying their best to shut off the source, there was this big gusher that was sending forth gallons and gallons of oil into the Gulf waters. We do not even know how many gallons of oil went into the Gulf.
This oil, which is dirty and filthy and a pollutant, is a good example of sin in our life. This oil rose to the surface and was brought into the land and into the marshes and into the beaches. It caused pollution and death wherever it went. It brought nothing good with it and it was ugly to look at.
This is a basic picture of us in our sin. We see the outward sin, just like the clean-up crews were cleaning up the oil on the beaches. The mistake that we make is that we think that if we clean up the outward ugliness, if we get rid of the outward sin that is troubling us, this is salvation.
What we are failing to realize is that there is still a gusher of iniquity in our hearts. Remember that Jesus said that all manner of iniquity is “from within, out of the heart of men.” This is not turned off when we clean up the outward things, when we clean the beach. This is a deeper problem that we cannot get to. We could never turn off the sinful flow from our heart. This takes the hand of God.
For those who were dealing with the catastrophe of the oil spill, should they have said, “Well, we are not going to bother with cleaning up the beaches”? Should they have decided that they were not going to bother with all of the effects of this until they finally turned off the gusher?
No; no, they did the right thing. They just kept cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. They tried to keep up with all of the outward effects, or else it would have just magnified even worse than it was, even though they knew that there was still a steady flow gushing from the bottom of the ocean.
This is exactly what God wants us to do. He wants us to turn from sin knowing that we still need a new heart, because this is where the problem is. This is the source of it all; and so we pray to God, “O Lord, give me a new heart. Take out this old heart and stop the flow of iniquity.” This would be the gift of God in repentance.
If we look at 2 Timothy 2:25, God is speaking about the servants of the Lord and how they should witness to others. It says:
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
God has to give it. It is a gift when God gives something.
Go also to Jeremiah 31:18-19. It says:
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art JEHOVAH my God. Surely after that I was turned…
This would be a great prayer for us to pray. If you remember, last week we looked at a verse in Hosea that instructed us to “take with you words.” In other words, go to the Bible, find Scripture, and then go back to God in prayer.
So we could take this verse and say, “O Lord, I am trying to turn, but I know that You want and require a new heart. I cannot do this, so turn me and I shall be turned. Take out the old heart and give me a new heart, and then I will be able to repent satisfactorily and perfectly of all sin, as You require, because the source of the trouble that is in my heart will then be shut off and You will have given me a new heart.”
This is, therefore, one gift that every person needs if they are going to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. We need the gift of repentance and we also need faith.
Let us go to Ephesians 2. These verses in this passage are very familiar to us and very instructive, as God is just giving us a lot of insight into salvation. We read in Ephesians 2:8:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
How can anyone misunderstand this? Yet, throughout history, the churches have misunderstood this. We are saved by faith, but this faith is not of ourself. It is not your faith that saves you. It is not my faith that saves me. It is not man’s faith at all. God says that it is “by grace are ye saved through faith,” and this faith is not coming from you or me.
We also read in Galatians 2:16:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ…
It is His faith, not our faith. Man’s faith has never saved him. Do you know why? The reason for this is because when God tells us to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” this is another one of God’s commandments. Since this is a commandment and since you are trying to obey this commandment, what is this called? This is called a work; it is a work.
So let us look at this, because this does not get addressed too often and hardly at all, if ever, in the church. In 1 John 3:23, we read:
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ…
This is a commandment, just like “thou shalt not kill” or just like “thou shalt not commit adultery” or just like “thou shalt have no other gods before me.” These are all commandments and laws, and so is “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So this is a commandment of God, and yet what the church has traditionally done, at least most of them, is that they are saying that they realize that no one can become saved by keeping the Law. They recognize this because Galatians 2:16 says that “a man is not justified by the works of the law.” However, there is one thing that they tell their congregation that they can do. They tell them that they can believe.
They are basically saying, “The Bible is a Law Book and God gives us these commandments throughout the Bible, but believing is somehow not a commandment. Believing is somehow not a Law. If you do exercise faith and believe on Christ, believing is somehow not a work,” and yet this is not true.
This is why God says in 1 Thessalonians 1:3:
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith…
This is saying that it is “your work of faith.” Why is it a work? It is a work because it is a commandment. What is the definition of a work? A work is any attempt to obey the Law of God or any commandment of God.
When Abraham obeyed God after God had said to him, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah,” Abraham did a work. Whenever God says that He requires something of us or when He gives us a commandment, any response or attempt at obedience is a work.
So when the Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” and you try to believe, then you are doing a work; but we cannot become saved by works because, once again, it says in Galatians 2:16 that no one is justified “by the works of the law,” but:
…by the faith of Christ…
It is His faith, not our faith.
Again, this is what Ephesians 2 says. Let us turn back to Ephesians 2 again. It says in Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast [or glory].
This is the problem with people. This is the problem with mankind. We want to do something. This is because if we can do something, if we can add a little bit, it is a confirmation. “Yes, of course, salvation is by grace and it is all by the gift of God, but I can do a little bit. I can do something. I can accept this gift. I can reach out and take it.”
This is the analogy that is often used in the freewill churches, is it not? They teach, “God’s salvation is all of grace, but you have to receive it. You have to take it to yourself.” Yet, what are they saying? They are really trying to get around this. They are trying to get around what God is flatly declaring, which is that He does all of the work of salvation.
They often go to a verse like John 1:11-12, which says:
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
So this says in John 1:12:
But as many as received him…
Do you know what? This word for “received” was translated often as “take” or “took.” It was also translated at least once as “accept.”
So they can go to this verse and they can say, “Yes, it is all of God’s grace. It is all by the gift of God that we are saved,” and it also says, “as many as take Him or accept Him or receive Him.” Plus, who become the sons of God? We become the sons of God, “even to them that believe on his name.”
So this is how they believe that they are to take God to themselves. They believe that they can accept Christ and then they are saved, but this is an end around. This is trying to get around it, again, to add just a little bit, because man is so very persistent. Even when Scripture indicates that man cannot contribute any work towards his salvation, he still believes that he can take a closer look and find something that he can do.
This is when people stop at a verse like John 1:12 and do not move on to a verse like the next verse. John 1:12 says that those who received Him were those:
…that believe on his name:
But John 1:13 goes on to say:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Is there free will? Is there such a thing as free will in salvation? Can you exercise your will to get yourself saved? I think that God just answered this question.
He says:
Which were born…
He is not talking about natural birth. He is talking about being born again.
It continues:
Which were born, not of blood…
That is, you cannot be born again because you are a Jew, or you cannot be born again because you have had pastors as members of your family, or you cannot be born again because you have a longstanding relationship with the church.
It continues:
Which were born, not of blood, nor…
So this is another way that you cannot be born again:
…nor of the will of the flesh…
Does this not answer the question? You cannot become born again by exercising your will.
God reiterates this by using slightly different language when He says next:
…nor of the will of man…
You cannot be born again by “the will of man.” Are you an exception? No; there are no exceptions.
What does this then indicate in relation to hundreds of millions of professing Christians? What does it mean if they think that they have become born again or become saved by accepting Christ, by exercising their will, when God says that no one can become born again through one’s own will? What does this mean then? This means that they are not saved.
This is another kind of gospel. It is not the Gospel of the Bible. This is not what God says about salvation. Does this then mean that it is hopeless? Yes; yes. We should all understand that this is completely hopeless by man’s efforts.
In relation to hopeless, I have been thinking about this. There are some people who think that being hopeless is demonstrating humility. When they hear that God is saving 200 million out of 7 billion and that He is only saving His elect and that the vast majority of people will not be saved, they often say, “There is no hope for me,” and they somehow think that this is being humble.
This is not being humble. This is arrogance, because God says that there is hope. This is a little off-topic; but if we go to Jeremiah 18, He tells us this. In Jeremiah 18:11, God says:
Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
In other words, repent. Turn from your “evil way” and “make your ways and your doings good.” This is the command of God again and again and again in the Bible.
What was their response? We read in Jeremiah 18:12:
And they said, There is no hope…
They believed that there was no hope. Some people think along the lines of, “There is no hope; and since there is no hope, why should I bother? Really God, I have tried! I have tried! I have done it and done it and done it and I never get anywhere. I fail all of the time. It sure looks to me like there is no reason to hope. I do not think that You are going to save me.”
Notice how God addresses this attitude in Jeremiah 18:12:
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
By the way, this is nothing but an excuse. When people say that there is no hope for them, this sounds very humble. People say, “I respect Your sovereignty, Lord. I respect that You are a sovereign God and that You will save whom You want.” This sounds good, but this is actually an excuse “that they may do evil with both hands earnestly,” which is one way in which the Bible expresses this. It is an excuse for someone that allows them to continue in sin, because they want to continue in sin and because they want to keep doing what they have been doing all along.
So people want to continue their love relationship with their sin, and they are saying that there is no hope in order to excuse what they are doing. Because they are saying that there is no hope, we then read in Jeremiah 18:13-14:
Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
That is, it is like they are leaving the hope of the Gospel. They are leaving the Word of God, as it continues on to say in Jeremiah 18:15:
Because my people hath forgotten me…
It is not positive in any way to say, “There is no hope for me.”
Is there not hope? Do you know, do I know, does any man know who are counted amongst God’s elect? Do we know if we are one of God’s elect?
We might truly be a wretch. We might be a miserable sinner. We might be beaten by our sins. We might have repeatedly been beaten by our sins throughout our entire lives, but look at the thief on the cross. Was there hope for him? Not from our perspective and probably not from his own. He could have been someone who thought, “There is no hope for me,” and yet there was hope. There was hope right to the very end of his life, and we have hope right to May 21, 2011.
The reason for this hope is because God is merciful. He is gracious and kind and He delights in saving people, so it would just be an act of opposing our own selves to cut off this possibility and believe that there is no hope.
Going back to the Gospel of John or the Fourth Gospel, which is a more accurate title, we see in the Fourth Gospel 1:13 that we are not saved by:
…the will of man, but of God.
When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, He said to him, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples knew exactly what He was talking about. They then asked Him, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus said, “With men this is impossible.” This is not an exaggeration. He was speaking the truth. Then He said, “But with God all things are possible.”
So we are not saved by:
…the will of man, but of God.
We are saved “of God.” He is the One who is capable of this. He is the One who holds this power. Forgiveness is in His hands. If He was so willing, He could save anyone; and so it would be a very wise and smart thing for anyone to go to Him and to ask Him for this salvation and to request the Holy Spirit, “O Lord, give me Your Holy Spirit.”
But what do we say about those who insist at stopping at verse 12 of the Fourth Gospel and who will not move on to verse 13? They say that “as many as received him” means to “believe on his name.”
Turn to the Fourth Gospel 3:27. This is the third gift that God gives to people. We will just look at this quickly. It says:
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
In other words, receiving Christ, as we read in the first chapter, is also a gift. We cannot get around this. God gives reception of faith, reception of repentance, reception of salvation. These come down from Heaven. Neither you nor I nor anyone else can receive anything except God gives it.
In other words, all spiritual blessings, which are gifts from God, come down from the heavenly Father. Man has nothing to do with it. We have nothing to do with this. We cannot try to play any role or any part by thinking that we reach our hands out to take the gift of God. No; God says that this, in itself, is a gift. If you are a blessed recipient of God’s gift of faith and salvation, the gift itself is a gift. To be able to receive it, in itself, is a gift.
Look at a verse that is a little further into the third chapter of the Fourth Gospel. We read in the Fourth Gospel 3:31-32:
He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.
The Word of God is the testimony of Christ and no man receives this of himself; but look at the next verse. We read in the Fourth Gospel 3:33:
He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
Here is God intervening and God has now made some able to receive the Word of God, because this is also a gift that comes from Him.
There were two other gifts of God that I wanted to look at. Go to Matthew 13:10-11; it says:
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Here is the gift of God once again. It is given to you, child of God, to know the mysteries of God; but to others, this is not given. This explains a lot in this period of time as to why so many do not believe and cannot understand. This is because belief and understanding have not been given to them. If they continue on this path and if God does not open their eyes before the end, they will remain in this state. To open someone’s eyes or understanding in order for them to discern “time and judgment” is a gift of God.
Is this not true? Is it not a gift to know these things? Jesus said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given,” and they were questioning Him about parables, especially about the parable that He had just spoken. Jesus was explaining to His disciples that they would understand parables because this would be given to them and that others would not understand these parables because understanding would not be given to them. Others can hear it and hear it and hear it and they will not understand it at all. Remember that Jesus said, “Without a parable spake he not unto them,” as it says in Matthew 13:34, which is the same chapter; and He was referring to the whole Bible.
Is the whole Bible written as a parable? Yes, it is. It is not written, however, in the manner in which Jesus gave parables when He would say, “The kingdom of heaven is like.” This is only one form of a parable, and yet what is the essence of a parable? The essence of a parable is that it contains hidden truth. Finally, when we examine a verse and look at its essence, we find that it contains hidden truth. Is the Bible full of hidden truth? Yes; everywhere in the Bible contains hidden truth.
What about John 3:16? Is this not a plain statement? Everyone understands John 3:16, which 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.
This is not a parable, is it? No; this is not a parable like “the kingdom of heaven is like,” but it is a parable in the sense that there is hidden truth in this statement.
How many people have gone to John 3:16 and completely misunderstood this by thinking that this is saying that Christ loves everyone? They read that He “so loved the world” and they think that Jesus died for everyone as a result of this statement. As a result of this misunderstanding of John 3:16, they think that it is up to them to believe. The problem is that there is hidden truth in this verse that they are not understanding as they read this. Hidden truth needs to be searched out.
This is the same thing with any verse in the Bible. We read in the first verse in the Bible, for example, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” We do not see this right off; but when you look in the Hebrew, the Hebrew word for “God” is ‘elohiym, which is a plural name for God.
Is this not full of hidden truth? How could God who is One have a plural name? We find out as we search the rest of the Bible that He reveals Himself as a Triune God; that is, He is three Persons, but One God. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and so He can use a plural name like ‘elohiym, but there is hidden truth in this verse. This is the nature of the entire Bible; and for God’s people, this is given. It is the gift of God to know and to understand these things.
Look at Ephesians 3:3-6. God is moving the Apostle Paul to write:
How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye 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 fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
A mystery that was revealed was that the Gentiles would come into the fold, that God would deal with them as He did with the Jews, that He was dealing with all men on the same level concerning salvation. The Old Testament is full of verses where God directly says this, and yet no one understood this until the proper time when God opened up the understanding of Paul and others that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs of the Kingdom of God, along with the Jews, along with anyone who would become saved.
The last gift that I would like to look at, since we are getting a little short on time, is a gift that might surprise you. When Christmas comes and we receive lots of gifts, some gifts kind of surprise us, do they not? We might look at a gift and wonder why someone gave it to us, “What is this?” Well, we might have a little bit of this feeling towards this gift of God.
Let us go to Philippians 1:29. It says:
For unto you it is given…
When we see this language of “given,” we know that this is referring to a gift of God. Faith is given. Repentance is given. The understanding of mysteries is given. Receiving God’s gifts is given, because we cannot receive any gift of God unless it is given.
So what is this next gift? It continues:
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him…
Many people are fine with this. The gift of faith is a great gift. It is wonderful to receive this gift. We like this gift, but it continues on to say:
…not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
Basically what God is saying is that we receive the gift of suffering. This is amazing because He is definitely calling this a gift. He says that it is:
…not only to believe on him…
We know that He also refers to this as a gift in Ephesians 2, as well as in other places. Then He says:
…but also…
There is something that is going to accompany this belief, something which accompanies the other gifts of God, and this is:
…to suffer for his sake;
Who likes this gift? Who wants this kind of a gift for Christmas or at any other time? Who likes the gift of suffering or the gift of affliction or the gift of tribulation? In our case, it is not just tribulation, but it is great tribulation. Who wants the gift of reproach or the gift of being reviled or the gift of being called a heretic or the gift of being called a nut and a kook and to have others declare to us, “You have to be out of your mind,” as well as a thousand other similar statements that are being said about the people of God at this time?
By the way, I want to show you how God relates this gift especially to our day. Go over to 1 Peter 4:12-15. It says:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
These are some very positive statements about suffering. He tells us to rejoice, as well as:
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye…
This word “happy” is the word “blessed” that we also find in the Beatitudes; and so we would be blessed if this were to be our case.
We all suffer. Every human being suffers. Every human being suffers in one way or another, do we not? We normally suffer, however, for sin, for our stupidity, for our foolishness, for our ignorance, for our transgressions. We lie and lies get us into trouble. We steal and stealing gets us into trouble. On and on we go.
God is saying that we are going to suffer, but do this in a right way. Do this for the right reason. We cannot avoid suffering, and yet there is a suffering that we can be thankful for.
Look at 1 Peter 2:19-21:
For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
This is really what our choice is. Are we going to suffer for our own failures and sins against the Law of God? There is no thankfulness in this, is there? There is nothing good about suffering because we did evil. Is there anything joyous or is there anything blessed or is there anything good for the people in prison because of the crimes that they committed? No; there is nothing. Suffering for wrongdoing leaves us ashamed and it leaves us feeling guilty to where we ask ourselves, “How could my life have been if I had not done this?”
Yet there is another kind of suffering that God must give us. There is no other way to experience this type of suffering. God has to give us the gift of salvation in which He has now given us faith and belief in His Word. We then proclaim His Word. As a result of doing this, we suffer for the Word’s sake, we suffer for Christ’s sake, and this is exactly what is happening in our day.
I said that we would be able to connect suffering with our day. Go back to 1 Peter 4 and look at the context of all of these verses. For example, 1 Peter 4:12 says:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you…
Or 1 Peter 4:13, which says:
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings…
And 1 Peter 4:14 says:
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye…
1 Peter 4:15 says:
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer…
Then 1 Peter 4:16-17 says:
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Do you see how God relates this to our day? The end of the church age came on May 21, 1988. This is when judgment began and this is when the “fiery trial” began. This is when God’s testing program began.
The world has always been crazy, but it has really gone insane over the last twenty or so years. Everything has intensified, and so, too, has the reproach for Christ’s sake, as God’s people have no other option. They have to declare, as watchmen, that the sword is coming. Because of this warning that they are giving out, there is going to be affliction. There will be those who do not like this and they will reproach the children of God because of it.
Psalm 34:19 says:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but JEHOVAH delivereth him out of them all.
Yes, this day of deliverance is coming. Of course, God even does this every day in the lives of His people.
It says in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
This will be quite “a way to escape,” will it not? God is going to take His people up and out of this world. He is going to rapture the living and resurrect the dead. He is going to lift them up into glory and transform them and given them new resurrected bodies. Any aches and pains that you are feeling right now, if you are a child of God, do not worry about them. Any mental aches and pains that you are experiencing, any bumps along the road that you are receiving in this way, do not worry about them either. You will soon receive a new resurrected body and soul where everything will be incredibly wonderful forevermore.
For now, there is the gift of suffering. It is a gift; because if we are experiencing this for right reasons, for Christ, for His Word, then this is an indication that we have an inheritance awaiting us in a very short while.
Let us stop here.