Sonrise, Feb. 25, 1996 Truth Christian Assemb. Mar, 1996
God's Unspeakable Gift!
II Cor. 9:15 "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift."
What unspeakable gift has God given His children? He has given us the certain knowledge (faith) that He is in charge, that the world is God's kingdom, and that He who is in charge lives (dwells) in us. He has freely given us salvation from death and dead works by the gift of the faith of Christ.""""
And by the faith of Christ He works in us unlimited love and perfect liberty.
1) He has given us the faith of Christ, His own unlimited faith!
Romans 3:21-28 "...the righteousness of God without (apart from) the law is manifested (shown, demonstrated), being witnessed by the law (written in the law) and the prophets, even the righteousness of God (His gift of reconciliation by faith) by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all that believe, ... to declare at this time His righteousness ... where is boasting then ... man is justified by faith without (apart from) the deeds of the law."
2) Jesus received our sins on Himself, and He took them to the cross and into His grave, in an act of great faith.
Gal. 3:13-14 "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,..."
Col. 2:12-14 (You are) "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead... being dead in your sins... hath He (God) quickened (you) together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us ... nailing it to His cross."
He chose to take our sins on Himself, to become a curse for us! That took great faith and love. That same faith is the faith that He has given us, the faith of Christ. This gift, the faith of Christ, is the righteousness that God sees in us. It is God's unspeakable gift. When God looks at us He doesn't see our puny faith, He sees the faith of Jesus Christ which dwells in us by the Holy Ghost!
Gal. 2:16 "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we that believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law....
Gal. 2:20-21 "I am crucified with Christ (I died with Him): nevertheless I live; (I was raised from the dead with Him in baptism) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
So how can we have puny faith, when He gave us the faith of Christ. Faith directed by the Holy Ghost is unlimited, faith directed by our will is weak!
And we grow by yielding to the working of His faith in us, from faith to faith.
Romans 1:16-17 "... The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth... therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the Just shall life (become alive) by faith." (Hab. 2:4)
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3) When we agree with God's word, written or spoken, then we become alive in faith. Since the beginning He has wanted us to just believe Him, and act on His word. In the garden of Eden their first sin was unbelief, when they rejected God's warning, seeing the fruit as pleasant not deadly.
The unspeakable gift of the unlimited faith of Christ is very precious gift!
Philp. 3:8-9 "... I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law; but that (righteousness) which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
4) But there is more to God's unspeakable gift than the faith of Christ.
By the gift of His faith, He has reconciled us unto Himself, He has become our peace, and He has broken down the wall dividing us from God.
Col. 1:21 "You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.
Eph. 2:14 "For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition.
5) And by His faith we are given the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our salvation!
Eph. 1:13-14 "...after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom (a person) also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Which is the earnest (guarantee, deposit, down payment) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession (us), unto the praise of glory."
I Cor. 12:3 for "...no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost."
John 3:31-35 "...God giveth not the Spirit by measure...."
And the Holy Ghost works in us the great blessing of godly love.
Rom. 5:5 "... the love of God (from God) is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
I John 4:16 "...God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."
Gal. 5:14 "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
James 2:8 "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do will" (your doing will be blessed.)
The gift of loving as He loves is the gift that makes us most like Him.
This is the most glorious aspect of His unspeakable gift.
Of course our selfish flesh doesn't want to love as He loves, and so we have inner conflict. But if we admit our sin and failing, ask His forgiveness, and ask Him to make us more like Him, then He will work love into us.
When we let Him work in us faith and godly love, then He has true liberty to shape us.
6) When the Holy Spirit has liberty with us, then we live in His liberty.
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II Cor. 3:17 "Now the Lord is that Spirit (Holy Spirit) and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty."
Romans 8:2 "For the law of the Spirit of life (the law of love) in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Gal. 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (trying to be righteous by works)."
That is, have faith only in His character, His mercy and His grace. Have no faith in salvation by law, by works, or by anything else.
There is a false liberty - "I can do anything I want and God will approve"
Beware of false liberty. The spirit that brings counterfeit liberty feels almost like the real God given liberty of the Holy Ghost. But false liberty is not the liberty to do right, false liberty is the liberty to do wrong, just like in the garden of eden. (When you walk into the mall and you feel exhilarated like you can buy anything and everything and smoke the plastic, that is false liberty!)
Gal. 5:13 "... use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh (selfishness)
but by love serve one another."
7) So if you receive the witness of the Holy Ghost in directing your faith and you receive the gift of godly love and the liberty to do right in Him, then:
Luke 12:32 "Fear not, little flock, it is the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Rom. 14:17 "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink: but righteousness (love), and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
So the unspeakable gift of God is His faith, godly love and perfect liberty.
Praise God for His unspeakable gift!