THE GIFT OF GOD
Pieter van den Berg
I would like to speak to you, dear friend, about the gift of God. We all know that verse in John 3: 16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal". He has given His own Son and He has given the Holy Spirit to those that believe on Him. What a God we have! He has given everything that love could give, "He who, yea, has not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all, shall he not also with him grant us all things? ", Rom 8: 32. Just think of what God has given: His own Son, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and "and an inheritance among them that are sanctified", Acts 26: 18! With Him He freely gives us all things. There is nothing that God has withheld, He is a giving God. How rich He is in His giving, how rich He is in His grace! We have spoken about the riches of His grace and we are in a wonderful dispensation of grace in which God is coming out to sinners who are lost in the world. "The grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men, has appeared", Titus 2: 11. It is not just for some, it is for all, that whosoever believes may be saved, and have life eternal. What a giving God we have, how great is His love! God so loved. How exceedingly great is the love of God, a love that does not want you to be lost, a love that wants you to be saved, a love that will not let you go, a love that has provided for you all the way. The Lord Jesus, our blessed Saviour, is now on high and the Holy Spirit is here in the assembly. How rich God is in His mercy and grace. The wonder of it is soon going to be displayed to the universe - what God has done in this wonderful dispensation. The world is in disorder but God has an order of things in view which is according to Himself where His love will rest eternally, where all those who have believed will be. And God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Is it not wonderful what God is offering you tonight in the gospel - not only that your sins might be forgiven, important as that is, but that you may know that you are also justified in a risen Christ and that nothing can be raised against you. God is for you as He sees you in Christ as justified. Righteousness is imputed to everyone that is of the faith of Jesus. He was "delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification", Rom 4: 25. And now we have a place with Christ in the presence of God as taken into favour in the Beloved.
We have been speaking earlier about the way God has come out. John brings out the peculiar glory of it in his gospel. In the verse we read in John 4 we get this remarkable reference to the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph and that a fountain of Jacob was there. It is a typical allusion to what is seen in the economy, that the Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in His hand (see John 3: 35) and the Holy Spirit in relation to it. This bears on the way God has come out in the present time, what the Father has given to the Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the field where God is operating, where the work of God comes to light. It is here that the woman comes into view. Just think of the Saviour, wearied with the way He had come! How far has the Saviour come for you, dear friend? And how far did He go for you? Even to death. He gave Himself without any reserve. Like the Hebrew servant, He could say "I love ... I will not go out free", Exod 21: 5. Dear friend, this is the Saviour we are announcing. His love is as great as His power and He is able to save those that come to Him and the salvation is in no other. He is the door, and it is only through Him that we can enter in. Here the Saviour is sitting, as it says, "just as he was". Just think of it! Weary as He was with the way He had come - "just as He was, at the fountain". The Holy Spirit is here and Jesus is here. He is speaking to us. "He that will, let him take the water of life freely", Rev 22: 17. The water He gives is still flowing, dear friend. Here comes the woman, she came with her history and the Lord says to her "Give me to drink". What could you say? What is there for Him in your life? What was there for Him in her life? Dear friend, He came into her life and what a change it was! No longer to go there with her waterpot. She was set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8: 2). She was liberated. The Lord had said to her "If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water" - "Who it is"! Do you know Him? What a blessing it is to know Jesus. He is the One who gives the living water, He is the One who gives the Holy Spirit. He is the Saviour of the world. He is also the revealer of secrets, He revealed the secrets of this woman's life. The Lord knows our hearts. I do not know your heart, I do not even know my own heart but He knows our hearts. He knows all things. Peter came to that, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I am attached to thee", John 21: 17. The Lord brought out what was wrong in the life of this woman and she recognised that He was a prophet. The prophetic word searched her, and it had its way, removing the obstacles: "The water which I shall give to him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life". It is a wonderful deliverance to receive the Holy Spirit as life in you, setting you free in liberty. She was set free and went away into the city and said "Come, see a man who told me all things". He had come into her life. What a wonderful thing it is when Jesus comes into your life, when you receive Him as your own personal Saviour. Own your sins before Him. Know that He came into the world to save sinners. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The only one without sin was Jesus. He was Who He was, the Son of man who is in heaven.
So she says to the men in the city "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?", v.29, and they believed, they said ''for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world", v 42 - they found the confirmation of the gospel she preached. The name that was given to Joseph in Egypt in Gen 41: 45 means "Saviour of the world" and in Hebrew "Revealer of secrets". He was the Revealer of secrets to her and they recognised Him to be the Saviour of the world.
God has given all things to be in the hand of Jesus, He gave His Son for you and for me and the Father is seeking worshippers. The Lord says "the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers", v 23. Think of the wonder of the grace of God that such as we are taken from the pit and given the living water that becomes a fountain of water in us, springing up into eternal life, and the Lord leading us on to the Father. The Saviour was seeking what was lost and the Father was seeking worshippers and it leads on to God, "God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth". How wonderful it is that this can be presented to you in the gospel. Not only the forgiveness of your sins, not only that you are justified, but glorified through the gift of the Holy Spirit and set up in the very presence of God in the dignity of sonship, to respond to the Father and God in worship and praise. Well may we say with Paul "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift" 2 Cor 9: 15. What God has given could not be fully expressed in so many words, it is so rich so free, without any reserve. God has opened the door and it is for you to come in, and enjoy all that He has prepared for those that love Him. The gospel is addressed to you in your responsibility and it is a question of obeying the glad tidings. They are being proclaimed ''for obedience of faith among all the nations", Rom 1: 5. Joseph was not only the revealer of secrets for his brethren, he was the saviour of all Egypt, he was exalted and all things were given into his hand. The Lord Jesus, like Joseph, had come to His own, and His own had not received Him, "but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God", John 1: 12. "See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not", 1 John 3: 1. He is now exalted on high and the Holy Spirit is here, testifying of a glorified Christ. And the assembly is here and what God has in view is that you might be brought into the light of it, to be part of that wonderful vessel of praise, where God will have His eternal satisfaction in all those that are graced in the Beloved. They will be in His presence as the objects of His love eternally as a responsive company secured on the basis of redemption. This is what God has desired in His eternal purpose. He brought it about through creation and redemption and He will have eternally a scene of blessing where His love will rest in all that speaks to Him of Christ. Beloved friends, how great are the things that He has prepared. What it cost Him none will ever fathom but we see the result of what He has freely given and we can but worship and adore Him for all that He has done. God will do the very best for His own and He will see us the whole way through. Christ is an all-the-way Saviour, able to save completely those that draw near to God by Him, and the Holy Spirit is here. May we have a deep impression of the giving of God. May we be in the living reality not only of our eternal salvation, but of the eternal relations into which in His love He has brought us as having believed the glad tidings. Faithful is He who calls, who will also perform it. For His Name's sake.
COLOGNE
29 October 1995
Translation by P.van den Berg