God's Unspeakable Gift
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift'
(2 Cor. 9. 15).
MANY of us have thought a great deal about gifts during
the last few weeks. Some of us have experienced much joy in giving, others have
found a measure of delight, but not nearly so much as we possibly expected,
through receiving gifts. It is still true that "It is more blessed to give than
to receive," and I dare say the happiest people are not those who have received
the most, but those who have given the most. Particularly is this true if your
gifts have been largely to those in less comfortable circumstances than
yourself, and if you have sought to minister to the needs, to brighten the
homes of those in poverty, to bring a happy smile to the children's faces, and
to cheer weary and distressed mothers and fathers. It is a very blessed and
beautiful thing to make gifts in this way.
This is one of the
by-products of Christianity. It is because our Lord Jesus Christ has Himself
taught us the lesson that "It is more blessed to give than to receive," that we
delight to make gifts in His Name. Even the world itself has caught the blessed
infection, and unconverted people find a great deal of joy in sharing with
others. And so as we think of gifts, our minds naturally go to the Supreme Gift
which God in His marvellous grace has lavished upon a guilty world. "Thanks be
unto God for His unspeakable gift."
There are four things about which I
would like to speak.
First, I want to occupy you with the Giver;
second, with the excellency of the gift;
third, with the reception of
the gift; and then a word of warning against refusing the gift.
I.
THE GIVER
"WHO IS THE GIVER?" You remember when addressing the poor
woman at the well, our Lord Jesus Christ said, "If thou knewest the gift of
God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink; thou wouldst have
asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water" (John 4. 10). God is
the Giver. I wish we could get that clearly in our minds.
A great many
people think of God as a merchantman; they think that He has something to sell;
that He is going about offering His salvation to people if they are rich enough
to purchase it. Thank God, He is too rich to sell His salvation. But if He were
to put it up for sale; if He were to set a price on it in any sense
commensurate with its value, neither you nor I could ever purchase it.
The parable in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew is one that is generally
turned upside down. A merchantman came seeking goodly pearls, and "when he
found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all he had and bought it."
Almost invariably people make the merchantman the poor sinner, and the pearl
God's salvation. But God's salvation is a free gift, and the pearl had to be
purchased, so that interpretation is contrary to fact. We have nothing with
which to buy God's salvation.
The real meaning of that parable surely
is that our Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven as the Merchantman with infinite
riches at His disposal, and here in this poor dark world He found one pearl of
great price, that vast company of men and women who were sunk in sin and
iniquity, but who are to be made into the Body and Bride of the Lamb; and
having fixed His love upon that pearl, He went and sold all that He had and
bought it. Where did He make that great exchange? At Calvary's Cross. There on
the Cross He sold all that He had and He shed His own most precious Blood, laid
down His life in order that He might purchase the pearl which is to adorn His
crown for eternity.
GOD IS A GIVER; He is not selling to people. Take
all the great blessings that we enjoy. We get them freely from God; we cannot
buy them. You cannot buy the fresh air that you breathe; you cannot buy the
water from the rippling brook. Yes, men can bottle and sell it, but God gives
it freely. All the blessings that He lavishes upon men are "without money and
without price," and the great gift spoken of here is the expression of His
infinite love.
The Minister' s Story
My wife's father was a
minister of the Gospel. Singularly enough, though I learned to know him fairly
well in the days I was pestering him in order to get his daughter, I had the
privilege of hearing him preach only three times, but I remember those
occasions quite clearly. I have never forgotten an illustration he used of a
poor woman who had a very sick daughter. This poor mother went out to work as a
char-woman. She had to earn a living for herself, and this child. By and by her
daughter became convalescent, and was crying continually for some grapes,
though it was winter. The poor mother could not think of purchasing them, for
they could be gotten only at an exorbitant price, and yet always when she came
home, the child would say, "Did you get me any grapes today?" She offered her
other things that were within her means, but nothing satisfied. One day she had
been called to work in a different district, a place where she had not been
before, and passing a magnificent garden, she saw a great hot-house. Looking
over the wall she could see luscious clusters of grapes hanging and ripening.
She tried the gate, and finding it open, went in. Hurrying along the pathway
she met the gardener who said, "What are you doing here? you have no business
here. Don't you know that these are the king' s gardens?"
"Oh, sir,"
she said, "my daughter is sick at home, and she has been crying for grapes, and
as I passed I saw the grapes in the hot-house. I have worked hard day after day
and have just a shilling, but I will give it all for one bunch of those
grapes."
"Get out of here, you have no business in here. I may lose my job
for letting you in," and so he drove her out.
She thought, "I suppose he
was angry with me because I offered only a shilling for a bunch of grapes. I
will try and earn more money, and maybe he will respect my wishes then." And so
she toiled on, and was able to save another shilling, and then forced her way
again inside the gate, and once more met the gardener who said, "Didn't I tell
you you must not come in here?"
"But look," she said, "I had only a
shilling then; I have two now, and I want a bunch of those grapes for my poor
sick daughter. Won't you sell me a bunch?" He started to tell her to get out,
when a beautiful young lady came up, and said, "What is it, my good woman?"
"0 Ma'am, if you can do anything for me, won't you, please? My daughter is
sick, and is crying continually for grapes, and I saw the beautiful clusters in
the hot-house, and wanted to purchase some, but he won't sell them to me.
Look, I have two shillings, may I have just one bunch?"
"Oh, " said the
young lady, "come with me," and she led the woman into the beautiful
conservatory, and said, "Hold your apron." She snipped off one bunch and
another and another, until the poor woman cried, "No more! I have only two
shillings, don't give me any more."
"But I want your daughter to have all
she needs; there is life and health in these grapes," and she snipped off
more.
The woman finally said, "I am so grateful to you, here are the two
shillings."
"Keep your money; my father is not a merchantman, he is the
king, and he does not want your money. Take the grapes and tell your daughter
they are sent by the princess herself, and are a gift from the king's
conserva-tory.
"But I will be so glad to give you the two shillings. You
are welcome to them."
"Oh, no! A king does not sell; a king delights to
give."
I have never forgotten that simple illustration for it tells how
the heart of God goes out to needy sinners. That was in the apostle's mind when
he wrote, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." God has nothing to
sell to lost men; and again I repeat, if He were selling His salvation, you
would be too poor to buy it, but because it is a gift you may have it for
nothing, and may have it now.
II. THE EXCELLENCY OF THE GIFT
I do not know whether you have ever noticed it, but three times in the New
Testament in our Authorised Version you have this adjective, "unspeakable."
Here we read, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." In the twelfth
chapter of this book, the apostle tells us how he was caught up into Paradise,
into the third Heaven, and he says he "heard unspeakable words, which it is not
lawful for a man to utter." And over in the Epistle of Peter, we read of "joy
unspeakable and full of glory." The word is the same in each instance in our
English Translation, but different in every case in the Greek where each term
has a very distinct meaning.
Unspeakable Joy
When we read of
"joy unspeakable and full of glory," the original word literally means,
"unutterable," joy unutterable. When you are very very happy, can you find
language to tell what it is like? Here is a young bride; she has just come down
the aisle from the marriage altar, and her face is radiant. At her side is her
proud young bridegroom. I won't ask the bride, but will ask the groom, "How do
you feel now?"
He looks at me and says, "Bully!"
"What do you mean by
that? That doesn't tell me anything."
"Well, " he says, "I feel
great.
End of first Excerpt.