The Father’s Gift

Beautiful thought. If you would,
take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke once again
this morning. Luke 11. Luke 11. And here, once again,
we find ourselves in this familiar territory of being instructed
by the Lord on the subject of prayer. We have been in camp
now for three weeks, just studying these first few verses, and we
come to a different lesson, as it were, but still on the subject
of prayer. Let me take you back just by
way of reminder to verse one. previously well known as the
Lord’s Prayer, more recently known as the Disciples Prayer,
we took consideration as the Prayers Prayer. This is the prayer
for all people. This is the model prayer, not
one to be said in kind of a mindless repetition, but one that modeled
or shaped or purposed to shape the prayers that we pray. What
kind of things? should we pray for? This answered
the question, how should we pray? For what things should we pray? We saw there five vital features
in that blueprint of prayer. We saw that our cries out to
the Father were to be first and foremost, a yearning for God’s
glory. We want God to be glorified in
this fallen world, not man, not ourselves, not even our churches. We want God to be glorified. Second of all, we saw there in
the prayers, prayer and appealing for God’s reign. We want God’s
way to take place in this land. We want God’s way. Ultimately,
we want God to exercise his sovereignty overall. And first and foremost,
that means salvation. We want people to come to Christ. We want people to come to know
our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, we saw that it
was a yearning for God’s glory and an appealing for God’s reign,
but thirdly, a pleading for God’s provision. Give us this day our
daily bread. Now, the day that we preach this,
I asked of you how many of us called out for bread? Not many
of us. But having preached it, Having
heard, are our hearts turned? Do we call out now for provision
from God? Do we look to God as the giver
of all good things? Do we cry out to Him for our
daily bread? Do we cry out daily? Not only that, but an entreating
for God’s pardon. Forgive us our sins. Not whether
we’ve sinned, but how many ways we’ve sinned. It doesn’t matter that you came
to a saving relationship with Christ years ago. You sinned
already this morning, likely. And a calling out to Christ,
a calling out for forgiveness is to be renewed day after day
after day. And finally, a begging for God’s
guidance. Lead us not into temptation. Father, protect us from ourselves. Keep us from falling. Keep us
from stumbling in the way that we don’t even see the traps that
lay out there before us. That’s what Jesus said is the
way that we should pray, the house, the specifics to our prayer,
the framework, if you will, the skeleton of our prayer. That’s
what he said we should pray for. But then he immediately transitioned.
And in verses 5 to 10, he talked about persistence in prayer.
And in this sense, he answered why we should pray, why we should
keep praying. There, if you remember, I entitled
it Pestering God to Move. And here, the image that we had
was of a man knocking at the door at midnight. And that friend
behind the door was presented there by Christ as being God. There was an image there of God
standing behind the door, waiting while we knocked at the door
in persistence, pestering Him to move. What Jesus urged us
there to was prayer unrelenting, prayer that doesn’t quit, prayer
that doesn’t leave off. The character of a persistent
prayer was given to him there. And it was characterized by,
first of all, an earnest request of a specific blessing. And if
you remember, I said then too often our prayers are far too
general. They’re far too general. We don’t
ask for specific things. And no wonder that we fail in
the second point that he said characterizes sustained or persistent
prayer. And that is a thorough watchfulness.
If we don’t pray a specific prayer, we can’t possibly be watching
for God to move specifically. And so we’re to zero in our prayers
were to make them specific. He says, ask for what you want.
And finally, there. The prayer that God answers is
characterized not only by a request of a specific blessing and a
watchfulness, but by a stubbornly persistent appeal. He says, keep
on coming. Keep on asking. Keep on knocking. Keep on seeking. It’s not meant
to be a one-time prayer that says, that’s that. Now I can
move on about my life. It’s to be sustained. It’s to
be diligent. is our prayer life. And you would
think that with those two overwhelming lessons on prayer, perhaps we
could even wrap up this course on prayer. But Jesus has more
to say, much more on the subject of prayer. He has more to instruct
his disciples. He still isn’t finished answering
the question, Lord, teach us to pray. And this lesson, this
lesson may be the most profound of all. Not only did He tell us to come
as a Father and give us a framework, not only did He say, Pastor God,
but here He wants to inform us about the character of the God
to whom we pray. He wants to remind us about the
hearer of our prayers. If you would, if you have your
Bibles open, the Gospel of Luke 11. where Jesus launches suddenly
into another illustration. Now, suppose one of you fathers
is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake
instead of a fish, will he? Or if he’s asked for an egg,
he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then being evil
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask him? Now, if you’re like me, I have
a difficult time picturing Jesus doing a stand up comedy routine.
But if there’s anywhere in Scripture where Jesus approaches humor,
I think it’s right here. Because what he does is illustrate
absurdity by making an absurd point. He says, you can’t possibly
conceive of a father when asked of a fish handing his child a
snake, can you? And I admit, the humor is subtle. Almost as subtle as mine. But I think it was meant to be. The disciples, no doubt, maybe
even smiled. There’s no way a father would
do such a thing. There’s no way that a father,
when asked for an egg, would reach down and give the child
one of the more dangerous creatures from the desert. A scorpion? Oh, Jesus. You know they got
his point immediately. You know they did. What we want to look at this
morning is the Father’s gift. What kind of a gift does the
Father give? What is His nature? What is He
like and what is He inclined to give to us? That’s what Jesus
wants to point out. He’s taught them the framework
of prayer. He’s told them to keep knocking. Now He wants them
to know who they’re talking to. He wants to build up their confidence
in coming. He wants to build up our confidence.
He wants us to know who it is we talk to when we bow in prayer. What is his nature? What is he
like? What is he inclined to give? What I see here is three
features of the gifts that are given by the Heavenly Father.
Three features of those gifts. First of all, our Heavenly Father
gives gifts that are useful. Not worthless. Useful, not worthless. Look back again at verse 11.
Now, suppose one of your fathers is asked by his son for a fish.
He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? And he points him to the fathers,
fathers in general, earthly fathers. Some of these men likely were
fathers. What he calls them to is just
a general recollection of how they’ve seen fathers interact
with their children. And fathers, you know, we’re
softer than even our wives. Our wives care for the children
from the day that they’re born. But boy, as soon as they’re old
enough to ask, who do they come to? Right? We call it Mommy’s
Night Out. When Mommy’s gone, we do the
ice cream thing with the whipped cream and the sprinkles and everything
because they know they can get it. He points them to fathers. He
says, look at the fathers. Look at how fathers interact
with their children. Look what they give them. Look
how they provide for them. He says, suppose one of you fathers
for a fish. He won’t give him a snake, will
he? What he says is that a father, by nature, is going to give good
things to his children. Now, you say, let’s just stand
back for a minute and let’s look at earthly fathers. What do we
give? What are we called in Scripture to give? What do we give? We’re
called to give the Word. We’re called to read the Scriptures
and teach the Scriptures. Teach about the Lord to our children.
That’s a good thing. We’re called to give them instruction,
to teach them. From time to time, I’ve told
you, pick whatever the date of the day of the week it is. If
this is all you do, it’s something. Go to the book of Proverbs. If
it’s the 17th, read Proverbs chapter 17. until the Lord lays
a proverb at your feet to teach to your children. We’re called
to give instruction to our children. We’re called to give them food
and shelter. Remember, one of the strongest rebukes in the
New Testament is of a man who doesn’t even provide for his
own. It’s expected. It’s common for a father to care
for his children, to give them what they need. Food and shelter. We’re expected to give them discipline.
They don’t enjoy it initially, but in time they do. In time,
they come to love us for it, for correcting them and teaching
them the right way. And they know when they get the
discipline that it’s well deserved and good and right. We’re expected
to give them counsel, to teach them, to coach them along the
way, encourage them. We’re not supposed to give them
worthless things. Now, I don’t know about you.
I’m not going to talk about the red suited, white bearded holiday
man. But when I was growing up at
Christmas, I was threatened with coal, right? If you’re bad, you’ll
get coal. You’ll get an absolutely, for
a child, worthless gift. What am I going to do? Throw
it in my furnace in my room? Absolutely worthless to a child. Perhaps some of you have been
to a white elephant party. For some reason, our family got
into that for a while. Our extended family used to get
together and give white elephant gifts. The only thing that makes
a white elephant gift party interesting is if there’s one really good
one, because all the rest of them, you know, it’s almost like
you can’t wait to pawn this off on somebody else. We’re not supposed
to give worthless gifts, but gift giving for me has become
kind of a study. Study of our family, study of
our culture. We got into this deal for a while
and it was it was born out of how poorly we were giving gifts. People were just going and they
were just buying anything. Just wrap it up and give it to
them. Right. It happened in your family,
too. Two left shoes, that’s what it
is. That’s what a gift you open it up. And it’s totally inappropriate. You know, you’re never going
to use it. You don’t have the receipt. You don’t know anybody that you can
regift it to right away. It’s just going to sit there.
You feel obligated to hang it on the wall. I remember one of
the famous ones in our own home. Barb isn’t big into knickknacks.
So Barb gets this thing and she opens it up and it’s a very Catholic
looking picture on a I think it was a TV tray of angels. Not
something that’s going to find it to our wall anytime soon. Here, son, here’s a salt block. Worthless gifts. That’s not what
fathers give. In this particular illustration,
it’s food. It really is. All three are food.
But in this particular illustration, when I mentioned food, fish,
bread and egg, and I’ll get to the bread in a moment. But here
the request is for fish. It’s a simple request. The absurd
response is something useless, worthless, totally inappropriate
for nourishment. Are you going to eat a snake?
Some do, not in my house. Totally inappropriate. You’d
have to be starving to death to eat a snake. And even then
you’re risking life and limb. First, you got to catch the thing
and then you got to cook it. And then somehow you got to never
mind. Would it would any father? I
mean, this is the point that Jesus wants to make, would any
father ignore his child’s request for a meal? some nourishment,
and instead hand him a disgusting, slimy, cursed creature called
a snake? It’s absurd. It’s totally absurd.
In fact, the nature of the father’s gift, when Paul was discussing
his own ministry, the thought of a father’s provision for his
own family was absolutely axiomatic. Everyone knew it is true. And
Paul said we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each
one of you as a father would his own children. Everybody believed
it. That’s what fathers do. The passage I alluded to a moment
ago, 1st Timothy 5.8, Paul said it’s axiomatic. If anyone does
not provide for his own, for his own family, especially for
those of his household, He’s denied the faith and he’s worse
than the unbeliever. Remember, in the context there,
I mean, we should be taking care of our mothers and mothers-in-law,
our grandmothers. We should be taking care of our
extended family. But absolutely, the bare minimum
is our own immediate family. We don’t take care of them. We’re
worse than the unbeliever. They call them deadbeat dads.
That’s the 21st century title that we hang on those that don’t
provide for their own. That’s what Paul’s talking about
here. Deadbeat dads. Paul says it would be a sin. Very uncommon. It’s interesting,
Matthew includes a third possible request in his passage, parallel
passage, he asks it this way. He says, what man is there among
you when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? What they
were likely talking about was a small stone in the shape of
a small, like a dinner roll. Here, son, have a rock. What could be more useless than
that if you’re hungry? The son asked for bread. He asked
for a fish. And the Father responds heartlessly,
coolly, hard-heartedly. The question obviously looks
for a negative answer. No one would possibly do such
an evil thing. But the repetition in this passage,
it hammers home this point that even in the sinful race of mankind,
the tendency to give good things was well known. A father is going
to generally give good things. Jesus says that just like an
earthly father responds to the needs of his children, giving
what is good and needful, not what is useless, so the heavenly
Father gives to His children. You know, one of my favorite
passages is from Psalm 65 because it talks about the process. It’s
a very slow process, but it’s a very deliberate process and
it’s a process of God giving to His people and feeding them.
It reads like this, Psalm 65, 9. You visit the earth and cause
it to overflow. God makes the plants grow. You visit the earth and cause
it to overflow. You greatly enrich it. The stream
of God is full of water. You prepare their grain, for
thus you prepare the earth. You water its furrows abundantly.
You settle its ridges. You soften it with showers. You
bless its growth. You have crowned the year with
bounty and your paths drip with fatness. The pastures of the
wilderness drip and the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.
The meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered
with grain. They shout for joy. Yes, they
sing. You know what? In a much shorter
fashion, Paul said it with three simple words. Life, breath and
all things. God gives. God gives good things,
useful things, not inappropriate gifts, useless things. That’s
the nature of the God to whom we pray, Jesus says. Should we
not ask Him? Should we not continue to lay
our requests before Him? There’s another feature that
I want you to consider. Of the gifts that are given by
our heavenly father, our heavenly father gives gifts that, first
of all, are useful, not worthless. Secondly, they’re helpful, not
harmful. And therein lies the difference. Look at verse 12.
If he’s asked for an egg, will he not? He will not give him
a scorpion, will he? Now, you know, there’s all kinds
of different stories on how deadly scorpions are. You know, some
say that the scorpions that we have in this country aren’t deadly. And, you know, the ones in the
Middle East are very deadly. In fact, there’s some that a
single sting can kill a horse and all those kinds of anecdotes.
I don’t know how deadly. All I know is when one crawled
up my arm, I wanted it off immediately. I think I told you this story
some time ago. I walked into a dark room as
a pool man, went to reach for the light string, and I thought
the string was tickling my arm. It wasn’t a string. Either way,
a scorpion isn’t a pleasant creature. It can sting. And whether it
kills you or not, the sting is not pleasant. In other words,
the father is not going to give something that’s harmful to his
child, is he? That’s the question. This situation
is even more absurd than the last. When asked for something
good, a simple meal, an egg, the father is not going to reach
down, scoop up a scorpion and hand that to the child, is he?
It’s absurd in the extreme. Question isn’t so much whether
the father is going to refuse his son’s request, but whether
instead of the thing that he asks for. Is going to be given
that he’s going to give instead something not only useless, but
hurtful. He’s not going to do that. Father’s
not going to do that. There’s an interesting interpretation
that was out there that I found in a couple of different commentaries.
A couple of different commentaries said that there is a white scorpion
that when curled up resembles an egg. And they said, no doubt
this is what Jesus was referring to was the egg shaped scorpion,
which misses the point entirely. He’s not suggesting that these
things resembled one another and that maybe the father could
get away with giving the kid a scorpion that he might think
it’s an egg. The whole point of the passage
is that the father absurdly reaches down and gives the child exactly
the opposite? No way. No way. Fathers are called to give helpful
things, as we’ve seen. Food and covering, shelter, clothing,
education, toys. Good things. Good things to their
children. The Heavenly Father, the same
way. Gives good things, not useless things. Certainly not harmful
things. Even the difficult situations
in life that we go through are meant to purify and perfect and
grow us. Point us to Him. Enhance our
relationship with Christ. They’re not meant to harm us.
James 1.17 says, every good thing given and every perfect gift
is from above. Coming down from the Father of
lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
If you know His character and you receive a gift from Him,
you know that it’s good. You know it’s good. Your lot
in life was sifted through His fingers. You know that it’s good,
not harmful. Because of His character. Fathers
aren’t called to give harmful gifts to their children. In fact,
even Matthew, an interesting thing here. When Christ talks
about the purpose of his coming. He paints an image, listen to
it, Matthew 10, 21, brother will betray brother to death, father,
his child, children will rise up against parents and cause
them to be put to death. That’s what he says. He’s coming
to bring a sword. But he paints this picture as
being completely the opposite of what is normal. The normal
is that a father is not going to betray his child. Fathers aren’t supposed to give
bad gifts. Child comes and asks you for
a toy, you’re not going to give him a bottle of Roundup, right?
Here’s a sharp knife, son. Go have a day. Let’s go spend
the day on the cliffs, kids. That’s not what a father does.
Father gives good gifts and the Heavenly Father gives good gifts. Can you imagine the absurdity?
I give you life and breath and all things, but I’m fresh out
of oxygen. Here’s some carbon monoxide for
you. That’s the absurdity that Jesus is using. How about a little
false teaching? How about Satan as your redeemer?
The heavenly Father gives good, perfect, righteous gifts. They’re
right and good for us every single time. And just because we don’t
get exactly what we ask for, just because God answers our
prayers in different ways, doesn’t make those gifts not good. They’re not harmful. They’re
exactly what he designed for us. They’re good and right and
precious because they come from his hand. There’s a third feature that
I want us to consider in closing this morning, in the remainder
of our time. I said there were three features
of the gifts that are given by the Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly
Father gives gifts that are useful, not worthless. He gives us gifts
that are helpful, not harmful. And He thirdly gives us gifts
that are exceptional, not merely good. Exceptional. He gives us the best possible
gifts. He gives us gifts that no earthly
father could ever provide. Look at verse 13. If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask? Sometimes in life, this isn’t
the case. We know there are bad fathers.
We know there are evil, hurtful, cruel fathers. But what Jesus
says, generally speaking, he sows the whole thing up in principle
and says, generally speaking, if you look about you, even an
earthly father who is sinful is going to give good things
to his children. But I want you to note those
two little words. If you then being evil, you know what? He
didn’t draw an argument. He didn’t draw an argument from
his apostles, from any of the disciples that were listening
in. He didn’t draw an argument. Nobody raised a doubt about it,
about being evil. Jesus doesn’t have to give a
lesson on total depravity. They knew it in their heart that
they were sinful. Total depravity, they knew didn’t
mean that there was no semblance, no degree, no spark of good,
a total inability to do good. That’s not what total depravity
means. And that’s not what Jesus meant being evil. What he meant
was they knew in their hearts that they were thoroughly and
completely tainted by sin, that they could not commend themselves
to God or stand on their own righteousness before God. They
knew that they were born in sin, as David says. That they were
dead in their trespasses and transgressions, as Paul says
in Ephesians. They knew, as Paul quoted of
the Psalms, there is none righteous, not even one. They knew that. They didn’t need a lesson. Spurgeon
said of Depravity, he said, through the fall and through our own
sin, the nature of man has become so debased and depraved and corrupt
that it is impossible for him to come to Christ without the
assistance of God and the Holy Spirit. They knew it. This was
a passing lesson. This was a lesson within a lesson.
And Jesus didn’t even pause. And they didn’t argue the point. If you, being evil, give good
gifts, If you’re able to give good gifts
and you’re a sinner, how much more will God, who is
good and just and perfect and righteous and holy, how much
more is He going to give good things? Now, I mentioned this a couple
of weeks ago just in passing as we looked at verse 1. As we
began in verse one with the prayers prayer. But I want to pause a
minute and I want to go back and I want to explore this concept
of the father. It is, as I said, then it’s not
a concept that is locked into the New Testament. The Old Testament
saints knew of God as a father, but as a nation. He was the father
of the nation. There wasn’t this intimate relationship
that you and I are privy to. This intimate relation of a child
going before a father, a precious, beloved, heavenly father. In
fact, there’s only, as I could find and discover, there’s only
about just a little more than a half a dozen occurrences of
the word father implied in that sense in all of the Old Testament. Let me take you just in your
mind’s eye. Deuteronomy 32.6, Do you thus repay the Lord, O
foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father who bought
you? He wasn’t encouraging them to
a warm and inviting relationship with their heavenly Father. He
was chiding them for how they were treating their God as a
nation. Psalm 89, He will cry to me,
you are my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. Isaiah
9.6 speaks of Christ in the future. And it points to this relationship.
A child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. The
government will rest on His shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. It was a relationship that was
future. They knew of God as Father, as a nation, but they knew that
there was intimacy coming that they didn’t have at that moment. Isaiah 63, 16, You are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us, Israel does not recognize
us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old is your
name. A song that they sang, they recognized him as such,
but it was distant. You love them as a father, but
as a nation, not as an individual. Repeatedly throughout the Old
Testament are those such instances, and in the Old Testament, seldom
is God spoken of as a father, and even then only then as a
reference to the relationship as a nation. There is no prayer
addressed in the Old Testament to father, no prayer. And in that sense, I want to
remind you that not all of us are privileged, not every person
ever born is privileged to call out to God as father. Muslims
aren’t. Those who do not know Christ,
they’re not privileged to call out to God as father, that is
the special and precious relationship that is only for the Christian
only. Say, how can I say something
so unloving? It’s simple. It’s exactly what
the Scripture says. John 1.12, as many as received
Christ, to them He gave the right to become children of God. There’s where you get that concept. Galatians, as we saw a couple
of weeks ago, Galatians 3.26, you are all sons of God. How? Just by being born into this
world? Not at all. Not at all. In fact, remember, Jesus divides
the groups into two. The sons of the Father and the
sons of the devil. Galatians 3.26 says, you are
all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s our relationship. That’s where we get this intimate,
loving communion with God as our Father. 1 John says it this way. 1 John
3, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the children of God. He wanted us to know
how precious this relationship is. Beloved, now we are children
of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know
when He appears we will be like Him for we will see Him just
as He is. What a great promise for His children. It’s interesting. Matthew’s gospel,
as it begins to unfold, this says, how much more will your
heavenly father give you? Matthew’s gospel offers us a
subtle difference. Matthew’s gospel says it this
way. How much more will your father, if you can give good
gifts and you’re a sinner, how much more will your heavenly
father, who is good and righteous, give what is good? Matthew’s
Gospel there records Jesus just as saying generally that God
gives good things. We know that to be true. Every
one of His gifts is good. It’s beneficial. It’s wholesome.
It’s edifying. We know that it comes from His
hand and it’s good because of it. But Luke records words differently. Perhaps they were given on different
occasion. Perhaps Jesus said both one recorded one and one
recorded the other. That’s fine. There’s no inconsistency
here, because what Luke says, how much more if you can give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly
father give The Holy Spirit, what could be better than that?
When you talk about good gifts, what could possibly be better
than the Holy Spirit, which is the perpetual dispenser of good
things? What Jesus says is now you have
resident within you the Holy Spirit that will continue to
give good things. He gives you the fruit of the
Spirit. He gives you the graces that equip you to walk according
to Christ’s rule. The Holy Spirit is the gift of
all gifts. The Holy Spirit is the only gift
that keeps on giving, right? Even a father with sins and shortcomings,
he’s not going to give his son what’s useless or what’s harmful,
dangerous things like a serpent or a snake or a scorpion. Instead of the necessary things
that he needs, how much more is the heavenly father? Going
to give his children who pray to him persistently. The things
that they need, but above all, he’s going to give him the Holy
Spirit, the greatest gift of all. To reside within them. to teach them how to walk, to
convict their conscience when they need it, to stir them on
to righteousness, to push them and nudge them in the direction
of good and godly deeds. The Holy Spirit. You see, the
disciples, the apostles here hadn’t heard the promise of the
Holy Spirit yet. This is Jesus’ first allusion
to it. What a precious thing this must have been to them.
You mean if we ask? we’re going to receive. They
had seen the Holy Spirit at work. They’d read about it in all the
Old Testament books. But the Holy Spirit was always
out there, not in here. You mean if we ask, He’s going
to give us the Holy Spirit? They hadn’t seen the outpouring
of Acts 2. This was all to them a foreign
concept, but not to us. He began to look at what the
Father’s given. And we know, there’s no doubt,
the Father has given good things, good earthly things. As we’ve
already seen, the rain that falls and the just and the unjust,
the food that we have, the air that we breathe, the countries
we live in, the family, the friends, all the blessings that He’s given.
But you know what? The New Testament doesn’t talk
a whole lot about those. Let me tell you what it does
talk about. When it talks about what kind of gifts the Father
gives, what is He prepared to give? He’s given revelation. He’s opened
our eyes. Luke 10, 21. Remember, we looked
at this passage. At that very time, He rejoiced
greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things
from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
You know what He’s done for you? He’s opened your eyes. He’s given
you revelation. Not only that, He’s given you
mercy. Luke 6.36 says of the Father that we are to be merciful
just as your Father is merciful. And He calls us to remember that
we have been shown a great mercy. It’s given us grace and peace
as almost every one of the New Testament epistles opens grace
and peace. You know what one of the biggest
travesties is, is to read over that like it’s some kind of an
address label. That little statement, grace and peace to you is one
of the most important parts of each of those books. It calls
us to remember that we have been given grace, and because of that
grace, now we are at peace with God Almighty, with whom we were
previously at war. God’s also given us fellowship.
1 John 1, 3. What we’ve seen and we heard,
we proclaim to you also that you may have fellowship with
us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. We have communion. One with another
and with God. That’s a gift. We’ve been given
sonship, as we’ve already talked about, 1 John 3, 1. We’ve been
given an inheritance. And you know what? It’s almost
impossible to color it what it even is. I’ve told you before
in other contexts what I believe it to be. It’s Christ. We have
an inheritance. Colossians 1.12 says that we
are to be giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to
share in the inheritance of the saints in light. That’s a good
gift. That’s a gift that no earthly
father could give. And you know what? God isn’t
finished. He keeps on pulling out gifts
and bestowing them upon us. Sanctification is a gift. Hebrews 2.11 He who sanctifies
and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. He gives
sanctification. He gives us eternal life, 1 John
1, 2. The life was manifested and we have seen and testify
and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father
and was manifested to us. He gives us eternal life. And there’s two. There’s two
that if we’re not already overwhelmed with God’s goodness and grace.
There’s two that I want to close with. He gives us a savior, he
gives us a savior in his son, Jesus Christ. First, John 114,
the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory.
Glory is of the only begotten from the father, full of grace
and truth. You say, well, it doesn’t say
that the father did it. The father did do it. And over
and over in Scripture, it says it. He gave himself for us, Galatians
1.4, for our sins, that he might rescue us from this present evil
age according to the will of the father. God wanted him to
do it. God gave him to us. John 1, pardon me, John 4, 14,
we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to
be the Savior of the world. What a great gift God has given
there. If God had not given that gift,
no other gift would matter, all other gifts would pale, all other
gifts would be ultimately useless. But he’s given to us a Savior
in the Lord Jesus Christ, And you say, if he’s given to us
that gift, will he refuse us any other good thing, any other
earthly gift, any other common need that we have? Will he refuse
us that? But finally, let’s look at what
he specifically says here, he will give us. And for you who
are Christians, you know already he’s already given you. The Holy Spirit. If you, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit? He’s going to
give them to you. If you’re a Christian, He already
has. Acts 2.33 records that joyous
moment when the apostles realized this truth. Therefore, having
been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from
the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.” Here’s the promise
fulfilled. They’ve been told about Him.
Jesus had outlined it there in John. He had alluded to it on
numerous occasions. I will send you a helper. But
now they know it to be truth. It says that He had poured forth
this from which you both see and hear. They were now filled
with the Holy Spirit. He’s given us everything. The
Holy Father has given us everything that we need. He’s a good and
great God who’s given to us beyond what any earthly father could
ever give. Good gifts. So if we ask of him
a job, will he not give it? If we ask
him to grow our church, will he not give it? If we ask Him
to give us opportunities with the lost, will He not give it? If we ask Him to give us wisdom
for raising our children, for any need that we can lay out
before Him, will He not give it? He’s a good God. Bring Him your requests. Let’s
pray. Our kind and loving Heavenly
Father, We rejoice at the lesson sitting at Christ’s feet, learning
about prayer. We thank You for His words to
the apostles and to us. Lord, teach us to pray. In Jesus’
name, Amen. Our closing hymn, we’ll sing
just the initial verse. When all Thy mercies, O my God.
Hymn number 56.