THANKSGIVING AT CHRISTMAS
“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.”
2 Corinthians 9:15
What Paul is sayIng here is that he cannot find the words to express how grateful he is for all that God did for him and the whole world when He sent His Son to be our Savior. One gospel song points to the blood Jesus shed for us to be forgiven and calls it God’s “I love you written in red.”
THE GIFT OF CHRIST
We are thankful, first, for the gift of Christ. Think of what this COST GOD. I have told my church members through the years that I might love them enough to die for them. I cannot say I would, because none of knows that. But I can say there is a possibility of it.
But I tell the I know I would never give the life of my child to die for them. I would never in a million years, watch one of them hang on a cross for them.
We don’t think much of how God suffered when His Son died. But He told Israel, in their afflictions He is afflicted.” (Isa. 63:9) In seminary, Dr. William Hendrix had an unusual slant on the words of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In East Texas, earlier that year an eight-year-old boy fell about forty feet down an old well. Rescuers could not get to him going straight down because the crumbling dirt walls might cave it. They began digging another hole about ten feet away from it. When they reached the right depth, they would dig a small opening towards the boy and pull him out.
We all watched on TV as the hours dragged on and darkness began to fall. The little boy kept crying for his “Mama” and “Daddy” to help him. They and the firemen kept looking down the well trying to calm him down and telling him to be still.
At times, the mother and the father, would turn away from the well and bury their faces in their hands and cry. Dr. Hendrix told us the cry of Jesus from the cross is interpreted in many ways. But, he said, “I believe God, like that mother and Father, did not abandon His Son, but turned away to weep”. Isaac Watts may have had this in mind when he wrote:
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut it glories in
When Christ the mighty Maker in
For man the creatures’ sin
Think of what it COST CHRIST. An early church hymn in Philippians two says, “He did not count equality with God, to be something to selfishly hold on to / but He emptied Himself and / as was born in the likeness of man.” (2:6-7)
Dr. R.G. Lee said He came down:
- from heaven’s adorations, to earth’s abominations
- from heaven’s coronation to earth’s curses
- from heaven’s glory place to earths gory place
- from heaven’s kisses to earth’s hisses
- from heaven’s songs to earth’s sneers
- from heaven’s crown of gold to earth’s crown of thorns
As an old hymn says:
Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe
Only His great eternal love
Made my Savior go
THE GIFT OF CONVERSION
Growing up in Christian homes we are taught to do “Christian” things- go to church, give an offering, pray, etc. These, however do not make us Christians. Our parents make us do things like bathe. When we leave home we no longer have to bathe. We must choose to do it. The same is true of the Christian “things” we do. We must choose to do them. God does not have any grandchildren.
We must be converted and do things like this from the heart, because God wants us to. And this change from “me first” to “God first”; this conversion; this new birth (Jn. 3) is a gift from God. Jesus said, “No person comes to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent Me. (Jn. 6:44)
We must make Christ our PERSONAL Savior. We must go from believing Jesus died for everybody, which includes us, to being able to say with Paul, “I live by faith in the Son of God who loved ME and gave Himself for ME.” (Gal. 2:20).And the desire and opportunity to do thos is a gift from God.
1) God gives us the DESIRE to be saved. Romans 3:11 says “no one looks (searches) for God. We all think about God when we are in trouble and need help and when we are curious about who He is. But to us He is the “God” we know is out “there’ in the great “somewhere”. We don’t search for the true God of the Bible.
A member of my family, when I was called to preach, told me he didn’t need churches to get close to God. He did that fishing and farming where he could see the beauties of the outdoor world.
I didn’t say anything, but today O would tell him, the God we find in nature, does reveal His glory, wisdom and power, but He makes no demands on us and issues no commands for us. Nature makes no requirements of our time, our money or our talents. Adrian Rogers says a sinful person no more looks for God than a mouse looks for a cat.
2) First Corinthians 2:12-14 says God gives us the ability to UNDERSTAND the gospel we have heard all of our lives. We go from hearing the “words” to hearing the “Word” of God in those words Hundreds of times I have heard people say of one of my messages, “Preacher, you were talking directly to me today.”
We not only don’t understand it, but to us it is, “nonsense” (2:14) until the Spirit reveals it to us. Spurgeon says, “The sinner can no more understand the gospel than a horse can understand Astronomy.”
We don’t understand it because we are not interested. Sitting in church as a teenager all I thought about were cars, football, girls and having a good time. And if the Spirit does not help us we will go on sitting in church thinking about everything other than how our lifestyle is effecting my relationship with God,
3) God gives us REPENTANCE. Repentance begins with sorrow for the bad things we do and for the good things we do not do. . All of us feel “guilty” or “bad” when we do wrong. When I was eight-years-old I stole five dollars from my mother’s purse. She would never have known it, but my conscience tortured me until I admitted doing it.
But the sorrow in conversion is different and deeper. Second Corinthians seven says “Godly (God-given) sorrow brings repentance that leads to life and worldly sorrow brings death”.
. We realize that our sins are against God and He takes it seriously and personally. Jesus says His Holy Spirit convinces us of “sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). Hebrews six says the Holy Spirit works (6:4) with us and “brings” ((6:6) us to repentance.
4) God gives us SAVING FAITH. Ephesians two says, “It is by grace that you have been saved – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not by works (doing good or “Christian” things) so no one can boast”.
We all believe there is a God. The demons believe this and tremble (James 2:19). Many believe they are right with God because they go to church and do good and “Christian” things and believe Jesus died for them, because He died for everybody.. But the Holy Spirit shows us trusting in our good works makes us proud and leads us to look down on those who don’t.
He shows us we must go to the cross personally and receive the gift of forgiveness. And we realize we do not deserve it. Spurgeon says when we come to Christ we come with the noose around our neck saying, “Guilty”
Conversion: God THOUGHT it; Jesus BOUGHT it and the Holy Spirit BROUGHT it to us. The question is, have you CAUGHT it.
God has his avenue of approach to every human heart. It can be the birth of a child or the death of a child. The Scottish humorist, Frank Lauder, said, “When my son died, for me, it was alcohol, suicide or God and I chose God.”
God came to me in my first job out of college. I grew up in a family marked by dissention and conflict and I wanted a good, loving Christian home. And the Holy Spirit and common sense let me know that to have that kind of home I needed to commit to live for God with His help and encouragement. I personally, through prayer to Jesus, gave Him my life to change and control and my sins to forgive.
My seminary professor, Kenneth Chafin, told us when we go to witness to someone, three things we will never find: a person God does not love; a person God cannot help and a person to whom God has not already spoken to.
THE GIFT OF THE CHURCH
How do you know about Jesus; about heaven and hell; about salvation by faith through the cross; etc. We know it because we have been exposed to the Bible. And the reason we have the Bible is because of the Church. Jude told first century Christians, to “Contend for the faith that has been once for all entrusted to the saints (people of God).” (v3). That faith is the “Christianity” we find in our 27 New Testament books.
1) The Bible is a gift from the people of God – the church. We have it Bible because of the PERSEVERANCE of God’s faithful people through the years who often paid a great price. Faithful monks gave their lives all through the dark ages to translate old manuscripts for us, over and over again, until they got the best translation possible. Many hid the Scriptures when those like Viking raiders, burned their monasteries and put them to death. We owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to many people we will not know until we get to heaven
2) The Church and the Bible are gifts from God. We have them because of the PROVIDENCE and POWER of God. Near the year 300 AD Emperor Diocletian made it his goal to eradicate the Christian faith once and for all. Putting Pastors to death did not work because the church made them Martyrs and for every martyr who died in the first 200 years, ten more were inspired to take their place. So he imprisoned the Pastors or sent them to labor camps and burned their meeting places.
He outlawed the possession of any portions of the Scriptures and searched for and destroyed all the copies he could. Having the Scriptures was punishable by imprisonment or execution. He did his work so thoroughly that he was planning to erect a monument which said, “Extinct is the Name Christian”.
But like all men, he died. His successor carried on his work. But a Roman general named Constantine, had a godly mother, who had embraced Christianity. And when he asked God to help him win an important battle and God did it, he stopped all persecution and elevated Christianity to a place above all other religions of the Empire.
We all know who mothers are and we know Constantine’s mother was praying for her son to accept Christ.
When he asked for copies of the Scriptures, hundreds of people, who had risked their lives, brought them to him. This is the Providence of God and the perseverance of faithful men and women of God working together. This has kept the Church and the Bible alive against all assaults.
The church is the body of Christ and its nature means it cannot be destroyed. The church is the bride of Christ and Jesus’ love means He will never allow it to be destroyed.
This is why we should stand with the church and support it as it supports us. God entrusts us to keep the “faith” alive for the next generation. In Viet Naam a company was surrounded by the enemy and their radio was broken. They could not give the coordinates so bombs could be sent to deliver them.
The commander sent a young soldier to go through the enemy lines and make his way to headquarters, which was twenty-five miles away. He went through the dense jungle where insects and briars cut him from head to toe.
He was spotted by the enemy and was shot in the leg, but he managed to jump into a river and float down to headquarters. He made it there and his company got the bomb support it needed to escape.
When the company reached headquarters, the Captain went to see him in the hospital. His leg had been amputated and he was suffering with malaria from the insect bites and cuts. As the Captain walked up he sat up, saluted and said, “I delivered the message, Sir.”
The Captain smiled and said, “I know you did, son. And every man in our outfit owes you a debt of gratitude we can never repay.” The question for you and for me is, when you and I stand before our Commander in Chief who went through hell for us, will we be able to say, “I helped deliver the message, Sir.” The best reward we will ever receive and the highest joy we will ever know is to hear Him say, “I know you did, son.”
