GIVING

T.N.Pye

Romans 5: 15-17; John 4: 10; Luke 21: 1-4

I would like to say something about "the free gift in grace and the free gift of righteousness" in Romans and "the gift of God" in John, and then we might something about our giving. A gift is something we just have to receive, there is no merit for it; you do not qualify in that you do something to get it. What God offers in the glad tidings is a free gift, the free gift of grace. It says "much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace" - what a God we have to do with! He is not demanding; He could have demanded. He did demand in another dispensation and history proves that the demands were never met: But God is not demanding today; it is the grace of God. The grace of God, it tells us in another scripture carries salvation with it (see Tit 2: 11). So we preach the glad tidings of the grace of God which carries salvation with it. What God has in mind for men is salvation, that persons should be saved. That is a big statement but that is what God has in mind, saved from your sins of course, but a good deal more than that. The grace of God in the glad tidings carries salvation, and so God proposes to give a free gift in grace. What could there be for a guilty sinner but a free gift in grace? I want to illustrate it from Luke 7. The Lord said to Simon that there was a certain creditor who had two debtors; one of them, He says, owed five hundred pence and the other fifty; there would be no doubt about the degree of debt, one ten times more than the other. But what He says is, when they had nothing to pay he freely forgave them both (see vv 41,42). I would like to suggest that that is the free gift in grace, God's forgiving, that is His attitude. You may say, but how can God forgive me when He constitutes me a sinner? He is freely forgiving by the One Man Jesus Christ because the debt has been paid. There is a Creditor; He has seen to the debt before He ever approached the debtors. That is the glad news of the gospel. God has met the whole question of our debt before He ever sent out the glad tidings. The work was finished, Jesus had gone into death, and the death of Jesus was when the whole question of sin and sins was settled; on the cross Jesus paid the debt, He paid the price. Could any debtor have paid that price? It says that no one can give a ransom for his brother, no one (see Ps 49: 7). No one could have paid the debt, but Jesus took the debt on. He was made sin for us, Him who knew not sin; that was Jesus (see 2 Cor 5: 21). He took it on and He paid the price. God settled the sin question when Jesus died; on the cross the price was paid, but Jesus went into death and He removed the whole question of sin. But He has come out of death, a triumphant Saviour! He has gone into heaven itself, glorious Saviour! What glad tidings! And then He has sent down the Holy Spirit, and the first preaching was the free gift in grace. What did Peter say? He said to the very persons who crucified Jesus - what were his words? - an outstanding preaching of Peter's - "Repent, and be baptised each one of you, for remission of ye will sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2: 39. I think Peter's preaching was the free gift in grace, God's forgiving the sinner who believes in Jesus. Well, do you believe? Are all here believers? Have we all placed our trust and our faith in Christ? There is no other solid ground; God is not giving any other; Peter says, neither is there salvation in any other. There is no other name; it is by the one Man, Jesus Christ, that God is giving this free gift in grace. Have you received it yet? You could not pay for it, no, but God is giving that gift freely; it says, he freely forgave them both". God is not stinted in His attitude and He can be perfectly free in the gift of forgiveness, How God delights to dispense! He freely forgave them both.

Well, you say, that is fine. But it goes on here to speak about the ,free gift of righteousness. The gospel is so full. It would be fine if God could just turn a blind eye (if I could speak that way of God, not that He could), if He could just ignore your sins. If He ignored them they would still be there, would they not? If you have done something that you should not have done, and we all forget such things, you are sure to find out that somebody a long way away recalls it at an inconvenient moment. We find we cannot forget things. But what God in the gospel has given is a free gift of righteousness. He establishes things on a basis that is perfectly just, and God can forget sins, righteously forget them. He says, your sins and your iniquities I will never remember any more (see Heb 8: 12). God is the only person who has the right to forget, and He does it because righteously He has met them, and the cross of Christ is the righteous basis on which God is dispensing this gift. It is a gift; it is for nothing, the free gift of righteousness. It says earlier in Romans that the righteousness of God is towards all (see chap 3: 22); that is God's attitude in the gospel, He is disposed to bless everybody. He says, I can righteously do it because the price is paid in full, there is nothing for you to do, no, I am giving this free gift in righteousness, but it is upon all those who believe. So we are back again; are you a believer in the Lord Jesus? Have you put your faith and your trust in Him?

In the gospel we always come back to this challenge. The gospel is a very individual matter; God has to do with us one by one. We can sit in a company like this - a fair number - but God speaks to us individually. He makes grand proposals, but He leaves one thing for you to do - just believe. He is not asking you to do a thing about your sins, no, He just wants you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It says at the end of chapter 6 that the wages of sin are death; but the act of favour of God - it is like a gift - through Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything for the believer is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who has accomplished the work of redemption and He is the One through whom God is presenting glad tidings. Have you accepted them? Have you? If you accept Him you get the blessings that God gives.

The next gift that I wish to speak about is in John 4 - the gift of the Spirit. The Lord had approached this woman at Sychar's well; she had been accustomed to a certain order of things, she had always gone to this well, she had found her resource in it and she thought there was nothing else. But the Lord Jesus comes into this woman's life, and He speaks to her, and He says Give me to drink. The Lord approaches us individually, just to ask us for something. He would ask you: have you ever had a sense that the Lord was asking you? So He asks this woman: "Give me to drink". The Lord is looking for something, looking for some response in your heart. The woman says that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. How often in the gospel reaching do you put up the barriers? You say, no dealings with me. That is what this woman did; as the Lord approached her she just put up the barriers and immediately she does that the Lord says "If thou knewest the gift of God". I think that is a wonderful thing. This woman did not know the gift of God or who it is: "and who it is that says to thee Give me to drink". The secret of who it is is how we get the gift of God; the gift of God is the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, as he breaks out at the end of chapter 9: "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift, a divine Person who is with you and in you. When the Lord Jesus was leaving His own He had been with them for three years; everything they did Jesus was with them, everywhere they went Jesus was with them, and then Jesus was going away. He was going to take up the sin question and He was going back to heaven, and He says to His own it is profitable for you that I go away. They were sad when He said He was going away, and you maybe think that if you accept the glad tidings it will be all right in a nice company like this where everybody is sympathetic, but what is going to happen on Monday morning when I go back to school or back to work, what will the workmates say? How will they react? God gives you a gift in the Holy Spirit which is power within you a Person in you that gives you power, power for confession of the name of Jesus, power to lift you above all the circumstances around, power to occupy you with Christ. The gift of God: "If thou knewest the gift of God". His unspeakable free gift; you always get the impression that the apostle could not get words to express it - an unspeakable free gift, another divine Person, and scripture says He will be with you for ever. He gives the Holy Spirit, it says, to them who obey Him (see Acts 5: 32). The persons who obey the Lord Jesus have the conscious sense of having the Holy Spirit. And so the woman is very interested in this. I am sure if you have longings after Jesus you are interested to know about One who can support you when you have not the strength; that is the Spirit of God. She says, Give me this water that I come not hither to draw; but the Lord says, There will be a fountain of water in you springing up into eternal life. The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and He is giving it by the Spirit You can know the reality of what eternal things are by the Holy Spirit, an unspeakable free gift. Well, have you received the Spirit? This woman, typically speaking, received the Spirit; I am convinced of that. She went to the men of her city; she did not have to make any apologies; she did not need to go over her history and explain everything, the difference was obvious; "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?" (v 29). I suppose everybody in Samaria was looking for the Christ. She says, Is this not He? Could you go out in Dundee and say, Here is the Man you are looking for? It is Jesus; He is available and this woman received Him; and more than that, she had the power to confess. I believe we are tested as to our confession, confession of the Name. We miss a lot of opportunities, but I think the power of the Spirit of God is what would give us ability to confess His Name.

Now I would just like to say a word as to the scripture in Luke. We have been speaking about gifts, the gifts we get, but I think the Lord looks for something from us. A brother used to say that at the beginning of our Christian experience we get everything for love. I believe that is how we start; but then the Lord looks for something from us, He looks for an answer. So here He is and it says "And he looked up and saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury". The Lord takes account of what you are giving in return. You say, What can I give? Well, the first thing that you can give is your body. So you are back to Romans 12 where it says "I beseech you... by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice" (v 1). Now the only person who can present his or her body a living sacrifice is one who has this unspeakable power of the Spirit of God in you. Paul tells us that you can put it down and say, Lord, here is my body, it is all I have and it is yours. That is the widow of Luke 21. The Lord commends her as having cast in all the living which she had; she gave her all at once. We are not speaking about worldly possessions; we are not speaking about pounds, shillings and pence. Men today are building everything up round money; the world has become so commercialised that everything comes back to money. God is not looking on a man because he has a pound, and He is not looking on a man because He has not a pound; God is not looking on things that way; He is looking on you and me as forgiven sinners; that is how He regards us. God divides like that; sinners and forgiven ones. O the grace of God! And He looks for a response from us. What are we giving Him? Are we giving our all? What a gift that is - your body! You have what you can give, what can be serviceable to Him, come under His touch, come under His sway, come into His service. The service of God is a wonderful thing; it says, They that dwell in Thy courts shall be constantly praising Thee (see Ps 84: 4). You have a body in which you can praise God, and that is what God is looking for, He is looking for a return in our lives to what He has given.

Well, if we have proved the gift, do we hold back? That is all I would say. This woman was acting unpretentiously while others were casting in a lot; I suppose the persons who put in a lot would make a demonstration of it. The Lord saw them; it says "And he looked up and saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury". He does not come into that; but it says "he saw also a certain poor widow". The Lord is very discriminating as He looks. Is He getting from me what He should get? Is He getting from you what He should get? God is looking for an answer, for He has given, and given and given again. What is He looking for now? He is looking for response from hearts like yours and mine, affected by grace, brought to know: the power of God working in us, and He says, You Just give. I suggest that you can put your body on the altar tonight. May you be available for Him for His service and praise for His Name's sake.

 

DUNDEE

17 August 1980

 

 

(Preceding three meetings revised by the editor and not by Mr.Pye - with Christ, June 1981).